Corruption
Punks vs. Putin
What makes for meaningful political protest? In regimes where ideology was taken seriously (such as the Soviet Union or America…
Disgusted of London - A.L. Kennedy's Serious Sweet reviewed
Twenty-four long hours, two lonely people, one city in decline. This is the premise of A.L. Kennedy’s new novel Serious…
Kathmandu — or don’t
Although Nepal’s earthquake last April visited our television screens with images of seismic devastation, the disaster has probably had little…
A senile Putin becomes a parody of his own parody
The decrepitude of old age is a piteous sight and subject. In his second book Michael Honig — a doctor-turned-novelist…
Charles Moore’s Notes: Who’d be a diplomat now?
The other day, a friend told me, he had been chatting to an old friend of his who has spent…
It’s not just the Russians – there is no morality in top-level sport
Why do transgendered people need separate toilets? I thought, according to the prevalent orthodoxy, that the new gender they had…
Islamic State is making its threats a reality
Isis could be on the brink of creating a terrifying new world order
Seb Coe is a fine man... who deserves to feel uncomfortable
So Smiley was right all along: the bloody Russians were the baddest of the bad. The Pound report on the…
The greatest surprise about Nigeria at 100 is that it exists at all
A giant was born in 1914, an African giant. The same year European powers set about each other in the…
R.W. Johnson: 40-odd years prophesying the end for South Africa
I think this should begin with a truth-in-journalism disclosure: I know R.W. Johnson well enough to call him Bill. Since…
The last Europe vote, 40 years on
Forty years on The forthcoming EU referendum has rekindled memories of the in-out Common Market referendum of 1975. But it…
Pliny the Younger on Fifa
In any huge enterprise (like Fifa), where does the rot begin? Pliny the Younger mused on this question in a…
The low sculduggery of high Victorian finance
The whole idea of capitalism, according to Enlightenment philosophers, was that it created a positive spiral of moral behaviour. ‘Concern…
Good time girls: Italian women prefer sunglasses to babies, according to Nicholas Farrell
Like so many Britons who chased the dream and woke up in Italy I have contemplated writing a book about…
Only capitalism can save Nigeria
Is West Africa's powerhouse headed for a boom - or a coup?
An ancient Olympic tradition that Fifa would love
Those nice people at Fifa seem to be having a terrible time from the British press, which never stops accusing…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said: ‘Red warning lights are once again flashing on the dashboard of the global…
When jockeys earn so little, temptation is not surprising
While Mrs Oakley was patrolling the aisles in Waitrose one day recently, I slipped off into my local betting shop.…
Did anyone really think that Qatar won the World Cup fairly?
I suppose the appalling shock to the soul that was occasioned by the allegation that Qatar bribed its way to…
Lawlessness, corruption, poverty and pollution: the city where we're all headed
India’s vast polluted capital, where brutality, corruption and ruthless self-seeking are endemic, could be the blueprint of the future, says Peter Parker
Rod Liddle: The truths you can't tell in today's Britain
There are many truths that cannot be uttered in modern Britain
