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Can anything stop Reform?

Can anything stop Reform?

A close associate of Nigel Farage received phone calls from three civil servants in the past week, asking how they might help Reform UK prepare for...

yesterday 6

The Spectator

Tim Shipman

Hotel Oloffson is ruined – and so is Haiti

Hotel Oloffson is ruined – and so is Haiti

Earlier this month, in Haiti’s tatterdemalion capital of Port-au-Prince, armed gangs burned down the Hotel Oloffson. As news of the attack spread,...

yesterday 5

The Spectator

Ian Thomson

Base instincts: unease on the garrisons housing Afghan refugees

Helping Afghan refugees escape Taliban retribution has not proved easy; ensuring their integration into their host countries more challenging...

yesterday 5

The Spectator

John Power

Monaco, the people-watching paradise

Monaco, the people-watching paradise

I’m lying on a sun lounger in Monte Carlo and there are so many women with extended blonde hair, hornet-stung lips and bazooka breasts stuffed into...

yesterday 6

The Spectator

Eilidh Hargreaves

Corbyn and Sultana botch their party launch. Again

Corbyn and Sultana botch their party launch. Again

After a rather botched party launch attempt in which Zarah Sultana appeared to force Jeremy Corbyn into letting her co-lead a new left-wing group,...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

Gets my vote / Raise the age of suffrage to 25

Gets my vote / Raise the age of suffrage to 25

If I had been given the vote at the age of 16, I would have put my cross beside the name of the Communist party candidate, assuming that he was not...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Rod Liddle

BBC apologises to Rupert Lowe over Rape Gang Inquiry report

BBC apologises to Rupert Lowe over Rape Gang Inquiry report

Another day, another drama over at the Beeb. The BBC has apologised to ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe and his Rape Gang Inquiry, acknowledging that it...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Steerpike

Watch: Green party leader struggles to say he likes rival

Watch: Green party leader struggles to say he likes rival

All is not well in the Green party. Adrian Ramsay is standing for re-election in the party’s leadership contest this summer – against the party’s...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Steerpike

Britain must not bow to the ICJ

Britain must not bow to the ICJ

The official cost of the deal to surrender the Chagos Islands to Mauritius – a country which never owned the islands in the first place – has been...

yesterday 7

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Irritatingly, Wet Leg’s new album is pretty good

Irritatingly, Wet Leg’s new album is pretty good

Grade: B Grade: B There’s quite a lot to dislike about Wet Leg, even aside from their stupid name. The entirety of their lyrical canon, for...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Rod Liddle

The UK and India sign their trade deal – at last

The UK and India sign their trade deal – at last

The UK has finally signed a free-trade deal with India after three-and-a-half years of negotiation. The agreement will open up trade for cars,...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

James Heale

Brilliant rewrite of Shakey: Hamlet, at Buxton Opera House, reviewed

Brilliant rewrite of Shakey: Hamlet, at Buxton Opera House, reviewed

‘There is good music, bad music, and music by Ambroise Thomas,’ said Emmanuel Chabrier, but then, Chabrier said a lot of things. I adore Chabrier –...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

Politics / Can anything stop Reform?

Politics / Can anything stop Reform?

A close associate of Nigel Farage received phone calls from three civil servants in the past week, asking how they might help Reform UK prepare for...

yesterday 6

The Spectator

Tim Shipman

Neverending story / MAGA, Epstein and the paedo files

Neverending story / MAGA, Epstein and the paedo files

Bill Clinton published another memoir last year, entitled Citizen, and I take it that everyone read the book the minute it came out. For those who...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Why has the world turned on the Waltz King?

Why has the world turned on the Waltz King?

On 17 June 1872, Johann Strauss II conducted the biggest concert of his life. The city was Boston, USA, and the promoters provided Strauss with an...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

The magic of Danish dream cake

I am, for the most part, a rule follower and a people pleaser. It’s one of the reasons I love baking, which essentially amounts to a set of...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Magnificent: Stevie Wonder at BST Hyde Park reviewed

Magnificent: Stevie Wonder at BST Hyde Park reviewed

The highs of Stevie Wonder’s Hyde Park show were magnificently high. The vast band were fully clicked into that syncopated, swampy funk, horns...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Michael Hann

