The Truss Delusion

Leader: Unserious government for serious times

In a new era of permanent crisis, voters crave security, not Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s free-market utopianism.

Letter of the week: Fantasy economics

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How corporate Britain is forecasting Keir Starmer in Downing Street

Your weekly dose of gossip from around Westminster.

Industry is porn posing as prestige TV

This supposedly gritty BBC drama offers a gratuitous, outlandish depiction of Gen Z sex. But what really grates is…

Jess Phillips’ Diary: An alcohol-free Labour conference and trickle-up economics

For the first time in my political career I feel that Labour is now a united, fighting force. Three…

Dieter Helm: “Capitalism works best with a strong state”

The professor of economic policy at Oxford University discusses Trussonomics and system failure in the UK.

Keir Starmer’s speech showed he is a prime minister in waiting

The Labour leader proved he has properly listened to the worry pulsing through the country.

The Conservatives are lost in a fantasy world and are a danger to the country

The virus that infected the Tories during the Brexit years has led to ever more delusional beliefs.

Hilary Mantel’s death is an incalculable loss to our national life and literature

The late novelist’s extraordinary talent was to take our collective history and make it new.

The vision of Ralph Vaughan Williams

In reviving local and popular musical traditions, the composer found haunting new expressions of Englishness.

The NS Poem: Leelanau

A new poem by Taylor Strickland.

From Elizabeth Strout to Robert Harris: recent books reviewed in short

Also featuring How To Speak Whale by Tom Mustill and a history of the Nineties by James Brooke-Smith.

Football’s data delusion

A new book by Rory Smith looks at why the English Premier League is still searching for its Moneyball…

The raucous return of Pussy Riot

As Vladimir Putin escalated his war the Russian punk rebels performed in Canterbury, urging him to “jump up into…

Lucian Freud’s pitiless style

The painter was a scrupulous observer of bodies, who refused to demean his art by flattering his subjects.

Don’t Worry Darling is a derivative let-down

Olivia Wilde’s film about an idyllic 1950s community reflects modern anxieties but has little new to say.

Inside Man is the TV equivalent of a game of chess

Turn away from Steven Moffat’s crime drama for even a moment, and you’ll literally lose the plot.

Mind-reading for TikTok teens

The podcast Influenced with Joel M pulls off an impossible trick: an illusionist show in an audio format.

I’m moving house again – and moving away from my old, hurt self too

I’ve found the process of leaving each of my previous homes anxiety-inducing. But this time is different.

After the England-Germany game, I have a cunning plan to win the World Cup

Instead of sending to Qatar the so-called Lions we have seen play poorly in recent weeks, I think we…

As Trussonomics looms, when will I be able to afford to eat eggs Benedict again?

The number of people who will be qualified to write their own “Down and Out” column is about to…

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This England: Just desserts

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

Erinch Sahan Q&A: “I’d like Picasso to paint my portrait: I always wanted a pointier jaw”

The sustainable-business advocate on the coming culture war over climate change and the optimism of the early 1900s.