The Spectator
7 February 2026 Aus
Dim Chalmers
Australia
Dim Chalmers
As the union movement and other woke or left-wing entities struggle to find ever more imaginative new ways to waste…
Australian Features
How did the Nats end up more liberal than the Libs?
Time for a grassroots reformation of the Liberal party
Meet Dr Jim, the Bracket Creep
Labor’s economic plan is nothing but theft and sabotage
When independence became conditional
If the dollar is power, central banks cannot be neutral
US-UK relationship nosedives
Trump gets it right vetoing Starmer’s insane Chagos giveaway
Conservative rage against the party machine
Abbott, Taylor and the great Liberal walkout
Distract yourself from the mess we’re in
A litany of Aussie doom and gloom can be alleviated by the footy, US-style
Features
Is Keir Starmer prepared for the AI-pocalypse?
Is there any area of public policy which Keir Starmer’s government has got right? ‘Where very little is working, AI…
The Epstein Files are a reminder that emails live forever
Still they keep coming: email after email from Jeffrey Epstein’s personal correspondence, along with the almost unmanageable amount of other…
The glaring flaw in Keir Starmer’s AI plan
Like Harold Wilson and his ill-defined ‘white heat of technology’, Keir Starmer has latched on to artificial intelligence as the…
AI is coming for the lanyard class
Forgive me. I am going to begin by quoting two prominent left-wing Londoners – and agreeing with one. In a…
‘I want to stop the Antichrist’ – can Peter Thiel succeed?
Last December, we flew to Los Angeles to interview Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech tycoon and co-founder of PayPal. We…
The secrets of Putin’s shadow fleet
Of all the weapons in Vladimir Putin’s arsenal, the most strategically crucial has proved to be not hypersonic missiles but…
The inconvenient truth about polar bears
The BBC reported terrible news last week about polar bears: they are thriving. This is very annoying of them as…
Our armed forces are hollow – and our enemies know it
When you’re the chief of the defence staff, the head of the British armed forces, it’s never a good sign…
What Freud would say about your teddy bear
It is widely known that when a Duke of York is down, he is down, and the recent hit-piece in…
The doctor will patronise you now
How a profession speaks to its subjects is always of interest to a writer, sometimes perversely so. Over the past…
The Week
How teetotal is Britain?
Royal removals The King has had more success in stripping Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of his royal titles than George IV had…
What Trump told me in my hour of need
‘The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom,’ espoused German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. Having spent the past fortnight…
Portrait of the week: Peter Mandelson resigns, Keir Starmer returns and gold rallies
Home Lord Mandelson resigned his membership of the Labour party and then retired from the House of Lords; some of…
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…
How Romans would have known how to deal with Epstein
To look through Jeffrey Epstein’s curriculum vitae on Google is to be left goggling at how this revolting creature could have…
Letters: Let children drink
Chagos stupidity Sir: To British Establishment watchers, Michael Gove’s dissection of the dubious and devious machinations of Jonathan Powell, Richard…
Columnists
I was right about Peter Mandelson
A fight between Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson? A difficult one to call, really. Like a war between Pakistan and…
The British should have their holy places
I think by now most of us can spot a double standard when we see one. So let me try…
‘It’ll be a photo finish’: inside the Gorton and Denton by-election
British by-elections are often prolonged affairs, dragging on for months. Yet in the Manchester seat of Gorton and Denton –…
Why did Peter Mandelson want Jeffrey Epstein to read my column?
Last Saturday, a friend in Washington emailed to say he had been studying some of the latest 3.5 million pages…
What Catholics get wrong about assisted dying
The Catholic Church has always been remarkably relaxed about sin. It becomes distinctly jumpy, however, when it encounters any challenge…
The role of ABBA in the Ajax fiasco
‘It’s all about ABBA,’ a military acquaintance whispered when I mentioned the scandal of the British Army’s order of 589…
I decluttered a 1990s time capsule – and this is what I learnt
After my grandmother died a few years ago, we couldn’t bring ourselves to get rid of most of her possessions.…
Books
Forgetting was the best defence for the Kindertransport refugees
Alfred and Doris Moritz remained largely silent about their persecution in Nazi Germany, having tried their best to erase the memory, according to their son Michael
Goddesses and courtesans: six centuries of the female body in art
Amy Dempsey explains how nude representations, from Botticelli’s ‘Birth of Venus’ to Manet’s ‘Olympia’, express both emotion and the attitudes of the day
Lust for gold: White River Crossing, by Ian McGuire, reviewed
In 1766, a small party from the Hudson Bay Company head to the subarctic tundra in search of untold riches
Musical bumps: Discord, by Jeremy Cooper, reviewed
The ebb and flow of harmony between a composer and her chosen solo saxophonist is charted with meticulous precision
What hope is there for the Church of England today?
