Society

Tuesday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

The knives are out for the conclave front-runner Parolin

The 133 cardinal electors who will process into the Sistine Chapel tomorrow are feeling battered and confused by the prospect of choosing a new pope in a ruthless digital age. Many of them show it in the faces, flinching at the sight of the press. The cardinal-electors must elect a man of shining moral integrity. It doesn’t take a cynic to work out which of the candidates don’t fit that description But the journalists are struggling, too. For centuries, the interregnum between a pope’s death and the vote has been a season of mud-slinging – an opportunity for supporters of various cardinals to kick their rivals. But nothing in recent

Benedict Rogers

The new pope must stop bending the knee to Beijing

As 133 cardinal electors gather in the Sistine Chapel tomorrow to begin the process of choosing a new Pope, there will be many considerations in their minds. They will be weighing up whether to build on or reject Francis’ legacy of progressive reform, whether to move in a more liberal or conservative direction, and whether to return the papacy to its Italian roots, opt for another European, or build on the precedent of the Latin American Francis and branch out to the wider world. Could this be the moment for an Asian or African pope? Persecution of Catholics – and Christians more broadly – has intensified in China over the

Alexander Larman

King Charles’s reign has begun poorly

Today marks the second anniversary of King Charles’s coronation, but celebrations are likely to be rather limited this time around. In truth, it is hard to call the past two years a particular success for the Royal Family. The king has suffered from cancer, for which his debilitating (and, it has to be said, ageing) treatment is still ongoing, as has his daughter-in-law. His younger brother has continued to bring shame upon the institution of the monarchy, most notably through shady financial dealings that have invited interest in his relationships with rumoured Chinese spies. His younger son has sold his birthright from his Montecito mansion, and complained vociferously about the

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

The National Theatre just gets worse and worse

The new artistic director of the National Theatre is Indhu Rubasingham, who this weekend told the Sunday Times what to expect from her tenure. Now hang on to your hats, because it’s bold, exciting and unexpected stuff. No, don’t be silly, of course it isn’t. It’s utterly ordinary, bog-standard, progressive-establishment rubbish. But you will, I’m afraid, need to hang on to your breakfast when I reveal the exciting programme Rubasingham has lined up for the nation. I hereby state that I will not be legally liable for any crinjuries (injuries resulting from cringe) which are sustained by readers who go further than this point. You have been warned.  There is to

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Wes Streeting won’t end the 8am GP appointment scramble

You can say it for Wes Streeting: he doesn’t hang about. Reacting to the heavy loss of council seats in last week’s elections, he is proffering £102 million of money for extra GPs’ appointments – hopefully to end what has been termed the “8am scramble”: a kind of Hunger Games which NHS patients have to go through in order to be seen. The Health Secretary has been pointed in trying to attribute this funding boost to the unpopular rise in employers’ national insurance contributions The Health Secretary has been pointed in trying to attribute this funding boost to the very unpopular rise in employers’ national insurance contributions in last autumn’s

Monday

Nigel Jones

Donald Trump needs a history lesson

President Donald Trump has again demonstrated his less than impressive grasp of history with a statement on his Truth Social site on the 80th anniversary of VE Day – the end of the Second World War in Europe – claiming that the US ‘did more than any other country by far’ to win the global conflict. In terms of cold statistics, it was the Soviet Union that did most to defeat Nazi Germany, suffering the colossal loss of 24 million military and civilian lives before the Red Army entered the ruins of Berlin to end the Third Reich. The US lost a total of 418,500 dead in fighting Japan and

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

My apology to Reform

I have read countless commentaries explaining why we shouldn’t take Reform’s victories last Thursday too seriously. They are all wrong. I have the distinct impression that these were the most significant election results for a good few decades. Up here in the north, everyone I know voted Reform. More importantly, when I used to ask people how they voted, they would beckon me to one side and, through a cupped hand, whisper ‘Reform’. Now they say it out loud and proud. And the apology is because I had doubted Reform’s ability to climb above 30 per cent – the crucial figure. I also doubted that they were serious enough about

