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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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Touring in Europe: The Broken Instruments of Brexit
Philippe Auclair discusses the cultural isolation and loss which will result from British musical artists being deterred from performing in Europe
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The Long 1980s
Writer and illustrator Joanna Walsh reflects on coming of age in the 1980s, the uneven distribution of progress, and the lasting impact of section 28, AIDs, queer iconography and silencing
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Matt Hancock Sleeps with the Fishes…
Mic Wright on Boris Johnson’s obsession with The Godfather, and why director Francis Ford Coppola decried him for bringing “the beloved United Kingdom to ruin”
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Travels on Another Path: Obstacles for a Disabled Explorer
Penny Pepper shares her experiences of trips away and why, despite doing everything to mitigate it, the challenges of travel continue to reinforce disabled people’s second-class status
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Persisting in the Ruins: A Walk Through Thessaloniki’s History
Mike Stuchbery returns with his tours through history – on this occasion through a city which has been an axis of trade, faith and conflict
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Breaking Taboos: ‘We Need to Talk About Money’
Poppy Sebag-Montefiore speaks to Otegha Uwagba about her new book, which questions why those who have benefitted from financial help are so reluctant to be transparent about it
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England’s Upper Classes – A Dangerous Cult
Otto English shares the story of his late mother’s ‘double life’ and explores how class continues to define British society in damaging, limiting ways
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Spectating Or Doing?: The Challenge for the UK’s Ruling Clique
After the magazine backed off a threatened attack on England footballer Marcus Rashford, Geoff Mulgan looks at the Spectator’s grip on the Conservative Party – its weakness over wokeness and over-reliance on wordsmiths
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Trump, Vampires and Animals on the Moon: The Fake News about Fake News
Looking back over the history of printed lies, Ivor Gaber debunks the myth that social media is alone responsible for the rise of disinformation
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Brideshead Britain: Boris Johnson’s Entourage of ‘Careless People’
With the Government showing itself out of touch over anti-racism and football, Mic Wright looks at the gilded age Oxford culture around the current incumbent at Number 10
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Englishness Evolves
Otto English charts the different strands of English identity over the years and how a dark turn may now be giving way to something altogether more inclusive, decent and inspiring
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England? Which England? Who Won? Who Lost?
Journalist and sports commentator Philippe Auclair looks at the social significance of the Euro 2020 final, and compares it to the famous World Cup Victory of France in 1998
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The Upside Down: Let Them Eat Bread
John Mitchinson charts a brief history of British food and the emergence of a humble meal enjoyed billions of times each year
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Extinguishing Political Fire and Fury: Kim Leadbeater and the Lessons of Keir Hardie
Reverend Joe Haward reflects on the Batley and Spen by-election, and the necessity for a more compassionate political climate
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A Tale Told by an Idiot: Exclusive Extracts from Boris Johnson’s Book on Shakespeare
Otto English has procured an advanced copy of the Prime Minister’s book on the Great Bard
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Never To Forget: Remembering the Health Workers Who Gave Their Lives to Protect Us
Howard Goodall explains the genesis of his NHS memorial choral work, and the effect of meeting relatives of those who died during the pandemic
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Liberty, Equality, Infirmity?
As members of the House of Lords discuss lifting pandemic measures put in place to enable disabled peers to discharge their duties from home, Penny Pepper explains how archaic attitudes are still plain to see in society
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Empire Men: ‘The Sweet, Just, Boyish Masters’
Jake Arnott reveals the repressions that drove British Empire Men such as General Gordon, Lord Kitchener, Cecil Rhodes, Robert Baden-Powell and T. E. Lawrence
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England v Germany: A Short History of Losing It
As the two countries meet in the knockout stages of Euro 2020, Otto English explains why – when it comes to jingoism and disgrace – one side is always the loser
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From George Orwell to Priti Patel: How Britain Brought its Colonial Policing Home
As the Metropolitan Police is judged to be institutionally corrupt, Hardeep Matharu and Peter Jukes explore how some of the biggest problems still plaguing British policing are embedded in the soil of British colonialism
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Options for an English National Anthem: from Jerusalem to Blackadder
Composer Howard Goodall explores why England does not have an anthem distinct from that of Great Britain and Northern Ireland at sporting events and assesses the leading candidates
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The Pursuit of Truth – Or Not: Boris Johnson, COVID and the Media
Broadcast journalists’ refusal to call-out the lies of the Prime Minister, his Cabinet members and the Government as a whole during the Coronavirus pandemic reveals the extent of the crisis engulfing the very fabric of truth in our society, observes Dorothy Byrne
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Colston Reconfigured: A Fulcrum for Future Understanding
Hannah Charlton explores what the journey of the statue of a Bristol slavetrader is revealing about the wider historical moment the country finds itself in
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The Upside Down: Outrageous! Are We Hardwired for Scandal?
