Society

Wednesday

Alexander Larman

What happened to all the celebrity election endorsements?

JK Rowling’s denunciation of Labour leader Keir Starmer marked a rare moment in the election – a campaign in which the celebs have fallen quiet. At the 1997 election, Labour’s landslide was accompanied both by explicit endorsements from the great and the good. Noel Gallagher and Geri Halliwell, those two Britpop icons, both appeared alongside Blair in public. In New Labour’s later years, Gordon Brown had Rowling, and Ed Miliband spent time and dignity in courting the once-influential Russell Brand, leading to the much-ridiculed Guardian headline: ‘Russell Brand has endorsed Labour – and the Tories should be worried.’ The resulting Conservative majority disproved his point. Even Jeremy Corbyn could count

Zoe Strimpel

Europe’s war on tourists is no laughing matter

‘Enough! Let’s put a stop to tourism!’ So goes the slogan to be bellowed at a planned protest on 6 July in Barcelona. The city’s mayor has pledged to drive Airbnb out of the city within five years by revoking more than 10,000 licenses for short-term tourist rentals. The announcement follows anti-tourist protests in Mallorca, and the Canary Islands which, like France’s indiscriminately angry gilets-jaunes, has begun with a specific beef that will likely become raggedy and riot-prone as times goes by. This year also saw the introduction of a tourist tax in Venice (reports suggest it’s completely unenforced), and clampdowns in Amsterdam, including a reported ban on the building of

Tuesday

Gray Sergeant

How Edinburgh kowtowed to Beijing

Zhang Biao, Beijing’s man in Scotland, warned earlier this month that a proposed friendship agreement between Edinburgh City Council and Taiwan’s southern city of Kaohsiung would ‘hurt the feeling[s] of the Chinese people’. The people of China, from Shenzhen to Harbin – all 1.4 billion of them – can sleep easy tonight: the proposal has been pulled from the council’s agenda. Whether it will reappear is unclear. The city’s leader, Cammy Day, has announced that ‘more discussion is required before taking this agreement forward’. Discussions which could presumably, if necessary, go on indefinitely.  Edinburgh Airport feared the agreement could harm work to increase the number of direct flights to China Anyone with

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Why do some anti-fascists have a problem with Jews?

Is it still okay to ‘Punch a Nazi’? I’m asking for a friend. In fact, I’m asking for many friends who watched those violent protests outside a synagogue in Los Angeles over the weekend and wondered to themselves if that old left-wing slogan about walloping bigots still holds. If it was acceptable to punch alt-right Jew-haters back in the 2010s, then why not the keffiyeh-wearing variety of today who taunt Jews at their very place of worship? What a thin excuse for mobbing a synagogue ‘Punch a Nazi’ was the cry of every self-styled anti-fascist a few years ago. It was mostly bluster – none of these coddled, vegan kids

Mary Dejevsky

The Assange compromise leaves a lot to be desired

Stella Assange’s elation was palpable, after what she has described as a whirlwind 72 hours. She was speaking to the BBC in Australia, where she was waiting to be reunited with her husband, the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who had just been freed from prison in the UK under a three-way deal between the UK, the US and Australia.  Assange was due to travel to Australia via the Mariana Islands, a US dependency in the Pacific, where a judge was expected to accept his plea of guilty to a single charge under the US Espionage Act, relating to classified material published on his WikiLeaks site back in 2010. He was to be

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

King Charles has much in common with Japan’s Anglophile Emperor

The Japanese Emperor is in London today for a state visit, the first by the occupant of the chrysanthemum throne to the UK for 26 years. Along with a trip to Buckingham Palace, Emperor Naruhito, accompanied by his wife Empress Masako, will inspect the Thames barrier, which the Emperor studied as a student. He’ll then proceed to Oxford where he spent happy years as an undergraduate. The Emperor will also pay a private visit to St. George’s chapel and lay a wreath at the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II. Naruhito is a genuine Anglophile. You may not hear too much about this visit, due to other salient events obviously (there

