BBC
The BBC should be ashamed of its reporting on trans teenagers
This is an article about some difficult, complex subjects: suicide, mental health, support for transgender children. It’s also about something…
Plato beats the pundit
Today presenter Nick Robinson has been reflecting on the political interview. He contrasts his interviews with scientists about Covid with…
Diary
It is such a relief that Dominic Cummings has gone. Not for the sake of the country or the government…
Who’s laughing now? Cancel culture is killing comedy
The BBC and Channel 4 are self-censoring their comedy output because they are so terrified of offending people. So says…
An ego the size of Botswana
It’s touch and go whether the theatre will survive this latest assault. Some venues have pushed back their entire programme…
Twin peaks
There must be some people somewhere who vaguely know their own spouses — but if so, they don’t tend to…
The Spectator’s Notes
As time passes, there is — blessedly — ever less need to pay attention to ‘untold’ stories about Diana, Princess…
Does anyone recognise David Hare’s Britain?
Having not watched television for nine months and already growing bored of the 1,000-piece jigsaw of General Alfredo Stroessner (part…
Spreading the word
Nineteen fifty-six: the Suez crisis, the first Tesco, Jim Laker takes 19 wickets in a match. But also: Trinidadian pianist…
My pick for BBC chairman
There are two striking things about the new book, 100 Great Black Britons, which was compiled to celebrate the achievements…
Letters
Misplaced Trust Sir: Charles Moore is as ever bang on target (The Spectator’s Notes, 26 September). National Trust members have…
Own goal
BBC sports coverage is becoming unwatchable
Impartiality and the battle for broadcast
Two big kites were launched by the Sunday Times that could, should they fly, redraw the broadcasting landscape. ‘BBC critics…
Charles Moore on BBC reform
Former editor of The Spectator and Daily Telegraph Charles Moore is tipped to become chairman of the BBC. Despite being…
Paul Dacre and Boris Johnson: ‘the Boston strangler’ and the ‘alley cat’
Paul Dacre, the former editor of the Daily Mail, has reportedly been asked by the Prime Minister to chair the…
High life
Gstaad I’ve been wrestling all week with indecision, the kind that tests one’s soul, and the uncertainty is killing me.…
Class acts
The Last Night of the Proms came and went, and it was pretty much as anyone might have predicted, if…
Letters
China’s covered Sir: If Charles Moore had contacted the BBC, rather than conducting a fruitless Google search, we would have…
Our Belarusian blind spot
I’d always rather liked the Finns, until I came across the conductor Dalia Stasevska. When I asked my mother what…
There’s no business like show business
Fifteen minutes into the first episode of I Hate Suzie, main character Suzie Pickles was doing a photoshoot in her…
Public disservice broadcasting
Reading the speech Tony Hall gave to the Edinburgh Television Festival, I was struck by his upbeat, confident tone. The…
Ill-received pronunciation
Radio 4 recently ran an adaptation of Albert Camus’s The Plague in which the protagonist, Dr Bernard Rieux, was transformed…
Test of character
You are, shall we say, a famous commentator, one of a tiny elite in the British media. You are paid…
The Spectator’s notes
Chris Packham is widely seen as the most extreme of well-known animal rights activists. His obsessions against hunting and shooting…
Bonjour happiness
Soon, very soon now — even sooner than I imagined, if A Suitable Boy turns out to be as lacklustre…
