John Harris

Nothing announces the modern British summer’s arrival more than pictures of music lovers drenched and filthy at Glastonbury and the other UK festivals. Would we want it any other way?
The summer of 1997 was a big one, in lots of ways. Tony Blair became the prime minister. Diana, Princess of Wales, died in Paris. The first Harry Potter novel was published and the UK handed control of Hong Kong to China.
And at that…

No Rolling Stones but Chumbawamba … Stuart Maconie’s tour of pop is an elegant and unexpected take on music as social history
The Oxford English Dictionary traces the term “pop music” to 1926, and reduces its meaning to a matter of “popular appeal”, which is fine, as far as it goes. But it omits an essential aspect of an art-form born of mass production, and open to anybody who can afford a rudimentary instrument…

The government’s housing benefit changes are a mess, ramping up arrears and emptying out streets. But what would Labour do differently?
When I met the Holden family back in January, they were worried – scared, even – about the looming arrival of the bedroom tax. They live in Hartlepool. Stuart, 36, and his wife Lorna, 33, have four kids: Faith, Noah, Elijah, and four-year-old Sam, who’s autistic. In the five-bedroom home they…

The government’s housing benefit changes are a mess, ramping up arrears and emptying out streets. But what would Labour do differently?
When I met the Holden family back in January, they were worried – scared, even – about the looming arrival of the bedroom tax. They live in Hartlepool. Stuart, 36, and his wife Lorna, 33, have four kids: Faith, Noah, Elijah, and four-year-old Sam, who’s autistic. In the five-bedroom home they…

The government’s housing benefit changes are a mess, ramping up arrears and emptying out streets. But what would Labour do differently?
When I met the Holden family back in January, they were worried – scared, even – about the looming arrival of the bedroom tax. They live in Hartlepool. Stuart, 36, and his wife Lorna, 33, have four kids: Faith, Noah, Elijah, and four-year-old Sam, who’s autistic. In the five-bedroom home they…