Society

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

The tin ear of Justin Welby

29 min listen

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is back in the news following his interview this week with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg. The interview – his first since he resigned last November – was clearly Welby’s attempt to draw a line under the abuse scandal that cost him his job.  The 2024 Makin report concluded that the Church of England missed many opportunities to investigate the late John Smyth, one of the most prolific abusers associated with the Anglican Church. However, the biggest headline from the interview was that Welby would ‘forgive’ John Smyth were he alive today. Albeit unintentionally, the former Archbishop of Canterbury ended up cementing his reputation

Chas Newkey-Burden

Screening Netflix’s Adolescence in schools is a mistake

Keir Starmer has welcomed Netflix’s decision to make Adolescence available to screen for free in secondary schools. The Prime Minister, who watched the show with his teenage children, said he found it ‘harrowing’ and ‘really hard to watch’. I wonder how his kids found the experience because watching upsetting television during formative years can have a lasting effect, as many of us can testify. Is screening Adolescence in schools really a good idea? If the PM found the series ‘harrowing’, why is he so blasé about showing it to others? Life is rough, so perhaps gritty fiction like Adolescence is a good way of preparing young people for the horrors of reality. But at what

Alexander Larman

If only Meghan Markle’s ‘As Ever’ launch was an April Fool

On April Fool’s Day, it is all too appropriate that the latest announcement from the Duchess of Sussex has the grim air of a not particularly funny joke. Yet in her newsletter – her newsletter – Meghan has let it be known to her adoring public, or at least the Sussex Squad, that they, too, ‘can mimic the magic of Montecito’. It is the (in)famous jam that receives most attention Given that her husband is currently engaged in a reputation-slashing PR disaster with the demise of his Sentebale charity, then perhaps many would suggest that ‘the magic of Montecito’ may be in danger of wearing off. But this does not stop the indefatigable Duchess

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

What happened to trash TV escapism?

In bleak times, Brits could rely on light entertainment to get them through. George Formby and Vera Lynn made the Blitz bearable. Slade and T Rex got people through the three-day week and power cuts of the 1970s. In the good times of the money-in-your-pocket 1990s, we had equally cheery, cheeky media like The Fast Show, The Full Monty, boy bands and Britpop. But nowadays, when the headline news is depressing, low culture has deserted us. Light entertainment takes itself so seriously that it no longer provides any form of escape. The tediously partisan agit-prop that is today’s The Last Leg offers no such sanctuary The high-end TV hits that

Monday

Patrick West

Why is Keir Starmer wishing us Eid Mubarak?

In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s Eid. But of course you noticed. You’d have to be living in a cave not to be aware that today marked the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. That’s because nearly all public bodies, along with a plethora of private institutions, have been busy on social media reminding you of the fact. From the Prime Minister, the Royal Family, the Army to the BBC, all the principal manifestations of the state have been at it. Our public broadcaster put on a special Eid Live show on BBC1, followed with another programme, Celebrity Eid. Our private bodies have been following suit, with such

Rebecca Chapman

What was the point of Justin Welby’s reconciliation interview?

Justin Welby has form when it comes to defending disgraced public figures. In 2022, he had a crack at supporting Prince Andrew, arguing that he was ‘seeking to make amends’ and we should learn to be a more forgiving society. The public pushback against the then Archbishop of Canterbury was notable. This weekend, it was Welby’s chance to defend his own legacy, when he appeared on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg for his first interview since resigning as Archbishop of Canterbury. Thankfully, sweating and Pizza Express did not feature. Instead, Welby sought to defend his failure to properly respond to allegations against the serial abuser John Smyth – which led to Welby resigning

The Spectator

The Spectator’s 2025 no-CV internship scheme is now open

The Spectator runs the UK’s only double-blind internship scheme. We don’t ask for a CV, we don’t use your name. We don’t care where (or whether) you went to university, we anonymise your application. We give each applicant a city name, mark out of 100 and give offers to the best ones. You’ll come in for a week of your choosing in the summer. It’s a useful window into journalism and gives us the chance to meet new talent. When jobs come up, as they do in various fields, we look to hire past interns. About a third of our editorial staff came through this way: online (Gus, John and Max),

David Shipley

Why are ethnic minorities being prioritised for bail?

