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.

THE COURT OF HOT AIR

The Critic

A sound of Rowling thunder

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

Can a criminal be a judge? • Freemasons, extremists, even members of the Garrick Club can be appointed to the bench

Woman About Town

NOVA’S DIARY

Dear Keir, Get real …

The future is blue

Put the money back into politics • Business and politics rubbed along much better before restrictions were introduced

Would you trust the police’s Big Brother IT? • Melissa Stock fears the use of unreliable facial recognition technology and supposedly predictive algorithms are growing without sufficient scrutiny or accountability

Gregory Snaith • Little Magazine Editor

Time for realpolitik in Israel

EVERYDAY LIES

The new Ottomans

The king and the boss

Remember the Armenians

Existential questions • The Conservative Party has to come up with some compelling answers if it is to survive

The sordid truth about France’s “68ers”? • They embraced the student mantra that it was “forbidden to forbid” but some claim the “anything goes” philosophy of the left-wing intelligentsia resulted in sex crimes

Why Meghan is my role model

“CRITICAL SPACE” IS SHRINKING BUT WE ARE FIGHTING BACK • Here, at last, is a mind-expanding podcast that is the antidote to everything the wretched Arts Council stands for

Alcibiades • The Ancient Greek orator, philanderer, drunk, traitor and hero, who would have felt at home in modern politics

AI AND THE GREAT DATA ROBBERY • Silicon Valley has stolen huge amounts of original material in order to “train” its GPT models, prompting fury from artists

This England • Daniel Johnson celebrates The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, the glorious wartime cinematic masterpiece by Powell and Pressburger that Churchill wanted to ban

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES • The map of the world is likely to be redrawn, thanks to the decline of post war Pax Americana, an expansionist Russia and China, and the push for ethnic sovereignty

The subsidy squeeze • Schemes such as HS2 cost billions of pounds while reducing UK productivity

DID AN ARMY OF SPIES END THE TROUBLES? • Blair, Clinton, Ahern et al were credited with putting together the Northern Ireland peace deal, but 800 British agents also played their part

Adam Dant on …

STUDIO • The renovation of the Heal’s Building

Not amused: Victoria in her own words

When the Left thought free trade meant peace

Losing the battle, losing the war

Was The Bible written by slaves?

The glorious Ninth

Big beasts versus The Bible

Why tech execs don’t give their kids phones

Fighting lies with lies

Flawed paean to a heartless auteur

Fruitful discussion

Eyes on the prizes — and the surprises

New life for a dying trade • The book world is on its last legs. So how we can bring it back from the dead?

Romeo Coates “Between you and me …”

Norman Lebrecht on Music • Making art of the Holocaust

Robert Thicknesse on Opera • Loony tunes

Sarah Ditum on Pop • Having a bad Bey

Michael Prodger on Art • X scandal

Anne McElvoy on Theatre • “Trad” theatre can still feel fresh

Robert Hutton on Cinema • Violent delights

Adam LeBor on Television • Walter’s Arctic Circle is a winner

Michael Henderson on Radio...