The new face of the Tories
The hardest thing for any political party to achieve is renewal in government. The Tories have managed it twice since…
Hot stuff
One legacy of lockdown in the classical music world has been the sheer length of the 21-22 season. In a…
Best medicine
Home remedies are good for us — and the NHS
Knives out
To judge from their campaigns, the leadership contenders are all out of ideas
Letters
Boris’s legacy Sir: It is grossly unfair to assert that Boris Johnson’s legacy was the lockdown (Leading article, 9 July).…
Softly, softly
Grizzled police officers of the old school should probably avoid Channel 4’s Night Coppers for reasons of blood pressure. Like…
Why it has to be Kemi
Have you considered a career in whoring? It can be very rewarding, apparently – especially financially. World’s oldest profession and…
Letterheads
One of the pleasures of the letters from unhappy ministers to the Prime Minister last week (though not, presumably, for…
The next black swan? Keep your eye on China’s banks
‘Black swan’ theory, developed by the writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb, refers to unexpected events that have extreme consequences but are…
Big tech’s big failure
A few years ago the Conservatives were excited about the march of the tech giants. Uber was offering an alternative…
To infinity and beyond
How humans may populate the universe in the billions of years ahead
The only gay in the village
In Jon Ransom’s debut novel, water seeps into the crevices between waking and dreaming, flooding the narrator Joe’s consciousness. Set…
How Kyrgios saved Wimbledon
What separates this year’s ‘empty seats on centre court’ scandal from every other year’s ‘empty seats on centre court’ scandal?…
A call to farms
Farming threaded its way through the fields, mud, hedgerows and lifeblood of the people who made up Sarah Langford’s childhood.…
Real life
As he grouted the last tile, five years after the bathroom was finished, I knew the game was up. ‘I…
Portrait of the week
Home The Conservatives began the process of finding a new leader, which involves balloting MPs and then sending two names…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. I have found parties frustrating this month because they have been too crowded. Is there a polite way to…
Parents must resist Stonewall’s gospel
I think by now it’s becoming horribly apparent to parents of every political persuasion that we can’t sit out the…
Civilisation in a sausage
When the Tory party set itself on fire last week a restaurateur told me: ‘Don’t worry, Tanya, we’ll still be…
Our
There was a word I didn’t understand in Boris Johnson’s resignation speech (in which he did not resign). He spoke…
2564: Sea monster
Five unclued lights are descriptions of another (four words), from another, by another (two words). Elsewhere, ignore one accent. …
Of man and misery
Do not be deterred, but do be warned. Rogues isn’t a book book: it’s a kind of high-end sizzle reel,…
Diary
‘So what did he say?’ I asked the ministerial friend who went to tell Boris last week he had to…
Puzzle no. 711
White to play. Short-Timman, Staunton Memorial 2008. Short played 1 Qb3, missing an unusual opportunity to cause havoc with the…
Solution to 2561: Ports
The unclued entry RECYCLING thematically links six unclued cyclic non-word permutations that appear in the systematic order GCYCLIN, NGCYCLI, INGCYCL,…
