Italy
Renato and Me
David Smith recalls his association with Renato Curcio, the former leader of Italy’s ultra-left terrorist group the Red Brigades
Conte’s conundrum
How has Italy’s Giuseppe Conte defied the odds and become a consequential political figure in his own right?
Pleasures of the plague year
Lisa Hilton welcomes the locals back to Venice and enjoys a spicy nod to the city’s vibrant past
Altogether enough enjoyment
Venice after people
How united is Italy?
Professor Jeremy Black and Political Editor Graham Stewart discuss the strength of Italy’s national unity
Does peak infection sync with lockdown enforcement?
The lockdown logic’s basic arithmetic doesn’t add up
The Italian model
Did Chinese migrant labour in the fashion industry bring Covid-19 to Europe?
A paean to Spain and Italy during troubled times
On the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage I saw the delights of the countries most cruelly ransacked by Coronavirus
Not drinking but drowning
Lisa Hilton sees Venice disappear beneath the flood waters again and fears for the future
The false prophets of war and turmoil
All eight of Whatmore’s subjects would have been astounded by the
stability of the British state through the 19th century
Beheading a pigeon
For all its quirks, bushcraft offered valuable insights into modernity and tradition
Why we should question the charge of “Islamophobia”
Valid criticism of beliefs and behaviour should not be equated with hateful bigotry
Laugh to hide the tears
Rishi Sunak was desperate to appear on top form before the Liaison Committee
Don’t ban anti-Israel marches
Principled and pragmatic arguments for prohibition are weak
The establishment prefers distractions to solutions
Politicians discuss irrelevances rather than confronting the obvious
We are the cultural Norns
Here, at last, is a mind-expanding podcast that is the antidote to everything the wretched Arts Council stands for
Dumbing down the priesthood
Unless the Church reinstates rigorous college-based training for clerics, it will wither away
Don’t just do something, stand there!
Three new books resist the modern cult of busyness
Common prayer
Britain, and her monarchy, have a language fitted for times of joy and sorrow alike — so why does the Church of England make such poor use of our traditional liturgy?
Off with the fairies
Unsurprisingly, the most brilliant of all English music-theatre pieces are mostly overlooked
