Features
Wanted: a flatmate for the Pope
Pope Leo XIV has announced, though not in the form of a bull, that he will be sharing the Apostolic…
The painful truth about foster care
The foster care system in this country is collapsing. There are roughly 80,000 children who’ve been removed from violent or…
Britain is having its own gilets jaunes moment
‘I heard you want your country back. Ha, shut the fuck up!’ So yelped rap-punk duo Bob Vylan on stage…
The human stories of slavery
With a new history of slavery and the slave trade in the Islamic world just published, I am under strict…
America’s obsession with British decline
As Sigmund Freud pointed out way back in 1905, everyone feels a bit schizo about Mum. On the one hand,…
Phone-addicted yummy mummies are neglecting their children
As a foster carer and an adopter, I know what neglect looks like. I’ve looked after children who didn’t know…
The coming crash: the markets have had enough
‘The problems of financing our deficits have seriously hampered progress in achieving our goals,’ wrote Labour’s chancellor Denis Healey in…
The unsettling rise of DeathTok
For teenage girls on TikTok, the makeup routine is an almost sacred ritual. Manicured fingertips dart around at virtuosic speed,…
How The Spectator shaped John Buchan
Amid the hullabaloo attending the 150th anniversary of the birth of John Buchan on 26 August – the walks and…
The Liberal MP who put the ‘bank’ in bank holiday
Why are you enjoying a bank holiday this month, as opposed to a ‘general’ or ‘national’ holiday? It’s because the…
Could you fall in love with a chatbot?
Jason, 45, has been divorced twice. He’d always struggled with relationships. In despair, he consulted ChatGPT. At first, it was…
Owning an Airbnb is hell
I know it can be difficult to have sympathy for anybody who owns a holiday let, but for me and…
There are glimmers of hope for Iraq’s Christians
It is 43˚C in Erbil, which a friend here describes as ‘cool’. Unlike my first visit in 2015, when Isis…
Why your weight loss jab is ballooning in price
‘A friend of mine who’s slightly overweight, to put it mildly, went to a drug store in London,’ Donald Trump…
Trump has given Zelensky cause for hope
On Volodymyr Zelensky’s last visit to the White House, he brought a gift: a championship belt from one of Ukraine’s…
Putin’s trap: how Russia plans to split the western alliance
Though you wouldn’t know from the smiles around the table at the White House this week, a trap has been…
Keep algorithms out of care homes
I manage a small, not-for-profit care home in Norfolk. We have tea rounds, hymn singing, hand-holding and staff who know…
Labour’s new ‘dark arts’ strategy
Senior Labour figures have given up hope of beating Nigel Farage in 2029. There are two causes for this pessimism.…
Can Reform beat the blob?
Shortly after he was elected as Britain’s youngest council leader last month, 19-year-old George Finch of Reform UK had a…
Why do so many of us want to be alone?
When was the last time you had a truly classic racist cab driver? Mine was a few years ago, coming…
Why is sport so obsessed with Goats?
It was late at night in rural France and Martin wanted to discuss Goats. And he didn’t mean livestock. ‘You…
Europe is giving up on free movement
Ten years ago on 31 August 2015, Angela Merkel told the German press what she was going to do about…
How Princess Anne is celebrating her 75th birthday
When a previous milestone was looming in the life of Princess Anne, her 21st birthday, the late Queen asked her…
Down with exclamation marks!
Punctuation is a gendered thing. I’ve been trying to stop myself overusing exclamation marks and it’s been difficult. Exclamation marks…
The real reason Trump’s Alaska summit matters
Donald Trump has never lacked confidence. ‘I’m here to get the thing over with,’ he said last week when announcing…
