Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps
The dedication at the front of Graham and Hugh Greene’s famous anthology of espionage literature, The Spy’s Bedside Book (1957), reads: “To the immortal memory of William le Queux and John Buchan”.
Character formation in an age of uncertainty
Developing “character” is a perennial aim in education, but there is little agreement on exactly what it is or how to find it
A focus on economic growth is too narrow
The scale of economic inequality across the UK is scandalous. Roads and broadband won’t fix this: strong social infrastructure will
Diary: the limits of liberalism
‘Many of those who usually insist ministers must “listen to the experts” are among those who now say Boris should ignore them. Armchair generals and football managershave become armchair virologists and epidemiologists’
Captive nations and other inmates
The Chinese Communist Party wants to control the diaspora and suppress foreign criticism. Mongolians, Tibetans and Uighurs are not only silenced inside Xi Jinping’s empire, but abroad
China has a strategy and Britain doesn’t
A roadmap to better relations requires realism. Beijing’s interests and goals are openly stated—if you know where to look
Beat that
"Half a century since their break-up, the Fab Four grimly reaped to the tiresome two, the Beatles go on. Documentaries and dramas continue to be made, interviews are bigged-up, and last year,
China’s wild animal markets are by no means unique
‘We might suppose that Wuhan’s animal markets are part of a uniquely Chinese tradition, leading up to the current plague. But the facts do not allow for such clarity’
Britain is becoming a wet desert
‘Two-fifths of our rivers are man-made canals: dug down, dredged, and separated from their flood plains’
Britain must reinvent itself
‘We should seize the opportunity presented by Brexit to reinvent ourselves’