“One call to the Daily Mail and he’ll be finished”

Judges are stealing our democracy

You may have missed it, says Allister Heath in The Daily Telegraph, but the European Court of Human Rights this week issued a ruling so ludicrous it was almost funny. In an “incendiary judicial coup”, the court ruled that governments which don’t reduce carbon emissions fast enough are “violating their citizens’ right to a private and family life”. The case centred on a Swiss referendum in which voters rejected a set of net zero measures. A group of mostly elderly Swiss women took issue with the result, arguing that it would make them more likely to die in heatwaves. In a decision that will set a precedent for all 46 ECHR signatories, including Britain, the court agreed. In other words, apologies to the “growing band of net zero dissenters” across Europe: your views “no longer matter”.

The problem with this “risible” judicial overreach is obvious: if a global rise in temperature violates our right to a private and family life, what else could fit the same description? NHS waiting lists? House prices? Military spending? Should the ECHR step in on all these issues, too? The law is an important part of democracy, but this “power grab” by unelected lawyers and technocrats beggars belief. It’s yet more proof that our unaccountable elites don’t trust voters to make decisions themselves – they think the really important stuff should be decided by supposedly “objective” judges. Do they not realise how much ordinary citizens will resent this “theft of power and influence”? The populist backlash, when it comes, “will be devastating”.

The pampered pooches of America

People going on holiday used to just put their dog in the local kennels, says Sam Apple in The New York Times. Not any more. Today, America has an ever-growing number of “luxury dog hotels”, where canine guests sleep on queen-size beds and get spa treatments like “mud baths and blueberry facials”. One franchise will even pick up your pooch in a Lamborghini. At the two pet hotels I recently visited with my goldendoodle, Steve, luxuries included private suites with televisions and air beds, a bone-shaped swimming pool, and a wide range of “wholesome services” from “belly rub tuck-ins” to bedtime stories. Staff at one resort even threw Steve a birthday party, complete with bubble machine, ball pit and cake.

America’s “dog mania” is spiralling out of control. There are now “dog bakeries and ice cream parlours and social clubs”. More and more restaurants are offering dog-friendly spreads; there’s a dog-only cafe in San Francisco with a $75 tasting menu. And it’s not just the luxury stuff. Total spending on pets in the US – with dogs by far the most popular animal – rose more than 50% between 2018 and 2022, to a whopping $137bn. Pet Halloween costumes alone account for half a billion dollars a year. What’s behind all this? It could be our “declining interest in one another”: a 2023 survey found that around half of American owners think their pet knows them better than anyone else does. For all that we humanise our dogs, perhaps their real appeal is “not that they’re like people but that they’re not like people”.

The killer drones making Iran a global player

Forget Iran’s missiles, its terrorist network or even its nuclear programme, says Bloomberg – what’s really making the Islamic Republic a global player is its drones. This is “a story of innovate or die”: Tehran has faced Western sanctions since 1979, so it has had to be resourceful in developing its own technologies. Even today, the drones are “relatively low-tech” – essentially model aeroplanes “propelled by lawnmower motors” and guided by “US-made components plucked from the internet”. But they’re very effective. An Iranian Shahed-101 killed three US soldiers at an army base in Jordan this year, reportedly shadowing an American drone that was landing there to bypass air defences. Late last year, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was photographed next to the new Shahed-149 “Gaza” drone, which has a payload of 13 bombs and a range up to 2,500km, “enough to reach Israel”.

All this is making Iran a “formidable global arms dealer”. Russia is paying it $1.16bn to manufacture 6,000 high-end Shahed-136 kamikaze drones, a model “turning up in barrages on Ukrainian battlefields”. Sudan, Ethiopia and Venezuela now use Iranian drones, as do rebels in Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara. Not only do these sales provide Tehran with precious foreign currency; they also strengthen its “strategic alliances”. And the drones are vastly cheaper than the missiles the West typically uses to shoot them down, “which can cost as much as $1m apiece”. It’s a technology with the potential “to change the nature of conflict around the world”.