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Queen Victoria on cannabis, and all the other things you never knew about drugs
Modern governments have long demonised drugs, but the world now may be inching its way back towards the more rational view held in the 19th century.A London opium den in the 1870s, by Gustav Doré...
View ArticleSmall and medium-sized enterprises: a question of confidence
Much needs to be done, especially when it comes to access to credit.Flick through the business pages, and you will find countless news articles on the latest share price and quarterly results of the...
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Tom Bower: the biographer as big-game hunter
A former BBC investigative journalist turned biographer, Bower is drawn to chronicle the big egos that try to dominate the world around them.Is there a thread that links the Nazi war criminal Klaus...
View ArticleAbounaddara Collective Shorts from Syria plus panel discussion on “Emergency...
Wednesday 26 March 18.30, Curzon Soho.Abounaddara is a collective of filmmakers working towards providing an alternative image of Syrian society. It was founded in 2010 in opposition to the prevailing...
View ArticleClimate change has finally returned as a mainstream issue
More than the floods, it is interventions by politicians that have led to a spike in public concern. Last week, an opinion poll by YouGov found that public concern for the environment had spiked to...
View ArticleCameron's zombie government has nothing of substance to offer
The lack of government legislation is so great that ministers are now constantly increasing the days allocated to Opposition motions.This week the Commons is on a half-term recess. Since our return in...
View ArticleWestminster isn’t qualified to debate how wealth and power are stitched up in...
There is no guarantee that fair distribution of opportunity will even be a factor in the election.Hereditary power is booming in Britain. The best jobs go to graduates of top universities, to which...
View ArticleRemembering Stuart Hall, a denizen of the twentieth-century left in Britain
He expressed better than most what it meant to be red under Thatcher.A few weeks ago at the British Film Institute’s public archive, I watched a programme by Stuart Hall called It Ain’t Half Racist,...
View ArticleMorning Call: pick of the papers
The ten must-read comment pieces from this morning's papers.1. Climate change deniers have grasped that markets can't fix the climate (Guardian)The refusal to accept global warming is driven by...
View ArticleWhy the Blair-Brooks revelations are useful for Miliband
The contrast between Blair's bid to save Brooks and Miliband's call for her resignation is a reminder of how Labour has changed for the better since 2010. There were some Tories who reacted with glee...
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The storm factory: climate change and the winter floods
In Somerset, the novelty of canoes has long since worn off.I reached Burrow Mump two hours after the soldiers. Major Al Robinson and Sergeant Leigh Robinson of 24 Commando Engineer Regiment were the...
View ArticleChannel 4's Babylon: not much cop
So much seemed right about this show, but it failed to deliver a grin. BabylonChannel 4I saw the moderately hyped Babylon (9 February, 9pm) around the time PC Keith Wallis was jailed for a year for...
View ArticleIt’s Valentine’s Day phone-in time, or rather, text-in
Increasingly, listeners tend to text instead, something that has changed the dynamic of the phone-in to no end.As Valentine’s Day approached, Aled and Dr Radha of BBC Radio 1’s Sunday-evening call-in...
View ArticleThought crimes: inside the consciousness of a damaged, damaging man
In Andrew’s Brain by E L Doctorow, the historical and the grand meld with the ordinary and affecting in a story that also features “an international dealer in Munchkins”. Andrew’s Brain E L...
View ArticleThe Fan: The time to listen to experts
I believe experts are there to be listened to and then ignored. The “tiger mother” woman, Amy Chua, was being interviewed the other day about her new book. She mentioned her husband, who, like her, is...
View ArticleSqueezed Middle: Time for Larry’s fourth birthday
Curly and I are, for once, in full agreement: we’re keeping it simple and traditional.‘‘I am SO excited!” Larry’s face is glowing like a Belisha beacon. It’s only 7am and it’s not his birthday until...
View ArticleCould a Clegg-Farage debate be followed by a Cameron-Miliband debate?
