“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

Controversy of the week

Controversy of the week China’s “mega-embassy” “Ministers like ...

DOREEN was cleaning her bedroom window when she looked down and saw her daughter come in by the back gate. The young woman took a deep breath before she started walking down the path. Oh, no! Not anot

Ray Madoff The Second EstateHow the tax code made an Americanaristocracy192pp. Chicago University Press. £19 (US$25). Vanessa S. Williamson The Price of Democracy The revolutionary power of taxation i

→ 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