China: The rules of engagement
How should America deal with a newly aggressive and expansionist Beijing?
Staying out is the hard part
There are no dominoes to fall in Afghanistan
Power plays
The Western powers should beware making belligerent threats they cannot back up
Pounding to nothing
Patrick Porter reviews The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, by John Bolton
Afghanistan and the lies we tell ourselves
The leaked “Afghanistan Papers” tell a story of cover-ups at every level of America’s longest war. But can we really expect anything different?
Speaking power to truth
Patrick Porter reviews The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power
Looking back: WWIII remembered
This was not supposed to happen. Not in the year 2029. A nuclear war, millions dead, firestorms, irradiated cities. How did we get here?
Butterfield’s glorious vindication
Received opinion was wrong about William Butterfield’s powerful architecture
Twitter has always been toxic
Bluesky is a reminder of an earlier form of smug spitefulness
My “state of the nation” book
England’s Mean Unpleasant Land: How the Tories, Trump and TikTok Screwed Up Britain
Art of the deal
A simple sale, with money changing hands, was out of the question
Party in the U.S.S.R.
Shortages, queues and giant slogan-laden banners were the order of the day as the party faithful gathered
Can we save our parish churches?
It will take cultural as well as institutional change
Tory Utopias
1940s Conservatism was seething with creativity and optimism
Imaginary friends
The idea of a synthetic companion that knows everything about you goes well beyond friendship
“Bold vision”
An action or choice can perfectly well be bold without being good
Total eclipse of the art?
Activistic artists and curators are making art a niche political endeavour
A bloodless coup in Bucharest
How can elections be cancelled without substantive reasons even being presented?