The Tories could use a debate between the Lib Dem leader and his UKIP opposite to argue for the head-to-head contest they want between the two main leaders. Nick Clegg's decision to challenge Nigel...
View ArticleUkraine is at war, we're just not admitting it yet
Ukraine finds itself in an impossible clinch, where it is alternately patronised (“those heroic Ukrainians!”) and refused serious help to counter Russia’s bailouts. With people dying on the streets as...
View ArticleForget Benefits Street. When will we shame the scroungers lapping up...
Ignore the media misinformation: spending on out-of-work benefits isn’t out of control, nor is the welfare state responsible for growing poverty.From The Big Benefits Row to Benefits Street, everyone...
View ArticleOops! I did it again: Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac
The sexual exploits of Joe, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg and newcomer Stacy Martin, are depicted without modesty - but the film stops short of being pornographic, tempered as it is by comedy,...
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Reprogramming science fiction: the genre that is learning to love
From Battlestar Galactica to Spike Jonze’s new film Her, modern science fiction is growing up and humanising.There is more reason than usual to turn off your phone before settling down to watch Her,...
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Phalluses and fallacies: the poetry of sex by Sophie Hannah
All poetry is driven by sex, whether or not it acknowledges the impulse. The Poetry of Sex Edited by Sophie HannahViking, 220pp, £14.99The Poetry of Sex is a pretty coy title for a collection of...
View ArticleCommons Confidential: Strong wind batters No 10
Surely, a farting competition didn't take place right outside the PM's house?Guarding the gatesof Downing Street is so dull that the armed cops are forced to play silly games to break the boredom. This...
View ArticleStop off at the roadside garage for petrol, some crisps, Zovirax, porcini and...
No one in their right mind would ever visit a garage for the love of gastronomy, yet everybody who’s passing through seizes the opportunity to put something in their mouth.If motorway service centres...
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Richard Hamilton helped define the 1960s but they don’t define him
Unlike Warhol or Lichtenstein – overexposed and often in London – or the more instantly accessible Caulfield or Blake, Hamilton flies slightly under the radar: a hugely influential ideas man but not...
View ArticleThe uses and abuses of intersectionality
If there's one thing I've learned about feminism, it's that we should all try to be better; but we should also acknowledge that perfection is impossible. Intersectionality! Boo! Are you scared yet? Are...
View ArticleFeng Xiaogang: the Chinese Spielberg
With new cinemas in China popping up at the rate of ten a day, Feng Xiaogang is the Chinese answer to Steven Spielberg: a reliable box office hitter.Every Chinese New Year, a huge migration takes...
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20 years after his death, we still know so little of Derek Jarman
A facsimile of his only book of poems, A Finger in the Fishes Mouth, and a new book of sketches, thoughts and quotations, brings Jarman's art into fuller and more luminous perspective.A Finger in the...
View ArticleWhat happens to Scottish MPs if Scotland votes Yes?
Would they be allowed to vote on UK-wide laws? And would they still stand in May 2015? After months of indifference, Westminster and Fleet Street have finally begun to recognise the significance of...
View ArticleLet’s not pretend: David Bowie’s Brit Award was for being alive
Musicians and pundits need to get over their obsessive, nostalgic hero-worship. In 2014, David Bowie is irrelevant.In ten years time, if we should happen to look over the Brits winners of 2014, among...
View ArticleLabour needs to go much further to give real meaning to devolution
A council tax revaluation, local proportional representation and participatory budgets should all be on the table. Last week was all about devolution. Ed Miliband and Jon Cruddas led the charge with a...
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Kevin Pietersen: the man who fell to earth
Kevin Pietersen willed himself to become an Englishman, and is as troubled as he is gifted. But who is he? And will we miss him now that he is banished from the team?I — Five years ago, researching a...
View ArticleXenophobia from the Daily Mail, and perhaps it is Tristram Hunt who should...
