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Let’s hope Donald Trump doesn’t mess it up

latest 4

The Spectator

Gareth Roberts

There’s a reason we only eat Christmas food at Christmas

latest 4

The Spectator

Julie Bindel

Australia’s godless Christmas

latest 4

The Spectator

Terry Barnes

South Africa dreams of a black Christmas

latest 3

The Spectator

Geoff Hill

Gaffe-prone Labour spend £17,000 on media training

latest 0

The Spectator

Steerpike

Labour is out of its depth with electric cars

latest 0

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Giorgio Perlasca’s Christmas in wartime Budapest

latest 9

The Spectator

Adam Lebor

Priest’s notebook / What The Spectator taught Benjamin Franklin

latest 7

The Spectator

Marcus Walker

How Santa came to recruit his elves

latest 8

The Spectator

Francis Young

What’s your Christmas Eve pub tribe?

latest 7

The Spectator

Rob Crossan

Books / Modern-day ghosts: Haunted Tales, by Adam Macqueen, reviewed

latest 7

The Spectator

Julie Burchill

Why this Jew loves Christmas

latest 7

The Spectator

Angela Patmore

The Spectator’s notes / The joy of our village Christmas play

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The Spectator

Charles Moore

A Christmas Carol is the gift that keeps on giving

latest 20

The Spectator

Joshua Young

In defence of faith

latest 10

The Spectator

The Spectator

The surprising truth about the West’s Christian revival

When weeping Parisians watched Notre Dame, the city’s beloved 800-year-old cathedral, being consumed by a devastating fire in 2019, it served as a...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Justin Brierley

Is the end of Christendom nigh? with A.N. Wilson

Thousands of Brits will be attending Christmas and carol services throughout December. Yet festive attendance masks the reality that church...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Holy Smoke

Is this Emmanuel Macron’s last Christmas as president?

Emmanuel Macron will deliver his traditional New Year’s Eve message to France next week, an event that one imagines is testing the skills of his...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Books / 4,000 pages of T.S. Eliot’s literary criticism is not enough

Craig Raine has narrated this article for you to listen to. This is Alice B. Toklas, ventriloquised by her partner, Gertrude Stein: I must say that...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Craig Raine

Keir Starmer, the Christmas Grinch

If someone were to read the runes, this first Labour Christmas would not augur well. Not only have we had Keir Starmer’s excruciating...

yesterday 9

The Spectator

Robin Ashenden

Grottocraft / What I learned at Santa School

Andrew Watts has narrated this article for you to listen to. Whenever my son’s primary school ring up, they have, very sensibly, a calming form...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Andrew Watts

Reform is rattling the establishment

Everyone is talking about Reform: Rachel Reeves complains that Nigel Farage ‘doesn’t have a clue’ how to make the economy grow. Kemi Badenoch...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Patrick O’Flynn

Come all ye unfaithful: why do we still go to carol services at Christmas?

This year, Christmas carol services are expected to draw their largest congregations since the pandemic. As numbers attending carol services swell,...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Glynn Harrison

Wales exam board bans Steinbeck book

In some rather strange news this festive season, it transpires that the Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) has banned John Steinbeck’s Of Mice...

yesterday 4

The Spectator

Steerpike

Should AI be allowed to train itself off this column?

If you’re a writer, should AI companies be allowed to use your work to train their models without your permission? This is a matter of concern...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Sam Leith

The curious history of the Christmas cracker

Those who still make a habit of the Sunday roast are faced with a challenge come Christmas: how to make sure the big meal doesn’t disappoint. What...

yesterday 5

The Spectator

Ameer Kotecha

How much trouble is Rachel Reeves in?

Christmas may be two days away but there is little reason for cheer in 11 Downing Street. The Chancellor faces another wave of bad economic news...

yesterday 4

The Spectator

Katy Balls

What happened to ‘growth, growth, growth’?

