The Week

Leading article

Rocket men

After spending most of his presidency posing a nuclear-armed hothead, Kim Jong-un is now presenting himself as a man of peace. ‘I came here to put an end to the history of confrontation,’ he said on his historic visit to South Korea. Which might be so. But his real agenda may be to gain acceptance

Portrait of the week

Portrait of the Week – 26 April 2018

Home No. 10 insisted: ‘We will not be staying in the customs union or joining a customs union.’ The undertaking came after a defeat for the government on the matter in the House of Lords and before a vote in the House of Commons. The government proposed two alternatives: one being a ‘customs partnership’ in

Diary

Diary – 26 April 2018

Dining in splendour beneath Van Dycks as we forked in the delicious venison, it was hard not to agree with my neighbour that we were in illustrious company and in one of the most beautiful rooms in England. Our hosts had, however, as we agreed, been bold in the choice of multinational guests, many of

Barometer

Barometer | 26 April 2018

Kill or cure An anti-war protester on a march against the Syrian missile attacks claimed that President Assad couldn’t be a bad man because ‘he’s a doctor, for heaven’s sake’. Some other qualified medics who provide counter-evidence for this theory: — Dr Harold Shipman GP in Hyde, Manchester, convicted of 15 murders in 2000, though

From the archives

The staple of our strength

From ‘News of the week’, 27 April 1918: The Navy has come altogether into its own again. The details of the gloriously daring naval enterprise at Zeebrugge and Ostend have taught the nation to remember that the Navy is not only the staple of our strength, but has a very positive power of aggression even

Letters

Letters | 26 April 2018

Resetting Brexit Sir: I agree with Fraser Nelson’s article ‘Brexit blunders’ (21 April). I am a Leaver, but immigration did not figure in my decision in the referendum. On the contrary, I recall many years ago hearing that some 240 languages were spoken in London and the UK, and for some reason it made me immensely