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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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Bogged Down with the Eternal Fight for the Perfect Convenience
Why is it still not widely understood that disabled people have the right to decent toilet facilities just like anyone else? asks Penny Pepper
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How Russia Feeds the Factory of Unthinking
From Ukrainians being mainly Jewish to allegations of black magic, hypnotism and colonising Africa, Oleksiy Pluzhnyk explores the Kremlin’s exploitation of the conspiratorial mindset
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British Identity: The Empire’s Spectacle
The mourning of the Queen’s death has been, largely unconsciously, a nation in a state of ‘appearing’, writes Joe Haward
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Royal Ideology and the Future of Monarchy
Florence Scott reflects on why it is time to discuss the underpinnings of the British monarchy – Christianity, wealth, class, imperialism
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Putin’s Real War and His War of Words
Sian Norris considers Martha Gellhorn’s classic 1966 examination of propaganda, Real War And War Of Words, and updates it for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
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Twenty-Seven Cardigans and Still Not Enough: A Torturous Style Journey
Penny Pepper reflects on her relationship with fashion – and how punk took her into disability activism and feminism
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The Upside Down: Why Being ‘Bird-Brained’ is a Compliment
Warbling, tweeting, courting, teaching – John Mitchinson explores the ever-deepening mystery of birdsong
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‘Out of the Picture: After the Queen’s Death, Will Britain Finally Confront Itself?’
Britain has hidden a key part of our story from ourselves. With the Queen’s death marking a decisive shift, it’s time for us all to start building a better picture of our country and its past, writes Hardeep Matharu
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‘Why Jean-Luc Godard (Still) Matters’
Graham Williamson reflects on how the late French film director wove together arts and politics, transforming cinema forever
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‘People Feel Guilty’ – The Seven Emotions of Odesans At War
Chris York samples the mood of Ukrainians in the Black Sea city after 200 days of war, and finds conflicting feelings of fear, suspicion, hope, sadness and defiance
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‘Queen Elizabeth II: Symbolically Potent, Politically Powerless’
Anthony Barnett reflects on the passing of the ‘New Elizabethan Age’ and how sovereignty and monarchy have moved apart
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Her Majesty The Queen: 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022
Otto English reflects on the passing of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch
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Liz Truss’ Leaked Acceptance Speech
Otto English has got his hands on Boris Johnson’s successor’s inaugural speech as PM
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Can the Milk Tea Alliance Take Its Fight Offline?
In Asia, a new movement for democracy has been gaining strength – but how can it enact change on the ground when it comes to corruption and authoritarianism?
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‘Boris Johnson Completely Obliterated the Line Between Journalism and Politics’
Julian Petley explores how the outgoing Prime Minister embodies the triumph of the Conservative political-media nexus
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The Shock of the Fatwa – What it was Like Back Then
Anthony Barnett remembers the political and social circumstances around the response to Salman Rushdie’s ‘The Satanic Verses’
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Detained da Vincis: The Artist Asylum Seekers Trapped in Lithuania
Last summer, 4,000 people seeking asylum arrived in Lithuania and were placed in immigration detention. While the future is uncertain, many are using art to process fear and trauma
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The Identity Trap: Race, Representation and the Rise of Conservative Diversity
Rishi Sunak is in the running to be Britain’s first prime minister of colour – but the debate around whether this will be a good thing for ethnic minorities has laid bare conflicting ideas about the ‘individual’ and the ‘collective’, writes Hardeep Matharu
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The Upside Down: Breaking the Frame of History
John Mitchinson lifts the lid on why the Luddites weren’t really ‘Luddite’
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Class War – One of Disabled People’s Many Battles
Penny Pepper explains why class continues to be so oppressive for working-class disabled people
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Ready For Rishi: Sunak’s Appeal to Conservative Party Voters
Ahead of ballots going out in the Tory leadership race, Otto English has been leaked a draft of Rishi Sunak’s pitch to Conservative members Dear Fellow Normal Conservative Human Beings! Or as I like to put it “Hi Guys!” Wow. Well, here I am – just an average, ordinary billionaire standing before you, asking you…
