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Two dead after German Christmas market attack

latest 20

The Spectator

Lisa Haseldine

Is training troops in Ukraine a risk worth taking?

latest 7

The Spectator

Eliot Wilson

My very own award for journalists

latest 8

The Spectator

Rod Liddle

A church service with the Chaldeans of West Acton

latest 7

The Spectator

Christopher Howse

The Trump effect will benefit Farage – and cost the Tories

latest 6

The Spectator

Patrick O’Flynn

Books / Thomas Kyd wasn’t a patch on Shakespeare

latest 7

The Spectator

Emma Smith

Stuff of legends / The surprising truth about old myths

latest 6

The Spectator

Ed West

Labour’s decision to axe Latin lessons is an act of cultural vandalism

latest 6

The Spectator

Kristina Murkett

Is the Kursk operation still worth the cost?

latest 0

The Spectator

Svitlana Morenets

Plans afoot for Scotland Office cat

Is there room for more than one furry feline in Whitehall? Initially brought into quell the government’s mouse problem, the various departmental...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Steerpike

The end of Christendom is nigh

If you are of a traditional turn of mind, you might well go to church this Christmas, sing the carols you knew in childhood and feel a bit of a...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

A.N. Wilson

Short story / Demonia: a short story

They passed into the harbour of Favignana at the beginning of spring, the island’s single small mountain heaving into view from the Trapani...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Lawrence Osborne

Le Pen’s success this year is a warning to the Tories

Nigel Farage was in fine fettle when he appeared on GB News on Tuesday evening. He boasted of his weekend in Florida, chewing the fat with Elon...

yesterday 9

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Notes on... / What carols owe to Martin Luther

Lisa Haseldine has narrated this article for you to listen to. It’s 500 years since Martin Luther, along with the preacher Paul Speratus, put...

yesterday 9

The Spectator

Lisa Haseldine

Oligarchy dies in the light

Have the plutocrats of the internet age finally realised that all Donald Trump wanted was their love? This week, Jeff Bezos had dinner at...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Freddy Gray

Where do you stand on ‘I was sat’?

Perhaps because more and more BBC radio programmes are being broadcast from Salford, the whole of Britain is getting used to hearing multiple uses...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Ysenda Maxtone Graham

Character building / How my father’s bedtime stories shaped my life

Kate Weinberg has narrated this article for you to listen to. It’s half an hour before lights out when my dad arrives at my bedroom door holding...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

Kate Weinberg

Lord Mandelson slammed as a ‘moron’ by Trump strategist

Uh oh. Less than 24 hours after Peter Mandelson was appointed the next UK ambassador to Washington, Donald Trump’s team are kicking up a fuss....

yesterday 3

The Spectator

Steerpike

Labour’s cronyism row rears its head again

Parliament may be in recess, but Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government still can’t catch a break. The Prime Minister is facing further allegations...

yesterday 2

The Spectator

Steerpike

Sir Keir awards Sue Gray a peerage

Well, well, well. The political peerages list is finally here and the nominations from Sir Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Sir Ed Davey have been...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Steerpike

Labour councillor torches Starmer for by election loss

Another day and another thumping defeat for Keir Starmer. This time, it’s for one of three seats in the previously safe ward of Brockmoor and...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Steerpike

Rachel Reeves has shattered economic confidence

A few journalists have pointed it out. So have some Conservative and Reform MPs, think tanks and one or two of the City banks. Now, it is official:...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Matthew Lynn

Labour has walked into a net zero trap of its own making

The government’s net-zero noose draws tighter. At energy questions in the House of Commons on Tuesday, the Conservative MP Charlie Dewhirst asked...

yesterday 6

The Spectator

Rupert Darwall

Britain is living beyond its means

Today’s figures on the public finances and retail sales will bring some relief to Rachel Reeves; both show a small positive direction. In...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Ross Clark

We shouldn’t have a ‘planning system’

If Keir Starmer does succeed in his aim of stimulating a house-building boom, it may be that landowners will have little to celebrate. The...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Ross Clark

King Charles has a long road to recovery ahead

At the end of what has undoubtedly been a true annus horribilis for the monarchy, King Charles, at least, seems to have recovered something of his...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Bets at Ascot and Haydock tomorrow

Dual-purpose trainer Hughie Morrison usually has one of two jumping stars to supplement his talented flat horses at his Berkshire stables. In...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Penworthy

Should I become Lord Young of Loftus Road?

