2718: Caged – solution
Each of the unclued lights contained the name of a bird (i.e. which was CAGED). First prize G. MacLennan, Lancaster Runners-up Alan Pink, Crowhurst, East Sussex; Elaine Galloway, London SE6
Society
Thursday
The rise of performative reading
‘To be or not to be’ may be the question but when it comes to eliciting answers, I’ve always preferred Mr Darcy’s epic conversation starter: ‘What think you of books?’ Two hundred years on, it has become harder than ever to find out what anyone actually thinks of books – and not just because our attention spans have been so corroded by dopamine addiction. There are more books published today than ever. TikTok creates relentless literary sensations, and the day after the murder of Charlie Kirk, AI-produced histories were available on Amazon giving ‘the full story’. If social media is to be believed, everyone is reading so much it’s impossible
The failure of Britain’s elite universities
Politicians, authors, priests and the occasional Spectator editor have all served as the Oxford Union’s president over its 200-year history. Few among them would know what to make of George Abaraonye. The debating society’s president-elect faces disciplinary proceedings for celebrating the killing of Charlie Kirk. Upon hearing of the conservative activist’s assassination – some four months after the pair had debated in person – Abaraonye posted ‘Charlie Kirk got shot loool’ on social media, along with other excited expletives in a WhatsApp group chat. He deleted the remarks but defended making them. Something is rotten in the state of Oxford when its chief debater celebrates the murder of a free
Is the countryside racist?
Crossing the floor Danny Kruger defected from the Tories to Reform, the first sitting MP to do so. Which parties have gained, and lost, the most MPs from defections since 1979? Direct defections, ignoring MPs who have resigned the whip to sit as independents: Lost Gained Conservative 16 1 Labour 32 7 SDP 3 26 SNP 3 0 Liberal Democrat 0 3 Alba 0 2 Change UK 0 8 Ukip 0 2 Referendum party 0 1 Labour have lost the most, thanks to the defections to the SDP in the 1980s. Since 1987, the Tories have suffered the most. Land fill How much of Britain’s agricultural land is used for
My new show with Andrew Lloyd Webber
The week of my cricket team’s annual tour of Cornwall. I formed Heartaches CC in 1973 and 765 games later it is still going strong. Not that I am a key component of the side these days, if I ever was, despite my seven wickets against Mullion in 1991. When I suffered my fourth injury in three of the past four seasons (and one of them occurred when I was minding my own business umpiring) I saw the writing on the scoreboard. I just hope I’m not injured as a spectator this year. For some reason 2025 has been an extraordinarily hectic year, musicals wise. Annoyingly hectic in fact. I
Don’t rule out a Mandelson comeback
Daniel Kruger is a good and thoughtful man, whom I used to employ as a leader writer before he left for the higher calling of improving prisons. His choices in life have always been influenced by his sense of Christian purpose. That is what will have driven him to defect from the Tories to Reform. The trouble is that this sort of pilgrimage can lead to political misjudgments. There was a time, for instance, when Danny supported the leadership bid of Suella Braverman – a woman of blazing sincerity but not a good political navigator. Commentators are saying that Danny’s defection will make career-minded Tory MPs think they have a
‘Like a cockroach, I refuse to die’: a meeting with the Tate brothers
‘I detest lateness,’ texts Tristan Tate, who’s offered to pick me up from a hotel in Bucharest. ‘So I’ll either be 15 minutes early or right on time.’ Minutes later, he messages again: ‘All my talk on being late and cops pull me over haha.’ Tristan and his older brother Andrew seem to have a knack for getting into trouble. They’ve been accused of all sorts: rape, actual bodily harm, sex trafficking, controlling prostitution for gain, organised crime, money-laundering, witness-tampering. To the BBC and bourgeois parents everywhere, they are infamous: the vilest beasts of the manosphere, monetisers of misogyny and leading purveyors of far-right hate. Are the Tates really that
Never date a German man
Call me unpatriotic but, although I’m German, nothing could ever have persuaded me to date a German man. I married an Englishman, finding Teutonic attitudes towards romance unbearable. Dating can go on for years, often ending in a quiet, dry dissolution after a decade. If you’re lucky, the relationship will limp on towards marriage, driven more by the need to save on taxes than any belief in what many Germans consider an antiquated institution. Two hundred years ago, we had the tragic intensity of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, a cornerstone of the Romantic movement. It was so wildly popular that it sparked one of the first waves of
Cicero’s tips for the Labour party
Labour may be in a bit of a mess, but Cicero (d. 43 bc) has some top tips. ‘Let conscience and scrupulous regard for the right take precedence over the obligations of friendship.’ ‘The person who corrupts his audience by words commits a graver crime than the man who does so by bribery. For even a virtuous man could be corrupted by words, but not by a bribe.’ ‘People who argue that advantage is one thing and right another are uprooting nature’s fundamental principles. Obviously, we all aim at our own advantage: we find that irresistibly attractive. No one can possibly work against his own interests – indeed no one
Who marches against Tommy Robinson?
