Politics Winding down Over a year before the general election, Parliament is already clocking off PARLIAMENT feels different from usual. The lobbies and corridors are quieter. The queues in the canteens are shorter. Records of internet activity in th...
Urban beekeeping Honey monsters City dwellers cultivate a taste of the country WHEN Camilla Goddard first started to keep bees in London, it was difficult to find places away from anxious neighbours or teenage vandals. Nine years later she has hives...
Welfare reform Bedrooms and brickbats The bedroom tax will probably survive ON A sunny spring morning, a small group of protesters wait at the Department of Work and Pensions with a giant card for Iain Duncan Smith. It is his birthday. But the card a...
Professional and business services To the rescue Britain's new champions are bean-counters and PowerPoint artists IN HIS budget speech in 2011, George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, laid out a new vision for Britain's economy. Finance woul...
Charlemagne Russia's friends in black Why Europe's populists and radicals admire Vladimir Putin IF EUROPE'S far-right parties do as well as many expect in May's European election, no world leader will be happier than Vladimir Putin. For a man who cla...
Department stores Chinese takeaway Old British brands get a lift in Asia CLARKS shoes have more cachet with Chinese shoppers than with British ones. DAKS, an upmarket British clothing brand, has two stores in Britain but sells through 43 in Asia. Mar...
Italian politics Silvio Berlusconi, social worker Embarrassments pile up but the former prime minister still has political clout NOT good: but far from the worst outcome. On April 15th a Milan court ruled that Silvio Berlusconi should serve his sente...
Culture wars in Ukraine History lessons The conflict in Ukraine spreads to its museums HE WHO controls the past controls the future. Orwell's dictum now faces a new test. Shortly before Russia annexed Crimea, the Bakhchisaray museum, north of Sevasto...
Britain Reforming the NHS Bitter medicine Competition is not the cause of the NHS's problems LIKE patients shrinking from needles, many doctors fear politicians pushing market-oriented health policies. For more than two decades governments of all sha...
Grocery shopping Aisle be damned For the best bargains, avoid shopping around for your groceries THRIFTY shoppers do not have to look far to find a bargain. Offers abound in the cut-throat world of British supermarkets. Received wisdom suggests that...
