The Week

Leading article

Portrait of the week

Diary

Nigel Farage wants to be crowned king of the Tories

One reason Nigel Farage is currently making such a successful Jungle Jim is because he doesn’t duck a discussion or swerve a question. Camp-mates – and viewers – may not like what he says, but they appreciate the direct response. It makes a change from most politicians. It doesn’t matter what question you ask them: if

Ancient and modern

Why are we no longer proud of work

More and more people are giving up work on the grounds of their mental-health problems, allowing them to live off state benefits. That raises the question:  is there something about the nature of work today that makes it seem so unrewarding? In the ancient world there was no welfare system. The educated, wealthy elite apart

Barometer

Why don’t Britons spend time in nature? 

School’s out Aslef members walked out on strike again this week, 18 months after this round of rail strikes began. But the unions still have a long way to catch up with Britain’s longest-ever strike, which lasted 25 years in the unlikely setting of the village of Burston, Norfolk. It began on 1 April 1914

Letters