Close of play
Facing a summer without cricket
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Why T.S. Eliot still matters
His contemporaries’ reputations have diminished. But Eliot’s has grown: he is the poet who shows us what can be saved from the ruins
The point of church
‘Justin Welby’s edict went beyond what Downing Street sought in its social-distancing policies. Ministers had supposed churches might find safe ways to remain open. They were surprised the C of E was
The future is beige
As white ethnic minorities fall in population share, their polarisation increases. We need a deeper conversation
A European tragedy
‘No frightened rabbit could be more petrified than the European Union, for the Covid-19 crisis has hammered all its weakest points: its democratic deficit, the fragility of its solidarity, and—most dangerous of
The mark of an educated mind
Schooling underpinned by critical thinking is the bedrock of civilisation. It could save us from today’s infantilised discourse
Will the green agenda be killed off by the pandemic?
‘Will the green agenda be killed off by the longer-term coronavirus recovery? Or might the closure of so much business, and the cleaner air that results from planes not flying and factories
No sex please, we’re Japanese
Japan’s population shrinks by half a million every year. Is it already too late to reverse this decline?
Big Brother is watching you
Citizens of mature, liberal democracies accept that some things done in our name by those who guard us take place in the grey margins of the law. If the ultimate objective is
African reset: will Covid-19 bring change?
It is tempting to hope that ordinary people will rise up and demand change. But we are more likely to see poverty exacerbated
A psychoanalyst’s lockdown diary
Emergencies not only spark new, rational fears but also reignite old, irrational ones
Bohemian rhapsodies
Caroline Maclean’s Circles and Squares reads like a roll-call of the artistic great and good of the interwar years — whose enterprise stands in stark relation to the mess of their private lives