Features
Republicans running amok
Taking control of both houses of Congress may hand the presidency to Hillary Clinton in 2016
What Merkel wants
The German Chancellor has a lot in common with David Cameron – which is why she can’t afford to help him very much
The Catholic civil war
Uncertainty over how much reform Pope Francis wants is splitting his church into factions
Ukip’s third man
Patrick O’Flynn praises ‘genius’ Nigel Farage, and puts Douglas Carswell in his place
All guns blazing
Once, both police and criminals in Britain routinely did without guns. How did that happen? And why did it change?
Old, vulnerable and hungry
The reality for elderly patients in NHS hospitals
The Alps
For a melancholy example of the power of celebrity, head to the Alps. Since Michael Schumacher’s accident last December in…
The cult of mindfulness
Separating meditation from faith might not be as harmless as it seems
The Seabirds
Out on the crumbling landscape’s farthest edge, Their winter journey starts, and while I know Some names, I can’t recall…
From Beirut to Brighton
The long shadow of the Islamic State means that many Christians are packing up and leaving Lebanon
The quiet revolutionary
Rand Paul combines a dull, reassuring manner with a Ukip-like insurgent appeal. It could take him to the presidency
Arguments with God
Former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks on the return of religion to public life and the civil war that Islam needs
Mandatory fun
Forced, studenty wackiness has taken over our culture. It’s time to take a stand
The White Widow myth
Samantha Lewthwaite almost certainly isn’t as monstrous as the papers say. And she definitely isn’t as important
Gibraltar
The British overseas territory of Gibraltar, or, as some would have it, the wart on the bottom of the Iberian…
The Seabirds
Out on the crumbling landscape’s farthest edge, Their winter journey starts, and while I know Some names, I can’t recall…
The Seabirds
Out on the crumbling landscape’s farthest edge, Their winter journey starts, and while I know Some names, I can’t recall…
The dying man of Europe
Italy is in terminal decline
Winter Words
Calendar pages: one scrumpled day dies in a garden spun to fools’ gold, where wind mews over twigs and bones…
Calling Cameron’s bluff
I don’t think the PM will really campaign for an EU exit. But he still has the best chance of getting one
Death to hipsters
Take heart: the age of the stupid beard is coming to an end
Why counties still count
If you want real local identity to thrive in England, put the old county boundaries back on the map
Eight presidents
Encounters with leaders of the free world – as a journalist, as a friend, and as a boy running in the hallway
Portmeirion
My husband and I stay for a week most summers in Portmeirion, the strangest and loveliest ‘village’ in the world.…
Winter Words
Calendar pages: one scrumpled day dies in a garden spun to fools’ gold, where wind mews over twigs and bones…
