Issue: December/January 2024
When Irish eyes aren’t smiling
Irish Gothic and Noel Coward romance on the stage, and remembering actress Hayden Gywnne
The Plot thins
Everything Dorries encounters proves how right she is
Bruckner: Anton … and on
Bruckner and the German soul
Saving Gaza with a Queer intifada
Saving the world with slam poetry
Napoleon sold short
On Ridley Scott’s Napoleon and the challenge of biopics
Whitehall in the thick of it
The Civil Service’s utter determination not to do anything ministers ask of it makes the Government’s work tricky
Sweden’s failed liberal project
Why does a country once regarded as a model of moderation and progressiveness now have the highest level of gun violence in Europe?
Silent night
The agony of global Christianity goes unheard in the West
Dave lords it
Red Meat Rishi is looking forward to Christmas
Most Read
The Book of JO’B
James O’Brien’s aggressive incuriosity is becoming ever more embattled as his worldview crumbles
I don’t trust the British state
British institutions simply are not functioning in the interests of the people they are meant to serve
The rise and fall of Nicola Sturgeon
The former SNP leader squandered her talents in a classic tale of hubris
Nigel Farage, community leader
The logic of multiculturalism is turning on its architects
The screaming spires
Oxford University must clarify where it stands on academic freedom
Peston’s Inbox
Farage: I’m not worried
The third man
Bridget Phillipson’s “Code of Practice” has clarified nothing on sex and gender
Europe should defend itself
European states should invest more in their own defence, and the US should let them
Warm home, wrong decision
Ministers are once again choosing the most politically convenient response to rising energy costs, not the most effective one
All the single ladies
Instead of trying to persuade reluctant women into motherhood, policymakers should focus on helping enthusiastic parents have larger families
Bonfire of the fallacies
Two opposing ideas about hard power and foreign policy — legalism and nihilism — are being exposed by the Trump
administration
The man who knew too little
Faced with Mandelson, Starmer offers a bold defence: he didn’t know, and that’s what makes him blameless
The problem with prohibiting political dishonesty
It will be used to stifle freedom and not just to curb mistruths
The BBC needs competition
The scandal-ridden Beeb is doomed if it is not held to higher standards
Giles Treadwell
Old-style literary agent
Schrödinger’s schism
The Anglican Communion, for all of its internal disagreements, has yet to fall apart