Features
Andy Burnham can’t afford to please everyone
Andy Burnham thinks his critics need a new joke about him. The old one about a Blairite, a Brownite and…
Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey is a triumph
Incredible stories, otherworldly creatures, false identities, a cavalcade of trickery: the original Odyssey is packed with everything you could want…
Social media has saved comedy
In 2022, a 16-year-old called Kane Parsons began to post a web series called ‘Backrooms’ on his YouTube channel, drawing…
Turtle doves and the myth of rewilding
In the latest success story for reintroducing species to the British countryside, turtle doves, reared in captivity and released at…
Are you enjoying a ‘nun girl summer’?
The nuns were wrapping up their night prayer when I entered the chapel at Tyburn Convent. I couldn’t see them…
The Welsh government’s mad decolonisation plans
A teenager in Wales might want to play video games, hang out with their friends or even, dare I suggest…
Shut up about your disability
Britain is crippled. More of us than ever before are disabled. One in four, at the last count. But it…
The ruinous addictiveness of Panini stickers
You could attempt to interest your kids in the World Cup by introducing them to Panini stickers. Or you may…
Inside Labour’s plot to sideline alternative media
Labour came to power in 2024 with five stated missions: to improve economic growth, the NHS, street safety, clean energy…
Dominic Cummings: ‘There’s going to be an all-out attempt to decapitate Farage’
In January, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, joined The Spectator’s Quite right! podcast. This week, Nigel Farage suggested…
Will Nigel Farage’s big gamble pay off?
When Reform high command gathered in the boardroom of their Millbank headquarters last Tuesday, the meeting was supposed to be…
Should politicians have tans?
The cult economist Adam Tooze generally discusses matters far beyond my understanding on his podcast Ones and Tooze. While roasting…
Prince Harry’s holiday from hell
Has grace-and-favour accommodation now fallen from grace – and favour, too? In recent days, we have learned that both our…
Gen Z’s surprising nostalgia for the old high street
Dave and Lynne are remembering the good old days when kids had their baths in galvanised tubs in front of…
Who really runs Manchester?
‘It’s basically a dictatorship,’ one insider tells me. If you want to build anything in Britain’s second city, you have…
Is there any route back for the Society of St Pius X?
As any Catholic master of ceremonies will tell you, it takes only the tiniest sartorial mishap to lend a Python-esque…
The real story of Manchesterism isn’t the one Andy Burnham is telling
‘Manchesterism,’ Andy Burnham declared in his Makerfield by-election campaign video, ‘is the end of neoliberalism.’ The path to power, he…
What’s the point of Eton?
If the Battle of Waterloo was won on Eton’s playing fields – as Wellington allegedly said – might Xi Jinping’s…
Weddings should be short and sweet
As every single one of my friends – and their spouses – is a tasteful soul, it goes without saying…
The fuss over gay conversion therapy is a charade
Politicians love banning things. Even if the threats they worry about don’t actually exist. In February 2019, amid Conservative defections…
Revealed: the shady funding of net zero
There is a problem with British politics. Dark money from abroad is being funnelled into our system. A complex web…
The truth about how the British Empire is taught in schools
William Dalrymple says that children ‘don’t learn’ about the British Empire at school. It is an ‘elephant in the room’,…
The ADHD-ification of squishy toys
‘Feeling a bit stressed or anxious? Want to practise more mindfulness? Looking for good vibes and your best mellow and…
Why is Giorgia Meloni courting Emmanuel Macron?
Emmanuel Macron has lost a friend in Keir Starmer. The French President paid tribute to the outgoing British Prime Minister…
How to rescue English cricket
There was always something of John Cleese’s Sir Lancelot about Ben Stokes, ever eager for a flamboyant rescue mission in…
