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.

On a wind and a prayer …

The Critic

The decision-dodgers

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

Curious cases of missing courts • The pursuit of justice in small or atypical jurisdictions has sometimes led to some unusual legal quandaries

Woman About Town

PESTON’S INBOX

No-bullshit government • Tom Jones interviews the shadow minister for policy renewal who promises that a new Tory administration would deliver …

EVERYDAY LIES WITH THEODORE DALRYMPLE

Student loans don’t add up • Henry Hill suggests a fairer way out of a policy mess

CRISIS? WATT CRISIS? • The claim that renewable energy is cheap is dubious once additional costs are considered, there is no sign of a promised “Green Industrial Revolution” and the rush to “Net Zero” is looking distinctly risky

Why do we hate industry? • Performative laissez-faire as a strategy for enterprise has been a costly failure. It is time for fresh thinking, argues Andrew Orlowski

Crushing the real progressives

Where are the ambitious Scots? • They now shun the City, choosing instead to stay at home and work for the State

Farewell to an intellectual giant • A feared and fastidious champion of Oxbridge’s academic standards, who was also a warm family man admired by many

Final analyis: the real measure of a degree

The bonfire of British history • Samuel McIlhagga says the neglect of absentee landlords and the inaction of councils are allowing the architectural jewels of our provincial cities to be burned to the ground

Zelda Zingari Fashionable Poet

Truth and consequences • Former ministers should be hauled back before MPs to justify their poor decisions

A QUESTION OF CIVILISATION • Dominic Green says MAGA luminaries see America as the champion of the values of old Europe in a new global clash of cultures — a view that has deep historical roots

FENCE-SITTING IN A TIME OF CRISIS • Daniel Johnson decries the Labour government’s impotent hand-wringing when America, our oldest ally, called for Britain’s support for the conflict in Iran

THE STRANGE BIRTH OF WOO-WOO • The glitzy Los Angeles supermarket chain and the controversial Buddhist health cult behind your favourite smoothie.

ART: MY PART IN ITS DOWNFALL • Pierre d’Alancaisez was part of the contemporary art world’s inner circle — until he came to realise that what he thought was innovative and daring was actually fatuous and facile …

The Critic Profile A.E. Housman • The poet is less read than he once was but his deep love of England still resonates, writes Alexander Larman

Leaving it all in the ring • Christopher North salutes a young British bullfighter about to perform in front of paying Spanish audiences for the first time, having studied the art in a prestigious Madrid academy

Adam Dant on …

STUDIO • METAMORPHOSES AT THE RIJKSMUSEUM, AMSTERDAM

Joyless virtue signalling masquerading as scholarship

Grin and bear it

The battle between sacred and profane

A high-speed tour of European history

Paean to a green and pleasant land

Working with woods

Cloaked crusader

When imitation is more than just flattery

Undramatic life of a literary also-ran

Playing by numbers

A below-par Riley is still better than most

Can writers still make a living? • With newspapers struggling and academics muscling in, these are tough times for...