Part of my summer reading was a short book by Abu Sayed and Priyajit Debsarkar on the 1971 concert for Banglagesh, one of a series of momentous events in the period which saw east Pakistan break away from West Pakistan, in a bloody conflict marked by outrageous crimes on the part of the Pakistani military and its supporters, to become the independent nation of Bangladesh. "The concert for Bangladesh: United friends of Bangladesh" is a 112 page work which first appeared in Bangla last year, followed by an English translation in 2023. It is beautifully produced with a colour cover,... Continue reading

Back in January I contributed to a Policy Exchange report on police staff associations. Blurred Lines: Police staff networks politics or policing? has a marvelous front cover, and a small section on the National Association of Muslim Police (NAMP) which I was keen to write as it may be the first critical examination of this grouping. You can download the full report from the Policy Exchange website here. I attach as a pdf, below, my section on NAMP, which focuses on their interventions on the language of counter-terrorism, and their associations. Download Case Study NAMP p 24-27 Continue reading

The picture below is from the Isle of Wight Steam railway. I took it during a visit to the railway sheds earlier this week. For pretty obvious reasons, heritage railways rely on coal, as that is what steam trains used. The Isle of Wight Steam railway long had a choice, if it wishes to continue operating, between using coal from this country, or using imported stocks from overseas. If the UK completely abolishes any coal production, the only option is to import coal, bringing it thousands of miles by sea, and likely from countries with lower environmental and labour standards... Continue reading

This week saw the government announce its update to the UK's counter-terrorism strategy, known as CONTEST. It is from CONTEST that we get the 4 Ps of Protect, Prepare, Pursue and Prevent - the later of course being the bit anyone has ever heard of! Home Secretary Suella Braverman announced the review on Tuesday at Westminster Hall, and the strategy itself has been published online here. Yesterday I had a short piece published on Conservative Home analysing the review and offering some broader comment on counter-terrorism. For all the froth and fuss, in reality the two threats that really count... Continue reading

Earlier this year the Bloom report called for a greater relationship between government and faith. It argued government should recognise faith groups as a force for good. You can read Colin Bloom's report here. I see things as much more complicated, and in May put pen to paper with the Labour MP Khalid Mahmood, discussing both Bloom's report and the wider dangers it's suggestions signpost. You can view our article on the spiked website here, or as a pdf below. Download No the government should not do God 09 05 2023 Continue reading

This story was the lead in the Evening Standard's business section today - foreigners own £55bn of London homes as buying spree set to climb. The second paragraph is breathtaking: "There are 103,425 homes in the capital, including houses and flats, that are currently registered with an overseas correspondence address or an overseas company." This is nearly 13% of the stock in Westminster, 10% in Kensington and Chelsea, and 2.76% of London's overall stock. How difficult would it be to limit multiple home ownership in the UK by foreign nationals? Or to prohibit ownership by overseas companies? Are there any... Continue reading

Earlier this year Routledge, who seem to dominate academic output when it comes to the political fringe, published the Routledge Handbook of Non-Violent Extremism. Edited by Elisa Orofino and William Allchorn, it is a pretty hefty piece of work, with 32 separate articles. One of them is from me, 'The phoney war,' which charts radical environmental and animal rights activism across five decades. I argue direct action leads to a conversation between protestors and the authorities, and in the case of the animal rights movement, militant activism faded as many of the protestors core demands (such as the abolition of... Continue reading

Every time I go on Twitter, there is a thread along the lines of 'this is how AI can work for you' or 'AI will change the world'. I'm sure it will, but will it change the world for the better? As I see it, there are two problems with technology. The first is that some of the time it does not work. As a society we tend to blame the user rather than the developer or the manufacturer when this happens. One of the greatest miscarriages of justice this century - the Royal Mail subpostmasters scandal - occurred because... Continue reading

Earlier this month I wrote a short piece for spiked on the third and final part of the Manchester Arena inquiry. It details some of the sorry revelations to emerge, and highlights the reluctance of sections of the British state to really get into the weeds and the dirt when it comes to Islamist extremism. You can read the article online here, and a pdf can be viewed below. Download How the Abedi brothers slipped through the next spiked 09 03 2023 Continue reading

I neglected to post on her two articles I had published last month, discussing the long overdue independent review of Prevent, by William Shawcross. For Con Home I asked whether anything will really be different this time - an attitude which rather percolates the response to many government initiatives, including the approach to immigration. You can read the article online here, and download a pdf below. Download The Prevent Scheme will it be different this time Conservative Home 16 02 2023 The run up to last months Prevent review saw a series of leaks and counter leaks. For the Telegraph... Continue reading

Last month I was co-author, along with my colleague Damon Perry, of a report into the Trojan Horse Affair in Birmingham Schools. You can read The Trojan Horse Affair: A Documentary Record online here. A pdf of the report can also be downloaded below. Download The Trojan Horse Affair A Documentary Record Continue reading

