A case for Classics
Eager minds are being failed by a smug and short-sighted cultural establishment
In praise of the proper winter coat
We have nothing to lose but our puffer jackets
In praise of the middlebrow
Sometimes, a television show really does deserve the hype
The movies’ maestro
Hollywood’s most well-known tunesmith now has a doorstopper biography
A discipline in danger
Universities should not respond to funding crises by axeing the arts
With friends like these …
Opera’s wild vicissitudes of fortune under both Labour and the Conservatives
The pitfalls of peer review
The supposed gold standard for academic rigour can be nothing of the kind
Keeping music alive during the Blitz
Pianist Myra Hess brought classical music to the rubble of wartime London
There is nothing good about graffiti
We should have no tolerance for people who make our public spaces uglier
In praise of the lecture
Face-to-face lectures can be far more illuminating than a mere video
Most Read
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
Respect for the quarry
Can we love the things we kill?
Joyous genre-bending
Milestones (Signum Classics)
Profile: Allan Massie
The recently deceased Scots journalist and author
The regressive feminism of “angry young women”
Gen Z’s radical vanguard have built their worldview on unprogressive foundations
The great recoupling
Our politicians have a bizarre sense of costs and benefits when it comes to energy
Manchesterism is dead in the water
Andy Burnham already appears to have abandoned hope for meaningful change
The banality of Bower
The much-feared biographer is choosing the wrong targets
Assisted suicide has been dealt a fatal blow
The Scottish Parliament arrived at the right decision. Westminster should do the same
A criminal abuse of the law
Our criminal justice system is deferential to those who abuse it while coming down hard on the innocent
This apology for a political comedy
Amusing as a war crimes trial, and seems to last twice as long
The emperor’s new AI
A satirical X account is doing what the media class has failed to do, and report on the great AI delusion