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.

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The Critic

Letters

A sober look at gender and the law • An elegant and readable new book on the legal implications of ideas of sex and gender deserves a wide readership

Woman About Town

PESTON’S INBOX

WHY BURNHAM IS THE NEW BORIS • The profound similarities are evident under the spotlight of Westminster, and it is also apparent that the prime minister is just as doomed to fail as Johnson was.

THE END OF LIFE BILL IS BACK • The supporters of the proposed assisted suicide legislation have a new tactic but, as with so much else, we have no idea where the new prime minister stands on it

Epic fails when it comes to sales • Why does the British business world rarely recognise the importance of selling?

SOMETHING ROTTEN IN THE ATHENAEUM • Did an alliance of modernisers misrepresent the King in a bid to justify a bizarre renegotiation of the leasehold of one of the most distinguished London’s clubs?

JUST A CLICK AWAY • Security flaws in the Government’s digital ID system could make identity theft …

PROBATION DOESN’T WORK AND NEVER HAS • It costs the taxpayer £1.45bn every year but does not reduce crime or reform criminals. Government after government of every political stripe insists that it is effective and fiddles the figures to bolster this myth but, the truth is that …

How long should an academic’s career last?

Welcome one and all • Wells, England’s smallest city, embraces all refugees … but for how long?

A window on a risk-free world • In attempting to eliminate all danger from life, we also risk making it free of joy

The Critic Profile Heroes of ’66 • The decades pass but what the World Cup-winning England team of 1966 represents remains undiminished

A FAILURE OF JOINED-UP THINKING • What is the point of building vast quantities of renewable electricity generation if Britain lacks manpower and machinery to connect them to the power grid? asks Chris Bayliss

STATE CONTROL VIA SILICON VALLEY • Dominic Green says America’s information state has now been developed to a level of reach and power that may make both privacy and democracy unviable

My peaky blinder • A Lakesman pushes through the pain to conquer all the “Wainwrights”

Anthems to doomed white men

In praise of “Spoons” • Daniel Johnson raises a glass to Tim Martin’s splendid pubs — egalitarian cathedrals of culture, conversation and good, cheap beer where “oikism”, not oiks, can flourish

Beyond Glyndebourne • Robert Thicknesse invites you to enjoy the best of the smaller summer opera festivals

EVERYDAY LIES WITH THEODORE DALRYMPLE

How Emily ruined Hackney • What was once the cool and gritty heart of London’s East End has been colonised by hordes of tourists and vapid influencers

Katy Leng •  Arts world eminence grise

Adam Dant on …

STUDIO • RICHARD DADD

Benjamin Disraeli and the birth of one-nation Toryism

A scholar and a saint

The gospel according to the Vice President

The birth of a nation

Doing the dad dance

The great movie-lover who fell out of love

Class wars

Life and Soviet lies

Remains to be seen

Turning a blind eye to dodgy dealing

Taking the high ground

Still causing offence

Seeking star quality

Classic cures for the Summertime blues

Did I end up with a “lucky seven”? • Is “best reviewed” the same...