Freddy Gray

Freddy Gray

Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator

The strange world of Evgeny Lebedev

Evgeny Lebedev’s famous friends are eager to tell you what a darling he is. Piers Morgan says that he is ‘one of the most charming, well-connected, exotically attired and fascinating figures in English society right now’. Stephen Fry says that ‘for a man of his power, status and wealth, he is endlessly teaseable and humorous’.

The life of Brian Sewell, 1931-2015

The art critic Brian Sewell has died aged 84. In 2011, Freddy Gray interviewed the waspish critic, and spoke to him about his duty to be frank about his personal life – even if it shocked other octogenarians.  ‘It must be so awfully boring being a fish,’ says Brian Sewell, as he looks out the window

Where Ukip went wrong

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/angelamerkel-sburden/media.mp3″ title=”Freddy Gray, Sebastian Payne and Owen Bennett discuss where Ukip went wrong” startat=685] Listen [/audioplayer]What’s happened to poor Ukip? Not so long ago, they seemed unstoppable. They were revolting on the right, terrifying the left and shaking up Westminster. The established parties tried sneering at them, smearing them, even copying them. Nothing worked.

We don’t have a rape culture, we have a victim culture

It takes courage to tell a bunch of Canadian feminists marching against ‘rape culture’ that they are talking rubbish. And courage is something Lauren Southern, a reporter for The Rebel, has in spades. She had the guts to go to a ‘SlutWalk’ in Vancouver holding a sign that said: ‘There is no rape culture in the

Ten handy phrases for bluffing your way through election night

The hours between polls closing on election day and the result emerging represent an almighty challenge for journalists and know-alls everywhere. Demand for punditry is huge, yet there is little to say, and nobody knows what is going to happen. Tomorrow evening, The Spectator will launch our own ‘Pundyfilla Award for Inane Political Commentary’ – but until then, here are a few

Who is the bigger pillock: Alan Partridge or Steve Coogan?

Those of us who spent our teens quoting Alan Partridge owe a lot to Steve Coogan. He made my adolescence funnier, at any rate. Yet I know several people who imitated Partridge so much they got lost in character: it became difficult to know when they were being themselves. Funnily enough, the same applies to

Is Nigel Farage becoming Ron Paul?

I think I have seen Nigel Farage’s future, and it is not pretty. A copy of Farage’s The Purple Revolution reached my desk today. The cover instantly reminded me of a cover manifesto for Ron Paul, the once inspiring libertarian radical who has turned into something of a crank. On Farage’s book, the word LOVE has been mirrored

How the NHS silenced a whistleblowing doctor

Almost two years ago, a cancer surgeon named Joseph Meirion Thomas decided that he could no longer keep quiet about what he regarded as a major abuse of the NHS. The Francis inquiry into the scandal at Stafford Hospital had just published its report, reminding doctors of their ‘duty of candour’. Thomas interpreted that to