During November we saw the opening of a World Cup that, for the first time in the modern history of football, was not greeted with universal enthusiasm by supporters. Why? The host, and the methods used to win the hosting of the tournament. I was involved in two contributions which attempted to provide a little more background to Qatar, and in particular Britain's relationship with it. The first was supplying some additional information, along with Dr Damon Perry, to a report by Sir John Jenkins for Policy Exchange. A pdf is below. Secondly, I wrote a short piece for the... Continue reading

October saw a series of protests across London and the south east, by the Just Stop Oil organisation. Who are they, what do they seek to achieve, and why do they get away with things other political campaigns, do not? I am one of three authors of a report by Policy Exchange which seeks to answer those questions. You may read the report online, or download a pdf, here. A pdf of the report can also be viewed on the link below. Download The-‘Just-Stop-Oil-protests Continue reading

This blog mostly serves as a repository for my own writing, but I thought if worthwhile to post a few links here to groups and causes I support or have sympathy for. Here goes. Like many others I lean to the left on economic questions, and to the right on issues like the family, immigration and social cohesion. I am therefore happy to be a supporter of the small but perfectly formed SDP, under the leadership of William Clouston. Below I list several other websites that I would encourage others to dip into. Firstly spiked, which has achieved an enormous... Continue reading

A couple of years after everyone else, I have just finished reading 'The Madness of crowds: Gender, Race and Identity' by Douglas Murray. It is very good, indeed the only one of his books which has missed the mark is probably the one no one talks about now - the 2006 text 'Neoconservatism: Why we need it'. The truth of course is that we didn't! In the conclusion to the Madness of Crowds, Murray writes beautifully of the effort people put into politics, and how identity politics in particular becomes all-consuming. It is worth quoting in full: But of all... Continue reading

On Friday 12 August an attempt was made to murder the writer Salman Rushdie at a public event in New York State. I was quoted on the issue of Rushdie's security, and the wider threat from terrorism in the Sunday Post newspaper on 14 August. As the article does not appear to be online, I attach it as a pdf below. Download Sunday Post Peter Swindon on Rushdie attack p 8-9 14 08 2022 Continue reading

Since I have done this blog, one of the most popular features has been the various articles and pictures I have run on Hackney's lost pubs. Put simply, a huge slice of Hackney's history has been lost, in the space of a few years, usually for the short term profits brought about by gentrification. House building makes more money than pubs. Other London boroughs are little different. Certainly Islington and Camden, but this week brings news of the worst story yet, with one of the few decent pubs left on the Isle of Dogs, the City Pride, being sold for... Continue reading

The protests against The Lady of Heaven movie have ended in a complete victory for the protestors. England and Wales abolished laws against blasphemy under the last Labour government in 2008. As at Batley Grammar School in 2021 however, it appears possible for Islamist protestors to enforce blasphemy codes by taking to the streets. This research note, published yesterday by Policy Exchange, considers events this month, and traces the opposition to The Lady of Heaven movie back to the Islamic Republic of Iran. You can read the research note online here, and download a pdf below. Download ‘The-Lady-of-Heaven Research note... Continue reading

My take on the Shawcross review on Prevent, currently sitting in the Home Secretary's in tray. Published in the Times on Tuesday 17 May. You can view a pdf of the article below. Download Extremism review must take a tough stance on Islamism 17 05 2022 Continue reading

Yesterday spiked were good enough to publish an article I wrote on the Bristol Extinction Rebellion FB page calling a protest against a feminist meeting at Bristol University. A link to the article on the spiked website is here. A pdf of the piece may be read below. Download Why is Extinction Rebellion protesting against gender-critical feminists_ - spiked 08 05 2022 Continue reading

Last month I was one of three authors of a new report for Policy Exchange, looking at the Islamist campaign against the prevent policy. You can find a link to the report here. And download a pdf of the report below. Download Delegitimising-Counter-Terrorism 2022 Continue reading

This is a short piece for the Understanding Islamism project of the think tank Policy Exchange. It considers the advertised appearance of Jeremy Corbyn MP at an anti-Zionist event. Mr Corbyn did not however, join the proceedings. The controversy was covered in the Daily Mail. A link to the article can be read here, and a pdf of the article, below. Download Anti Zionism Coordination (AZC) Annual Conference and Jeremy Corbyn MP - Policy Exchange 25 02 2022 Continue reading

This is a short article, for the Understanding Islamism project of the website Policy Exchange. It considers the responses of British Islamists to the complete proscription of the Islamist group Hamas - previously only its military wing had been illegal in the United Kingdom. You can download a pdf of the article below, and read it online here. Download UK Islamist reactions to the proscription of Hamas as an international terrorist group - Policy Exchange 16 01 2022 Continue reading

I am currently reading the October 2019 issue of Garrison: The Journal of History and Deep Politics. What is Garrison? Think an American version of Lobster, with extra JFK assassination material thrown in, plus sadly, some ultra leftism and 9/11... Continue reading

The Winter Solstice is here (the longest day) and it seems appropriate to consider the year, what we have done and what we have not done. If I had to summarise 2021 in a single image, it is below: Continue reading