menu_open

The Spectator

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Keir Starmer won’t stop the boats

Labour’s new ‘stop the boats’ policy is a risible exercise in deception that will only ever fool the truly gullible. The centrepiece, announced...

latest 5

The Spectator

Patrick O’Flynn

Why is Colombia turning its back on Israel in its hour of need?

Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro has terminated diplomatic relations with Israel and described the country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu...

latest 5

The Spectator

Qanta Ahmed

Four bets at Chester and Ascot

There is so much to like about Chester’s three-day May meeting ending today: a unique course with an atmosphere to match, quality racehorses,...

latest 4

The Spectator

Penworthy

Protest / What was the point of Just Stop Oil’s Magna Carta stunt?

The eco-activists of Just Stop Oil have often been caricatured as a group of middle-class students with too much time on their hands. Their latest...

latest 2

The Spectator

Tom Slater

France is waking up to the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood. Is Britain?

Donald Trump made headlines this month when he claimed that London and Paris are no longer recognisable because ‘they have opened their doors to...

latest 10

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Is Dominic Cummings’ ‘start up party’ a non-starter?

We haven’t heard much from Dominic Cummings since he walked out of No. 10 Downing Street in November 2020. Now the cerebral Vote Leave mastermind...

latest 10

The Spectator

Nigel Jones

Will John Swinney abandon Sturgeon’s gender bill?

There may be a new First Minister in the driving seat but can the SNP overtake Labour’s lead in the polls? Just this morning, Savanta revealed...

latest 7

The Spectator

Steerpike

Notes / The science behind Olivia Colman’s left-wing face

The new hunting year formally began last week. Should I resubscribe? Politically, the outlook is bleak. In February, Steve Reed, the shadow...

latest 10

The Spectator

Charles Moore

The UK leaves recession behind in 2023

This morning the Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed that the UK confined its technical recession to 2023. The economy grew by 0.6 per...

latest 9

The Spectator

Kate Andrews

Does David Lammy really expect Donald Trump to forgive and forget?

David Lammy has never been much of a diplomat. The veteran Labour MP is fond of lashing out at his critics, but now, as shadow foreign secretary,...

latest 7

The Spectator

Eliot Wilson

What is the anti-Israel Eurovision protest really about?

A young Israeli woman warned to stay in her hotel room. A baying mob on the streets outside hollering slogans and abuse. Death threats piling up....

latest 6

The Spectator

Brendan O’Neill

Starmer is copying the Tory small boats strategy

Today is one of those rare occasions in British politics – a day when Rishi Sunak’s government has a bit of good news. Figures released this...

latest 6

The Spectator

James Heale

Members only / Women will be disappointed by the Garrick Club

Perhaps it was the anachronistic use of the term ‘gentlemen’ that finally put paid to the idea of the gentlemen’s club. If only these...

latest 10

The Spectator

James Innes-Smith

The UK leaves recession – but is it too late for the Tories?

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed this morning that the UK confined its technical recession to 2023. The economy grew by 0.6 per...

latest 20

The Spectator

Coffee House Shots

Circle of hell / The paradox of a novelty doughnut

There are moments when you realise the world is a more complicated place than you had previously thought. I had such moment earlier this week when...

latest 10

The Spectator

Gus Carter

Gallows humour / My mother’s peculiar approach to death

Back in February, a friend forwarded me a profound and joyous article written by Simon Boas about his terminal cancer diagnosis. (I knew Simon a...

latest 10

The Spectator

Ettie Neil-Gallacher

Dance / There are passages of considerable eloquence in Royal Ballet’s The Winter’s Tale

There’s no escaping Christopher Wheeldon – a modest, amiable fellow from Yeovil of whom anyone’s mum would be proud. Reaching outside the...

latest 10

The Spectator

Rupert Christiansen

Harry and Meghan’s Nigeria tour is nothing but PR fodder

Prince Harry’s visit to London this week, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Invictus games, was largely overshadowed by the news that his...

latest 6

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Who are ‘the blob’?

