The Dangerous Pull of Political Tribalism

The Dangerous Pull of Political Tribalism

Mar 3, 2020 | Featured

Originally published on Unherd I long to belong. I want a place in the world, a way to appear in public, a context. I want a team. That’s why I feel the pull of political tribalism. Yet at the same time, there’s still some part of me that hankers after integrity. That...
What would you sacrifice for integrity?

What would you sacrifice for integrity?

Jan 24, 2020 | Featured

Originally published on Unherd. Franz Jägerstätter’s life is perfect — remote and romantic, lived in a valley in Upper Austria. Up in the mountains, there he feels free. His farm is plentiful. His children healthy. The woman he loves happens to be his wife. He rings...
Package-Deal Ethics

Package-Deal Ethics

Dec 22, 2017 | Featured

First published in The Hedgehog Review, Vol. 19. No. 3 (Autumn 2017) Ready, aim, fire, kill. A single shot was all it took. Every morning of his adult life, Gail Gerlach, a fifty-six-year-old plumber from Spokane, Washington, would strap on the holster of his 9mm...

Human Rights – all things being equal

Dec 22, 2017 | Uncategorized

First published by Standpoint, November 2017 If you wander into any Waterstones and scan the shelves for books about equality what you’re going to find are countless books about policy. You’ll find books by gurus like Antony Atkinson, Thomas Piketty or Joseph Stiglitz...
Charlottesville: a town haunted by the far right

Charlottesville: a town haunted by the far right

Dec 19, 2017 | Letters from America

First published by New Statesman, 17th August 2017 On 12 August, a car ploughed down pedestrians in the street where I used to buy my pecan pies. I had recently returned to London from Charlottesville, Virginia – the scene of what appears to have been an act of white...

Family is key to breaking the reoffending cycle

Dec 16, 2017 | Uncategorized

First published 8th September 2017 on The Spectator’s Coffee House Lord Farmer’s Review on prison reform, launched this week at the Centre for Social Justice think tank, is ground-breaking for a number of reasons. For starters, it gets family. In an...

What we must learn from the tragic case of Charlie Gard

Nov 30, 2017 | Uncategorized

First published on The Spectator’s Coffee House blog, 2nd August 2017   I teach bioethics, and the abiding temptation is always to design classes around rare, fiendishly complex cases. That’s how you grab the attention of bored undergraduates; the fodder you...