John O'Sullivan

When it comes to the song “Rule Britannia,” context is needed.

Donald Trump personifies resistance to the Marxist revolution.

A defense of free inquiry & robust debate draws strong opposition from the left.

A born editor and humanitarian democrat, he aimed to use foreign policy to improve people’s lives.

One of my favorite quotations is the alleged last words of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico who, just before he went before the firing squad, said to his Hungarian chef: “You thought it would never ...

Boris Johnson returned today to politics today after a life-and-death battle with the coronavirus and a convalescence lasting three weeks at Chequers.

‘Ghost trains,’ Hungary’s emergency law, face masks and social distancing, restaurants’ pivot to takeout and delivery.

The lack of a sunset clause is worrisome, but talk of the end of democracy is overheated.

How strong is the case for mitigation?

Today’s news includes the information that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have let go the 15-strong staff of their office in Buckingham Palace.

Mark Carney leaves his job as Governor of the Bank of England in March, stepping easily into several new positions: notably, U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and special advisor to th...

Three great social forces are now colliding in the politics of the English-speaking world: industrial and technical progress, a rising tide of environmental regulation, and democratic government.

John O’Sullivan, who was there, reviews the long history leading up to Brexit.

A British film about the referendum portrays brilliantly the political currents that shocked the U.K.’s ruling class.

When the eightieth anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Pact took place last August, it attracted surprisingly little attention in the way of major commemorations or lectures.

National Review Institute helps preserve Bill Buckley’s legacy and sustain the movement he created.

National Review Institute helps preserve Bill Buckley’s legacy and sustain the movement he created.

The pro-Brexit vote in U.K. politics turned out to be as steady as the guards at Waterloo.

The vote of confidence only leaves things more unsettled.

What with the brutal suppression of student riots in Hong Kong, the beatings and imprisonment of anti-Mullah demonstrators in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, the imprisonment and execution of Christian conve...

The Tories have run a solid campaign so far, while Labour has stumbled.

If he doesn’t, the Tories could be in trouble in the coming election.

The anti-Brexit coalition is split on how soon to hold a new election and on whom their candidate should be.

Johnson doesn’t regret ‘using the word surrender to describe the surrender act.’

Parliament wants to halt Brexit, but a no-deal Brexit may be unstoppable. Or not.

Tomorrow’s vote poses a dilemma for Brexit supporters.

It’s a virtual bloodbath for the Remainers.

In 1985 in New York I was asked, well told really, “Why don’t you go back where you came from?” by the distinguished historian and chronicler of the Kennedys, Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

Kim Darroch wasn’t guilty of anything heinous, but he had to go — and the attacks on Boris Johnson for saying as much were misguided.

The question looms large over the future of the Tory party, British politics, and Brexit.

Boris Johnson probably cannot be stopped, but he can be hobbled.

The European election results were fairly clear — the mainstream centrist parties declined again.

The legacy parties continued to decline and the populist right advanced only so far. Now, the pro-EU left, which gained ground, may grow more assertive.

NATIONAL REVIEW has lost a lot of good friends and contributors — the words are largely coterminous — to the Grim Reaper in the last few years, but the death of Mike Potemra is especially painful ...

Theresa May is probably on the way out, but a bigger threat is on the horizon for the Conservative party.

One of Margaret Thatcher’s more quoted sayings is “The facts of life are conservative.”

This week European leaders will meet in solemn conclave, with and without Prime Minister Theresa May, to determine whether or not to extend the U.K.’s membership of the European Union and, if so, fo...

Charles Moore today ends his weekly Telegraph column, which has become required reading for both supporters and opponents of Brexit, with a gloomy forecast that the only way of saving Brexit from its ...

The relationship between Gosnell and the Democratic reaction to the SoTU; musings on priority plane tickets; and thoughts on Melania Trump and women’s magazines

In the latest thrilling parliamentary episode of Brexit, the hopes and expectations of, among other Remainers, House of Commons speaker John Bercow were largely disappointed, and the hopes of Brexitee...

Are ambassadors important? Are they even necessary? Not as much as they used to be.

Voter concerns over sovereignty may soon drown out abstruse parliamentary maneuvers.

On a parallel between the shutdown and Brexit.

National Review Institute has been spreading Bill Buckley’s message since 1991, and its antecedents go back decades further.

Only hours after you read this, the Tories will have decided whether or not to ditch Theresa May as Tory leader and thus as prime minister.

With every twist of the news cycle, reports from London on the evolution of the Brexit negotiations between Theresa May’s government and the European Union get odder and odder.

The prime minister has tried to trick Brits into believing that her Brexit is the one they.

Either she will have to change her Brexit policy, or her party will change its leader.

Francis himself is accused of participating in the cover-up of abuse by priests.

Can Malcolm Turnbull & Australia’s Liberal party win an unlikely return to power?

Every day seems to produce another item in Theresa May’s continuing betrayal of her promises on Brexit and the referendum.

Britain’s current political crisis over Theresa May’s attempt, endorsed by the cabinet at Chequers, to redefine the meaning of Brexit so that it requires the U.K. to remain inside the functional e...

The prime minister covertly tried to impose a ‘third way’ and now faces a backlash.

Britain’s long-running crisis-cum-soap-opera over Brexit may be reaching its denouement today at Chequers, the prime minister’s country house, where the full cabinet is locked in a final debate on...

