The Critic

The Critic is Britain's new highbrow monthly current affairs magazine for politics, art and literature. Dedicated to rigorous content, first rate writing and unafraid to ask the questions others won't.

A FORK IN THE ROAD

The Critic

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Making a good example • Though it may be bad luck for Sussex to have become the object lesson, winning back higher education for free speech has to start somewhere

Letters • Write to The Critic by email at letters@thecritic.co.uk including your address and telephone number

Holding judges to account • There is no constitutional principle that prevents MPs from criticising judges

Woman About Town

PESTON’S INBOX

The return of turning left • New deluxe airline cabins are designed for Instagrammers who wish to see and be seen

Strange new world • An impatient group of young, self-confident, AI-obsessed policy wonks is trying to re-shape Britain — inspired and funded by American tech billionaires

Why cis women are bad at sports

HOW FAR WILL WE GO TO DEFEND UKRAINE? • Instead of giving Zelenskyy unrealistic assurances, Britain and its allies should be wholly realistic about what they are truly prepared to do

IRAN: DEAL OR DEVASTATION? • Donald Trump’s dealings with Tehran veer between negotiation and sabre-rattling. We are yet to discover whether he is more interested in fake diplomacy or the real thing

Jenrick: the Tories’ born-again saviour • Kemi Badenoch has failed. It’s time the Conservative Party admitted its mistake and elected a new leader

Having one’s head examined

The convivial conservative • Daniel Johnson on good causes and conversation

Anglicans need the Real Thing • Churchgoing is rising but the C of E is falling behind because we’re serving such thin gruel

When the hunt is finally over • A rich and vivid rural culture is being destroyed by a government that does not understand it

Miriam Spector Ghostwriter

Enter stage right • Our new theatre critic promises to be fair, truthful and unmoved by doctrinaire groupthink, empty spectacle or hollow virtue-signalling

On the march with the Skeletons • Boisterous boozers rose up against the temperance tyrants of the Sally Army

…OR THAT WILL BE ENGLAND GONE • This affluent London village boasted fashion shops, children’s outfitters, a grocer, a florist and a crafts store, among other independent retailers, but now they are vanishing, here and all over the country. We need to preserve them …

Nicolas (30 ans) • With his well-paid white-collar job in the capital, 30-year-old Nick ought to be living in clover — so why isn’t he?

Chapel, chants and chips • The number of monasteries is falling so Max Bayliss is visiting as many of these extraordinary communities as he can. He found plenty to rejoice about …

Don’t cry for Argentina • BARRY NORRIS says a reforming president and a vast new oilfield promise a bright future for Buenos Aires after a century of corruption and economic chaos

EVERYDAY LIES WITH THEODORE DALRYMPLE

TWO VIEWS OF THE END OF EMPIRE • Felipe Fernández-Armesto on how a pair of old friends, an expert and an exile, provide contrasting perspectives on Britain’s mistakes in the Middle East

A sex realist and an idealist • Jo Bartosch interviews the UN champion for women

A temple in a Tudor manor • Jacob Phillips enjoys a visit to the impressive mansion that George Harrison gave to the Hare Krishna movement, which has now become an important site of pilgrimage

Adam Dant on …

STUDIO • Interior Design in London in the 1920s and 30s

How faith built the...