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My essay on the late Jürgen Habermas in the current issue of 'Philosophy Now' magazine 🔽
#Habermas imagined a society where ideas competed through "the non-coercive force of the better argument." An ideal worth striving for, or an impossible dream? @patrickxwest on one of the world's most influential contemporary philosophers: philosophynow.org/issues/174/Jur…
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Good to see Film 4 featuring a revamped version of Iron Maiden's 'Phantom of the Opera' for its latest promotional advert. Some of a certain age will remember its first appearance on a commercial break youtube.com/watch?v=LM2oj0…
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Patrick West retweeted
Everyone praises Poland for its economic performance. Note well: this is taking place outside the Euro.
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My latest for the Spectator 👇
If the recent convulsions in France have reminded us of anything, it's that the radical, post-literate left seems far more interested in causing disruption than engaging in rational argument. It prompted us to recall that here in Britain we also have our own variety of And that reality was made evident on Friday at Cambridge University, when students stormed a lecture being given by James Orr, the former head of policy at Reform UK, and accused him of spreading fascism and hatred on campus.
Orr, an associate professor of religion at Cambridge, is known for hosting meetings for postgraduate students at his home on the outskirts of the city, which the Financial Times recently described as 'an alternative Cambridge college – a refuge from the liberal academy,' a venue where 'Orr's brand of Christian nationalism' is discussed and disseminated.
✍️ Patrick West
Article | spectator.com/article/let-ja… | @patrickxwest | @jtworr
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spectator.com/article/let-ja… My latest for the Spectator: on the intolerance and unintelligence of ultra-progressives
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My latest for the Spectator ⬇️
It is commonly understood that when dealing with those who wish to harm or exploit you, that you never show weakness.
This basic survival strategy is grasped by those who live closer to nature, who counsel that displaying fear to angry or predatory animals can be fatal.
It was nt to the political philosophy of Niccolo Machiavelli, who took humans to be animals similarly governed by amoral, self-interested instincts, creatures who were 'pitiless in the face of weakness, implacable before blunders.'
Machiavelli used to be mandatory reading for aspiring politicians who needed to know that in order to climb the greasy pole, much cunning, craftiness and dissimulation was required.
✍️ Patrick West
Article | spectator.com/article/andy-b… | @patrickxwest
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My piece for the Spectator on Sunday about the need to 'live dangerously' 👇
Their analysis of 74 studies from across the world concluded that three- to twelve-year-olds permitted to do ‘thrilling and exiting’ activities, such as ride a bike fast downhill or climb a tree, or are even just allowed to walk to school unsupervised, become fitter and more mollycoddled equivalents who are walled up at home, glued to their screens.
Yet long before academics told us of the benefits of taking risks, and self-help books advised us to confront life's necessary challenges, Friedrich Nietzsche was exhorting his readers to overcome others and themselves.
✍️ Patrick West
Article | spectator.com/article/nietzs… | @patrickxwest
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spectator.com/article/andy-b… My latest for the Spectator: how our Prime Minister's desire to people-please will be costly for him and this country
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spectator.com/article/nietzs… My latest for the Spectator 👇
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My latest for the Spectator: we are beginning to rediscover an ethos expressed by Nietzsche's most famous maxim: 'live dangerously!' spectator.com/article/nietzs…
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Who are these 'trespassers on the line' who always seem to disrupt train travel at the weekends, and have done so for the past ten years?
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This is perceptive stuff from @MadamMarenT about Patrick Stewart becoming an archetypal figure of composed authority in an age that came to mistrust the very concept
Patrick Stewart was a working-class Yorkshireman who learned to sound like the English establishment. In doing so, he became a better version of it.
buff.ly/zqAuEHJ
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Patrick West retweeted
I’ve reached an age when some people offer me their seat on the tube - and I no longer feel any offence to my dignity. I just say yes gratefully. Except I’ve noticed they have one thing in common - they are almost always people of colour. True Brits.
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As a footnote to the remarkable life and career of Patrick Stewart, I would like to thank him for his cameo on 'Frasier', doing what Derek Jacobi had done similarly on his appearance there: lampooning the persona of a precious, luvvie actor in an almost self-parodying manner
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Nana Akua has twice just called John Healey's budget a 'damp squid'. @DaveGorman would not be impressed
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spiked-online.com/2026/10/26/mas… To be fair, immigration, not least from Spanish-speaking South America, has always been a motivating force here, but this is good explaining the latest developments and dynamics
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My latest for the Spectator 👇
Prime Ministers in the modern era have invariably tried to prove that they are men of the people. It's one reason why the likes of Tony Blair, Liz Truss and now Andy Burnham have used the familiar form of their Christian name in the way Harry Macmillan or Dave Lloyd George never t Andy Burnham as novel is that he doesn’t merely flaunt his common touch as part of a broader, cynical strategy to garner electoral support. His earthly demeanour – albeit laboured – actually seems to convey authenticity. He really does want to be liked.
When Tony Blair appeared on popular television shows such as Des O'Connor Tonight, where his accent opportunely shifted to a cringeworthy glottal-stopping Estuary English, most of us just groaned, so accustomed had we become to the wily ways of this superficial man, a phoney whose time in power is remembered today for introducing 'spin' to the political lexicon.
✍️ Patrick West
Article | spectator.com/article/andy-b… | @patrickxwest
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My latest for the Spectator: Andy Burnham is an amiable character who wants to be liked, but a leader must be firm and decisive, not a timid and vacillating people-pleaser spectator.com/article/andy-b…
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That extended passage of 'Critique of Pure Reason' in which Kant goes full Oolon Colluphid
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