Politics
Unintelligent design
Now that the conference season is over, we can compare not just the party policies, but their logos too. Last…
High life
The time-honoured saying that England’s great battles have been won on the playing fields of Eton is a lot of…
I believe in yesterday
Alan Johnson’s first volume of memoirs, This Boy, is still in the bestsellers’ list, but the Stakhanovite postman has made…
An aura of sovereignty
For the last 50 years Americans have been decrying the increase of presidential power whenever the party they oppose is…
Letters
Give the women a chance Sir: Melissa Kite’s article about the reshuffle seems downright unfair (‘A misogynistic reshuffle’, 19 July). Whatever…
Never say die
Winston Churchill once said of politics that it’s ‘almost as exciting as war and quite as dangerous. In war you…
The pitfalls and privileges of being a politician’s child
It was a Friday morning in 1992, Britain had just had an election, and I was on an ice rink.…
Is full employment another of Osborne’s political squibs or an achievable target?
‘Full employment’ usually means the lowest achievable rate of unemployment — somewhere south of 5 per cent compared with 7.2 per…
A champion of liberal reform
Roy Jenkins may have been snobbish and self-indulgent, but he was also a visionary and man of principle who would have made a good prime minister, says Philip Ziegler
Paving the road to hell
When presented with a 639-page doorstopper which includes 82 pages of closely-written sources, notes and index, most of us feel…
Delhi’s underbelly
India’s vast polluted capital, where brutality, corruption and ruthless self-seeking are endemic, could be the blueprint of the future, says Peter Parker
Death does not become us
Shortly after Bob Crow’s death was announced on Tuesday, Nigel Farage sent the following tweet: ‘Sad at the death of…
You shouldn’t lose your children for disagreeing with Boris Johnson
Do your children have a bleak and nihilistic view of the world? It’s hard to tell, really, when they spend…
The Labour party at prayer
Believe me, it’s not easy to be a Tory in today’s C of E
Myths of the modern-day pharoahs
Jonathan Rugman is foreign affairs correspondent for Channel 4 News.
The perils of partition
John Keay’s excellent new book on the modern history of South Asia plunges the reader head first into some wildly…
The curiosity in the cabinet
John Biffen was mentally ill. This is the outstanding revelation of Semi-Detached, a memoir which has been assembled from his…
The President and the muckrakers
Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era are well-worn subjects for both professional and amateur historians, so it’s pertinent to ask…
Ho, ho, oh no
In January 1976 New York’s late-lamented National Lampoon produced a bicentennial calendar as a contribution to the general rejoicing. For…
Letters
Rod rage Sir: Like most cyclists, who also own a car and pay road tax, I enjoy a pedal along…
Why I’d never be a Tory princeling
Since I was a child, pretty much everybody I have ever met has asked me if I want to be…
Fragile China
For all its bombast and success, the Chinese Communist party faces a host of looming problems – and a big decision
Low, dishonest decade
When Gordon Brown eventually became aware that his Downing Street was about to be engulfed in the Smeargate scandal, he…
Court chronicler for the coalition
There are two ways of being a political journalist. One is to stay on the outside and try to avoid…
Election time in Australia: Tony Abbott looks set to oust Labor’s Kevin Rudd
Sometimes only a cliché will do, especially when the subject is the Australian Labor party. Labor is holed beneath the…
