Pet Shop Boys
Words and music
The bookish thrill of recognising the literary references of the pop artists you love
Calculated absurdity
I want to listen to music that sounds like the dumb hopefulness of being young that I once couldn’t wait to rid myself of, says Sarah Ditum
Anti-Christian persecution is an international problem
Britain should use its diplomatic influence to help
Donald Trump should not heed the call of foreign policy hawks
The world is not split neatly between good guys and bad guys
It is good to challenge kids
That which makes us anxious can also make us strong
Homes for heroes
MPs are committed public servants who need accomodation in London to do their job
An intelligent book on AI? Very nearly
The threat from AI comes from humans placing too much faith in complex but fallible systems
Roger Scruton’s naive nationalism
Cultural nationalism is an ill-fitting model for the modern nation state
Fiddling while Canterbury burns
The new proposals from the Archbishops’ Commission for Racial Justice are depressingly wrongheaded
Boris the Innocent
The Johnsonian lexicon has yet to incorporate the word “responsibility”
Draining the swamp
Residents are hopeful that the mayor’s grip on Venice might at last be easing
The war on women’s spaces
Roxanne Tickle’s legal triumph is nothing to giggle at