Issue: December/January 2025
The golden age of criticism?
There are good reasons why serious writers no longer review in the national press
Parable of the talent
Was there ever a more dispiriting line-up of Scrooges than those offered to festive audiences in 2024?
We must resurrect the symphony
Or the orchestra will die with it
Feminist rehab for mean girl Mahler
You’d have thought the Head Muse of old Vienna had enough on her plate
Charli’s carefree bratitude
This is music for people who are tired of being careful
Art sales slump
Real world issues have quenched the post-COVID euphoria
It’s a M.A.D. world in Kubrick’s satire
A drama based around the shaky paradox of deterrence no longer feels like a dusty throwback
More than one way to skin a cat
The thing about formulae is that they’re an aid, not a guide
Tough women take on the bad guys
When it comes to spy dramas and domestic angst, less is very definitely more
All gone to look for America
The show is a mishmash, in need of some pruning and a sharper edge
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
Offence archaeology and the future of elections
We have to ignore the cheap and disingenuous politics of offence archaeology
The thin blue line must be thicker
The police are nothing without a presence in communities
Europe’s French nuclear shield?
With the NATO alliance under threat, will
Europe really trust President Macron’s
offer of a pan-EU nuclear deterrent?
On a wind and a prayer
Beggaring ourselves will not cool the rest of the planet’s weather
We must save the right to smoke
Liberals must not put down the sword against paternalism
Homage to Zaporizhia and Sumy
Horror continues in Ukraine — but the tide could be turning
Fond portrait of an odd couple
Two irascible, elderly artists and two beautiful younger women in unusual relationships
The old age elephant in the room
Does Andy Burnham seriously think that he can fix social care?
Leaving the ECHR would not make Britain like Russia
The case for opposing withdrawal is currently intellectually fatuous
The fog of facts
As elections approach, voters are forced to navigate a swamp of spin, distortion, and inaccessible data.
Slim down the university system to save it
It has become too bloated and too expensive