When the Ministry of Justice announced that the government would introduce emergency legislation this week to stop ‘two tier’ Sentencing Council guidelines being implemented, the Lord Chancellor may have hoped that her swift action would bring this story to a close. But today the debate over ‘two-tier’ justice has widened, with the Telegraph reporting this morning that ‘ethnic minority criminals are being given priority by judges considering bail under new two-tier justice guidelines drawn up by the Ministry of Justice.’ When someone has been is charged with a crime they are either held on remand, in a prison, or are bailed. When on bail conditions apply. After I was charged

Sam Leith Sam Leith

The police raid on a Quaker meeting house is unforgivable

Is there anyone in the Met Police, I wonder, low-minded enough to think of things in PR terms? “I’ve got a good wheeze, guv,” I imagine some grizzled lifer piping up. “Let’s get tooled up, kick in the door of a Quaker meeting house and chuck a bunch of unarmed young women in the back of the paddy-wagon.” Could such a move, his superior might have wondered fleetingly, look in any way heavy-handed if reported on the front page of a newspaper? If they did, the thought evidently soon evaporated. It was an advertised meeting, not a terrorist cell So here we are. No fewer than twenty – twenty! –

Nick Tyrone Nick Tyrone

Reform’s rockstar rally should trouble the Tories

The Reform Party’s local election campaign launch in Birmingham was more rock concert than political rally. Thousands of the party’s supporters packed out the 10,000-seat arena on Friday. The Tories – and indeed the other parties – could learn a thing or two about inspiring their party faithful. The contrast between Reform’s local election campaign launch and the Tories’ is stark There were people at the event in Birmingham of all ages and ethnicities; from those committed to the Farage cause for years, back to the Ukip days, to the merely curious. I spoke to a couple of guys in their mid-20s who had come all the way up from

James Kanagasooriam and Eddie Barnes

The good news about Gen Z

Has a generation ever been so minutely poured over as today’s young people? From Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, his bestselling social science book detailing the impact of social media on children, to Netflix’s Adolescence, the terrifying drama depicting the impact of the manosphere on teenage boys, youngsters are under the microscope. A Channel 4 poll earlier this year declared that young people backed the idea of a dictatorship to bring order to the universe. We are assailed by constant noise about the apparently doomed state of today’s teenagers and twenty-somethings. But is it all merited? Adding to the analysis, we have just finished a major new study of the

Sunday

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Are Brits really abandoning their Christian faith?

Many Brits who were raised as Christians have abandoned their faith, according to a report by the Pew Research Centre. The survey found that 38 per cent of those brought up as Christians are ‘religiously unaffiliated’, while 4 per cent had converted to other religions. The verdict on religion seems gloomy. But I have a slight quibble with this finding: were these people really raised as Christians? Or did they just glance in its direction now and then as children? The average British agnostic has a similar story to Richard Dawkins Consider the evolution of Richard Dawkins. He would have us believe that he thought his way out of the

Niko Vorobyov

The Golden Triangle’s Sin City is a nightmarish place

A rickety boat took me across the murky, brown waters of the mighty Mekong River from Chiang Saen in Thailand, with its giant golden Buddha perched on the hillside, to the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in supposedly communist Laos. But the SEZ is neither particularly communist, nor even really a part of Laos. ‘Tonight is boom-boom night,’ he said. ‘You can do anything you want with a girl for 500 yuan (£50)’ ‘This is not Laos, this is China,’ an Indian migrant worker told me. The Laotian authorities’ presence here is minimal. The Chinese yuan, emblazoned with the image of Chairman Mao, is the currency of choice. While

Saturday

Patrick West

Why are police targeting a school WhatsApp group?

The heavy-handed conduct of the police these days often provokes accusations of ‘Orwellian’ behaviour – and with good reason. There has been a litany of reports in recent years of people being investigated and cautioned for remarks, often made in private, that have been adjudged ‘offensive’ or ‘hurtful’. In the eyes of many, we now have a de facto thought police in this country, with their disproportionate response to people’s sentiments and words indeed warranting comparisons to Nineteen Eighty-Four. Hertfordshire Police sent six uniformed officers to arrest a couple after their child’s school objected to their emails The latest news, that Hertfordshire Police sent six uniformed officers to arrest a

William Atkinson

Amanda Spielman’s peerage is richly deserved

Amanda Spielman, former Ofsted chief inspector, is set to become a Conservative peer. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is elevating Spielman – who served as head of Ofsted between 2017 and 2023 – to the House of Lords for her outstanding record in improving school standards. Spielman’s peerage is richly deserved. She helped ensure that Tory education reforms, which saw the share of children in Good or Outstanding schools rise from 66 per cent to 86 per cent between 2010 and 2018, were maintained. Throughout her tenure, Spielman’s enduring focus was on the curriculum. Too often, as she outlined early in her time at Ofsted, teachers were leaving pupils ‘with a hollowed

Matthew Lynn

Give holiday home owners a break

If you have had your eye on a bungalow along the Devon coast, a cottage in the New Forest, or a tastefully painted terrace in one of the sea-facing villages in Norfolk, this could be your moment. Many holiday home owners are choosing to sell up to avoid a hike on council taxes. From next week, local authorities will be allowed to charge double the normal rate for second home owners. Average bills are set to rise from £2,280 to £4,560. This crackdown is likely to be popular. After all, who has sympathy with those who own two homes, when many young people are struggling to get on to the

