Did Band Aid make a difference?

Is this the year that ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ – the charity song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to provide relief for the...

yesterday 10

Joshua Young

Silent night / Christmas and the luxury of fallow time

Christmas is now a festival of family and overeating, yet it keeps its pockets of quiet reflection, even for those for whom the sacred has slipped...

yesterday 10

Druin Burch

Bets for Kempton, Aintree and Wetherby today

The Gloucestershire yard of Ben Pauling has gone from strength to strength in recent seasons and today could see it reach a new high when the...

yesterday 9

Penworthy

Britain’s lack of trains on Boxing Day is shameful

Among all the perfidies of public transport in Britain (a nation that can build a £40 billion railway based on the premise that the outskirts of...

yesterday 9

Rob Crossan

Save our Boxing Day football

Football’s race to destroy the sport’s finest traditions has surpassed itself, yet again. For the annual Boxing Day feast of top-flight football –...

yesterday 10

Mark Solomons

Music / Iron Maiden at 50: how heavy metal became mainstream

The death of the Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne this July, and the huge reaction it provoked worldwide, represented something of a landmark to...

yesterday 10

Patrick West

Santa Pants: a cocktail recipe by Matthew and Camila McConaughey

Our Santa Pants cocktail is one of our go-to holiday pours when hosting at this time of year. Made with our organic tequila and ginger beer,...

yesterday 10

Matthew And Camila Mcconaughey

Bollards / How terrorism changed Christmas

Christmas is traditionally a time of joy, merriment and peace on Earth. Not so in the little town of Erbach, Germany, this year, where depraved...

yesterday 10

Clarissa Hard

Christmas dinner is hell for vegans

It’s one of the last bastions of national orthodoxy, one that people look forward to for months, but many vegans dread Christmas dinner. It’s not...

previous day 10

Chas Newkey-Burden

Christmas in a care home

Christmas Day in a care home is often thought to be the saddest shift of the year: a place where staff trudge in reluctantly through the dark and...

previous day 10

David Woodgett

Holy spirits / What makes a ghost Catholic or Protestant?

Melanie McDonagh has narrated this article for you to listen to. W.H. Auden, in his essay on detective fiction, ‘The Guilty Vicarage’, asked:...

previous day 10

Melanie Mcdonagh

The King’s speech hit the wrong note

When the King delivered this year’s traditional Christmas Day speech – the fourth he has now given – he chose to break with convention by...

previous day 10

Alexander Larman

Trivia / The Spectator's 2025 Christmas quiz

In 2025: 1. Name the singer of ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It for You’ whose concert in Perth, Australia, was cancelled because a fatberg had blocked a...

previous day 10

Christopher Howse

Seasonal jeer / The joy of a miserable literary Christmas

A Christmas Carol is pretty well unavoidable around now, with Little Women trailing somewhat behind. There’s no shortage of alternative literary...

previous day 10

Philip Hensher

Iron Maiden at 50: how heavy metal became mainstream

The death of the Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne this July, and the huge reaction it provoked worldwide, represented something of a landmark to...

previous day 10

Patrick West

The revolutionary meaning of Christmas

As stale as it is flawed, the Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee’s view of Christmas nonetheless encapsulates secularist scepticism in revealing...

previous day 10

Rupert Shortt

Washing up is an artform

Rupert Hawksley has narrated this article for you to listen to. Right, who’s doing the washing up? It’s 6 p.m. on Christmas Day and the table,...

previous day 10

Rupert Hawksley

Prepare for ‘unpeace’ in the Middle East

On several occasions this year, US President Donald Trump has suggested that, thanks to his dealmaking prowess, long-coveted ‘peace in the Middle...

previous day 10

Marcus Solarz Hendriks

Is this finally the end of non-crime hate incidents?

Roll up for a Christmas surprise on the policing front. According to a leak from the College of Policing to the Telegraph, since confirmed by its...

wednesday 10

Andrew Tettenborn

Do Eskimos really have a hundred different words for snow?

