Leading article
How to fight the AI revolution
Ask ChatGPT to write a Spectator leader about the risks of AI and it begins like this: ‘There are two…
A decade on, Brexit still means Brexit
It’s been almost a full decade since Britain voted to leave the European Union. Inside Labour, whatever words are muttered…
The Tories and Reform should present a united front
In the summer of 1643, as the dispute between Charles I and parliament raged on, Sir William Waller wrote to…
Our duty to British Jews
Are Jews safe in Britain? To even have to ask the question is extraordinary. But a recent survey has found…
Donald Trump is confronting a reality that Europe has ignored
Donald Trump’s rendition of Nicolas Maduro was a brilliantly executed coup. It was also an exhibition of America’s hard power,…
Who’s up to the challenge of restoring Britain’s prosperity?
In 1956, Malta held a referendum on joining the United Kingdom. Since the islands were economically reliant on the Royal…
The radical message of Christianity
A meeting planned in secret. A message deemed subversive. The authorities both antagonised and confused. The gatherings of the early…
Labour’s dereliction of duty over defence
Last week, our political editor, Tim Shipman, revealed a recent meeting between Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the Chief…
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…
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…
Labour isn’t working
Labour: the clue should be in the name. In March, Keir Starmer branded Labour the ‘party of work’. If ‘you…
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.…
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,…
Sir Keir, Emperor of Inertia
In Silicon Valley there is a simple mantra that drives innovation: You Can Just Do Things. Wait for permission from…
The questions the government must answer over the China spying case
Exactly a year ago, this magazine warned that ministers were showing a dangerous naivety towards China. We revealed that the…
What we need from our new Archbishop of Canterbury
There have been 106 Archbishops of Canterbury since Gregory the Great declared Augustine his ‘Apostle to the English’ in 597.…
ID cards are Labour’s alibi for its failure
Questions of identity permeate our politics. What is it to be English, to be British? The Prime Minister sought to…
This is Shabana Mahmood’s moment
What is the point of Keir Starmer? He was the means by which the Labour party could suffocate the hard…
The failure of Britain’s elite universities
Politicians, authors, priests and the occasional Spectator editor have all served as the Oxford Union’s president over its 200-year history.…
Starmer’s survival depends on going against his instincts
Athelstan has long faded from public imagination, despite being the king who, in 927 ad, first united England. But thanks…
The high price of Britain’s misguided energy policy
Britain’s energy policy is a mess. We have the highest energy prices in the developed world, which is damaging competitiveness,…
The risks of Reform
In 1979, XTC sang: ‘We’re only making plans for Nigel/ We only want what’s best for him.’ The song is…
Rachel Reeves’s self-defeating attack on British racing
Few British traditions can claim as long a history as racing. The first races thought to have taken place in…
Britain is broke – and we all need to face it
Sometimes when I go to bed, I think that if I were a young man I would emigrate,’ said James…
Hiroshima and the continuing urgency of the atomic age
In August 1945, Group Captain Leonard Cheshire was stationed on the Pacific island of Tinian as an official British observer…
