Portrait of the week: Stabbings in Southport, a £22bn ‘black hole’ and Tory leadership nominations
Home Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said she had found a £21.9 billion hole, and a black one…
The mystery of teaching composition
Summer study courses for young composers have been popular for a few generations. After the second world war, up-and-coming experimental…
Things can always get worse for the Tories
Before migrating to Wiltshire where I will be for August, I had a friendly dinner with a clutch of Conservative…
Woody Johnson: What a second Trump term would mean for the UK
If Donald Trump does return to the White House, then another restoration could soon follow. Woody Johnson, a confidant of…
Venn diagrams are the perfect tool for a politician
‘I just love Venn diagrams,’ Kamala Harris said in 2022. ‘It’s just something about those three circles, the analysis about…
The secret language of horses
‘Horses – beautiful, noble, intelligent creatures,’ said the neighbour I was having tea with. ‘There speaks someone who has never…
The dark side of your local dog show
Over at the judging for Waggiest Tail, things were getting acrimonious. ‘That bloody woman,’ my new acquaintance muttered. We were…
The joy of getting lost in the Congo
Republic of Congo I’m sending this to you from the rainforest in Congo, surrounded by vast trees and jungle noises…
Reinforces the caricatures it sets out to diminish: Slave Play, at the Noël Coward Theatre, reviewed
Slave Play is a series of hoaxes. The producers announced that ‘Black Out’ performances would be reserved for ‘black-identifying’ playgoers…
Spectator Competition: Wrong ’un?
In Comp. 3360 you were invited to submit a passage or poem in which a fictional villain offers their side…
Give us a pubs tsar – but spare us Tim Martin
More than a third of UK universities are in financial doo-doo: staff cuts, cancelled courses, slashed research budgets and possible…
Letters: Why marriage matters
Pretender to the crown Sir: Kate Andrews combines detail and analysis with a sprinkling of satire to devastating effect in…
Keir Starmer’s parenting lessons
Before he became Prime Minister, Keir Starmer admitted he was concerned about what life in Downing Street might be like…
The tragic fate of Ukraine’s avant-garde
In a recent interview Oleksandr Syrskyi, the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, said that he spends his time off…
Aliens exist? Prove it
At Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio there is, it is rumoured, a secret underground room where a crashed alien…
