Soft Power
Bulldozing Britain’s brand
A lament for the destruction of the magnificent British Embassy building in Bangkok
The fallacy of soft power
The world runs on cold national self interest, not cultural capital
Soft power has little substance
The foreign policy concept has been used as an excuse for declinist myth-making
Most Read
Gary Stevenson is wrong about wealth taxes
The popular economist is irritating, but more importantly he is mistaken
Tame Impala fails to impress
unconquered by a
taste of Crusader food
Why they hated Ann Widdecombe
Fair-minded people could agree or disagree with her opinions. Left-wing bigots hated her for not abandoning them
Ethnic minorities are abandoning Labour
It is not just Muslim voters who have been abandoning the Labour Party
How to fix the economy
A repentant ex-financial trader tells all
Homes for Ukraine — and everywhere else
Why were some non-Ukrainians far more likely to enter Britain under a scheme meant for Ukrainians?
The man who knew too little
Faced with Mandelson, Starmer offers a bold defence: he didn’t know, and that’s what makes him blameless
Publishing has an AI problem
From reviews to actual books, creativity is being outsourced to machines
Wilde times at the country house
Gerald Barry’s outrageous The Importance of Being Earnest manages to overmatch the virtuoso original
Taking the Sheen off
Shiny old lies remain the very bedrock of our trade
Angst, Nazis and forgotten treasure
Transcription / You Are the Führer’s Unrequited Love / For the Love of Willie
Fair vs free elections
The grey zone between interference and counter-interference is becoming Europe’s new political frontier
A very American birthday party
n the USA’s divisive 250th birthday celebrations
By the by-elections
Do not expect major surprises or lasting change as a result of the latest Scottish by-elections
The resistible centrism of Mark Gatiss
Why a centre-left worldview struggles to understand dissent
Angst in the Anglosphere
England’s existential crisis is being played out at the World Cup