Society

Friday

4 Jul 2025

We should be outraged by Lily Allen’s ‘four or five’ abortions

If we want to understand why thousands of women a year in England and Wales have an abortion – 251,377 in 2022, so probably way more now – we could do worse than consider the musings of the singer Lily Allen on the subject. In a podcast chat with her friend Miquita, this took a musical turn. She began singing to the tune of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’: ‘Abortions I’ve had a few… but then again… I can’t remember exactly how many’. Giggling, she continued: ‘I can’t remember. I think maybe like, I want to say four or five.’ Miqiuta – a woman of whom I’d never heard – observed that,

Miriam Cates

Why the baby bust matters

Birth rates are tumbling across the world. This isn’t just a tragedy for the growing number of women who have fewer children than they want; below-replacement fertility rates mean that each generation will be smaller than the one before. This could lead to a permanent spiral of decline where the old always outnumber the young. But can anything be done about it? A report published last month by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) acknowledges the problem, but its analysis is rather confused. The authors complain that economic barriers prevent women from having ‘reproductive agency’ while simultaneously arguing that governments trying to reduce these barriers are, in some cases, ‘coercive’. After decades

John Connolly

John Connolly, Gavin Mortimer, Dorian Lynskey, Steve Morris and Lloyd Evans

26 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: John Connolly argues that Labour should look to Andy Burnham for inspiration (1:51); Gavin Mortimer asks if Britain is ready for France’s most controversial novel – Jean Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints (4:55); Dorian Lynskey looks at the race to build the first nuclear weapons, as he reviews Frank Close’s Destroyer of Worlds (11:23); Steve Morris provides his notes on postcards (16:44); and, Lloyd Evans reflects on British and Irish history as he travels around Dublin (20:44). Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Thursday

3 Jul 2025

Benedict Spence

Diogo Jota’s death is unspeakably tragic

Diogo Jota’s death at the age of 28 is unbearably tragic and has prompted an outpouring of grief in the football world and beyond. The Liverpool forward lost his life in the early hours of this morning when his Lamborghini careered off a road in Spain and caught fire. Jota had married his childhood sweetheart, Rute, a few days earlier in their home city of Porto. His brother, Andre Silva, 26, also died in the crash. Jota’s last goal for Liverpool came in May against the club’s ancient and bitter local rivals, Everton We don’t expect our friends to die. We expect young men in the peak of physical health, like

Matthew Lynn

Jaguar is heading for oblivion

The headlines wrote themselves. ‘Go woke, go broke!’ said the Daily Mail, and ‘Sales Plummet’, said the Sun. Only a few months after its controversial rebrand, with the launch of a bright pink ‘Barbie-mobile’, we learned today that Jaguar’s sales are down by 97.5 per cent across Europe. In reality, the story is a little more complex, but even so, what was once one of the greatest car companies in the world is giving a masterclass in brand destruction. It would be better to sell it off to the Chinese than to continue under its current management. It makes Telsa’s collapse after Elon Musk joined the Trump administration look mild

Alec Marsh

Is it time to put Margaret Thatcher on our banknotes?

The Bank of England wants to rethink banknotes and has announced a public consultation in order to generate suggestions about what to put on them. ‘Banknotes are more than just an important means of payment,’ declares Victoria Cleland, the Bank’s chief cashier, whose signature is on notes. ‘They serve as a symbolic representation of our collective national identity and an opportunity to celebrate the UK.’ The ‘Maggie’ would become the go-to note. How better to celebrate a free-marketeer and our first woman prime minister? So, who should we put on our next banknotes? My vote, 35 years after she left office, would be to put Margaret Thatcher on the ten pound note.

William Moore

Claws out for Keir, Mamdani’s poisoned apple & are most wedding toasts awful?

