The importance of security to sustainable urbanism. Alternatives to car ownership are unviable without law and order. Stolen bicycles and violence on the metro drive people back into cars. Vandalism kills scooter and car rental companies. This is how the Greens lost Brussels.

Europeans are too often passive consumers of technology, media and culture made by and for Americans. This not only makes us dependent on the US, it impoverishes our culture and stops us reaching our full potential. This week's essay: theleopard.eu/p/the-inescapa…

My pet hate is when websites lock their language options to the country you're in. Why?!

The death of Twitter left a void that hasn't adequately been filled. I've previously written (/moaned) about BlueSky and now it's the turn of LinkedIn - a place where people are posting more and more about politics but haven't shed their corporate masks. open.substack.com/pub/theleopard…

An essay on the joy and toil of writing essays, with a digression into the Substack economy. Tl/dr: Work is really busy so I can't publish every week for the next few months. Going to prioritise quality over quantity and slow down a bit. open.substack.com/pub/theleopard…

The Spectator’s 2025 no-CV internship scheme is now open. We don’t ask for a CV, we don’t use your name. We don’t care where (or whether) you went to university. None of that stuff matters here. Only talent does. Apply now. buff.ly/jbJhgpQ

The markets right now

The most dangerous racists are the people who think they can't possibly be racist. This week's essay: open.substack.com/pub/theleopard…

Too much stuff? Most cities in Europe provide you with a large storage space in front of your house for a token fee. You can put anything there so long as it's in a car.

The global flood of misinformation could revive a dying breed: the foreign correspondent. Not long ago, the value of having a trusted reporter on the ground was in freefall as reliable information flowed on social media. Fake news is reversing that trend. open.substack.com/pub/theleopard…

I never doubted you for a second The Economist

Why do so many people in the West hate their own civilisation? I argue it's because of a lopsided teaching of history and culture, where the West gets an interrogation and other peoples get a hagiography. New essay: open.substack.com/pub/theleopard…

Important point from Sam Wilkin:

The Liverpool ramming attack wasn't entirely apolitical - it was the natural extension of embedded, and sometimes violent, driver entitlement. New essay: theleopard.eu/p/militant-car…

A big chunk of creative work is done away from the office. As AI takes away mundane tasks and frees us think more deeply, spending eight hours at the office isn't just unnecessary - it's a hindrance to the creative process. New essay: open.substack.com/pub/theleopard…

Jeremy Corbyn splits the UK left with a new pro-Palestine vehicle, helping Nigel Farage on his way to Number 10. And it just so happens that I had drafted an essay on how Palestine activism has taken over the European left: open.substack.com/pub/theleopard…