Chequered histories
As statues are scrutinised, the tensions that existed within historical figures are thrown into relief. You can admire Churchill’s leadership…
Bridge
I am so useless in defence it’s embarrassing. My partners all say the same thing: slow down and think. I…
2462: Over and Out?
The seventeen entries with definition-only clues are to be treated according to a symmetrically disposed theme which has to be…
Puzzle no. 609
White to play. Tolush–Aronson, Moscow 1957. Strangely, this quick win was once wrongly attributed to Alekhine. How did White exploit…
Breast is best
This week, BBC1 brought us a three-part dramatisation of an ‘unprecedented crisis’ in recent British life. Among other things, it…
Solution to 2459: 22 down
22D was TABLEWARE, and the quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson reads: ‘The louder he talked of his honour, the faster…
Mad for it
The longest interval in theatre history continues. Last week the National Theatre livestreamed a 2018 version of The Madness of…
It’ll end in tears
It was the fourth time, or maybe the fifth, that I found myself reaching for the tissues that I began…
Time to recover
The discovery in Britain that a £5 steroid, dexamethasone, can be effective in treating Covid marks a potential breakthrough in…
Dairy
Reality seems thinner these days. As I walk along the high street, passers-by drift apart as though afraid of crossing…
Barometer
Made to measure The government started reviewing whether we should stay two metres apart while social distancing or whether one…
Why stop at statues?
The actor John Cleese has been wondering if we should destroy Greek statues because Greeks believed ‘a cultured society was…
Letters
Hong Kong’s success Sir: Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson are right to compare the UK’s Covid-19 response with Hong Kong’s…
Flipping, flopping and failing
I don’t know what’s happened to our football hooligans. The modern malaise, I suppose. A gradual descent into ineffectuality. Back…
Why ‘football thugs’ want to defend statues
‘Saturday the 13th … everyone’s out to go up town to do Antifa. Loads of West Ham, Millwall, Chelsea, Arsenal,…
Is the Brexit deadlock about to be broken?
Trade talks between the UK and the EU are in a better place than they have been at any point…
Shares have defied pessimism – but another fall is surely coming
Do stock markets foretell the future while politicians fudge and economists mumble? No: share prices collectively have a life of…
Worship anywhere – apart from in church
During these months of inertia, I confess to having on occasion made illicit trips to churches in the English countryside.…
