All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Britain has lost control of its borders. Over the last four years, the number of asylum-seekers and illegal migrants who have arrived unlawfully in Britain in small boats, after passing through safe countries, has rocketed from just 299 to nearly 40,000. This year, so far, the number of people crossing the Channel each month has surged from
Will they stay or will they go? The southern Ukrainian city of Kherson has become the current focus of the toughest fighting in the war, and what was once seen as Moscow’s potential gateway to Odessa and the rest of the Black Sea coast is now looking like Kyiv’s access towards occupied Crimea. However, it
Instructed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to move money away from London and reassign it to the regions as part of the Levelling Up strategy, Arts Council England has ended up making some very risky decisions. It has thrown funds at small untested groupuscules without a firm audience base and penalising major
More people are dying every week than during Covid’s peak years. Last month there were 1,482 more deaths than average each week – known as excess deaths – compared with just 315 two years ago and 1,322 last year. In the week to 21 October (the most recent week of data) ONS figures reveal there
In May 2000 a French newspaper published an article which declared that ‘The Albanian mafia is corrupting Europe’. Le Parisien reported on an official Interpol document that described a ‘perfectly organised’ criminal network emanating from Albania, with its tentacles spreading west. Drugs, prostitution, gun-running and illegal immigration were the pillars of this syndicate, which had strong links
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, British press and public opinion has been firmly behind Volodymyr Zelensky. But is it healthy to look at any subject so uncritically? If a year or more of fighting will achieve nothing, then why prolong the bloodshed? The How To Academy has just held a debate about this
14 min listen
Today the planned rail strikes have been cancelled at the 11th hour. Is this an indication that a deal may be soon reached to end the months of disruption? Also on the podcast, after it was announced that Arts Council England would cut its funding, it looks like the English National Opera will be forced
29 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to the journalist David Marcus, author of Charade: The Covid Lies That Crushed A Nation, ahead of the midterms.
Checks and balances on Vladimir Putin don’t come from inside Russia. The people around him supported forced mobilisation, pushed his plans to annex eastern Ukraine, and wanted more nuclear posturing. Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi, of China and India, can do a much better job at constraining Putin. They’re the only two leaders of major powers
The winds of change are blowing through the corridors of 4 Matthew Parker Street. Having turfed team Truss out of No. 10, it seems that the Sunak ascendancy has now coincided with a clear out in CCHQ. The past fortnight has seen a number of high-profile departures including chief executive Darren Mott, political director Ross
While some people start the day with a bowl of cereal, North Korea chose to greet Thursday with the launch of a ballistic missile. The missile, believed to have intercontinental capabilities, failed mid-flight, but it was nonetheless significant. North Korea fired it on the second consecutive day of weapons testing held by the country this
Hadar Muchtar is angry because Benjamin Netanyahu has won a sixth term as prime minister of Israel and she hasn’t won anything. Her party didn’t get a seat in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and it’s the fault of brainless old people. ‘I think that the citizens are stupid and we’re going to pay for that’,
Back in February, Olaf Scholz gave one of the most important speeches in his country’s post-Cold War history. In it, the German Chancellor announced that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had produced a zeitenwende, or turning point, and that German policy must adapt. No longer could his nation live on the so-called peace dividend that the West has
The Bishop of Oxford, Steven Croft, has come out in favour of gay marriage – the first senior bishop to do so. He has apologised to gay Christians that the Church has dragged its feet, and that his own views have been slow to change. He is right to call for change. But I don’t
We can be grateful for small mercies. 4 November 2022 will go down as the day when a presenter on the Today programme finally challenged a dodgy statistic trying to blame economic collapse on Brexit. The statistic in question was put forward by former Bank of England governor Mark Carney in an interview with the
The new series of I’m a Celebrity airs on Sunday and the producers have done a decent job of making sure all of Westminster will be watching. Some contestants bring laughter to the jungle; others have star power. Matt Hancock though will be bringing his humility, judgement and expertise in national humiliation when he appears
A friend of mine works in a surgery in London where lots of asylum seekers go for treatment. The caseload is a snapshot of current trends in illegal immigration, and at present that means lots of Albanians. Yep, that’s the migrant influx across the Channel we’ve been hearing so much about, and which the Albanian
