Issue: June 2025
A murky story of bioterrorism
Different bogus claims of the authorities left people confused to the point of ambivalence
Some composers are rightly obscure
There is a place for marginal composers — it’s on the margins
Cathy comes home
In Cathy Freeman were vested not just a nation’s hopes but its fears, guilt and shame, too
Giant is electrifying and unmissable
It is a play of nuance and three dimensions, not agitprop
The church and slavery: the facts
The Church of England’s self-flagellation over its supposed past investments in the slave trade is based on seriously flawed research
The reality shows aiming to raise racing’s profile
Racing’s leadership has cottoned on to the fact that jockeys are the key to marketing
Don’t kid yourselves, Team Kemi
The Tories’ flailing failure looks more like performance art than sound political strategy
France needs a hero
All nations have known long winless periods, but the French drought in Paris has felt very long
An unconvincing case for Israel
Murray always seem to frame the facts in a manner that is maximally sympathetic to Israel
Lessons of the conclave
Pope Leo XIV must resist the siren call of celebrity culture and follow his own faith
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 tyranny of memes
Modern would-be assassins are products of the internet
The chairwoman of the board
A story driven at a whip-crack pace, pulsing with manic energy and nail-biting
British comedy: a post-mortem
British comedy has become safe, stale and contrived
International Women’s Day is useless for women
IWD has become a celebration of evasion and irrationality
Are Reform the new Greens?
As the Green Party loses interest in rural matters, Richard Negus considers the claim that British agriculture and the countryside have a new champion
Grin and bear it
Carelessness and frivolity sabotage any attempt at a serious discussion
The underworld on the high street
Beneath the façade of everyday commerce, organised crime has quietly captured British high streets
Warm home, wrong decision
Ministers are once again choosing the most politically convenient response to rising energy costs, not the most effective one
Givers and takers
Britain needs a fairer and more moral economic system
Where are all the ambitious Scots?
Whole sectors were once dominated by Caledonian migrants
Britain needs the Med mindset
We have to adapt to the sweatier realities of a changing climate