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

The hypocrisy of Britain’s military elite

Commemorations begin today to mark the eightieth anniversary of Victory in Europe Day. A military procession will leave Parliament Square and head to Buckingham Palace – the start of four days of events that culminate on Thursday, actual VE Day, with a service of thanksgiving from Westminster Abbey. Britain’s military top brass will be out in force, laying wreaths at memorials and talking in grave tones about the courage and sacrifice of the Second World War generation. This generation was ethnically diverse, as highlighted in the set of commemorative stamps released by Royal Mail to mark VE Day. A recent poll found that 86% of the British public agree that

Sam Leith Sam Leith

Gene-editing won’t save our fruit

The other day, I had a dismaying experience while making my usual frugal lunch. Usually, a cheese sandwich does me. Two slices bread, salted butter, thick bits of the maturest cheddar Ocado has to offer, and a grind of salt and pepper: a lunch fit for a king. But even kings like to change things up a bit from time to time. Custom has an established track record of staling things. So when I spotted, lurking at the bottom of the crisper, a solitary tomato, blemishless and an inviting deep red in colour, I thought: what the hell, you only live once. A cheese and tomato sandwich it would be,

Samuel Rubinstein

Cambridge can do better than Gina Miller

Oxford, said Matthew Arnold, was “the home of lost causes and forsaken beliefs”. Now Cambridge is giving it a run for its money. Oxford’s chancellor election last year was widely billed as a two-horse race between the elder statesmen Lords Mandelson and Hague; the latter in the end won handily. They both had their hang-ups and lost causes too, of course, but they were also men who matter. Fortunately for Gina Miller it is customary for Cambridge chancellors to be lacking in political acumen Does Gina Miller – who in her latest attention-seeking stunt wants to be the next chancellor of Cambridge University – matter? She did once. “I was

John Foreman

Don’t forget Bomber Command

There were many tributes when John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway, the last surviving fighter pilot of the Battle of Britain, died in March. Prince William said he was saddened about the death of the ‘last of The Few’ while the prime minister saluted Hemingway’s ‘extraordinary life’. There were no such statements in February on the death of Jack Harris, believed to have been the last surviving Lancaster bomber pilot. Official indifference to those who served in Bomber Command is not new. Churchill said little about the bomber offensive in his war memoirs, seeking to distance himself politically from the widespread destruction wrought by his own decision to focus on bombing as a way

Sunday

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Are Protestants free to criticise Catholicism?

The death of a Pope is a time for assorted reflections on the Catholic Church. Protestants can be wary of speaking up. Even the word ‘Protestant’ is not a very familiar one these days. Sure, most of us know that the Church of England is Protestant, and that Luther was Protestant and that the Reformation was the birth of the Protestant movement. But the Church of England doesn’t draw attention to its Protestant identity. There’s a vague sense that to do so would be bigoted. For doesn’t Protestant mean anti-Catholic? The last proud Protestant was Ian Paisley – and even he softened in old age. It is now widely felt

Robin Ashenden

Are the Tories really mad enough to change their leader again?

To no one’s surprise, this week’s election results make miserable reading for the Tories, and the attacks on Kemi Badenoch have now begun. In an article in The Spectator, William Atkinson lambasts her as ‘an active barrier to the party’s saving itself,’ adding that she ‘had her chance to prove herself and has been found wanting.’  Meanwhile, there are stories in the press of senior Tories angling for her close rival, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, to take over as head of the Conservatives. Badenoch herself was prepared for this, declaring in advance that the results would be ‘challenging’ but denying they would be a comment on her leadership: ‘We

John Curtice

Who can knock out Mr Farage?

