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Art / A Spectator poll: What is the greatest artwork of the century so far?

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The Spectator

The Spectator

Will Australia's social media ban work?

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The Spectator

Terry Barnes

Hot stuff / Supermarkets have finally discovered chilli

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The Spectator

Druin Burch

The Great British Railways trains are an abomination

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The Spectator

Stephen Bayley

Books / How Hans Holbein brought portraiture to England

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Mathew Lyons

Books / Homage to the herring as king of the fishes

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David Profumo

Will I ever be a juror?

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The Spectator

Ross Clark

Farage and Bardella's small boats pact

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James Heale

Europe's kind words and bear hugs can't save Zelensky

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Owen Matthews

Harry Potter doesn't need a trigger warning

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Joanna Williams

Bardella and Le Pen are closer to power than ever before

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Gavin Mortimer

Reform support in Scotland rises again

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Steerpike

Could Shabana Mahmood merge the police into 12 forces?

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Danny Shaw

Pantone’s choice of white as colour of the year isn't racist

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Patrick West

Mahmood should not waste her chance to reform the police

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Ian Acheson

Rachel Reeves: There were too many Budget leaks

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Lucy Dunn

How an Iran-Egypt Pride match threw the World Cup into disarray

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Philip Patrick

Send up / The special needs racket is out of control

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Ross Clark

Keir Starmer's call for ECHR reform is a risky gamble

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The Spectator

Alexander Horne

Is Huw Edwards plotting a comeback?

Is Huw Edwards plotting a comeback?

To Huw Edwards, who has resurfaced on social media to post a professionally shot black-and-white portrait in what some assume is a bid to...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Steerpike

Fighting crime / Mark Rowley may have blown his chance to reform the Met

Fighting crime / Mark Rowley may have blown his chance to reform the Met

When the history books reflect on the commissionership of the Metropolitan Police Chief Sir Mark Rowley, there is a risk – with less than two years...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

David Spencer

The open borders crime scandal

The open borders crime scandal

On 10 May this year a 15-year-old girl was with friends near parkland on the outskirts of Leamington Spa. Shortly after 9 p.m. she was separated...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

David Shipley

Pod life / Welcome to the Wetherspoons of hotels

Pod life / Welcome to the Wetherspoons of hotels

With the average cost of a hotel room in London costing around £250 a night – and not showing any signs of getting lower, either – most might think...

yesterday 7

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Real life / The power of tear pressure

The smashed pick-up truck was delivered back to us after I burst into tears and began wailing at the recovery man. When all else fails, men usually...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Melissa Kite

Who was ‘Stakeknife’?

Who was ‘Stakeknife’?

Freddie Scappaticci was a thickset man with dark features and a walrus moustache. He was born in Belfast in 1946, joined the Provisional Irish...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Max Jeffery

The turf / My House of Lords dinner disaster

It was just a straightforward dinner in the bosom of the House of Lords, talking to members of the Jockey Club. What could possibly go wrong? When...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Charlie Brooks

Best life / A poignant and perfect send-off 

We knew the church would be packed as Shelley had died so young. We knew the church would be freezing, as her funeral fell during the Arctic spell...

yesterday 7

The Spectator

Rachel Johnson

Plaid and Welsh Labour strike Senedd deal

Plaid and Welsh Labour strike Senedd deal

December is a time for spirits aplenty. But has the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come visited early this year? Over in Cardiff Bay, it seems that a...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

Badenoch takes aim at Britain’s youth

Badenoch takes aim at Britain’s youth

Christmas is nearly upon us – but there is no sign that Kemi Badenoch is ready to enjoy a rest. The Leader of the Opposition this morning held her...

yesterday 6

The Spectator

Steerpike

Uncensored / Piers Morgan fell into Nick Fuentes’s trap

When Michael Gove introduced me to Piers Morgan last week at the Spectator Christmas reception, Morgan seized my hand and beamed, ‘I know Jonathan....

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Smear tactics / The teenage Farage story misses the point

Smear tactics / The teenage Farage story misses the point

In Terence Rattigan’s 1948 play The Browning Version (filmed in 1951 starring Michael Redgrave), a public-school classics teacher called Arthur...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Nigel Jones

Why Labour’s plotters are doomed to fail

Why Labour’s plotters are doomed to fail

Rewatching the 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express the other night, I was struck by the incredible organisational skills of Mrs Harriet...

yesterday 9

The Spectator

Gareth Roberts

Why were these Afghan rapists even in Britain?

Everything about that rape of a 15-year-old girl in Leamington Spa is horrifying. First and foremost, the barbaric act itself. It took place on 10...

yesterday 7

The Spectator

Brendan O’Neill

Is racism to blame for the NHS maternity crisis?

