T here were fateful choices in the autumn of 1931 and the months that followed whose consequences affect us today. The beliefs still current in British exceptionalism – attachment to laissez-faire eco...
04.21.2024 Theguardian.com and 4 sitesAndy Beckett’s takedown of the Thatcherite myth is timely (Margaret Thatcher set Britain’s decline in motion – so why can’t politics exorcise her ghost? , 12 April). Most remarkable is Keir Starmer’s ...
04.21.2024 Theguardian.com and 1 sitesIn 1947, my great-aunt Ena moved from India to start a new life in Kenya with her husband Jimmy Power, an Indian army officer. The goal - as for so many expats after the Second World War - was to buil...
04.20.2024 Telegraph.co.uk and 1 sitesHealth questions on a Tuesday morning, nothing new there. One side says there are too few doctors; the other that there are, if anything, too many. But what is this? “ Happy St George’s Day , ” says A...
04.23.2024 Telegraph.co.uk“And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty’s heightening, Lovely all time she lies, lovely tonight. ”In Thyrsis, inspired by the stunning golden architecture of Oxford, Victorian poet Matthew Arnold coined the phrase that best describes the medieval metropolis: “the city of dreaming spires”. Situated between the upper River Thames (known as the Isis here) and the Cherwell, the riverside location gave Oxford its name in Saxon times, “Oxenaforda” or “Ford of the O...
04.25.2024 Hindustantimes.comMost politics is day by day, and certainly we consume it that way. But the thought that presses on my mind has distant horizons. The criminal trial of Donald Trump, de facto Republican presidential no...
04.19.2024 Livemint.com and 1 sitesIslay House – arguably the most prestigious building on the island famed for its whisky – has come back on the market with a price tag of £3 million. The house, which has its origins in the 17th centu...
04.24.2024 Scotsman.comHarold Macmillan. Peter Walker. Peter Shore. Geoffrey Rippon. Lord Hailsham. These are some of the vandals who should be named and shamed for destroying the roofscapes, skylines and grand views of Lon...
04.20.2024 Christopherfowler.co.uk