John Mitchinson unearths some of the juiciest incidents turning the gossip mills of times past
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The Daniel Morgan Murder and Police Corruption: The Evolution of the ‘Firm within a Firm’
From the Dirty Squad’s Soho days to Andy Coulson in the heart of government, Jake Arnott explains how bent coppers moved on from trading in porn and gold bullion, to information and kompromat
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The Social Conditions which Inspired ‘Ghost Town’ are Still With Us Today, Says The Specials’ Jerry Dammers
On the 40th anniversary of the hit song, Chris Sullivan finds its modern relevance terrifying
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God Save the Queen: Still Jousting in the Junior Common Room
Otto English doesn’t think the latest skirmish in the culture wars is a ‘dead cat’ but shows a generation of politicians bereft of ideas and obsessed with campus politics
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The Euros Present Another Chance for Conservatives to Advance their Culture War
Shane Thomas explores how notions of race, Englishness and football could be weaponised by the Prime Minister during Euro 2020
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It’s the Euros, Jeff, But Not As We Know It
Gary Gowers looks forward to a very different European football tournament starting this week
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Dominic Cummings and the Quandary of Human Motives
The majority of people for the majority of history are a cauldron of contradictions and the Prime Minister’s controversial former chief advisor is no different, says Reverend Joe Haward
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Saving Lives – Max Mosley: 13 April 1940 – 23 May 2021
Brian Cathcart pays tribute to the Formula One boss who faced up to the sound and fury of Britain’s feral tabloid press
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Forever Young: Reflections on Bob Dylan at 80
Heidi Siegmund Cuda celebrates the proto-punk’s protest songs as epic short stories painting a history of radical anti-war, anti-establishment America
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‘What’s Going On’ Marvin Gaye’s Protest Album 50 Years On
Racism, police brutality, inequality, ecology, the trauma of the Vietnam War and drug addiction, Chris Sullivan considers how the classic 1971 album explored what was really going on
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The Upside Down: The Lie of the Land
John Mitchinson explains why we should listen to the farmers and why their plight deserves our attention
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Britain’s Airbrushed History and Its Aversion to Protest
An institutional ignorance towards past protests informs Britain’s modern day antipathy towards radical dissent, says Shafi Musaddique
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Plans to Slash Arts Subsidies Expose a Contradiction in Government Policy
A proposed 50% cut of subsidies for arts courses risks excluding poorer students from the creative industries and represents an ongoing hostile takeover of education, argues Chris Bagley A consultation by the Office for Students and Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has caused a stir for all the wrong reasons, as they propose slashing funding subsidies…
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‘At Least the Nazis Kept the Lights On’: Brexit Amnesia Airbrushes Out Genocide in the Channel Islands
Yesterday the Channel Islands celebrated Liberation Day. Ben Gidley explains the grim realities of starving islanders and concentration camps
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The ‘White Working-Class’ and ‘Woke Capitalism’: Fake Constructs in the Right’s Cultural War
Jon Bloomfield and David Edgar deconstruct the nationalist-populist conspiracy narratives that seek to divide and rule
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Boris Johnson is a Boarding School Survivor – That Should Concern Us All
Iain Overton draws on his personal experience to explore why the Prime Minister’s background may explain his mendacious approach to politics – and life
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The Apotheosis of Apophenia: Conspiratorial Minds
What links the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy to Coronavirus denial? Otto English has found a pattern…
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How Wisden is a Global Record of War, Plague, Racism and Environmental Change
Richard Heller and Peter Oborne peer into Wisden Cricketers Almanac for signs of the times
