Features

Now is the time for the Tories to be borrowing more

16 November 2019 9:00 am

How should fiscal conservatism be defined? George Osborne inherited a fiscal deficit that was clearly unsustainable. During the panic over…

Be more carthorse: why we would all benefit from a little self-loathing

16 November 2019 9:00 am

Leaving the auditorium of the Royal Opera House last week after The Sleeping Beauty, I passed a woman taking selfie…

OK zoomer, is that really the best you’ve got?

16 November 2019 9:00 am

Every generation and teen subculture likes to put the boot into baby boomers like me. I’ve been physically attacked by…

The joy of rummaging through Gladstone’s annotated books

16 November 2019 9:00 am

Gladstone’s Library began as that most English of things: a great man’s visionary idea. William Gladstone, at the age of…

The mesmerising mediocrity of Trump’s opponents

9 November 2019 9:00 am

If you believe the headlines, President Donald Trump is in deep trouble. The great impeachment saga is gathering pace. House…

Hero or double agent? An encounter with Lech Walesa

9 November 2019 9:00 am

Lech Walesa is probably the most famous of all the thousands — actually millions — who struggled against the oppression…

‘Utterly betrayed’: Britain’s Jews are now politically homeless

9 November 2019 9:00 am

We Jews have evolved to be neurotic; so neurotic that, in certain circumstances, the Syrian border feels slightly safer than…

Franco’s exhumation could help decide the Spanish election

9 November 2019 9:00 am

I was no sooner in Madrid than General Franco was exhumed from his mausoleum not far from El Escorial. An…

George Eliot was much more radical than we give her credit for

9 November 2019 9:00 am

It’s easy to forget, as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of her birth, how radical George Eliot actually was. The…

The war heroes of Northolt Airport

9 November 2019 9:00 am

At 6.50 p.m. on 31 August 1997 a plane touched down at Northolt Airport. It was a lamentable and dismal…

General election 2019: can Boris Johnson succeed where Theresa May failed?

2 November 2019 9:00 am

This general election isn’t the most important in a generation, it is the most significant in the lifetime of anyone…

Election 2019: how the Tories plan to break Labour’s ‘red wall’

2 November 2019 9:00 am

Of all those fighting this general election, the Conservatives are the only ones who need a majority. Labour just needs…

The story behind Donald Trump’s fake withdrawal from Syria

2 November 2019 9:00 am

That noise you can hear is Donald Trump flip–flopping in the sand. Last week, American troops and dozens of tanks…

Maro Itoje is a national hero for our time

2 November 2019 9:00 am

Sport is a paradox. It’s supposed to be. Sport divides, but then again, sport unites. The England rugby union team…

The family that helped Maro Itoje become a sports star

2 November 2019 9:00 am

‘Education, education, education.’ At the time when Tony Blair was repeating this phrase after Labour’s victory in 1997, a Nigerian…

Children’s literature has become horribly right-on

2 November 2019 9:00 am

There was a spat the other week about a children’s book, Equal to Everything: Judge Brenda and the Supreme Court,…

Toxic regulations, not the fire brigade, are to blame for the Grenfell deaths

2 November 2019 9:00 am

It has been bizarre to hear the London Fire Brigade taking the brunt of the blame for the deaths of…

Rachel Johnson: everyone in my family is getting quince paste for Christmas

2 November 2019 9:00 am

Brrring! Freddy Gray of this parish is on the blower. ‘How about a piece for this week saying he’s won,…

The long death of South Africa’s political centre

2 November 2019 9:00 am

 Cape Town Last Sunday, when South Africa beat Wales to go through to the rugby World Cup final against England,…

The unlikely beauty of urinals

2 November 2019 9:00 am

In 1966, just as he was becoming famous, Michael Caine met John Wayne. The Holly-wood veteran offered him some advice:…

Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal has changed everything

26 October 2019 9:00 am

Ever since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister his opponents — both inside and outside his party — have been convinced…

Caroline Flint: why I’m backing this Brexit deal

26 October 2019 9:00 am

Nothing in Caroline Flint’s CV would have marked her out as someone who would end up marshalling 19 of her…

A Halloween short story: by The Woman in Black’s Susan Hill

26 October 2019 9:00 am

‘This is a true story…’ Right. Only this time, it really is. There are no wails, whistling winds or taps…

An ‘I’ for a ‘my’: why we’re terrified of getting our grammar wrong

26 October 2019 9:00 am

Jonathan Agnew recently described off-the-record interviews as those where you agree that it’s ‘between you and I’. Last month, Jess…

Bomb attacks are now a normal part of Swedish life

26 October 2019 9:00 am

 Stockholm One night last week, explosions took place in three different locations in and around Stockholm. There were no injuries…