"Yuletide revels were designed to see you through the dark days — and how dark they seem today"

The ravenous longing for the infinite possibilities of “otherwhere”

We have become reluctant to accept death as an integral part of life. Perhaps coronavirus will give us a more realistic attitude to mortality

The religion, education, culture and language of China’s ethnic minorities are being forcibly constrained and changed

Many countries want to imitate Australia’s success. But its values and governance are eccentric—and may not travel

The view from above

The over-familiar pleasures of domesticity

We know county voting totals in Georgia but can’t name the French prime minister — and import American ideas too uncritically

‘For anyone who cares about peace within the British Isles and liberal democracy without, there are strong reasons to oppose Scottish independence. But how? In the 2014 referendum the case for the Union was made almost entirely in the unromantic terms of pounds and pence. It worked then, but it probably wouldn’t work now’

‘From roughly 2015 onwards, the Mumsnet feminist forum became a key platform for gender critical discussion—or, as one less sympathetic American magazine dubbed it, “the ground zero for British transphobia”’