The Critic Magazine

29 April 2021

The May edition of The Critic, the magazine for open-minded readers, offers an abundance of ideas and insights from near and far. Melanie Newman presents evidence to suggest that the police are far more zealous in using hate crime powers to arrest those who are disrespectful to them than to protect any other group in society. Simon Heffer identifies how Prince Philip modernised the monarchy, whilst David Starkey suggests that the most significant royal reformer was actually the Queen’s grandfather, King George V. Peter Hitchens laments the unintended consequences of Shirley Williams’s modernisation of secondary education whilst David James questions whether Finland’s progressive schools are all they’re cracked up to be. Ben Judah profiles the technocrat turned Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, and how the rise of “Mr Euro” has ensured the survival of Europe’s monetary union but at a cost with a political price tag, whilst Oliver Wiseman finds that a third of Americans now support separatism from the USA. The Critic’s resident artists, Adam Dant and Miriam Elia, respectively mark Theatreland’s return to life and the dogged determination of others to keep their distance. Clive Aslet asks if the online success that major auction houses are having could end up being a curse for them, and Arabella Byrne goes on a wild goose chase for lost Bohemians. Plus, all the latest table talk from Hannah Betts, Patrick Galbraith and Lisa Hilton, the magazine’s cultural critics and books reviews on subjects as diverse as Bob Dylan and life in Madagascar.