David Cameron’s promise of an EU referendum in 2013 was designed to head off the apparent challenge to his party’s election hopes that was being posed by Nigel Farage’s Ukip. Although Ukip still did well in the 2015 election, the Conservatives won an overall majority. Unfortunately for Mr Cameron, he lost the subsequent referendum, and his party was then tossed into years of turmoil over how the decision to leave should be implemented. Still, in 2019, Boris Johnson’s promise to deliver his ‘oven-ready’ Brexit deal headed off the threat from Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and paved the way to another overall majority. Brexit was duly delivered and, it seemed, the

Samuel Rubinstein

Why Duolingo isn’t helping you learn a foreign language

Duolingo claims that it is ‘the world’s best way to learn a language’. The app – which has tens of millions of users – boasts a ‘science-backed approach’ that it says ‘delivers measurable results’. I’m not convinced: it seems to me that time wasted on Duolingo would be far better spent doing almost anything else. Busy people, of course, can’t be expected to learn languages the most efficient way: dropping everything to spend some time in a foreign country and learn by immersion. But flicking through one of those kitsch phrasebooks, or listening to a podcast in another language, slowed down to 0.5x speed if necessary, is probably more likely to

Ed McGuinness

What Kneecap won’t tell you about growing up in Belfast

The three members of Irish rap band Kneecap are ‘ceasefire babies’: they grew up on the streets of Belfast around the time of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. So did I. But the similarities between me and the band end there. Despite what some of Kneecap’s fans might think, there was nothing glamorous about life as a ‘ceasefire baby’ On a November night in 2001, I was at the cinema with my brother. In Belfast, one of the best cinemas at the time was in Yorkgate. Unfortunately, it was situated at what is known as a ‘flashpoint’, where the Catholic New Lodge estate abutted the fiercely Protestant Tigers Bay. Riots were common. A

Angela Epstein

The real reason the UK always fails at Eurovision

The UK has a peerless reputation for producing some of the catchiest and most imaginative pop music on the planet. Little wonder that a dazzling and diverse roster of home-grown artists (pop stars in old money) have exerted dominance over the international music charts for decades. Yet despite the fact we gifted the Beatles, David Bowie, Kate Bush and even the Spice Girls (well, they were massive) to the world, when it comes to producing a Eurovision winner, we are – to put it impolitely – absolute pants. And with this year’s contest only a few weeks away, our 2025 entry looks unlikely to change the status quo. In case

Saturday

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour minister: rape gangs are a ‘dog whistle’ 

Uh oh. Commons Leader Lucy Powell has found herself in hot water after making some rather careless remarks on BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions yesterday. The Labour politician sparked outrage over her reaction to a point by Tim Montgomerie – the founder of Conservative Home who has since aligned himself with Reform – who brought up a recent Channel 4 documentary on grooming gangs.  Cutting across him, Powell replied: ‘Oh we want to blow that little trumpet now, do we?’ ‘No,’ Montgomerie responded. ‘There was a real issue…’. Not that Powell appeared willing to listen, interrupting again: ‘Let’s get that dog whistle out, shall we?’ Oo er. Talk about flippant!

Terry Barnes

Australian election: Trump helps topple second conservative leader

Tonight, Australia voted decisively for continuity. The Labor government of prime minister Anthony Albanese has not merely been re-elected. It has absolutely thumped the conservative Liberal-National party coalition, headed by Liberal leader Peter Dutton. At the close of counting tonight, Labor achieved a majority in the 150-seat parliament, winning 77 seats and leading in another five. The coalition has been decimated, reduced from an already-low 55 seats to winning just 29 and leading in another eight. Frontbenchers and talented up-and-comers around the country have been swept away in seats deemed safe. Worse for the conservatives, Dutton himself has had the ultimate Portillo moment, losing his own constituency having held it

Kara Kennedy

The strategic ascent of Kai Trump

In the gilded corridors of Trump Tower and the manicured greens of exclusive golf courses, a new Trump is quietly ascending. At just 17, Kai Trump – the eldest of the President’s grandchildren – is executing what appears to be a carefully orchestrated entry into public life, blending the traditional pathways of political families with the modern currency of social media influence. ‘He’s just a normal grandpa,’ Kai says in one of her videos about the President. ‘He gives us candy and soda when our parents aren’t looking.’ The statement, seemingly innocent, accomplishes something the Trump campaign has struggled with for years: it humanises the most polarising figure in American politics. This is no