All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
I remember that, as a small child, I was told not to talk when my father took me inside the public library in Richmond. Now I find that the British Library has rendered me speechless. With the apparent approval of the chief librarian, Liz Jolly, a review of statues and artworks in the library is
Gavin Williamson rather generously did the sketch writers’ jobs for them this afternoon when he failed to hand his homework in on time for his first day of term. The Education Secretary gave a statement in the Commons on schools reopening – and ended up being scolded by opposition MPs for sending a very late
There was plastic aplenty at today’s Extinction Rebellion rally in Parliament Square. Plastic shoes, plastic badges, plastic sunglasses, plastic phone covers. A woman offered me a sticker peeled from a strip. ‘Are they plastic?’ ‘I don’t know,’ she shrugged. ‘Someone gave them to me.’ XR is starting a week of demos and civil disobedience. I arrived just as
Is Boris Johnson’s government jumping from one crisis to the next or is No. 10’s agenda progressing roughly as planned? It depends who you ask. After a difficult few weeks, there are plenty of Tory MPs who believe it’s the former. Many of whom don’t even feel the need to keep their grievances anonymous. Charles Walker MP recently
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Simon Case has been appointed the new cabinet secretary, tasked with leading the UK through its coronavirus recovery and reforming the civil service. Is he up to the job? Gus Carter speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about the country’s most powerful official.
Labour is gearing up for its first big Commons clash since returning from recess this afternoon, with shadow education secretary Kate Green taking on Gavin Williamson after his statement on the opening of schools and colleges. On the surface, the party has had its easiest summer in a long while, with no real factional battles
Something rather odd is happening in the two Europeans nations worst hit by Covid-19. The UK and Italy have a rising number of cases but a stable and very low number of deaths, even weeks after the cases started rising again. At the time of writing, the UK records 1750 new cases daily and one
44 min listen
Joe Biden yesterday issued his strongest condemnation of the riots and looting that are raging across American cities. ‘None of this is protesting’, he said. Regardless, Bridget Phetasy, a Spectator US contributor and host of Dumpster Fire on YouTube, says she won’t vote in November’s election because America will continue to burn under either candidate.
As schools return to full in-person teaching, a survey reveals just how far behind pupils are in their education. The National Foundation for Education Research polled 3,000 head teachers and other senior staff across 2,200 schools to ask how their pupils’ education has been affected. The replies reveal not just how far behind children have
Since becoming Labour leader, Keir Starmer has tried to establish in as many voter’s minds as possible the idea that his party has changed irrevocably from the Corbyn era. This has mostly taken the form of responding to what the government does by trying to label it as blundering, contrasted against Starmer who is alternatively
Twenty years ago this month Britain briefly endured a different sort of lockdown, as fuel protesters picketed oil refineries and petrol stations ran dry. Supermarket shelves emptied due to panic-buying and some motorists who had failed to fill their tanks found themselves stranded. For the only time during Tony Blair’s premiership the Conservatives very briefly
It’s parliament’s first day back, and the government will be hoping to restore an aura of competence, after recent U-turns from exams to face masks – but they have not had a strong start. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace was spotted shaking hands with a colleague this morning, while on his way to a socially distanced cabinet
Usually I can’t wait for the start of a new term at university. But not this year. When students return, the rules are clear: no fun, no sex, lots of screen time – and the same high fees. A number of universities – including Cambridge – have said all lectures will be online-only until next
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Seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse has been charged with five felonies after allegedly shooting three people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last Tuesday. Freddy Gray speaks to Shelby Talcott, a media reporter from the Daily Caller who saw the immediate aftermath of the incident, about what happened and how it might impact November’s election.
