The Spectator

The Spectator was established in 1828, and is the oldest continuously published magazine in the English language. The Spectator’s taste for controversy, however, remains undiminished. There is no party line to which The Spectator’s writers are bound - originality of thought and elegance of expression are the sole editorial constraints.

The trial issue contains a “Thought Crime Special” with articles from Melanie Phillips, “I think, therefore I’m guilty”; Christopher Booker writes about “Scientists in hiding; the demonisation of academics who question the consensus”; Alan Rusbridger explores “How to stifle the press” and how England’s libel laws make it easy.

UK politics come under scrutiny from James Forsyth, Brendan O’Neill ponders if teenagers could ever be “Drunk and orderly”; while Tom Hollander writes his diary and James Delingpole says eat local organic food if you like, but don’t kid yourself that it’s ‘green’. 

The Spectator’s regular arts coverage includes books, theatre, opera, cinema and exhibitions.

Douglas Murray: what real justice would look like for grooming gang victims. The demand for a full public inquiry into the ‘grooming gangs’ scandal is a distraction, writes Douglas Murray. There have already been plenty of inquiries. ‘If any government or political party wants to do something about the scandal, they will need to stop reviewing and start acting. Where to begin? One good starting point would be to work out why Pakistani rapists in Britain seem to have more rights than their victims.’ There have been attempts to remove British citizenship from convicted rapists who have dual citizenship with Pakistan, but these have mostly failed. Even the perpetrators who lost their appeals against being stripped of their British citizenship have remained in the UK anyway. Some reports say that to date there are no known cases of any of these offenders being deported from the UK, though others suggest that three may have been. ‘Some MPs and journalists will doubtless now start wittering on about how we can’t deport the perpetrators as long as Britain is a member of the European Convention on Human Rights. This too is pure diversion. Italy and France are signatories to the same unworkable convention, but when they need to act they just do so.’

 

Michael Gove: Labour’s education vandalism. The government’s education bill introduced this week is horrifying, writes Michael Gove. Academies will have their freedoms taken away as they will no longer be able to pay good teachers more or set higher standards. Failing schools will no longer be placed in the hands of the people from academy trusts who can turn them round. New schools will no longer be created by the people from the free school movement with a track record of excellence. A new national curriculum is being developed by exactly the people who opposed the improvements and ambition in the existing curriculum. ‘This government is chillingly precise in seeking to destroy the policies that have contributed to giving English children the best education possible. It is Rome’s approach to Carthage – a salting of the earth.’

 

Can Starmer handle Trump and Musk? As Donald Trump returns to the White House, politicians and voters alike feel emboldened to say the unsayable – in the UK as well as the US. ‘There’s been a vibe shift,’ notes a senior Whitehall figure. ‘It’s time to question the cosy liberal consensus and examine economic nationalism and social taboos,’ says an ally of Kemi Badenoch. At shadow cabinet this week, she unveiled her spring plan – the strategy for the first half of the year. For Starmer’s team, the hope is that Musk is not representative of the administration and cooler heads in Trump’s team (such as his chief of staff Susie Wiles, who met Morgan McSweeney late last year) will have a sobering effect. ‘Well, politics looks set to be fully insane again,’ concludes a former minister.

 

Is the Taliban working with America to fight Isis? Isis are regaining some of their previous strength in Syria and Iraq. But it seems the United States may have found a new ally in the battle against Isis: the Taliban. Paul Wood writes that his sources say that the Taliban is giving western intelligence agencies what they learn from phones and laptops seized in raids on Isis-K compounds. ‘The two people I spoke to who are in regular contact with the Taliban said that an attack on the Paris Olympics had been stopped with intelligence obtained in this way.’ Although the story has not been confirmed, such a secret arrangement would suit both the Americans and the Taliban.

 

Cressida Bonas: my IVF miracle. ‘I’m now well into my second pregnancy,’ reveals Cressida Bonas in this week’s diary. ‘Having conceived through IVF the first time, we were fortunate to have another embryo stored away in a freezer. It is incredible that a tiny cluster of frozen cells, already a life, can survive, suspended in time for years. The science behind the process continues to amaze me. This second pregnancy is very different from the first... the experience is less all-consuming the second time around. I don’t lie in bed every night trying to detect a heartbeat. And I don’t stress over the pepperoni I had on my pizza last night. My two-year old ensures I don’t have the time for any of these things.’