My perfect castaway
Robin Ashenden whiled away a forced sojourn in Georgia by feasting on the back catalogue of Desert Island Discs and compiling a list of his favourite guests
What the Russians may be eating in Tbilisi
Georgian cuisine is a rose with few thorns
Stalin’s last laugh
Joseph Stalin has been recast in Russia not as a bloodsoaked tyrant, but as a strong, effective leader
Canary in the cultural coalmine
Robin Ashenden talks to the prescient Lionel Shriver about cancel culture
Khrushchev – shoe banger for a superpower
On the 50th anniversary of his death – what should we make of Nikita Khrushchev?
Kenneth Tynan: a riposte to Equity
Robin Ashenden says the critic would have declared war on an ill-judged edict
Thatcher’s ‘Wiring Diagram’ and why we need it once again
We need a new Hoskyns-inspired intervention to deal with today’s cultural crisis
What do Labour think a conversion therapy is?
There has to be a middle ground between complete denial and complete affirmation
A recipe for decline
This budget will do nothing to lift Britain from its doldrums
The truth about Notting Hill Carnival
We should be more honest about the dark side of the event
How Australia punished smokers and normalised firebombs
Smoking restrictions have fuelled the Australian tobacco wars
Labour is betraying women
From benefits to crime, Keir is letting women down
Why the Conservatives will be anti-woke
Standing up to the thought police is key to making change
The horror of 7 October on film
The killers’ headset footage, CCTV, interviews with survivors and heart-rending last messages
Make high culture popular again
We need to face the music and embrace the highbrow
The Church of England has to rebuild trust
The next Archbishop must love this church back into health
The tragedy of Radio 3
The centenary “celebration” of the BBC Singers summed up everything that has gone wrong
The case for Jenrick
He can reform the party and take on Labour