Isn’t it time we banned such marches as the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally, given the thuggery and lawlessness which ensued? A hate-fest organised by the fascist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Hitler. No fewer than 528 arrests, 50 of which were for possession of a weapon and 21 for crimes of a sexual nature. It would seem that this demonstration was undertaken by heavily tooled-up Nazi pervs. It is shocking that we should allow it on our streets. Oops, forgive me. I’ve got my facts wrong. I had all the arrest figures written down on a piece of paper. Then, when coming to write this article, I picked
Portrait of the week: Charlie Kirk killed, Peter Mandelson sacked and Harry takes tea with the King
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, asked Lord Mandelson to step back as ambassador to Washington. This followed the publication of alarming emails of support Lord Mandelson had sent to Jeffrey Epstein after the financier’s conviction for sexual crimes. Questions remained about what Sir Keir knew and when before Lord Mandelson’s sacking and appointment. Some Labour MPs expressed frustration with the Prime Minister’s leadership. His director of political strategy, Paul Ovenden, resigned over a lewd joke about Diane Abbott he had relayed eight years ago. Some claimed Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester who has set up a soft-left group called Mainstream, was going to try to become
Weimar Britain: lessons from history in radical times
The Ancient Greeks believed the past was in front of us and the future behind. Man could look history in the face and learn from it, while the future was unknowable, hidden, the wind whistling at our back. It is in history, its patterns, and what it reveals about human nature, that we have the best guide to our times and how they might develop. The government may wish us to focus on innovation this week – new nuclear reactors, AI data centres, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Nvidia’s Jensen Huang at the state banquet – but if we really want to understand the convulsions gripping our society it is to
The Oxford Union’s lynch-mob mentality
The case of George Abaraonye, the incoming Oxford Union president who rejoiced in the assassination of Charlie Kirk, has provoked fierce debate about free speech at Oxford. Abaraonye considered the murder of the 31-year-old father of two, whom he had met at an Oxford Union debate, to be a cause for celebration. On a WhatsApp group he posted several messages cheering the assassination and on Instagram he crowed: ‘Charlie Kirk got shot loool.’ Now messages from student group chats linked to the Oxford Union reveal that those who objected to Abaraonye’s conduct have themselves been subjected to threats and intimidation designed to silence them. I’ve seen messages from two group
Wednesday
Will we face the truth about Britain’s bogus mental health crisis?
Is it really the case that a majority of Gen Z have experienced mental health problems? Researchers from University College London certainly seem to think so. A YouGov survey they commissioned finds that almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of people aged 16 to 25 have either experienced or are currently experiencing mental health difficulties. Women seem to suffer most: 72 per cent said they had mental health difficulties compared to 56 per cent of young men. Rates are highest among 20 to 21-year-olds: 40 per cent of this age group are currently experiencing difficulties, while 31 per cent have had problems in the past. Women seem to suffer most: 72
Britain is becoming a nation of hermits
The malign effects of the Covid lockdowns continue to reveal themselves. The latest confirmation of the baleful legacy of that policy is a new survey which suggests that we are turning into a nation of hermits. According to a fresh study, reported by the Daily Telegraph, many people in Britain are still imposing lockdowns on themselves, four years after the last government-decreed lockdown. The survey of 2,000 British adults discloses that two thirds of Gen Z – and more than half of millennials – said that there are times when they do not go outside for days. This isn’t something that only afflicts the youth. Across all generations, the study
Tuesday
What Hollywood owes Robert Redford
Robert Redford was more than a film star, though he knew that was how he would be remembered. He didn’t like fame all that much, especially when he attracted a creepy stalker: ‘Some strange, dark character was sending me gifts. They kept coming and coming. The guy was obsessed with me and Joan Baez. They had a Swat team and infrared binoculars, and they threw us out of the house. They caught the guy, and he was insane. They put him away and he died in prison.’ Though Redford acquired a reputation as a Hollywood activist, he was careful to distance himself from some of his flakier peers: ‘The way
We won’t see the likes of Robert Redford again
In the end, the Sundance Kid died in his sleep. The death of the actor, director and Sundance Film Festival founder Robert Redford at the age of 89 removes one of the last great American icons of cinema from the world stage. Redford was prematurely youthful, even towards the end of his life, never quite losing that shock of blonde hair that first made him stand out as a star of the Sixties and Seventies. However, he was never a dumb blonde, being one of the most politically savvy actors of his generation, as well as an astute businessman who managed to avoid falling foul of the changing shifts in
Barring Israeli soldiers from the Royal College of Defence Studies is a mistake
The government has announced that owing to the war in Gaza, students from the Israeli Defence Forces will no longer be welcome at the UK’s Royal College of Defence Studies in London. Those who are critical of Israel will welcome this display as robust signalling. I would argue that even they, and all those who desire long-term resolution of the region’s more intractable problems, should think long before supporting it. It is more likely that the most serious damage will be done to us. The RCDS is one the UK’s soft power jewels. I attended as a student in 2008 (one remains a member for life) and had it under
Monday
Why I like Pope Leo
The Pope has given his first interview, with the news agency, Crux, and the nice thing about it is there are no surprises. Pope revolted at obscene wealth and the growing gap between rich and poor? Jesus Christ wasn’t keen on the rich either. Or, as Leo put it when he was asked about growing polarisation in society: ‘One [factor] which I think is very significant is the continuously wider gap between the income levels of the working class and the money that the wealthiest receive… Yesterday, the news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world. What does that mean and what’s that about?
James Heale, Robert Hardman, Francis Pike, Henrietta Harding & Mary Wakefield
32 min listen
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: James Heale reports on the battle for the north; Robert Hardman provides his royal notebook; who’s really in charge of China, asks Francis Pike; Henrietta Harding goes on Ozempic safari; and, Mary Wakefield explains how to raise a patriot. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.