Society

Sunday

Gus Carter Gus Carter

The paradox of Alan Watts

There’s an advert for cruise holidays on television at the moment. It’s all dolphins and dining halls and laughing women flashing their teeth. Above the tinkly swelling music is a familiar voice. It’s the kind of clear English accent that might remind you of a compelling history teacher or vicar. ‘I wonder, I wonder, what you would do if you had the power to dream any dream you wanted to dream,’ he says. ‘You would, I suppose, start out by fulfilling all your wishes, love affairs, banquets, wonderful journeys. And after you’d done that for some time, you’d forget that you were dreaming.’  The voice belongs to Alan Watts. He’s

Ian Williams Ian Williams

China’s chip industry is struggling

China is entering the new year with its tech ambitions under a Covid cloud. The enormous cost of the now abandoned zero-Covid policy has badly strained government finances, and the communist party’s pledge to build a world-beating chip industry, already reeling from American sanctions, is falling victim to the familiar ills of cost, waste and corruption. A much hyped one trillion yuan ($145 billion) investment plan is reportedly on hold. Costly subsidies have born little fruit but they have encouraged graft and provoked sanctions. As a result, government officials are looking at alternative ways of encouraging growth in the semi-conductor industry, according to Bloomberg. The problems with the chip programme

Lee Cohen

Even Americans are growing tired of the Sussexes

With his forthcoming memoir and surrounding publicity tours, the Duke of Sussex has passed the point of no return. He is haemorrhaging friends and goodwill on both sides of the Atlantic. In the past few days, with revelations from his memoir Spare leaking like a sieve, Harry has been denounced for his indiscreet discussion of his service in Afghanistan by everyone from UK military leaders to a former British Ambassador to America – and even the Taliban.  And what of Meghan’s countrymen? Often the British media paints us Americans as blindly Sussex-loyal because we share Meghan Markle’s nationality. Yet it is becoming ever clearer that Americans are becoming as repelled by the couple’s betrayal, false

James Esses

How Childline was captured by trans ideology 

Childline has acted as a haven for struggling children for over 35 years. In 2006, it became part of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), to further its child safeguarding mission.  However, in recent years Childline has chosen ideology over safeguarding. I should know; I used to work there.   I was a volunteer counsellor at Childline between 2015 and 2020. In my time there, I spent thousands of hours counselling children through a variety of issues. Supporting the welfare and wellbeing of children was extremely fulfilling.  Over time, I began to notice a change in the presentation of children coming through to speak to me. Increasing numbers of children

Saturday

Gabriel Gavin Gabriel Gavin

Russia’s military disaster could lead to famine in the Caucasus

Two years ago, 13-year-old singer Maléna was rehearsing for Eurovision Junior when war broke out. While her rivals battled in Warsaw on stage, she stayed home in Armenia. Young men picked up AK-47s to fight against their Azerbaijani neighbours in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. More than 4,000 never returned. A year later, Maléna re-entered Eurovision Junior and won, giving her country the right to host Eurovision Junior in December 2022. Armenian authorities staged celebrations in the capital, Yerevan. Crowds huddled around outdoor televisions in the central square to watch the show. A group of young musicians from Nagorno-Karabakh joined the party in Yerevan, coming into the capital on the

Steerpike Steerpike

Does Harry’s own ghostwriter dislike him?

You really have to wonder what Harry and Meghan, hunkered down in their Montecito wellness bunker, currently make of the reaction to Harry’s memoir Spare, which has been leaked to the world over the past few days. So far the book has made headlines for Prince Harry’s tales about losing his virginity in a field next to a pub (and being subsequently slapped on the rear by the older woman), his frostbitten penis, talking to a bin after taking magic mushrooms and a scrap with his brother that led to him falling on a dogbowl and breaking his favourite necklace. Mr S gets the impression that this isn’t quite the

Bob Seely MP

Isn’t it time we stripped Harry and Meghan of their titles?

