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 CRITIC SUMMER SALE

Incompetents abroad

The Critics

Rugger’s buggered • The more money has come into rugby, the more dismal the spectacle has become

Miriam Elia on…

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

Johnson’s disrespect for the law • The PM repeatedly showed a cavalier attitude towards constitutional conventions

Woman About Town

A cynical man without any plan • Boris Johnson rose to power largely because of Theresa May’s intransigence. Once in Downing Street, he had little idea what to do — then his gambler’s luck ran out

The silence that tells Joe Biden who his real allies are • Henry McDonald says Irish reluctance to support Ukraine presents Unionists with an opportunity to counter American Brit-bashing over the Protocol reforms

A pair of presidential PMs • Both men had ways with words. And both were driven by a powerful sexual appetite. Johnson has gone through marriages and mistresses like a knife through butter

HOW THE CHURCH BLEW IT ON RACE • A hastily-conceived, secretly-appointed C of E commission needs radical reform

What privilege is really about

Why the Church fails to get answers from above • Graham Stewart argues the Anglican hierarchy is obsessed with management structures over the real issues of morality, theology and falling congregations

Wining and dining = reconciling • If turbulent priests can reach an accord over food and drink, then so can politicians

Farewell to St Benet’s Hall • How a Catholic institution capitulated to the non-binary gods of diversity

OUR REVELS NOW ARE ENDED • Alistair Haimes warns that the unavoidable tide of demographics and globalisation will bring an end to the long economic boom

Bewareof thetax-cutters • Slashing the tax take now will lead to increased public spending for years to come

BLOOD AND SOIL: THE GREENS’ FASCIST ROOTS • Richard Negus says today’s environmentalist movement owes much to the ideology of Britain’s pre-war far-Right, including the author of Tarka the Otter

LIKE WOTAN RIDING THE STORM • Richard Bratby fulfils a boyhood dream on the footplate of a classic steam locomotive

EVERYDAY LIES WITH THEODORE DALRYMPLE

High times with high minds •  LINCOLN ALLISONrecalls Alpine “reading parties” with the Chaletites, Oxford University’s most exclusive secret society

Parenting, Paxos-style

A very superior Season • Lisa Hilton says that today’s Season may be more democratic and international than the old, but those in the know still cherish the hot tickets that guarantee exclusivity

In search of the lost “Greek” tribe of Alexander the Great • Paul Raffaele treks through the Hindu Kush to seek out the ancient Kalash people, who claim descent from Alexander’s army

Charley CouttsCelebrity interviewer

Dealing with sticky fingers • Theft is the enemy of good business, leaving less for profit, wages and the taxman

Let there be light • Raphael’s masterful depiction of divine light owes much to Dante, who incorporated the latest optical thinking — which drew heavily on earlier Islamic science — in his visionary poetry

Adam Dant on…

STUDIO • Beaux-Arts Architecture in New York City

Preaching the gospel of progressivism • George Owers is the editorial director of Forum Press. He tweets as @CapelLofft

The real benefits of loyalty and order

Present-day lessons from past masters

Irritatingly glib...