September 3, 2026 – Page 10 – Standpoint Magazine

The British Gas Man Cometh (Not)

Standpoint senior editor Miriam Gross tries seven times in vain to negotiate the hopeless beaurocracy of British Gas’s customer service department Thursday Conversation One. 1.15pm Hello. Welcome to British Gas. Calls are

September 3, 2026

Dialogue·Energy·Modern Life·Satire

Writers, Visible and Invisible

Writers are hidden beings, says the winner of the 2008 PEN/Nabokov Lifetime Achievement Award

September 3, 2026

Art·Critique·Education·History·Literature

The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls

A major investigator of the Scrolls since their discovery explains why after 60 years they still have not made their full impact on the general public If the proverbial opinion pollster accosted

September 3, 2026

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ONLINE ONLY: A Confrontation in London

Most of us, thankfully, still have relatively little direct experience of violent crime, although everyone but the most sheltered now suffers death by a thousand anti-social cuts, and the implicit threat they

September 3, 2026

Counterpoints·Modern Life·Social Affairs

A Girl’s Best Friend

The gemstone traders on London's Hatton Garden have witnessed huge changes in attitudes towards marriage, but diamonds are forever

September 3, 2026

Counterpoints·Urbanism

Uncharitable Act

Britain's claim to be the world's foremost philanthropic nation is under threat under George Osborne's new reforms

September 3, 2026

Counterpoints·Taxation

Shock Value

For all the Arts community's grandstanding about its political value, none of its number was brave enough to protest the late, great M.F. Husain's plight

September 3, 2026

Counterpoints·India

Novel Idea

A new online scheme is taking publishing back to its roots, bringing authors closer to their readerships

September 3, 2026

Counterpoints·Literature

Interpenetration

The utopian Labour peer's new science of happiness is doing wonders for its inventor

September 3, 2026

Counterpoints·Politics

Survivor of Stasiland

The death of Christa Wolf has left Germany bereft of a powerful bridge of literary consciousness, whose universal work could talk to a once-divided nation

September 3, 2026

Counterpoints·Germany·Literature