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Culture Can Help in the Fight Against Putin – We Must Not Limit It
Katie Dancey-Downs, assistant editor at Index on Censorship, reflects on a decision by the Ukrainian Parliament to ban music created by Russian citizens
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The Upside Down: Themself Alone
John Mitchinson explores a surprisingly modern role model from the backstreets of Jacobean London
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My NHS and how the Tories Broke It
Penny Pepper reflects on how the Government dodges responsibility for the lack of resources available for our health service
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Raaberdämmerung
Composer and writer Howard Goodall explains how the Deputy Prime Minister’s patronising comments about Angela Rayner undermine the Government’s own stated principles about the role of music in education and empowerment
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Misgoverned And Marooned: English Men’s Cricket Still Faces Social Extinction
Richard Heller and Peter Oborne explore how money, centralisation and a lack of accountability around the England and Wales Cricket Board is taking the essence of the sport further away from fans
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‘What Do They Know of Cricket?’ The ECB’s Refusal to Deal with Racism
Duncan Stone reveals how the governing body of English cricket – like the country as a whole – can no longer promote a selective view of its history
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‘Mr Jones’ Review: A Timely If Flawed Watch on the Ukrainian Holodomor
As another Russian dictator uses Ukrainian grain as a weapon of war, this 2020 historical thriller is worth a watch, writes Ellin Stein
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The Upside Down: Back to the Future
John Mitchinson explores why we are hardwired to remember the past, with memories that are made in the moment
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Resting Place: Marking My Grandmother’s Grave Helped Me Find My European Identity
Patrick Howse shares the story of three generations of his family – a tale of loss, discovery, conflict and plural identities
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Imperial Measures: Confected Culture Wars and National Identity
Sam Bright considers the metrics that undermine the right’s new ideological gambit
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Top Gun Maverick: Aerial Warfare, Unmanned
As fiction, Tom Cruise’s sequel to his 80s blockbuster longs for the days of the single warrior in combat, when air-launched explosive violence is all about ground attacks often with civilian casualties
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Jake Daniels’ 21 Words Were Momentous for Football
Nathan O’Hagan explores what the 17-year-old Blackpool player’s bravery in coming out publicly as gay will mean for other footballers and the game itself
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The Upside Down: We Won’t Bow Down – What I Learned in New Orleans
John Mitchinson reflects on his latest trip to the ‘Big Easy’
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Putin at War: Claiming De-Nazification, Reviving Antisemitism
The Russian President’s Victory Day Speech and his Foreign Minister’s comments suggest of a fully-fledged antisemitic ideology is rearing its head in Russia
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Barriers, Ignorance… And More Barriers: The Every Day Experiences of Disabled People
Society and politicians need to wake-up to the fact that disability is a normal part of the human condition that can impact us all, says Penny Pepper
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The Upside Down: Where Is the Man? The Many Lives of Pontius Pilate
John Mitchinson explores the enduring fascination with the man who was asked to send Jesus to his death
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From Nostalgic Disability Direct Action On Screen – To Rishi Sunak’s Cold Shoulder in the Spring Budget
A new BBC film, ‘Then Barbara Met Alan’, looking at the beginnings of disability direct action, contrasts sharply with Rishi Sunak ignoring disabled people from his Spring Statement, says Penny Pepper
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Backwards Britain: Having Rejected a European Future, We Can Only Hark Back to an Imperial Past
Hardeep Matharu explores how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has exposed the UK’s perilous retreat – at a time when collaboration and a new vision of itself is required to navigate the dangerous realities of a changing world
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‘What Can We Do to Help?’: The Making of a Journalist’s Life
As war in Ukraine brings home the devastation faced by refugees and the need to recognise our shared humanity, Caroline Kenyon shares the story of her mother Barbara Brandenburger’s life – which placed helping others, even strangers, at its centre
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The Upside Down: Let Them Eat Nothing
John Mitchinson explores how the horrors of the Holodomor still underpin Ukrainian identity
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Weaving a Nation Together: The Women Working to Protect Ukrainian Front Line Troops
Chris York visits a church community on the Ukrainian homefront which makes especially ‘blessed’ camouflage netting for their ‘boys’ in the trenches
