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The Guardian |
Amid the cacophony of post-election analysis over the weekend, one item struck me as especially bleak for Rishi Sunak. It wasn’t the byelection...
Last week the State Library of New South Wales announced the shortlists of the 2024 Premier’s Literary awards. The announcement came with arguably...
I left an abusive relationship almost a decade ago, but my abuser has kept a noose around my neck every day since. At the time we had four young...
‘Bankruptcy” is a surprisingly amorphous term. For poor people, it means not having any money. For corporations and the super-wealthy it means a...
The best thing that can be said about the latest proposals from ministers to reform disability benefits is that they are unlikely ever to come to...
“What’s a Festschrift?” my youngest asks. “In German it means ‘celebration writing’,” I say, “I’m going to an academic conference to...
The latest twists and turns in negotiations to end the war in Gaza appear labyrinthine and confusing. But it’s really not that complicated....
Labour’s tanks roll relentlessly across Tory lawns, not pausing a heartbeat to celebrate phenomenal local election results in England. It treated...
Last week’s local election results may finally have sunk Rishi Sunak’s Conservative party. It lost all but one of the 11 mayoralty contests, and...
God knows I don’t want to pick sides in the bitter rivalry between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The rappers’ feud has been going on for way too long...
The White House rightly said it was “concerning” when Israel’s parliament laid the groundwork to shut down Al Jazeera within its borders in...
Feeling safe to socialise should be everyone’s right. Reports of Queensland MP Brittany Lauga alleging she was drugged and sexually assaulted during...
I’m kneeling on the hard, cold tiles of my bathroom floor retching into the toilet bowl, and I’ve been here for some time. The colour has drained...
In 2019, I helped prove in court that the then prime minister misled the Queen. Boris Johnson claimed he prorogued parliament for purely...
I spent three weeks visiting prisons across Scandinavia to find out how they feed their prisoners. You may ask why any of us should be concerned...
John Swinney’s accession to the leadership of the Scottish National party has been called a “coronation”. Yet the smooth handover of power that...
Last Thursday, people voted for change. There appears to be a settled view now that the country needs a fresh start. And yet anyone who has stood...
Things had been tense at the University of California, Los Angeles, with some ugly jibes and the occasional shove exchanged between students who...
A dark month of black swan events threatens to push the national political debate on to a platform of fear as the drumbeat of trauma asks new...
Tuesday is officially the morning after the Met Gala of the night before, when we civilians get to press our noses up against the glass of our...
“In America, the student movement has been seriously radicalized wherever police and police brutality intervened in essentially nonviolent...
England’s 12 “metro mayors” should be abolished. Metro mayorships are artificial creations whose regional geography rarely reflects any civic...
When Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor being vetted as a candidate for Donald Trump’s vice-president, admitted in her memoir to having shot...
The job I was applying for was three days a week. It was a backwards step, career-wise, but the hours were attractive. By that I mean that the...
On a hot day last week, the pavements outside Columbia University were heaving. About 200 protesters were gathered, making a noise that was bigger...
The first four months of 2024 have brought the horror of violence against women into the news feeds of everyday Australians. Each day we have been...
How to react to unfolding calamity? Tory MPs took different approaches. “Disastrous. Worse than I expected and pointing to a total wipeout.”...
Chioma Nnadi, who has taken over at British Vogue, says she has settled back in seamlessly after 20 years out of the UK. “I realised just how...
The first passenger train from England to France carried Queen Elizabeth II to Calais on 6 May 1994. Trains carrying less exalted passengers would...
The local and mayoral elections saw many traditional Labour-voting Muslim voters abandon the party they’ve loyally supported for decades. One...
I never used to think of myself as a liar. I always saw myself as an honest person. The only time I’d ever veer from the truth was to protect...
Everyone goes through it: a reckoning with one’s own mortality in the mirror, poking at eye bags and tugging at folds of loose skin. Am I looking...
From a Buddhist perspective, everyone can learn to live simply and be happy. There’s no great secret to it. Simplicity is not an aesthetic or a...
Late last Monday, I got home from a long day of political reporting to find a political leaflet produced by the Conservative party. It had nothing...
I’ve been spending the last several weeks trying to find out what’s really going on with the campus protests. I’ve met with students at...
Britain ran an empire for centuries that at its peak 100 years ago occupied just under a quarter of the world’s land area. Yet if you believe “...
If a record of sexual apartheid is not the ideal look for a nation that must still, occasionally, placate progressives, news of an extreme example...
David Blunkett acknowledged last week that it was the “biggest regret” of his political life. As home secretary under Tony Blair in 2001, Blunkett...
I devoured the journalist Hamish Bowles’s recent account of his recovery from a severe stroke, not just because good writing on life-altering...
In the psychedelic 60s stop-frame animation children’s television series Trumpton, all the characters have identifying proper names – the...
It’s not often you find yourself nodding along with those with whom you normally profoundly disagree, and raising an eyebrow at the contributions...
There’s an old adage that says sport and politics don’t mix. It’s a moot point with persuasive arguments on both sides. But in light of former...
I am preparing for an anaesthetist to sink a hypodermic needle into my back at a busy London hospital ahead of a scheduled surgery to replace my...
In the wake of more, more, more reports of lethal male violence against women in Australia – and the protests demanding actions that have...
The mayoral elections demonstrated that there is a way to win for a Conservative. This is to make out that you have nothing to do with the Tories....
Every government looks to save money. Sometimes, it’s a priority to reduce spending, as with post-2010 austerity. Even when overall spending is...
Across Britain today, hundreds of thousands of us will tuck into one of the world’s most perfect dishes. Crispy batter encasing flaky fish; a...
It was after the third song in Britten’s Les Illuminations that Ian Bostridge decided he’d had enough. Wheeling round to face the constellation...
Anyone for a toyboy? The hit of the season has been The Idea of You , the film adaptation of Robinne Lee’s bestseller in which a woman in her 40s...
On Tuesday night, we watched in horror as hundreds of riot police flooded our beloved campus and brutalized our classmates. The next day, students...
Browsing through a history of online public messaging last week, I came across a magical photograph from 1989 or 1990. It shows the world’s first...
How old is old? That depends on how old you are, for as you age you will nudge that number upwards. A recent German study asked people over the age...
Australia has a global reputation for high quality education. But inclusion for children and young people with disability in all that education can...
Thank goodness for the “bank of mum and dad”: now there’s an expression to make me a bit sick in my mouth. I am the parent of two adult children...
Trapped in a bullet-ridden car in Gaza City, surrounded by her dead relatives, six-year-old Hind Rajab pleaded with the Red Crescent for help. That...
Teaching an undergraduate class on democracy at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs this semester has felt urgent...
Three things are certain: antisemitism is on the rise; hatred of Muslims is increasing; and everyone – but especially those at universities with...
It’s rare that an Italian prime minister tops the table in Europe. But with Germany’s Olaf Scholz and France’s Emmanuel Macron facing red cards...