| Dear Reader,
For years, the benefits of Brexit have had to be debated as theoreticals, but now that we are finally out of the EU, the pandemic is offering an early taste of the difference our independence might be able to make. Juliet Samuel writes in her column how the vaccine procurement effort provides a blueprint for exactly how Britain’s new freedoms can be used to ensure that Brexit ends up being a long-term success.
The Trump presidency will come to an end on Wednesday, with the wounds from the Capitol riots still fresh and a second impeachment still unresolved. Even without those events, however, it would have been an extraordinary, custom-smashing four years. Tim Stanley has taken a look back at Donald Trump’s single term in office in this excellent long read and interrogates how much the President’s unchanging personality drove events.
Phil Spector, the hugely successful music producer and infamous murderer, died on Saturday. Even before his crime, Mr Spector was media-shy and went a quarter of a century without giving an interview. That was until 2003, when, just three weeks before his arrest, he spoke to Mick Brown. It’s both a sweeping look at his immense influence on the world of music and a remarkable insight into a troubled mind.
Mary Beard is the latest to take part in our long-running (and brilliant) Fame and fortune weekly series, in which well-known faces open up about their financial pasts and presents, and their attitudes to money. In her entry, Ms Beard tells Nicola Venning about the point where she went from a struggling academic to knowing money would no longer be an issue, her personal luxury and how the pandemic has heightened her sense of fairness and injustice.
Chris |
