Letters: How to clear the courts backlog – without scrapping juries
Tried and tested Sir: Your otherwise excellent leading article opposing proposed restrictions on jury trials (‘Judge not’, 29 November) misses…
A Spectator poll: What is the greatest artwork of the century so far?
Slavoj Zizek Hegel thought that, in the movement of history, the world spirit passes from one country to another, from…
Could ‘Your party’ become the shortest-lived political party in British history?
Party poopers ‘Your party’ holds its inaugural conference this weekend in a state of internal wrangling. Could it become the…
Portrait of the week: a shambolic Budget, Ukrainian plan and justice overhaul
Home Before Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered the Budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility accidentally released its…
What is a ‘fair’ trial, Mr Lammy?
Why are jury trials so precious? According to one prominent alumnus of Harvard Law School, who was writing in protest…
Letters: Britain’s energy policy is unsustainable
Unsustainable energy Sir: Sir Richard Dearlove (‘Net cost’, 22 November) succinctly sums up the views of many of us who…
Portrait of the week: an immigration overhaul, Budget chaos and doctors’ strikes
Home Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, proposed that refugees would only be granted a temporary right to stay and would…
It’s not science if you can’t question it
Follow the Science. The Science is settled. Two phrases which invoke the power of open inquiry to close down open…
How many illegal migrants does Britain return?
Condemned leaders Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, for using lethal force…
Letters: can you ever come back from Siberia?
Cross channel Sir: As a supporter of the BBC, it pains me to say that Rod Liddle and Lara Brown…
Portrait of the week: BBC vs Trump, a plot against Starmer and a weight loss deadline for North Sea oil workers
Home Tim Davie, the director-general of the BBC, resigned, as did Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News. Samir Shah,…
Labour isn’t working
Labour: the clue should be in the name. In March, Keir Starmer branded Labour the ‘party of work’. If ‘you…
Letters: The case for decriminalising cannabis
Back to reality Sir: The harms caused by cannabis are not a result of a failure to police it properly…
Letters: Venezuela’s middle-class exodus
Minimum requirement Sir: Some of Charles Moore’s observations about the minimum wage are pertinent (Notes, 1 November). However, what many…
How popular is the British royal family?
Austere environment Who introduced the word ‘austerity’ into the political lexicon? While chiefly associated with attacks on the Conservatives, and…
Portrait of the week: Train stabbing attack, Mamdani takes New York and the Andrew formerly known as prince
Home The King ‘initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew’, who is now…
Stench of failure: Britain’s shameful surrender in the war on drugs
The New York senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was that rare figure in politics – a progressive who followed the facts.…
Books of the Year II – further recommendations from our regular reviewers
Popular choices include: Look Closer, by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst; Clown Town, by Mick Herron; The Finest Hotel in Kabul, by Lyse Doucet
Letters: The difficulties of reporting on Gaza
Future proof Sir: Douglas Murray asks why Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech understated the problems (‘Imagine what Enoch Powell…
Mystic Milei proves ‘austerity’ needn’t be a dirty word
Javier Milei’s election in 2023 was a repudiation of decades of Peronist turmoil, corruption and inflation. Milei offered shock therapy,…
