Why don’t we learn from our mistakes – even when it matters most?
Juan Rivera served ten years of prison time until DNA evidence overturned his sentence. But even now, some maintain…
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Isis and the threat to Britain
Burning the earth: Isis and the threat to Britain
Nearly 14 years on from the start of the so-called war on terror, the global jihad movement is deepening…
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Who speaks for Labour? The issue dividing Jeremy Corbyn and his shadow cabinet
Repeated policy divisions have left the party without a clear centre of authority.
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Tweeting periods: how Irish women are protesting against their country’s abortion laws
“Hi Enda,” one tweet began chirpily. “My ovulation day was a week ago today. 11 more days of freedom. And…
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Challenges lie ahead after Aung San Suu Kyi’s victory in Burma
Burma’s vote for changes has thrown up new problems – not least, how to deal with corruption.
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Hannah Gavron: a woman ahead of her time
“I’d been brought up with the character,” the writer Jeremy Gavron says of his mother Hannah. “Having lived so long…
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The 1939 Register: where did Britain sleep as war was declared?
The register brings the texture of one night 76 years ago within touching distance. What will happen for other records…
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Commons confidential: A colonel’s poppy policy
“I’ve seen enough men die,” said the Colonel Bob Stewart, “without being told I must show I care on…
ByLeader: Mr Osborne’s tipping point
With the easiest and most popular changes behind him and challenges ahead, will the tax credit revolt mark a tipping…
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The sport of performance enhancing, Margaret Thatcher’s prayers and Emperor Jez
The will to win is enough on its own to persuade some athletes to risk their health and sometimes…
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Narendra Modi’s visit to Britain is a welcome distraction from problems at home
When far from home, Modi quickly re-finds the voice that won over his countrymen in 2014.
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No wonder “Generation K“ loves The Hunger Games – they can’t rely on grown-ups either
Today’s teenage readers don’t trust authority or institutions and why should they? Adults have made an Orwellian nightmare of…
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James Bond’s real enemy? The British housing crisis
I would argue that Spectre, despite all its aerial gymnastics, also has a subtext dug deeply into the built…
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Viva el bogeyman: you’ll miss Rob Titchener when he’s gone
The villian of The Archers is so hated he even makes the announcer sound tense. But what will happen when leaves.…
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Edna O’Brien’s The Little Red Chairs packs the surprise of a jack-in-the-box
This is a powerfully magnetic and mighty strange novel about a powerfully magnetic and mighty strange man.
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Writing under the English skies: how artists handle the weather
Two new books by Alexandra Harris and Christine L Corton show how weather – and pollution – have powered…
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The cruel, screwball, vivacious world of Tangerine
Tangerine has so much vitality and pizzazz, the fact it was made on an iPhone is almost besides the…
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For all I didn’t particularly like London Spy, it has a certain authenticity
Right now, a lot of BBC drama feels like it was written by numbers. London Spy is different. ITV’s Downton, sadly…
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The teen magazines that caught the Sixties as they happened
All the confusion, power and excitement of the Sixties could be seen unfolding in its teenage pop press.
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Man on a wire: The playful simplicity of Alexander Calder
The wonder of Calder’s work with wire, on display at the Tate, is that their beauty makes you laugh.
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I never once saw Tom Graveney play – but in my imagination I watched his every stroke
Why does one player rather than another of equal achievement lodge indelibly in the memory?
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Dogs can be an unnerving presence on home visits – all dogs, except Hector
An exception to this doctor’s no-dogs rule was Hector, a white miniature poodle belonging to Gordon and Irene Ives.
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Cookbooks: road maps to strange delights
A feast for the eyes: but the best cookbooks are about more than just beautiful photographs.
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A Manual for Cleaning Women allows us to watch a virtuoso stylist at work
The short stories by Lucia Berlin featured in this selection are perfectly poised.
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John Gray: World hunger is the result of politics, not production
We can’t know when the next famine will occur, but it will be a by-product of war and politics.
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They’ve taken the MDF wall down in my local NatWest. Now you can see what banking used to look like
The bank is now closing for refurbishment. Whether it will be demolishing its secret garden, I do not know…
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The Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company is, in the best sense, mostly about Kenneth Branagh
It takes a lot to balance The Winter’s Tale with Rattigan’s Harlequinade, but KB manages it.
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I was a campaign virgin when I saw Gordon Brown meet Mrs Duffy
“Mrs Duffy,” the reporter began, a smudge of fake concern loitering between his eyes, “we have to tell you the…
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Never have football’s top players earned so much money – and enjoyed it less
The discipline now is brutal. All the staff at Man United will probably have to sign a form saying they’ll never…
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