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.

How serious is Trump about empire-building? When Donald Trump announced his intention to annex Canada and Greenland, to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and to reassert American sovereignty over the Panama Canal, most of the world reacted with a mixture of amusement and disbelief. Freddy Gray, however, speaks to MAGA insiders, who say that Trump is deadly serious. ‘I keep speaking to Europeans and British embassy people and telling them he really means this stuff,’ says one insider. ‘And they are like, “No, no, it’s just a negotiating tactic”. I just think, are you guys never going to get it?’ Trump’s vision (which Steve Bannon describes to Freddy as ‘the new “Great Game”, bro’) is to make the US a far more assertive sea power – an American version of China’s belt and road initiative. But can Trump pull off his imperial plans?

 

J.D. Vance is the future of MAGA. James Orr, associate professor of philosophy of religion at Cambridge, writes about his ‘improbable friendship’ with J.D. Vance and explains why he believes the Vice-President-elect could prove to be ‘a more politically effective standard bearer for Trumpism than Trump himself’. As the first ‘post-liberal’ in the White House, a future Vance presidency would ‘involve the recovery of an older pre-liberal conception of statecraft, one directed unrepentantly to promoting civic virtue and social solidarity by political means’.

 

Michael Gove: how the government should handle the rape gang scandal. Keir Starmer’s reasons for resisting an inquiry into the rape gang scandal are ‘flimsier than a paper aeroplane in a hurricane’, writes Michael Gove. Starmer argues that we’ve already had an investigation – Alexis Jay’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. But that inquiry scarcely touched on the rape gangs and none of its recommendations begins to address the difficult questions raised by scandal. Unless Starmer investigates these questions rigorously, sensitively and speedily and demonstrates that Labour can provide answers, the public’s anger will not disappear.

 

Joan Collins: escape from LA. In her diary for this week’s magazine, Joan Collins recounts the anxiety of watching the devastation of the Los Angeles fires on the news while keeping a ‘keen eye on the palm trees that surround our high-rise apartment’. Eventually, she and her husband decided to watch a film to take their minds off the tragedy. ‘For some baffling reason I blurted out: “Towering Inferno!” “I doubt that will take our minds off it,” said my husband. Nevertheless, we settled down in bed to watch that excellent disaster film, and the last thing I remembered was Steve McQueen as the fire chief saying: “It’s outta control and it’s coming your way!”’

 

Nigel Farage: how Reform will win. The Conservatives have long regarded Reform as an existential threat – now the panic has extended to Labour. ‘Reform is what keeps me up at night,’ says a member of the government. Nigel Farage speaks to Katy Balls about his plans to win big at the next general election. ‘The key is how do you turn one million-plus supporters on TikTok and tens of millions of views… how do you turn fame with young people into political action and reality?’