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Swinney ‘not interested’ in fight with UK Government over plan to cap food costs

The SNP set out the proposal on Thursday, but a UK Government source has suggested the policy could cost millions in legal fees. Scotland’s First Minister has said he is…

Starmer did not lie and has not considered quitting over Mandelson row – Jones

Sainsbury’s to shed light on Iran war impact amid recent sales growth

Uber ups stake in Delivery Hero in £235 million deal

Tesco switches barcodes for QR codes in UK ‘first’

Video shows pro-Palestine activists vandalising Glasgow insurance office

‘Unacceptable’ to overrule Mandelson vetting recommendation – Jones

Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron to host Paris talks on opening Strait of Hormuz

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Sonia Sodha

Breaking the class ceiling

Aspiration and social mobility were at the heart of Tony Blair’s “education, education, education” pitch in 1997. They are similarly echoed in Keir Starmer’s vision for Britain: he has repeatedly framed his desire to be…

Simon Heffer

Correcting our Grammar mistake

During the Blair years, when recalcitrant Conservatives longed for a pledge to open new grammar schools, no class warrior threw himself into the battle against selective education with such ferocity…

Rowan Pelling

Letter from the editor

It often feels there are only three topics worth discussing: sex, death and freedom. And…

Michael Janofsky

Long division

Our good friend Kalyan, a gay Indian-American, was so distraught by rising discrimination against Blacks,…

Khaled Bazzi

Where hope takes root

As headlines veer toward the apocalyptic – from collapsing ecosystems to vanishing species – it’s…

Peter Lawlor

Rent in two

In this class-themed issue I want to touch on an important social distinction in the…

Nathaniel Tapley

Bonkers bunkers

In December 2023 Ron Hubbard, a security consultant from Texas (not to be confused with…

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For some of the world’s best independent writing on the stories and ideas shaping our world

COMMENT

Sonia Sodha

The pitfalls of assisted dying

One of the first concepts new students of philosophy are…

Simon Heffer

An age without rival

It wasn’t long before Hallowe’en that I noted many of…

Guy Shrubsole

English pastoral

Guy Shrubsole explores England’s buried tradition of land reform, where less than one percent of…

Nathaniel Tapley

Defenestration nation

Postmortems on the corpse of the Conservative party are much like those on real bodies:…

Sam Fowles

Unfree speech

Free speech is “under threat”, or so we are continually told. Under threat from whom?…

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Perspectives

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All that jazz

Lucy Moore

The carefree socialites of the 1920s can teach us how to let our hair down

Birth room battles

Milli Hill

Women are not being properly consulted about their wishes during childbirth

Know thy past

Gillian Mosely

Current shocking violence in Israel and Gaza has its roots in ages of conflict and injustice

The New Crusades

Boris Starling

From crusader crosses at marches to political speeches quoting the Old Testament, a strident form of Christian nationalism is crossing the Atlantic, threatening Britain's traditional separation of church and state

Perspectives

Free as a bird

Keggie Carew

A meditation on our complex relationship with wildness

Deadly game

Nicholas Blincoe

Palestinians have been kicked around for decades – could football have something to teach politicians on every side?

Fake farm story

Joy Lo Dico

Shouldn’t we be doing more for British farmers?

Guns and poses

Michael Burleigh

The Ukraine invasion is changing the future of warfare

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PEOPLE

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TCE The Interview The Interview – Front Page

BY

Gavin Esler

Martin Rees

Gavin Esler talks to the UK’s Astronomer Royal. "The solutions for reducing existential threats are within our grasp"

In Conversation In Conversation – Front Page TCE

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Joanna Grochowicz

Michael Palin

Talks about his new volume of diaries, his support for the Prison Reform Trust, the loss of his wife Helen, and his determination to keep travelling in his 80s

Reputations Reputations – Front Page

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Lucy Ward

Catherine the Great

The enlightened empress who inoculated herself to protect her subjects and advance science