When the editor of this magazine called to congratulate me on being given a peerage, he said: ‘It’s QPR’s first win this season.’ Not quite...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Toby Young

Why Britain’s benefits problem is likely to get worse

More than half of Britons receive more from the state than they pay in taxes, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. The...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Michael Simmons

Wild life / Retracing the steps of slaves in Benin

Ouidah, Benin On a free afternoon in Benin, I decide to walk the slave route in Ouidah, the port from which perhaps a million Africans were...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Aidan Hartley

Theological gynaecology / Carols are much weirder than we think

Christopher Howse has narrated this article for you to listen to. Why, my sharp-minded colleague Tom Utley once asked after a Telegraph Christmas...

yesterday 1

The Spectator

Christopher Howse

Were Boney M the weirdest pop act of all time?

For a spell in the late 1970s there were two pop groups which dominated the UK singles charts – both, coincidentally, vocal quartets from...

previous day 6

The Spectator

John Sturgis

The many faces of Oxo cubes

It is now not unusual to find ‘bone broth’ in the refrigerated sections of supermarkets or delis, on sale for more than £7. Who can afford this...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Ameer Kotecha

Keeping the faith / A Christian revival is under way

Ayaan Hirsh Ali has narrated this article for you to listen to. This is my second Christmas as a Christian. As an atheist, I had dismissed the...

previous day 20

The Spectator

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Christmas on patrol with the Royal Navy’s submariners

Ali Kefford has narrated this article for you to listen to. This Christmas, a Royal Navy Trident submarine will be quietly prowling the seas as...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Ali Kefford

Biden’s Cuba policy has been a disaster for the Democrats

Ten years ago this week, Barack Obama announced the historic US rapprochement with Cuba. Alongside Obama during years of secret negotiations was...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Daniel Rey

Home schooling is a lifeline for desperate parents

Hard cases make bad laws. There can be no harder case than that of Sara Sharif, whose torture and eventual murder by her father and stepmother...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Cristina Odone

Little people, big dilemmas / Don’t ambush parents with activism

As we sat down at the Royal Opera House to watch one of the Royal Ballet’s soloists perform Letter to Tchaikovsky, an announcement began....

previous day 10

The Spectator

Lara Prendergast

Does Lambeth Council care about women’s safety?

Being a woman walking on the street at night, especially on your own, is still scary. No matter that we live in an age of progressiveness and equal...

previous day 9

The Spectator

Zoe Strimpel

The free world has abandoned Hong Kong

Forty years ago today, British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and China’s Premier Zhao Ziyang signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, an...

previous day 30

The Spectator

Benedict Rogers

Salmond aided police in SNP finance probe

To Scotland, where the focus is back on Operation Branchform. It now transpires that the late former first minister Alex Salmond met and spoke with...

previous day 30

The Spectator

Steerpike

Watch: Starmer says he wouldn’t do top job differently

When it rains for Sir Keir Starmer, it pours. The Prime Minister is now facing ridicule today after making a rather, um, strange pronouncement at...

previous day 1

The Spectator

Steerpike

Fixing Britains sewers will be fantastically expensive

It isn’t going to help with the cost of living, but Ofwat’s decision to allow water companies to raise bills by an average of £157 (36 per cent)...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Gisèle Pelicot has become a feminist hero

Justice was served on Dominique Pelicot today when an Avignon court found him guilty of raping his ex-wife, Gisèle, over a ten year period, and...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Will Musk’s millions really carry Farage to victory?

We should be wary about the danger of hyper-rich donors obtaining undue influence over political parties. There is none more hyper-rich than Elon...

previous day 2

The Spectator

Eliot Wilson

Vladimir Putin’s four-and-a-half-hour troll

Every year, Vladimir Putin gives a marathon town hall event that lasts for hours. Every year, I feel compelled to watch. Every year, I wonder if it...

previous day 2

The Spectator

Mark Galeotti

Starmer backs Labour minister named in corruption probe

The Labour drama just never seems to stop. All eyes are now on Tulip Siddiq after the Daily Mail revealed the Labour minister was named in an...

previous day 4

The Spectator

Steerpike

It’s not surprising the Bank of England didn’t cut interest rates

Interest rates have been held at 4.75 per cent. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 6-3 to maintain the base rate, with the...

previous day 1

The Spectator

Kate Andrews

Starmer won’t get an easier Liaison Committee than this

Close your eyes in today’s Liaison Committee hearing and you might have thought Rishi Sunak was still prime minister. Keir Starmer clearly shares...

previous day 1

The Spectator

James Heale

Mandelson to be named US ambassador

Peter Mandelson is expected to shortly be named the next UK ambassador to Washington. The announcement – broken by the Times – comes ahead of...