Liz Truss calls them the ‘deep state’, Dominic Cummings ‘the blob’ and for Sue Gray they are simply former colleagues. But most of the public...

latest 30

The Spectator

Jordan Urban

The special relationship between Israel and America is faltering

President Biden doesn’t give many sit-down television interviews, but when he does, he tends to make news. This week he sat down for an on-air...

latest 20

The Spectator

Daniel Depetris

Nadhim Zahawi standing down too

Will the last Tory MP to leave please turn out the lights? Nadhim Zahawi today becomes the 67th Conservative to announce they are standing down at...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

Green plague / Save us from the plague of plastic tree protectors

Can nothing protect us from a plague of plastic tree protectors? They’ve descended on us like locusts, covering our hills, dales and roadsides with...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Matthew Parris

Inside the Labour backlash over Keir Starmer’s latest Tory recruit

Has Keir Starmer made a tactical mistake by recruiting the Tory MP Natalie Elphicke as his latest Starmtrooper? That’s the question being asked...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Katy Balls

On trial / In defence of my friend Kevin Spacey

I am looking for a way to get £80,000. The sum would come in handy. I could put it towards buying a cottage on Saint Helena, a seat in the House...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Interview / Sex and the shires: Plum Sykes reveals all

‘I looked at a picture of him today and thought: “Why are you wearing those expensive clothes, you twit?”’ Plum Sykes is in the Claridge’s...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Freddy Gray

Minority Report is superficial pap – why on earth stage it?

Minority Report is a plodding bit of sci-fi based on a Steven Spielberg movie made more than two decades ago. The setting is London, 2050, and...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Lloyd Evans

Politics / Inside No. 10’s battle of the pollsters

There was plenty for Rishi Sunak and his cabinet to discuss on Tuesday morning. The Conservatives had lost half of the seats they defended in the...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Katy Balls

Across Britain punters are lapping up ultra-trad opera – the Arts Council will be disgusted

Another week at the opera, another evening with an elitist and ethically dubious art form. I love it; you love it; but the authors of the Arts...

yesterday 30

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Television / Why did C.J. Sansom approve this moronic Disney+ Shardlake adaptation?

What would C.J. Sansom have made of the Disney version of his novel series about 16th-century crookback lawyer Matthew Shardlake? Sadly, because...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

James Delingpole

Bugs, biscuits, trench foot: from the front line of the uni protests

Angus Colwell has narrated this article for you to listen to. On the grass in front of UCL’s main building, on Sunday night, there were about 30...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Angus Colwell

Fascinating insight into the mind of Michelangelo

You’re pushing 60 and an important patron asks you to repeat an artistic feat you accomplished in your thirties. There’s nothing more daunting...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Laura Gascoigne

How to solve ‘range anxiety’

In ‘The Adventure of Silver Blaze’, Sherlock Holmes mentions ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night-time’. ‘But the dog did nothing...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Rory Sutherland

US politics / I hate hate speech laws

I originally intended to observe that American universities’ anti-Israel protestors and Hamas terrorists deserve each other, because they’ve so...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Lionel Shriver

Dense, melancholic, hypnotic: Brighde Chaimbeul, at Summerhall, reviewed

The hip end of the folk spectrum is in rude health right now. Dublin’s mighty Lankum lead the way, but plenty of other interesting artists are...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Graeme Thomson

Why the Bank of England must cut interest rates

As the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announces its interest rate decision today it has the chance to reverse the damage caused...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Andrew Lilico

My vote winner? Banning ‘fun’ runs

One of us must once have told a political pollster: ‘I really have no idea at all who I’m going to vote for.’ A moment of mild exasperation put...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

The brilliance of Beryl Cook

Nobody claims Beryl Cook was an artistic genius, least of all the artist herself. ‘I think my work lies somewhere between Donald McGill [the...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Julian Spalding

A gripping podcast about America’s obsession with guns

The love affair between so many Americans and their guns – long a source of international fascination – appears to be getting more painfully...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Jenny Mccartney

Yunchan Lim’s Chopin isn’t as good as his Liszt or Rach

Grade: B- In 2022 the South Korean pianist Yunchan Lim became, at 18, the youngest winner of the Van Cliburn competition, displaying a virtuosity...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Damian Thompson

Why a disabled pedestrian had her cyclist manslaughter conviction quashed

A woman who shouted and waved at a cyclist, causing her to fall in front of a car, has had her manslaughter conviction overturned. Auriol Grey, who...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Alexander Horne

No sacred cows / Do voters really prefer Starmer?

