Politics
Paving the road to hell
When presented with a 639-page doorstopper which includes 82 pages of closely-written sources, notes and index, most of us feel…
Delhi’s underbelly
India’s vast polluted capital, where brutality, corruption and ruthless self-seeking are endemic, could be the blueprint of the future, says Peter Parker
Death does not become us
Shortly after Bob Crow’s death was announced on Tuesday, Nigel Farage sent the following tweet: ‘Sad at the death of…
You shouldn’t lose your children for disagreeing with Boris Johnson
Do your children have a bleak and nihilistic view of the world? It’s hard to tell, really, when they spend…
The Labour party at prayer
Believe me, it’s not easy to be a Tory in today’s C of E
Myths of the modern-day pharoahs
Jonathan Rugman is foreign affairs correspondent for Channel 4 News.
The perils of partition
John Keay’s excellent new book on the modern history of South Asia plunges the reader head first into some wildly…
The curiosity in the cabinet
John Biffen was mentally ill. This is the outstanding revelation of Semi-Detached, a memoir which has been assembled from his…
The President and the muckrakers
Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era are well-worn subjects for both professional and amateur historians, so it’s pertinent to ask…
Ho, ho, oh no
In January 1976 New York’s late-lamented National Lampoon produced a bicentennial calendar as a contribution to the general rejoicing. For…
Why I’d never be a Tory princeling
Since I was a child, pretty much everybody I have ever met has asked me if I want to be…
Fragile China
For all its bombast and success, the Chinese Communist party faces a host of looming problems – and a big decision
Court chronicler for the coalition
There are two ways of being a political journalist. One is to stay on the outside and try to avoid…
Election time in Australia: Tony Abbott looks set to oust Labor’s Kevin Rudd
Sometimes only a cliché will do, especially when the subject is the Australian Labor party. Labor is holed beneath the…
World-weary world power
A year or so after the ‘liberation’ of Iraq, an unnamed senior Bush administration official (later revealed to be Karl…
Still a ticking timebomb
No book about Dr David Kelly could start anywhere other than at the end. Kelly is found, dead, in a…
Gillard and the Grange Hermitage
My Australian friend was in mourning over the removal of Julia Gillard, the country’s first female prime minister. She had…