Writing in the Observer this week about the use of dark money in right-wing thinktanks and the explosion of domestic and foreign propaganda on the web, I said there was an obvious need to protect British democracy. The Electoral Commission should be given police powers. Political parties should have the same duty as banks to
A few weeks ago, I spoke on The Spectator’s podcast about my A-Level results. My story in short: I lost my dream place at UCL to study medicine (my conditional offer was: A*AA) after being downgraded by the algorithm to AABB. As the daughter of a single mother, in a low income household, I’m not
The promotion of Simon Case to the head of the civil service – aged 41 – will create an interesting new power dynamic in Boris Johnson’s top team. Dominic Cummings, Downing Street’s resident grenade-thrower, is now working with someone more adept at defusing bombs. Case, a Barbour-wearing career civil servant, was poached from Kensington Palace, where
The great liberal economist Adam Smith was one of the first people to sound the alarm about the damage that occurs when vested interests get too big for their boots. ‘People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public,’ he warned.
According to Jo Grady of the University and College Union, universities risk becoming the ‘care homes of the second wave’ unless students defy the government’s attempt to get them back in face-to-face education. She went on to claim that a return to campus ‘risks doing untold damage to people’s health and exacerbating the worst public
As one battles on, a reluctant volunteer in the culture war which the left is fighting on every front with enviable efficiency, it is frustrating that the millions who hate what is happening are not being properly led. On the whole, government responses are reactive rather than proactive, and late at that. Boris Johnson said
Lord Hall, the outgoing director general of the BBC, used his valedictory interview on Radio 4’s Media Show this week to ruminate on the question of what funding mechanism should replace the licence fee. But to my mind, this was like listening to a man whose house is perched precariously on the lip of a crumbling cliff talking
The recent U-turn on masks in schools will likely undermine teaching, not only in schools but also further afield. It will embolden growing calls for university teaching to go fully online when the academic year restarts next month. Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, is consistently urging the government and university
I would have more sympathy for Suzanne Moore if the road upon which she is gleefully mown down by the juggernauts of the woke left were not one which she eagerly participated in constructing: putting out the cones, levelling the tarmac etc. Almost all she writes about these days is her terrible struggles against ‘progressives’
Staying in Britain for the summer has been, in many ways, entirely glorious. We have zigzagged from Shropshire through Derbyshire to the Northumberland coast, from Fife and Perthshire to Herefordshire and Devon. On the way, beautiful little towns and sweeping coastlines, not empty but not crammed either; excellent local food and plenty to keep us
That thing that isn’t happening has happened again. Cancel culture has seemingly claimed its latest victim in Sasha White, a literary agent reportedly fired by her employer after trans activists complained about her retweeting a social media post that said ‘being vulnerable to male violence does not make you women’. Her biography on a previously
There is a satirical flowchart that sums up Scottish nationalism better than a thousand articles. It begins with the question: ‘Did Scotland do good?’ The chart branches off to the left for ‘Yes’ and the right for ‘No’. Answer ‘Yes’ and you are led to the outcome ‘proof that Scotland doesn’t need the UK’. Answer
It is very rare (although not unprecedented) for law breakers to attempt to be law makers. But Extinction Rebellion is trying to do both, simultaneously. This weekend they are planning to illegally blockade airports and Parliament, reportedly launch cyber-attacks, while pushing a new law to be laid before Parliament when it reopens this week by
28 min listen
The Republican National Convention came to an end on Thursday with President Trump’s White House lawn speech. Has the three-day event shown a route to victory for the incumbent in November’s election? Freddy Gray, editor of the Spectator’s US edition, speaks to Charles Lipson, Spectator US contributor and professor emeritus of political science at the
How would an independent Scotland have fared during the pandemic? We found out this week on the annual release of Gers, which adds up all Scottish spending and taxes and states the size of the gap. This year it’s estimated at about 27 per cent of GDP, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which would
18 min listen
After the Grenfell Tower fire, new fire safety legislation was introduced in an attempt to ensure the tragic incident was never repeated. But the new rules have left some tower block tenants unable to sell their properties, and they could be forced to pay tens of thousands to replace dangerous classing. Why? Fraser Nelson speaks
As billions wait with bated breath for the outcome of clinical trials on the new Covid-19 vaccines, many studies on other diseases have been halted. There are several reasons for this, not least the drop in revenue charities are receiving which is then used to fund studies. Additionally, coronavirus continues to dominate the medical landscape