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We need to talk about Islam

latest 30

The Spectator

Jonathan Sacerdoti

No, Lady Macbeth isn't a trans man

latest 6

The Spectator

Nicola Burkinshaw

America is better off without Clare Melford

latest 6

The Spectator

Ross Clark

Children need nursery food

latest 5

The Spectator

Arabella Byrne

It’ll be anything but a happy new year in Putin’s Russia

latest 5

The Spectator

Alexander Kolyandr

How the first Palestinian leader became a Nazi war criminal

latest 20

The Spectator

Yardena Schwartz

Friedrich Merz risks losing touch with the German people

latest 4

The Spectator

Henry Donovan

Dominic Cummings's warning to broken Britain on migrant crime

latest 10

The Spectator

Lisa Haseldine

Grim outlook / It’ll be anything but a happy new year in Putin’s Russia

latest 5

The Spectator

Alexander Kolyandr

Bard life / No, Lady Macbeth isn't a trans man

latest 4

The Spectator

Nicola Burkinshaw

Making money / Spotify wouldn't exist without the musicians it exploits

latest 4

The Spectator

Sam Leith

The extraordinary courage of Germany’s wartime ‘traitors’

latest 4

The Spectator

Ian Buruma

‘Boris didn’t care!’: Dominic Cummings on lawfare, lockdowns & the broken British state | part one

latest 4

The Spectator

Quite Right!

The battle for Antarctic krill is about to get uglier

The battle for Antarctic krill is about to get uglier

Krill – the small, shrimp-like crustacean – is a keystone species. It underpins the marine ecosystem of the Southern Ocean, where it is estimated...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Klaus Dodds

Keir Starmer will regret gushing over Alaa Abd el-Fattah

Keir Starmer will regret gushing over Alaa Abd el-Fattah

‘Top priority.’ Those two words in Keir Starmer’s tweet about Alaa Abd el-Fattah stung the hardest. What an affront to the country. On Boxing...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Brendan O’Neill

Nigel Farage is right to go after civil servants who let in sex offenders

Nigel Farage is right to go after civil servants who let in sex offenders

British civil servants have almost never faced real consequences for their failures. If Reform come to power, that might change. Nigel Farage’s...

yesterday 8

The Spectator

David Shipley

Are we failing to learn the lesson from Ancient Rome's riches-to-rags tale?

Are we failing to learn the lesson from Ancient Rome's riches-to-rags tale?

Today’s tech billionaires, property tycoons and hedge-fund titans have nothing on the ancient Romans. Julius Caesar, who plundered Gaul for both...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Ross King

Lords above / Step forward the undeserving: it’s honours season again

Lords above / Step forward the undeserving: it’s honours season again

Once Christmas Day’s out of the way and we’re stuck in that no man’s land between one year and the next – known, tweely, as ‘Twixmas’ or, if you’re...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

G.v. Chappell

Cricket / England's Ashes Test triumph is long overdue

Cricket / England's Ashes Test triumph is long overdue

England have just won the fourth Test match against Australia by four wickets. In a bizarre, low-scoring game at Melbourne that was completed...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Jim Lawley

The overlooked brilliance of Wonder Boys

The overlooked brilliance of Wonder Boys

Deep in the backwaters of BBC iPlayer there lurks an American film with an all-star cast that time forgot. In its day I think it was all but...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Alec Marsh

Christmas and the luxury of fallow time

Christmas and the luxury of fallow time

Christmas is now a festival of family and overeating, yet it keeps its pockets of quiet reflection, even for those for whom the sacred has slipped...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Druin Burch

Why is divorce so seldom addressed in art?

Why is divorce so seldom addressed in art?

Two years ago I was flown to Reykjavik to interview the Icelandic performance artist Ragnar Kjartansson. It was a weird old trip, booked in at 48...

yesterday 10

The Spectator

Digby Warde-Aldam

How terrorism changed Christmas

How terrorism changed Christmas

Christmas is traditionally a time of joy, merriment and peace on Earth. Not so in the little town of Erbach, Germany, this year, where depraved...

yesterday 40

The Spectator

Clarissa Hard

The Ukraine war pessimists were proven right this year

The Ukraine war pessimists were proven right this year

As the Russian-Ukrainian full-scale war nears its fourth anniversary, Vladimir Putin looks confident, even cocky. It is not that he has achieved...

yesterday 30

The Spectator

Sergey Radchenko

History / How the first Palestinian leader became a Nazi war criminal

History / How the first Palestinian leader became a Nazi war criminal

If the founding leader of the Palestinian national movement had been wanted for Nazi war crimes, you might assume this would figure in every modern...

yesterday 20

The Spectator

Yardena Schwartz

'We must not be the Tory party 2.0': Nigel Farage on his plans for power

'We must not be the Tory party 2.0': Nigel Farage on his plans for power

Nigel Farage is signing football shirts when I arrive at Reform’s campaign headquarters in Millbank Tower, the building where New Labour prepared...

previous day 30

The Spectator

Tim Shipman

Why pubs shouldn't ban Labour MPs

Why pubs shouldn't ban Labour MPs

In Britain’s public houses, a rebellion is brewing. Landlords, hit hard by the Labour government’s fiscal measures – higher employer National...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Rory Hanrahan

How Badenoch bounced back

How Badenoch bounced back

One of the origin stories about Kemi Badenoch’s career as politician is that, while waiting to be interviewed as candidate for Saffron Walden, she...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Robin Ashenden

Fishing fight / The battle for Antarctic krill is about to get uglier

Fishing fight / The battle for Antarctic krill is about to get uglier

Krill – the small, shrimp-like crustacean – is a keystone species. It underpins the marine ecosystem of the Southern Ocean, where it is estimated...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Klaus Dodds

