Leading chronicler of UK labour and industry at the FT who became Labour government adviser

John Lloyd finds nationalist certainties dissolving along the byways of literary history and the ‘Debatable Land’

Oxford University has long relied on deep-pocketed donors, but should some be turned away?

Journalists are rightly worried about fake news and ‘alternative facts’ — but our new world has much in common with the old

How the high hopes of early-1990s central Europe gave way to creeping authoritarianism

Spymasters speak to the FT about truth, transparency and state power

Radical communicator of hidden power in art

There is ground to be regained in the west from the populist right

Reflections on Margaret Thatcher and the media through four classicists and courtiers

Rational political speech is under attack and failing to convince a sceptical public. Should we blame the media?

At a time of disillusionment with politics, calls for direct public involvement in decision-making are growing louder

National Coal Board chairman who saw the industry’s greatest growth and the start of its decline