Rishi Sunak is demolishing the centre he once embodied
The Prime Minister has signalled that technocratic pragmatism has had its day. This is the return of politics.
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Justin Welby: “It’s better to be woke than asleep”
The Tories decry his interventions; others say he's too conservative. Can the Archbishop of Canterbury unite a fraying Church?
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Why Sam Bankman-Fried’s deluded world-view matters
His utilitarianism reflects the culture of Silicon Valley, which wields great power over how we relate to one another.
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The challenges and threats for Labour in the world to come
A patriotic and outward-looking Starmer government could rebuild Britain’s alliances and international standing.
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What if China invaded Taiwan?
Keir Starmer has said little about his approach to foreign policy. But if he wins the next election, his premiership…
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My dinner with Putin
Also this week: party conference dress codes and a troubled peace in the Balkans.
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The Tories are driving themselves to distraction
A commitment to the car is a commitment to economic precarity.
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Sharon Graham: “Labour is too cautious. It has been immobilised”
The general secretary of Unite reflects on a new era for workers.
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Among the believers
Labour gathers in Liverpool as a government-in-waiting. But can Keir Starmer negotiate the traps being set for him?
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Trapped in the AI echo chamber
Mustafa Suleyman and his fellow artificial intelligence cheerleaders now say their inventions could destroy us. Should we believe them?
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The return of the two Germanys
The country is in economic and political crisis and parties of the extreme left and right are rising again.
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A train line to nowhere
Rishi Sunak’s announcement that the northern leg of HS2 is to be cancelled combines farce with tragedy.
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Lydia Davis’s war on Amazon
The short-story writer on why the tech giant’s profit-seeking is corrupting culture.
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This England: Gargoyle wars
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain –…
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Ian Fleming, eternal adolescent
Nicholas Shakespeare’s biography reveals a boy more reminiscent of Peter Rabbit than James Bond.
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Anne Boleyn’s blunders
A new history shows how the clever, ambitious queen was no match for the post-truth politics of Henry VIII’s court.
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From Gordon Brown to Natalie Haynes: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring Family Meal by Bryan Washington and Pure Wit by Francesca Peacock.
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BBC’s Boiling Point knows the terror of the kitchen
This sequel to the Stephen Graham movie, a cooking ur-text, is tense and highly theatrical.
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Max Bennett’s Q&A: “When we follow advice, we adopt the wants of others”
The AI entrepreneur on Jim Carrey, Game of Thrones and his disdain for self-congratulatory LinkedIn posts.
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To turn or not to turn?
In his new book, the former New Statesman political editor identifies the defining moments when Britain changed.
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