Dolce vita / Our seven chickens are ruling the roost

Dante’s Beach, Ravenna Dante’s Beach, Ravenna All seven chickens we recently acquired are now laying eggs – except the one called Giovanna,...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Nicholas Farrell

The Epping migrant delusion

The Epping migrant delusion

The origin of the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes is difficult to pin down: could it be 19th century Denmark or 14th century Spain, 13th century...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Madeline Grant

James O’Brien’s apology isn’t enough

James O’Brien’s apology isn’t enough

When the story of how the British media responded to the October 7 atrocities is told, there will be a number of villains. High up on the list will...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Charlotte Henry

Theatre / The National have bungled their Rishi Sunak satire

Theatre / The National have bungled their Rishi Sunak satire

The Estate begins with a typical NHS story. An elderly Sikh arrives in A&E after a six-hour wait for an ambulance and he’s asked to collect his own...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Lloyd Evans

I watched it between my fingers: Bring Her Back reviewed

I watched it between my fingers: Bring Her Back reviewed

The Australian twins Danny and Michael Philippou started off as YouTubers known for their comically violent shorts – Ronald McDonald Chicken Store...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Deborah Ross

The power of BBC’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North 

The power of BBC’s The Narrow Road to the Deep North 

It’s been a good week for fans of TV dramas that are set partly in Syria, feature poetry-lovers confronting extreme violence, like to keep their...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

James Walton

Labour must confront the uncomfortable causes of immigration protests

Labour must confront the uncomfortable causes of immigration protests

That sound you hear is the penny finally dropping in Downing Street. Having spent the year since the horrific post-Southport riots blaming unrest...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Tom Slater

The English pinot noir that rivals Burgundy

The English pinot noir that rivals Burgundy

England is now and history. The other day, in the Weald of Kent, now was England and pleasure. We were visiting the Balfour Winery, near...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Bruce Anderson

Beguiling grot, TfL surrealism and Insta-art: contemporary art roundup

Beguiling grot, TfL surrealism and Insta-art: contemporary art roundup

Last month, I got the train down to Margate to interview the Egyptian-Armenian artist Anna Boghiguian (b. 1946), whose exhibition The Sunken Boat:...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Digby Warde-Aldam

Letter from Monte Carlo / Monaco, the people-watching paradise

Letter from Monte Carlo / Monaco, the people-watching paradise

I’m lying on a sun lounger in Monte Carlo and there are so many women with extended blonde hair, hornet-stung lips and bazooka breasts stuffed into...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Eilidh Hargreaves

How private equity ruined Britain

What has happened to Britain’s rivers isn’t a mistake. The fact that serious pollution is up 60 per cent on the year, or that only one in seven...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Gus Carter

The origin of the Thailand-Cambodia conflict

The origin of the Thailand-Cambodia conflict

A border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia which goes back more than a century has once again erupted in fatal clashes, leading to diplomatic...

yesterday 0

The Spectator

Michael Evans

The trouble with Gillian Anderson

The trouble with Gillian Anderson

Imagine, for a moment, that a respected middle-aged British male character actor – Jason Isaacs, let’s say – had been cast in the lead role of a...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Cabinet ministers urge Starmer to recognise Palestine

Cabinet ministers urge Starmer to recognise Palestine

Parliament may have risen for recess but that doesn’t mean that Sir Keir Starmer is getting much of a break. It transpires that the Prime Minister...

previous day 9

The Spectator

Steerpike

Cleverly refuses to back Badenoch on ECHR

Cleverly refuses to back Badenoch on ECHR

Kemi Badenoch might have reached an agreement with James Cleverly about his new role in the shadow cabinet, but it appears the pair remain at odds...

previous day 6

The Spectator

Steerpike

Migrant relocation rumours spark Canary Wharf protest

Migrant relocation rumours spark Canary Wharf protest

Uh oh. Protests have broken out outside an empty Canary Wharf hotel after claims began to circulate that migrants were being relocated to the venue...

previous day 2

The Spectator

Steerpike

How Britain ended up in the Afghan asylum mess

How Britain ended up in the Afghan asylum mess

The Afghan data leak has generated a mass of lurid headlines and, no doubt, there is still much analysis, pointing of fingers and assigning of...

previous day 20

The Spectator

Simon Diggins

Cream of the crop / Bring back the milkman!

Cream of the crop / Bring back the milkman!

