Britain must reject the European model
France has been in a state of organised uprising this week, with 300,000 motorists taking to the streets and autoroutes…
Portrait of the Week: May’s deal, water cannon, John Worboys and Interpol
Home Five pizza-eating cabinet ministers — Andrea Leadsom, Penny Mordaunt, Liam Fox, Michael Gove and Chris Grayling — put it…
Jacob Rees-Mogg: Why Boris Johnson would make a good leader (and I wouldn’t)
‘Away with the cant of “measures not men”! — the idle supposition that it is the harness and not the…
What kills penguins?
Black Friday When and where did the term ‘Black Friday’ originate? — It was used to describe a collapse in…
Socrates vs Steve Bannon
The country’s champions of free speech — the police — were recently out in force to ensure that the alt-right…
Letters: There is no such thing as a ‘good’ Brexit
There is no ‘good’ Brexit Sir: David Harper claims to know ‘what the population of the UK voted for’ in…
Will the Daily Mail’s volte-face on Brexit make the slightest difference?
It will be interesting to see whether the about-face of the Daily Mail on Brexit makes the slightest difference to…
The only thing you’re allowed to hate is hate itself
If we are to ban states of mind, my vote would be for self-righteousness first, followed by sententiousness, with maybe…
What does it mean to be ‘moved’ by something?
Catching a train last week at London’s St Pancras I encountered a man playing a piano. You can do this…
Jazz is dominated by men. So what?
I’d recommend any aspiring writer to marry a jazz drummer. It’s done wonders for my powers of concentration. If I…
Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn was a tall nail. But was he really a bent one?
The arrest of Carlos Ghosn and the move to oust him as chairman of Nissan in Japan has stunned the…
May’s legacy: her Brexit deal could crush the Tories
At David Cameron’s final Prime Minister’s Questions, a Labour MP asked him how his plan to get the Tories to…
Anger? Yes. But in another country, leaving the EU would mean bloodshed
Did any of us, whatever our opinions, expect the level of blustering indignation that has emerged since the 2016 referendum?…
The Democrats’ obsession with Beto O’Rourke is a sign they’re in trouble
Washington, DC Ever since America elected Donald Trump, Democrats have fantasised about removing him from power. They’ve dreamed of…
Leo Varadkar has done his absolute best to damage Brexit
How did we get into this Brexit mess? Why is it proving so difficult to leave the EU? Was it…
Why are the middle classes so obsessed with schools?
One thing I love about my adopted country is the widespread cultural contempt for dullness. Unlike North Americans, intelligent British…
May’s Brexit deal: the legal verdict
The most important point about the draft Brexit withdrawal agreement is that, once it is ratified, the United Kingdom will…
In defence of Patricia Highsmith
A new play, Switzerland, which opened in the West End this month, seems to have demonised Patricia Highsmith once again.…
Join a Jacobean jury at the Globe. Early modern theatre goes immersive – will it work?
James I and VI liked to term himself Rex Pacificus. Like most politicians who talk a lot about working for…
In the 1960s the brightest star of British art was Richard Smith – and you can see why
It is easy to assume that the contours of art history are unchanging, its major landmarks fixed for ever. Actually,…
This Boccanegra is not what you’d expect from UK’s best-funded opera company
The People are angry. In fact, they’re bloody furious. As the lights flash up on David Pountney’s production of Prokofiev’s…
No, Narcos, those who’ve had the odd puff and cheeky line aren’t to blame for the drug wars
Narcos is back on Netflix, set in Mexico this time, with a cool, world-weary, manly voiceover swearily lecturing us at…
Is Michelle Obama a secret Archers fan?
I wonder what Michelle Obama, the former First Lady who remade that role in her own image, would make of…
How could anyone object to the Royal Ballet engaging in cultural appropriation?
La Bayadère opens with a sacred flame and ends with an earthquake. In between, Marius Petipa’s ballet of 1877 gives…
One of the finest productions I’ve seen at the Globe – a triumph of crony casting: Macbeth reviewed
Michelle Terry, chatelaine of the Globe, wants to put an end to penis-led Shakespeare by casting women in roles intended…
