Adam James Pollock

Adam James Pollock is a writer living in Ireland and the author of Sustenance.

Kemi’s Northern Ireland Brexit blunder will continue to haunt her

Ahead of the Conservative party conference this weekend, party leader Kemi Badenoch has, once again, demonstrated her lack of suitability for the role she has found herself in. Speaking on the topic of Brexit in an interview with BBC News Northern Ireland, Badenoch mistakenly said that 'last time I checked, Ireland, Northern Ireland did vote to leave' the European Union. Badenoch may want to 'check' a little better next time, as Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union at the 2016 referendum, with only 44 per cent of the population voting in favour of leaving.

Why Northern Ireland hates Paddington

Soaring crime and a growing air of discontent means that few Brits are happy about the state of their nation. There is one man, however, who seems to enjoy this deteriorating country quite a lot: the Ambassador of Japan to the Court of St. James’s, Hiroshi Suzuki. Paddington’s values have very little to do with what Britishness means in Northern Ireland Suzuki's cheery social media posts, in which he extols the virtues of the United Kingdom as seen through the eyes of an ardent Anglophile, are wildly popular. From sharing photographs of himself drinking ale in the Turf Tavern in Oxford, to making an origami daffodil to promote St. David’s Day, the Ambassador seems to be thoroughly happy with life in Britain.

Northern Ireland is still paying a heavy price for Brexit

This week heralds the arrival in Northern Ireland of yet more overregulation, bureaucratic overreach, and political incompetence. No, Keir Starmer isn’t making an unannounced visit to Belfast. From this month, many thousands of food products imported from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will have to display warnings on their packaging highlighting that these goods are not to be brought into the European Union. The reason why is essentially a bungled Brexit deal for which thousands of businesses – and millions of customers – will pay the price.

Gout is no longer the disease of kings

Towards the end of his life, suffering from culminating decades of decadence and subsequent ill health, Benjamin Franklin penned a humorous dialogue between himself and a personified interpretation of the source of all his ills: gout. Gout, taking the personality of a scolding schoolmarm, chastises Franklin for his indulgence and sedentary lifestyle, pointing out that he 'ate and drank too freely, and too much indulged those legs of yours in their indolence'. Britain’s welfare state today supports more weight than George IV’s trouser braces Gout had a reputation for being the disease of kings, a form of arthritis largely caused by a diet only achievable in past eras by the wealthiest and most culinarily liberal members of society.