Opinion

Mitch Benn looks at anti-maskers, the Boris Johnson U-turn on isolating and more in his review of the week in politics Hello, and let me wish you all a belated Happy Freedom Day!  Yes, the day after which we are all now free to take one look at all our fellow citizens and decide immediately […]

Hand-wringing about the plight of migrants crossing the Channel and Mediterranean by boat - and angry words about their treatment - will only go so far. What would liberal progressives actually like to see done?

The fight against ‘woke’ carries with it echoes of their doomed battle to hold back gay rights. 

Reader letters: Trigger issues were critical in the 2016 EU referendum and US presidential votes.

Those who are grabbing their new-found freedom don’t deserve our criticism.  People rush to judgement very quickly. All it takes is for a crowd to congregate on a beach, or for young people to go clubbing, and a great puritanical curtain-twitching mania is unleashed on them. This week, Twitter is ablaze with sneering commentary about […]

The film festival defies the pandemic with plenty of touching, flesh and sex

Tim Walker reports on the latest revamp at Chequers

The home secretary was once a maverick outsider. She hasn’t changed, but the country has.

As disquiet grows, Boris Johnson may not hold the whip hand for much longer.

‘Thank you’ might seem an easy phrase to learn in a foreign language. But that is not always the case says PETER TRUDGILL Sometimes, when people are going to visit a country they have never been to before, they say they plan to learn a little of the language which is spoken there, but “just […]

Anton Chekhov transformed theatre. But many critics and audiences of his era were not so enamoured by the change, writes CHARLIE CONNELLY

The costs of Brexit continue to mount – and they dwarf what Boris Johnson has set aside for “levelling up” in the regions It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain, as the Brexit waste goes on and on without ever making sense – a bit like Boris Johnson’s speech […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on what we can expect from Boris Johnson's much-discussed and long-delayed book on William Shakespeare

The sovereignty promised in the EU referendum only benefits the Tory party

How can pop respond to politics? With this year’s album BRUT, Polish alt-pop star Brodka has provided an object lesson, writes SOPHIA DEBOICK

Tchéky Karyo’s fame reaches a whole new level appearing as Baptiste

The Russian defector’s fatal poisoning has been turned into an opera, approved by his widow, says KIRSTY LANG In the 15 years since Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned drinking tea in a central London hotel, there have been numerous books, film documentaries and a stage play inspired by his story. Now for the first time, there […]

The murder of its president in his own home is yet another chapter in Haiti’s miserable history, says RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL, who spent three years living in the extraordinarily tragic nation Within minutes of the news flash of the assassination of Haiti’s president Jovenel Moise last week, two things became clear about the killing: it […]

Novelist WILL SELF explains why tuning in to religious station Advent Radio has renewed his faith in the medium The local pharmacist – who I call the fundamentalcist for reasons that will soon become clear – has some sort of evangelical radio station playing over the shop’s PA system all day every day, such that I’m […]

Dotted along the north west coast of Africa, the residue of Spanish empire – two sizeable cities – lies at the heart of a summer of high tension Monte Hacho, the hill that rises above the Spanish city of Ceuta on the North African coast, is often cited as one of the Pillars of Hercules […]

Jason Solomons returns to the Croisette with movie reviews of Annette, Cow,  The Worst Person In The World, Everything Went Fine, The Souvenir Part II, Jane by Charlotte and more So much for the return of glamour. My Cannes started by spitting into a plastic tube in a makeshift Covid testing centre. Due to political […]

The shooting of a prominent Dutch crime reporter has prompted a national debate about the country’s reputation as the nexus of the continent’s illegal drugs trade.  Almost from the moment the last bullet tore into the Netherlands’ best-known crime reporter Peter R. de Vries on the evening of July 6, a peculiar debate erupted among […]

Former president Donald Trump’s lawsuit suing Google, Facebook and Twitter is as crazy as it sounds – but BONNIE GREER says he is still dangerous The latest lawsuit from former president Donald Trump is as stupid as you think it is. In brief: he is suing Google, Facebook and Twitter in what he calls a […]

It’s a decade since the demise of the News of the World and today’s toothless tabloids are a shadow of their former ferocious selves. Should we mourn or celebrate their decline? And could they have stopped Brexit?  They were the cheeky chappies, rumbustious and irreverent, saucier than a Donald McGill postcard; always game to poke […]

Alastair Campbell’s article on sado-populism has struck a chord with this reader

A reader explains how the EU referendum stripped him of his Britishness

MITCH BENN offers four good reasons to feel proud of England’s footballers and to look forward to the World Cup despite their Euro final defeat to Italy By the time you read this, several days will have passed since England’s defeat (on penalties, inevitably) at the Euros final on Sunday.  How are things going, up there […]

ROB HUGHES examines England’s near-miss at the Euros and finds that for all their advantages, a change of mindset is necessary at the top So near, and yet so far. England released itself from the European Union, but remain far from the world-beaters some fans imagine it is their birthright to be as the motherland of […]

Critics of the government’s re-opening strategy need more than just carping. They need to offer their own analysis

Editor-at-large ALASTAIR CAMPBELL on a concept that helps explain the politics of Boris Johnson

It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain as we learned exactly why “Liz Truss” rhymes with “mistrust”. While Brexit continues to deliver more empty shelves for consumers, more carnage to our food and fishing sectors and more chaos to the people of Northern Ireland, the eternal sunshine of our […]

One spectator sport this summer has been watching politicians try to tie their fortunes to the England team. Such efforts are as doomed to failure as, ultimately, Gareth Southgate’s team was.