Issue: December/January 2025
Crisis of leadership
No Tory can seriously expect conservatism from Kemi Badenoch
The party that fell for a lie
The WEP is unable to give a straight answer to the question: what is a woman?
Choosing enemies wisely
China manifestly wishes to avenge her past humiliation at Western hands
An artist at the assizes
Cyril Hare was that rara avis: a circuit judge who could write like an angel
Toasting a maestro
Stranded passengers emerged bewildered into the night of the living dead
Peston’s inbox
Kemi wants a correction, and Keir could appear on celebrity TV
When real Rivals fought over TV
The hit adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s novel reflects the ITV franchise battles
Don’t appeal to our worst instincts
How many will talk themselves into asking for a parent’s early death if money is involved?
How the right went wrong
An ill-fated leadership campaign
Max Grubb
Resentful Academic
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
A failed war on fags
The black market has taken over the tobacco trade Down Under
Time for change?
A new book might overstate the durability of Trumpian politics
An uneasy peace amid the ruins
Four million citizens of Damascus remain uncertain of what the future will bring
The forlorn hope of growth
Voters are struggling economically but wrongly believe the country to be rich
Why do we hate industry?
Performative laissez-faire has been a failure. It’s time for a new policy
The malicious and the mad
Two recent productions offer two different perspectives on dark sides of masculinity
Surrogacy is not a human right
Noble principles are being twisted to prop up an exploitative ideology
Exile and exaltation
Bohuslav Martinu: The Symphonies (Deutsche Grammophon)
Ring engagement
The Mash meets The Ring!
Not exiles, but stayers
White South Africans are not abandoning their home
There is nothing authentic about Andy Burnham
The blokeish Labour man is as slimy a politician as the rest of them
On a winning streak
Eventually streaks end, but it does not have to be The End