Breaking the UK-EU deadlock
The big concession to get talks moving is about to be made over the heads of Barnier and Frost
Letter from Washington: The new silent majority
Americans agree on more than you might think
Streaming Spires
There is more to university than lectures: Lars Larundson writes from Oxford
The geek shall inherit the earth
How a studio was bullied into releasing the first cut of an unsuccessful film
Cui Bono
Imperial College’s Operation Historyhide is a go-go
Corto Maltese – graphic novels on a higher plane
The faithful translation of Hugo Pratt’s graphic novels introduces his hero to the wider audience he deserves
Philharmonia – fact is richer than this fiction
Channel 4’s new series set in a Paris orchestra hits multiple wrong notes
Grasping for the divine
The church has lost its way but our need for lasting purpose remains
Temperature rises in Paris
Paris unlocks but restrictions remain in place to prevent rioting
The fascinating objects of fascism
Roger Moorhouse shows it’s possible to treat modern history properly and in context
Boris’s Corona Catastrophe
An indolent, blustering prime minister surrounded by supine, vacuous incompetents
Reckless US faces a reckoning
Trump’s spending spree will mean sky-high inflation and interest rates
The problem with Adam, Eve and Steve
Is Polyamory really a progressive, feminist-friendly modus vivendi?
Good old New Society
It was a magazine whose influence extended beyond its readership
Beware of selling the family silver
The sale of dusty, unloved artworks offers museums a financial lifeline, but is fraught with danger
America’s licence to sell
Michael Prodger says deaccession has been given tacit approval abroad
The NHS is the new Church — Militant and Triumphant
The clinical decisions rushed through in March had a single goal: to protect the reputation of the NHS
A body fit only for the bin
The Electoral Commission has repeatedly wilted in the face of hysterical conspiracy theories
The fascism of POG-shaming
Mussolini may have had his flaws, but at least he didn’t diet
Jobsworths home and away
The referee is a blessed form of jobsworth
Men and women and men
John Self reviews Sorry for Your Trouble by Richard Ford, This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill and Cleanness by Garth Greenwell
Enemy of orthodoxy
Christopher Silvester reviews Groupthink: A Study in Self-Delusion, By Christopher Booker
Significant others
Selina Todd reviews Female Husbands, by Jen Manion
American Tolstoy
Time to proclaim the greatness of Herman Wouk, once feted for the sweep of his historical novels
An opera critic in lockdown
The critic, like a used-up traveller in ladies’ corsetry in a Fifties film, is enjoying a happy furlough
Lights, camera, chaos
Our board-treading gossip columnist grapples with actors on Zoom
Shakespeare in the West Bank
Adam LeBor has found one of the most immersive, and exhausting, experiences television has to offer
The mobster and the Method
Al Capone’s relationship with the movies goes back a long way, writes Christopher Silvester
Catch that pigeon!
Patrick Galbraith takes aim at an agricultural pest
Without a hitch
Hannah Betts on a coronavirus upside: no bridezilla weddings
Creature of comfort food
Lisa Hilton dreams of Mayfair and the true luxury of a silky, delicate fish pie
More than a dog’s life
Feed pets what you eat and babies what you hate, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto
The best of Heads
Sir Eric Anderson employed the best and let them get on with it
Rescue specialist
He had a particular skill with those who had fallen foul of the system
Old school reformer
Eric understood that the system had to stop being a relic of the past