The Spectator
Archived since 2 July 2005 Modern Archive
882 issues
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’.
Latest issue
- How the Wellcome Collection lost its way. The permanent exhibition, Medicine Man, is to close, writes Douglas Murray. The reason is that our cultural institutions are now at war with themselves, unable to come to terms with the moral complications of the past. This is no longer a fringe ideology: The Museums Association, which represents more than 1,800 British museums, has issued guidance on how to ‘decolonise’ their collections. Douglas writes: ‘Once you start playing this game, you cannot win. Once you begin to shut yourself down, there is only one logical end point: total self-destruction.’
- Exclusive: how No. 10 vetoed a plan to empower pharmacies to relieve the NHS. Lucy Dunn, a medical doctor, reveals how Sajid Javid wanted to roll out a Scotland-style ‘pharmacy first’-esque programme in England allowing pharmacists to prescribe medicines including antibiotics and antivirals. Like doctors, pharmacists train for five years and have the expertise – but outdated bureaucracy stops then using this, intensifying pressure on A&Es. Javid’s plan was vetoed by No. 10 for being ‘anti-GP’.
- The crackdown on independently minded Lords. The non-affiliate peer, David Willoughby de Broke, refused to participate in the Lords authorities’ taxpayer-funded scheme ‘Valuing Everyone training’, concluding it to be wasteful ‘box-ticking rubbish’. Now he’s banned from using many of the parliamentary facilities, reveals Michael Dobbs in this week’s diary. In order for Lord Willoughby de Broke to go for lunch in the Peers’ Dining Room, he now has to be invited by a fellow lord.
- The great Tory exodus. A dozen Tory MPs have announced that they will not be standing at the next election, with an average age of below 50 (they are around 20 years younger than retiring Labour MPs), James Forsyth writes. The reason, as one MP explained, is that many are ‘just exhausted’. Meanwhile, former ministers are finding it harder to secure second jobs. Matt Hancock, James says, believes his political career is far from over, even if this future is outside Westminster. He’s now trying to become a national treasure, possibly with the hope of being a future Tory candidate for Mayor of London.
- Inside Camp Kanye. The artist currently known as Ye is gearing up for a 2024 presidential run, Freddy Gray writes, with Milo Yiannopoulos and Nick Fuentes, an infamous white nationalist, running the show. Last week, Ye and Fuentes met up with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner, but all was not as it seems. A friend who knows Trump and Ye tells Freddy: ‘Milo sent Fuentes to Mar-a-Lago to screw Trump, and definitely succeeded.’ There are rumours Yiannopoulos is unhappy that Trump has betrayed his own revolution.
- How the Chinese ‘social contract’ has been shattered. When Cindy Yu migrated from Nanjing to Britain she was optimistic about China’s progress: a one-party state with a social contract. ‘The CCP would ensure that people’s lives became materially better; in return, they would have sole and unchallengeable power… It felt like people could achieve anything they wanted,’ she writes. But lockdown has shattered this bargain. She recently saw a video of students in her hometown singing the national anthem: ‘Stand up, those who refuse to be slaves.’ ‘When I was a child, the national anthem made me proud. Now it makes me grieve.’
Subjects: Culture, News, News And Politics
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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’.
- First Issue: 2 July 2005
- Latest Issue: 3 December 2022
- Issue Count: 882
- Published: Weekly
- ISSN: 2059-6499
