Labour would certainly not win a general election if it were held tomorrow; but they are heading in the right direction

Nicola Sturgeon’s defence is impregnable because it concedes so little usable information

Money doesn’t spend itself, Chancellors spend money

Attempting to stifle scandals only makes them more lethal, says Nigel Jones

Philanthropist and business leader Jonathan Oppenheimer says that economic policymakers should take a lesson from vaccine regulators in 2021

The content of the Global Soft Power Summit 2021 shows that progressives have turned a vague concept into another divisive label

Ofcom is currently a bastion of woke liberal values; appointing Paul Dacre as the new head would go a long way in redressing the balance

The theory that Brexit was caused by a religious fervour deliberately fostered by the Leave campaign is a case of the pot calling the kettle black

Have non-pharmaceutical interventions, including lockdowns and social distancing, enabled more dangerous virus variants to thrive?

A confidential matter: the letters of Richard Strauss and Stefan Zweig, 1931-1935

John Self says that while writing has always been seen as a vocation, the characters many authors care most about are the ones printed on their royalty statements

In the wake of Trump, US conservatives must regain the moral high ground

Clive Aslet says the Barclay brothers were prescient when they built their grand private castle on Brecqhou. Today, true privacy is something only serious money can buy

Janine di Giovanni on the profoundly moving Oscar-nominated film that is teaching young Bosnian Serbs about the awful truth of the Srebrenica massacre

The worst offenders in the new climate of intolerance are our universities

The sport is now characterised by the conditioned reflex of dishonesty, the bleating of the wronged

How on earth did the National Trust hire a non-historian to do an historian’s job?

Prevent the rise of fascism by letting the state arrest people for what they think

From trans rights to its independence strategy, a bitter war divides one of the most popular parties in Europe

In recognising the threat Hitler posed and swimming against the tide of public opinion, the glamour boys defied the stereotypes

From countryside crimes to mysteries on the waves, Jeremy Black recommends further reading from the British Library Crime Classics collection

Fiction works on the understanding that none of it really happened; we agree to believe it anyway, says John Self

Barry Turner delves into an illuminating and entertaining insight into Bohemian life in the fast lane

Michael Prodger recounts the tale of Hergé’s drawing for the cover of the Tintin instalment: The Blue Lotus

Music has lost its unpredictability, its thrilling fear while sport’s passion shines, says Norman Lebrecht

Country music has a frontline place in the culture wars, says Sarah Ditum

People are terrified of modernity’s great gift: the sudden freedom to make appalling noise, says Robert Thicknesse

Nick Cohen says pounding the streets brings its own rewards

Gardens start with a pencil and paper says Hephzibah Anderson

Christopher Pincher takes us through the Labour Party’s beverages of choice

Patrick Galbraith bags an unlikely deer: a roadkill roe buck