Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator
Sir Michael Wilshaw may have been in charge of Ofsted since January 2012 — he is arguably the most important educationalist in the land — but in his head he is still very much a head teacher. He’s bossy. He wants to fine parents he doesn’t think are trying hard enough. He has told the Sutton Trust that, when he ran a
[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.
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
Is it too cynical to say that the tributes paid to Charles Kennedy in the House of Commons yesterday were excessive, maudlin, and more than a bit silly? Is it pompous to say that the House of Commons should be a chamber for matters of state, not a safe space for sharing grief? A former
The election is far too tight to call, but one thing is certain: from now until the early hours a lot of people will talk a lot of balls — across all platforms — just to pass the time. The competition to be most fatuous will be most intense among tweeters and talking heads — but who
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
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
‘You’re trending on Twitter,’ said the Spectator books editor Sam Leith, who knows his social media. Am I? How exciting! What have I done? Sam explained: a young black man called Freddie Gray (ie not y) had been killed by cops in Baltimore, and a campaign for justice had begun online. It’s funny when your
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
I’m not one of those purists who shun Twitter. I often find it depressingly vacuous – but hey, I’m a journalist and a tart. So I tweet. From now on, though, I’ll avoid it in the hours following a terrorist attack. Facebook, too. Just look at what is now flooding the Internet, following the attack in
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
Conservatives always say the world is going to the dogs, and we’re usually wrong. But how else do you respond to the news that people are taking selfies outside the hostage situation in Sydney? ‘OMG I’m literally right outside a terrorist attack!’ ‘OMG, that’s terrible. Your boobs look amazing though’ Spare us, Lord. We all
Say this about about Black Friday — the celebration of cheap shopping that we mark today — it isn’t a fraud. It’s not a consumer festival dressed as religious festival, as Christmas is for most of us. It’s a consumer fest dressed as a consumer fest. But it’s still disgusting, an American import we can certainly
Having had years of everybody telling them how clever they are for ‘re-inventing’ monarchy in the 21st century, the royal family has now reached something of a PR impasse. Sebastian Shakespeare today reveals that the Windsors have had to draft in headhunters to find a new chief spinner for Princes William and Harry, amid whispers of disputes between Kensington
We all know the referendum is a big deal, but what can we actually say? None of us has much of an idea how the constitution might change after Thursday’s vote. Yet all of us want to talk knowledgeably about it and sound as if we really care. Here, then, is a primer for the
Demography is destiny, they say, and if that’s the case then Britain’s future looks wrinkled and grey. Today, one in six Brits is over 65. By 2050, on current trends, it will be one in four. There are now three million octogenarians living here, a figure that is expected to double by 2030 and reach
Back to Iraq, then. President Obama’s announcement last night that America would intervene militarily in defence of the Kurds is by any standards a stunning development. The President, whom hawks loathe for being a ditherer and a peacenik, has turned into action man, albeit still rather a cautious action man. Republican Senators John McCain and
He didn’t mean to, but Lord Carey, the outspoken and unpopular former Archbishop of Canterbury, may just have carried out a minor miracle. By coming out in the Daily Mail in favour of assisted suicide, he has succeeded in bringing together Christians of all denominations and political persuasions to oppose him. Trendy evangelicals, Catholics, Anglo-Catholics,
So England are out the World Cup; the Three Lions rolled over – and we can expect plenty more gloomy Anglo introspection about failings over the coming days. But Alex Salmond must be even more gutted than anyone south of the Border. Over at SNP HQ, they would have been cheering England’s boys on like
Never mind Tony Blair and his denials over Iraq. As our government contemplates its response to the latest crisis in Iraq, now may be the moment for a different Prime Minister to admit to another grave error. Will David Cameron concede that he might have been wrong to have intervened in Libya? Until recently, the
