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.

Latest issue

1. Corbyn’s Monday Club
Katy Balls reveals the secret Monday meetings of a very unlikely alliance. Jeremy Corbyn, Jo Swinson, Ian Blackford (SNP), Caroline Lucas and Liz Saville Roberts from Plaid Cymru have taken to meeting on a regular basis to plot. They’ve taken control of politics and Brexit, but come a snap election they’ll be at loggerheads.

2. Johnson’s strategy could still pay off
Boris Johnson wanted an October election because it offered him a way out of the Brexit impasse, says James Forsyth. By denying him that, his opponents have won a major battle – but they have now identified themselves as the ones who prevented Brexit. Is this too high a price?

3. George Osborne: the job I really wanted
On the eve of the publication of David Cameron’s memoir, his friend George Osborne leaks one of the book’s ‘revelations’: when William Hague was foreign secretary I offered him a job swap, says Osborne in his Spectator diary. If he’d said yes, we could have had a Hague government after the referendum two years later. Plus, why the Tory party expulsions can’t stand, and a dangerous game of tug of war with Boris.

4. The rise of ‘study drugs’
Our fearless correspondent, Madeleine Kearns, discovers just how easy it is to get hold of Adderall (an amphetamine) in America — and just how very many college kids now rely on it.

5. The real Handmaid’s Tale
I just wish, says Allison Pearson, that Margaret Atwood would tell her fans that she is not writing (primarily) about Trump’s America but about what it’s like for women in Islamic countries right now.