Do the Eskimos have many more words for ‘snow’ than the rest of us, and does this question matter? As we approach the full blast of winter, now...

wednesday 5

Patrick West

Black Christmas and the battle for Hong Kong

The Peak is where the smart set in Hong Kong has always lived. It’s an area of relative peace and tranquillity that sits above the hubbub of the...

wednesday 2

Francis Pike

How to stop the next massacre of British Jews

No one remembers the ones they catch in time. Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein will quickly be forgotten and so will the carnage they planned to...

wednesday 10

Stephen Daisley

U-turn / Starmer has nothing going for him

Why would anyone support this government? Keir Starmer has a near-invincible majority, a divided opposition and 14 years of Tory-managed decline...

wednesday 3

Stephen Daisley

The welcome tyranny of Christmas cheer

In 1946, buoyed by post-War optimism, the World Health Organisation adopted a famous definition. Health, it declared, was more than the mere...

wednesday 2

Druin Burch

Shakespeare isn’t difficult

Chloe Zhao may have co-written and directed Hamnet (a film about William Shakespeare’s son), but she claims that she couldn’t...

wednesday 2

Philip Womack

Israel / Prepare for ‘unpeace’ in the Middle East

On several occasions this year, US President Donald Trump has suggested that, thanks to his dealmaking prowess, long-coveted ‘peace in the Middle...

wednesday 2

Marcus Solarz Hendriks

Tea with a twist: the army’s curious Christmas drink

On Christmas morning, as you make your first tea or begin mixing your eggnog, spare a thought for our armed forces. Since the 1890s, they have been...

wednesday 1

Oliver Wood

The ancient tradition of burning a Yule Log

To most modern Britons the words ‘Yule Log’ probably bring to mind that masterstroke of marketing that has enabled supermarkets to sell an ordinary...

wednesday 2

Francis Young

Burnt out? Try a monastery

‘What time are morning prayers tomorrow?’ I asked the monk who, after meeting me at the monastery entrance, was taking me to my room. He checked a...

wednesday 2

James Jeffrey

Politics / Where is the pop culture rage at Keir Starmer?

Keir Starmer is unpopular. You may have noticed this from his record-breakingly low approval ratings. The weekend just gone brought pungent public...

wednesday 30

Gareth Roberts

My lasting friendship with a disgraced MI6 officer

After a stellar career in the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), better known as MI6, an unassuming man with a passion for bridge and a taste for...

wednesday 10

James Macmanus

The power and nostalgia of Christmas music

Picking up the children from school recently, I heard the lovely old carol ‘In Dulce Jubilo’ drifting slowly across the quadrangle. It was a...

wednesday 40

Niall Gooch

Where is the pop culture rage at Keir Starmer?

Keir Starmer is unpopular. You may have noticed this from his record-breakingly low approval ratings. The weekend just gone brought pungent public...

23.12.2025 20

Gareth Roberts

Everyone has forgotten party etiquette

Growing up, it was made very clear to us that if you RSVPed in the positive to a party, you were absolutely honour-bound to turn up. It was the...

23.12.2025 10

Philip Womack

A Green Christmas would be more awful than you could imagine

It is remarkable how a country can adjust to diminished expectations. Think of Japan post-Fukushima, or even post-war Britain under rationing. By...

23.12.2025 10

Matthew Bowles

Stephen Flynn: Reform can learn from the SNP

Stephen Flynn’s Westminster group may consist of only nine MPs, but the SNP has still managed to make its mark in London. Flynn’s performance in...

23.12.2025 5

Lucy Dunn

An obituary for Bazball

Any account of the third test match, in Adelaide, inevitably becomes an obituary notice on England’s abortive attempt to wrestle the Ashes from...

23.12.2025 5

Henry Blofeld

Festive spirit / I’m a Jew who loves Christmas

On more than one occasion, I have found myself being lectured by non-Jews (always men) about why I am incorrect in my Jewishness. Judaism is a...

23.12.2025 1

Zoe Strimpel

I’m a Jew who loves Christmas

On more than one occasion, I have found myself being lectured by non-Jews (always men) about why I am incorrect in my Jewishness. Judaism is a...

23.12.2025 4

Zoe Strimpel

Country drivers are the real menace this Christmas

Driving home for Christmas? If you live in London you might well be a menace, according to research published by insurer NFU Mutual. Its survey of...

23.12.2025 10

Arabella Byrne

History / Black Christmas and the battle for Hong Kong

The Peak is where the smart set in Hong Kong has always lived. It’s an area of relative peace and tranquillity that sits above the hubbub of the...

23.12.2025 1

Francis Pike

Can Karl Loxley make classical music cool?

