In August 2021, Britainâs last ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Laurie Bristow, climbed on to a table holding a kitchen knife. He and a member of his security team had a small but... Read more »
While anxiety abounds in the old Cold War West that progress – whether political or economic – has been reversed, for citizens of former-socialist countries, murky temporal trajectories are nothing new. Grounded... Read more »
Never in living memory has the north of England felt so far removed from the economic and political power base of London. That the most – the only? – prominent northern accent... Read more »
In January 2002, during his State of the Union address, President George W Bush said that in “four short months” the US had “rallied a great coalition, captured, arrested and rid the... Read more »
Politicians mince or mash words for a living, and the virtuosity with which they twist meanings makes them artists of a kind. Their skill at spinning facts counts as a fictional exercise:... Read more »
Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Wherever You Listen Sign up to receive our weekly cultural-recommendations newsletter. For centuries, the bildungsroman, or novel of education, has offered a window into a... Read more »
In socialist Eastern Europe, radio simultaneously produced state power and created the conditions for it to be challenged. As the dominant form of media in Czechoslovakia from 1945 until 1969, radio constituted... Read more »
If you live in a marginal constituency and felt bombarded by leaflets, billboards and online ads at the last general election, brace yourself. Last year, Michael Gove dramatically increased the limits on... Read more »
Listen and subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google | Wherever You Listen Sign up to receive our twice-weekly News & Politics newsletter. The writer and director Cord Jefferson has struck gold with... Read more »