The IRA’s blank assassin
The Brighton bomb killed five people but failed to hit its target, Margaret Thatcher.
By Michael Burleigh
History
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History
Peter Tatchell: “Politics is bad today, but nothing like Bermondsey”
The human rights activist on what the violence and homophobia of the 1983 by-election teaches today’s left.
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The restoration of the coffeehouse
How a centuries-old institution can save today’s faltering social media culture.
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Ukraine’s problematic nationalist heroes
Kyiv’s lionisation of 20th-century nationalists linked to atrocities is alienating allies and playing into Russian propaganda.
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Why Vladimir Putin is beholden to Stalin’s legacy
The Russian president has embraced the Soviet cult of fear and control. His invasion of Ukraine is a colossal gamble…
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Why Rome had no culture wars
The clash between Caesar and Cato offers lessons for today, but also reveals the gulf between modern and classical thought.
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Nixon in China: the complicated legacy of a week that changed the world
Fifty years after the US president’s visit to Beijing heralded a new era of diplomacy, are divisions deepening again?
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From the NS archive: What is a prime minister?
31 March 1956: The nature of the PM’s role is a question that would require a pamphlet to answer.
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