With attendance in long-term decline and too many clergy trapped in the headlights of identity politics, the ‘ark of salvation’ seems barely seaworthy
Are western governments actively facilitating money laundering?
The inadequate scrutiny of shell companies and continual printing of vast quantities of high-denomination banknotes are just some indications of a shameful systemic failure
The tale of John Tom, the Cornish rebel with the Messiah complex
The 19th-century merchant from Truro who posed as a charismatic preacher and saviour of the poor was far more deranged than anyone realised
Arts
Camp indulgence
Music has the odd quality of being an abstract art as well as one that generates great gulfs and legions…
Electrifying: Annie & the Caldwells, at Ronnie Scott’s, reviewed
Annie & the Caldwells are a long-running family gospel ensemble from West Point, Mississippi – father and sons playing guitar,…
Fascinating: The Fabulous Funeral Parlour reviewed
The Fabulous Funeral Parlour ended with possibly the least necessary caption in TV history: ‘Filmed in Liverpool’. Whenever I go…
Richard Jones’s Boris Godunov feels like a parody
Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov is back at Covent Garden, and there are ninjas. This isn’t a spoiler. There hasn’t been a…
Marvellously conservative: Cable Street reviewed
Cable Street is a musical that premièred last year at the Southwark Playhouse and has now migrated to the Marylebone…
Gripping: Melania reviewed
The documentary Melania, which follows the first lady in the 20 days leading up to her husband’s 2025 presidential inauguration,…
The joy of Paul Taylor
When the American choreographer Paul Taylor died at the age of 88 in 2018, he should have been consecrated a…
The demise of London’s junk shops
‘The place through which he made his way at leisure was one of those receptacles for old and curious things…
The alt-right are clueless about neoclassicism
The adherents of the American alt-right are not known for their delicate aesthetic sensibilities, but there is an exception. They…
Life
Aussie life
According to a Tokyo University study of dogs, we can disregard the usual male-female stereotypes, as their research shows boy…
Language
Recently on Mammamia.com Emily Vernem and Holly Wainwright complained about the rise of what they call ‘dawn culture’. They complain…
How to cope with losing: a trainers’ guide
When the celebrations are kicking off in the winners’ enclosure, I dare say being a racehorse trainer looks glamorous. But…
Don’t write off Wales just yet
My friend Tim Andrew has admirable priorities. When I told him I had tickets for this week’s Six Nations opener…
Do only bitches bitch?
‘How many letters?’ asked my husband, as though it were a crossword we were doing together. ‘Five,’ I replied. ‘Begins…
‘Beloved by Chinese tourists – and the Labour party’: Phoenix Palace reviewed
The exterior of the Phoenix Palace is cream with golden letters like the napkin and the Laffer curve, and it…
Has Ireland’s tourist board just killed my Airbnb?
The estate agent said that they would send someone round tomorrow and I had to calm them down. Come in…
I embarrassed myself at Jilly Cooper’s memorial
I am ‘sharing’ what follows as a public service. Also, as self-care in the hope that publicly shaming myself might…
Spectator Competition: Veg out
Competition 3435 invited you to write a poem that included Wendy Cope’s immortal line ‘A happier cabbage you never did…
Dear Mary: How can I persuade a friend to stop allowing her dog to lick her plate?
Q. My grandson has just failed his driving test for the fifth time and yet I know, from his chauffeuring…
Cheese and onion pasties: how to make a Greggs classic at home
‘That’s not a pasty!’ my husband declares loftily, eyeing up what most definitely is a veritable clutch of cheese and…
Should I be cancelled for being in the Epstein files?
I was planning to begin this column by saying how relieved I was to be mentioned in the latest Epstein…









































