46 min listen

This week: one year of Labour – the verdict In the magazine this week Tim Shipman declares his verdict on Keir Starmer’s Labour government as we approach the first anniversary of their election victory. One year on, some of Labour’s most notable policies have been completely changed – from the u-turn over winter fuel allowance to the embarrassing climb-down over welfare this week. Starmer has appeared more confident on the world stage but, for domestic audiences, this is small consolation when the public has perceived little change on the problems that have faced Britain for years. Can Starmer turn it around? Tim joined the podcast alongside the Spectator’s editor Michael

The Spectator

Letters: What public inquiries get wrong

Movers and shakers Sir: As a parish priest of 35 years, I read Francis Pike’s account of his supernatural experiences (‘Happy mediums’, 28 June) with little surprise. Over the years, I have been approached by parishioners troubled by poltergeists, apparitions, unexplained odours, ‘friendly’ spirits and, in one case, cutlery and glasses flying off tables. In every instance, my approach has been the same. Accompanied by another person, I visit the home and enquire whether the household has been involved in any occult practices – Ouija boards, tarot cards, consulting mediums and the like. Almost invariably, the answer is yes. I then encourage repentance from such practices and a turning to

Gavin Mortimer

Is Britain ready for France’s most controversial novel?

This Saturday is the centenary of the birth of one of France’s most controversial writers. Jean Raspail, who died in 2020, wrote many books during his long and varied life, but only one, The Camp of the Saints, is remembered. Even his admirers and sympathisers admit that the book isn’t a classic in the literary sense. In an article to mark the publication of a recent biography of Raspail, Le Figaro said the novel was guilty of a ‘certain kitschness, clumsiness, awkwardness and a nihilism that seems forced’. More than that, it has been accused of being overtly racist. ‘It has become an object of reflexive condemnation, though many condemning

Madeline Grant

Admit it: most wedding speeches are awful

Perhaps the most traumatic part of attending an American wedding – much worse than the bridesmaids coming in the wrong way, the proliferation of dinner suits and the tendency of couples to write their own appalling vows – is the tradition of the ‘rehearsal dinner’. This, an event the night before the wedding, is where the United States of America gets to play out its full psychotic breakdown in the context of a couple’s nuptials. It seems unfair to expect Home Counties dads to be masters of oratory Anyone, and I mean, anyone, is allowed to stand up and make a speech. Meaning that Uncle Robert E. Lee IV from

Mary Wakefield

The grooming gang inquiry we really need

It’s disorienting but satisfying that Labour now accepts that Asian grooming gangs exist. Some of my left-identified friends are even beginning to share the outrage – over Qari Abdul Rauf, for instance, one of the nastiest of the Rochdale rapists, who still lives in Rochdale a decade after the first steps to deport him were taken. Rauf simply ripped up his Pakistani passport and couldn’t then be shifted. He’s cost the taxpayer nearly £300,000 in legal fees, but still has enough dosh to throw regular house parties and, it was reported this week, to start building a second home back in Pakistan. Pimping out children pays. It’s nice that the

Philip Hensher

Public libraries deserve to shut – they’ve forgotten why they exist

The usual piece about public libraries runs like this. Public libraries are for ‘more than just books’. They are in a desperate plight after years of cuts, or better still ‘Tory cuts’. Librarians, who are heroes, struggle to go on serving their local communities. Libraries are hanging on by a thread, and because of those government cuts can’t be as useful as they once were. The only solution, of course, is more money from central government to local authorities, who, of course, will dash to spend the extra millions on reinstating public libraries and not add it to other things they want to splurge on. It’s tragic, for instance, that

Peter Jones

A Spartan’s guide to body shaming

Now that new drugs have allowed the government’s Fat Controller to celebrate a nation of skinnies – let us hope the drugs are not too temptingly tasty – he will not have to adopt the Spartan custom of checking their naked young men every ten days for signs of excessive thinness or corpulence. In Greek eyes, obesity was particularly associated with luxury. On their tomb paintings, Etruscans tended to depict aristocrats at dinner as very fat and even more contented. Ptolemy Alexander, a Greek king of Egypt, needed two people to support him when he left the room to relieve himself. The vast Dionysius, tyrant of Heraclea (coast of north

