Classic Music
Peers but not equals
Ferdinand Ries: Symphonies 1&2 (Ondine); Franz Clement: Solo violin works (Naxos)
Will Starmer suppress dissent?
The riots should not be an excuse for a broader assault on civil liberties
Oxford elects
Meet the denizens of Oxford’s disenchanted garden currently competing for the university’s top sinecure
Living the good life
The rising middle classes were decisive in shaping the late 19th century English town
A craven surrender
The handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius represents a mindless and unjust capitulation to a foreign power
A beguiling star who loved melodrama
Taylor’s hunger for money, flashy gizmos and flashier gewgaws found its echo in Burton’s need to forsake the classics
“Scottish visas” would double down on two failed ideas
The plan offers the worst of devolution and mass migration in one policy
In defence of the incredulous stare
To argue is to indulge in a practice, with all that this entails
Is Britain closed for business?
Stacks of extra administration will make it even harder for businesses to turn a profit
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
The magic of the original stubbornly refused to rise from the dead and save the movie from mediocrity