Society

Monday

Sam Leith Sam Leith

The AI industry has been given a taste of its own medicine

Life comes at you fast, eh? Only a few weeks ago I was grumbling in this very slot about the way in which the big AI companies were stealing copyright material in unimaginable quantities and using it to train their models without so much as consulting the owners of the work, still less compensating them. The reaction of the tech bros to people calling them out about it has been a colossal shrug of contempt. Fussing about intellectual property is for the little people, they seemed to say. We can make a lot of money stealing your work, and our machines don’t work at all without stealing your work, so tough. And

Sunday

Annabel Denham

Immigrants won’t fix Britain’s baby crisis

The fertility rate of foreign-born women is almost a third higher than that of UK-born women, according to new analysis. And yet, even the foreign-born rate of 2.03 children per woman (compared with 1.54 for UK-born) remains below the replacement rate of 2.1. It has steadily declined from its peak of 2.46 two decades ago. In other words, we cannot rely on immigration to make our population self-sustaining. For years British policymakers seem to have assumed that high levels of net migration would alleviate our demographic woes. Open our borders, and in would flow young people willing to abandon their own ageing parents in order to care for, and fund, ours. And there would be the added benefit that some would

Saturday

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Liz Kendall’s benefits crusade could make or break Labour’s fortunes

Could Liz Kendall turn out to be the most significant figure of Keir Starmer’s government, and a Chancellor in the making? When I wrote on the Work and Pensions Secretary’s proposed reforms here in November, I was sceptical that Labour really had much intention of pushing through benefits cuts, not least because the party had spent the past 14 years shouting ‘austerity’ every time the Tories so much as proposed to cut a bean from the benefits bill. Starmer himself has accused the previous government of “turning on the poorest in our society” when it proposed to end the temporary £20 weekly bonus added to benefits during Covid. Kendall has gained

Leon Mangasarian

Germany’s crumbling far-right firewall could turbocharge the AfD

Friedrich Merz, chancellor candidate of Germany’s Christian Democrats, stumbled in his bid to end Social Democrat-Greens domination of migration policy. After winning a Bundestag motion to reinstate border controls with votes of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the chamber rejected a law on to clamp down on migration. Merz’s use of the AfD drew the ire of ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, his predecessor as CDU leader. Her stunning public stand against Merz may have convinced 12 members of his own bloc to vote against the law. The bill was defeated on Friday with 350 members voting ‘no’ and 338 in favour. The icy enmity between Merkel and Merz is legendary

Chas Newkey-Burden

In defence of Slough

In the 1930s, Sir John Betjeman wrote a poem calling for bombs to fall on it, in 2001 David Brent poked fun at it in The Office and in 2024, the Telegraph named it the UK’s ‘ugliest town’. Now, it’s been branded as ‘the unhappiest place to live’ on Rightmove. Times change and public attitudes evolve, but everyone seems to keep agreeing that Slough is an absolutely awful place.  The town’s Brutalist architecture, decaying high street, widespread poverty and crime aren’t the stuff of many poets’ dreams and only this week, the Daily Mail said that Slough is ‘plagued with drugs, boarded up shops and even human faeces’. It does sound a bit short of ideal, doesn’t

Charlie Gammell

Iran’s Donald Trump dilemma

To talk or not to talk? This is the slogan that’s doing the rounds among the Islamic Republic of Iran’s politicians, hardliner and reformist. Donald Trump has made it clear he hopes that Iran might abandon their nuclear programme through a deal with Washington. This will, the President said, lessen the need for Israeli bombs to achieve the same end. Yet for all the attention on Trump’s appointees to Pentagon, State Department and White House roles, perhaps when it comes to Iran, we can infer more by looking at those left out in the cold: Mike Pompeo, John Bolton and former Trump 1.0 Iran Envoy, Brian Hook, all of whom

