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History, music, cooking, travel, books, theatre, film – but also with an eye on the ‘culture wars’, nationalism and identity.
John Mitchinson explores the enduring fascination with the man who was asked to send Jesus to his death
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
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
John Mitchinson explores how the horrors of the Holodomor still underpin Ukrainian identity
Chris York visits a church community on the Ukrainian homefront which makes especially ‘blessed’ camouflage netting for their ‘boys’ in the trenches
John Mitchinson explores why our closest cousins were wrongly defamed as boorish, rude stupid louts
Paddy Docherty explains how research for his book on the 1897 invasion of the Kingdom of Benin left him ashamed – an emotion he believes must be converted into action
A commemorative children’s book marking the Queen’s platinum jubilee year is likely to be an exercise in selective remembering, says Sam Bright
Penny Pepper explores what a steady stream of inadequate disability ministers reveals about the sorts of people required to really improve disabled people’s lives
Otto English has already imagined how the Culture Secretary could write up the last few tumultuous days in Westminster in her (in)imitable novelistic style
John Mitchinson explains why gazing out of his window or at his computer screen brings him wonderment at an invention we spend little time observing
Peter Jukes explains why the ongoing scandal about lockdown-breaking parties hit the Prime Minister’s core appeal more than crony contracts, personal expenses or his handling of the Coronavirus crisis
Novelist Cory Doctorow tracks Britain’s domestic scandals back to the capital’s reliance on laundered money from overseas, and the feasting of so many professions on the proceeds
Penny Pepper shares some of the enduring inequalities and the memorable breakthroughs which characterised the past year for disabled people
Malka Al-Haddad introduces a new magazine aiming to challenge stereotypes about refugees and migrants by showcasing their writing and editing and building a ‘bridge’ of understanding
Stephen Unwin delves deep into the intellectual traditions and cultural mindset that produced the Nazis’ ‘wild euthanasia’ of people with disabilities, and finds we have not yet put those prejudices to rest
Author Richard Beard, who was sent to an English private school in the same year as Boris Johnson, explores why the politician’s time there explains his destructive approach to leading the country
With women facing a crisis of justice when it comes to gender-based violence, survivors are turning to creative ways to process trauma and tell their own stories
John Mitchinson explains why our relationship with these fascinating creatures is such a depressing one
The scandal of the Downing Street Christmas parties last year flies in the face of the essence of the Christmas message, says Reverend Joe Haward
An ancient artefact due to go on display in the British Museum opens our eyes to a sophisticated and internationally-connected Bronze Age community
Chris Sullivan interviews Mike Leigh about the re-release of his film Naked and explores the creative process behind his more recent films such as Peterloo and Turner
Penny Pepper explains why well-meaning but pity-inducing fundraisers do not lead to structural change for marginalised people
With their recurrent urban legends that ‘Christmas’ is to be cancelled, Christian Christensen notes the European right has somehow overlooked a genuine cultural invasion
If humans can’t yet hibernate, could we approach something like the ‘torpor’ that bears and other larger mammals practice? asks John Mitchinson
Katharine Quarmby explores why Britain’s story of transportation – the biggest forced migration in its history – has largely been buried
Otto English explores how Remembrance Sunday has been commercialised and weaponised to feed hollow national myths
During lockdown, Keith Kahn-Harris discovered a strange anomaly inside Kinder Surprise Eggs, and almost began to uncover a vast corporate conspiracy…
As international leaders gather in Glasgow for the COP26 summit, Hadley Coull and Chris Ogden consider Britain’s unmoored identity in a volatile world
Julian Petley looks back to the Soviet oppression of Czechoslovakia and the dissidence of the playwright Václav Havel for an understanding of the Post-Truth ideology of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson
Mic Wright unpicks the attraction by repulsion of the hit HBO/Sky Atlantic drama, partly inspired by the Murdochs, but wonders whether it gives solace to the super-rich
Otto English explores the trend among Brexiters to summon myths about World War Two It’s a day of the week, so right-wingers are busy invoking World War Two again. In a country where virtually no-one goes to church any more, ‘The War’ has become a de-facto religion for many a Brexit-minded Conservative. And several have…
While Priti Patel and the tabloid press seek to protect our borders from those who need protection, one film has broken the mould, writes Deborah Shaw
With emails, text messages and WhatsApp groups now a dominant feature of all our lives, John Mitchinson considers the enduring qualities of a more humble form of social communication
To mark the start of Black History Month 2021, Almaz Ohene meets inspirational leaders in the younger generation fighting back against the Government’s divisive ‘culture war’
Matthew Gwyther considers how the pandemic shifted office norms, and the dilemmas associated with our new routines
Penny Pepper explores the failure of the diversity and inclusion trope for disabled people with a variety of stories to tell
Nadine Dorries’ appointment as Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary is said to be turbo-charging the culture war – but a new report has found the real issue facing the cultural sector is structural inequality not ‘wokery’
An author of a new book about the Bath Arts Workshop explores the strength of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture – and asks what lessons it has for us today
In the second part of his look at Brexit ‘campaigning’ groups, Otto English explores the attempts of those trying to weaponise their versions of British history and turning it into an orthodoxy which cannot be challenged
John Mitchinson explores the lessons in the inventor, philosopher and mathematician’s ‘doing more with less’ philosophy