Features
Racing is being regulated out of existence
As a parable that sums up the dysfunction of the modern state and the over-regulation of industry, this has it…
Is it ever acceptable to ask to swim in a friend’s pool?
I’ve always loved English swimming pools. I can’t help it – I am a pool-fancier. The lumpy feel of the…
We’re losing the ability to read
A recent American study, called ‘They Don’t Read Very Well’, analyses the reading comprehension abilities of English literature students at…
Is the Pope a Marxist?
Charleston, South Carolina H.L. Mencken, long a hero of mine, wrote: ‘Democracy is the theory that the common people know…
The lost art of getting lost
One of the quietly profound pleasures of travel is renting cars in ‘unusual’ locations. I’ve done it in Azerbaijan, Colombia,…
The BBC’s war on the SAS
The SAS is under fire, not from terrorists or insurgents, but from ill-informed commentators and our state broadcaster. Our Special…
Typos are an unintentional delight
Afriend of mine was once delighted to get a job at the Radio Times, where he ‘corrected’ a golfing picture…
Butlin’s is cashing in on nostalgia
Butlin’s is no longer a holiday ‘camp’. The company has evolved from its postwar heyday and now describes its properties…
Inside the Conservative clubs that are turning Reform
My first job was working behind the bar of the Richmond Conservative Club in North Yorkshire. The place was as…
A short history of The Spectator
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The short history of short histories
My friend Ruby recently started a TikTok channel called ‘Too Long Didn’t Read’. With boundless enthusiasm and a colourful wardrobe,…
Can anything solve Britain’s prisons crisis?
While we were inspecting HMP Elmley on the Isle of Sheppey, a commotion broke out on one of the wings.…
Starmer vs the workers: the real Brexit betrayal
Keir Starmer looked blank. The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, seemed confused. Only the old Stalinist Seumas Milne seemed really to…
Labour must learn to love Brexit
The problem with Keir Starmer’s approach to Brexit is that it fundamentally misunderstands the country. It isn’t that the Leave-voting…
The brutality of being a bridesmaid
There stands the bride. Perfect hair, perfect nails, perfect fake tan. She may not have slept the previous night or…
Are the ‘lanyard class’ the new enemy?
Globalisation, liberalism, neoliberalism, managerialism, internationalism, multiculturalism, human resources, wokeness, identity politics, progressivism, EDI, DEI, corporatism, proceduralism, elitism, environmentalism, transnationalism: there…
‘No peens in our pond’: the ‘Pond Terfs’ manning Kenwood ladies’ pond
For a century, Kenwood ladies’ pond on Hampstead Heath in north London had been a haven for women – gay,…
Abolishing the care worker visa is a mistake
For years I worked as an NHS manager, seeing first-hand the consequences of Britain’s broken social care system spill over…
Death comes to the Chelsea Flower Show
It’s a matter of life and death at the Chelsea Flower Show this year. No murders are planned as far…
The rich are fleeing – what next?
Keir Starmer is worried about who’s coming into the country. This week, he launched a white paper with the aim…
Leo XIV’s papacy is off to a surprisingly promising start
Rome In the days before the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV, traditionalist Catholics were so worried about interference from…
Your state pension is a socialist bribe
Every four weeks the government sends me my state pension. Those words have a socialist, almost Soviet, ring. The amount…
Shabana Mahmood: ‘There’s still a moment of reckoning to come’ on grooming gangs
Shabana Mahmood may be the only Labour politician to have persuaded Rishi Sunak to vote for her. The former prime…
Should gentlemen wear pearls?
There are few phrases more terrifying than ‘men’s fashion’. It reminds me of yuppies in salmon-coloured jorts on their way…
Hunting for the mother of three abandoned babies
Elsa had been alive less than an hour and her umbilical cord was still attached when she was wrapped in…
