Issue: July 2022
Amanda Scrimgeour: Glamour hound
Some people are born to rake over the coals of ancient scandals
Lamar’s lament
Good art doesn’t have to be politically correct
When Great Lives grates
Tales of lives lived well, or disgracefully, are always interesting, but what makes a good obit?
The fame game
Why has talking about books become the preserve of know-nothing celebrities?
The rise and fall of Sad White Men
Novels about middle class male malaise are now considered passé but they were once both groundbreaking and shocking
Fuck-you fuchsia
Getting the hots for don’t-mess-with-me hot pink
Uncommon entrance
Hector’s Common Entrance is looming
Spook and crook
Research and authenticity are at the centre of these two series
Serve up a symphony
Simplicity is best for a Glyndebourne picnic
There is an alternative
The Church should invest in parishes and ministry if it wants to reach a new audience
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 dog that failed to bark
Jeremy Corbyn hoped the local
elections would be a launch pad for
his new party. Instead, Your Party
has mostly been arguing with itself
Warm home, wrong decision
Ministers are once again choosing the most politically convenient response to rising energy costs, not the most effective one
Labour’s toxic medicine
The more they treat the symptoms of decline, the worse things get
Where is Britain’s vision?
Modern Britain has acquired a lack of national purpose, except for policies that are self-harming
Westminster is not Manchester
Andy Burnham would find being the PM a lot more difficult than being a mayor
The masses against the classicists?
Reflections on the virtues and vices of academic gatekeeping
Bonfire of the fallacies
Two opposing ideas about hard power and foreign policy — legalism and nihilism — are being exposed by the Trump
administration
Oldham, new problems
How changing demographics have reshaped culture and politics in Greater Manchester
Britain must call its exiles home
The nation cannot continue to lose its top talent
One year later
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, the gender argument is not going anywhere
The old age elephant in the room
Does Andy Burnham seriously think that he can fix social care?