Leader: The crisis of liberalism
Liberal democracy must stand for more than the people’s will, but mainstream politicians have a duty not only to…
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England’s revenge
Theresa May’s “hard Brexit” will be softer than it looks
The Prime Minister's first duty was to reassure Leavers. But compromises are to come.
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Donald Trump is a giant fatberg blocking the political sewer – but holding our noses will not help
Trump is one, Nigel Farage is another: introducing the fatberg politician.
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The new Beatles documentary almost made me like the band I’ve loved to hate
It felt rude and fun to reject the Beatles – like laughing at businessmen in bowler hats. But after…
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Liberalism and capitalism have hollowed out society – so where do we turn now?
John Milbank and Adrian Pabst's new book explores the "post-Liberal" moment, but leaves me wondering about the future.
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Patrick Marber’s dynamic revival of Tom Stoppard’s Travesties is anything but one
A misremembered anecdote about James Joyce is at the centre of this wittily-revived play.
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The cult of Wetherspoons: why does the pub chain inspire such devotion?
Despite an estimated four pubs closing every day, Wetherspoons continues to thrive. I spoke to the man who – literally –…
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Commons confidential: Brexit fumbles, Boris mumbles – and what really happened with the whips
“Would any of you, ahem, chaps like to, ahem, contribute to a new royal yacht?”
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With private schooling, Shami Chakrabarti is buying further advantage for her child
The week in media, from the pound plummet to the Guardian’s mea culpa and my Trump nightmare.
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Could the Tory party in the country be infiltrated the same way Labour has been?
My week, including an anticlimactic party conference, my 60th wedding anniversary and the curse of “social media”.
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Corbynsceptics watch out: Nick Brown is coming for you
As a whip in the Blair and Brown governments, he was known for being a problem-solver. But can he…
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Why I didn’t get my mother a cat, in the end
A cat isn’t much of a substitute for a husband – but it’s better than nothing, and furrier.
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To everything, there is a season – as Wayne Rooney is discovering
I’ve long felt that he should have gone abroad five years ago, forced himself into a new life, a…
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Amanda Knox’s crime was to be young, pretty, and female
Knox had the bad luck to be a photogenic young woman who had once bought condoms – so it was…
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Why I want to tell the Beach Boys to get over themselves
Brian Wilson and Mike Love of the Beach Boys have both published new memoirs. The problem? They take themselves preposterously…
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From Bennite to Blairite, Chris Mullin takes us inside Labour’s struggles
Hinterland is just as enjoyable as Mullin's diaries. More importantly, its account of the party has urgent lessons for today.
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Fantastic realism: how Ken Loach and Andrea Arnold create 21st century fairy tales
New films American Honey and I, Daniel Blake show society’s “left behind” with grit, wit and a touch of the absurd.
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Good things come in small batches – just take the Truman Brewery
In the 1910s, deliveries of London’s finest beers were made by horse and cart. Now, in Hackney Wick, breweries…
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Why Do Not Say We Have Nothing should win the Man Booker
Madeleine Thien’s novel of music and silence during China's Cultural Revolution reveals the importance of storytelling.
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His Bloody Project challenges our snobbery about genre fiction
Graeme Macrae Burnet’s Booker-shortlisted historical thriller has shades of Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Jim Crace.
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Hearing an actual answer on Any Answers? wasn’t as welcome as you’d think
Rad, who is now in the UK but is from a family of medics in Aleppo, had something that…
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Caught in the LA riots, holding a brand-new VCR, my wife tried to call a cab
“Lady,” they said, laughing incredulously, “ain’t no cab gonna come around here.”
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With the Greek summer at an end, the refugee crisis is just beginning
Refugee camps are battling floods – and even arson. With each passing day, the chances of a fatal incident increase.
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A knot in the purse strings: where the European monetary union went wrong
Joseph Stiglitz's new book The Euro: and Its Threat to the Future of Europe shows up faults in the design,…
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Think 2016 is the worst year ever? Not by a long shot
Those who discern a curse of 2016 have little trouble in citing incidents of global terror, war, famine, the…
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This week, the left finally defeated free market ideology
Theresa May now acknowledges government is a force for good.
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