The Week
Welcome to Diocletian’s cashless society
Money is a pagan god because it has value only as long as people believe it does. Refuse to believe,…
No one likes Arsenal, we don’t care
Arsenal’s triumph in finally winning the Premier League again after 22 long, often eyeball-wrenchingly tortuous years has gone down like…
Letters: Reform and the Conservatives need each other
Greco-Roman wrestling Sir: Rod Liddle suggests that some, perhaps many, middle-class voters on the right or centre right are deterred…
Labour must be honest with voters about the coming crisis
So far, Labour has staged a contested leadership election in government only once – 50 years ago, in 1976. The…
My first act as prime minister
If I were prime minister for a day (which is looking like an increasingly realistic prospect for all of us),…
Portrait of the week: Streeting resigns, HS2 stalls and ebola spreads to Uganda
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, found his position challenged after Wes Streeting resigned as Health Secretary. At the…
Did Plato invent women’s lib?
One could go on endlessly about what the ancients have done for us, but one of the most interesting things…
My late husband’s insatiable appetite for ‘sticky willies’
Labour’s just deserts Sir: Last week’s leader hit the nail on the head (‘Desperate retreat’, 16 May). You have to…
Which countries see more UFOs?
Red Wales Labour lost power in the Welsh Assembly for the first time since it was set up in 1999.…
Rome vs Jeff Bezos’s yacht
Rumour has it that Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is selling his agreeable little yacht Koru because it will…
The truth about Kate Garraway and me
Since Victorian times, sandwich-board men proclaiming doom have been part of our urban street life, particularly in London. I’ve felt…
Portrait of the week: Labour’s civil war begins, government borrowing rises and Trump arrives in China
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, made a speech without a jacket or tie in an attempt to save…
The EU can’t save Labour
Amid the rubble of this government lies a tattered standard – the regimental colours of the current Labour party. The…
Letters: it’s hard to undo dumbing down
Tales from the City Sir: Simon Jenkins’s article on Liverpool Street Station (‘Horror storeys’, 9 May) is inaccurate, and an…
Portrait of the week: Golders Green attacked, borrowing costs soar and rat virus hits cruise ship
Home Two Jewish men aged 76 and 34 were stabbed in Golders Green, north London. Essa Suleiman, 45, a British…
Anti-Semitism is a virus – and it’s spreading
To eradicate a virus, one needs precision. The origin of the threat needs to be identified, as do the circumstances…
Queen Camilla’s unusual phone app
And so to the White House for a ringside seat at the Trump circus. Another assassination attempt on the President…
Letters: Yvette Cooper for PM!
Bet on Yvette Sir: Were Angela Rayner, Ed Miliband, Andy Burnham or Wes Streeting to succeed Sir Keir (‘After Starmer’,…
The Romans would tax anything
When Nero committed suicide in ad 68, he left Rome deep in debt after military campaigns, building himself a fabulous…
Which animals are older than David Attenborough?
Travel sickness Three people were reported to have died in an outbreak of hantavirus on a cruise ship returning to…
Which world leaders survived the greatest number of assassination attempts?
Marathon sprints The Kenyan marathon runner Sabastian Sawe broke the world record by running the first official sub-two-hour marathon. –…
Portrait of the week: Starmer avoids ethics inquiry, Birmingham’s bin strikes end and Trump is targeted by a gunman
Home The House of Commons voted 335 to 223 against a Conservative-led motion to refer Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime…
In the local elections, think local
In March, just before Artemis II rounded the far side of the Moon, the Transport Secretary had her own lunar…
The secret to Rupert Murdoch’s strength
Going to the theatre is a joy. When you are a character on the stage, less so. Over the past…
Zack Polanski must dream of Athens’s radical democracy
A Greek essayist c. 420 BC argued that Athens’s radical democracy, giving the vote to every adult male citizen, resulted…
