The Critic Magazine

Friedrich Merz looks increasingly like Germany’s answer to Keir Starmer — and the CDU is helping him self-destruct Source

Britain’s diplomats are winning international approval at the expense of national interest Source

Labour may discover that abolishing a quango is easier said than done Source

Britain’s small boats crisis is becoming a crisis of legitimacy for the state Source

A decade after Jeremy Corbyn cemented his leadership, Corbynism is beginning to find its way back into Labour Source

Radical action is needed to overhaul an unsustainable system that is undermining social cohesion and trust in democracy Source

The superb cast are wholly attuned to the ironies and intricacies of Turgenev’s drama Source

The Lib Dems’ strategy of being all things to all voters is its greatest strength — and liability Source

Andy Burnham’s meeting with Donald Trump was less about diplomacy than surviving Source

Britain cannot make women safer by refusing to ask difficult questions about crime and migration Source

The Lords want to ban gambling advertising without evidence that it causes gambling harm Source

The UN wants a fairer world map, but maps have never been neutral — or perfect Source

Andriessen’s De Materie remains an exhilarating theatrical oddity Source

What Ed Sheeran could learn from Bob Dylan about dealing with demands for taking sides Source

Iran’s rulers face mounting crises, and repression may no longer be enough Source

the whiff of financial scandal has dented the party’s support.

Green’s America Source

People have more complex, consistent and coherent views about how to improve their streets Source

From the Hobbit to the King, Tolkien’s titles reveal the expanding scope of Middle-earth Source

We shouldn’t sacrifice energy security for social security Source

Police officers are being crushed by trauma, investigations and an organisation indifferent to their welfare Source

Euripides was too strange for his own age.

As England’s demographics change, the old assumptions about English identity are becoming harder to sustain Source

Radio programmes are on the chopping block — some will be missed Source

In search of Roger Hallam, the charismatic svengali of Just Stop Oil Source

The council that banned standing with a pint is now guarding an illegally installed Banksy Source

Tschabalala Self’s Fourth Plinth sculpture is neither a woke monstrosity nor a masterpiece: it's just fun Source

Why are taxpayers funding a school that mandates children to wear face coverings?

Anti-junk food campaigners wants supermarkets to join the war on junk food, and consumers to pay the price Source

We need to distinguish between creating value and creating wealth Source

£72 million?

The contrast with previous generations of refugees to Britain suggests something has gone badly wrong with the admission system Source

When no one is coming to save us, we still have to choose how to live Source

Banning face coverings is an unnecessary assault on individual liberty Source

Johannes Brahms: Piano works (ECM New Series) Source

Women need more than fertility facts.

Fifty years on, I, Claudius remains television’s greatest political drama Source

The conservationists won the war against demolition.

Palestine Action was banned, but the wider movement that developed around it has continued to evolve Source

Effective Altruism has spent years infiltrating Westminster: now Washington has noticed Source

The scheme to break up the United Kingdom will see all of our nations abolished Source

Burnham’s devolution revolution is creating bigger regional government without making existing government smaller Source

A year on, Labour’s legacy plans still threaten to turbocharge the Troubles lawfare Source

Britain’s shoplifting epidemic is being fuelled by a criminal justice system that rarely imposes meaningful punishment Source