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Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray

The Spectator

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Diversity trap / Do many women want to be train drivers?

Hold your wine glass steady: the BBC has news for you. This week it splashed the news that train drivers in the UK are ‘overwhelmingly middle-aged...

03.05.2024 40

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Seeking solitude / Following Napoleon: my exile in St Helena

St Helena Douglas Murray has narrated this article for you to listen to. In an attempt to escape from the world, I have come with friends to St...

25.04.2024 20

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

School’s out / The triumph of Katharine Birbalsingh

There are two questions that need to be asked of any society: what is it that is going wrong; and what is it that’s going right that should be done...

18.04.2024 30

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

School of thought / The game’s up for ‘anti-racist’ racism

There are only a few rules to column-writing. One of the strictest is never to waste time bouncing off the effluent of morons. So, for instance, it is...

04.04.2024 4

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

In defence of forgiveness

It is often the small constants in the culture that give the game away. Much of the news today is not about anything significant, but rather a sort of...

28.03.2024 10

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Cop out / The police have given up on actual crime

What do you do if you can’t solve crime? For the police in this country – as in many other western countries – the answer is obvious. You police...

21.03.2024 20

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

The new vandals / Who put the toddlers in charge?

Regrettably, we must conclude that our culture is being dictated by two-year-olds. I do not literally mean children of two years of age, some of whom...

14.03.2024 40

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Conflict / The war in the Middle East has barely begun

The few enquiring minds still left occasionally ask me what the most underreported stories of the current Israel-Hamas conflict are. I tend to reply...

07.03.2024 20

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Blight on politics / The sinister tactics of Hope Not Hate

Of all the blights on our politics, there are few more tedious than the left-wing campaign group that masquerades behind some poorly constructed...

29.02.2024 20

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Left in the cold / I’ll soon be the only commoner I know

It is starting to dawn on me that I will soon be the only commoner I know. I am racking my brains trying to think of anyone I have even met in recent...

15.02.2024 10

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Coward’s charter / I’m embarrassed by modern Britain

I’m not sure I recognise this country any more. Characteristics that I grew up with have been eroded to the point of disappearance. What were those...

08.02.2024 10

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Poison pact / The Tory party has nothing to run on

These days I think often of Doctor Faustus. Not because I am contemplating selling my soul to Mephistopheles, but rather because I take a moderate...

01.02.2024 30

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

The Donald / The Trump circus is back in town

Well that’s that. It now looks certain that Donald J. Trump is going to be the Republican nominee for president this year. At the time of writing,...

25.01.2024 7

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Not far enough / The long-overdue banning of Hizb ut-Tahrir

Well, better late than never, I suppose. This week the Home Secretary James Cleverly announced that the government has finally decided to ban the...

18.01.2024 30

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Money talks / Why aren’t the super-rich braver?

A lot of people dream of having what is known as ‘screw you’ money. In my observation, this is not simply in order to be able to live in a castle...

13.01.2024 10

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Plodding along / Why I’m considering a life of crime

Some people may have noticed the happy new guidance released between Christmas and New Year by the National Police Chief’s Council. This guidance to...

04.01.2024 8

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Green and pleasant / In search of deep England

I am wary of mentioning General de Gaulle in these pages, if for no other reason than remembering Auberon Waugh many years ago arguing against a...

14.12.2023 20

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

What’s the point? / The UN vs Israel

There’s an old joke about the United Nations having a football team. ‘But who would they play?’ it goes. ‘Why, Israel of course.’ There may...

07.12.2023 10

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Demonstration of ignorance / When it comes to Palestine, the kids aren’t all right

Does anyone remember ‘Free Tibet’? Way back when, in the olden days of about the 1990s, if you knew nothing much about the world or politics but...

23.11.2023 7

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Fashionable causes / Why don’t celebrities care about the Israeli hostages?

My mind keeps going back almost ten years, to Nigeria in 2014. As some readers will remember, on the night of 14 April, 276 mainly Christian...

16.11.2023 5

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Damage control / Are you a creative or a destructive?

There is a stage direction in The Glass Menagerie in which Tennessee Williams describes a tune that will recur through the play. Like a piece of...

12.11.2023 6

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Matter of conscience / It’s time to cut our ties with Qatar

A friend of mine was recently doing business with the Qataris. Nothing strange there: a lot of people have in recent years. But of course Qatar is one...

02.11.2023 90

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Police palaver / Does the Met know what jihad means?

Ever since the atrocities in Israel more than two weeks ago, I have had one main thought. Yes, Israel has its problems. But we also have ours....

26.10.2023 4

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Supporting terror / Why do we allow protests that glorify slaughter?

There are times when you wonder how history happened. And other times when you realise how it did. The past two weeks have been one such time. The...

19.10.2023 6

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

What Shakespeare can teach us about cancel culture

The following is an edited excerpt from Douglas Murray’s lecture at the Sheldonian Theatre earlier tonight, in honour of Sir Roger Scruton. It...

16.10.2023 3

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

‘You are not alone’: A message to the Jewish people

I’m not Jewish myself, but most of my best friends are Jews. The reason I mention this is that, all my adult life, I’ve been surrounded by, or...

13.10.2023 3

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Britain must stand up against those who support Hamas

It was 7 a.m. when the ‘peace rave’ outside of Re’im was reaching its peak. Outside the kibbutz, five miles from the Gaza border, the...

12.10.2023 20

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Clean slate / At least Britain isn’t that corrupt

Long-time readers may recall that I take a special interest in the art of corruption. And this week America has thrown up a delicious example....

28.09.2023 20

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

Hands tied / Politicians can’t win on illegal migration

It is eight years now since The Spectator sent me to Lampedusa to see the boats coming in. That was at the start of the 2015 migrant crisis. The...

21.09.2023 30

The Spectator

Douglas Murray

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