Druin Burch

Doctor Who fans – and its writers – need to grow up

Doctor Who, which started back in 1963, is often spoken about with a curious reverence as though it were something other than trash TV of varying quality. Unhealthy infatuation is not confined to the show’s viewers, as is obvious from the BBC’s recent announcement about the show’s new writers. Pulp television can be joyful, unless it starts believing it’s art “Scripting the best TV show of all time is truly a dream come true,” says Juno Dawson, who has just been announced as one of them. “I started watching when I was ten in Nigeria,” explains Inua Ellams, another new recruit; “The show invited me to dream, to live beyond

Friday

Andrew Tettenborn

The Sara Sharif family court judges should have been named far sooner

There is something of an anti-climax in the naming of the judges involved in the Sara Sharif case. It’s true that Judge Alison Raeside, Judge Peter Nathan and Judge Sally Williams oversaw Family Court hearings involving Sara in the years before she was murdered in 2023 by her father Urfan Sharif and stepmother Beinash Batool. But Family Court judges in England are hardly household names. The vast majority of people will never have heard of Raeside – who decided that Sara should live with her father – or Nathan and Williams. It is a fair inference that, after a few days, their names will be forgotten. A blackout on the identities

David Shipley

Why was this convicted murderer released to kill again?

The details of the terrible murder of Sarah Mayhew are almost too appalling to bear, but one question stands out most of all: why was the convicted murderer who killed her free to take Sarah’s life? Sansom had murdered before, when he was just 19 Sarah, a 38-year-old mother of two, was lured to a flat in south London last March and never seen again. Steve Sansom and his partner, Gemma Watts, killed Sarah in a manner which involved sexual and sadistic conduct. The killers had previously exchanged messages detailing a desire to kill people with a knife or knives while engaged in sexual activity. After’s Sarah’s murder, the couple

Loyd Grossman

Loyd Grossman, Tanya Gold, Harry Halem, Angus Colwell, Philippe Sands and Michael Simmons

45 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Loyd Grossman pleads to save Britain’s cathedrals, as he reads his diary for the week (1:31); Unity Mitford is a classic case of aristocratic anti-Semitism says Tanya Gold (7:47); looking ahead to another Strategic Defence Review, Harry Halem warns that Britain is far from prepared for the era of AI warfare (12:42); ‘the worst echo chamber is your own mind’: Angus Colwell interviews philosopher Agnes Callard (24:24); reviewing Prosecuting the Powerful: War Crimes and the Battle for Justice, by Steve Crawshaw, Philippe Sands argues that while the international criminal justice system was prejudiced from the start the idea was right (31:01); and, Michael Simmons contradicts the

Alexander Larman

Kate Middleton must not become the new Diana

In the inimitable words of The Smiths (or, indeed, Carry On Cleo, where they borrowed it from), stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before. For her first official solo engagement outside London since her cancer treatment, the Princess of Wales was photographed visiting the Ty Hafan children’s hospice in South Wales. She has become a patron of the hospice, and to this end interacted with the no doubt awestruck children with the ease and grace that have become a hallmark of all her public appearances since she married into the royal family. At a time of great difficulty for the Firm – it was revealed recently that

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Japan’s smoking ban is a sham

The Japanese city of Osaka has banned smoking on the streets in an apparent effort to smarten up the city and make it more ‘visitor-friendly’ ahead of this year’s World Expo, which begins in April. Smoking had been prohibited in six zones, including around the central station prior to the announcement. But on Monday, all public streets, buildings, parks and plazas in the city became smoke free. Smoking and vaping in all but the smallest eateries has been banned too, though designated smoking rooms will still be permitted. The fact that the smoking ban is getting significantly more coverage than the Expo itself highlights the difficulties organisers have had in rousing

Thursday

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Migration mystery, Ipso’s trans muddle & are you a ‘trad dad’?

46 min listen

This week: why don’t we know how many people are in Britain? How many people live in the UK? It’s a straightforward question, yet the answer eludes some of the nation’s brightest statistical minds, writes Sam Bidwell for the cover this week. Whenever official figures are tested against real-world data, the population is almost always undercounted. For example, in England alone, nearly 64 million patients are registered with GP practices – higher than the Office for National Statistics (ONS)’s estimated population of 58 million. Sam argues there are serious consequences for our society at large, including for tax, housing and our utilities. Who is to blame for this data deficiency?