Is it time that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex became plain Mr and Mrs Windsor? They seem so full of anger for the institution that gives them their status, why not do the decent thing and renounce their titles? If not, shouldn’t parliament give them a helping hand? First, a declaration. I am not interested in attacking Harry or Meghan per se.  Personally, I feel increasing sorry for them. I worry what happens when even Californians get bored of their tales of victimhood. I worry for Harry especially. Both Harry’s book and the Netflix narcissism of the Duke and Duchess’s recent series tell the story of two privileged people

Zareer Masani

The Elgin marbles and the rot of ‘decolonisation’

The proposed return to Greece, in the guise of loans, of some of the British Museum’s most iconic objects, the Elgin marbles, is a measure of how far the ‘decolonisation’ campaign has gone in brainwashing the guardians of our cultural heritage. There’s little doubt that the Greek government, which still claims rightful ownership, will never willingly return such a loan, and we all know that possession is nine-tenths of the law. The current deal, designed to circumvent rules preventing British museums from giving away our national treasures, has been brokered by former culture minister Lord Vaizey and ex-chancellor George Osborne, now Chair of the British Museum, but its details have

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Prince Harry has done something unforgivable

I’m just going to say it: I’m Team William. In that scrap that Prince Harry says happened at Nottingham Cottage, where Prince William allegedly lost his rag and pushed Harry to the floor, I’m cheering Will. Everyone who has a brother — I have five — knows they sometimes need a clip round the lughole. And I trust Will made the right decision when he physically reprimanded his little bro. There are many reasons I’m in the Cambridge camp. The Sussexes are just saps, aren’t they? I’m far more shocked that Harry called his therapist after William allegedly attacked him than I am by the incident itself. After having an

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Harry and Meghan’s popularity slumps post-Netflix

The Sussexes’ self-promotional tour is up and running: interviews with Tom Bradby and Anderson Cooper for Harry this weekend, ahead of the official release date on Tuesday. And there’s no sign of the circus slowing down any time soon, with three further books for the happy couple in the pipeline plus their Netflix commitments and the Archewell side-hustle. But is all this publicity really helping improve Harry and Meghan’s standing with the British public? Polling by Redfield and Wilton for The Spectator shows that the couple’s popularity has slumped dramatically since the release of their six-part Netflix series last month. At the end of November, some 45 per cent of

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

Prince Harry’s book is a gift to the world

And still it keeps on coming. We had barely absorbed the first wave of revelations – jewellery mashed, dog bowls smashed, a brother trashed – before the new tsunami of tattle related to Prince Harry’s imminent book Spare broke over our fevered faces. Dissing duchesses getting aerated over hormones, teenage deflowerings in desolate fields, cocaine ingested by noble noses, accusations of ginger bastardy, attempted derailing of putative wicked stepmothers and maternal approval from beyond the grave for the 16-toilets lifestyle ­– the burbling stream of confession never stops. Sometimes it feels as though Prince Harry is using the world’s media as his therapy couch – and sometimes it’s like having

Tom Slater Tom Slater

Simon Pegg’s anti-Tory rant is embarrassing

If you haven’t seen Simon Pegg’s viral video about Rishi Sunak yet, you’re in for a real treat. It’s a genius bit of satire, a brutal send-up of left-leaning, self-righteous. middle-class midwits. In it, the cult Brit comic actor turned bona fide Hollywood star does a pitch-perfect impression of the sort of unkempt craft-beer botherer who gets all of his news from James O’Brien clips. In character, Pegg rages against Sunak for daring to say people should learn maths up to 18. ‘Rishi Sunak wants a f***ing drone army of data-entering robots. F*** the Tories’, he thunders. Genius. Only it isn’t really. I watched it, hoping it was a joke.

