Hanif Kureishi – portrait of the artist as a young man
Descriptions of the gifted author tearing up the literary landscape of the late 20th century are deeply poignant when set alongside Kureishi’s recent despatches from hospital
Downhill all the way: the decline of the British Empire after 1923
Matthew Parker gives us snapshots of Britain’s sprawling dominions in September 1923, showing both governors and governed increasingly questioning the purpose of the empire
Why was the British army so ill-prepared to fight the second world war?
After 1918, the general staff ceased to focus on who they might have to fight next and how, leading to the abysmal performance of the army in Norway and France in 1940
She’s leaving home: Breakdown, by Cathy Sweeney, reviewed
One ordinary November day in Dublin, without forethought or planning, a woman walks out on her husband and two teenage children and never comes back
Milton Friedman – economic visionary or scourge of the world?
Monetarism, with which his name is associated, has long defined economic policy. But what would Friedman have made of the banking collapse, so soon after his death in 2006?
The travails of Britain’s first Labour government
Attacked in the press, by the right and even by its own supporters, Ramsay MacDonald’s short-lived government still managed to achieve a surprising amount
What if the Houthi airstrikes fail?
The curse of air power is that air strikes always capture the public’s attention. The praise that follows their tactical…
The delusion of the Houthi pacifists
I see ‘Not in my name’ is trending on social media. It’s in response to the US and UK strikes…
What Britain’s defence deal with Ukraine means for the war
In his surprise visit to Kyiv, Rishi Sunak had two pieces of good news for Ukrainians: another £2.5 billion in…
Suella savages Sunak’s Rwanda Bill
The Rwanda Bill comes back to parliament next week which means a return of Westminster’s favourite parlour game: Tory blue-on-blue.…
Have the Houthis gone rogue?
The US and Britain really didn’t think they had a choice about bombing Yemen in retaliation for Houthi attacks on…
Gabriel Attal and the unstoppable rise of Klaus Schwab’s ‘global leaders’
The French found out on Thursday evening that, under their new prime minister, nothing will change in the way their…
Who are the Houthis?
About a month ago, a regional brigade of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the militia that undergirds the power…
South Africa has no right to lecture Israel
As South Africa presented its case accusing Israel of genocide to the International Court of Justice, the presence of former…
Will Red Sea strikes disrupt the UK economy?
November is proving to have been a lucky month in Britain. Inflation slowed significantly: from 4.6 per cent on the…
Striking the Houthis won’t stop Iran
A month before the targeted killing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) commander Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, few would have…
Why do I keep falling for Boris Johnson’s charm?
On Saturday, I was in a public library, waiting for an old guy to finish with the Times. But he seemed…
Britain and US launch airstrikes against Houthis
The US and the UK have launched airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen whose continued attacks are disrupting trade in…
We don’t need targets to know the NHS is failing
How has the NHS missed most of its key targets for the past seven years? Some parts of the UK-wide…
Tories are wrong to imply that Starmer is racist
Is it really some kind of underhand racist smear for Labour to claim that Rishi Sunak ‘doesn’t get Britain’? This…
The fog of moral clarity
I am not optimistic about seeing moral clarity from many (or most?) of our current federal government leaders. Their apparent…
Even in the Arctic Circle, Navalny remains uncowed
Alexei Navalny had a brutal December. At the start of the month the Putin critic abruptly disappeared from his prison…
The village witch-doctor
In some tribal societies, the village witch-doctor claims to have remedies to protect others against maladies and witchcraft. Neither such…
Will Chris Christie’s withdrawal help stop Trump?
It was former New Jersey governor Chris Christie who ended up getting smoked. His share of the Republican primary vote…
Wonka champions little capitalists
This summer’s hit movie Wonka inspires a generation to do something exceptional: start their own business. More importantly, it teaches them how…