Rishi Sunak has been widely ridiculed for trying to spin the local election results as bad news for Keir Starmer. While acknowledging they were ‘...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Toby Young

How to become an old soak

Drink and longevity: there seems to have been a successful counter-attack against the puritans, prohibitionists and other health faddists. Indeed,...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Bruce Anderson

Books / The endless fascination of volcanoes

Volcanoes, volcanoes, volcanoes. You wait years for a good book or a film about volcanoes to come along and then they blow up all at once. In 2022,...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Ian Sansom

Books / The traditional British hedge is fast vanishing

Five years ago, a documentary about the Duchy of Cornwall featured the then Prince of Wales in tweeds and jaunty red gauntlets laying a hawthorn...

yesterday 9

The Spectator

Maggie Fergusson

The Israeli-Hamas negotiations are fraught with complexity

Jerusalem For weeks the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had been preparing for an assault on Rafah. Yet when the order finally came on Monday night, it...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Anshel Pfeffer

Labour celebrate largest poll lead since Truss

Poor Rishi Sunak is not having a very good week. After a bruising set of local elections and two defections to Labour in a fortnight, the latest ...

yesterday 9

The Spectator

Steerpike

Listen: Houchen turns on the Tory leader

When it rains for the Tories, it pours. Now Tees Valley’s Conservative mayor Ben Houchen hits out at his party’s leadership – just 24 hours...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

Andrew Bailey paves the way for a summer interest rate cut

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee has voted to hold interest rates for the sixth time in a row. Members of the MPC voted 7 – 2...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Kate Andrews

Britain is right to stand up to the WHO’s vaccine power grab

The World Health Organisation (WHO) hardly distinguished itself during the Covid 19 pandemic. It was slow to declare an emergency, then tried to...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Defective defection / The Elphicke row shows that Labour still needs to grow up

Westminster is full of clever people who spend a lot of time stupidly making simple things complicated. The story of Nathalie Elphicke’s defection...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

James Kirkup

In Putin’s Russia, Victory Day is no longer about 1945

Stepping out onto Red Square for today’s Victory Day parade in Moscow, it was clear to see that Vladimir Putin was in a good mood. Arms swinging...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Lisa Haseldine

Books / The perils of waiting on a Tudor queen

At 7 o’clock on a bleak February morning in 1542, King Henry VIII’s fifth wife Katherine Howard, so enfeebled by fear and misery that she could...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Anne De Courcy

Georgia is on the brink of revolution

Svitlana Morenets has narrated this article for you to listen to. For weeks, the Rustaveli Avenue in Tbilisi has looked like a battlefield....

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Svitlana Morenets

How universities raised a generation of activists

It was only a matter of time before America’s student protests spread to the UK. In Oxford, tents have been pitched on grass that, in ordinary...

yesterday 30

The Spectator

Yascha Mounk

Apple’s tone deaf advert shows the tech firm is losing its way

Apple has a reputation for advertising that not only sells their products effectively, but sets a standard few of their competitors could ever hope...

yesterday 70

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Why do people make excuses for surly staff?

‘You grab that table, I’ll get the drinks.’ I did as bid. A couple of minutes later, Paul was back, beers in hand, and we started chatting. Soon...

yesterday 30

The Spectator

Mark Mason

Five times Natalie Elphicke criticised Starmer’s Labour

Another one bites the dust. The second Tory to defect to Labour in as many weeks is none other than Natalie Elphicke, MP for Dover. In a shock...

previous day 30

The Spectator

Steerpike

BBC immigration coverage falls short over ‘racism’ fears

Another day, another BBC slip-up. This time the much-lauded public service broadcaster has been dragged back into the spotlight after an...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

Sunak’s ex-ministers demand Home Office overhaul

Eight months ago, Robert Jenrick and Neil O’Brien were serving ministers under Rishi Sunak. But both are now out of government and keen to show...

previous day 60

The Spectator

James Heale

Keir Starmer is ashamed of his party

Questions from backbenchers dominated PMQs. Sir Edward Leigh is keen to end unfettered immigration and he announced a way to stop the boats that...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Lloyd Evans

