British Politics
We deep dive at dawn
NEW: The Critic Sunday read — what biscuits were eaten at Chequers on Thursday
Clear them all out
Downing Street officials should be held to higher standards
On British chumocracy
Playing Six Degrees of Petronella Wyatt
What are historians for?
Contemporary commentary or timeless reflection?
Feelings don’t care about your facts
Politics is about emotions at least as much as about reason
The devolution delusion
Britain is stuck with the recycling of failed ideas
The miseries of Maugham
What is the Good Law Project accomplishing?
What happened to shame?
Our politicians could do with feeling worse about themselves
In praise of incivility
Je suis Nicola
The three circles of hell
Today’s glossy big-city party conferences are even more nightmarish than the traditional grim trips to run-down seaside resorts
When youth becomes period drama
The stakes feel very high when our younger years become the stuff of popular entertainment
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
A discordant song
Classical music may be the worst casualty of identitarian politics
Why the OBR is wrong about Brexit
The OBR’s Brexit analysis is based on flawed comparisons and unreasonable predictions
Miriam Cates is right about surrogacy
It is a fundamentally dishonest and exploitative practice
The Age of Twee
Line up and clap for the NHS, wankpuffin
Explaining the “gender pay gap”
It does not exist — or, at least, not as you might have thought
The court of hot air
We do not need human rights law to protect human rights or to maintain the rule of law
The war on noticing in modern Britain
How DEI initiatives and the worldview behind them dull people’s natural perceptiveness
Scratches in the stonework of history
A new history of graffiti and rebellion is less light and bawdy than one may have expected
