Kippah
What, asks the columnist Philologus in the online magazine Mosaic, is the difference between a kippah and a yarmulke? I’m…
Victory in sight for the free schools revolution
I’m not surprised the Chancellor allocated more money for the free schools policy in the Budget. It’s not an exaggeration…
Victory in sight for the free schools revolution
I’m not surprised the Chancellor allocated more money for the free schools policy in the Budget. It’s not an exaggeration…
Technology and the winner-takes-all effect
I was exchanging emails with someone the other day and signed off with the sentence ‘let me know when you…
Wild life
Laikipia On Tristan Voorspuy’s hell-for-leather riding safaris across Kenya’s savannah, he cracked a bullwhip at predators that tried to eat…
Enemies of the people
Hardly a week goes by without someone applauding Thomas Carlyle’s objection to democracy: ‘I do not believe in the collective…
Barometer
Naming the weather Former BBC weatherman Bill Giles has said he’s fed up with storms being named. — The practice…
Diary
Oh dear. Usually writers who contribute to these diaries start with something like, ‘To Paris. To launch my novel at…
America confronts Germany
From ‘The revelation of Germany to the United States’, 10 March 1917: Even if Mr Wilson stops short at his present…
Australian letters
Penalty rates Sir: The Fair Work Commission might want to know how much Tony Abbott is paying some of your…
Letters
On Scottish independence Sir: Alex Massie writes of the order permitting a second Scottish independence referendum: ‘Having granted such an…
Portrait of the Week
Home The Lords passed two amendments to the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill, voting by 358 to 256 to…
Jewish values and 18C
As anyone who has closely followed the 18C debate knows, the major secular Jewish communal bodies, particularly the Executive Council…
Building walls
The really bad ideas never go away – Bert Kelly. Protectionism is one of those really bad ideas. Last month…
Killing history
In February, the Dean of Bristol Cathedral, the very reverend David Hoyle, announced his ‘openness’ to removing the Cathedral’s largest…
Islamophobia is dangerous humbug
Among the most purely dishonest expressions in modern politics (eclipsing even ‘Social justice’) is ‘Islamophobia’. A phobia – the word…
Paradise lost
The American dream was a consumerist idyll: all of life was to be packaged, stylised, affordable and improvable. Three bedrooms,…
Victim mentality
Elle has been described as ‘a rape revenge comedy’, which seems unlikely, and also as ‘post-feminist’, which is likely as,…
Home help
There have been many explanations for what happened in the Italian Renaissance. Some stress the revival of classical antiquity, others…
Changing of the Bard
Hamlet was probably written sometime between 1599 and 1602. The Almeida’s new version opens with a couple of security guards…
Changing of the Bard
Hamlet was probably written sometime between 1599 and 1602. The Almeida’s new version opens with a couple of security guards…
Scottish power
‘Perhaps in this world nothing ever happens without purpose,’ sings old, blind King Arkel in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and…
Scottish power
‘Perhaps in this world nothing ever happens without purpose,’ sings old, blind King Arkel in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and…
Keeping the faith
Perhaps surprisingly, in these secular times, Radio 4 keeps up its annual (and very Reithian) tradition of holding a series…
