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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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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
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Infurno: March Episode – Dead Cats Society
An epic underworld adventure for our times, Martin Rowson launches a film noir detective thriller starring Pete the Dog that plunges right through the catflap of contemporary politics
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The Upside Down: The Cobbett Conundrum
John Mitchinson explores the problematic legacy of one of the founding fathers of English radicalism
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British History’s Brutish Imperialism has Become a Global Talking Point
John Lubbock explores how the restitution of looted historical artefacts is being navigated by cultural institutions around the world
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Heroes and Anti-Heroes: Why True Life Dramas Need Light and Shade
Ellin Stein looks at the power of moral complexity as played out in two BAFTA nominated films based on real events
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Recovery and Renewal: Emerging From the COVID Cocoon
Neha Maqsood considers the individual and collective experiences of the past year, which she argues should inform our post-pandemic existence
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Moving Together: The Colonisation of Eastern Germany by the Far Right
Craig Stennett explores the latest social media tactic adopted by Germany’s neo-Nazi groups
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Strongman Politics and Culture Wars Purposefully Derail All Chances of Progress
In the past week, the police was deployed as an instrument in Boris Johnson’s increasingly authoritarian agenda, argues Maheen Behrana
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Playing the Game – How Sport Can Set Us Free
John Mitchinson explores the connection between liberty and fair play
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Review: ‘I Care a Lot’ – The Respectable Face of Mobster Mentality
Jon Bailes explains how the Golden Globe-winning part played by Rosamund Pike represents a new professionalised Gangster Paradise
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Another Country: From Cool Britannia to Nationalist Hubris
Professor Chris Painter wonders how Britain has turned into such a radically different country in the space of a decade
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Who the Hell are the Disabled?
The impact of COVID-19 has made it starkly clear to those who live disability that it’s the imposed barriers of social organisation that makes them disabled, explains Penny Pepper
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Art and Violence: Technology and Domination: Futurism and Fascism
Chris Sullivan looks back at the role of painters and writers who co-opted 1930s technology and modernity to espouse far-right ideas
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In his Upside-Down World, the Only Free Speech Johnson Cares About is his Own
The Government’s ‘free speech’ proposals aim not to invite conversation but to shut it down – an Orwellian allegory of epic proportions, says Jonathan Lis
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A Radical Press: Intelligencers, Poor Men’s Guardians and Two-Penny Trash
Russell Jackson with a primer on the surprisingly radical traditions of the British press and the 200 hundred-year-old battle cry ‘information is power’
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Reaganite Rockers to Brexit Punks: ‘The Kids are Alt-Right’
Nathan O’Hagan catalogues the surprising conservatism of many radical musicians
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Lust: Can We Afford to Keep On Rewarding Excess?
Matthew Gwyther looks at the craving for power, money, sex, success, legitimacy and legacy – and wonders whether the world is big enough for any one person’s greed So, bye bye, then Jeff Bezos. The CEO of Amazon – who with a worth of $188 billion was for a while the richest man in the…
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Brexit, COVID and the Rhyme of History
Reverend Joe Haward explores the current parallels around power, propaganda and patriotism with the First World War
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From Folklore to Wokelore: How Myths of Britishness are Turning Totalitarian
Peter Jukes and Hardeep Matharu argue that Britain cannot ignore the Conservative kulturkampf, and that one way to combat the mythologising of politics is to expose the politics of the myths
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The ‘War on Woke’ and the Great Free Speech Czar Paradox
Otto English explores why the Brexit battle’s successor should be pushed back against now – if Britain is to be stopped from continuing down a much darker path still
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Anti-Woke Crusade Igniting Threats to Safety and Careers: ‘There’s So Much Hatred Projected at Women in Public Life’, Warns Historian
Hardeep Matharu reports on how the history of the English countryside has turned into a dangerous battleground as various forces try to provoke an uncivil culture war
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Second Impeachment: American Kompromat Author – ‘We Have to Prosecute Trump To the Fullest Extent of the Law’
As Donald Trump faces an unprecedented second Senate trial, journalist Craig Unger tells Heidi Siegmund Cuda that the most terrifying aspect of modern America is the things that are still legal
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Mental Slavery – What ‘Moving Forward’ Will Require for America
John Mitchinson explores how the mental structures that enabled slavery are still alive and thriving in the United States today
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Everybody is Somebody: My Daughter’s Pandemic Anxiety
Reverend Joe Haward explores the impact of the Coronavirus on empathetic children and what we can do to reassure them that they are not helpless while the Government fails to reassure us at every turn
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A Fatal Reckoning: UK reaches 100,000 deaths from COVID-19
With 3 per cent of worldwide Coronavirus, fatalities Byline Times Chief Medical Officer, John Ashton, marks Britain’s worst public health catastrophe for over a century
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Cultural Demise: The Gutting of the Hospitality Sector is About More than Jobs
Chris Sullivan, who founded the Wag Club in Soho, considers the sad end of London’s Café de Paris and the future of the UK’s pub, bar and club industry
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150 Years of History and Renewed Political Rivalries Will Charge the England-Scotland Euro Clash
Sports journalist Gary Gowers looks forward to Scotland’s clash with England in June and considers the historical baggage the game will bring with it
