Clik here to view.
The true cost of cheap labour in the Bangladeshi textiles industry
Jeremy Seabrook's The Song of the Shirt goes beyond hand-wringing to create a nuanced portrait of cheap manufacturing. On 24 April 2013, an eight-storey commercial building called Rana Plaza in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The methods might be new, but the motives for government spying remain the same
The reason for spying on one’s own citizens remains the same: to make sure they are not saying or doing something that you would rather suppress; something that might not be line with your national...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can Labour MPs force Corbyn to bring back shadow cabinet elections?
It is not up to the parliamentary party whether the contests are reintroduced. Soon after Jeremy Corbyn became the frontrunner in the Labour leadership contest, it was reported that he intended to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
David Cameron: "Taking more and more refugees" is not the answer to the...
As the migrant crisis worsens, the Prime Minister refuses to allow desperate people into Britain, citing "peace" in the Middle East as his priority. David Cameron says "taking more and more refugees"...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Can power-sharing in Northern Ireland be saved?
Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson has called for David Cameron to suspend the devolved assembly after allegations that the IRA is armed and functioning once more. Northern Ireland’s descent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
No, Jeremy Corbyn is not antisemitic – but the left should be wary of who he...
The Labour MP's tendency to seek out unsavoury comrades is a symptom of an intellectual and political malady: the long-term ideological corruption of that part of the left in which he was formed.“The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why aren’t there more scientists in the National Portrait Gallery?
If the National Portrait Gallery celebrates the best of British achievements, there’s a vast area that is being overlooked. The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London is my favourite place to visit...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Evacuation Commemoration Day: a concert and a background
On Monday 7th September Gibraltar has a bank holiday to commemorate the evacuation during the war. There have been other celebrations during the year. As readers in the UK dry out their possessions...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Banishing safe seats, and other proposals to bridge the democratic divide
How to improve key areas of democracy. Labour’s election train is finally pulling into the station, with its new leader announced in just over a fortnight. However, a summer absorbed in the party’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
After so badly misjudging the leadership contest, how will the Blairites...
The left-winger's opponents are divided between conciliation and aggression. When Labour lost the general election in May, the party’s modernisers sensed an opportunity. Ed Miliband, one of the most...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Returning Officer: Tories
Several witnesses testified to Ennis’s amiable nature but the jury found him guilty. In March 1843, Richard Ennis, “of no settled place of residence”, was taken before the Kildare assizes and charged...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A crash course in financial crises, Britain’s missing voters and Prince...
Peter Wilby’s First Thoughts column. If August’s stock-market panic turns into a full-blown financial crisis – and, as I write, that seems possible but far from certain – it will be the sixth of my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
For Spanish Celts, sharing cider is a performance
Dry, cloudy and still, sidra is the drink of the Celts. The cheese-makers of Cabrales have no need to waste their time with bricks or planks: the moist caves that pit the hillsides of Asturias in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What can you do about Europe's refugee crisis?
The death of a three-year-old boy on a beach in Europe has stirred Britain's conscience. What can you do to help stop the deaths? The ongoing refugee crisis in the Mediterranean dominates this...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Why change isn't going to be easy in Cuba
There are signs that a new petite bourgeoisie is emerging in Havana. The first sign that change is afoot is the number of Cubans loafing around in the bars of Havana’s hotels. Until a few years ago,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Andrew Miller’s The Crossing is impressive – if puzzling
Miller's stories are beautiful, but I confess, they had me stumped. Unusually for a novelist, what interests Andrew Miller – who won the 2011 Costa Book Award with his sixth novel, Pure– is a lack of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A night out at the Punderdome 3000
Becca Rothfeld watches Brooklyn’s best punners battle it out with headline writers from the New York Post. Girls just want to have pun, so last week I headed to Punderdome 3000, an epic pun-making...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A tale of two Islingtons, nostalgia for the Nineties, and the slow decline of...
The journey from Tony Blair to Jeremy Corbyn is irresistible, providing as it does a tale of two Islingtons. Humble hacks like me are forever looking for a neat symmetry in events on which to hang a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Make your own weather forecast
Most of us don’t have to make crucial decisions based on the BBC’s weather forecast. On 23 August, the Met Office confirmed that it had lost its forecasting contract with the BBC – but will you miss...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The modern troubadours who walk the waves
New books by Simon Armitage and Patrick Barkham follow walks through the south of England. The etymology of “troubadour” is problematic: perhaps it comes through the Latin for song, or from the same...
View Article