previous day 0

The Spectator

James Heale

We all knew Syria was hell

The liberation of Syria’s notorious Sednaya jail close to Damascus a week ago has resulted in a wave of belated outrage in much western media...

previous day 0

The Spectator

Jonathan Spyer

How front-line police were failed in the summer riots

The police establishment has delivered its initial verdict on this summer’s rioting, following the massacre of children at Southport. Andy Cooke,...

previous day 2

The Spectator

Ian Acheson

Author’s notebook / The lure of the spy novel

Anniversaries. Back in mid-December 1998, 26 years ago to the month, we wrapped my first (and probably only) feature film as a director, The Trench....

wednesday 10

The Spectator

William Boyd

Shame on George Carey

There are many grey areas in this safeguarding saga. So it is nice when some black and white emerges. It is surely impossible for anyone to doubt...

wednesday 30

The Spectator

Theo Hobson

Macron has become a liability for the EU

It’s been a year to forget for Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz. The German Chancellor’s coalition collapsed last month and on Monday he lost a...

wednesday 10

The Spectator

Gavin Mortimer

Quick on the draw / The prescient politics of Tintin

Georges Remi, better known as Hergé, the creator of Tintin, was a failed journalist. His first job after leaving school was on a Brussels...

wednesday 6

The Spectator

Michael Farr

‘Judgment is the price of being creative’

Rick Rubin is a legendary American record producer who co-founded Def Jam records, which helped popularise hip hop. He has worked with everyone...

wednesday 2

The Spectator

Rory Sutherland And Rick Rubin

‘Free Gear Keir’ enjoys No. 10’s gift shop

Jetting off on one of his (many) trips abroad last month, Keir Starmer was snapped on his plane sipping from an intriguing choice of mug. The...

wednesday 2

The Spectator

Steerpike

Top Tory tries to woo Elon Musk

The talk in Westminster is how much Elon Musk is going to give to Reform. But might the Tories might be a better bet for the Tesla billionaire? On...

wednesday 2

The Spectator

Steerpike

Kemi Badenoch failed to pin down Starmer at PMQs – again

Kemi Badenoch has become fixated on accusing Keir Starmer of not telling the truth at Prime Minister’s Questions, to the extent that she is...

wednesday 20

The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Rising inflation will make Rachel Reeves’s job harder

It was already unlikely the Bank of England (BoE) was going to cut interest rates this week. Having pledged a slow and steady approach to rate...

wednesday 7

The Spectator

Kate Andrews

Labour’s messy handling of the Waspi women

Labour is right not to pay compensation to the Waspi women – those who feel aggrieved that the state pension age for women was raised from 60 to...

wednesday 6

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Is the Chagos deal dead in the water?

Is the Chagos Islands deal dead? Ever since Keir Starmer and his foreign secretary David Lammy announced plans to hand the remote archipelago to...

wednesday 4

The Spectator

Katy Balls

What Nigel Farage gets wrong about ‘two-tier justice’

Stories of two-tier justice are back. On Monday, Victoria Thomas Bowen, the model who doused Nigel Farage with milkshake on the Clacton campaign...

wednesday 2

The Spectator

Andrew Tettenborn

Why hasn’t Justin Trudeau resigned yet?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been walking on a political tightrope for years. His balance is unsteady. The threads of the rope are...

wednesday 2

The Spectator

Michael Taube

Labour is staring down the barrel of an inflation crisis

With job vacancies falling, and with GDP contracting, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves might have assumed that her final week before Christmas could...

wednesday 3

The Spectator

Matthew Lynn

Labour splits over WASPI compensation

Christmas may be just around the corner, but not everyone is in festive spirits quite yet. The mood has certainly soured among the WASPI women...

wednesday 1

The Spectator

Steerpike

Reform sack Scots organiser over terror links

Nigel Farage’s party has been having a rather good time of it lately, after winning its first five seats in the July election and continuing to...

wednesday 2

The Spectator

Steerpike

Is Kemi Badenoch too nice to be Tory leader?

Kemi Badenoch got tough with Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs. Not tough enough, but at least she led on a decent issue: old folks in distress. She...

wednesday 1

The Spectator

Lloyd Evans

The real reason people don’t like Elon Musk funding Reform

The meeting between Nigel Farage, the property developer Nick Candy and Elon Musk has triggered an all-too-predictable apoplectic fit among media...

wednesday 2

The Spectator

Freddy Gray

The death of anticipation

Were there arguments? Undoubtedly. By the time Christmas Eve arrived, it was a dead cert that Great Aunt Mary would prefer BBC Two’s festive...