Andrew Tettenborn

Assange is released – but there is still a danger to press freedom 

James Cleverly may now be a care-and-maintenance Home Secretary, but even so he will be heaving a sigh of relief as he finally tapes up the file on Julian Assange. The Australian journalist and WikiLeaks founder was on the point of being extradited to the US for revealing state secrets obtained from agents in that country. Last night we heard that Assange’s lawyers had closed a deal with American prosecutors. The arrangement is this. Assange voluntarily surrenders to US officials in the Marianas Islands; he pleads guilty to one offence of revealing US classified information, and gets five years. The court then providentially notices that he has already spent more

Jawad Iqbal

The moment of truth beckons for Gareth Southgate

England manager Gareth Southgate has led a charmed life for far too long – eight years and three international tournaments before this one, to be precise. The moment of reckoning is now most definitely upon him. Everything, from the reputation of this supposedly stellar group of players to Southgate’s credibility as a coach, is on the line. It all comes down to how England perform in their final group phase game against Slovenia at the Cologne stadium tonight. It is an encounter that presents opportunity and danger in equal measure. The opportunity is there because the Slovenians are eminently beatable, ideal opponents for an England team low on confidence and looking

Monday

Alexander Larman

Let’s hope Princess Anne makes a swift recovery

This year has been one of the worst imaginable for the Royals. The King and the Princess of Wales are both battling cancer, and now Princess Anne has been hospitalised, suffering what is said to be ‘minor injuries and concussion’ following an incident involving a horse. The Princess Royal, who is 73, was rushed to hospital after she was hurt during an evening walk on her Gatcombe Park estate in Gloucestershire yesterday. Anne, who is being treated for concussion and minor injuries to her head, is expected to recover shortly. Nonetheless, the annus horribilis for her and her family is continuing, even before we reach the halfway point of this most eventful

Tom Slater Tom Slater

Who can blame the Greens’ co-leader for not getting a heat pump?

Far be it from me to give advice to the Green Party. From their insistence that ordinary people put up with being poorer and colder to ‘save the planet’ to the alarmingly high number of Israelophobic, 7 October-denying cranks on their candidates list, I’m really not a fan. Still, I’d gently suggest that the golden rule for any Green vying for election is to practise what you preach on climate. If you are standing on a manifesto of national immiseration, you’d better be willing to go without the fossil-fuelled comforts you want to rip away from everyone else. The Greens co–leader has been caught out as an eco-hypocrite Not so for Carla

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

England’s witless footballers could learn a lot from the Scots

Scotland 0 Hungary 1: The Guardian called the game ‘a grim slog’, presumably preferring the fare offered by the twinkle-toed Latinos. Me, I loved every deeply flawed second. This was a League One play-off final, full of fury, grit and consummate uselessness. I’d far rather watch that than Spain and Italy – and even more so awful England, with their stupid, mind-numbing, witless, languor. Hell, at least these two sides TRIED. Far too late in the day the pundits are turning against Southgate Hungary were marginally the more proficient and employed the tactic of making sure Scotland had lots of the ball so they could do nothing constructive with it.

Patrick West

Let’s take no lectures from Emma Thompson on the climate

The actors are out in force again, speaking politics. Only days after Brian Cox appeared on the BBC bemoaning that Brexit is reducing our GDP by 4 per cent, this weekend Dame Emma Thompson led thousands at a Restore Nature Now march in London. The protest was designed to draw attention to the plight of nature and the climate, and was attended by charities, businesses and direct action groups. Actors at their worst are a notoriously shallow and vain lot During the march, the national treasure, millionaire and jet-setter Thompson was asked if she supported Just Stop Oil, days after the group had vandalised Stonehenge. ‘I think I support anyone

Debbie Hayton

Labour’s dreadful gender recognition reforms

Is Keir Starmer trying to snatch an unlikely defeat from the jaws of victory, or is he so confident of winning that he thinks he can ignore sense and reason – certainly on the issue of sex and gender? When the Labour party manifesto dropped a couple of weeks ago, it included a pledge to ‘modernise, simplify, and reform the intrusive and outdated gender recognition law to a new process’. This morning we learned some of the details. This might not trouble privileged men like Starmer but it is an issue for vulnerable women reliant on publicly funded services According to reports, Labour will remove any need for someone to ‘live in their

