Issue: January 2020
High notes go wrong
Flying is a macho thing for musicians. It shows they are in demand and living the good life
Schlock of the new
Those in charge are in thrall to vain provocateur directors
Actors do love gongs
Stars of the stage are more likely to feature in the Honours list than the people who write their scripts
Old Romeo’s Almanac
Our theater gossip columnist spills the beans on his fellow actors and gives us some predictions for the new year
To catch a thief
Is a super-rich collector having works stolen to order?
Mood musical
An interesting new West End show about young millennials has echoes of far older classics
Not drinking but drowning
Lisa Hilton sees Venice disappear beneath the flood waters again and fears for the future
Eat well, eat less
Ignore all those food fads, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Keeping it in the family
Christopher Pincher on Michael Fabricant and those who require vineyards to be family-owned
Party pieces
Thomas Woodham-Smith sees out the antique year
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
The roots of hatred
Antisemitism, an ancient subject, has once again become a hot topic
Failing to face the facts
The Tories’ rosy view of their recent election drubbing reveals a reluctance to have the tough intellectual debate needed to secure the party’s future
The government must curb its appetite for junk policy
The “junk food advertising ban” is indigestible nonsense
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?
Middle management in the Middle East
The war against Iran has emphasised the importance of deep leadership
Regulating the rogue degree factories
Do universities have the resources and the will to monitor what is happening in their name?
The NHS is no longer above question
People are finally, if grudgingly, waking up to its flaws
Britain and brutalism: listed, not loved
The visitor numbers and heritage status of the Southbank tell us nothing about what people actually want to look at
Britain will be worse without hereditary peers
The expulsion of the hereditaries is neither fair nor pragmatic
Restoration romps
Purcell, The Musical, OSO Arts Centre, Barnes
Cry sod Harry, England and St George
Why aren’t people proud to be English?