The difference between someone who is intellectually asleep and someone who is intellectually awake is not merely academic—it’s existential. It’s the difference between being a passive consumer of ideological hand-me-downs and an active producer of independent thought. In today’s Britain, this distinction is more urgent than ever.

In the history of Britain’s labour movement there is a curious paradox. The early trade unionist, the chapel deacon, and the Catholic social reformer all found themselves united, though often unwittingly, around a single conviction: that time is not the property of capital. The working man, whether in a Lancashire mill or a Durham colliery or Cornish mine, was not merely a beast of burden to be driven until collapse. He was a creature made for worship, leisure, and fellowship.

Humanists UK’s report Rising Christian Nationalism: A Threat to Us All treats Christian conviction in public life as if it were inherently extremist. The argument is framed in stark terms: ordinary believers who oppose abortion or euthanasia, who defend the family, or who affirm Britain’s Christian heritage are accused of plotting to “fuse politics with Christianity” and to roll back rights. What is actually happening in Britain is far less sensational, and far more significant: a quiet but real renewal of Christian belief among young people.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there has been a hidden war which most Western media have failed to report on. The split between theUkrainian Orthodox Church (UOC-MP), loyal to the Moscow Patriarch, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) may sound like a scene out of Monty Python’s Life of Brian - essentially a split within a split - but it in fact cuts to the core of the Russia-Ukraine War.