As elected governments fall short on their pledges, some look approvingly to the authoritarian playbook. Are they right?It’s time to acknowledge a difficult truth: our democracies are failing us on the climate crisis. As world leaders meet for the cruc…
Pinker’s progress: the celebrity scientist at the centre of the culture wars
How the Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker became one of the world’s most contentious thinkersOn a recent afternoon, Steven Pinker, the cognitive psychologist and bestselling author of upbeat books about human progress, was sitting in his summer home o…
My Secret Brexit Diary by Michel Barnier review – a British roasting
The EU’s chief negotiator found his UK counterparts bizarrely unfocused during the long haul to fix a Brexit deal – and believes they still don’t know what they’ve doneRarely do we see thinking of the other side of a negotiation so quickly, while the t…
Trump may be gone, but Covid has not seen off populism
It is liberal fantasy to imagine that poor handing of the pandemic has lessened the allure of Modi and Bolsonaro. They are learning fast how to subvert votingWhen the pandemic struck, newspaper opinion pages were full of pieces predicting the end of au…
Always Red by Len McCluskey review – bluster of a righteous brother
Candour and insight play second fiddle to a romanticised history of the left in the former Unite leader’s memoirLen McCluskey is a chess enthusiast. During his 11-year tenure as the general secretary of the 1.4 million-member “super union” Unite, he ke…
Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman review – escape to the west
This thrilling page-turner digs into history of a tunnel beneath the ‘death strip’ and marks 60 years since the Berlin Wall was builtIt was a plan that seemed to defy not just caution but geography: to build a tunnel to help East Germans escape to the …
Top 10 gripes in literature | Lucy Ellmann
Some distrust kvetching in print, but writers from Shakespeare to Valerie Solanas show there’s nothing wrong with constructive – and even destructive – criticismI probably started griping as soon as I could talk. I know I was a good sulker, and sulking…
Crude Britannia by James Marriott and Terry Macalister review – a harrowing read
A story of missed opportunities and industrial decline is told with rare insight and vivacityThis November the eyes of the world will turn to Glasgow. “Cop26 meeting is last chance, says Alok Sharma as he backs UK’s plan for new oil and gas fields,” th…
The Reckoning by Mary L Trump review – how to heal America’s trauma
A revealing blend of family lore, history, policy and anger casts light on the background and legacy of Donald TrumpLast year, Mary Trump delivered a salacious and venomous takedown of her uncle, Donald J Trump. Too Much and Never Enough doubled as awe…
Paul Mason: ‘Modern fascism’s interests are being represented in government by rightwing populists’
The former Channel 4 News broadcaster on writing at 4am, reading Carlo Rovelli and the danger posed by the new wave of fascism that’s on the rise across the worldPaul Mason was born in Lancashire in 1960, the son of a headmistress and a lorry driver. H…