Society

Monday

James Lewisohn

Danes are baffled by Britain’s hatred of second-home owners

Spring has arrived on the North Coast of Zealand, and my fellow Danes are busily scrubbing down their summerhouses for the season. Villages which were nearly deserted during the winter – Danes can generally only occupy their summerhouses for 180 days a year – are gradually filling up. Sadiq Khan said London’s second homeowners ought to pay “much, much more” than a 100 per cent council tax premium Yet I rather doubt Sir Sadiq Khan, who earlier this month said London’s second homeowners ought to pay “much, much more” than a 100 per cent council tax premium, will be on anyone’s prospective guest list. The current war of expropriation on British second

Chas Newkey-Burden

Gary Lineker isn’t the only quiet man of football to find his voice

Sometimes it’s the quiet ones you have to watch out for. Gary Lineker, who presented his final Match of the Day last night, has been an endlessly controversial figure over the past ten years. Lineker has hit the headlines with sassy thoughts on everything from asylum seekers to trans rights and Gaza, so it’s easy to forget what a different personality he was as a player. Lineker back then was all about shy, boyish smiles Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Lineker was a football superstar. He scored 238 goals for his clubs and netted 48 times for England, but away from the pitch he was generally as bland and

Sunday

Max Jeffery Max Jeffery

Kneecap are not rebels

Better rebels than Kneecap would’ve begun their headline set at Wide Awake festival in south London on Friday night with a show of defiance against the British state, a swipe at the occupier in its fortress capital. Perhaps they would’ve unfurled a great big yellow Hezbollah banner. As it was, Kneecap flashed the message ‘FREE PALESTINE’ on a screen, showed a montage of criticism the band had received from Sharon Osbourne, some Fox News pundits and the shadow home secretary Chris Philp, and walked on stage to ‘It’s been ages,’ one of their less popular songs. The moment demanded more. Kneecap had done a small set at the 100 Club

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

No, James Corden: London doesn’t want a mayor like you

Clown. It’s a great word, and I use it often. Though not a great fan of emojis, the clown face one is the one I deploy most frequently when answering unwanted and insincere private messages on X. I do this because the meaning of the word ‘clown’ has changed considerably over the years. Once it meant a jester, a droll, an entertainer intent on causing jollity. Clowns could be wildly different – from Marcel Marceau to Morecambe and Wise – but their basic purpose was to add to the gaiety of nations. Putting the ‘ick’ into Icarus, James Corden apparently flew too high Comedians aren’t generally like this anymore. (‘Comedian’ has

John Power

What happened to Labour’s racial equality agenda?

The ‘eradication of structural racism would be a defining cause’ of Labour’s time in power. That’s what Keir Starmer said in 2020, a few months after the death of George Floyd. In the party’s election manifesto last year, it promised to introduce a Race Equality Act to root out racial inequalities as part of a broader racial justice agenda. This included addressing the treatment of black people under the Mental Health Act, appointing a ‘Windrush Commissioner’ and making big businesses publish ethnicity pay gap data. Labour is betting that ethnic minority voters will remain loyal, even as their priorities are quietly shelved But now, with Keir Starmer in No.10, much

Francis Pike

Should starvation ever be used as a weapon of war?

Sorry to disappoint antisemites, but Operation Starvation is not an Israeli plan to murder millions of Palestinians; it was a US plan to starve Japan into submission at the end of the Pacific War. However, comparisons with Israel Defence Force’s (IDF) current strategy for defeating Hamas, and the changing legal landscape of warfare since World War II, are enlightening. Japan’s death cult was in full swing By April 1945, Japan had lost the war in the Pacific. At the naval Battle of the Philippine Sea, the Japanese fleet lost so many aircraft that the engagement was named ‘the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. Months later, the Japanese Navy suffered even greater

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

The mystifying process – and problems – behind choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury

39 min listen

After Pope Francis died, it took the Roman Catholic Church just 17 days to choose a successor in Pope Leo XIV. It has been well over 6 months since Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned and we are only just making sense of those chosen to sit on the Crown Nominations Commission (CNC), that will recommend his successor. Even then, it’s unlikely we will know more until the autumn. Why has it taken so long? Journalist, commentator – and quite frankly expert – Andrew Graystone joins Damian Thompson and William Moore, the Spectator’s features editor, to take listeners through the process. From committees to choose committees and confusion about the

