Why don’t we know how many people are in Britain?
How many people live in Britain? You would think there would be a straightforward answer, but it eludes some of…
Peter Mandelson’s rocky path to Trumpworld
The muddle about who’s to be the next British ambassador in Washington has been only a small part of the…
The Tory party’s wannabe comeback kids
When a prime minister leaves No. 10, they usually discover the phone soon stops ringing. But there is at least…
My message to the Trumpists
Social media benefit from creating continuous belligerence in politics. For them, Donald Trump is the perfect politician. As I wrote…
Save our cathedrals!
My beloved 1967 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop guitar is now locked away until December at the earliest. For the past…
Portrait of the week: DeepSeek, Duke of Sussex’s damages and an iceberg the size of Cornwall
Home The government would invest 2.6 per cent of GDP a year to create growth, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of…
DeepSeek’s cheap information comes at a high price for the West
This week, Chinese technology has shown the West the challenge it faces – ruthless, implacable and impossible to ignore. The…
The shards of heaven beneath our feet
All precious stones are ‘earthly versions of the flickering lights in the night’s sky’, writes Philip Marsden, in a dazzling exploration of the minerals that make up our planet
My money-saving tips for Rachel Reeves
It is always upsetting to watch a woman enmired in distress and so I thought I might ride on my…
Classical music has much to learn from Liverpool
They do things their own way in Liverpool; they always have. In 1997 the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra launched a…
Can you still afford to eat out?
Many of us will remember, misty-eyed, how things changed around the turn of the century. How Britain ceased to be…
My turbulent flight with the hen do crew
‘Oggy oggy oggy!’ shouted the Italian flight attendant over his intercom, and all the hen party ladies on the plane…
Letters: What we lose when we lose our factories
Chains of command Sir: Matthew Lynn is correct to emphasise the economic dangers of deindustrialisation (‘Not made in Britain’, 25…
Jew and non-Jew: Unity Mitford and aristocratic anti-Semitism
I was touched but not surprised that, despite his illness, the King attended the 80th anniversary of the ‘liberation’ of…
An excellent sixth-form drama project: Santi & Naz, at Soho Theatre, reviewed
Santi & Naz is a drama set in the Punjab in 1947 that uses an ancient and thrilling storyline about…
The hard truth about Britain’s soft power
How hard is your soft power? According to David Lammy, Britain’s soft power is so strong and underrated that he…
Britain is far from prepared for the era of AI warfare
How safe will this country be under Labour? The Strategic Defence Review (SDR) is supposed to provide the answers. It…
Xi Jinping’s alarming blueprint for the future
Kevin Rudd leaves us in no doubt about Xi’s determination to influence foreign governments and increase China’s political and policy leverage over the world’s financial institutions
Gossip is good for you… so I’m told
The Pope hates gossip. In his Christmas message to his Vatican advisers last year, Francis warned that it is ‘an…
Visionary tales: Mrs Calder and the Hyena, by Marjorie Ann Watts, reviewed
Sharply drawn characters, young and old, gleefully challenge conventional judgments and form liberating new friendships in this exhilarating collection of short stories
Don’t believe the ‘Believe Her’ movement
I never expected to have strong feelings for a member of Germany’s Green party, but I really do feel extremely…