This is hardly how 2024 was supposed to end for Labour. Free from the shackles of ‘14 years of Tory misrule’, the economy was supposed to take...

yesterday 7

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Mandelson is the wrong man, at the wrong time

Donald Trump’s campaign manager Chris LaCivita hardly minced his words on hearing that Peter Mandelson had been appointed as the British...

yesterday 3

The Spectator

Lee Cohen

How to save the parish church

Parish churches are in trouble: about fifty churches close every year, according to a report from Civitas. The review, published last month,...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Arts / The Church of the Holy Sepulchre contains terrible art – but is filled with magic

For a press tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem – the Church of the Resurrection, the Mother of churches, site of the last four...

previous day 8

The Spectator

Tanya Gold

Theological gynaecology / Carols are much weirder than we think

Christopher Howse has narrated this article for you to listen to. Why, my sharp-minded colleague Tom Utley once asked after a Telegraph Christmas...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Christopher Howse

Tyson Fury was robbed in Riyadh

Watching Tyson Fury get robbed last night in Riyadh, I realised on balance that I am in favour of Saudi Arabia’s often ludicrous-seeming recent...

previous day 4

The Spectator

Damian Reilly

The EU can detect weakness in its dealings with Keir Starmer

Labour’s election promise to respect Brexit and at the same time reset our relations with the EU was easy to make. Keir Starmer must have...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Lucy Letby and the killer nurse I worked with

Most of those commenting on the guilt or innocence of Lucy Letby – the nurse who is serving 15 whole-life jail terms for murdering seven babies...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Druin Burch

Mind your language / The Twelve Hates of Christmas

I have set my husband a Christmas game. He wins a small chocolate sprout each time he spots a word in my list of Twelve Days of Christmas Hates. He...

previous day 7

The Spectator

Dot Wordsworth

What my GB News incest row critics fail to understand

The overwhelming response to my defence of incest on GB News has been one of disgust: I’ve been called a pervert thousands of times over. It’s...

previous day 3

The Spectator

Charles Amos

Why didn’t I read the comments sooner?

I adhere to a pretty iron-clad rule: not only do I avoid the bumper cars of social media, but I don’t read the comments after my columns. Many...

previous day 7

The Spectator

Lionel Shriver

Reform aim to overtake Tory membership in five weeks

It’s been a pretty good year for Nigel Farage. At the beginning of 2024, he was out of politics and fresh out of the jungle, having returned...

previous day 3

The Spectator

Steerpike

The crisis gripping France’s Le Monde newspaper

Once one of France’s most respected publications, Le Monde is in crisis. Its newsroom is gripped by a climate of fear, where only left-wing and...

previous day 3

The Spectator

James Tidmarsh

Two dead after German Christmas market attack

Five days before Christmas, Germany has again been plunged into grief. Just after 7 p.m. local time yesterday in the city of Magdeburg,...

saturday 10

The Spectator

Lisa Haseldine

Labour’s decision to axe Latin lessons is an act of cultural vandalism

The Labour government seems determined to undermine excellence in schools. The Department for Education has announced that from February it will be...

saturday 10

The Spectator

Kristina Murkett

My very own award for journalists

saturday 3

The Spectator

Rod Liddle

Is training troops in Ukraine a risk worth taking?

Defence Secretary John Healey has raised the possibility that British military personnel could be deployed to Ukraine to carry out training...

saturday 1

The Spectator

Eliot Wilson

The Trump effect will benefit Farage – and cost the Tories

At the start of a roller-coaster ride, a motorised chain pulls the carriages up to the highest point of the circuit, emitting a clanking sound as a...

saturday 3

The Spectator

Patrick O’Flynn

A church service with the Chaldeans of West Acton

I joined the Chaldeans in church on the morning after the night that the rebels in Syria took control of Damascus. We weren’t in Aleppo or on the...

saturday 1

The Spectator

Christopher Howse

Books / Thomas Kyd wasn’t a patch on Shakespeare

The biggest blockbuster hit of the Elizabethan theatre was not by William Shakespeare or Christopher Marlowe or Ben Jonson. In fact it wasn’t by...

saturday 1

The Spectator

Emma Smith

Stuff of legends / The surprising truth about old myths

I visited Mycenae for the first time this autumn. While the ruins of classical Athens can seem almost familiar, the ancient hillfort of a millennia...

saturday 3

The Spectator

Ed West

Is the Kursk operation still worth the cost?

Gruesome images of dead North Korean soldiers sprawled in the mud and snow have flooded military Telegram channels this week. Pyongyang’s troops...

saturday 1

The Spectator

Svitlana Morenets

How the Magdeburg Christmas market attack will change Germany

More than 200 people were injured and at least five lost their lives after a man ploughed a car into crowds at a Christmas market in the German...

saturday 1

The Spectator

Katja Hoyer

Why homeschooling rates have doubled

Schools are a relatively new phenomena in human history. In Britain, they expanded in the 19th century and early 20th century in step with...

saturday 6

The Spectator

Anthony Seldon

Plans afoot for Scotland Office cat

Is there room for more than one furry feline in Whitehall? Initially brought into quell the government’s mouse problem, the various departmental...

