“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” Antonio Gramsci’s words, written in prison near Bari almost 100 years ago, ring out to us now. The politi

LETTERS

Dan Sperrin State of Ridicule A history of satire in English literature 816pp. Princeton University Press. £38 (US $45). In State of Ridicule: A history of satire in English literature, Dan Sperrin ha

→ Walk through parliament and barely a wall is clear of portraits and paintings harking back to hundreds of years of tradition. Sitting in Ed Davey’s office is a somewhat different experience. On the

As fascism hovers, austerity holds its nerve and access to basic resources divides the ‘haves’ from the ‘have nots’, these are not the politest of times. Perhaps it was inevitable that something so po

BACK IN THE BAND WE PREDICT A RIOT ...