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE - Q&As

Zandra Rhodes

Fashion designer

Tom Curry

England Rugby International and Sale Sharks Flanker

Chris van Tulleken

Doctor, author and science presenter

Daniel Howell

Author, entertainer and comedian

Robert Peston

ITV News political editor and presenter of Peston

Doon Mackichan

actress, comedian, author

Mike Figgis

Film director, composer, musician

Joanna Lumley

Actress, campaigner and national treasure

Kate Mosse

Author and founder of the Women’s Prize

Benny Higgins

Banker

Ed Balls

Economist, broadcaster and former cabinet minister

Dan Snow

Historian and TV presenter

Wynne Evans

Opera singer and radio presenter

Michael Holding

Former West Indies Test cricketer and Sky Sports commentator

Ronni Ancona

Comedian, actress and filmmaker

Lucy Easthope

Disaster planner and recovery expert

Phil Hammond

Doctor, comedian, journalist

Jeremy Paxman

Journalist, broadcaster and quizmaster

Katie Brand

Award-winning writer and comedian

Andrew Roberts

Historian and journalist

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE – Q&As

Zandra Rhodes

Fashion designer

Ronni Ancona

Comedian, actress and filmmaker

Lucy Easthope

Disaster planner and recovery expert

Tom Curry

England Rugby International and Sale Sharks Flanker

Robert Peston

ITV News political editor and presenter of Peston

Rosie Boycott

The first woman to edit a UK broadsheet newspaper

John Lloyd

Producer of Blackadder and Spitting Image

Chris van Tulleken

Doctor, author and science presenter

Mike Figgis

Film director, composer, musician

Jeremy Bowen

International Editor of BBC News

Lynn Barber

author and journalist

Ed Vaizey

Member of the House of Lords

Wynne Evans

Opera singer and radio presenter

Ed Balls

Economist, broadcaster and former cabinet minister

Lucy Hughes-Hallett

Historian, biographer, novelist

Jeremy Paxman

Journalist, broadcaster and quizmaster

Michael Holding

Former West Indies Test cricketer and Sky Sports commentator

Phil Hammond

Doctor, comedian, journalist

Katie Brand

Award-winning writer and comedian

Kate Mosse

Author and founder of the Women’s Prize

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CULTURE

MORE AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Author Interview – Front Page The author Interview

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Helen Brown

“Most people, most of the time, are if not collaborators then co-operators with the ruling regime”

Mary Beard

The classicist, Cambridge don and trustee of the British Museum discusses flamingo-brain feasts, gender surgery in antiquity and her new book Emperor of Rome

Naomi Alderman

The novelist, gamer and Bailey Women’s Prize winner discusses tech billionaires, apocalypse bunkers, her fans Obama and Gates, and her new book The Future

Hanna Pylväinen

Whiting Award and Balcones Fiction Prize-winner discusses her strict Lutheran upbringing and her novel The End of Drum-Time

Sarah Hall

The acclaimed novelist discusses her Goldsmiths Prize-shortlisted novel Helm, writing a "strange biography" of Britain's only named wind, climate collapse and "radical optimism," and why sorority is the key to consolidating power shifts and positive change

FEATURES

Hymn to Hestia

Natalie Haynes

The forgotten goddess of the hearth

Acts of sedition

Pauline F Kiernan

Shakespeare’s Richard II was pure treason, so how did he get away with it? asks the author

Gothic delights

Elizabeth Sharkey

Exploring the history of a genre that first bewitched Elizabeth as a teenage Joy Division fan

FILM

Poverty porn

Anne Billson

STYLE

Dressing for dinner

Christobel Kent

POETRY

I Am Waiting For You by Risalet Merdan

Hermeneutics by Rebecca Hurst

Tight Little Island by Rishi Dastidar

Things to Consider in the Design of Your First Space Suit by Harry Man

Blood Moon by Gillian Clarke

ART

The art of perturbation

Rachel Campbell Johnston

MUSIC

Sucking the marrow out of life

Laura Barton

CULTURE

The author Interview

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Fiona Sturges

“Climate change is the most important crisis to face us within the memory of human consciousness”

Ben Okri

The recently knighted novelist, essayist, playwright, poet and Booker Prize winner discusses climate change and his new book Tiger Work with Fiona Sturges

Tessa Hadley

The critically acclaimed novelist discusses her 1950s-set novella The Party with Helen Brown

Ruth Ivo

The former burlesque dancer discusses her fictionalised memoir of Soho life in Performance, the exhilarating freedom of club nights in her youth and “hatching” from an egg on stage