Elphicke defection baffles Tories at PMQs

If Natalie Elphicke’s defection had much of an effect on the mood of Tory MPs at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, it was largely to leave...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Swinney-Forbes should get the basics right

John Swinney, Scotland’s new first minister, has appointed his inaugural cabinet – and it’s almost unaltered from the team headed by Humza...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

The revenge of the blue collar workers

Last year was the year the scales tipped in the global job market. Layoffs in consulting and investment banking that started in early 2023 have...

previous day 20

The Spectator

Natasha Voase

The pro-Palestine campus protests have gone too far

The Prime Minister has summoned the vice chancellors of several universities to Downing Street to read them the riot act over pro-Palestine...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Iain Mansfield

Trump’s trial has nothing to do with Stormy Daniels

Why did Stormy Daniels testify in court yesterday about her allegedly sexual encounter with Donald Trump? Anybody who has followed the Donald Trump...

previous day 20

The Spectator

Freddy Gray

There’s nothing noble about Natalie Elphicke’s defection

With the best will in the world, it is hard to see the defection of Natalie Elphicke MP to the Labour party as a noble deed. You could paper the...

previous day 20

The Spectator

Patrick O’Flynn

Releasing prisoners early is a mistake

Some prisoners will be freed up to 70 days early to ease overcrowding in jails. This isn’t the first time the government has resorted to letting...

previous day 20

The Spectator

David Shipley

Tory MP Natalie Elphicke defects to Labour

Shortly before Prime Minister’s Questions today, Labour dropped a bombshell. Natalie Elphicke, one of the most hawkish Tory MPs on migration, has...

previous day 10

The Spectator

James Heale

The vindication of Kate Forbes

So much for Scotland being the home of ‘radical’ progressive politics.  After almost two decades of the Scottish National party saying that Scots...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Euan Mccolm

Cinema / A true popcorn movie: The Fall Guy reviewed

The Fall Guy, starring Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling, is a gloriously fun, screwball action film that pokes fun at action films and this, I now...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Deborah Ross

The Tories have not abandoned the centre ground – quite the opposite

It takes some brass neck to cross the floor, but to do it in the manner of Natalie Elphicke also requires considerable levels of delusion. A year...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Annabel Denham

Why Belgrade is cosying up to Beijing

Thousands of Serbs gathered outside the Palace of Serbia today to welcome the Chinese president Xi Jinping, chanting ‘China, Serbia’. Addressing...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Tatyana Kekic

Second Green councillor investigated for ‘inflammatory’ comments

The Green party has no problem getting attention these days – but it’s for all the wrong reasons. A second Green councillor is now being...

previous day 30

The Spectator

Steerpike

Border farce / Passport e-gate outages are an embarrassment to Britain

Queues that stretch for hours. Technology that doesn’t work. And a system so poorly designed that this isn’t the first time it’s broken down....

previous day 20

The Spectator

Matthew Lynn

Royals / Did the King snub Prince Harry?

Prince Harry’s occasional visits to Britain are regarded by many with the sense of unease that most people reserve for unexpected tax bills,...

previous day 40

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Why is the UK not blaming China for the MoD hack?

The personal details of members of the UK’s armed forces appear to have been the latest target of China’s prolific cyber spies, with the Ministry...

previous day 20

The Spectator

Ian Williams

The beauty of Atrani, now ruined by Netflix

Some time in the Noughties I sat next to a guy at work who told me he’d just had a holiday in a village on the outskirts of Amalfi. The village...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Deborah Maby

A bloke’s guide to aftershave

In 2020, the year of coronavirus, I came to a fork in the road. I’d just turned 50, a moment of looking back over your life, realising what...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Robin Ashenden

The delusion of the pro-Palestinian campus protestors

Much has been made in recent weeks, and especially in recent days, about the degrees of ignorance often displayed by those protesting for the...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Patrick West

How to fix Britain’s migrant crisis – quickly

Conventional wisdom has it that Britain faces an awkward dilemma on legal immigration: either we cut migrant numbers to keep faith with voters...

previous day 20

The Spectator

Karl Williams

C.J. Sansom’s Tudor England is a mirror of our divided world

Among the many appreciations of C.J. Sansom, the author of bestselling historical mysteries who died last week aged 71, one of the most eloquent...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Boyd Tonkin

Greens embroiled in anti-Semitism row

Oh dear. The Green party is in hot water after it emerged that one of its newly-elected councillors labelled a rabbi a ‘creep’ and a ‘kind of...

tuesday 20

The Spectator

Steerpike

Milei asks: who is Liz Truss?

