The Critics
A hellhole Noël
Stalag 17 followed by Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life is an ideal festive double-bill
Midnight’s mass
Taylor Swift’s talent for ordinariness that makes her the most exceptional artist at work today
Bragg shows what is possible
A show worth the licence fee by itself
Killer thrillers
The creators of Gangs of London could learn a lot from SAS Rogue Heroes
Women on the edge
A feminist frame that doesn’t fit
Norse mode
How John Gabriel Borkman is a hard Ibsen play to like
Inquest into the death of ENO
The cause of death, in this coroner’s verdict, is a prolonged failure to address reality
Wanted: patron of high culture
Someone save Radio 3
The YBAs in middle age
Where are the Young British Artists of Saatchi’s ‘Sensation’ now?
Insanity and death
Munch at the Musée D’Orsay
Most Read
Why they hated Ann Widdecombe
Fair-minded people could agree or disagree with her opinions. Left-wing bigots hated her for not abandoning them
Amnesty irrational
Gender identity ideologues cannot get away with baseless smears any more
A chaplain’s vindication
The case of Dr Bernard Randall has exposed the rot in our institutions
The myth of banned books
If transgression is fun and easy, it is probably not transgressive
The case against recognising Somaliland
The Somaliland lobby is being dangerously naive about the realities of the region
The problem with price freezes
Freezing prices is not half as simple (or cheap) as politicians often think
Should I buy Breaky Bottom?
England’ greatest vineyard is up for sale for the first time. Henry Jeffreys looks into whether it will make a good business proposition.
Bypassing the parasites
Too often, lawyers add little to business transactions except delays and questionable costs
We need to make a better case against Magic Monetary Theory
Simplistic rebuttals help MMT endure. We need better arguments
Pleasure and persuasion
Jean Sibelius: Symphonies 1-7 (Ondine)
A very American birthday party
n the USA’s divisive 250th birthday celebrations
The EU must change course on energy
European industry is finally standing up to irrational EU climate policies
Election objections
Andy Burnham doesn’t need a general election mandate
Like a homecoming
A haunted house
The third man
Bridget Phillipson’s “Code of Practice” has clarified nothing on sex and gender
Hippo critical
No Roman left a greater intellectual legacy than Augustine, whose writings shaped Christianity and the Western mind for more than a millennium