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Britain is doing good work for refugees in the camps - but it needs to do...
Refugee children are increasingly being forgotten once they arrive on the continent. When I visited Turkey’s border with Syria in September, a refugee mother begged me to take her child from her. As...
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We know what we got wrong. If we’re to learn the right lessons we need to ask...
Spencer Livermore, an adviser to Ed Miliband, on what they got wrong - and what Jeremy Corbyn needs to get right This week’s publication of Margaret Beckett’s report into Labour’s 2015 election defeat...
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The missing word in the Beckett Report: nationalism
Labour is still a world away from understanding what happened to it in England or Scotland, warns John Denham. By common consent, Margaret Beckett worked hard to produce a balanced account of Labour’s...
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Chuka Umunna warns Labour is "shedding" ethnic minority votes to the Tories
Former shadow business secretary says his party has "not a hope in hell" of winning if it continues to lose BME voters. Ethnic minority voters have long been one of Labour's greatest electoral...
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From polyfilla to chicken curry: my most disgusting meals ever
Some people shudder at the thought of jellied eels, or blanch if an oyster approaches. Not I. I do feel some commitment to public service and since, statistically, one in four people reading this will...
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If you were told you had only a few months to live, what would you do?
One of the most humbling experiences of my career was witnessing the quiet dignity with which Ian forgave Carol. Carol had survived metastatic breast cancer for seven years – far longer than many....
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Under the hammer and sickle: David Aaronovitch’s Party Animals
How much of David Aaronovitch’s choleric anger at the left, his determination to establish the essentially self-deceiving nature of British socialism, is to do with his parents? Anyone brought up in a...
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The pleasures of being a dedicated follower of football fashion
What do players wear on the pitch? Trends seem to come and go. I was showing a friend my treasures, which I always do when it is their first time to my house. I have a set pattern, a guided tour of my...
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How middle class are Labour’s new members?
Are those who joined for Jeremy Corbyn more or less affluent than the party’s previous membership base? Labour’s influx of new members is overwhelmingly middle-class, according to MPs and leaked party...
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The absolute redundancy of the human being troubles me
It’s clearly bothering Philip Pullman, too. Well, I made it to the bank. It would appear I have won one victory: they’ve dropped the Muzak. I have had few victories in this life so I might as well...
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Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth: How Germany’s exiled intellectuals ended up on...
In choosing to take up this story in the summer of 1936, Weidermann finds a moment of relative calm and normality in the émigrés’ lives. On 3 July 1936, a Czechoslovakian Jewish journalist named...
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Marie Kondo is more than a tidying guru – she has perfected a radical theory...
Kondo's mindful consumerism condemns meaningless piles of clutter, but also celebrates the joy material things can bring At a lecture hall in central London, a Japanese woman dressed in white and...
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Google's deal with the government shows where power really lies
Corporations should be taxed fairly and tax revenue invested according to democratically determined priorities not the whims and preferences of internet oligarchs. All politicians need an occasional...
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How Zayn Malik is challenging power dynamics with a retweet
Sharing fanart can be a radical act. Sometimes small, personal acts have the potential to be radical: from selfie-taking, to eating whatever you like, to wearing clothes not designed for your gender....
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Steven Moffat has produced some great Doctor Who. So how did he become so hated?
The self-deprecation paradox. The only time I ever met Steven Moffat, he made me feel stupid. This wasn't a recent occurrence, to be clear: I wasn't meeting Steven Moffat, the BBC's biggest hate...
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Cecil Parkinson dies at 84
The former Conservative Cabinet minister was once spoken of as a possible successor to Margaret Thatcher - but scandal ruined his hopes. Lord Parkinson, who as Cecil Parkinson was one of Margaret...
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Pensioners deserve honesty from the government
Clarity is the least that our nation's elderly deserve. Pensions have dominated the front pages of our newspapers over the last few weeks with completely mixed messages, even when reporting on the...
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SRSLY #28: Bears and Bio-pecs
On the pop culture podcast this week, we discuss important men biopics (pecs?!) The Revenant and The Big Short, James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, and Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.*/ This is SRSLY, the...
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The legal aid cuts are ideological. Let’s start fighting them now
Any of us might need a lawyer one day – so ignore the silly wigs and defend them. Who is going to defend the lawyers? Until very recently, Britain had one of the most equitable legal systems in the...
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The reaction to David Bowie’s death exposed the dangers of overestimating the...
Are we inclined to overestimate the innovator – the first, the forerunner, the anticipator of the zeitgeist – and correspondingly underestimate the artist who brilliantly masters existing forms? A...
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