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Why are ‘anti-racists’ silent about Arbel Yehud’s terrible ordeal?

Watching Arbel Yehud being freed in Gaza today, I thought to myself: this is what it must have been like at Salem. Here we had a diminutive woman being paraded through a baying mob of hollering men. They barked religious slogans at her. They shoved and jostled to get a better view of the marked woman. They thrust their mobile phones in her face to capture her terror for posterity. They’ll no doubt share the clips. ‘Look! See how scared she was!’ Mercifully, Ms Yehud was being marched, not to the gallows, but to liberty. She was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Hamas-led pogrom of

Leah Pennisi-Glaser

In defence of ‘traditional’ exams

You might think that students will be celebrating the news that universities could be moving away from ‘traditional’ exams in favour of “inclusive assessments,” which include open-book tests and take-home papers. They shouldn’t.  I was one of the unfortunate Covid crop of undergraduates who didn’t sit a single exam during their time at university. Yes, I avoided the last-minute nerves about what was going to be in the exam paper – and I saved time not needing to cram during last-minute revision. But the truth is that avoiding exams devalued my degree, so much so that I didn’t bother going to my graduation ceremony. Avoiding exams devalued my degree, so

Tatyana Kekic

Is Serbia heading for its 1968 moment?

Serbia has been gripped by months of student protests in response to a tragic accident at Novi Sad railway station in November 2024, when the collapse of a concrete canopy roof claimed 15 lives. The protests have come to resemble a sort of May ’68 moment. Not in the sense that they are occurring in the same global context of cultural change, social liberation and anti-war activism. The demands of the protesters today are much narrower. But the students’ inventive tactics, grassroots organising, daily blockades and sit-ins at universities invite such comparisons. The president offered his condolences for the dog Donna, who was run over during a protest What began

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

How to solve a problem like the Chagos Islands

Very soon – as soon as the mutual courtesies now being exchanged between the new American President and his British counterpart are over – our government is likely to be at loggerheads with Donald Trump over our plan to cede the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), the Chagos archipelago, to Mauritius, then take out a long and expensive lease on the island of Diego Garcia so we can secure the operational status of our base there. This accommodates an American base of great importance to US defence. The agreement with the new Mauritian government has yet to be signed. It has been widely criticised here in the United Kingdom as

Tim Hayward

Can you still afford to eat out?

Many of us will remember, misty-eyed, how things changed around the turn of the century. How Britain ceased to be a nation brutalised by rationing and rissoles and instead blossomed into a utopia of celebrity chefs, endless food TV and a population seemingly willing and able to eat out most nights of the week. We no longer regarded ourselves as poor cousins to European nations with ‘cuisines’ – hell, Michelin stars glittered from every orifice. We had the uncalibrated zealotry of converts. In the years following the pandemic, UK hospitality came blinking back into the light, adopted a collective fixed grin and the can-do attitude of small businesspeople, and did

Arabella Byrne

Heaven is a Trad Dad

M y husband earns more than me. A lot more. I am, of course, extremely fortunate to be in such a position and am extremely grateful, especially when a large bill arrives on the doormat. So what, I hear you say. And you’re right – this is hardly a newsflash. According to the Office for National Statistics, the majority of couples in this country operate at a persistent gender pay gap in which the wife earns less than their husband. When we had our first child, the door to economic parity slammed shut behind me and has never opened since In our highly gendered arrangement, my husband – a ‘Trad

The Spectator

Letters: What we lose when we lose our factories

Chains of command Sir: Matthew Lynn is correct to emphasise the economic dangers of deindustrialisation (‘Not made in Britain’, 25 January). But there are cultural dangers too. It’s now 40 years since Correlli Barnett and I made a television programme called Assembled in Britain, drawing attention to the alarming retreat of manufacturing. No recent government has respected, still less encouraged, manufacturing industry. The result is today’s mess. What can you say about a civilisation that cannot produce the goods it needs, other than that civilisation loses integrity and pride? In 1944 Matthew King wrote a small classic called The Unwritten Laws of Engineering, pointing out that manufacturing civilisations were daily able