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Gavin Mortimer

Gavin Mortimer

The Spectator

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Marine Le Pen’s Muslim headscarf ban is popular, not populist

Marine Le Pen has promised to ban women wearing Muslim headscarves if she becomes president next year. The leader of the National Rally declared on X:...

latest 7

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The fight for France’s future is underway

The fight for France is underway. The 2027 presidential campaign began last night as the leading candidates clashed in a live debate on the centre...

30.08.2026 10

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The fight for France’s future is underway

The fight for France is underway. The 2027 presidential campaign began last night as the leading candidates clashed in a live debate on the centre...

28.08.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Why the French hate Parisians

Five million people live in Brittany but each summer the population swells to three times that figure. It seems that some locals have had enough....

24.08.2026 10

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Will the heatwaves make this year’s French wines better?

It has been a punishing summer in France. Heatwaves, drought and forest fires have driven away tourists and made life hell for firefighters. The...

24.08.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Will the heatwaves make this year’s French wines better?

It has been a punishing summer in France. Heatwaves, drought and forest fires have driven away tourists and made life hell for firefighters. The...

21.08.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Why are more women trying to cross the Channel?

More than 190 hectares of coastal vegetation were destroyed by fire over the weekend in a region just south of the Channel port of Boulogne....

20.08.2026 10

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Emmanuel Macron is an embarrassment to France

France’s under-15s can carry on using social media after a parliamentary ban was struck down by the Republic’s constitutional council on Friday....

18.08.2026 10

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Emmanuel Macron has become a humiliation for France

France’s under-15s can carry on using social media after a parliamentary ban was struck down by the Republic’s constitutional council on Friday....

17.08.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The Ceuta chaos could make Marine Le Pen president

European Union interior ministers will hold an emergency video conference on Tuesday to discuss last week’s events in Spain’s North African...

04.08.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The Ceuta chaos could make Marine Le Pen president

European Union interior ministers will hold an emergency video conference on Tuesday to discuss last week’s events in Spain’s North African...

03.08.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The EU has failed to get a grip on Europe’s wildfires

Europe is burning. From France to Spain, from Portugal to Greece, and even in Britain, the continent has been engulfed by flames this summer. In...

01.08.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Why Brittany is fast becoming the new Provence

Heatwave number four swept through France this week. The temperature hit 42C in some regions, including in the south-west, where firefighters have...

31.07.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Macron and his diplomats can’t help talking down Americans

Diplomatic relations between France and the USA are more strained than ever following a row at the United Nations. The fallout began on Friday when...

29.07.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Europe is under attack

Three women were stabbed in central Paris on Monday by a man who allegedly told police he had been ‘sent by Allah’. The victims were aged...

28.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

In hot water / Macron could’ve done more to stop the Bordeaux fires

Firefighters in France have spent the weekend trying to save Bordeaux from an immense conflagration. On Monday morning, the city’s prefecture...

27.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Macron won’t stop at a social media ban for children

France has become the first EU country to ban social media access for under 15s. The National Assembly passed a Bill on Tuesday evening that will...

22.07.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Jewish artists are no longer safe in France

It is dangerous to be a Jewish artist in France. On Saturday, the well-known DJ Barbara Butch was forced to abandon her performance during a music...

22.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Stage fright / Jewish artists are no longer safe in France

It is dangerous to be a Jewish artist in France. On Saturday, the well-known DJ Barbara Butch was forced to abandon her performance during a music...

22.07.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

World / Will assisted dying be Macron’s only legacy?

France’s National Assembly passed a bill on Wednesday granting terminally ill adults the right to end their lives with medical assistance. The bill...

19.07.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Will assisted dying be Macron’s final legacy?

France’s National Assembly passed a bill on Wednesday granting terminally ill adults the right to end their lives with medical assistance. The bill...

16.07.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Europe’s centrists are falling one by one

Few in France will have been as devastated by their team’s defeat in last night’s World Cup semi-final as Emmanuel Macron. The president put on a...

15.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

France’s World Cup failure will devastate Emmanuel Macron

Few in France will have been as devastated by their team’s defeat in last night’s World Cup semi-final as Emmanuel Macron. The president put on a...

15.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The violent rage of North African hooligans

A police officer was hospitalised on Thursday night in London as Moroccans vented their fury at losing to France in the World Cup quarter-final. Riot...

12.07.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

North African hooligans are the new football firm

A police officer was hospitalised on Thursday night in London as Moroccans vented their fury at losing to France in the World Cup quarter-final. Riot...

10.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Will Le Pen run for president wearing an ankle tag?