Oh dear. It seems that another hard-of-thinking Corbynista has shown themselves up again. Labour has been enjoying the chance to make political capital out of Suella Braverman’s current woes, with the Home Secretary on the ropes amid an avalanche of questions about her judgement and competence. But never doubt the ability of Sir Keir’s barmy
At the end of August I warned in The Spectator that, in Pakistan politics, ‘death by assassination is always a risk.’ And so yesterday’s attempted assassination of Imran Khan – while shocking – should have come as no surprise. Perhaps the bigger surprise was that he survived. As Imran himself stated immediately afterwards, ‘Allah has given me
The Online Safety Bill became a lightning rod for criticism during the Conservative party leadership contest over the summer. A wide array of candidates, from Kemi Badenoch to Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, promised to take another look at how the legislation, and its attempt to crack down on online harms, could interfere with free
Anyone with a mortgage will be in serious trouble. Small businesses will go to the wall. Demand will be hammered. And the cost of government debt will soar. After the Bank of England upped interest rates yesterday to 3 per cent, the highest level in more than a decade, there was one point on which
Another day, another success in the courts for Dutch environmentalists. This week, the country’s highest court, the Council of State, decided that building is no longer exempt from EU environment protection rules. In one of the world’s most densely-populated countries, where new homes are badly needed – and a 900,000 home building spree had just been announced – this spells trouble: within hours, building
Some rare cheer: millennials are divorcing less than their parents. This might be cause for celebration if the long-term prognosis for marriage wasn’t so poor. Last year, divorces spiked by ten per cent: 113,505 couples broke up in 2021, compared to 103,592 divorces in 2020, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. Divorce
11 min listen
Alongside an interest rate hike of 3 per cent, the Bank of England have today warned the economy will ‘be in recession for a long period’. How much of the blame can we place on Truss’s economic policy? What will this recession look like? Also on the podcast, Rishi Sunak plans to remove the ‘legal
Alongside a rather defensive interest rate hike today, the Bank of England unveiled some alarming forecasts for economic growth. The BoE predicts the economy will be in ‘recession for a long period’ – until mid-2024 – with inflation peaking around 11 per cent. While the Bank is predicting that the recession will be shallower than
This afternoon, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz goes to China. His one-day visit to Beijing is the first by a democratic leader since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic nearly three years ago. But before he has even touched down on Chinese soil, Scholz’s trip is going down badly back home. ‘It’s the wrong visit at
Is oil extraction a form of environmental vandalism which threatens life on the planet, or a source of revenue which could propel Scotland and its people to new levels of wealth? It is little use asking Nicola Sturgeon: she appears to believe it is both. Three years ago, when striking schoolchildren and Extinction Rebellion were
After yesterday’s fourth consecutive 0.75 percentage point interest rate rise from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England has finally decided to follow suit. This afternoon the BoE announced a rate hike of 0.75 points too, the first rise of this size in 33 years. This takes UK interest rates from 2.25 per cent up to 3
For some time now, The Spectator has been highlighting the danger posed by the so-called Online Safety Bill which would order social media firms to censor content regarded as ‘legal but harmful’. This was, in effect, a censorship diktat. Rather than have Orwellian figures employed by the government to censor articles, the Online Safety Bill
Tory MPs often like to talk a tough game on China – but is it Labour who are now making the running? While the Conservatives are often at pains to wrap themselves in the flag and bang the drum for King and country, Mr S can’t help but notice in recent weeks how frequently members
The new Prime Minister has said this week that NHS funding will be ‘prioritised’ when it comes to spending decisions, while NHS bosses seek up to £7 billion in extra funding. That is wrong. In 2000, government health expenditure in the UK was equivalent to about 14 per cent of total public spending. By 2009, as the Labour government
Europe is lost in space. Ever since the Soviets orbited Yuri Gagarin and America landed men on the moon, Europe has proclaimed the ambition to compete on the final frontier. More than half a century later, Europe is unable to compete even with India, as in October it became incapable of launching its own payloads
Israel’s longest serving leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, is back. His return confirms once again an iron clad rule of Israeli politics: never write Bibi off. A few years ago, his opponents briefly thought they had vanquished him for good. Netanyahu lost an election in 2021 and two great American supporters, the late media tycoon Sheldon Adelson