On Pop
Having a bad Bey
If you’re going to jettison the essence of the song, why even bother?
Justin’s dilemma
Spears got slutshamed; Timberlake was the stud
Rock as ritual
Just as Taylor has nailed the emotional lexicon of her people, Finn has nailed it for his
The curious case of the “Gaylor” affair
Whatever the framing, the sexuality is the story
Retro Rodrigo is primo
A new nostalgia listening to GUTS
Rock benediction
Make-Up gig is a matter of performance
Banned played on
The hit on Roisin Murphy’s ‘Hit Parade’
Be more Wham!
What men today can learn from the success of a 1980s pop duo.
Perfect, plastic, pop princesses
The performance art of selling sterile sex
Rap’s dilemma
Sarah Ditum unwraps the rap culture war.
Most Read
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.
The lonely death of Henry Nowak
We must draw lessons from a horrendous and disgraceful case
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
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
Welsh Labour is doomed
New scandals will speed up its decline into irrelevance
Soft-Play Britain
Britain’s governing class talks of growth and grandeur but focuses on planters and paint schemes
Will Spain become a Protestant country?
How immigration is changing the religious dynamics of a traditional Catholic stronghold
The case for compromise with Cuba
The strategic case for negotiating with Havana
The great American dream
Beware the lure of the vast US market
Britain must call its exiles home
The nation cannot continue to lose its top talent
Questionably loyal opposition
A “rainbow coalition” between Conservatives and the Greens raises questions about the state of the Tories
Left-wingers are wallowing in post-truth politics
Complaints about right-wing “fake news” have obscured the biggest misinformation problem
The EU is changing on immigration
A firmer stance is being taken — but will it be enough?
A case for Classics
Eager minds are being failed by a smug and short-sighted cultural establishment
Supernatural delight
Religion cannot be reduced to dry abstractions