I’m backstage with classical crossover singer Karl Loxley and his pianist Tim Abel at Stratford-Upon-Avon’s Rother Street Arts House. The sound and...

23.12.2025 1

Mark Nayler

Trump’s ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine is wicked

It is necessary to deal with criminals. It is immoral – and, if history teaches, dangerous – to absolve them of crimes and reward them. Yet this is...

23.12.2025 3

Leon Aron

Love to hate / In defence of nepo babies

What do Mary Shelley, John Stuart Mill and Tim Berners-Lee have in common? They’re all nepo babies, of course: weasels with no talent who swanned...

23.12.2025 1

Jonny Ford

The scientific case for the existence of intelligent alien life

23.12.2025 2

Avi Loeb

Starmer has nothing going for him

Why would anyone support this government? Keir Starmer has a near-invincible majority, a divided opposition and 14 years of Tory-managed decline...

23.12.2025 2

Stephen Daisley

The ghosts of Andrew and Epstein will not stop haunting the royals

As the rest of the Royal Family prepare for the pageantry and pomp of their traditional Christmas, two ghosts have gatecrashed the party, in true...

23.12.2025 6

Alexander Larman

Iran’s obsession with Israel is ceaseless

When Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Florida at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in a few days’ time, near the top of his agenda will be a sober...

23.12.2025 4

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Starmer caves to the farmers

The government has delivered an early Christmas present to farmers by modifying the new rules on inheritance tax. Or that’s one way of looking at...

23.12.2025 10

Tim Shipman

Anti-Semitism / Bondi Beach and Australia’s failed multiculturalism

I knew two of the people murdered at Bondi Beach. That beach has always felt like Australia distilled: sun-bleached, open, and unserious in the...

22.12.2025 10

Categories

Sources

Newspaper Columnists

Did Band Aid make a difference?

Joshua Young

Silent night / Christmas and the luxury of fallow time

Druin Burch

Bets for Kempton, Aintree and Wetherby today

Penworthy

Britain’s lack of trains on Boxing Day is shameful

Rob Crossan

Save our Boxing Day football

Mark Solomons

Music / Iron Maiden at 50: how heavy metal became mainstream

Patrick West

Santa Pants: a cocktail recipe by Matthew and Camila McConaughey

Matthew And Camila Mcconaughey

Bollards / How terrorism changed Christmas

Clarissa Hard

Christmas dinner is hell for vegans

Chas Newkey-Burden

Christmas in a care home

David Woodgett

Holy spirits / What makes a ghost Catholic or Protestant?

Melanie Mcdonagh

The King’s speech hit the wrong note

Alexander Larman

Trivia / The Spectator's 2025 Christmas quiz

Christopher Howse

Seasonal jeer / The joy of a miserable literary Christmas

Philip Hensher

Iron Maiden at 50: how heavy metal became mainstream

Patrick West

The revolutionary meaning of Christmas

Rupert Shortt

Washing up is an artform

Rupert Hawksley

Prepare for ‘unpeace’ in the Middle East

Marcus Solarz Hendriks

Is this finally the end of non-crime hate incidents?

Andrew Tettenborn

Do Eskimos really have a hundred different words for snow?

Patrick West

Black Christmas and the battle for Hong Kong

Francis Pike

How to stop the next massacre of British Jews

Stephen Daisley

U-turn / Starmer has nothing going for him

Stephen Daisley

The welcome tyranny of Christmas cheer

Druin Burch

Shakespeare isn’t difficult

Philip Womack

Israel / Prepare for ‘unpeace’ in the Middle East

Marcus Solarz Hendriks

Tea with a twist: the army’s curious Christmas drink

Oliver Wood

The ancient tradition of burning a Yule Log

Francis Young

Burnt out? Try a monastery

James Jeffrey

Politics / Where is the pop culture rage at Keir Starmer?

Gareth Roberts

My lasting friendship with a disgraced MI6 officer

James Macmanus

The power and nostalgia of Christmas music

Niall Gooch

Where is the pop culture rage at Keir Starmer?

Gareth Roberts

Everyone has forgotten party etiquette

Philip Womack

A Green Christmas would be more awful than you could imagine

Matthew Bowles

Stephen Flynn: Reform can learn from the SNP

Lucy Dunn

An obituary for Bazball

Henry Blofeld

Festive spirit / I’m a Jew who loves Christmas

Zoe Strimpel

I’m a Jew who loves Christmas