Beneath the Crown

A generation locked out

Those who cannot afford to buy a property have been forced into the under-regulated private rental market.

Letter of the week: The levelling-up lie

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Why is Rishi Sunak giving his career in high finance such a low profile?

Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.

Sunak’s best man: can James Forsyth help save the Conservatives?

The former Spectator political editor’s arrival in No 10 has coincided with a steady Tory revival.

Why the government’s court action against striking nurses is an act of vindictive idiocy

Also this week: a guitar from Sting, and a literary reminder of why being 16 was never sweet.

Joanna Moncrieff: “I’m not convinced antidepressants have any use”

The controversial psychiatrist on taking on the pharmaceutical firms, and how Covid made it “OK to cancel scientists”.

A visit to Edinburgh, judging the Winner of Winners, and a case of mistaken identity

My fellow Baillie Gifford judges are formidable close readers: diligent, erudite, passionate, smart, committed. They made my job very…

Why Britain needs to have an honest conversation about rising migration

Few things are more corrosive of public trust than pretending a problem isn’t there. Sooner or later the public…

Why China and its trading allies are well placed to topple the dollar

After decades meting out sanctions and financial coercion, the US may soon feel its grip on world trade beginning…

Europe’s focus is on Ukraine and the east – but relations with Africa are as important

By 2050 two in every five children in the world are projected to born in Africa. It is the…

The invention of God

David Baddiel’s new book argues that a deity that saves us from death is confected from human desire.

The NS Poem: on the sheep track

A new poem by Lutz Seiler, translated by Stefan Tobler.

From Fernanda Melchor to Rafael Behr: new books reviewed in short

Also featuring My Father’s Brain by Sandeep Jauhar and The Seaside by Madeleine Bunting.

The ultra-processed food swindle

Engineered to trick our taste buds and appetites, artificially produced food is ruining our health and damaging our children.…

The politics of the new space race

Tim Marshall’s The Future of Geography shows how great powers – and Elon Musk – are looking to the…

Westminster is broken

Ian Dunt’s new book reveals Britain as a country of inept civil servants, deluded ministers, blinkered journalists and unscrutinised…

The brutality of ballet

Alice Robb’s Don’t Think Dear reveals how the elite world of dance exerts a terrible physical and mental toll.

The death of the groupie

The original mega-fan has shaped pop culture since the 1970s – but our ideas of sex, power and fame…

A Thousand and One understands the effects of gentrification

In this sensitive debut about a mother who steals her son from care, AV Rockwell maps the contours of…

The Windsors is the most painfully accurate depiction of the royals on TV

Forget The Crown – the uncanny veracity of this wild satire rings out like the dinner gong at Balmoral.

The secret history of how we measure time

Did you know the 24-hour day is likely the result of humans counting with their fingerbones?

A weekend with old friends turns into a catalogue of injuries – canine and human

The dog seemed distinctly unbothered to be padding around with a bit of her paw wobbling at a right…

A breakage means I might soon be drinking wine from a jam jar, like an effing hipster

My long, unfortunate history with wine glasses continues.

This England: Block and awe

This column – which, though named after a line in Shakespeare’s “Richard II”, refers to the whole of Britain…

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Daniel Avery’s Q&A: “I’m fascinated by the professional wrestling world”

The electronic music producer and DJ on faith, The Sopranos and culture war fanatics.