Sounding Board
Faith and free speech
The law on blasphemy is toxic: It protects free speech until you provoke others to use force.
More than just a figurehead
A new plan aims to strip the Archbishop of Canterbury of any real power or authority
Don’t appeal to our worst instincts
How many will talk themselves into asking for a parent’s early death if money is involved?
Now’s your time, House of Lords
The upper house must prove its worth by opposing the shabby Chagos Islands deal
In defence of hereditary peers
Starmer’s spiteful plan for the Lords breaks an important intergenerational contract
Turning shares into swords
The Church doesn’t invest in defence companies, but it prays you continue to do so
A misguided election briefing
The Church must recognise there are Christians on both the left and right of politics
Please remember, terrorism is evil
Worrying numbers of people romanticise the brutality of those perceived as “oppressed”
Existential questions
The Conservative Party has to come up with some compelling answers if it is to survive
The sacred and the profane
Allowing a “Rave in the Nave” in Canterbury Cathedral was a regrettable error of judgement
Most Read
The martyrdom of Young Bob
On ebbing power of the political influencer
Why has Keir Starmer been so unpopular?
He was the perfect embodiment of a failing system
Grooming gangs and the truth
We should not give ammunition to deniers of the grooming gangs scandal
How religion shapes football fandom
The meaning of football is intertwined with the meaning of faith
Babies need women
Leaving children with only men who are not their parents is foolish and dangerous
Are Reform the new Greens?
As the Green Party loses interest in rural matters, Richard Negus considers the claim that British agriculture and the countryside have a new champion
No, rent controls don’t work
Stop toying with failed ideas and build some damn houses
Confessions of an aging pop queen
Madonna once assured us that being an adult woman was something to aspire to
The limits of choice
Sometimes, we do know better than people who are harming themselves
Brexit was not an act of economic self-harm
Whatever you have heard, UK-EU trade is doing just fine
Fell for it again
Britain’s pro-development enthusiasts mistook fantasy politics for the real thing — and are now paying the price.
Our new five-party system
First-past-the-post no longer means
an electoral carve-up between the
Tories and Labour, allowing “fringe”
parties real political influence
Nowhere left to go
Labour is running out of cash, authority and time.
Fit for a queen
Hannah Betts reassesses the late Queen as a royal style maven
It is time for antidisestablishmentarianism
Church establishment is still worth fighting for
The costs of telling the truth too late
The girl guiding decision is causing pain — so why do activists seek to prolong it?