The Critic Magazine

29 May 2025

The June issue of The Critic examines what is going wrong in the Church of England — which, lacking an Archbishop of Canterbury, seems set to be leaderless for most of this year. A Critic in-depth special report reveals that the Church Commissioners’ commitment of a £100 million fund to atone for an investment 300 years ago in slave trading transpires to be based on a misunderstanding — the investment was actually in government debt. Also, Ben Sixsmith takes Douglas Murray to task, Jonathan Ford explains how the British government will struggle to save steelmaking, John McGuirk bemoans the lack of a talented, professional class in conservative movements, Patrick Porter thinks British defence policy is unrealistic, Terence Kealey argues that universities have been ruined by the non-academics who really run them, Rufus Bird asks if the art world is still interested in the opinions of connoisseurs and Patrick Kidd investigates why so few French tennis players win the French Open.