20.12.2024 1

The Spectator

Steerpike

The end of Christendom is nigh

If you are of a traditional turn of mind, you might well go to church this Christmas, sing the carols you knew in childhood and feel a bit of a...

20.12.2024 10

The Spectator

A.N. Wilson

Short story / Demonia: a short story

They passed into the harbour of Favignana at the beginning of spring, the island’s single small mountain heaving into view from the Trapani...

20.12.2024 4

The Spectator

Lawrence Osborne

Le Pen’s success this year is a warning to the Tories

Nigel Farage was in fine fettle when he appeared on GB News on Tuesday evening. He boasted of his weekend in Florida, chewing the fat with Elon...

20.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Notes on... / What carols owe to Martin Luther

Lisa Haseldine has narrated this article for you to listen to. It’s 500 years since Martin Luther, along with the preacher Paul Speratus, put...

20.12.2024 5

The Spectator

Lisa Haseldine

Oligarchy dies in the light

Have the plutocrats of the internet age finally realised that all Donald Trump wanted was their love? This week, Jeff Bezos had dinner at...

20.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Freddy Gray

Where do you stand on ‘I was sat’?

Perhaps because more and more BBC radio programmes are being broadcast from Salford, the whole of Britain is getting used to hearing multiple uses...

20.12.2024 1

The Spectator

Ysenda Maxtone Graham

Character building / How my father’s bedtime stories shaped my life

Kate Weinberg has narrated this article for you to listen to. It’s half an hour before lights out when my dad arrives at my bedroom door holding...

20.12.2024 4

The Spectator

Kate Weinberg

Lord Mandelson slammed as a ‘moron’ by Trump strategist

Uh oh. Less than 24 hours after Peter Mandelson was appointed the next UK ambassador to Washington, Donald Trump’s team are kicking up a fuss....

20.12.2024 4

The Spectator

Steerpike

Labour’s cronyism row rears its head again

Parliament may be in recess, but Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government still can’t catch a break. The Prime Minister is facing further allegations...

20.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Steerpike

Sir Keir awards Sue Gray a peerage

Well, well, well. The political peerages list is finally here and the nominations from Sir Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Sir Ed Davey have been...

20.12.2024 3

The Spectator

Steerpike

Labour councillor torches Starmer for by election loss

Another day and another thumping defeat for Keir Starmer. This time, it’s for one of three seats in the previously safe ward of Brockmoor and...

20.12.2024 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

Rachel Reeves has shattered economic confidence

A few journalists have pointed it out. So have some Conservative and Reform MPs, think tanks and one or two of the City banks. Now, it is official:...

20.12.2024 10

The Spectator

Matthew Lynn

Labour has walked into a net zero trap of its own making

The government’s net-zero noose draws tighter. At energy questions in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the Conservative MP Charlie Dewhirst asked...

20.12.2024 6

The Spectator

Rupert Darwall

Britain is living beyond its means

Today’s figures on the public finances and retail sales will bring some relief to Rachel Reeves; both show a small positive direction. In...

20.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Ross Clark

We shouldn’t have a ‘planning system’

If Keir Starmer does succeed in his aim of stimulating a house-building boom, it may be that landowners will have little to celebrate. The...

20.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Ross Clark

King Charles has a long road to recovery ahead

At the end of what has undoubtedly been a true annus horribilis for the monarchy, King Charles, at least, seems to have recovered something of his...

20.12.2024 1

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Bets at Ascot and Haydock tomorrow

Dual-purpose trainer Hughie Morrison usually has one of two jumping stars to supplement his talented flat horses at his Berkshire stables. In...

20.12.2024 1

The Spectator

Penworthy

Should I become Lord Young of Loftus Road?

When the editor of this magazine called to congratulate me on being given a peerage, he said: ‘It’s QPR’s first win this season.’ Not quite...

20.12.2024 1

The Spectator

Toby Young

Why Britain’s benefits problem is likely to get worse

More than half of Britons receive more from the state than they pay in taxes, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The...

20.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Michael Simmons

Wild life / Retracing the steps of slaves in Benin

Ouidah, Benin On a free afternoon in Benin, I decide to walk the slave route in Ouidah, the port from which perhaps a million Africans were...

20.12.2024 1

The Spectator

Aidan Hartley

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