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

How to save the Church of England

The Church of England’s various travails and dilemmas – on controversial issues, like sexuality and safeguarding – are on one level beside the point. Even if it managed to solve these problems, the Church’s drift to the margins of our culture looks likely to continue. The really fundamental issue is how the CofE can reverse that drift, how it can renew itself. This is harder to talk about, as it has little connection with the news cycle. The renewal of the Church depends on the quality of its worship culture, and the traditional forms seem unable to generate new excitement. Public festivity is the key to the renewal of worship

Debbie Hayton

The tyranny of GCSEs

Deep within the workings of an electric motor lies a split-ring commutator. It reverses the current flowing through the coil every half rotation so that the force on the coil also reverses as it spins between a pair of opposing magnetic poles. If ever it was necessary to recall such esoteric minutiae, the time is now – if you are 16 years old and facing the prospect of GCSE exams, that is. Hundreds of thousands of children in Years 11 and 13 are currently in the middle of exam season, but for what purpose? We need to do better for the next generation and for schools I cited the electric

Saturday

James Heale James Heale

James Heale, Angus Colwell, Alice Loxton, Lloyd Evans, Richard Bratby, Christopher Howse and Catriona Olding

38 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: James Heale analyses the splits in Labour over direction and policy (1:27); Angus Colwell asks if the ‘lanyard class’ are the new enemy (6:21); Alice Loxton explains why bite-sized histories have big appeal (9:58); Lloyd Evans reports on how Butlin’s is cashing in on nostalgia (15:00); Richard Bratby on Retrospect Opera, the non-profit record label that resurrects the forgotten works of British opera (20:40); Christopher Howse provides his notes of typos (27:27); and, Catriona Olding reflects on the death of her partner, the Spectator’s Jeremy Clarke, two years ago this week (32:15).  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Chas Newkey-Burden

In defence of seagulls

We Brits used to rub along pretty well with seagulls. Their distinctive call conjured memories of happy days out at the seaside and it was strangely hypnotic to watch them circle above the waters as we breathed in the salty air. But now they’re in danger of becoming public enemy number one as the tabloids pump out scare stories about our feathered friends. Only this week, the Daily Star called them ‘flying scumbags’, the Daily Mail described them as ‘feathered thugs’, and the Sun labelled them ‘dive-bombing muggers’. Meanwhile, the Daily Express warned that an ‘apocalyptic swarm’ of 3,000 seagulls had ‘invaded a UK town’. The Daily Star raised the

Friday

Patrick West

Katharine Birbalsingh is right about our worship of victimhood

One of the main accusations levelled at the trans movement is that the tidal wave of youngsters claiming to be gender dysphoric in recent years is a form of social contagion, especially among rich, progressive households. Katharine Birbalsingh, the former government social mobility tsar and head of Michaela Community School in northwest London, seems to agree that it can be understood as a social phenomenon. And she has her own particular theory. ‘Our society is such that victimhood is admired’, she told the Standard yesterday, and one reason a disproportionate number of those drawn to the trans movement are ‘white and privileged’ is that it offers them ‘a victimhood narrative to

Geoff Hill

What Trump gets wrong about South Africa’s white ‘genocide’

There’s a joke in South Africa that it’s so easy to claim asylum here, even the Swiss could do so. It’s easy to believe. At our local shopping centre in Johannesburg, the security guards hail from various safe African countries – Tanzania, Zambia and Malawi. All are on refugee permits that are renewed every few months, often with a bribe. If there’s murderous intent among South Africa’s poorest, it’s not directed at white people There are countless illegal migrants and refugees from as far away as Pakistan and Bangladesh. Ironic then that president Cyril Ramaphosa is making such a fuss about the 49 Afrikaners who have been granted asylum in

Catriona Olding

Is chemically castrating sex offenders really a good idea?

