The Spectator

Barometer: Squatters’ rights

A judge has described squatting as ‘good for society’ and called for lists of empty homes to be made available to an agency for squatters, while the Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, is attempting to ­strengthen the law against squatting. How do laws on the subject vary across Europe? Britain Breaking and entering is a criminal

Portrait of the Week – 10 September 2011

Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a speech in the City: ‘We have all had to revise down our short-term expectations over recent weeks.’ Industrial production for the United Kingdom fell by 0.2 per cent in July. House prices, according to the Halifax, fell by 1.2 per cent from July to

Leading article: A failure of planning

David Cameron has been struggling to get across what he means by his Big Society project, but he has nonetheless succeeded spectacularly in motivating previously apathetic and distant neighbours to get together and give up their time for a common purpose. Unfortunately for the Prime Minister, that purpose is to stop his planning policy. True,

The week that was | 9 September 2011

Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the last week. Freddy Gray says the riots were informed by a “hip hop culture” and reports on Wednesday night’s Republican debate.  Fraser Nelson asks “Who were the rioters?” and says Osborne should drop the 50p tax rate. James Forsyth reports on the breakdown of

Who cares about abortion?

Thanks to Nadine Dorries’ amendment to the Health and Social Care bill, abortion rights have been discussed a great deal this week – both inside and outside of Parliament. In her cover article for this week’s Spectator (out today), Mary Wakefield says that this debate has revealed a “strange and unpleasant consensus… that abortion is