Opinion

Mitch Benn looks at another wild week in politics – including Joy Morrissey MP’s campaign to put portraits of the Queen everywhere, and the Matt Hancock affair PATRIOTISM TEST OF THE WEEK It’s been a terrific week for mandatory displays of fake patriotism, or indeed just another week of mandatory displays of fake patriotism if […]

He might seem to be unharmed by the scandals he presides over, but Boris Johnson’s position is more vulnerable than it looks. The fall will come, and it will be swift, brutal and comprehensive

What separates the Sackler Family from the Chambers Brothers, asks Will Self, as he ponders the differences between legal and illegal drug dealing One of my favourite cultural books – if such a broad category can be summoned into being, after all, aren’t all books in some sense, cultural? – is Land of Opportunity: One […]

British politics now exists in a moral vacuum. It cannot last

Italian boxer Primo Carnera’s extraordinary strength and size brought him fame and a sporting career, but not necessarily happiness As darkness fell over New York on New Year’s Eve 1929, Primo Carrera walked down the gangway of the SS Berengaria, stepped onto the quayside and wondered what the imminent decade held for him. Despite his […]

Sometimes brooding, sometimes brilliant, sometimes bludgeoning, Roberto Mancini’s remoulded Italy face a Euros date with destiny against Belgium European football is never complete without Italy. Sometimes brooding, sometimes brilliant, sometimes bludgeoning, Roberto Mancini’s remoulded Azzurri will on Friday aim to make Roberto Martinez’s Golden Generation of Belgium suffer and perhaps be suffocated in Munich. The […]

The small South American nation has produced two exceptional bandleaders from two different eras, who helped transform music in the UK Georgetown is 3,500 miles across the Atlantic from Britain, but it has exercised a huge influence on the music of the imperial mother country. This little city of low-rise colonial architecture, with the unspoilt jungle […]

Brexiteers promised mobile phone roaming charges would not return if we left the EU. It was just another lie It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain, where mobile phone users are discovering what Matt Hancock has already learned: Roaming can be costly. If UK tourists are ever allowed into […]

The effective slow disenfranchisement of the white working-class vote is Labour’s biggest problem in the Batley and Spen by-election

Muhammad Ali took part in some of history’s most memorable fights. One of his least remembered took place 45 years ago this week. It was certainly the most bizarre of his long career, and also one of the most consequential There are many ways to remember Muhammad Ali: cocky, young rapping poet; outspoken political and cultural icon; arguably […]

Mads Mikkelsen's drinking comedy Another Round is set for a Hollywood remake after winning the Oscar for Best International Film

GAVIN ESLER on the frustrations of political debate in an era where reason counts for little Recently an American reader sent an email to my website angrily denouncing a newspaper feature I had written. It was about gun control, or rather the lack of it. I’ll call him ‘John’ and he wrote: “I have lived in Texas for […]

The much-discussed culture war is being manufactured by the right, in order to obscure the real wounds in society The Remainers have been routed, the immigrants outed. Jeremy Corbyn has gone and Keir Starmer never really arrived. Everything should be wonderful in Great Borisland. But it isn’t, so who is to blame? The kraken wokes: […]

Five years on from Brexit, the issue is far from being “done”, despite promises from Boris Johnson.

The Chesham and Amersham by-election results show what can be achieved from tactical voting

With over 84% of Japan still waiting for their first jab, why are the Olympic Games being held there? Is the sporting world, and compliant politicians, playing fast and loose with the pandemic? The European football tournament across 11 countries, the Copa América in Brazil, the fast-approaching Tokyo Olympics, might all be seen as brave defiance […]

In the 1970s, Italian film-makers forgot spaghetti westerns and made Poliziotteschi – violent detective thrillers that echoed the likes of Dirty Harry.., and their own crisis at home Here is a hypothesis for you: if you’re looking for art that explains the mood of times past, you should look not at the acclaimed, serious-minded and […]

New columnist PETER BARRON is a former Newsnight editor turned tech executive, who has been renovating a barn near Fuentes de León in remote southern Extremadura. From there, he will be writing a regular diary on Spanish life, cuisine and culture A couple of years ago, we turned up for Corpus Christi wearing shorts. It was a […]

Françoise Hardy helped create French youth culture. Now, as she nears death, she is starting a new national debate about ageing and euthanasia Françoise Hardy’s son would like it to be known that his mother – a pillar and adornment of French pop music for almost 60 years – is still alive. A few days ago, Hardy, […]

Eighty years ago this week Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, launching the most decisive clash of the Second World War. JONATHAN DIMBLEBY, author of a new book on the campaign, explains what was at stake and the consequences we live with today Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union in the early hours of June 22, 1941, was the […]

John Blankenstein was back-page news when he took charge of England’s first match at the 1992 Euros – but it wasn’t his refereeing the newspapers were interested in… When England faced Denmark in their opening match of the 1992 Euros, many tabloid-reading fans knew as much about the referee as they did about the Danes. […]

Writers have long been drawn to islands. Few have managed to express – and satisfy – that yearning like Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomins  “If I could wish something good for someone, I would wish for them an island with no address.” When Tove Jansson wrote those words sitting in her Helsinki apartment in 1962, the tiny cottage on […]

The hunt for renegade soldier Jürgen Conings may have ended, but the country’s quest for answers goes on On Sunday a small-town Belgian mayor, out on a bike ride near the Dutch border, and a local hunter, did what hundreds of soldiers and police had been unable to achieve for more than a month. They found Jürgen Conings, the […]

On a trip to Batley ahead of its forthcoming by-election, ROBYN VINTER finds little enthusiasm for the Tories, as they eye up another piece of the Red Wall, but not much more for Labour either, as it faces a familiar foe

PETER TRUDGILL takes on the linguistic purists once again for their attachment to words’ ‘true’ meanings There are some pedantic people around who reckon that it is wrong to use the word aggravate to mean ‘irritate, vex’ or ‘annoy’ – as in “please stop doing that, it’s very aggravating!” This is probably the most common usage of the word […]

Has Marine Le Pen changed her politics, or is it that France has shifted to the right? Respectable France is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, again. In less than a year the country could have a far-right government. The fear is not new. The Le Pen family –Jean Marie and then more his user-friendly […]

The Lib Dems' by-election victory was morale-boosting for opponents of the government, but the most significant action is needed elsewhere

Attack adverts showing Green party candidate for chancellor Annalena Baerbock as Moses with a list of 10 commandments have caused uproar in Germany Readers of largely sober and serious German newspapers were met with some surprising content recently: Full-page adverts dominated by a photo of the Green Party candidate for chancellor, Annalena Baerbock, dressed as […]

Mitch Benn looks at Dido Harding's attempt to become chief executive of the NHS in another look back at the week in politics

The food industry is predicting a nightmare for British customers, with price rises and empty shelves caused by Brexit It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain as customers digest mixed news about Brexit’s impact on food. The downside is that your weekly shop is going to cost more; the […]

Will the loss of Simon Rattle be London’s musical gain? UK music critics have been gnashing their teeth at the news that Simon Rattle will leave the music directorship of the London Symphony Orchestra and beetle off to Bavaria. Heading to Germany to flee underfunding in the homeland is a tradition for money-conscious European musicians, […]

Marseille’s music is as self-assured as the city itself, says SOPHIA DEBOICK  Marseille is a proud and ambitious city. Founded by the Greeks around 600BC, France’s second city’s ancient origins have been no bar to striving for the modern, and it is known for its ground-breaking 20th and 21st century architecture. Le Corbusier’s revolutionary La […]