Smash! Don’t say we didn’t warn you. As one energy-reliant manufacturer after another shuts up shop; as our energy prices…

In his eloquent ‘Closing the Gap’ speech Tony Abbott’s call to all Australians ‘to open their hearts’ to Aborigines was…

I wonder why international leaders make decisions that are clearly against their own interests. There have been two recent examples.…

The Governor-General hosted an informal BBQ dinner for parliamentarians and their partners at Yarralumla the night before the first day…

Bradman’s brilliance was peculiar; his personality wasn’t

Once again, Labor seems genuinely baffled that there aren’t more votes in propping up dying industries. The (non-existent) canneries and…

It’s time for a serious inquiry into our invasion of Iraq

The 1980 US presidential election campaign was characterised by warnings from the Carter White House about the impact of a…

After Sochi and Crimea, the world

In fact, if you're a depressed river mussel, it's handled the floods perfectly

Today’s left is a competition in shouting one another down

I’ve never been asked about my beliefs at a regular church service. Sunday Assembly was different

MPs owe it to the taxpayer to throw out the Hinkley Point deal

Plus: A discussion in George Soros’s flag, the irrationality of Vladimir Putin, and the mystery of Britain’s brilliant actors

My favourite investment class is finally coming back into fashion

How to get a slice of the fracking action

Reality may be about to reassert itself after an extraordinary hot streak

We needed a break. We found one

Making animals more valuable is better than trying to make ivory less so

Home It would be ‘extremely difficult, if not impossible’ for an independent Scotland to join the European Union, José Manuel…

Plus: The world in a doctor’s surgery, and Somerset’s last great floods

The Romans knew that flood plains flood

Caution over wind Sir: While the broadcast media have assailed their audiences with simplistic yet blanket coverage of the floods…

Forget the special relationship. The German Chancellor is the indispensable ally

Plus: Shirley Temple vs Graham Greene, and the poetry of le Metro

That, and kitten videos

The ‘Arab slave pit’ my brother and I found. And what happened when I found it again

From the spires of Loretto, Glenalmond, Fettes and Gordonstoun, let the cry go up...

Plus: Scotland’s tax-haven future, and the perverse power of banking fines

‘The crack cocaine of gambling’ and its enemies

James McNeill Whistler fashioned himself into a brand, and was a social butterfly who could sting like a bee

Who is Hillary Clinton? HRC, a biography by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, has sentences full of anecdotes but empty of analysis

Two new books, My Promised Land and Herzl, document the creation — and some of the costs — of Zionism

David Gilbert's second book, & Sons, is so clever and knowing that I don't think it'd mind that I don't like it

How did we get here? Larry Siedentop's Inventing the Individual shows how our religious tradition brought us individualism, equality — and charity

Helene Gestern's People in the Photo deserves all its accolades; Ghost Moth and Land Where I Flee are good, too

With Mark Wigglesworth about to replace Edward Gardner as musical director, English National Opera is again at the crossroads

Christopher Alden's new ENO production has given the heave-ho to Jonathan Miller's after 32 years. Prepare to be dazzled and confused

Plus: How to spend the night with Tennessee Williams in three rooms at the Langham Hotel

Here's why you must see the small wonders of Liam Hanley, James Turrell, Brian Rice, John Kiki and Gauguin

Jim Jarmusch is a noted cult director. Judged by this movie, the cult can keep him

Storage Hunters and Bakery Boss are actually rather captivating, but aren't reality programmes completely fabricated and dishonest?

Plus: 'This is a scream for all the women in Iran who have been suppressed'

Martin Creed's retrospective, What's the point of it?, is best seen with children in tow

We all know unfortunates who succumbed to weakness and can only focus on their next fix. Eddie Somerset was one of them

'I will demonstrate to you, Jeremy, that there is infinitely greater pleasure in making love with a man than with a woman.'

Forget the Big Society — it's more Knackered Society as campaigners take flak from all and sundry as they protest day in, day out

The novelist's idea that the child star resembled Marlene Dietrich when wearing trousers is quite extraordinary

This year you don’t want to be a jockey’s valet. Never have their washing machines spun so vigorously. From every…

Bridge players are a generous bunch — both with their expertise and their time. There are many charity events to…

Three important tournaments concluded this month, for two of which (Gibraltar and Bunratty) I attended the awards ceremonies. I have…

White to play. This position is from Keogh-Chevannes, Bunratty 2014. How did White’s massive central build-up transform into a winning…

In Competition 2835 you were invited to submit a profile for an online dating website for a well-known politician, living…

Each of thirteen clues contains a superfluous word. Initial letters of these words spell the first four words of a…

Taking one unchecked letter from each across solution gives EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION, whose victims, according to Chambers 2011, include TERRORIST SUSPECTs.…

How can parents and teachers both maintain their authority and inspire a questioning spirit?

Ed Leigh, Aimee Fuller and Tim Warwood are hardly Dan Maskell, but they set an exciting tone

Plus: The answer to arriving at a party presentless

It’s three floors high, two days old, and full of young lawyers dressed as Patrick Bateman

What shall we call the remainder of Britain? There’s one obvious answer