The Government's latest proposals on prostitution are doubtless well-intentioned. Who could argue with a desire to increase protection for women who have been trafficked into prostitution against their will, or with the urge to shift legal culpability away from vulnerable and often brutalised sex workers and on to their customers? But there is a serious danger that what the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, proposed yesterday – creating a new offence of paying for sex with prostitutes who...
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So the British people are going to get a President after all. He will "speak for the nation and to the nation". He will rule over us with his "knowledge and contacts and unique ability." How do we know? Because Charles Windsor has just announced – via his biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby – that he is seizing the role for himself, without an election. Explicitly citing the Presidencies of Ireland and Germany, Dimbleby says Charles intends to be a "political" King. It will be "a...
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As general election slogans go, this is the one that dare not speak its name. We will neither hear it from the oddly sensuous lips of the Prime Minister, nor watch it alternate with adverts for any car manufacturer still in business on one of those perpetually rotating giant posters. Even so, the message Gordon Brown will tacitly but relentlessly feed us between now and the next election is "You've Never Had It So Bad".

The face of Kevin Pietersen, the England cricket captain, stares belligerently from the page of a Sunday colour magazine. He is advertising a wristwatch. "Unstoppable" is the ad's tagline – a little unfortunately, considering the England team's wretched recent performances – "Unstoppable. Kevin Pietersen is. So is his Citizen Eco-Drive. Fuelled by light, it never needs a battery."

Some years ago, Jane and I decided to get rid of a cellar-full of clutter by going to a car-boot sale. Among all our unwanted bric-a-brac was a velvet cushion in several startlingly bright colours. A few people admired it and asked how much we wanted for it. We said £1. They wandered off. Then a woman stopped in her tracks as if halted by armed soldiers.

The English Civil War has a good claim to have been the best-written revolution in history, not because later writers have particularly done it justice but because those directly involved at the time spoke with such vivid brilliance. From Leveller debaters to Parliamentarian leaders to King Charles himself, the historical record is littered with an urgent vigour of speech that can often be transcribed straight into a shooting script. So, when Peter Capaldi's King, pale and indignant, stormed...
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Three years ago, the American playwright and director Adriano Shaplin told Michael Boyd, the RSC's artistic director, in a public debate, that Shakespeare was neither universal nor a genius and that the industry formed in his name was killing the contemporary theatre.

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has become instant shorthand for those who consider it the last word in dumbed-down, crassly written fiction. But there is no denying the appeal of the globe-spanning, puzzle-based narrative, with strands reaching from ancient history to the modern world. Before The Code, Katherine Neville offered some ingenious sleight-of-hand in this style. Now she has followed up her debut novel, The Eight, with a blockbuster thriller that again pushes all the Brown...
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Built in the 19th century to show large Victorian paintings, the South London Gallery has been completely transformed by the Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander. Using the building's features, she has followed the picture-rail to divide the space in two by the insertion of a wooden floor. This not only transforms the gallery but creates two new environments, each with its own character: the dark lower space with its struts forming the skeleton of the structure, and the light, airy upper...
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