Boris Johnson
Disunited kingdom – and all the better for it
Boris Johnson’s ‘one great indivisible United Kingdom’ is neither one, nor indivisible, nor united
Breaking the doom loop
If we don’t return to normal now, when can we?
The ghost of PMQs past
The biggest change to PMQs in sixty years is that the PM’s answers have got longer
Missing from the penalty spot
Boris Johnson fails the Mings test
Putting the Boot in…
David Cameron kept a copy of Evelyn Waugh’s peerless satire on his desk, but Boris Johnson’s eventful career is entirely in the Scoop mould
Charity remains at home
In cutting international aid, Tory MPs delude themselves into believing the prime minister
Pitch inversion
Boris Johnson may rue the day he gave a footballer a gong for something other than football
Is he bovvered?
Boris can do compassion. When he can be bothered.
The modern age in lists
Plain in view, huge and hateful, all disguise cast off
Boris and Saj go large
Covid cases are going back up – so, time to get the party started
Nino Rota: Chamber music (Alpha)
Norman Lebrecht gifts five stars for this “astonishing” revival of work from the late, great film composer, Nino Rota
Have queens enjoyed the same authority as kings?
Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the role of the queen in British and European history
Crake and ales
Patrick Galbraith hears a rare bird but fails with the rod
Uncertain times in Labour’s rugby league heartlands
The Labour Party and Rugby League have been central to the lives of working-class people in Batley for over a century. But for how much longer?
He won’t take the knee
Has Robert Peel been reincarnated as the Chief Constable for Manchester?
Broken eggs, no omelette
Baroness Williams believed until she died that comprehensive schools fostered equality. Her folly has only entrenched class privilege
McCain and Me
David Smith reminisces on his relationship with John McCain
Spring into a dress
Hannah Betts welcomes the new season by going “glasual”
Napoleon Bonaparte: A PR nightmare
On the bicentenary of his death, Napoleon Bonaparte remains a curiously stubborn rampart of cultural history in France and beyond
The decline of the quality press
Frequent hyperbole means the media would struggle to describe a genuine disaster