United Kingdom

It's been the most unsettling 18 months in most of our lives. In this exclusive three-part New European series, Oliver Burkeman asks us to take stock and consider what good can we take with us as we emerge from a period of largely unmitigated tragedy, sadness and crisis. Is it even possible that lockdown has a lasting positive legacy for us?

One party on its own can't save us from the Tories - it's time for a progressive alternative.

Images of Ian Botham with his bat aloft and the pageantry of the Royal Wedding have created a popular memory of 1981 as a summer of national pride for Britain. But the reality was quite different

Tim Walker reviews South Pacific at Chichester Festival Theatre and Be More Chill at Shaftesbury Theatre

A new exhibition shows how Bristol’s love of what used to be called graffiti art fuelled a global movement

Levelling up has become a government cliche. But that doesn’t mean we should dismiss the concept. SUNA ERDEM talks to enthusiast Lord Kerslake about the reality and necessity Does levelling up harm the south? Amid the soul-searching following the Tories’ shock by-election loss of leafy Chesham and Amersham, this issue was raised so much that […]

Bonnie Greer explains why the data held by the NHS makes it so attractive to US big pharma – and why Boris Johnson could use it for leverage in a trade deal Before I saw the video of Daniel Hannan, now Baron Hannan of Kingsclere and an advisor to the Board of Trade, disparaging the […]

PETER TRUDGILL on how one place name came to have two very different word associations Bethlehem is associated with the nativity of Christ, peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Bedlam is associated with the complete opposite: mad confusion and noisy uproar. It is something of a surprise to discover that they were originally the same word. […]

New Netflix series Workin’ Moms gets close to exploring some fascinating issues, but sticks to safer, more tedious territory My best friend is, in her public life, a remarkably accomplished person who worked in an underserved charity sector for years and went on to use that knowledge to create new academic courses on the subject. She’s got […]

Instead of watching England in the Euros, WILL SELF went walking around London… and noticed something interesting about his fellow football sceptics Errol over the park coaches local lads in football – most of them black British. He’s pretty successful, and has placed at least 20 over the past decade or so as juniors with […]

Mitch Benn looks at anti-maskers, the Boris Johnson U-turn on isolating and more in his review of the week in politics Hello, and let me wish you all a belated Happy Freedom Day!  Yes, the day after which we are all now free to take one look at all our fellow citizens and decide immediately […]

The fight against ‘woke’ carries with it echoes of their doomed battle to hold back gay rights. 

Those who are grabbing their new-found freedom don’t deserve our criticism.  People rush to judgement very quickly. All it takes is for a crowd to congregate on a beach, or for young people to go clubbing, and a great puritanical curtain-twitching mania is unleashed on them. This week, Twitter is ablaze with sneering commentary about […]

Tim Walker reports on the latest revamp at Chequers

The home secretary was once a maverick outsider. She hasn’t changed, but the country has.

As disquiet grows, Boris Johnson may not hold the whip hand for much longer.

‘Thank you’ might seem an easy phrase to learn in a foreign language. But that is not always the case says PETER TRUDGILL Sometimes, when people are going to visit a country they have never been to before, they say they plan to learn a little of the language which is spoken there, but “just […]

The costs of Brexit continue to mount – and they dwarf what Boris Johnson has set aside for “levelling up” in the regions It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain, as the Brexit waste goes on and on without ever making sense – a bit like Boris Johnson’s speech […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on what we can expect from Boris Johnson's much-discussed and long-delayed book on William Shakespeare

The sovereignty promised in the EU referendum only benefits the Tory party

Nina Hamnett's artistic career shone brilliantly and briefly, until overshadowed by her lifestyle. A new show restores the focus on her work

Tchéky Karyo’s fame reaches a whole new level appearing as Baptiste

The Russian defector’s fatal poisoning has been turned into an opera, approved by his widow, says KIRSTY LANG In the 15 years since Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned drinking tea in a central London hotel, there have been numerous books, film documentaries and a stage play inspired by his story. Now for the first time, there […]

TIM WALKER reviews a theatre production that held its own against the drama provided by the Three Lions

TIM WALKER on an ebullient show that creates an emotional occasion

Novelist WILL SELF explains why tuning in to religious station Advent Radio has renewed his faith in the medium The local pharmacist – who I call the fundamentalcist for reasons that will soon become clear – has some sort of evangelical radio station playing over the shop’s PA system all day every day, such that I’m […]

It’s a decade since the demise of the News of the World and today’s toothless tabloids are a shadow of their former ferocious selves. Should we mourn or celebrate their decline? And could they have stopped Brexit?  They were the cheeky chappies, rumbustious and irreverent, saucier than a Donald McGill postcard; always game to poke […]

Alastair Campbell’s article on sado-populism has struck a chord with this reader

A reader explains how the EU referendum stripped him of his Britishness

TIM WALKER's Mandrake column explores the prime minister's repetitive use of the word 'fantastic'.

MITCH BENN offers four good reasons to feel proud of England’s footballers and to look forward to the World Cup despite their Euro final defeat to Italy By the time you read this, several days will have passed since England’s defeat (on penalties, inevitably) at the Euros final on Sunday.  How are things going, up there […]

ROB HUGHES examines England’s near-miss at the Euros and finds that for all their advantages, a change of mindset is necessary at the top So near, and yet so far. England released itself from the European Union, but remain far from the world-beaters some fans imagine it is their birthright to be as the motherland of […]