Issue: May 2021
The House of Lords
The Rump Parliament had the right idea in 1649 when it closed down the upper chamber as “useless”
May 2021: Letters to the Editor
Slaves and sources
A real taste of the sea
Forget hoary folk tales and savour plump herring at its best, says Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Perils of a cause célèbre
A patronising and draconian response to female genital mutilation risks victimising women who have already been abused
Riffing on the poetic tradition
William Poulos says that in his wisdom and readability, Llewelyn Morgan serves his subject well
Riotous isle of vanilla gangsters, lemurs and a DJ president
In his new book on Madagascar, John Gimlette tells of trouble in paradise
The fundamental truths of fiction
Kit Wilson says the slow atrophy of the English novel is contributing to a decline in empathy and the rise of tribalism, trolling and “stay in your lane” identity politics
Smart answers to clever questions
In the Know is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about the fascinating science of human intelligence
Conflicts of interest
Labour, like the Church, may never reconcile the different views of all its supporters
Julien Spirtle
Comeback Kid
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
A bore and a balm
Inferno: Behzod Abdurimov (Alpha Classics)
Rich portrait of a master poet
Auden, Peter Ackroyd
Britain’s next moral panic
Half a century after abandoning state-backed “treatments” for homosexuality, Britain risks replacing one coercive system with another
Critical briefing: home ownership headaches
Why more homes are not always good news for the ordinary buyer
Will we miss Mahmood?
Shabana Mahmood has been a voice of sanity in the Labour Party
Farewell to an intellectual giant
Patrick Nash pays tribute to the late
David Abulafia, fastidious champion of
Oxbridge’s academic standards
Cloaked Crusader
Richard I: valiant hero of Romance but also a perfidious, self-serving lord
No bullshit government
Tom Jones grills the shadow minister for
policy renewal about the plans of a
future Tory administration
Price caps and political pygmies
Britain’s capitalist command economy cannot let businesses be
One year later
Despite the Supreme Court ruling, the gender argument is not going anywhere
Remembering 2020
It is important to remember what an irrational and hostile time it was