Dr Kate Maltby

You don’t actually have to both sides this. The Jewish community in the UK is not the Israeli government. You can just condemn the murder of two British Jews killed in their place of worship and you don’t have to say a single other thing.

Text reads: OPINION Kneecap are the spoilt children of a generation ruined by social media. Photo of Kneecap

Kneecap trades on the disapproval of its institutional elders, writes @katemaltby.bsky.social

➡️ Read more: inews.co.uk/opinion/knee...

Pope Francis' death brings a difficult issue to the fore for the conclave There will be mumblings about the need to elect a Pope young enough to postpone awkward questions

Today's column in @theipaper.com.

Catholicism teaches that you can't opt out of a vocation, so the papacy is for life. But questions will haunt the coming conclave about whether Popes can or should retire. What does that mean for Rome's wider attitudes to life & death?

inews.co.uk/opinion/pope...

Stepmothers, relax, you’ll always be wicked but true love is worth it | Kate Maltby Two new surveys confirm that women who take on children from an earlier marriage will almost always be seen as witches

As many of you know, this weekend marked the last edition of the old Observer as a publication of the Scott Trust.

It was a honour to have a column in the final edition, on Medea, Snow White, and the inevitable witchiness of wicked stepmothers.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the boiler and the electrics will blow on the Easter weekend.

This really is becoming just like the other place, circa 2015, isn't it?

The United States of America in 2025, everybody.

Kate Maltby on Broadway transfers and the value of outside perspectives Broadway's frosty reception to some West End hits is not simply down to a "lack of taste", says Kate Maltby, with foreign critiques offering a useful corrective

Latest column for The Stage:

Broadway critics can be a vital counterpoint to West End groupthink.
(Or why Jesse Green was right about Sarah Snook in The Picture of Dorian Gray.)

www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/over...

And what do we want to bet she does, in fact listen to speakerphone audio in a library?

That is an excellent line.

Details, please!

Israel has become impossible for me to defend Day by day, its claims to function as an open and liberal democracy ring more hollow

This week’s column @theipaper.com (which I actually wrote last week.) A painful piece to write and not done lightly.

inews.co.uk/opinion/isra...

Hungary poised to adopt constitutional amendment to ban LGBTQ+ gatherings The controversial amendment also recognises only two sexes, providing a basis for denying other gender identities

Hungarian lawmakers are voting today on a constitutional amendment that would ban #Pride and legally recognise only two sexes, among other measures. We condemn this as a blatant violation of human rights in #Hungary:
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

New research shows the growing problem of censorship in school libraries, following my @indexoncensorship.org investigation.

This problem isn’t going away. Currently, there’s no requirement for schools to even have libraries, let alone policies to support librarians.

In case you’re listening to the BBC Today Programme on Radio 4, I’ll be on at about 8.45 to talk about… Katy Perry going into space with Jeff Bezos’ fiancée. (And why it may not be exactly a feminist achievement.)

From a couple of weeks ago…

There’s a place for audience participation, but ‘chicken jockey’ chaos takes it too far | Kate Maltby Barrages of popcorn and even live poultry are featuring at screenings of A Minecraft Movie

“The question of who controls the soundscape at any collective experience is a question about who has power; who feels untouchable.”

(Chicken Jockey!)

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

On Sam Mendes’ Beatles, ‘participatory culture’, and the rash of premature fan responses. Late to post, but here’s yesterday’s column for The Observer.

www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...

As I've written often, I share concerns that our attempts to regulate speech on tech platforms will cause all the unintended consequences that censorship attempts always do. But Vance's posturing on anti-abortion protest is throat-clearing to present Starmer as anti-speech, before he pushes on this.

One thing I'd add that I haven't said here: I suspect the 'free speech' Vance is really concerned about is the UK's moves to make tech companies accountable for 'harmful' content. He flagged this at Starmer's Feb White House press conference and it is a key issue for the tech donors who made him VP.

JD Vance's free speech hypocrisy is a threat to Starmer - and the UK Starmer should have the guts to call out this unacceptable treatment of an ally

"JD Vance's free speech hypocrisy is a threat to Starmer - and the UK"

This week's column at the i
inews.co.uk/opinion/jd-v...

Incredibly disappointing on stage. Bizarrely.

Let Britain’s magical, mythical creatures inspire a patriotism untainted by politics | Kate Maltby A new set of Royal Mail stamps on regional folklore reminds us of our deep roots to the land

"What we have in common with each other, and with every other human being who has set foot on these islands, is no more and no less than our experience of place."

Latest column: on stamps, selkies, and a patriotism based on place, not race.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Kate Maltby on why Donald Trump’s attack on the arts will soon create problems for UK producers The Kennedy Center controversy has so far been largely confined to America, says Kate Matlby, but this is soon going to give UK producers a dilemma

I also have a column @thestage.co.uk on Trump's takeover of the Kennedy Center & the ethical questions it raises for UK producers.

Cameron Mackintosh's Les Miserables is sticking with an upcoming run at the Kennedy Centre. But where will UK artists draw the line?
www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/how-...

Trump's fascist disdain for civil liberties is spreading across Europe There is a fundamental obstacle to the democratic movement in Europe

"Democratic values may sound like abstract things, but they can end up being the thing that stops a concrete canopy from falling on your head."
inews.co.uk/opinion/trum....

Trump's fascist disdain for civil liberties is spreading across Europe There is a fundamental obstacle to the democratic movement in Europe

The arrest of the Mark Lowen, BBC's Turkey correspondent, reminds me that I probably should get around to posting here my column from a couple of days ago on Turkey's protest movement; what it has in common with unrest across the Balkans, and how Trump has undermined it.
inews.co.uk/opinion/trum...

That is highly unfair to Getafix, to Vitalstatistix and perhaps even to Cacafonix.

America's future is our future – we just don't get to choose it When historians of emotion look back on this year, at least in British history, they will highlight 'powerlessness' as the emotion of our age

In light of Pete Hegseth's security breach, here again is the piece I wrote on US Election Day 2024.

Right from the top, the most basic danger of any Trump Presidency for allies like Britain was always going be the threat MAGA's chaos poses to our own national security.
inews.co.uk/opinion/amer...

Do we really want Clueless updated to reflect our dark, digital age? Ugh! As if! | Kate Maltby Thirty years after the film, the musical version makes no excuses for being a nostalgia-fest

This week in the Observer: an excellent excuse to write about Clueless:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Scientist banned from entering US over opinions about Trump—Minister Border agents reportedly found comments criticizing Trump on the researcher's phone.

Very worrying news coming out of the #US where a French scientist was blocked from entering the country after authorities found messages criticising President #Trump on his phone: www.newsweek.com/french-scien... 1/3