Marine Le Pen has failed to overturn her conviction for misusing EU funds. On Tuesday afternoon a court in Paris upheld the verdict against her,...

07.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The truth about the French drownings

More than 90 people drowned in France between 19 June and the end of the month during the country’s intense heatwave. Government figures released...

07.07.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Odd couple / Why is Giorgia Meloni courting Emmanuel Macron?

Gavin Mortimer has narrated this article for you to listen to. Emmanuel Macron has lost a friend in Keir Starmer. The French President paid tribute to...

04.07.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Why is the New York Times celebrating slave-trading Vikings?

Norway play the Ivory Coast later today in the first knockout phase of the World Cup, and one suspects the New York Times will be backing the...

30.06.2026 70

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Why is the New York Times celebrating the slave-trading Vikings?

Norway plays the Ivory Coast this afternoon in the first knockout phase of the soccer World Cup, and one suspects the New York Times will be backing...

29.06.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

France’s ideological war on air conditioning

America is to blame for the heatwave that has caused so much misery in France in the last fortnight. Audrey Pulvar, the Socialist deputy mayor of...

29.06.2026 20

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The French love affair with Scotland

France’s summer smash at the cinema is set to be a comedy called The Perfects. It opens next week with an all-star cast that includes Scottish actor...

25.06.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Britain is the weak man of Europe on border control

Britain and France have rewritten the ‘one in, one out’ migrant deal nearly a year after it came into effect. The treaty, described as...

24.06.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The French love affair with Scotland

France’s summer smash at the cinema is set to be a comedy called The Perfects. It opens next week with an all-star cast that includes Scottish actor...

24.06.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Britain has become the weak man of Europe on border control

Britain and France have rewritten the ‘one in, one out’ migrant deal nearly a year after it came into effect. The treaty, described as...

23.06.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

France is braced for World Cup violence

France kick off their World Cup campaign today against Senegal – and it seems almost inevitable that, win or lose, there will be ugly scenes on the...

16.06.2026 60

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Should Europe shelter Sudan’s refugees?

The Sudanese man who is in custody in Belfast settled in the city after travelling through Paris and Dublin. In 2023, he was given asylum by the...

10.06.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Why would France help Britain stop the boats?

It is nearly a year since Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron agreed their ‘ground-breaking’ deal to stop the small boats crisis in the Channel....

01.06.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

France’s migration crisis will outlast Emmanuel Macron

France has maxed out on migrants. It’s a message that Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party has been pushing for years, but it’s one now endorsed...

28.05.2026 30

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

France’s migration crisis will outlast Emmanuel Macron

France has maxed out on migrants. It’s a message that Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party has been pushing for years, but it’s one now endorsed...

27.05.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

France could block Britain from rejoining the EU

Labour’s dream of rejoining the European Union may be an ambition to warm the heart of Emmanuel Macron but it hasn’t gone down well with Marine Le...

22.05.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The virility-signaling of French politicians

Once upon a time Frenchmen regarded themselves as the world’s greatest lovers. These days they think of themselves more as fighters. Sexual partners...

19.05.2026 50

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The EU is in terminal decline. Why would Britain rejoin?

Wes Streeting believes it was a ‘catastrophic mistake’ for Britain to leave the EU. If he becomes prime minister, Streeting will rejoin the bloc,...

18.05.2026 50

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The virility-signalling of French politicians

Once upon a time Frenchmen regarded themselves as the world’s greatest lovers. These days they think of themselves more as fighters. Sexual partners...

18.05.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Was Macron slapped because of this Iranian actress?

It was the slap that shook the world. Not so much from shock but laughter, as cameras caught the Macrons having a domestic on an international flight....

14.05.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

France is throwing a tantrum at Trump

France is intensifying its counter-offensive against what it calls misinformation. Earlier this month, Paris prosecutors confirmed they have opened a...

14.05.2026 40

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

France isn’t ready for its first openly gay president

France is ready to elect its first openly gay president. That is the belief of Gabriel Attal, who discusses his homosexuality in the memoir that was...

23.04.2026 50

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

France isn’t ready for its first openly gay president

France is ready to elect its first openly gay president. That is the belief of Gabriel Attal, who discusses his homosexuality in the memoir that was...

23.04.2026 50

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Starmer and Macron’s desperate bid for global relevance

Iran has declared that the Strait of Hormuz is ‘completely open’ in an announcement that has been welcomed by Donald Trump. In response to the...

17.04.2026 50

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

The populist, the princess and a very French love story

Princess Maria Carolina de Bourbon des Deux-Siciles isn’t a name that rolls off the tongue – but it’s now on the lips of every socialite and...

17.04.2026 60

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer