Today’s Edition – 12th May 2024
John Rentoul on the local elections and what Keir Starmer believes
Iain Martin speaks to John Rentoul about the consequences of the local elections, the Tory defections, Labour’s readiness for government and what Keir Starmer believes in.
John Rentoul on the local elections and what Keir Starmer believes
Iain Martin speaks to John Rentoul about the consequences of the local elections, the Tory defections, Labour’s readiness for government and what Keir Starmer believes in.
New battle for Kharkiv rages
Caitlin Allen
May 10, 2024
Ukraine’s second-largest city has become a key symbol of fierce Ukrainian resistance in the war.
Economic good news could be even better if we embraced an enterprise culture
The Editorial Board
May 10, 2024
Britain is firmly out of recession. But we shouldn’t settle for an economy that merely bumps along on the nursery slopes of positive GDP.
Swinney looks set to split with Sturgeon’s identity politics
Jenny Hjul
May 10, 2024
Nicola Sturgeon’s former deputy may be ideologically closer to Kate Forbes than he has let on in the past.
UK economy grows at fastest rate in two years
The Hound
May 10, 2024
This is a good news story, with one important caveat.
Gothic horror par excellence in Covent Garden
Gerald Malone
May 10, 2024
Gaslighting is the word of the moment and Donizetti’s Lucia is full of it.
Serbia and Hungary are Xi’s Trojan horses in Europe
Tim Marshall
May 10, 2024
Forget Xi in France. The Chinese president’s time in Eastern Europe was much more interesting.
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Columnists
R.F.K Jr. is a far bigger threat to Trump than Biden
David Waywell
May 9, 2024
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appears to be nothing like the rest of the Kennedy clan, who have come out en masse to disown him.
Olive oil crisis: why the price of one of life’s great elixirs is skyrocketing
Maggie Pagano
May 9, 2024
The price of a substance often nick-named “liquid gold” is catching up with the real stuff.
Protesting US students won’t get very far
Tim Marshall
May 3, 2024
Pro-Palestine students might win some minor concessions. But their demands for disinvestment from Israel will mostly fail.
The price of gutter politics
David Waywell
May 2, 2024
Mel Stride’s announcement of a crackdown on PIP was tone-deaf and could have unintended consequences.
Does the London Stock Exchange face a terminal doom loop?
Maggie Pagano
May 2, 2024
The exodus of companies from the LSE continues apace.
Columnists
The BBC four expose broadcaster’s gender bias
As a taxpayer-funded organisation, the beeb should be a standard bearer. When it comes to equal pay, the corporation is anything but.
Who (or what) is Jane Street?
It was Sam Bankman-Fried’s understanding of risk and odds that attracted the fabulously wealthy traders at Jane Street to him.
The problem is not just the SNP but the disaster of devolution
Devolution is the real cause of Scotland’s crumbling public services, fissiparous cultural divisions, stifled economy and voluntary abdication of hard-won freedoms.
Frank Field is proof that not all political careers end in failure
Not many backbenchers have found a place in the national consciousness without achieving high office.
Britain will have to spend much more than 2.5% of GDP on defence
The Prime Minister’s commitment to more spending on defence is welcome, but the international situation is so grave that it must be only a start.
How Green party dogma damaged Scotland
With a cohort of cranks finally dismissed, Scots can look forward to being once more a broad church.
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World
The world is more dangerous than we’ve ever known, warns Cameron
Caitlin Allen
May 10, 2024
David Cameron has called on NATO members to match the UK’s defence spending pledge.
John Swinney forms continuity cabinet with Forbes as deputy first minister
Max Mitchell
May 8, 2024
Appointing Forbes as his deputy is an attempt to heal a divided party.
It’s time for the UK to acknowledge the Armenian genocide
Sam Chandler
May 8, 2024
Britain’s unofficial policy of “soft denialism”, born of a desire not to upset Turkey, might be defended on the grounds of realpolitik. But it carries grave unintended consequences.
Zelensky assassination plot foiled by Ukraine’s security forces
The Hound
May 7, 2024
Two Ukrainian security personnel have been arrested.
John Swinney set to be first minister after Forbes’s support
Max Mitchell
May 2, 2024
Kate Forbes may have made a wise call given the gloomy election polls that predict a Labour resurgence in Scotland.
UK economy grows at fastest rate in two years
This is a good news story, with one important caveat.
Culture
Fire Shut Up in My Bones: jazz musician Blanchard has the opera gene too
Gerald Malone
May 3, 2024
The Met took a risk putting on an opera by a man with no track record in the medium. It paid off.
El Niño at the Met lacks the seriousness it deserves
Gerald Malone
April 26, 2024
The colourful and permanently frenetic performance was completely at odds with the intense gravitas of the subject.
Will Taylor Swift stand the test of time?
Patrick Barrow
April 19, 2024
Her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, is more a clever manipulation of the zeitgeist than a work of art.
This was a benchmark Madama Butterfly for our times
Gerald Malone
April 19, 2024
Floris Visser’s subtle eye for painstaking detail is a thing to behold.
Civil War feels suspiciously like non-fiction
David Waywell
April 18, 2024
Alex Garland’s dystopian new film
tries – and fails – to divorce itself from contemporary politics.
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