Even if you couldn’t care a fig for sustainability, it’s hard not to be impressed with the Nostradamus-esque foresight of the milk float. In an era...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Rob Crossan

Rock star / What I saw at Ozzy’s last gig

Rock star / What I saw at Ozzy’s last gig

Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath did something British groups had not done before. Before them, the British Invasion groups – from the Beatles, the...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Michael Hann

Health tourism / Could a secretive Swiss clinic cure my bad habits?

Health tourism / Could a secretive Swiss clinic cure my bad habits?

Having just turned 65, I enjoyed a week of firsts. My first ever facial and my first ever yoga class progressed to my first ever impedancemetry...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Jonathan Ray

RIP / Ozzy Osbourne, the accidental rock star

RIP / Ozzy Osbourne, the accidental rock star

To conjure an image of England on Thursday 16 October 1969 you could do worse than compressing all of Withnail and I into one day. The country was...

previous day 6

The Spectator

Dominic Selwood

Tim Davie isn’t fit to lead the BBC

Tim Davie isn’t fit to lead the BBC

Those within the BBC might be afraid to say so, but an ex-producer like me has no such qualms: Tim Davie, the BBC’s Director-General, isn’t cut out...

previous day 5

The Spectator

Hugh Thomson

James O’Brien has disgraced himself

James O’Brien has disgraced himself

For a man who wrote a book called How To Be Right, James O’Brien sure gets a lot wrong. Consider the message from one of his listeners that he read...

previous day 4

The Spectator

Brendan O’Neill

Strikes / I work in the NHS: the government cannot accept doctors’ pay demands

Strikes / I work in the NHS: the government cannot accept doctors’ pay demands

Junior doctors are set to strike this week, despite winning little public sympathy with their demand for a 29 per cent pay rise. Doctors in their...

previous day 3

The Spectator

Druin Burch

Television / Turgid, vacuous, portentous: The Sandman reviewed

Television / Turgid, vacuous, portentous: The Sandman reviewed

One of the great things about getting older is no longer feeling under any obligation to try to like stuff you were doomed never to like. Steely...

previous day 3

The Spectator

James Delingpole

Sport / The sorry demise of Windies cricket

The tub-thumping atmosphere in the Long Room at Lord’s was so raucous late on Monday afternoon as India and England fought out the tightest of Test...

previous day 2

The Spectator

Roger Alton

The US trade deal may come too late for Japan’s prime minister

The US trade deal may come too late for Japan’s prime minister

Relief. That was the overriding emotion in the Japanese financial markets and society at large today when, after months of speculation and discord,...

previous day 2

The Spectator

Philip Patrick

Essex Police / Two-tier policing has arrived in Epping

Essex Police / Two-tier policing has arrived in Epping

When it comes to protests against immigration and asylum hotels, accusations of two-tier policing are never far away. This week the spotlight has...

previous day 2

The Spectator

Laurie Wastell

Books / The enigma of Tiger Woods

Books / The enigma of Tiger Woods

The aim of this book is straightforward enough: a study of the Tiger Slam, the incredible 2000-01 season when Tiger Woods held the Masters, the US...

previous day 3

The Spectator

John Niven

Cut and dried / London is due a lido renaissance

Cut and dried / London is due a lido renaissance

There are 1,000 spaces available for the 6-9 a.m. lane swimming session at Tooting Bec Lido in south London. On Sunday it was fully booked. After a...

previous day 2

The Spectator

Alfie Pearce-Higgins

Migrant protest / The women of Epping don’t need Tommy Robinson’s help

Migrant protest / The women of Epping don’t need Tommy Robinson’s help

The people of Epping have a message for Tommy Robinson: stay away. The far-right activist is currently mulling joining protestors in Essex who have...

tuesday 10

The Spectator

David Shipley

DVSA bosses celebrate ‘progress’ as car test waits worsen

DVSA bosses celebrate ‘progress’ as car test waits worsen

The ability of Britain’s quangos to sugarcoat their rather unflattering performance figures will never fail to amaze Mr S. The Driver and Vehicle...

tuesday 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

Pet peeve / Dogs have no place at my table

Pet peeve / Dogs have no place at my table

I love dogs. I love lunching. I love seeing dogs in restaurants where I’m lunching. But one thing I don’t love one bit is a dog being brought to a...

tuesday 10

The Spectator

Julie Burchill