It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. It was meant to be the announcement that trumpeted Liz Truss’s vision for Britain, cemented her position in Downing Street, and heralded a new era of boom-time growth. Instead, her Chancellor’s “mini-budget” took …
The self-help guru who conquered Brazil
Brazil has grown increasingly distant from its foreign clichés, those of samba and bossa nova, sensuous coastal cities, Catholicism, cordiality, and collectivism. The Brazil that has incubated Bolsonarism is a more individualistic one, in which evangelical Christianity, popular entrepreneurialism and …
Is this the end for Liz Truss?
“You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off,” the markets replied to one of the most fiscally expansionary speeches a Chancellor of the Exchequer has ever given to the House of Commons. Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng could …
The Trad case for Brutalism
Some architectural preservation groups have an easier task than others. Those campaigning on behalf of medieval churches or Jacobean country houses are in many ways pushing at an open door, given the general British affection for lovely old buildings. I …
The end of the culture of narcissism
How did political conversation, especially online, become so crazy? Blame fossil fuels.
When Christopher Lasch wrote The Culture of Narcissism in 1979, well into the post-war wealth boom that turbocharged the industrial era, he argued that narcissistic tendencies develop partially …
What Giorgia Meloni is hiding
“I am Giorgia. I am a woman, I am a mother, I am Italian, I am Christian.” A 2019 speech by the new Italian Prime Minister is doing the rounds on social media, and has Right-wingers throwing flowers at her …
What Western feminists can learn from Iran
Is this it? Could this, finally, be the end of the Islamic Republic of Iran? As huge crowds of women and men surge through the Iranian streets, burning hijabs and calling for “Death to Khamenei!”, is an impossible dream finally …
The last days of Jeremy Corbyn
As recently as a year ago, the hard Left had a pulse. They heckled Keir Starmer on the floor of the last conference, and they troubled his attempts to change Labour party rules. This year they didn’t even bother to …
Feudal overlords still rule the world
As far as “world order” is concerned, the future may resemble the pre-modern past. The characteristic political institution of modernity is the nation-state. But before the era of European nation-states was inaugurated in Westphalia in 1648, Europe and much of …
This England can’t be neutral
“Can you think of a novel that ever was written about the strictly contemporary scene?” George Orwell asked his friend Tosco Fyvel in April 1949. “It is very unlikely that any novel, i.e. worth reading, would ever be set back …
Giorgia Meloni is no radical
The international response to Giorgia Meloni’s (amply predicted) victory in Sunday’s Italian elections can be divided into two camps: those on the liberal Left fear that a centre-right Meloni-led government will plunge Italy into a Hungary-style “illiberal democracy”, while those …
What does Keir Starmer stand for?
Ever since he was elected Labour leader, Keir Starmer has been intent on disproving the first maxim of politics: you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. He secured his greatest triumph when party delegates belted out …
Russia’s 18th-century war
Every war must end, but no war need end quickly. Neither world war makes the top 10 in longevity. The nearest parallel to the Ukraine war is the Dutch War of Independence (1568–1648), fought between a smaller but more advanced …
Lucian Freud is finally exposed
In late 1940, the 18-year-old Lucian Freud sent a series of highly decorated letters to the renowned poet and critic Stephen Spender. The pair had become fast friends and, despite their 12-year age gap, would later become lovers. In their …
The EU is sleepwalking into anarchy
All eyes may be on the Italian election results this morning, but Europe’s got much bigger problems on its hands than the prospect of a Right-wing government. Winter is coming, and the catastrophic consequences of Europe’s self-imposed energy crisis are …