Features
The ideal death show
I am in a yurt, talking about death. Everyone is seated in a circle, and I am the next-to-last person…
Notes on…Classic cruising
We arrive at the tiny Greek island of Sikinos on a blustery day, making landing rather difficult. Is there transport…
Why zig-zagging Obama can't be taken seriously on Syria
The West does have a dog in the Syria fight. But it’s on the losing side of the losing side
Obama knows that America has lost its appetite for war
Obama has realised that America has lost its appetite for war
Seamus Heaney's poems are for Protestants too
Seamus Heaney’s poetry from the other side of Northern Ireland’s divide
Italians for Maggie
The Circolo Culturale Margaret Thatcher, which wants to institute an Anglo-Saxon Tory party in Italy, has a plan
Parliament has finally woken up – because voters are keeping their MPs in line
Today’s MPs are no longer scared of the whips. Instead, they are scared of their constituents. That’s a good thing
Hospital food isn’t a joke. It’s a scandal
Hospital food isn’t a joke. It’s a scandal
Notes on…Sicily
It could be, in Sicily, there comes a time when you’ve had your fill of seaside calamari and cheap white…
David Cameron’s wars: How the PM learned to love precision bombing
Supporters of intervention in Syria will be the first to desert Cameron when the going gets tough
Whoever wins in Syria, its Christians will lose
Don’t expect the government to raise its voice for Syria’s Christians
The charity that could make you love social workers
The charity that could make the public love social workers– and why many social workers don’t like it
Welcome to Ryanair Britain
Local councils, banks, railway companies and the taxman have all learned the art of ‘pirate pricing’
Letter from Somaliland
Ayan Mahamoud, one of the organisers of Hargeysa’s International Book Fair, has all the girly vulnerability of a factory-tested steel…
The views that inspire writers
Do writers really need inspiring landscapes? Or the opposite?
Notes on…Rome
Leave Florence and Sienna to the aesthetes. Let the in-crowd do Naples and Palermo. For the amateur Italophile, Rome is…
Richard Dawkins attacks Muslim bigots, not just Christian ones. If only his enemies were as brave
It’s August, and you are a journalist stuck in the office without an idea in your head. What to write?…
The strange death of the British middle class
The great stabilising force in our society is disappearing fast
As high speed rail is being dropped in California and France, it's time for Britain to take the hint
The government’s high-speed rail plans will never be implemented
Roll up for the Bo Xilai show
China’s fallen princeling has a new role to play: one he may not enjoy
Meet the Gypsy entrepreneurs
Travelling people are putting their entrepreneurial skills to increasingly impressive use
Who cares if Wagner’s 200? The plague of the anniversary
Centenaries now seem to be the only reason that publishers and concert planners do anything at all
Why G.K. Chesterton shouldn’t be made a saint
G.K. Chesterton was a great journalist, not an angel
In defence of binge drinking
The occasional alcoholic blowout is much to be preferred to steady, everyday drinking
Notes on…Walking in the Auvergne
The homicidal sheepdog that launched itself at me from behind a grassy hillock, had the look of a demented hearth…
