This weekend, in the fourth installment of Mervyn Bendle's reprising of Sir Kenneth Clark's 'Civilisation' series, we observe the birth of the Renaissance, exploring the emergence of Humanism and two of the most remarkable events in the history of Western thought

In the third part of Mervyn Bendle's 15-week reprising of Sir Kenneth Clark's magisterial examination of the West's journey from the intellectual rubble of post-Roman Europe to today's West, In this weekend's installment, 'Romance and Resality', we arrive at the High Gothic

Last week and over the months to come, Quadrant Online will publish Mervyn Bendle's 15-part reprising of Sir Kenneth Clark's magisterial examination of the West's return from the post-Roman brink. In this weekend's installment, 'The Great Thaw'

Over the next 15 weeks Quadrant Online will publish Mervyn Bendle's episode-by-episode reprising of Sir Kenneth Clark's sweeping and magisterial examination of the West's return from the post-Roman brink. This weekend's installment, 'The Skin of Our Teeth'

President Xi Jinping has a better tailor than did Mao, but the parallels are chilling. As with the tyrant who sowed bloody havoc from Indonesia to China's own cities in order to retain his grip on power, Xi is likewise imperilled by the regime's intrinsic weaknesses. Under such conditions picking fights is a useful and potent distraction

The aim is to trap our society in a pincer movement, assailed by external and internal forces, in which we will be rendered impotent by self-doubt and self-hatred. As our sovereignty is stripped away, we are to be reduced to a cowed and subordinate status, much as the CCP is seeking to do in Hong Kong

Perversely, while living comfortably in the hollowed-out shell of the humanities, tenured practitioners of these subjects have adopted as their mission the destruction of the humanities and humanism, along with Western Civilization in general. Meanwhile, their acolytes are tearing down a civilisation so they don’t have to learn about it

Where did it come from, this eruption of rioting and demands that statues and history be torn down? Well, much as the Black Lives Matter crowd might seem of recent origin, it is the Sixties where it all began

While funding has been cut to the China Matters 'think tank', it appears no effort is afoot to have the institute's directors register as ‘agents of foreign influence’, as required by the Foreign Interest Transparency Scheme