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The Tories’ embrace of China has created a new divide in British politics
In future years, we will speak of Sinophiles and Sinophobes as we do now of Europhiles and Europhobes. When George Osborne toured China last month, few appreciated how British foreign policy had been...
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How worried should Labour be about the Oldham West and Royton by-election?
Labour's Ukip problem - which cost the party seats under Ed Miliband - shows no sign of going away. The death of Michael Meacher means that the first electoral battle of the Jeremy Corbyn era will...
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The Returning Officer: Winchester II
In 1929, Frances Louise Josephy contested Winchester for the Liberals and finished third. In 1929, Frances Louise Josephy contested Winchester for the Liberals and finished third. She was the last...
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Civil disobedience may be the bravest option for feminists but it’s not...
“When you’ve tried everything you can, what else can you do but demand freedom?” The Marie Stopes office in Belfast has no sign outside but I knew I was in the right place. In front of the building,...
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Strategy is dependent on context and England’s rugby coach was fighting the...
Team culture can’t be reasoned away. Which came first, the winning or the attitude? This is sport’s version of “the chicken or the egg?”. The vivid subplot of this year’s Rugby World Cup is the...
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Lessons from a digital rat brain
There is nothing mysterious or miraculous about the brain. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a huge step. Painstaking analysis of a small part of the brain of a juvenile rat has enabled scientists...
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The life of a colonial poet
Paintings of Thomas Pringle show a pale, elfin man with large eyes. What they don’t show is his soulfulness – and pluck. Thomas Pringle isn’t talked about any more, one of those wayside curiosities...
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Visiting Lotte on Minecraft
Everything changed when my eight-year-old daughter, Lotte, discovered Minecraft. I have long avoided video games. I lost a good part of my youth to a ZX Spectrum. When I was in my twenties I bought...
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Jem Finer of the Pogues: a millennium in music
What makes a piece of music timeless? What makes a piece of music timeless? As a founding member of the Pogues, Jem Finer was responsible for co-writing a lasting Christmas anthem, the rousing and...
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Power to the patients
Patients are about to gain unprecedented control over their health and data, which will have a profound impact on them, their well-being and the professionals who care for them. THE SURGEON’S epiphany...
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Leader: China and the new mercantilism
Britain’s openness to world markets has direct social and economic costs, as the crisis in Britain's steel industry shows. The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, was welcomed lavishly and deferentially to...
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Commons confidential: Ashcroft, absent
Man of mystery Michael Ashcroft’s dramatic announcement that he’d cheated death was worthy of James Bond’s nemesis Blofeld. That man of mystery Michael Ashcroft’s dramatic announcement that he’d...
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Out with the old: the ghost homes of Japan
Japan’s shrinking population has produced a different kind of housing problem. I recently visited Aizuwakamatsu, a rural rice-farming region in northern Japan. The scenery was storybook Asia:...
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Shoreditch or soldiers? The Last Kingdom's bearded denizens are unexpectedly...
Uhtred doesn’t know if he fancies shepherd’s pie or gravadlax. For some reason, I'm in thrall. Crikey, what’s this? A load of hipsters in particularly urgent need of a flat white? No. It’s an army of...
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Awards are a serious business – as my garden gnome reminds me
I still have it, in a box in a cupboard at home – a six-inch garden gnome holding a tiny placard bearing my name. For years after leaving university I always read books with a pencil in one hand,...
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How to tape an opera: recording Orphée et Eurydice
Capturing live opera demands more than a series of mikes attached to the lapels of singers and someone pressing Record.“Any mention of the gold lamé trouser suit and the boobs?” I’m in the basement of...
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The Women’s Equality Party is right – free childcare should be available to all
This proposal sends the message that care work isn’t just a private matter; it’s an equality issue, and one with which we all need to engage. The first UK Women’s Liberation Movement Conference took...
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Kettles are leaking WiFi passwords (and other failures of the Internet of...
Whether we're willing to risk our data for the sake of a fancy kitchen utensil may well be a turning point in the story of internet privacy. The rise of the "internet of things" (basically, objects...
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The Black Panthers documentary irons out the wrinkles of history
Stanley Nelson's new film doesn’t shake our suspicion that the stories being told have calcified into legend. Plus: Fresh Dressed. The Black Panthers have been the subject of one passable dramatised...
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Why George Osborne feels "comfortable" about his tax credits decision
The Tories feel unthreatened by Labour and believe they can ride out any unpopularity. The most revealing moment of George Osborne's appearance before the Treasury select committee came when he...
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