The Critics
Tapping into history
As soon as you enter Idagio.com you can kiss your working day goodbye
She’s not the messiah…
Watching Greta Thunberg and the hysterical devotion she arouses, I am reminded of Judaism’s best-known self-styled redeemer
A belly full of agitpropera
Opera really doesn’t need the help of activist directors when it comes to politics — it’s all there already
Non-nose job
In a free reworking of “Cyrano”, it takes pizzazz to rewrite French alexandrines in the manner of Eminem
The toughest role
The most successful modern actor-director, Clint Eastwood, rejects “the auteur crap”
Right-on cue
As usual, the Academy flagellates itself over insufficient African American Oscar contenders
Charlie’s cardboard feminists fall flat
Bad jokes, no chemisty, lame action: the snoozathon that’s not woke enough
Manners maketh answers
Rudeness does not make for good television
High notes go wrong
Flying is a macho thing for musicians. It shows they are in demand and living the good life
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
Gary Stevenson is wrong about wealth taxes
The popular economist is irritating, but more importantly he is mistaken
Solent mean
Solent PhD student frozen out after introducing Roger Scruton into seminar
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
Bonfire of the fallacies
Two opposing ideas about hard power and foreign policy — legalism and nihilism — are being exposed by the Trump
administration
London vs the rest of the country
The publishing industry should aim to be more provincial and less metropolitan
Cosmonaut thriller is absolutely stellar
Strong characters drive Star City forward in an increasingly paranoid hothouse of fear, betrayal and adultery
How to fix the economy
A repentant ex-financial trader tells all
Critical briefing: cuckooing
A hidden scourge has been plaguing British streets for too long
Dining in a different world
Transported by a restored institution
Two false dawns
Anger can furnish a movement with energy, but not with votes
New model Auntie
David Elstein spells out the big decisions that Matt Brittin, the BBC’s new director-general, needs to make very quickly in order to save the Corporation
Israel does not run U.S. foreign policy
There is nothing wrong with questioning foreign influence — but that influence has been overstated
Reform should not abandon free markets
Nigel Farage should stick to his liberal guns against the forces of collectivism
QAnon for centrist dads
Peter Chappell’s What If Reform Wins is less a political forecast than a Westminster panic attack in novel form