The silence of the climate-change deniers, subsidising Dacre’s acres, and Tristram Hunt’s silence.Where are they all? As half of southern England disappears under flood water, Nigel Lawson and his son...
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Your emoticon addiction may actually make people like you more
Emoticons are a new and evolving form of language, and they are producing new patterns of brain activity.This article first appeared on newrepublic.comThe brain is a funny organ. It controls...
View ArticleEven as a Blairite, I'm tired of defending Blair
Labour’s serial election winner may have finally found an enemy who is capable of destroying him: himself.At a televised town hall meeting shortly before the 2010 Congressional elections, Democratic...
View ArticleThe Returning Officer: Mid Antrim
The Mid Antrim seat existed from 1885 to 1922. It had three MPs, all called O’Neill. The first, Robert Torrens O’Neill, was defeated by William Pirrie Sinclair in a by-election for the previous seat,...
View ArticleMinisters can no longer deny the link between food banks and benefit cuts
The long-delayed government-commissioned report slipped out today contradicts claims by ministers that food bank usage is driven by supply. People, it turns out, are going to food banks because they’re...
View ArticleMorning Call: pick of the papers
The ten must-read comment pieces from this morning's papers.1. It's no wonder David Cameron has alienated the church (Guardian)Though Cameron used a centrist strategy to win power, his policies have...
View ArticleCould flood prevention help Labour make the case for "good borrowing"?
Ed Balls's emphasis on the long-term benefits of investment in flood defences is an example of how the party could challenge the Tory narrative on public spending. With the flood waters finally...
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In the Frame: The Myth of Climate Change – 2014 Edition
Tom Humberstone’s weekly observational comic for the NS.
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All work, all play: the art of videogame writing
Videogames are designed and programmed for action, which means storytelling has the capacity to be complex and engaging in ways not possible in other media.Games writers dream up characters, dialogue,...
View ArticleWatch: Philip Hammond confuses Liz Kendall with Rachel Reeves on Question Time
"I know we all look the same," said Kendall after being repeatedly mistaken for her shadow cabinet colleague. Last night's Question Time was not one Philip Hammond will want to remember. Up against...
View ArticleWhy we must destroy the myth of miscarriage as women's “failure”
Knowing how common miscarriage is – an estimated one in four pregnancies end this way – doesn’t stop you from feeling guilty.You remember the birthdays of the children you don’t have. My first child...
View ArticleTo solve the living standards crisis, all parties need to go much further on...
Too many many parents are trapped at home or are only able to work a few hours a week because of the rising cost of childcare.With the price of childcare increasing at double the rate of overall...
View ArticleThe President of Kazakhstan suggests his country should be renamed
President Nazerbayev doesn't want to rule a "stan" any more. So he's suggesting it become Kazakh Yeli or Kazakhiya.What’s in a name? When it comes to geographical place names, quite a lot actually, as...
View ArticleWatch: "I Am a Ukrainian" viral video
The American-made video has been criticised for oversimplifying the crisis in Ukraine - but its message, by an anonymous Ukrainian known only as "Yulia", is impassioned and compelling.
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Most Romanians and Bulgarians already had full access to benefits before 2014
Oxford researchers have now found that, last year, 59.1 per cent of working migrants from the two countries were self-employed, which gave them the same access to tax credits and housing benefits as...
View ArticleDon't call the midwife: why we're obsessed with “natural” childbirth
A new history of the Lamaze technique is balanced and impressive, but, like almost everything connected to childbirth, it is not entirely neutral or impassive. This article first appeared on...
View ArticleWhy it's time for football clubs to reintroduce standing areas
The introduction of "safe-standing" at Premiership football grounds would allow clubs to reduce ticket prices and prove that clubs are prepared to listen to their fans. The Fullwell End at Roker Park...
View ArticleWe need to end the childcare crunch on our families and the economy
Families have been hit by a triple whammy in childcare: rising childcare costs, falling early years places and cuts to financial support.Today's important report from the IPPR lays bare the...
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