Who will be Keir Starmer’s chief of staff?
Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.
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Rishi Sunak’s inflation promise is absurd – and the electorate will not forgive him
It is a political error to target an aspect of the economy the government cannot control.
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The war in Ukraine will go on for years – and so will its consequences for Britain
We need to change our thinking: this may become an unresolved global conflict of a kind we haven’t seen before.
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From Cariad Lloyd to Ayòbámi Adébáyò: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Tomorrow Perhaps the Future by Sarah Watling and Away From Beloved Lover by Dee Peyok.
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The hapless Mr Sunak
What the UK requires is a prime minister who can lead and inspire; what it has is a vacuous management…
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The end of the housing delusion
Britain is finally realising that its obsession with home ownership is built on a false promise. Is it time to…
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How the Tories lost the Rod Stewart generation
The musician’s on-air rant has given voters permission to acknowledge all the ways the state is falling apart around them.
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This England: Dad dancing
This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain –…
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The UK’s rubbish-dump mafia
Radio 4’s Buried tells the story of “the astonishing crime you likely haven’t heard of”.
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The myth of England’s “fair play” fetish
In sport and politics, the English boast that they always play by the rules – but history tells a different…
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Ghosts of the Cultural Revolution
Tania Branigan’s Red Memory shows how Xi Jinping’s China is erasing the violence and tyranny of Mao’s purges from history.
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During a meal at one of London’s finest restaurants, I put my life in mortal danger
By the time the sponge pudding arrived I was snapping my fingers at the risks and signed on the dotted…
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Francesca Stavrakopoulou Q&A: “In my field, people often talk about doom”
The biblical historian on the government’s cruelty and The Last Temptation of Christ.
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What does Rick Rubin actually do?
The star producer’s supremely vague manual on creativity does nothing to explain his craft.
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The irresistible romance and rituals of dinner parties
I could piece together a record of my life through the tables I’ve convened friends around.
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Edward Hopper’s city of still lives
How the painter stripped New York of its disorder to reveal its inhabitants’ solitude.
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Robert Kaplan’s tragic realism
Haunted by his misguided support for the Iraq War, the American writer turned to tragedy to understand the delusions of…
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Konstantin Kisin: “Being anti-woke isn’t making you happy”
The podcaster is the viral man of the moment. But does he really have anything to say?
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How The Last of Us turns the apocalypse into mindless entertainment
The latest show to profit from our obsession with dystopia reveals the limits of the genre.
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First Aid Kit: “We realised constant touring was not a good way to live”
Johanna and Klara Söderberg on making music as sisters, the side effects of ambition, and taking a break from live…
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