17.12.2024 1

The Spectator

Matthew Dennison

Why the Royals are Trump’s ultimate MAGA inspiration

Donald Trump has yet to comment on the Prince Andrew ‘Chinese spy’ story, and online sleuths are already trying to join the vague dots between...

17.12.2024 3

The Spectator

Freddy Gray

War / Keir Starmer has dropped the ball on Ukraine

Has Keir Starmer dropped the ball on Ukraine? Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian former foreign minister, certainly thinks so. Kuleba, who stepped down...

17.12.2024 10

The Spectator

Eliot Wilson

Pour us / How Gen Z ruined Guinness

James Joyce called Guinness ‘the wine of Ireland’. Now it feels a bit more like the Coca-Cola of alcohol – as much brash branding as beer. Once,...

17.12.2024 20

The Spectator

Zoe Strimpel

Berlin / German politics is a mess

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in parliament yesterday. It’s almost certain now that Germans will head to the polls for...

17.12.2024 10

The Spectator

Katja Hoyer

Books / The must-have novelties nobody needed

Many reviewers start work with a peek at the book’s index. Here you find Gladys Goose Lamp, Choo Choo Chain and Dynamite Candles – novelty gifts...

17.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Stephen Bayley

Books / Thomas Kyd may have delighted Elizabethan audiences, but he still wasn’t a patch on Shakespeare

The biggest blockbuster hit of the Elizabethan theatre was not by William Shakespeare or Christopher Marlowe or Ben Jonson. In fact it wasn’t by...

17.12.2024 1

The Spectator

Emma Smith

Humza Yousaf to step down as MSP

Well, well, well. It now transpires that hapless Humza Yousaf will step down as an MSP at the next Holyrood election, with the former first...

17.12.2024 20

The Spectator

Steerpike

What Labour can learn from Giorgia Meloni

What else can you do but laugh? Former human rights supremo Sir Keir Starmer has done a deal to tackle illegal migrants with Giorgia Meloni – who...

17.12.2024 8

The Spectator

Nicholas Farrell

Liz Kendall’s WASPI women U-turn

Another day, another drama. Liz Kendall, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has finally confirmed that the WASPI women will not receive pension...

17.12.2024 6

The Spectator

Steerpike

The hypocrisy of Hollywood’s environmental preaching

You can’t expect anything reasonable when Hollywood gets on its high horse, but really, are our pension contributions truly helping to strip the...

17.12.2024 20

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Keir Starmer has been too soft on China

As the fallout continues from the latest China spy scandal, it is hard not to conclude that Labour’s policy on Beijing – as far as one can be...

17.12.2024 9

The Spectator

Ian Williams

Will higher wages lead to more inflation?

Good news for workers: wages are up. According to the latest data, released by the Office for National Statistics this morning, annual pay...

17.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Kate Andrews

What’s the truth about the New Jersey drone sightings?

What is going on with the drones buzzing over New Jersey in the United States? Reportedly ‘the size of cars’, sometimes flying low in formation,...

17.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Gareth Roberts

Why Ukraine killed Igor Kirillov

Another one down. This morning, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of RKhBZ, Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence Troops, was heading...

17.12.2024 3

The Spectator

Mark Galeotti

Farage’s Musk meeting is uncomfortable for the Tories and Labour

It’s happened. To the likely dismay of both Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch, Nigel Farage has met with Elon Musk to discuss his party’s...

17.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Katy Balls

Culture shock / A world without Jewish artists

It’s Christmas, and the far left have a gift for us in their stocking: a cultural boycott of Jews. They don’t call it that, of course. Rather,...

17.12.2024 4

The Spectator

Tanya Gold

Humza Yousaf’s top five worst Covid WhatsApps

Well, well, well. It has now emerged that the SNP government will ban WhatsApp on official devices in the wake of the Covid Inquiry. The...

17.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Steerpike

Mauritius rejects Sir Keir’s Chagos deal

As if Starmer’s Labour government hasn’t had enough bad news lately, it now transpires that Mauritius has rejected the Sir Keir Starmer’s...

17.12.2024 1

The Spectator

Steerpike

Opera / Meet the king of comic opera

John Savournin has been busy. That comes with the territory for a classical singer – things often get a little hectic as the music world barrels...

17.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Richard Bratby

The Andrew problem: a short story

People offended by name-dropping are absolutely no fun. I’ve experimented with this concept on five continents – OK, four: Antarctica’s social...

17.12.2024 2

The Spectator

Andrew O’Hagan

Books / Celebrating Miss Marple

There’s a big difference between being a fan and being a super-fan. Not all fans would be able to differentiate between the two, but every...

17.12.2024 1

The Spectator

Sophie Hannah

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