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SubscriptionsSection: Culture
History, music, cooking, travel, books, theatre, film – but also with an eye on the ‘culture wars’, nationalism and identity.
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‘Disability, Illness and Impairment are the Norms of Human History – Living Through This Labour Government’s Benefits Cuts Is Brutal’
Cutting disability benefits will do nothing but heighten the scapegoating of disabled people once again – how can a Labour Government introduce such a punitive measure? Penny Pepper asks
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The Upside Down: Death Metal
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores how the long slow history of lead poisoning teaches us a salutary lesson
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Populist Simplicity in a Hyper-Complex World: Will Trump Overplay His Hand?
Hardeep Matharu dissects what the now infamous Oval Office meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky revealed about the American President’s approach – and speaks to political scientist Brian Klaas about why his ‘alternative realities’ don’t stack up against real-world complexities
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Trump’s Mob Rule: An Offer We Can Only Refuse
If Europeans come from Venus, Peter Jukes observes, it’s only because they are aware (unlike Elon Musk) of the bleak devastation of Mars
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‘Letters To My Younger Selves – And the Quiet Women Who Made Me Who I Am’
The voyage of my life could never be described as ‘easy’, writes Penny Pepper, but it has been built around friendships that brought illumination in the toughest of times
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One Hundred Days of Protests: Georgia on the Crossroads between East and West
Zarina Zabrisky explores the cultural and political tensions of a country caught in the crossfire of global conflict
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The Upside Down: For Whom the Bell Tolls
John Mitchinson explores the strangely complex method behind the music of the bells
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‘The Neglect of Theatre in Britain’s Creative Life is Costing the Country Dearly’
The stories brought to life on the stage in the past allowed people to understand that politics is something that impacts on their lives, writes playwright Tim Walker
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Complexity Is Reality – But There’s No Possibility For It In Today’s Political Culture
One of the biggest triumphs of the modern political right has been to close the space in which nuance and ambiguity can even sit, writes Hardeep Matharu
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The Upside Down: Vegetable Leather
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores the unnatural history of natural rubber
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‘More Empty Promises on Health and Social Care Let Disabled People Down Again’
Do I really need to keep saying that this is where the personal is the political? writes Penny Pepper
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Will Young: ‘It Got Much Worse After Pop Idol. I’m Surprised There Hasn’t Been an Exposé on The X Factor’
The first Pop Idol winner – and Byline Times supporter – speaks to Josiah Mortimer about the pressures of fame and the stories he believes are still to come to light about the reality TV music world
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The Upside Down: Mummers The Word
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores why so many Christmas rituals boil down to fun and money
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Patriotism & Pluralism: the Power of the English Language Comes from Its Migrant Past
Insular definitions of the national past overlook the very things we should take pride in
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The Upside Down: The War We Never Mention
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores how a country house party in Oxfordshire helped invent democracy
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Putin’s Constant Long-Running, Long-Range Escalations in Ukraine
As tensions mount over long range missile attacks on Russia, Chris York explains the daily routine for Ukrainians living in the capital Kyiv
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Assisted Dying: ‘There Can Be No Human Hierarchy for Whose Life Is Valuable or Not’
Any law to help people die is the beginning of a slippery slope for disabled people whose lives are already devalued, writes Penny Pepper in her monthly column
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The Upside Down: The Surprisingly Racy History of Lettuce
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson reflects on why the old lettuce leaf is not so dull (Liz Truss aside)
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Indifference for the Disabled: A Traumatising Night Affecting My Every Day
In her monthly column, Penny Pepper describes the aftermath of a terrifying break-in, which she fears may have been a disability hate crime
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Elon Musk: A Dangerous ‘Evolution’
Has the world’s richest man simply lost his marbles or been ‘radicalised’ by his own platform? David Troy traces his beliefs and behaviour to paint an altogether more concerning picture of the X owner’s political and cultural journey
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‘Unsurprising Seasonal Anxieties for the Disabled and Elderly’
In her monthly column, Penny Pepper wonders what new threats disabled and elderly people will face as the season turns
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The Upside Down: Confessions of a Pig-Keeper
John Mitchinson explores why he chooses to raise and then consume man’s second best friend
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The Upside Down: Bee the Change
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson explores why we should be listening to the honey bees
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‘The Tories Are Out But We’re Still Fighting for Our Disabled Community’s Rights’
Disabled people may have been cheering the end of Tory rule – but their trust has not been won by Labour, writes Penny Pepper
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The Upside Down: Jeremy Bentham – Auto-Icon for the People
In his monthly column, John Mitchinson remembers the original social justice warrior
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Disability Pride Month: Would You Dare Ask Any Other Marginalised Group What That Is?
