Book Review
Turning a blind eye to a tilted playing field
Not only is it a page-turner, it’s also an essential manual for defending women’s sport
Satire, sci-fi and a sting in the tale
It’s time for our annual guide to the best new fiction of the year
Disagree with this author? Racist!
Andrews’ view of the world is a fringe sliver of what ethnic minorities think about Britain
Military history is set to repeat itself
In a recession-ridden Britain, another European war seemed unthinkable
A magnificent update — for good and ill
Only one with a slightly deranged confidence could ever have attempted it
Life versus learning: a battle of the titans
In their lives we find fiercely opposed poles of a culture that has profoundly shaped our world
Spilling the beans on the great spymasters
Fantasy is an essential part of what we are pleased to call reality
Restless zeal of the insomniac emperor
There is something uncanny about the story of Justinian
The Critic books of the year
Reading highlights from our editors and contributors
In praise of people’s parks
A civilising tradition has been sadly neglected
Most Read
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
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.
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
Will London fall?
If the Greens take London, what might happen to policing?
The truth about Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was actually a black woman
The EU’s immigration asymmetry
Ten years on, the EU still hasn’t learned Brexit’s hard lesson on migration
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is a masterclass in self-defeat
Labour’s tobacco crackdown will fuel crime, hurt retailers, and push smokers towards worse habits
Devolution has been a disaster
Wales, and the United Kingdom at large, are weaker for the devolution project
“Treatment” does not make child predators safe
People who abuse children must be kept away from children
Institutional feminism against women
The likes of Julia Gillard and Jess Phillips have enabled misogyny
Britain must call its exiles home
The nation cannot continue to lose its top talent
The pro-nature case for regulatory reform
England’s environmental regime hasn’t delivered a restoration of nature — only decline, delay, and bureaucracy
The government must end its war on the price mechanism
The government is stubbornly ignoring the harms and risks of its interventions into markets
Why do we still have social housing?
A decade working in Social Housing taught me that the sector’s perverse incentives guarantee the perpetuation of the very poverty it exists to eradicate