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Britain is walking backwards into the future, certain its best years are in the past
The FT’s contributing editor thinks the most striking thing about rooms full of old people is how very little you see them laughing
The FT’s contributing editor on how the European referendum has energised people, the growing elderly population and fishing
Ambassadors need good language skills to be ready for a Paxman-like grilling, writes James Blitz
Teaching French is like promoting dahlias — it is no way to thrive, writes Jeremy Paxman
The FT’s contributing editor on having his phone shut in the fridge and spectacular buildings with nothing much inside
The FT contributing editor on visiting Coventry’s cathedral, ‘University Challenge’ and journalism’s exuberant humour
Greens and bunkers are to nature what toy poodles are to wolves
‘God Save The Queen’ has 2 problems: the words and the tune
The most famous petrolhead on the planet is loved and loathed in equal measure. He sits down for a surprisingly sober Italian to discuss cars, cigarettes and Kristin Scott Thomas
The FT contributing editor on the forthcoming Bridget Jones film, etiquette in the Tube and a Samuel Pepys exhibition
Britain would have a fairer society if it capped the voting age
Romania’s untamed mountains are threatened by logging. Can the ‘wildlands philanthropists’ save them?
There are 5,000 of them and they have an increasing sway over our lives, but who are they?
Britain’s monarch is the quiet master of our constitutional absurdities
Over chicken korma in London, Britain’s youngest MP since 1832 talks about Scottish nationalism, her meteoric ascent into Westminster — and debating politics in the pub
The FT contributing editor encounters Napoleon and Wellington as the battle is restaged in Belgium
Trout fishing in southern England, Glasgow’s Burrell Collection and Leonard Cohen’s bad grammar
Too many students, paying high fees, and academics on low pay are symptomatic of our broken system
The high speed railway scheme is a grotesque waste of money
‘Ruffian Dick’ spoke 40 languages, infiltrated male brothels and Mecca and is remembered as Britain’s most flamboyant adventurer
Something’s clearly wrong with British politics but that’s no reason not to vote in the general election
One of TV’s most feared interviewers on Britain’s general election, John Singer Sargent and the poetry of Clive James
Worries largely centre on six sectors likely to be hit hard in a new political environment
Labour challenger impresses but public back Tory prime minister 54% to 46%
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