Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Highlights from the latest Spectator

The new issue of The Spectator is out today, and here are a few highlights. We’ve led on football, for once, with cover image by Mark Summers of David Beckham in the England away strip. Here are my top five features:

1. The very strange death of English Football. Mihir Bose, former BBC Sports Editor, has written about the weird paradox gripping the game: the Premiership is a global business, but half its clubs are insolvent. The cash is not only driving many of them (like Portsmouth) to the wall, but driving out English players. Just 17 percent of players who have appeared in this year’s Premiership are British under-25s. When the Premership started in 1992, it was 44 percent. We also looked up the accounts for every single premiership club to find around £3bn of debt. The game is global, but the cash is bankrupting the clubs and squeezing British players out of the game.

2. The new Cold War: Uncle Sam vs the Chinese Dragon. Daniel W. Drezner is perhaps one of the world’s leading China experts, and he’s written a piece saying how the recent showdown between China and the US resembles the Cold War. Back then, Russia was nowhere near as scary as the CIA made out. Same is true for China, he says ­ but that won’t stop the fireworks. A fascinating primer on what is likely to be the biggest policy tension of the decade.

3. James Forsyth: Inside the campaign headquarters. James takes stock of the recent goings-on. The Tories have some way to go if they’re to match up to Labour’s streetwise and brutal campaign operation, he says. But Brown is paralysed when faced with genuine ideas and policies. This is Cameron’s opportunity.

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