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.

The Ukraine war, a year on – is an end in sight? ‘Every war ever fought has had three phases: the opening attack, the struggle for advantage and the endgame,’ writes Owen Matthews in this week’s cover piece. Ukraine and Russia are still in the struggle for advantage, with a spring offensive due soon. If Vladimir Putin advances and then asks for peace, Nato could split. Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, has to ensure he minimises any loss of land in the future peace negotiations – or risks losing power.

 

What the West gets wrong about the Donbas. About a decade ago, about a quarter of those in eastern Ukraine wanted to join Russia. But how about now, asks Svitlana Morenets. The horror of the 2014 Donbas war saw a plunge in Russian-speakers in Ukraine who looked to Moscow for leadership. Most Crimeans are now Russian citizens, so it is a special case: if Ukraine wins, Crimea could be self-governing. But the Donbas has been egged on, abandoned and now flattened by Russia. That’s why the outcome of the war is simple: the invader must be repelled – without a compensatory slice of Ukraine.

 

Nigel Biggar: ‘I have had to meet junior research fellows in Oxford in secret because they didn’t want to be seen with me.’ The theologian and ethicist Nigel Biggar speaks to Matthew Parris about the legacy of the British Empire, historical revisionism and the threat to academic freedom.

 

Meet the real anti-growth coalition. If growth improves our lives, why are some people turning against it? The answer is that increasing numbers of the ecological movement see growth as inherently damaging to the planet. It’s a middle-class obsession, writes Ross Clark, and one that often forgets the importance of economic development to the very poorest.

 

Anthony Horowitz: my clash with ‘sensitivity readers’. In this week’s Diary, author Anthony Horowitz reveals that, for the first time, one of his books has been subjected to a sensitivity reader. He was asked to replace the word ‘scalpel’ with ‘surgical instrument’ because the character using the scalpel was Native American and the ‘quite sensitive sensitivity reader’ was worried about associations with scalping. Writers, says Horowitz, are ‘facing death by a thousand cuts’.