Luke McShane

Counter-check

For a chess player, delivering a check to the king always feels like asking a question, as if to say, ‘What are you going to do about that?’ And I was instructed as a child: ‘Don’t answer a question with a question!’ So naturally, I get an impish thrill from those rare occasions where a check is met by a move which simultaneously delivers a check to the opponent. Such a counter-check could even be mate. That circumstance is vanishingly rare in practical play, but composers of chess problems have often toyed with the idea. One shining example is the position in the first diagram, a mate in three composed

Luke McShane

No. 857

White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Barry Barnes, the Observer, 1964. Barnes, who died in January, was a great expert and composer of mate in two problems. Email answers (first move only) to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 7 July. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 f4! The queen cannot safely defend the Ne4, so Black resigned Last week’s winner Reginald Chaplin, Woodford Green, Essex

Lucy Vickery

Spectator Competition: Problematic

For Competition 3406 you were invited to cast a well-known fictional or non-fictional character, living or dead, in the role of agony aunt or uncle and provide a problem of your invention and their solution. There was very little to choose between an excellent crop. Unlucky losers include Bill Greenwell, Ralph Goldswain, Peter Smalley, Frank McDonald, Mark Ambrose, Bill Ries, Frank Upton and Brian Murdoch. The £25 John Lewis vouchers go to those entries printed below. Q: A near neighbour has a white van he insists on parking right outside my house, even though his own parking space usually stands unoccupied. At home most of the time and noticing its

Fieldfare

2710: The clash

In one square in each quarter of the grid, across and down entries clash (leave these squares blank). From these eight letters four unclued lights (mutual anagrams) can be formed, each defined by one other unclued light. Across 6 Endlessly fortunate to go on morning walks (6) 10 No Southern Italian entertains blockheads (11) 11 Irritating, not snidely malicious at first (5) 14 Record recent warning car may carry (1-5) 16 One fanatical about swimmer (4) 17 Miserable and low, new standard (4,4) 22 Strain, not bad at first, coming on well (2,5) 24 Somewhat curious note (3) 26 Length of US railroad (3) 28 Free party night we hear

The Spectator

2707: Get-together – solution

Twelve unclued entries can be paired to make six portmanteau words: CHILLAX (CHILL + RELAX), MOTEL (MOTOR + HOTEL), DRAMEDY (DRAMA + COMEDY), BLOG (WEB + LOG), FRENEMY (FRIEND + ENEMY) and COSPLAY (COSTUME + PLAY). First prize Stephen Rea, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire Runners-up Brenda Widger, Altrincham, Cheshire Michael Moran, Penrith, Cumbria

Steve Morris

How postcards made Britain

Worse for drink, and lonely in his Hollywood apartment, F. Scott Fitzgerald sat down to write a postcard. He began, ‘How are you?’, an important question as he was planning to send the postcard to himself. Although he never sent it, perhaps he understood the magical ability of the postcard to cheer us up. They’ve been doing that since the first ones – plain cards bearing a pre-printed stamp – were introduced into Britain in 1870. It took time for the current format as we know it to develop: picture on one side and, on the other, a space for the address and some words. By the Edwardian period, 800

Toby Young

Ofcom still isn’t sure what a woman is

Earlier this week, GB News again found itself at odds with Ofcom. The channel had written to the broadcast regulator asking if, in light of the Supreme Court judgment affirming that the word ‘sex’ in the Equality Act means biological sex, it could now treat the dispute between trans-rights activists and gender-critical feminists as a ‘settled’ matter. ‘Broadly settled’ was the phrase Ofcom applied to the ‘theory of anthropogenic global warming’ in a guidance note issued in 2013 stating that broadcasters were no longer under an obligation to be impartial when discussing the issue. GB News wanted to know whether the regulator would extend the same latitude to debates about