In the magazine this month
January/February 2012
We have a tremendous opportunity to reconfigure our place in the EU. Does David Cameron have the courage to seize it?
When David Cameron became leader of the Conservative party he was determined to avoid a subject that had proved fatal to his predecessors. The European question would not derail his leadership, as it had that of Sir John Major and before him Margaret Thatcher. Isn't it great, he was fond of saying several years ago, that the Tory party isn't having the usual row with itself over Europe.In the event it turns out that on Cameron's watch it is crunch-time for Britain and the European Union. We will be compelled in the next few years — quite possibly even months — to choose what kind of relationship we want with those in charge of a new hegemony on the continent.
REV. NICK HOWARD
The Church of England's decision not to censure Rev. Stephen Sizer highlights its, and wider society's, reluctance to condemn anti-Semitic bigotry
AMIR TAHERI
While Islamists have prospered from the Arab Spring, they are not dominant. But vigilance is needed to protect the flame of freedom
PATRICK HEREN
The global price of gas should be falling, but our "greenest ever" government is busy driving up the cost of heating our homes
JULIE BINDEL
The fear of singling out Islam for criticism has so far blocked the criminalisation of the abduction and rape of Muslim girls
NICK COHEN
Western liberals are happy to speak truth to power—when they are sure they won't be thrown in prison or the subject of a fatwa
PIERS PAUL READ
Zola inspired other writers and artists to defend the jailed Jewish officer. Yet he himself was not free of the taint of anti-Semitism
MIRIAM GROSS
In 1984, 17 years after defecting from the Soviet Union, Stalin's daughter Svetlana agreed to give an interview for the Observer, explaining why she had become disillusioned with the West
MICHAEL COCKERELL
The future Libyan dictator had already developed a powerful sense of destiny when he arrived for an army training course in 1966
DANIEL JOHNSON DOUGLAS MURRAY EMANUELE OTTOLENGHI TIM CONGDON JOSHUA ROZENBERG LIONEL SHRIVER MARA DELIUS DOMINIC LAWSON SAINTSBURY |
ALEXANDER CHANCELLOR
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
NORMAN LEBRECHT
ANNE MCELVOY
ROBERT LOW
DANIEL JOHNSON
ANDREW ROBERTS
ANTHONY LOYD
ROBERT CONQUEST
ALAN BROWNJOHN
BY CHIEF RABBI LORD SACKS
