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What if Donald Trump was actually an elaborate piece of British performance art?
Either the “US presidential hopeful” is Tilda Swinton in a very convincing skin suit, or we’re all doomed. The year is 2017. As President Donald “worse than Voldemort” Trump steps up to the podium to...
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As borders close around Europe, refugees face a uncertain future
The village of Idomeni is just one example. People are quite literally dying as they wait to cross the unofficial border from Greece into the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Two days ago, a...
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Even Tory MPs are troubled by their party’s power grab
Since their victory, the Conservatives have introduced a battery of measures to weaken the opposition and reduce accountability. Immediately after the Conservatives achieved their unexpected but...
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“Crackers or crisps? That’s my opinion.” The Apprentice 2015 blog: series 11,...
The candidates make some disgusting foodstuffs. Again.WARNING: This blog is for people watching The Apprentice. Contains spoilers!Read up on episode 9 here. The candidates are carted off first thing...
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Rediscovering Alexander von Humboldt and his lifelong, Ulyssean quest for nature
Everyone from Darwin to Simón Bolívar considered the Prussian naturalist to be the foremost of his generation. In his day, Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) bestrode several important spheres of...
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The Returning Officer: Suffragettes VI
In 1909, Helen Fraser led a suffrage propaganda tour of Scotland. In 1909, Helen Fraser led a suffrage propaganda tour of Scotland. The speakers travelled in a caravan called “Curlew” (built by the...
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For the love of the bloody kings
We have been bidden lately to celebrate Henry V, “Harry of Monmouth”: patriot, soldier, trouncer of our one-time enemies the French. We have been bidden lately to celebrate Henry V, “Harry of...
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Why we fear terrorism more than climate change
We can respond to both threats with resolve and common purpose, without diminishing our traditions and values. In Paris, at the UN climate summit, there are armed police on every corner. President...
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From melodramas and monster movies: The Forbidden Room is a macabre lucky dip...
The movie operates on a Russian doll principle, with stories found nestling inside one another. Early cinema was nothing if not volatile. Those who viewed the medium as a corrupting and infernal...
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What not to buy for the cook who has everything
Even a lovingly crafted present wasn’t good enough for one correspondent, who bemoaned the way that Christmas had morphed into the “great middle-class home-made chutney exchange . . . Even in...
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The sad demise of Newsnight: how to save a sinking ship
The show’s expertise seems to be leaching away. Too often, its journalists end up telling me something I already know. Not to sound too pompous or anything, but . . . whither Newsnight? Is it dying,...
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A true scientific revolution: the triumph of mathematicians over philosophers
The moment it was accepted that Aristotle had not been right about everything was a crucial turning point in the history of science. The early-modern Scientific Revolution is still in some populist...
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Three little maids remade: Jonathan Miller’s Mikado at the ENO
This Mikado succeeds where every other version I’ve seen has failed, because it constantly reminds us that Gilbert and Sullivan were first and foremost creating a satire, not a musical comedy. In my...
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I visited Jimmy Savile at home in Leeds. He wore pointed pixie shoes and...
He spoke in patter, in a kind of spoken wallpaper. He exuded false modesty. I met Jimmy Savile in his penthouse flat on the sixth floor of an art deco-style block in Leeds. It overlooked Roundhay...
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Caryl Churchill’s Here We Go: Eight actors in search of an ending
As has come to be expected from late Churchill, Here We Go has a beautiful, quasi-musical structure. The Austrian writer Peter Handke, perennially mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in...
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Taming of the shrews: The Misogyny Book Club on BBC Radio 4
The whole staggering scene whittled down into a feeble little dribble of sexism. And absolutely no oppositional voice. Depressing sound of the week was The Misogyny Book Club (Tuesdays, 9.30am)....
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Commons Confidential: Knobbling Boris
Plus: has Nigel Farage fallen out with Ukip's paymaster?The thought of Boris Johnson freewheeling his way out of London’s City Hall has Tory tongues wagging: what job will David Cameron award his old...
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TTIP is a disaster for the Left. But Brexit would be worse
Without the European Union, the deals that Tory ministers would sign would be even worse, says Molly Scott Cato. Today the House of Commons will get an opportunity to debate the EU-US TTIP trade...
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How does Isis run cities?
How does Daesh manage the territory under its control? Isis (or Isil, or Daesh, or whatever we're calling it today) is best known as a radical Islamist terrorist organisation, responsible for massive...
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At last: a survival guide for rock’n’roll feminists
Carrie Brownstein of the riot grrrl pioneers Sleater-Kinney has written an artful and compelling memoir.“It almost succeeded,” writes Carrie Brownstein of a concert video blasted into uselessness by...
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