Since the attempted assassination of the prime minister, the far right has wasted no time in silencing its critics

Last Friday, I was sitting on the terrace of the cafe of the Slovakian parliament talking to an opposition MP about the government’s assault on independent media. The previous afternoon a law had been passed that puts the public broadcaster, RTVS, under the direct control of the Ministry of Culture.

“It’s part of a cycle. That’s what’s so scary,” Dana Kleinert of Progressive Slovakia told me, pointing also to the abolition of a special prosecutor’s office looking at political corruption and plans to curb public protests. “How far can they go? The answer is as far as they want.” She also noted the withdrawal of funding for LGBTQ+ groups, and the closure of a museum considered to be “putting the future of children in Slovakia in jeopardy”.

John Kampfner is the author of In Search of Berlin, Blair’s Wars and Why the Germans Do It Better

They came to power promising ‘a golden age for the arts’. Now, 12 disastrous culture secretaries later, they leave it in tatters. What a stunning missed opportunity to capitalise on an asset that was the envy of the world

The fishing industry contributes barely £1bn to the British economy. That is 0.03% of GDP. Put it another way: it is roughly equivalent in size to visual effects, a sub-category of a category of the creative industries.

Conservative ministers made repeated visits to the nation’s ports to extol the virtues of an almost moribund trade. By contrast, a sector that has been the fastest growing for two decades, that contributes more than £120bn, that in other countries would be seen as an essential component of the good society, was largely seen as an afterthought.