Foreword

A winner-takes-all democracy in a divided country

If I ruled the world

If I have become God, and am now able to pull the levers

Letters & opinions

Ross McKibbin’s article (“The red sag,” April) was

Prisoner of the right

Theresa May now leads “The Conservative and Ukip Party”

Bonfire of the protocols

Trump is trashing the norms of democracy

Confessions of a half-repentant liberal

Without openness the west cannot thrive, but without equality it cannot survive

Unions should break the link

They exist to help the workers, not Labour

ELECTION BUNKER

The art of the impossible deal

Whatever her motives, May’s snap election boosts the odds of a workable Brexit

They came from outer space… and Europe

We have always had a fear of the unknown

A repression born of fear

Turkey’s president has won his vote —he could still lose the people

Polls apart

In calling her snap election, the PM said: “The country is coming together but Westminster is not.” But no election can change the fact that the country remains split down the middle on Brexit

The Duel

Should the Queen abdicate?

A strange rebirth of Tory England?

Over the centuries, one party has adapted to survive like no other. But on the cusp, potentially, of its greatest modern triumph, is that all-important flexibility still there?

The May mandate

Many assume that a sharp increase in the number of

The May muse

Who is the most powerful man in British politics? Philip

Remains of the day

The Lib Dems have reason to hope for a surge, but there are few signs of it on the ground

A crumbling heartland

Away from the biggest cities, the north can no longer be relied on to deliver landslide Labour victories—or even narrow ones

The real Brexit election

Whoever wins in Britain, Berlin will seal our deal. Regime change there will spell trouble

We (must) Chat

An unhealthy obsession with all things digital is playing havoc with the way Chinese people interact with each other

Triumph of the liberal

Emmanuel Macron leads a deeply divided country — can he charm the people who didn’t vote for him?

Can he get anything done?

Will Emmanuel Macron govern, or merely reign? The president’s

Trump’s true believer

Steve Bannon is the link between the embattled Donald Trump and America’s new nationalist tendency. What happens if that link is broken?

Progress paused

The Trump presidency is just an interregnum

How do you solve a problem like Korea?

The regime in Pyongyang is the neighbour from hell for South Korea, China and Japan. But its intransigence and nuclear missile ambitions are part of a rational strategy for survival

Back to cool

Fashions change, but one ideal has stayed in vogue for the best part of a century

The new ethics of war

What happens when our military machines are not only unmanned but autonomous?

Anne-Marie Slaughter

Foreign policy expert and former adviser to Hillary Clinton

The bard of Beeston

Tony Harrison’s snarling, trenchant poems speak up for the voiceless working classes, says Edith Hall

In the cracks of history

Arundhati Roy’s first novel since The God of Small Things is both mischievous and outraged, argues Gillian Beer

Beyond infinity?

Pixar’s groundbreaking animations have captivated us for over two decades. But can it survive growing competition from its rivals, asks Francine Stock

Haughty couture

A master of fashion bestowed an exquisite sense of self on the women who wore his designs, says Jane Shilling

Books in brief

Grave New World: The End of Globalization, the Return

Art

In 1845, the Ashmolean acquired the largest group of

Theatre

Oscar Wilde’s moonstruck idyll of sensuous delights

Film

Whitney Houston, who died in 2012, might seem to have

Classical

Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder is one of the repertoire’s

Opera

Johann Strauss’s gorgeous operetta is like a combination

Science

William Herschel was a composer who dabbled enthusiastically

Leith on language

There are two things, it is said, that an Englishman

Life of the mind

It was as though he was sitting in the consulting room

Matters of taste

Over Easter weekend I went up to Norfolk to stay with

Wine

Where can you enjoy a really good bottle of wine in

DIY Investor

Few facts of investment life are as widely acknowledged

HISTORY HAS NEVER LOOKED SO GOOD

If you love dwelling on the past, Britain’s best-loved

The generalist by Didymus

1 The Student Prince, Rose Marie or La Belle Hélène

Enigmas & puzzles

Professor Neuron’s nephew Trifle was proud to have

The way we were

London 1967: The summer of love