Politics
The turf
Having spent three quarters of my life covering politics and the other quarter following racing, I am often asked what…
The right question at the wrong time
Complaining about the EU referendum campaign has become an integral part of the referendum; even Delia Smith has got in…
A monkey-brained case for Donald Trump
A few years ago I was asked to speak at a conference in New York. ‘Where would be the best…
Chance would be a fine thing
If I prang your car, we can swap insurance details. In the past, it would have been necessary for you…
The wisdom of pitchfork-wielding crowds
In a way the headline to my fellow columnist Dominic Lawson’s Sunday Times commentary on 12 April said it all.…
The road to Panama
The 11 million documents leaked from Panama lawyers Mossack Fonseca tell us much that we know already. It’s hardly news…
It’s the Labour moderates who need to get real
It has become commonplace to remark that there exists in Britain a mainstream political grouping that seems to be dwelling…
Farty, smelly and in love with Putin? You must be getting middle-aged
There are things that happen when you grow older — bad things, harbingers of death and decay. Past the age of…
If you’re stupid enough to let all these people in, at least treat them decently
We were on our way to a party in south-east London when my friend, Rob, saw the graffiti. Sprayed with…
Lessons from Utopia
Thomas More’s 1516 classic is a textbook for our troubled times, says William Cook
State of the Union
Last year, the United Kingdom came within 384,000 votes of destruction. A referendum designed to crush the Scottish nationalists instead…
Faith is left, right. . . and central
An interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby
The Corbyn crack-up
What life is like inside the Labour party right now
Theatre and transgression in Europe’s last dictatorship
Juan Holzmann goes underground in Minsk with the Belarus Free Theatre
Two serious ladies
‘You understand, Lenú, what happens to people: we have too much stuff inside and it swells us, breaks us.’ The…
A hero of our time
I have met Dr Kissinger, properly, only three times. First, in Cairo, in 1980, when, as a junior diplomat escorting…
Long life
I remember Sidney Blumenthal from my time in Washington in the late 1980s when I was there as the first…
Jeremy Corbyn’s world
Jeremy Corbyn says he is very excited about his campaign to become Labour leader because lots of young people are…
From Major to minor
‘Lobbying,’ writes William Waldegrave in this extraordinary memoir, ‘takes many forms.’ But he has surely reported a variant hitherto unrecorded…
Calling all British tourists – Ukraine needs you!
Kiev ‘What the hell’s going to happen to your poor country?’ I ask the man in the flea market not…
More Marx than Dante
Martin Gayford finds a few nice paintings amid the dead trees, old clothes and agitprop of the Venice Biennale
State of play
How has political theatre fared during the coalition? Not very well, writes Lloyd Evans
Death by politics
Dead Sheep is a curious dramatic half-breed that examines Geoffrey Howe’s troubled relationship with Margaret Thatcher. Structurally it’s a Mexican…
Daring to be a Daniel
As I swink in the field of Thatcher studies, this book brings refreshment. It is a welcome and rare. Far…
The actor-commentariat
I’ve never been terribly keen on actors. I prefer hairdressers and accountants. And teachers and builders and lawyers. I may…
