Culture
Naughty but nice
Every six months or so opera surfaces from its undersea lair, like a Bond villain, to enter public consciousness — generally when it’s been naughty.
The art of attribution and the attribution of art
The older the work, the harder it is to be sure what it is or who it’s by. So how do the experts decide?
The Critic Interview: Gilbert and George
Michael Prodger meets the defiantly independent duo who back Brexit and resent the hostility of the art establishment towards them
The beauty of Brutalism
Durham’s concrete masterpiece needs love, not the wrecking ball
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
The Arctic circle: a game of ice and fire
The Arctic is fast becoming a hotspot for great power competition
Women should not have to apologise for their rights
There is nothing cruel about women wanting single-sex spaces
Chopping The Onion
It is neither brave nor clever to portray dissenting women as insane
Homes for Ukraine — and everywhere else
Why were some non-Ukrainians far more likely to enter Britain under a scheme meant for Ukrainians?
Our new five-party system
First-past-the-post no longer means
an electoral carve-up between the
Tories and Labour, allowing “fringe”
parties real political influence
Europe should defend itself
European states should invest more in their own defence, and the US should let them
Good news for the rule of law
Activists who break the law should not be able to appeal to their high-minded motives
Lost railway art
Art should matter in all its guises, above and below ground
