Michael Billington
The death of Theatre Criticism
The great critics always began before they were forty. Who are their equivalents today?
“Between you and me…”
Our theatre gossip columnist spills the beans on his fellow actors
Most Read
How religion shapes football fandom
The meaning of football is intertwined with the meaning of faith
Why has Keir Starmer been so unpopular?
He was the perfect embodiment of a failing system
Can Russell T Davies write “terfs”?
In Tip Toe, Russell T Davies is more nuanced than one might expect — much to the dismay of gender ideologues
Labour’s mercurial kingmaker
The eventful career of Josh Simons, the man who gave up his seat for Andy Burnham
The martyrdom of Young Bob
On ebbing power of the political influencer
I don’t trust the British state
British institutions simply are not functioning in the interests of the people they are meant to serve
Countryside counter-attack
A ban on trail hunting reveals a government more interested in cultural punishment than rural survival
Remembering 2020
It is important to remember what an irrational and hostile time it was
The pro-nature case for regulatory reform
England’s environmental regime hasn’t delivered a restoration of nature — only decline, delay, and bureaucracy
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
Fast out of the blocs
how to acquire an
art collection quickly
Publishing has an AI problem
From reviews to actual books, creativity is being outsourced to machines
Wunderbar wines
The love affair between British and German wine is an ancient one
The promises of politicians
We are surrounded by lies, euphemisms and deceit
Shining a light on the culture wars
Without the reintroduction of liberal ethical standards, the sacred purpose of academia cannot survive
The regressive feminism of “angry young women”
Gen Z’s radical vanguard have built their worldview on unprogressive foundations