Every change that improves the lives of disabled people has been predominantly led by disabled people themselves, whose stories are overlooked or misappropriated, writes Penny Pepper
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The Upside Down: ‘Sir Gawain and the Green Knight’
John Mitchinson explores how a 600-year-old poem by an unknown poet can reset our moral compass
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‘Disabled People Must Have the Capacity and Freedom to Vote’
There are 14 million disabled people in the UK – are politicians even considering them in this election campaign?
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The Spectacle of Impunity: Phone-Hacking Cover-Up Claims Cross the Atlantic
With news that senior Murdoch executives now face a civil trial, Peter Jukes looks back on a decade of deceit
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The Upside Down: The Song of the Nightingale Carries A Deeper Message
To sit and listen to a nightingale is to be transported to somewhere that is both quintessentially English but also impossibly rich and exotic, writes John Mitchinson
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‘Assisted Suicide: Always Personal and Always Political’
For Penny Pepper, debates about changing the law on assisted suicide are a way in for a dangerous, niggling, idea of how we should value disabled people’s lives
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‘We Need to Have New Conversations About the Colonial Realities of Our Rural Past’
‘Our Island Stories: Country Walks Through Colonial Britain’ reveals fascinating connections between colonial history and British rural life – but it isn’t expected to go down well with everyone
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The Upside Down: That’s The Way to Do It!
John Mitchinson explores why are we so fascinated by the odious, uncancellable, Mr Punch
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Liz Truss Unexpurgated: 40 Days to Save the West
Despite the best efforts of the woke deep state, censored sections of the former prime minister’s diary have been leaked to Otto English
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Newspapers Knew New Team GB Kit Was Not a ‘Flag Redesign’ Project
A Team GB spokesperson told Nathan Jones-Sparkes that the British Olympic Association was very clear with the press that its new kit design would always feature the Union Jack
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The Upside Down: Seeing Is Predicting
John Mitchinson explores why perception is as much about what we know as what we see
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The Frida Effect: In Praise of Disabled Women
On International Women’s Day, Penny Pepper celebrates how other disabled women came to be her pillars of strength, wisdom and joy
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‘There is Something Deeply Soviet About Withholding Alexey Navalny’s Body’
The suspicious death of the Russian opposition activist and behaviour over his remains shows little has changed in the Kremlin
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The Upside Down: History Is More than Its Set Pieces
John Mitchinson explores how the lessons of the Crimean War still resonate today
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‘Fighting the Five Giants: It’s Time to Renew Our Social Contract’
Every one of us will experience illness, damage, impairment, disability and, inevitably, old age, writes Penny Pepper
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The Overton Window: ‘Flip it and Sell it’ – The Threat to Shepherd’s Bush Market
As a community book seller loses her unique shop in Shepherd’s Bush Market, Iain Overton looks at the broader struggles facing London’s historic markets, facing the juggernaut of modern development.
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Music in Schools: A Plea
In the wake of Lord Melvyn Bragg’s House of Lords debate on the vital importance of the arts to the UK’s society and economy, composer Howard Goodall makes an urgent call for the Government to rethink its proposed further reduction of resources for musical education