Since coming to office in December, Javier Milei has won right-wing fans across the world for his bombastic rhetoric and fervent championing of...

tuesday 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

Macron is deluded if he thinks he can persuade Xi to change

Try as he might Emmanuel Macron and his party are unable to arrest the popularity of the National Rally. A month out from the European elections,...

tuesday 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Tasteless / The great posh food con

I had taken a friend out for a significant birthday, to a high-end French joint in London. We ordered the tasting menu, an eight course...

tuesday 30

The Spectator

Julie Bindel

The attacks on Britain’s history have backfired

UK university courses on race and colonialism are facing the axe due to cuts. ‘There’s not very much about race and colonialism on the curriculum...

tuesday 20

The Spectator

Gareth Roberts

My strange hobby / A life in search of death

As George Orwell astutely observed, England is a nation of hobbyists – and their sometimes eccentric private pursuits are one of the reasons that...

tuesday 20

The Spectator

Nigel Jones

Frazzled / The desperate world of babytech

In the penumbra cast by the light of my phone, I can dimly see the wreckage of a night with a newborn baby: half-drunk bottles of milk, the...

tuesday 20

The Spectator

Arabella Byrne

What Rishi Sunak can learn from Gordon Brown’s golden mistake

Gordon Brown is a historian by education, so he might just appreciate the fickleness of posterity. Over a decade at the Treasury from 1997 to 2007,...

tuesday 3

The Spectator

James Kirkup

Will John Swinney end the SNP’s war on business?

Accepting the leadership of the SNP on Monday, John Swinney said his political priority as Scotland’s seventh First Minister would be the...

tuesday 20

The Spectator

Euan Mccolm

Starmer should think twice before listening to ‘The Muslim Vote’

A grassroots campaign group called ‘The Muslim Vote’ is aiming to capitalise on the success of pro-Gaza candidates at the local election by...

tuesday 20

The Spectator

Hardeep Singh

Watch: John Swinney’s comments come back to haunt him

What comes around goes around. John Swinney has this afternoon become Scotland’s seventh First Minister after being appointed, unopposed, as SNP...

tuesday 40

The Spectator

Steerpike

First night flop / Rufus Wainwright blames Brexit for his failed musical

These days it seems there’s little you can’t blame on Brexit. From low ratings to school bullying, Britain’s departure from the European...

tuesday 3

The Spectator

Steerpike

Stephen Fry and the rise of the Pratriarchy

With Labour on course to win the next election, it’s worth asking again: why is it the only major political party in the UK never to have had a...

tuesday 20

The Spectator

Julie Burchill

Jeremy Hunt snaps at Rachel Reeves over National Insurance

Rachel Reeves may have been getting attention for her accusation that the government is ‘gaslighting’ the public over the state of the economy,...

tuesday 10

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Can Labour or the Tories fix the economy?

It’s all but certain that the UK’s exit from recession will be confirmed at the end of this week. Preliminary Q1 data, released on Friday, is...

tuesday 3

The Spectator

Kate Andrews

Parliament’s Rafah rage

It’s been a while since the Commons has had so much anger in it as it did during the urgent question on Gaza. The anxiety and criticism of Israel...

tuesday 10

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Putin’s next six years in power spell more repression for Russia

Amidst the golden splendour of the Kremlin’s Hall of the Order of St Andrew, Vladimir Putin was once again inaugurated as president of Russia...

tuesday 10

The Spectator

Lisa Haseldine

Brexit didn’t ruin Rufus Wainwright’s musical

Blaming Brexit for everything has become a kind of tic among the great and good. Like the buck-passing politicians who used to blame everything on...

tuesday 20

The Spectator

Tom Slater

Stormy Daniels takes the stand

Stephanie Clifford, the adult film star and director who performs under the name Stormy Daniels, took the stand in Donald Trump’s ‘hush-money’...

tuesday 3

The Spectator

Matt Mcdonald

405a9999295b2280f7e88ded8a290c82