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A right royal travesty: Lilibet’s reviewed

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The Spectator

Tanya Gold

Bring back the album

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The Spectator

Flora Watkins

Revenge of the invisible woman: Other People’s Fun, by Harriet Lane, reviewed

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Leyla Sanai

Nostalgia for the 1980s New Romantic scene 

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The Spectator

Helen Barrett

Homage to the herring as king of the fishes

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The Spectator

David Profumo

My House of Lords dinner disaster

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Charlie Brooks

Labour is now the party of welfare, not work

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Michael Simmons

The great climate climbdown is finally here

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Matt Ridley

Why British diplomacy needs the royals

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Robert Hardman

How I bonded with Tom Stoppard over the classics

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Peter Jones

Ben Stokes’s run-in with Aggers

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Roger Alton

The last straw in Lloyd George’s cash for honours scandal

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Simon Heffer

An apology to Hope Not Hate and Harry Shukman

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John Power

The nearest we’ll ever get to experiencing the horrors of 1914

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David Crane

Healthy approach / Hands off my prostate

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Rod Liddle

The Spectator's notes / The conservatism of Tom Stoppard

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Charles Moore

Fomo / Where was my invitation to Your Party?

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Douglas Murray

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

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The Spectator

Politics / Labour’s plan to unite the left

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Tim Shipman

Putin is warning Britain – but we're not listening

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The Spectator

Sam Olsen

Books / The nearest we’ll ever get to experiencing the horrors of 1914

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The Spectator

David Crane

The young Anton Chekhov searches for his voice

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The Spectator

Sara Wheeler

Did Reeves mislead voters over her chess prowess?

Did Reeves mislead voters over her chess prowess?

When it rains for Rachel Reeves, it pours. This time it isn’t revelations about the now-Chancellor’s apparently plagiarised book or her false...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

Jenrick rules out Tory-Reform pact ahead of 2029

Jenrick rules out Tory-Reform pact ahead of 2029

To the parties of opposition, about whom some rather interesting stories have emerged. The Financial Times has reported today that Nigel Farage has...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Steerpike

Junior doctors are striking for the wrong reason

Junior doctors are striking for the wrong reason

Oh God, another junior doctor strike. That seems to be the feeling of the country and of the junior doctors I’ve spoken to. Certainly it’s the...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Druin Burch

Fake news / Is it over for antiques dealers?

Fake news / Is it over for antiques dealers?

It is estimated that, sometime in the past few months, the content on the internet produced by AI finally overtook content produced by the human...

yesterday 9

The Spectator

Sean Thomas

Books / Witches, dragons and the Terrible Deev: a choice of this year’s children’s books

Books / Witches, dragons and the Terrible Deev: a choice of this year’s children’s books

Now here’s a combination you never thought you’d see, not least because one of them is dead: Maurice Sendak and Stephen King. But there they are in...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Melanie Mcdonagh

Are the Girl Guides ashamed of their trans ban?

Are the Girl Guides ashamed of their trans ban?

In 1984, I was Middlesbrough’s most eager Brownie. Such was my enthusiasm, I happily chomped my way through raw potatoes after an older girl,...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Joanna Williams

Up in smoke / Save the cigar lounge

Up in smoke / Save the cigar lounge

If you’re fortunate enough to have been well-lunched at an establishment like the Ritz or 5 Hertford Street, your host may ask if you fancy a...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

We are no closer to peace in Ukraine

We are no closer to peace in Ukraine

Steve Witkoff’s sixth visit of the year to Moscow seems to have ended again with very little to show for it. The US special envoy was in the...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Lisa Haseldine

Stumped / There is still hope for the Ashes

Stumped / There is still hope for the Ashes

It is, England cricket fans must remember, only one match in a five-Test series. They began the Ashes needing to win three Tests and the...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Patrick Kidd

Music / Indian classical music’s rebellion against modernity

Music / Indian classical music’s rebellion against modernity

When Gurdain Ryatt, Ojas Adhiya, Milind Kulkarni and Murad Ali Khan take to the stage at Milton Court this Sunday they will be united by a common...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Philip Clark

Books / Bats have suffered too long from the ‘Dracula effect’

Books / Bats have suffered too long from the ‘Dracula effect’

Perhaps it is not surprising that bats, which sleep by day, feed by night and swoop through the darkness as erratically as moths, are among the...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Mark Cocker

What the Blob doesn’t want you to know about ethnicity and crime

What the Blob doesn’t want you to know about ethnicity and crime

Should the police disclose the ethnicity and background of suspects in high-profile crimes, and how soon should they reveal this information? In...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Laurie Wastell

What’s so great about juries?