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Rishi Sunak will fail his migrant mission – but it’s not his fault

Suella Braverman sparked a backlash last November when she described the number of small boats crossing the Channel as an ‘invasion’. The chattering classes objected to the ‘inflammatory language’ of the Home Secretary rather than the fact that 45,756 people entered Britain illegally in 2022.  The provocative word this month is ‘infinite’, used by a government source in admitting that even if Britain did stem the flow of Albanians crossing the Channel there are many thousands more migrants desperate to make it to Britain. ‘Their places on the boats would be filled by Somalis, Eritreans or Afghans who can’t afford to pay as much as the Albanians,’ they explained. The

Steerpike Steerpike

Harry’s mission to save the royal family

In his new memoir, Prince Harry claims that he regarded the 25 Taliban fighters he killed as ‘chess pieces’ not human beings. Yet Mr Steerpike can’t help but wonder if the young soldier prince didn’t learn something useful from his adversaries in war – the art of suicide-bombing. At least, in a literary sense, that is.  Spare, the memoir, is dynamite, no doubt about that. It’s hard to think of any book that has blown up quite so instantly and spectacularly in the face of its author. The details from the book, which started to flood out yesterday, have left Harry’s dwindling band of supporters feeling bewildered.  Harry knew he

James Lewisohn

Where have Denmark’s bank robbers gone?

Asked why he robbed banks for a living, the legendary American bank robber Willie Sutton allegedly replied, ‘because that’s where the money is’. Not any more, it isn’t.  In Denmark, where only twenty of the country’s 740 bank branches still hold cash in their vaults, 2022 was the first year without a bank robbery. There had been 222 as recently as 2002. Sutton, who said he robbed banks because ‘I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it, than at any other time in my life’, would weep. Why have Danish bank robbers hung up their swag bags? The reason is Denmark’s rapid transition towards a cashless

Thursday

Nigel Jones

William, Harry and Britain’s long history of royal sibling spats

Fraternal relations rarely run entirely smoothly. But the degree of animosity revealed in reports of the physical clash between Princes William and Harry in the latter’s book Spare is nothing new in the turbulent history of Britain’s royals. In fact, the alleged spat between the brothers pales in comparison to the murderous hatreds between past regal siblings. The bad blood began in 1077 when the two younger sons of William the Conqueror, coincidentally called William and Henry, emptied the contents of a chamber pot over the head of their elder brother Robert. So furious was Robert by his father’s refusal to punish his brothers for the prank that he launched

Winston Marshall

Does Jordan Peterson need to be re-educated?

Dr Jordan Peterson, the renowned clinical psychologist, is being ordered off to re-education camp. The regulatory board in his Canadian home province – the College of Psychologists of Ontario – has demanded Peterson undertake a social media ‘coaching program’. All for the very 21st century crime of tweeting the wrong opinions. What exactly were the tweets? Peterson, a professor turned multi-million copy best-selling author, has amassed an unprecedented following in the history of psychology. He hosts one of the world’s leading podcasts, has sold millions of tickets to live talks and has over 15 million followers across social media. With an unerring personal commitment to speak his mind on cultural

Susan Hill Susan Hill

RIP Fay Weldon, a force of nature

Novelists can often be disappointingly unremarkable as people but occasionally one, like Fay Weldon, is a force of nature. She seemed to pack dozen larger than life women into one, in every sense. She used to say ‘that was after I became a fat girl’, and that she chose to write most about the sort of women whose side she was on – the large and plain ones. In fact, she was on the side of all women, and spoke better in her fiction to her own and my generations than all the militant loud-mouthed feminists. She married three times, enjoyed men and their company and hated men being publicly belittled

The Spectator

Wanted: a research producer

The Spectator is the world’s oldest magazine. More people than ever are reading us, online and in print, and they’re listening and watching our broadcast output too. Our podcasts now get downloaded more than two million times each month, and Spectator TV often gets more than a million views a month. We are looking to hire a research producer, working in our broadcast team. Our team of four set up Spectator TV and produce podcasts on everything from politics to books and food, and we have big ambitions for the future. We need someone to provide research, deliver briefings, write entertaining questions and scripts, and support the team with editing it all. You must

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

It’s time to tuck into Twelfth cake

This week we get to Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, when the wise men finally make it to baby Jesus in Bethlehem. Properly, the feast starts the night before, so Twelfth Night is the evening of the 5th, which in some parts of Europe is the climax of the Christmas season. And, as with every good thing, it’s an occasion for cake – king cake to be precise. There are several variants from different parts of Europe. The best-known here is the galette des rois, which features in French patisseries: a lovely almond paste encased in puff pastry, and, in shops, surmounted with a cardboard golden crown for whoever