Is racism to blame for the NHS maternity crisis?

‘Nothing prepared me,’ said Baroness Amos as she released her ‘reflections and initial impressions’ about England’s maternity and neonatal...

yesterday 3

The Spectator

Druin Burch

Politics / Stella Creasy’s bizarre job advert

Politics / Stella Creasy’s bizarre job advert

Labour MP Stella Creasy is hiring for a senior campaigns manger, and the job specifications are quite something. The Walthamstow parliamentarian is...

yesterday 3

The Spectator

Steerpike

From grooming gangs to maternity safety: how the British state is failing

From grooming gangs to maternity safety: how the British state is failing

Is anyone happy with the latest maternity safety report, published by Baroness Amos today? The former UN diplomat says the standard of care that...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Record keeping / Bring back the album

Usually when my tweenage sons ask about relics from my 1990s adolescence – ‘What’s a landline?’ ‘What’s a phone book?’ – we’ll have...

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Flora Watkins

Britain's water crisis is getting worse

Britain's water crisis is getting worse

When the taps run dry in Tunbridge Wells you know something has gone very wrong in the heart of Albion. Some 24,000 residents had their water...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Alex Klaushofer

Why this trans person is troubled by a conversion therapy ban

Why this trans person is troubled by a conversion therapy ban

Conversion practices are in the news again, at least if you listen to the BBC. We woke up to the Today programme on Friday recounting appalling...

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The Spectator

Debbie Hayton

Hello, goodbye / Let the Beatles be

Hello, goodbye / Let the Beatles be

Like most freelance writers, I have a notepad full of jottings which come under the loose category of ‘Ideas I Probably Won’t Get Round To Doing...

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The Spectator

Rob Crossan

Crowning glory / Why British diplomacy needs the royals

Crowning glory / Why British diplomacy needs the royals

Watching David Dimbleby watching the royal family, I am instantly reminded of the BBC’s other royal David. It is pure Attenborough as he examines...

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The Spectator

Robert Hardman

Classical music / Bruckner on Ozempic – and the première of the year

Classical music / Bruckner on Ozempic – and the première of the year

Bruckner at the Wigmore Hall. Yes, you heard right: a Bruckner symphony – his second: usually performed by 80-odd musicians – on a stage scarcely...

previous day 10

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Igor Toronyi-Lalic

In hiding / The Sloane Ranger is in dire straits

In hiding / The Sloane Ranger is in dire straits

Every few years, an obituary for the Sloane Ranger appears. In 2015, the Telegraph proclaimed their death. In 2022, Peter York himself,...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Arabella Byrne

Bad sport / Aussies are enjoying England's Ashes meltdown

Bad sport / Aussies are enjoying England's Ashes meltdown

What a letdown for lovers of Test cricket in both England and Australia. After just six playing days, the Ashes series between the two old enemies...

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The Spectator

Terry Barnes

Lammy’s jury reforms face an uphill battle

Lammy’s jury reforms face an uphill battle

If you speak to Labour MPs about looming battles in the new year, most are quick to mention the elections in May. But an almighty scrap is shaping...

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The Spectator

James Heale

Will Starmer take up Badenoch's grooming gangs advice?

Will Starmer take up Badenoch's grooming gangs advice?

Plans for a national inquiry into grooming gangs are underway, but will the inquiry actually happen? The Labour-led probe has not yet started and...

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The Spectator

Lucy Dunn

Police / Jewish fans deserve the truth about Maccabi Tel Aviv's Villa Park ban

Police / Jewish fans deserve the truth about Maccabi Tel Aviv's Villa Park ban

Everyone is familiar with the old insult that you can tell when a politician is not telling the truth because his lips move. Be that as it may, a...

previous day 7

The Spectator

Stephen Pollard

Ireland is a weak spot in Russia's undersea cable war

Ireland is a weak spot in Russia's undersea cable war

Europe is right now fighting an enemy it cannot see and protecting a vulnerability it has not mapped. Undersea drones are taking the conflict...

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The Spectator

Andy Jones

Scotland is getting sicker

Scotland is getting sicker

Scotland’s NHS is in crisis and Scotland’s government is in denial. A new study by the former head of the Royal College of Physicians and...

previous day 2

The Spectator

Stephen Daisley

Is the navy prepared to fend off Russia's underwater threat?

Is the navy prepared to fend off Russia's underwater threat?

The Royal Navy has traditionally been the mainstay of Britain’s military power on the global stage. It is approaching its 500th anniversary, when...

previous day 2

The Spectator

Eliot Wilson