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Agony Auntie / The obvious truth about BBC bias

yesterday 40

The Spectator

Rod Liddle

Evgeny Kissin’s stand-in brings the house down

yesterday 30

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

The revelations about what the Gaza hostages suffered are the most painful yet

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Jonathan Sacerdoti

A Frenchman who does not drink wine is a disgrace

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Bruce Anderson

The genius of William Nicholson

yesterday 9

The Spectator

Melanie Mcdonagh

An adorable Taiwanese debut: Left-Handed Girl reviewed

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Deborah Ross

Marriage is the real rebellion

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Madeline Grant

My life as a writer

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Taki

The scientific case for marriage

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Nicholas Wade

A sack of bilge: End, at the Dorfman Theatre, reviewed

yesterday 7

The Spectator

Lloyd Evans

The glory of gravy

yesterday 7

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Gothic lives matter: BBC2’s Civilisations reviewed

yesterday 7

The Spectator

James Walton

Theatre’s tragedy / The theatre isn’t a thinktank

yesterday 6

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Why are today’s choreographers so musically illiterate?

yesterday 6

The Spectator

Rupert Christiansen

Are you too cool for marriage?

yesterday 6

The Spectator

Lara Brown

Baby steps / The path to peace in Ukraine will be tortuous

yesterday 5

The Spectator

Owen Matthews

Epping is being punished by the asylum system

yesterday 5

The Spectator

David Shipley

Thom Yorke reminds me of David Brent: Radiohead reviewed

yesterday 5

The Spectator

Michael Hann

Reeves’ Budget could mark the finish line for British horse racing

yesterday 5

The Spectator

Rupert Hawksley

The path to peace in Ukraine will be tortuous

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Owen Matthews

OBR chief offers to quit over Budget chaos

yesterday 5

The Spectator

Steerpike

Reeves’s tax raid rocks Gibraltar

yesterday 4

The Spectator

Steerpike

Rachel Reeves may have just killed the Great British pub

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Rory Hanrahan

Budget blues / Rachel Reeves’s road to ruin

yesterday 5

The Spectator

Tim Shipman

Je m’accuse / The art of owning up

yesterday 4

The Spectator

Julie Burchill

The Wiki Man / Could a degree make you less employable?

yesterday 4

The Spectator

Rory Sutherland

Starmer’s Mr Fix-it / Nick Thomas-Symonds: ‘The Brexit architects essentially ran away’

yesterday 4

The Spectator

Tim Shipman

Young people are fleeing Britain

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Michael Simmons

Why the Gazan family weren’t entitled to asylum

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Alexander Horne

Britain is giving up on work

yesterday 1

The Spectator

James Kirkup

Zack Polanksi’s insane economics

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Christopher Snowdon

How the budget will damage the NHS

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Gareth Lyon

David Lammy wouldn’t even show up to defend abolishing juries

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Madeline Grant

In a state / Starmerism was always doomed to fail

Numerous civil servants have recalled their first encounter with Labour ministers following their election victory last year. After the new rulers...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Ed West

How bad will Rachel Reeves’s Budget be?

After a needlessly long run-up, Budget day is finally here. Investors, bond traders and house builders are breathing a collective sigh of relief –...

previous day 9

The Spectator

Michael Simmons

Crunch time / Will Rachel Reeves’s two Budget gambles pay off?

Crunch time / Will Rachel Reeves’s two Budget gambles pay off?

It’s traditional to describe Budgets as a political gamble. Rachel Reeves is actually making two bets. First, that voters can be persuaded to see...

previous day 9

The Spectator

James Kirkup

Real life / Why is Westminster Cathedral leaving Jesus in the dark?

Real life / Why is Westminster Cathedral leaving Jesus in the dark?

Sitting beneath the looming darkness of the unfinished ceiling of Westminster Cathedral, I found myself praying. I didn’t even know why, but I was...

previous day 8

The Spectator

Melissa Kite

The turf / Only the Tote can save British racing 

For the past 30 years Robin Oakley has taken you through the front door of the horse-racing world and kept you in the best of company. There’s not...

previous day 8

The Spectator

Charlie Brooks

Turf war / Labour’s eco-towns threaten our heritage

Turf war / Labour’s eco-towns threaten our heritage

‘He leaped the fence, and saw that all nature was a garden’. So goes the famous Horace Walpole quote about William Kent, the 18th-century landscape...

previous day 9

The Spectator

Arabella Byrne

Toxic waste / It’s time to dispose of the Budget

Denis Healey’s ‘caretaker Budget’ on 3 April 1979 is an odd focus for Labour nostalgia. It came a week after Jim Callaghan’s government had lost a...

previous day 9

The Spectator

Tim Shipman

Ashes agony / Did the Aussies cheat?

Ashes agony / Did the Aussies cheat?

My friend Allan Lamb calls me a ‘cricket tragic’, a back-handed compliment from a former English international cricketer. So the prospect of flying...

previous day 8

The Spectator

Graham Boynton

Benefits / The pointlessness of removing the two-child benefit cap

Benefits / The pointlessness of removing the two-child benefit cap

If the leaks are correct, Rachel Reeves will use today’s Budget to abolish the two-child benefit cap. Another £3.4 billion a year will flow to...

previous day 6

The Spectator

Rosie Lewis

Budget chaos / Rachel Reeeves’s days are numbered

Budget chaos / Rachel Reeeves’s days are numbered

In her Budget speech today, Chancellor Rachel Reeves will have four goals. Two political – keeping her own job and keeping Keir Starmer in his as...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Andrew Lilico

Watch: Badenoch eviscerates Rachel Reeves

Kemi Badenoch had a head-start in preparing her response to Rachel Reeves’s Budget after this morning’s OBR leak. It was an opportunity she made...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

Inside Reform’s £1 million Budget blitz

previous day 5

The Spectator

James Heale

Live: OBR accidentally leaks Budget

Kemi Badenoch has labelled the Budget a ‘total humiliation’ after Rachel Reeves’s big announcement was derailed by an Office for Budget...

previous day 5

The Spectator

The Spectator

Badenoch’s PMQs attack ran out of steam

Kemi Badenoch had two chances to attack the government today: first at Prime Minister’s Questions, and then again in response to the Budget. The...

previous day 5

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

The Budget has created a £2 million house-price limit

The Budget has created a £2 million house-price limit

It has lots of original features. It is close to good schools, and with a few cans of Farrow & Ball it will make the perfect family home. The...

previous day 5

The Spectator

Matthew Lynn

Rachel Reeves’s Budget is a shambles

Rachel Reeves’s Budget is a shambles

What we have seen today is unprecedented. The entire list of Budget measures announced by Rachel Reeves – along with their costings and economic...

previous day 5

The Spectator

Michael Simmons

Exclusive / Military chiefs go to war with Labour

Exclusive / Military chiefs go to war with Labour

While Westminster is consumed by the fallout from the Budget, I can reveal there is another major headache on the horizon for Keir Starmer – a new...

previous day 6

The Spectator

Tim Shipman