Convicted paedophiles could face mandatory chemical castration to suppress their libidos under plans being considered by the justice secretary. Shabana Mahmood is said to be weighing up giving the drugs to sex offenders to reduce reoffending and free up prison space. But while the idea – announced on the Sun’s front page yesterday under the headline ‘paedos to be castrated’ – is sure to be popular, chemical castration isn’t as effective as its supporters might hope. Its use could lull courts, and society in general, into a false sense of security about the danger that sex offenders pose. Chemical castration isn’t as effective as its supporters might hope The use

Thursday

William Moore William Moore

The real Brexit betrayal, bite-sized history & is being a bridesmaid brutal?

44 min listen

The real Brexit betrayal: Starmer vs the workers ‘This week Starmer fell… into the embrace of Ursula von der Leyen’ writes Michael Gove in our cover article this week. He writes that this week’s agreement with the EU perpetuates the failure to understand Brexit’s opportunities, and that Labour ‘doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t exist to make the lives of the fortunate more favourable’. Michael makes the argument that ‘the real Brexit betrayal’ is Labour’s failure to understand how Brexit can protect British jobs and industries and save our manufacturing sector. Historian of the Labour Party Dr Richard Johnson, a politics lecturer at Queen Mary University writes an accompanying piece arguing

Jonathan Sacerdoti

The Washington shooting is a chilling warning to Jews everywhere

Waking early on Thursday in London, I read the news on a half-lit phone screen: two people, Israeli embassy staff, gunned down outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. A man shouted “Free Palestine,” – of course he did – after he had fired his weapon and walked inside the building – where, in an extraordinary confusion of roles, guests offered him water and comfort, believing he too had been a victim. In a way, maybe he had. A man shouted “Free Palestine,” – of course he did – after he had fired his weapon Though our airwaves and streets have been filled with talk of genocide, that word

Andrew Tettenborn

Allowing camping on Dartmoor is a terrible mistake

Away from the hamlets and farms that dot the edge of it, the high moor on Dartmoor is a wild and solitary place, especially overnight and in the early morning. But if you like that sort of thing, you might be well-advised to make the most of it while you can. As a result of an unfortunate decision from the Supreme Court yesterday, the solitude may not last much longer. The peculiarity of Dartmoor is that even though it looks like a public space, most of it is privately owned. The land is looked after by a mixture of large estate owners, farmers and others. Public access, for centuries tolerated

Lara Brown

King’s College Cambridge is wrong to cut ties with arms firms

Who says that student activism is pointless? Setting up a tent, donning a keffiyeh, and camping out on your university’s front lawn might look like a waste of time, but at Cambridge it’s a strategy that pays off. King’s College – which has been repeatedly targeted by pro-Palestinian protestors – has agreed to cut ties with arms companies. The college announced that it will divest money from weapons manufacturers after its governing body voted to ‘adopt a new responsible investment policy’. King’s College – which has been repeatedly targeted by pro-Palestinian protestors – has agreed to cut ties with arms companies In an email sent to students on Tuesday, King’s College said it

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

It’s time to get rid of the Rich List

Here’s a takeover tale that captures the zeitgeist. It involves two FTSE 250 companies and some deep-pocketed US investors – and I’ll explain it as simply as I can. In essence, how would you feel if your GP surgery fell into the hands of American investors associated with the book title Barbarians at the Gate? The first of the two London-listed companies is Assura, which owns 600 NHS surgeries and diagnostic facilities and has accepted a cash offer of £1.6 billion from a pair of New York investment giants. They are Stone-peak, which holds a huge global portfolio of infrastructure assets, and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, whose initials KKR may be

The Spectator

Letters: In praise of the post office

Reeves’s road sense Sir: Is it stubbornness, denial, inexperience or some other agenda that prevents Rachel Reeves changing course in the face of uncomfortable facts? A multitude of surveys have told her that punitively taxing the rich means they will leave (‘The great escape’, 17 May). Recently I had lunch at a fashionable London club that was half-empty. When asked why this was, our waiter commented that he now rarely sees his previous international regulars, and if he does, they are only in town for a short stay. Endless business surveys have also told Reeves that her employer taxes will cost jobs, close companies, weaken growth and raise inflation, yet