England's Ashes Test triumph is long overdue

England's Ashes Test triumph is long overdue

England have just won the fourth Test match against Australia by four wickets. In a bizarre, low-scoring game at Melbourne that was completed...

previous day 10

The Spectator

Jim Lawley

Silent night / Christmas and the luxury of fallow time

Silent night / Christmas and the luxury of fallow time

Christmas is now a festival of family and overeating, yet it keeps its pockets of quiet reflection, even for those for whom the sacred has slipped...

previous day 40

The Spectator

Druin Burch

Bollards / How terrorism changed Christmas

Bollards / How terrorism changed Christmas

Christmas is traditionally a time of joy, merriment and peace on Earth. Not so in the little town of Erbach, Germany, this year, where depraved...

previous day 20

The Spectator

Clarissa Hard

Step forward the undeserving: it’s honours season again

Step forward the undeserving: it’s honours season again

Once Christmas Day’s out of the way and we’re stuck in that no man’s land between one year and the next – known, tweely, as ‘Twixmas’ or, if you’re...

previous day 30

The Spectator

G.v. Chappell

Britain doesn't need to become great again – it already is

Britain doesn't need to become great again – it already is

After three-and-a-half years as Poland’s ambassador in London, I’ve come home with two strong impressions. The first: the United Kingdom remains...

previous day 30

The Spectator

Piotr Wilczek

Why is Alaa Abd el-Fattah's return a 'top priority' for Keir Starmer?

Why is Alaa Abd el-Fattah's return a 'top priority' for Keir Starmer?

Apparently it has been a “top priority” for Keir Starmer and his government, since the moment they came to office, to return Alaa Abd el-Fattah to...

previous day 7

The Spectator

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Did Band Aid make a difference?

Did Band Aid make a difference?

Is this the year that ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ – the charity song written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure in 1984 to provide relief for the...

friday 5

The Spectator

Joshua Young

Bets for Kempton, Aintree and Wetherby today

Bets for Kempton, Aintree and Wetherby today

The Gloucestershire yard of Ben Pauling has gone from strength to strength in recent seasons and today could see it reach a new high when the...

friday 3

The Spectator

Penworthy

Britain’s lack of trains on Boxing Day is shameful

Britain’s lack of trains on Boxing Day is shameful

Among all the perfidies of public transport in Britain (a nation that can build a £40 billion railway based on the premise that the outskirts of...

friday 10

The Spectator

Rob Crossan

Save our Boxing Day football

Save our Boxing Day football

Football’s race to destroy the sport’s finest traditions has surpassed itself, yet again. For the annual Boxing Day feast of top-flight football –...

friday 10

The Spectator

Mark Solomons

Music / Iron Maiden at 50: how heavy metal became mainstream

Music / Iron Maiden at 50: how heavy metal became mainstream

The death of the Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne this July, and the huge reaction it provoked worldwide, represented something of a landmark to...

friday 4

The Spectator

Patrick West

Santa Pants: a cocktail recipe by Matthew and Camila McConaughey

Santa Pants: a cocktail recipe by Matthew and Camila McConaughey

Our Santa Pants cocktail is one of our go-to holiday pours when hosting at this time of year. Made with our organic tequila and ginger beer,...

friday 10

The Spectator

Matthew And Camila Mcconaughey

Christmas dinner is hell for vegans

Christmas dinner is hell for vegans

It’s one of the last bastions of national orthodoxy, one that people look forward to for months, but many vegans dread Christmas dinner. It’s not...

25.12.2025 10

The Spectator

Chas Newkey-Burden

Christmas in a care home

Christmas in a care home

Christmas Day in a care home is often thought to be the saddest shift of the year: a place where staff trudge in reluctantly through the dark and...

25.12.2025 2

The Spectator

David Woodgett

Holy spirits / What makes a ghost Catholic or Protestant?

Melanie McDonagh has narrated this article for you to listen to. W.H. Auden, in his essay on detective fiction, ‘The Guilty Vicarage’, asked:...

25.12.2025 2

The Spectator

Melanie Mcdonagh

The King’s speech hit the wrong note

When the King delivered this year’s traditional Christmas Day speech – the fourth he has now given – he chose to break with convention by...

25.12.2025 2

The Spectator

Alexander Larman

Trivia / The Spectator's 2025 Christmas quiz

In 2025: 1. Name the singer of ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It for You’ whose concert in Perth, Australia, was cancelled because a fatberg had blocked a...

25.12.2025 2

The Spectator

Christopher Howse

Seasonal jeer / The joy of a miserable literary Christmas

A Christmas Carol is pretty well unavoidable around now, with Little Women trailing somewhat behind. There’s no shortage of alternative literary...

25.12.2025 5

The Spectator

Philip Hensher

Iron Maiden at 50: how heavy metal became mainstream

Iron Maiden at 50: how heavy metal became mainstream

The death of the Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne this July, and the huge reaction it provoked worldwide, represented something of a landmark to...

25.12.2025 4

The Spectator

Patrick West

The revolutionary meaning of Christmas

The revolutionary meaning of Christmas

As stale as it is flawed, the Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee’s view of Christmas nonetheless encapsulates secularist scepticism in revealing...

25.12.2025 3

The Spectator

Rupert Shortt

Washing up is an artform

Rupert Hawksley has narrated this article for you to listen to. Right, who’s doing the washing up? It’s 6 p.m. on Christmas Day and the table,...

25.12.2025 2

The Spectator

Rupert Hawksley