Peter Rickets
Why we’re in the state we’re in
Woolly thinking, cloudy expression, and the possibility that great matters are at hand: two books by a pair of Foreign Office grandees
A race to the bottom
Women should not give legitimacy to an appalling platform
Lily Phillips is a Rorschach test
Experience and behaviour are not solely reducible to consent
The problem with petty scandals
They distract us from state failure and institutional decay
Kemi Badenoch’s “ming vase” must be shattered
The Conservative candidate should not be allowed to escape scrutiny
The failure of the Irish nerve
Politicians are not acting and the public are not forcing them to act
Complex fractions
Where is the joy and the reward of owning a fractional share in individual art?
Belle époque on a plate
The Goring offers a level of enchantment seldom found in the environs of Victoria Station
What’s wrong with the Human Rights Act?
It makes judges the arbiter of moral and political as well as legal decisions
Draining the swamp
Residents are hopeful that the mayor’s grip on Venice might at last be easing
More than one way to skin a cat
The thing about formulae is that they’re an aid, not a guide
Will Starmer’s immigration gambit backfire?
The prime minister might have opened a box that he cannot close