What’s so great about juries?

Criticising m’learned friends has been a risky undertaking since a certain newspaper described a few beaks as ‘enemies of the people’ during the...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Jimmy Nicholls

Kemi Badenoch is enjoying herself

Kemi Badenoch is enjoying herself

Kemi Badenoch had plenty to work with at Prime Minister’s Questions today. She opened with the departure of the head of the Office for Budget...

yesterday 30

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Meghan's Netflix Christmas special is unendurable

Meghan's Netflix Christmas special is unendurable

On the Live Aid charity single, ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’, Bono sings the (somewhat incongruous) line ‘Well tonight, thank God it’s them...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Will Robert Jenrick join Reform?

Will Robert Jenrick join Reform?

For more than a decade, Westminster has been obsessing about whether Nigel Farage will do a deal with the Tories. First, it was Ukip in 2015; then...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

James Heale

Scotland bows to pressure to launch grooming gang review

Scotland bows to pressure to launch grooming gang review

The Scottish government is set to announce a national review of the grooming gang evidence in Scotland, after coming under pressure to take action...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Lucy Dunn

It's a bit rich for Starmer to say the Tories should be ashamed

You always know it’s going to be a good PMQs when things start with Ian Lavery. After a winding and angry monologue about things being grim up...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Madeline Grant

Why it’s good the NHS is paying more for medicines

Why it’s good the NHS is paying more for medicines

We have caved in to bullying from President Trump. It will put NHS budgets under even more pressure. And the Green leader Zack Polanski will...

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The Spectator

Matthew Lynn

Sound check / 2025 has been a fantastic year for music

Sound check / 2025 has been a fantastic year for music

Norman Lebrecht, who attends concerts as frequently as falcons swoop over St John’s Wood, has declared 2025 to be a terrible year for music. We are...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Michael Henderson

Starmer’s China policy seems stuck in the past

Starmer’s China policy seems stuck in the past

Prior to entering No. 10, Keir Starmer had little experience of foreign affairs. Yet in office, the subject has consumed a disproportionate amount...

previous day 10

The Spectator

James Heale

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

Readers tend not to approve of rows between columnists, but I must take issue with something Lloyd Evans wrote in ‘No life’ last week. Our theatre...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Labour are almost as deluded as the Your Party faithful

Labour are almost as deluded as the Your Party faithful

Kemi Badenoch has some thoughts on the Labour party. When pressed by the Telegraph on who or what would come after Rachel Reeves in the terrible...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Gareth Roberts

Notes on... / Why are we so suspicious of magpies?

I started counting magpies during my brief, doomed time as a history teacher. Trudging in every morning, the grim prospect of Weimar Germany with...

previous day 10

The Spectator

William Atkinson

Je m’accuse / The art of owning up

Je m’accuse / The art of owning up

Though Rebecca Culley is obviously a wrong ’un – having stolen £90,000 from her dear old gramps while pretending to care for him and only spend a...

previous day 1

The Spectator

Julie Burchill

Buffet blues / Why are hotel breakfasts so bad?

Buffet blues / Why are hotel breakfasts so bad?

Where else would you see anyone wandering around with a plate heaped with such incongruous ingredients as bacon, olives, blueberry waffles and a...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Julie Bindel

Noel? No thank you / The horror of the festive period

Noel? No thank you / The horror of the festive period

I was driving my daughter to school recently when we tuned into Heart Breakfast. A caller was attempting to answer five Christmas-related questions...

previous day 10

The Spectator

G.v. Chappell

Injustice / Watch: Jenrick rips into ‘Lammy dodger’

Injustice / Watch: Jenrick rips into ‘Lammy dodger’

It is David Lammy’s big announcement on juries today – so that means another outing for the Tory Trident, Robert Jenrick. The heat-seeking-missile...

previous day 5

The Spectator

Steerpike