The return of Douglas Alexander
It’s a sunny Friday afternoon in Gullane, an affluent seaside town on the Firth of Forth. For political campaigners, golden…
How the Tories lost their way
Do you pack up the flat or not? That’s the question that everyone who lives in Downing Street faces as…
Portrait of the Week: Sunak’s D-Day misstep, Michael Mosley’s death and Macron’s snap election
Home The Conservatives promised to reduce National Insurance from 8 per cent to 6 per cent (and abolish it for…
The danger of a Labour supermajority
We are witnessing what could well be the last few weeks of a constrained Labour party. Sir Keir Starmer is…
Why Britain isn’t following Europe rightwards
My father was fond of telling anyone who would listen that Britain would never entertain fascism because we all had…
Puzzle no. 805
White to play. Adapted from an example in Capablanca’s classic manual Chess Fundamentals. Only one move leads to a win…
The unlikely political resurrection of Keith Vaz
When Keith Vaz announced his ambition to stand as an independent for Leicester East in the general election, no one…
Letters: could Nigel Farage ever be a statesman?
Debunking the debanking Sir: Toby Young is wrong to say the Conservatives have ‘failed us on debanking’ (No sacred cows,…
How Miss La La captured Degas’s imagination
‘Can you come Saturday morning to my studio, 19 bis rue Fontaine?’ Degas wrote to Edmond de Goncourt in 1879.…
Why are students steered towards duff A-levels?
‘Women are more religious because they are socialised to be obedient and passive.’ ‘In Latin America, men often spend 20-40…
The trouble with calling everyone ‘far right’
There is a favourite Fleet Street story about the legendary Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie. While editing the paper, he discovered…
The trials and tribulations of getting a plumber
‘Please, I’ll do anything,’ I told the plumber. ‘I’ll give you all the money I have if you just come…
China’s ‘soft siege’ of Taiwan
‘There is only one China in the world,’ Wang Wenbin, the spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, declared at a press…
Madrí wouldn’t fool a true Spaniard
Four years ago, Madrí didn’t exist. Today, the faux Spanish lager is sold in a quarter of British pubs, which…
When piracy meets protest
Sometimes there are advantages to being ill-informed. Knowing embarrassingly little about why 30 Greenpeace activists were jailed in Russia in…
Thank goodness Busoni’s Piano Concerto is returning to the Proms
On 5 August, Ferruccio Busoni’s Piano Concerto will be performed at the Proms for only the second time. It should…
‘Psychedelic folk that twists and leaps’: Beth Gibbons, at the Barbican, reviewed
A decade ago, a group of people who owned small music venues came to the conclusion that the kinds of…
The quiet return of eugenics
Here follows a non-exhaustive list of my genetic flaws. I am short-sighted, more so as I age. I have bunions,…