James Kirkup James Kirkup

J.K. Rowling’s glorious refusal to be kind 

‘Spread happiness, peace and calm.’ That’s the slogan on a T-shirt you can buy at M&S. It’s pink, has frilly sleeves and is decorated with flowers and a unicorn. It is, of course, listed under ‘girls’ clothing’. There’s nothing unusual about that T-shirt. You can buy similar items for girls in most fashion retailers. ‘Be kind’ is practically society’s mantra for a generation of girls. Pretty much everyone else in the country is currently sucking up to Keir Starmer because he’s about to have power. Not JKR though Another staple of childhood for those girls is Harry Potter. On the same page of the M&S site you can find a

Sunday

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Why Japan is unlikely to legalise same-sex marriage

Thailand has just passed a ‘landmark’ marriage equality bill, which will pave the way for the recognition of same-sex unions in the Land of Smiles. The upper house in Bangkok comfortably approved the measure on Tuesday, and as soon as King Maha Vajiralongkorn signs it off Thailand will become the first Southeast Asian jurisdiction to formally legalise gay marriage. Equality campaigners in Japan will be watching these developments closely. With a general election expected before November and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s scandal-wracked Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) administration under considerable pressure, advocates for same sex marriage in the one G7 country that still denies it, will have hopes that, following the

Jawad Iqbal

Why is Euro 2024 so dull?

It is still early days but Euro 2024 in Germany has yet to take off as a tournament. It is hard to say why exactly. It has not been uniformly dull – England’s failings have generated interest aplenty. The opening match between Germany and Scotland was a goal-fest, ending in a 5-1 win for Germany. In fact, there have been some brilliant goals in the tournament so far – Mert Muldur scored a spectacular volley for Turkey against Georgia on Tuesday night. There is a limited number of genuine superstars Great goals can go a long way towards making a tournament look and feel good but far too many of

Lynne O’Donnell

Are women being raped in Taliban jails?

It has been almost three years since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. In that time, women have become prisoners in their own homes and targets of violence if they venture outdoors alone.  Now, the United Nations is investigating reports of rape, gang rape, sex slavery and forced abortions of women held in Taliban jails.  Women’s rights advocates have long warned that women and girls are enduring appalling abuses under the Taliban’s autarkic regime The reports, first published in a respected Afghan media outlet, are the first detailed accounts of women being systematically abused for sex by Taliban operatives and commanders. The reports have drawn the concern of the

Saturday

Agnès Poirier

Matt Ridley, William Cook, Owen Matthews and Agnes Poirier

28 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Matt Ridley argues that whoever you vote for, the blob wins (1:02); William Cook reads his Euros notebook from Germany (12:35); Owen Matthews reports on President Zelensky’s peace summit (16:21); and, reviewing Michael Peel’s new book ‘What everyone knows about Britain’, Agnes Poirier ponders if only Britain knew how it was viewed abroad (22:28).  Presented by Patrick Gibbons.  

Mark Nayler

The future looks bright for Spanish bullfighting

In one of my local bars, in the Andalucian town of Antequera, there’s a poster on the door advertising bullfighting classes for kids. Aged between about ten and fifteen, I see these students practicing every week in the bullring, taking turns to play the bull by pushing around a pair of wooden horns attached to a single wheel – a specially-made device that looks like a weaponised unicycle. A young bullfighter was awarded one of the animal’s ears for a good performance Some of these kids, no doubt, dream of bullfighting glory, of becoming one of a very small number of bullfighters, or toreros, who are paid tens of thousands

Friday

Mark Nayler

Luis Rubiales deserves his day in court

Luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish football federation, is going to court for ‘The Kiss’. It was confirmed this week that Rubiales will stand trial in February 2025 for kissing Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the medal ceremony after Spain won the women’s football World Cup last August. Hermoso maintains the kiss was non-consensual.  Rubiales is now routinely described in articles as ‘disgraced’ Prosecutors are requesting that Rubiales pay Hermoso 50,000 euros (£42,000) in compensation and go to prison for two-and-a-half years: one year for the kiss – which, if not consensual, counts as sexual assault under Spanish law – and another 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso afterwards to