The benefit of doubt

When should you stop doubting? For a magazine

A sincere failure

There is much that one can say about

The Afghan tapestry

CPW Gammell’s moving commentary on Herat and its

True north

Two words remain with me after reading Richard

Happy valley

Ben Houchen’s success in Tees Valley tells us

Ministerial minnows

Evidently even Boris Johnson did not agree with

Unrequited obsession

I enjoyed the lively debate on whether China

Heath’s open secret

Helen Thompson (“Consent: the dynamite at the heart

In the wars

As Antonia Cundy relays, in recent years military

Gender fluid

Angela Saini writes (“What is a woman?, Aug/

How to fix...Planning

We need more houses. Top-down targets won’t get them built. Handing power down to communities just might, says John Kay

What you need to know about...Goldman Sachs

One bank’s breathtaking grip on our economic governance reveals a lot about modern power, explains Gillian Tett

In fact

In 2020, the number of UK adults aged

The entente cordiale

A sneaky submarine deal has torpedoed our friendship with France. We’ll live to regret it, argues James Hawes

Creature comforts and the courtroom

What is the best way to use the

One tragedy in three lives

As the Taliban seizes power, women are being forced to abandon their careers as well as their beloved homeland, writes Zarghuna Kargar

Speed data: #*$%@!

Swearing in Britain ain’t what it used to be, explains David McAllister

The Duel

Should we despise billionaires?

Beyond reasonable doubt

Climate science and the limits of appropriate scepticism

One planet, one man

As the critical climate talks come to Glasgow, a host who once aspired to be “world king” will truly have the fate of the Earth in his hands. But is Boris Johnson concentrating?

A tailor-made chancellor

With a centrist style, the social democratic victor in Germany’s election, Olaf Scholz, has been described as “continuity Merkel.” But as long as he can capitalise on his record-breaking swing from Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, the nation is set for newly radical leadership

The war on bodies

A sweeping and sinister abortion law in Texas prefigures a wider collapse of rights that American women have enjoyed for half a century, and will embolden authoritarians everywhere. But, asks Mary Fitzgerald, have the fanatics overreached themselves?

No room at the top

Budging Boris Johnson is going to be formidably difficult. Prime ministers almost always persist—and pretenders carry on pretending

The measure of all things

Establishing statistical truths is never a neutral act. Nothing exemplifies that better than our national census

Revisiting history

The National Trust has got into hot water for exploring the troubling side of the venerable country house. But the legacies of slavery and empire can no longer be ignored

Life out there

The astronomer royal on the—increasingly serious— investigation into extraterrestrial intelligence

A dog

Their superpower is not to be sniffed at. And with training, we can sharpen our own noses too

Which came first—the spirit or the age?

An exhilarating new history of American culture during the Cold War refuses to offer a simple answer, finds Leo Robson

The ar tful noticer

Christopher Ricks is the most gifted and ingenious—sometimes over-ingenious— literary critic of his generation, argues John Mullan

All fired up

Commercially-minded yet dedicated to his art, Josiah Wedgwood reflected the contradictions of his age, finds Tanya Harrod

Redeeming a renegade

Despite his reputation as a scourge of organised religion, Spinoza’s writing took God very seriously. We should pay attention, says Alex Dean

Chief of Staff: Notes from Downing Street

There is a frequent misconception about the amount

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

Steven Pinker has written a sensible book for

The Turning Point: A Year that Changed Dickens and the World

Ten years ago, Oxford professor Robert Douglas-Fairhurst published

The Magician

Thomas Mann lived what is perhaps western literature’s

Classical

The Valkyrie English National Opera, 19th November to

Television

COURTESY ENO / COURTESY HBO / COURTESY BBC

Film

The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão London Film

Podcasts

Bad Cops BBC Sounds. Why do good cops

Economics and investment

Paul Wallace The analyst A tale of two

Policy report: Tax

As the Budget grapples with “the bills of Covid” what hope of reform?

The Generalist by Didymus

ACROSS 1 The 1,500m race in a decathlon

Enigma by Barry R Clarke Milky weigh

In their advertising flyers, the Colossal Carbs Company

Jurassic larks

Does our obsession with dinosaurs say something else about our own fragile place on earth?

Bernardine Evaristo

ILLUSTRATION BY NICK TAYLOR Author What is the

GRAFT, GRIEF AND THE WAY AHEAD

If the last 18 months have taught us

WORKED TO THE EDGE: INSIDE THE CARE INDUSTRY

The toil is intense, the hours long, and the pay rock-bottom. But what makes being a care worker intolerable is the lack of support, control and dignity offered by management. Fix this huge growth industry, and we would be well on the way to making jobs work for all

TOIL AND TROUBLE

Insecure work is a strain on millions of families across the UK. The government acknowledges that it needs to be fixed. But when it comes to the specific actions proposed, explains JRF’s Katie Schmuecker, it’s a case of “must try harder”

IN NUMBERS

The hard facts underlying the age of anxiety in the British workplace

AT THE SHARP END: THE VIEW FROM THE WAREHOUSE FLOOR

Insecurity and inflexibility have plagued James’s working life, as he explains to Prospect

GIVE AND TAKE

One multinational is proving that flexibility doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game between management and workers, writes Sarah Collins

FLEXIBLE THINKING

If Angela Rayner has been “pushy” in toughening Labour’s stance on workers’ rights, then as she explains to Tom Clark, that’s because of her first-hand experience in juggling parenthood and unpredictable shifts

A LOT DONE. A LOT STILL TO DO

A buoyant UK labour market has survived even Covid, thanks to bold, hands-on policies. We need more—especially in enforcing minimum standards, explains Greg Clark

LESSONS FROM ABROAD

The world’s leading lights in the battle with insecure work

IN PLACE OF FEAR

Going undercover taught James Bloodworth about just how anxious working Britain often is. But, he insists, it doesn’t have to be this way

SERIOUS COMMITMENT

Will the UK prove it means business at COP26?

KEEPING 1.5C ALIVE

How the UK is bringing the global community together to tackle the climate crisis

GOOD TRADE IS GREENER TRADE

When it comes to using trade to ask questions on climate, our government is sitting on its hands

DAVID KING: “THIS IS OUR LAST CHANCE SALOON”

The UK’s former chief scientific adviser reflects on what went wrong with climate diplomacy in the past—and how, at Glasgow, the stakes will be higher than ever

IN NUMBERS: CITIES AND CLIMATE

Why cities matter in the fight against climate change

LEADING THE WAY

As host of COP26, the UK has a rare opportunity to showcase its climate credentials

DELAY IS NOT AN OPTION

The government’s record in the run-up to COP26 is one of complacency and shortcomings

ACTION, NOT DIALOGUE

Searching for global consensus on climate is impossible—and it might not even be desirable