(DTB) Don’t Trust Boris
The former prime minister is up to his old tricks
Sectarianism contra socialism
How did “left-wing” MPs end up voting for the VAT exemption for private schools?
On cockroaches and cancellation (w/ James Dreyfus)
How ideology is spoiling the arts
The predictability of subverting expectations
What to expect when you’re expecting your expectations to be subverted
Ultra processed arguments
Public health commentators cannot seem to decide what is safe to eat
What do Labour think a conversion therapy is?
There has to be a middle ground between complete denial and complete affirmation
Why Ukraine almost certainly cannot win
And why the war is likely to continue anyway
Landscapes of allusion and illusion
On the architecture of recreation
Dancing with Beethoven
Beethoven: String Quartets, vol.2 (Chandos)
The future that never came
Post-war London was saved from a modernist masterplan
Why I, as a mother…
Being a mother can change our perspectives and priorities
When the music stopped
A reflection on the inexorable decline of arts education and the rise of knee-jerk politics and managerialism
Don’t bet on green energy
Groupthink has blinded us into backing solar and wind. Will a big short make us see sense?
A real plan for growth
A series of simple economic blunders has led to self-defeating policies that strangle any chance of prosperity for all
Blue-collar brilliance
1970s Pittsburgh wasn’t just a steel town: it was the steel town
Draining the swamp
Residents are hopeful that the mayor’s grip on Venice might at last be easing
Much more than mere child’s play
Children’s literature is the platform on which everything else is built
The fables of Davos Man
Yuval Noah Harari has written another long book with little wisdom
When America ignored a slaughter
Whatever America’s flaws, its absence from the global stage leaves a space quickly filled by far more malevolent actors
The art of violence
High jinks in the Groucho Club are small beer when compared to the misdeeds of their artist ancestors
The attractions of extremes
Are we going to become ever more passive consumers of other people’s thoughts and memories?
Blogosphere bubble
Reviving a simple English classic: bubble and squeak
Just the tonic
Rediscover the forgotten treasure of Australia: fortified wines
The same old song
A reboot of nineties favourite Le Caprice is more museum than restaurant