Melanie Phillips

People seem surprised that the idea of elected mayors has received such a thumbs-down from yesterday’s local elections and referenda on the proposed post for individual cities. Personally, I’m not surprised at all.

Published in: Daily Mail

The UK Jewish Film Festival is advertising a preview of its forthcoming season.

Published in: Melanie's Blog

It’s no surprise at all to learn that A-level and GCSE grades have indeed got progressively easier over the past decade. The only surprise is that, after more than two decades of denials, the education establishment has finally admitted it.

Published in: Daily Mail

At last, a member of the judiciary has broken ranks to warn of a social disaster that has taken place on the courts’ own watch.

Published in: Daily Mail

To judge from what we are reading and hearing almost every day at the moment, it would seem Britain is in the throes of a war of religion. A war, that is, between religion and atheism.

Published in: Standpoint

The great grand-daddy of the man-made global warming scam, the fifth horseman of the eco-apocalypse James Lovelock, has now recanted. Well, sort of. Don’t get too excited.

Published in: Daily Mail

As any responsible parent knows, the internet has introduced a vile new hazard into the upbringing of children.

Published in: Daily Mail

In the event, Denmark pulled back from the brink. Following my piece here a few days ago about the witch-hunt against the President of the Danish Free Press society Lars Hedegaard, the Danish Supreme Court ruled last Friday that he was not guilty after all of hate speech and racism – the second time he has been acquitted of this charge in a roller-coaster of a case which has stained Denmark’s reputation for justice, free speech and common-sense.

Published in: Daily Mail

In decadent Europe, freedom of speech is dying. Loudly trumpeted as a ‘human right’ for any attacks on America, Israel, Christians or on the core values of the west, it is swiftly transformed into ‘hate speech’ and the shutters are slammed down on the speaker whenever Islam is in the frame.

Published in: Daily Mail

The sound of ministerial retreat is once again loud in the land. It appears that in the face of gathering outrage, the Government is rethinking its Budget proposal to cap tax relief on charitable donations.

Published in: Daily Mail

A poll of voters in the south London borough of Bromley, taken by the Times (£) to gauge support for Labour’s Ken Livingstone and the Conservatives’ Boris Johnson in the London Mayoral contest, is fascinating – not just for what those polled were saying about the two candidates but also about the Tory Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Published in: Daily Mail

The triumphant grin said it all. When Trenton Oldfield was pulled out of the Thames and arrested after he deliberately swam into the path of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race in order to halt it, he knew he had achieved his aim.

Published in: Daily Mail

The general response to George Galloway’s sensational victory in the Bradford West by-election has missed the point by a mile.

Published in: Daily Mail

Is the Obama administration using either leaks or black propaganda to sabotage Israel’s defence against the threat of genocide?

Published in: Daily Mail

Readers of the Jerusalem Post have doubtless been bemused by a rumbling controversy over whether or not the Anglo-Jewish leadership comprises what Isi Leibler derided as "trembling Israelites".

Published in: Jewish Chronicle

Rogue operative? Not a bit of it. Anyone wondering just how the Conservative party could have appointed as its Co-Treasurer a man who offered access to the Prime Minister at private dinners and other privileged contacts in return for party donations of £250,000 will have had their answer from the jaw-dropping interview on this morning’s BBC Radio Today programme with the Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude.

Published in: Daily Mail

Suddenly, it’s deja vu all over again. Just when we thought the ‘cash for access’ scandal was a thing of the past, that particular abuse has once more reared its unsavoury head.

Published in: Daily Mail

When the Toulouse school massacre happened, the media rushed to say that the perpetrator was a white far-right racist. The lone gunman had mowed down at close range a rabbi and three children at a Jewish school, wounding several others.

Published in: Daily Mail

The Chancellor, George Osborne, will reportedly announce in Wednesday’s Budget an immediate end to national pay bargaining, giving government departments new powers to set localised wage rates.

Published in: Daily Mail

In 2009, the Obama administration began instructing gun storeowners to break the law by selling firearms to suspected criminals.

Published in: Daily Mail