The Week
Portrait of the week: a government defeat, the harassment of Anna Soubry and Trump’s wall crisis
Home The government drifted towards a vote by the Commons, which it had cancelled in December, on its withdrawal agreement…
If anyone knows May’s secret plan, it’s Philip
As a hack who lived and breathed the financial crisis, you might think that at the start of 2008 and…
Those tempted to turn over a new leaf this year should remember Aesop’s fables
At this time of year the media urge us all to turn over a new leaf and believe that we…
Letters: Europe is changing – so do we really need to leave?
The changing EU Sir: If, as Frederik Erixon writes, ‘there is a strange pre-revolutionary atmosphere in Brussels’ and ‘power will be…
A dozen migrants in Kent is not a crisis. But government panic could turn it into one
It has been a messy start to the new year for Sajid Javid. For months now, migrants using small boats…
Portrait of the week: A migrant ‘crisis’, Gatwick drone awards and Donald Trump to withdraw troops from Syria
Home The number of would-be migrants known to have reached England in small boats from France in the last two…
The telltale signs your child is texting about Jeeves and Wooster
You’ll be relieved to learn my penguin is back. ‘How long was it gone?’ you ask. About six months. ‘And…
A model president
From The Spectator, 4 January 1919: President Wilson arrived in London on Thursday week, and was greeted with full expression…
How the year began
Why are our years structured as they are? Censorinus in his de die natali (‘Birthday Book’) for his chum Caerellius…
How Spanish was the Spanish flu?
Paths of infection 2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the height of the Spanish flu pandemic which is believed to…
Letters: Is this a solution to the post-Brexit world?
Lords reform Sir: How astonishing that the historian Robert Tombs (‘Beyond Brexit’, 15 December) should think that the Lords might…
Britain is on the cusp of a great political and economic renewal. Will the Tories blow it?
Last Christmas, The Spectator set up an appeal — not for money to be given to charity, but for our…
Portrait of the year: from the collapse of Carillion to the sacking of John Kelly
January Four young men were stabbed to death in London as the New Year began. The Crown Prosecution Service was…
Are we really going to abandon Brexit because of a Mars bar shortage?
The nice French doctor looked beadily at the screen. There were the results of my tests, in irrefutable detail. They…
The many political crises that have interrupted Christmas
Crisis at Christmas MPs were warned that they might have to give up part of their holidays to deal with…
What would Jesus’s childhood have been like?
Around 1 ad a 14-year-old Jewish Arab girl called Maryam, almost certainly in Nazareth in Galilee, gave birth to a…
From the archive: the Spectator’s original verdicts on literary classics
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, reviewed 18 December 1847 An attempt to give novelty and interest to fiction, by resorting…
Letters: perhaps Brussels sprouts are ripe for a name change?
Life in the borderlands Sir: The Irish border question has grabbed political headlines this year, but spare a thought for…
If May goes, the Tories have just one chance to replace her
On Tuesday, MPs will face something rare: a Commons motion which really does deserve to be described as momentous. It…
Portrait of the week: Theresa May’s double defeat on Brexit
Home Political hobbyists speculated on the future of Brexit if the government fell, if a new Conservative leader was chosen,…
Joan Collins: My own transgender moment
I recently returned from several months in Los Angeles working on one of the most popular US TV shows. American…
Could the vote on the Brexit deal set a record for a government defeat in the Commons?
Big defeats Could the vote on the Brexit deal set a record for a government defeat in the Commons? Aside…
Letters: The consequences of a Corbyn government could be catastrophic
Sleeping on the streets Sir: Mark Palmer claims that ‘homelessness is hardly a top government priority’ (‘Home truths’, 1 December). I…
Theresa May's deal is not Canada Plus - it's Remain Minus. Why pretend otherwise?
While some may doubt Donald Trump’s claim to be a friend of Britain’s, his intervention in the Brexit debate this…
Portrait of the week: the Brexit world, the non-Brexit world and Mars
Brexit Theresa May, the Prime Minister, seemed to succeed in uniting the country in opposition to the withdrawal agreement to…
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