Julie Bindel

Stonewall’s game is up

Stonewall’s boss Simon Blake has vowed to fight for a ban on conversion practices that includes ‘every member of the lesbian, gay, bi and trans community’. The Stonewall CEO told the Guardian: ‘It’s really important that a conversion practices bill covers all practices designed to try to change or correct somebody’s sexual or gender identity.’ Warm words. But why should gay people trust an organisation that destroyed its reputation in the quest to promote transgender rights? Bullying and coercing lesbians or gay men to become heterosexual, in the name of therapy, is a human rights violation and is obviously unacceptable. However, including ‘trans’ in this proposed ban, as Stonewall is

Cristina Odone

How ‘best friend parenting’ leads to spoilt kids

Young people are unwilling to go to school. They are unwilling to go to the office. And they are unwilling to go to war for this country. Is this about Generation Z being born with a natural predisposition to laziness and solipsism  – or is it about parents who want to be their child’s best friend? Best friend parenting is problematic parenting Increasingly, mothers and fathers are adopting a dangerous approach to raising their children: ‘best friend parenting’. This involves dodging conflict at all costs, with parents ensuring their child stays in their comfort zone even if this risks school and the office becoming optional extras in young people’s lives.

Friday

Jawad Iqbal

Why Prevent’s boss had to go

The head of the Prevent counter-terrorism programme, Michael Stewart, is to carry the can for failures exposed by the Southport attack last year. Stewart’s role has been in question for some time, following revelations that Prevent failed to stop Axel Rudakubana murdering three girls at a dance class in Merseyside last July. Rudakubana was first referred to Prevent in 2019, when he was just 13 A ‘Prevent learning review’ after the attack revealed a damning catalogue of basic failures. It found that counterterrorism police missed several chances to stop the killer, and that Prevent ‘prematurely’ dismissed the threat posed by Rudakubana on each of the three occasions he was flagged to

James Snell

Reform’s ‘think tank’ isn’t serious

Donors of the Reform party are considering creating a partisan think tank in the American style. These plans are subject to change, but it is not looking good. Many Reform backers, it seems, see the proposed institution, named provisionally as ‘Resolute 1850’, as a way to attract American money. Someone like Elon Musk hands over hundreds of millions of dollars to organisations supportive of the Republican party and Donald Trump but remains legally unconnected to them. Reform donors hope that a similar body could be made in Britain. It would attract money that political parties legally cannot gather, from people who might have problems, as Musk appears to do, with Reform’s

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

A sick Pope and a paralysed Vatican: who is actually running the Catholic Church?

11 min listen

A greatly enfeebled Pope Francis is now living in enforced isolation in a suite at his Santa Marta residence that has been converted into hospital accommodation. He won’t be resuming public duties for two months, we are told – and even his senior advisors have limited access to him. As a result, it’s really not clear who is in charge of the Catholic Church. And, as Damian Thompson reports in this episode of Holy Smoke, it’s by no means clear when this paralysis will end; it’s significant that there has been so little talk of the Pope making a full recovery. Meanwhile, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State who isn’t bothering

Robert Taylor

Why can’t Nigel Farage praise men for a change?

Nigel Farage has really done it this time. He may have sailed close to the wind before, but defending the gender pay gap? Telling a group of journalists yesterday that there’s a reason more men have top jobs in business than women? Surely, he won’t get away with that. As you’d expect he’s been roundly condemned. Natalie Fleet, Labour MP for Bolsover, snapped that Farage ‘seems to be stuck in the 1970s’ and ‘has no idea about the sacrifices women make’. On X, Farage was compared to a ‘dinosaur’ and his assertions, among other things, were described as hateful, wild, horrible and gormless. Well, it certainly was brave of Farage to

Ali Kefford

The Sindbad disaster didn’t have to happen

For tourists aboard the Sindbad, the final moments of their planned jaunt below the waves will have been a hellish, adrenaline-fueled lunge for survival. Six Russian tourists, including two children, died yesterday when the submarine abruptly capsized in seas one kilometre off the coast of the Egyptian city of Hurghada at around 10 a.m. Sea water is said to have begun pouring in through open hatches as passengers boarded the boat at a floating platform on the edge of a Red Sea coral reef. It then appears that she plunged to the seabed at a depth of around 20m. Those on board will have had to swim out of the

Matthew Lynn

Who’s going to miss WH Smith?

WH Smith is opting for the oldest trick in the corporate playbook. It is changing its name. It might have been better to get some new carpets – or at least to freshen up some of the display counters. As the chain’s high street shops are sold off, they will be rebranded as TG Jones, whoever the heck he was. Sure, a few nostalgics might mourn the passing of one of the oldest names on the British high street. And yet, the blunt truth is that the brand was already dead – and no one will miss it now.  If you want to buy some over-priced water, or pick up