The Critic

The Critic is Britain’s new monthly magazine for politics, ideas, art, literature and much more. Co-edited by Michael Mosbacher and Christopher Montgomery, The Critic exists to push back against a self-regarding and dangerous consensus that finds critical voices troubling, triggering, insensitive and disrespectful. The point is not provocation or trolling. The point of honest criticism is to better approach truth, not deny its possibility.

Ossified thought and a lack of intellectual rigour are depressing features of all sides of today’s political and cultural debate. Our writers will subscribe to no editorial line nor serve the interests of any party, faction or cause. We ask them to write because we expect them to be honest, and lucidly so. Look to our contributors and fault us if they are not. 

Contributors to the magazine include Jonathan Meades, Douglas Murray, Nick Cohen, Joshua Rozenberg, Anne McElvoy, Norman Lebrecht, Daniel Johnson, Lisa Hilton, Hannah Betts and Artists in Residence Adam Dant and Miriam Elia.

In the summer double issue of The Critic, D.J. Taylor charts the BBC’s diminishing commitment to highbrow arts coverage, Andrea Valentino examines how the City of London Corporation has swerved all local government reform, Paul Goodman proposes ways for the Conservative Party to rebuild its constituency base, Jude Russo explores who is really running the United States when Joe Biden forgets to do so, Charles Saumarez Smith investigates how Labour could build back better and Graham Stewart asks if the cause of Scottish independence is really dead?

Robert Hutton explains how cinemas have survived the streaming revolution, Iason Athanasiadis reports from Beirut on how the city went from riviera resort to ruined citadel, Henry Jeffreys praises Greek wine, Sarah Ditum gets caught up in a hip hop war of words, and the magazine’s unrivalled team of critics and reviewers assess the best and worst of summer arts and culture.