England

In search of deep England

16 December 2023 9:00 am

Am I allowed to make fun of women’s football?

12 August 2023 9:00 am

I’m loath to write about the current Fifa World Cup because criticising women’s football is textbook ‘misogyny’ – at least,…

Hell is an English train journey

9 April 2022 9:00 am

Delayed, on Southern Rail Home From the Hill is a 1987 documentary by Molly Dineen about Hilary Hook, an elderly…

Why England lost the Ashes

6 January 2022 2:37 am

England’s wretched performance in the Ashes – which saw the side lose three tests and so the series to Australia…

The Italians are deluding themselves about the English

17 July 2021 4:00 pm

Not content with winning Euro 2020, many Italians have spent the days since the final engaged in a febrile orgy…

Britain is a tolerant country and a few football racists don't change that

15 July 2021 6:28 pm

The racist messages sent to England football players in recent days are shameful, but to suggest that the UK is a festering hotbed…

Isn't it time social media cracked down on racism?

12 July 2021 9:50 pm

No sooner had Bukayo Saka’s penalty kick thudded into the gloves of the Italian goalkeeper than you could see it…

England, Italy and the power of national pride

11 July 2021 7:23 pm

As an Englishman in enemy territory I am lucky that love is a more powerful emotion than patriotism otherwise after…

Boris's cunning has allowed him to share in England's Euro 2020 glory

10 July 2021 3:45 pm

You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose. That was the formula of legendary New York governor Mario Cuomo and…

Have Southgate’s England lost their moral compass?

9 July 2021 9:05 pm

Back in the 1980s the BBC Match of the Day opening credits featured a clip of Manchester United winger Mickey…

Taking the knee isn't the best way of showing black lives matter

22 June 2021 7:08 am

As a black football fan who grew up going to matches in the seventies and eighties, I know more than…

Euros 2021: England are easily the most boring side in the tournament

20 June 2021 3:32 am

England 0 Scotland 0 Hungary 1 (Fiola) France 1 (Griezmann) The wonderful Hungarians almost took my mind off England’s lamentable…

Are England fans allowed to be proud of the St George’s Cross?

19 June 2021 9:01 am

It’s starting to feel like the only flag you can’t fly in England is the England flag. Wave the Pride…

Judge Ollie Robinson on his cricket skills, not his tweets

10 June 2021 8:13 am

Ollie Robinson, who made his Test debut for England at Lord’s last week against New Zealand, is an outstanding cricketer…

What the England team doesn’t get about ‘taking the knee’

9 June 2021 2:48 am

England’s players being booed by their own fans is not a new phenomenon. But for the booing to be about…

In praise of David Lammy, a true Englishman

30 March 2021 3:02 am

David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, has been doing his LBC radio phone-in show. If you believe LBC, he has…

How we became a nation of choirs and carollers

5 December 2020 9:00 am

Alexandra Coghlan on how we became a nation of choirs and carollers

Backsliding on a lockdown end-date has begun already

1 November 2020 11:21 pm

Will England’s lockdown end on 2 December? Even before this morning’s media round there was good reason to suspect it…

Why I’m moving to England

3 October 2020 9:00 am

Gstaad It is not exactly a stop all the clocks occasion, let alone cut off the telephone, but I’ve finally…

Better than the film deserves: Saoirse Ronan as Mary Queen of Scots

A slog – and why does Elizabeth look like Ronald McDonald? Mary Queen of Scots reviewed

19 January 2019 9:00 am

Mary Queen of Scots is a historical costume drama that, unlike The Favourite, does not breathe new life into the…

What Uber rides taught me about immigration

21 July 2018 9:00 am

It was blessedly cool inside the Romanesque nave, its massive arches resisting the heat as they had done everything else…

Britain and Islam – the real special relationship

26 May 2018 9:00 am

In all the agonising about Islamism, and what to do about it, it would be a mistake to forget a…

Labour must stop feeling repulsed by the idea of Englishness

21 May 2016 9:00 am

My party needs to stop being scared of patriotism

Reasons to be cheerful about cricket, football and the Grand National

2 April 2016 9:00 am

Well the sun is out, the sky is blue, and poor Boris Johnson is taking such a pounding from Matthew…

Emma Thompson’s wrong about the EU and cake

20 February 2016 9:00 am

At first glance, Emma Thompson’s intervention in the Brexit debate earlier this week didn’t make much sense. Asked at the…