Leith on language

Rewriting the book of Britain

From Xi Jinping’s China to Donald Trump’s American

Letters & opinions

The Editor suggests that “you won’t be able to resist

A real argument, at last

The Reagan/Thatcher experiment failed. The UK must now choose between a rerun and a rethink

Saudi Arabia’s princely PR

What the end of the driving ban says about the country’s reforms

Adapt and survive

Don’t knock the British constitution. It always moves on, and allows us to do the same

Peering over the cliff-edge

Dominic Cummings, the brains behind Brexit, fears it’s turning into a disaster

Party before country

A self-selecting, card-carrying cadre could soon pick a PM—for the first time ever

The Right divide along the Danube

Merkel stands against strident nationalists; respectable Austria is more relaxed

The Catalan crisis

Spain needs to start talking about its national identity

Ministerial briefing—digital safety

As we know, the internet is fundamental to our domestic

You aren’t what you eat

MELANIE LUHRMANN, INSTITUTE FOR FISCAL STUDIES

Should we be afraid of Russia?

YES If by “Russia” we mean President Vladimir Putin’s

Fantasy island

Six years in your company has convinced me: you lot need time alone

The Empire’s new clothes

The imperial backstory still stops Britain from grasping how it looks in the eyes of the world

How the US turned North Korea into a nuclear power

The US has forgotten the cold, hard logic of nuclear diplomacy. Time to remember it

View from Pyongyang: the benefits of behaving badly

Standing next to me at a military parade in Pyongyang

Rebooting the rank and file

Britain’s unions have been on the slide for 40 years, but a fragile optimism is stirring

The reforging of Labour’s union link

Daniel Tomlinson, the Resolution Foundation Theresa May wasted no time in ditching George Osborne—but she clung on to his provocative rhetoric about turning the Conservatives into the party of “working people.” In the event, in June’s vote the Tories proved to be the party of pensioners, with Labour having the edge amongst those of working age.

People without a land

After the Balfour Declaration, 100 years ago, it became necessary to invent a Palestinian nation. A new museum in the occupied West Bank is trying to tell its story

In place of fear

Enthusiastic crowds queued to buy Beveridge’s plan for a welfare state. How would a modern-day Beveridge restore the standing of his creaking creation?

The reinvention of Paris

The French capital’s traditional reputation is being ripped up—and not for the first time

Huw Edwards

Journalist, presenter and newsreader

Knowing him, knowing us

Armando Iannucci is the mastermind behind the shows that have defined British comedy for a generation, including Alan Partridge and The Thick of It. He speaks to Sameer Rahim about how satirists should tackle strongmen and what makes a line funny

Where do Democrats go from here?

Hillary Clinton was a flawed candidate who never connected with the whole of America. How do progressives make sure they get it right next time, asks Sam Tanenhaus

It’s the inequality, stupid

Want to know why Trump really won? A breathtaking new economic analysis has some answers, argues Duncan Weldon

How the human got his paintbrush

What can evolution tell us, if anything, about human achievements in the arts? Not as much as EO Wilson thinks, says Philip Ball

Dark side of the Moomins

The cartoon trolls are a children’s favourite but as a new exhibition reveals they haunted their creator, says Jane Shilling

Books in brief

by Oona A Hathaway and Scott J Shapiro (Allen Lane

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Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos likes to make us uncomfortable.

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Events

The Prospect Book Club meets every third Monday of the month (excluding bank holidays) at 6.30pm at 2 Queen Anne’s Gate, London, SW1H 9AA. To book tickets please visit prospectmagazine.co.uk/event

Life of the mind

Walking the dogs with a psychoanalyst on Hampstead

Matters of taste

In August we went to stay at our friend Peter’s farm

Wine

Do we live in different taste worlds? You find a white

DIY investor

Among the biggest challenges investors face are our

The generalist by Didymus

1 Book searched for in a 1980s television advert for

Enigmas & puzzles

Above is Pirate Pete’s treasure map. The green squares

Negotiating with Europe

Extracts from memoirs and diaries, chosen by Ian Irvine