The abortion debate is as old as time
Now that parliament has decided to decriminalise abortion, it is interesting to see what the ancients made of the matter.…
The vicious genius of Adam Curtis
In an interview back in 2021, Adam Curtis explained that most political journalists couldn’t understand his films because they aren’t…
‘It’s Liz Truss territory’: how bad are things for Kemi Badenoch?
Around 5 p.m. on Monday one of Kemi Badenoch’s aides was having a drink with a friend in the Two…
Is the Met finally getting tough on pro-Palestine protests?
It was airily pleasant to walk round Parliament Square on Monday morning. I had come up to London to go…
We should welcome regime change in Iran
On the first night of what Donald Trump has called the ‘12-day war’ between Israel and Iran, someone spray-painted a…
Who wants to read an unemotional memoir?
On the hottest day of the year, St Pancras station would not have been my first choice for lunch, but…
Small boats are causing Labour big problems
Summer is here – and for some in Labour it cannot come soon enough. After a tricky first year in…
Portrait of the week: Assisted dying, Israel vs Iran and Zelensky’s visit
Home MPs voted by a majority of 23 – 314 to 291 – for the Terminally Ill Adults (End of…
Let Kneecap play
During the Troubles, some 2,500 people were victims of kneecappings – punishment shootings, dished out by paramilitaries, for perceived crimes…
In defence of exorcism
British politics and ghosts are subjects that rarely meet. Sometimes an MP or parliamentary aide might report a sighting of…
Israel’s attack on Iran has been planned for years
It was clear at the time that what happened on 7 October 2023 would change the Middle East. What was…
‘Trans rights’ has never been a civil rights issue
Indisputably a nutjob, Chase Strangio is the soul of nominative determinism. The lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union is…
Dua Lipa sparkles at Wembley – but her new album is pedestrian
If, as is said, there are only seven basic narratives in human storytelling, then there should be an addendum. In…
None of Mitfords sound posh enough: Outrageous reviewed
There aren’t many dramas featuring the rise of the Nazis that could be described as jaunty, but Outrageous is one.…
The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs is as sweet and comforting as a knickerbocker glory
The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs is a comedy that feels as sweet and comforting as a knickerbocker glory. The show…
I’ve rarely seen a happier audience: Grange Festival’s Die Fledermaus reviewed
‘So suburban!’ That’s Prince Orlofsky’s catchphrase in the Grange Festival’s new production of Die Fledermaus, and he gets a lot…
Alfred Brendel was peerless – but he wasn’t universally loved
In middle age Alfred Brendel looked disconcertingly like Eric Morecambe – but, unlike the comedian in his legendary encounter with…
Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? The BBC, it seems
‘What a lark!’ I thought to myself as I rose on a hot June morning to listen to a documentary…
The French sculptors building the new Statue of Liberty
At a miserable-looking rally for the centre-left Place Publique in mid-March, its co-president, MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, made international headlines calling…
The key to a great American key lime pie
A few years ago, a friend wrote a cookery book for the UK market, full of gorgeous dishes, many of…
What a carve up! The British flair for disastrous partition
The ‘Great Partition’ of India in 1947 led to the wider division of Britain’s ‘empire within an empire’ – and to most of the problems plaguing southern Asia today
The wolf as symbol of European anxieties
This ‘amoral outcast’ and its thieving trickery is now widely equated with the economic migrant, slipping across borders unnoticed and threatening the status quo