Founded 30 years ago, the Irish Repertory Theatre has been a window onto the country’s moods and history.

The long experiment in cultural transformation has proved to be a mere detour on the way to becoming West Britain.

The Tories did better than expected, which may not be an unalloyed good.

The controversy reflects a wider division in European society, between a warm-hearted, religious view of things and a colder, more scientific outlook.

In the few hours since I sent in the piece below, a remarkable succession of events has occurred that paint the decision of the UK authorities in ever-bleaker colors.

When I was nine years old, I spent almost a year of my brief life in Alder Hey hospital, Liverpool, being cured of tuberculosis.

Viktor Orban’s victory is a serious challenge for the Eurocracy.

My bet: Orban and his party will not manage a landslide but will hang on.

A more plausible explanation for the poisoning of the Russian double agent and his daughter is that Putin sought to deflect attention from the Baltics.

A rejection of social democrats is reconfiguring the continent’s politics.

A lackluster Brexit deal could spell doom for the British prime minister, but by staying tough she can emerge stronger.

The British prime minister faces numerous challenges in finalizing a Brexit deal with the EU.

Later today, a conference on “Democracy in Crisis” will be held by the American Enterprise Institute jointly with Freedom House and the Center for American Progress at which Senator Ben Sasse will...

John O’Sullivan shares the inside story of how NRI was born, and how it has flourished.

The disputes among the factions are real, and Britain’s prime minister faces an unenviable task.

The Communist experiment failed above all because it was Communist.

It’s not a threat to democracy but a salve.

The Tories need a post-Thatcher set of policies to deal with problems that have arisen since 1990.

Sunday night’s instant conventional wisdom on the German election results was that Chancellor Merkel had been “wounded” but had nonetheless won a substantial victory and was safe for the next fo...

If she can’t make a deal, she must get ready to exit without one.

Because no one has yet died as a result of the bombing on the London Underground at Parsons Green — though 22 unlucky people have received serious injuries — we may be inclined to regard the attac...

In looking at the alternative universe created by the legendary Daily Telegraph columnist, present-day Americans look into a mirror.

Julius Krein misunderstands the profound influence and success of Buckleyite conservatism.

As an unabashed celebration of Western culture and values, his speech broke new ground.

Today’s deal between the Tories and the Democratic Unionists is one more sign that at least a limited normalcy is returning and that the Tory administration is likely to remain in office for several...

The Tories are still in power and can recover lost ground, but Jeremy Corbyn is playing his hand shrewdly.

Its Muslim population is not sufficiently integrated.

Refocusing on Brexit, they look likely to win but have made serious errors.

Listening from Budapest to the Washington debate on whether President Trump leaked intelligence secrets to the Russians in a White House meeting attended by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as alleged ...

The French election results suggest a high level of disaffection among voters.

The Tories reclaim much of their former support in the patriotic working class.

Emmanuel Macron’s likely victory over Marine Le Pen will not resolve France’s crisis.

An intelligent and cheerful soul

In calling for a special election, she risks a sure term of three years for the chance of five years and a more united post-Brexit Britain.

In defense of President Trump’s emerging foreign policy

A pair of vicious murderers receive very different treatment from U.K. worthies.

Those who found Trump monstrous were shocked by his impressive speech. Then they returned to form.

America and Britain after Brexit

The American idea is powerful and good, but the American experience itself is richer.

Much of today’s political polarization can be reduced to a choice between competing narratives.

Whatever he is, the new president is not the Manchurian candidate.

Theresa May is strengthening both her party and democracy.

Voters are rejecting rule by transnational elite

A wave of populism is sweeping over the Continent

Two news stories that I ran across while researching my recent column on the Latino vote rang a faint bell in my mind. It didn’t hurt that each story reinforced the other.

That permanent Democratic majority may never emerge after all.

Trump’s victory should usher in policies rooted in patriotic assimilation and the national interest.

It could tempt Theresa May to hold an early election on whether to carry through Brexit in short order.

Showing their true colors, Russian state media found a way to smear the memory of the heroes.

Rational self-interest would counsel very different courses for Trump and establishment Republicans than they have taken so far.

Despite her reputation for competence, Merkel has led her country (and Europe) into one crisis after another.

After the best week of his campaign, he may be the favorite.

The New Class’s assault on Western democracy.

There’s much more at stake than $13 billion.

She was years ahead of the curve, even in her own party, in her skepticism of the EU project.

Britain’s new Conservative prime minister has been shrouded in calculated mystery.

The elite reaction to the Leave campaign’s victory has been revealing.

The pluses and minuses of his big foreign-policy speech.

Working-class Trump supporters school the policy wonks.

London — In September 2015, only four months after David Cameron’s Tories pulled off an unexpected victory in Britain’s general election.

He came, he saw, he went. But did he conquer?

Whichever side wins, the Brexit referendum could imperil Prime Minister David Cameron and the Conservative party as a whole.

Writing in the Washington Post, Derek T. Muller, an associate law professor at Pepperdine University, offers the following solution to the nation’s pressing problem that American voters may elect Do...

In the late Fall of 1988, shortly before Ronald Reagan left office, I was a dinner guest at the home of a distinguished Nixonian.

In Britain, they have admitted the existence of "the establishment" ever since journalist Henry Fairlie coined the term in the mid-fifties.

Women wage the sex war by vindictiveness," said the late Cyril Connolly, "men by indifference.