The Spectator
LightNews LightNews
banner
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The Spectator
@thespectator1828.bsky.social
2.1K followers 2 following 7.6K posts
Politics, culture, cartoons and more.
Posts Replies Media Videos
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Rachel Reeves is killing the jobs market.

✍️ Michael Simmons
Rachel Reeves is killing the jobs market
Job vacancies are largely flat at 723,000 but are down 12 per cent on last year. The biggest slowdowns appear are in retail and construction.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 8:30 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
It isn’t hard to spot the great big hole at the centre of the Chancellor’s argument.

✍️ Ross Clark
Rachel Reeves is dragging Britain into a productivity doom loop
Instead, we are caught in a feedback loop of more state spending, higher taxes and less economic growth, resulting in increasing taxes.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 8:20 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The truth about ‘UK-born’ criminals.

✍️ Daniel Hannan
The truth about 'UK-born' criminals
Most Brits of immigrant heritage are law-abiding. Most British Muslims reacted with uncomplicated disgust to the Manchester Arena bombing.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 8:10 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Trump’s battle against the Democrats is only just beginning.

✍️ Jacob Heilbrunn
Trump's battle against the Democrats is only just beginning
For his part, Trump appears to be living increasingly in the past. He dozed off in the Oval Office three days ago.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 8:00 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
In France, Germany and Italy, the broadcasters built to guarantee impartiality have become vehicles for political conformity.

✍️ James Tidmarsh
The fall of Europe’s public service broadcasters
Europe’s public broadcasters were created to stop propaganda. Born in the wreckage of war to protect democracy from lies, they now preach soft, sanctimonious, state-approved truths. The resignations...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 7:50 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Something has happened to the way we mark Remembrance Day.

✍️ Druin Burch
Are we forgetting how to remember the glorious dead?
The generation that fought in the First World War is gone, and the days are closing for those who served in the Second
www.spectator.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 7:40 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The more exclusive these places become, the more affection the public withdraws. A castle that costs £40 to enter feels less like heritage and more like a theme park.

✍️ Simon Heptinstall
The scourge of the cultural inheritance tax
Britons are being priced out of their own history by heritage organisations such as the National Trust that insist rising entrance fees are necessary.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 7:30 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
You watch from the sidelines as your friend’s father pulls a Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now and disappears into the shrubland with alarming familiarity.

✍️ Zak Asgard
The lost world of paintball parties
They were a rite of passage for the youth of the 2000s, recalls Zak Asgard – whose life was measured by paintball parties from age nine to 12.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 7:15 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
How to make five dinners for £5.

✍️ Bertie Shah
How to make five dinners for £5
Home cooking doesn't need to be more expensive than convenience food – as this warming Indian daal recipe proves.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 11, 2025 at 7:00 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The aim is not simply to manipulate the public’s view of Churchill, but through his denigration to create the intellectual space for their other pernicious ideas to flourish.

✍️ Andrew Roberts
The sinister attempts to tarnish Churchill’s legacy
Winston Churchill is one of Britain’s enduring symbols. His relentless drive, deep conviction and steadfast leadership means that he remains admired by millions around the globe. Yet for years, the...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 6:30 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Reeves hints she will break income tax pledge.

✍️ Steerpike
Reeves hints she will break income tax pledge
There are just sixteen days to go until the Budget – and the pitch is being well and truly rolled. Having conducted her ‘I can’t talk about that’ press conference last week, the Chancellor has...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 4:30 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
On today's Coffee House Shots: The BBC is setting the news agenda via tales of its own incompetence, and the resignations of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness. Will two scalps be enough? @JAHeale @soniasodha
www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/what...
What now for the BBC?
It seems that the BBC is once again setting the news agenda – via tales of its own incompetence. The Corporation has spent days battling accusations that it aired a doctored clip of a speech by…
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 4:00 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The deployment of the aircraft will do nothing to stop the small boats. It may actually encourage the people smugglers.

✍️ Gavin Mortimer www.spectator.co.uk/article/nigh...
Night-time air patrols won't stop small boat crossings
Britain held an enquiry into the disaster earlier, which heard how the migrants had set out to sea in a boat that was ‘wholly unsuitable’.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 3:00 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
New Yorkers who don’t like the sound of Mamdani’s taxes will like London’s even less.

✍️ Matthew Lynn
Will London tempt the New Yorkers fleeing Mamdani?
The new mayor has promised an extra 2 per cent tax on incomes above $1 million (£758,000) as well as higher corporate taxes.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 1:30 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
There has been no ‘coup’ at the BBC.

✍️ Joanna Williams
There has been no ‘coup’ at the BBC
Readers who woke to Radio 4’s Today programme at around 6:30 a.m. can be forgiven for leaping out of bed in alarm.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 1:15 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
This scandal exposes a great truth of our time – that the elites are often more susceptible to fallacy and hysteria than the rest of us.

✍️ Brendan O’Neill
The BBC's fake news blindspot
This scandal exposes a great truth of our time – that the elites are often more susceptible to fallacy and hysteria than the rest of us are
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 1:00 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The BBC has repeatedly blurred moral lines on Israel and antisemitism.

✍️ Jonathan Sacerdoti
The rot at the BBC runs far deeper than Tim Davie
The resignations at the top of the BBC mark a critical juncture for an institution long seen as a pillar of British public life
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 12:00 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
This BBC morning editorial meeting is group think in institutionalised form.

✍️ Anthony Browne
Why the BBC keeps getting it wrong
The double-decapitating explosion over BBC bias is a gift for commentators, but much of the commentary misses a key central point
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 11:30 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
That dark prophecy is alive in al-Sharaa’s Syria.

✍️ Theo Padnos
The jihadist I knew: my life as a prisoner of Syria's president
An al-Qaeda in Syria official I remember lecturing prisoners he was about to execute on charges of apostasy, is now a senior minister
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:30 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Defenders of the BBC regard this as a confected row, a political hit job, and affect outrage that it cost the top man his job. I’m afraid I don’t think it is.

✍️ Sam Leith
I'm a fan of the BBC – but even I'm struggling to defend it
Defenders of the BBC regard this as a confected row, a political hit job, and affect outrage that it cost the top man his job. It's not
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:20 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
If the BBC wants to secure its future and regain trust, it should make Trevor Phillips director-general.

✍️ Stephen Pollard
Is this the man who can save the BBC?
I can think of no more brilliant choice for the BBC top job than Trevor Phillips, who presents by far the best Sunday morning political show
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:10 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
After the parade of go-getting arch-narcissists Aniston has been left high and dry by, it might be refreshing to look into the limpid eyes of some smooth-talking guru who only wants to talk about The Wonder Of You.

✍️ Julie Burchill
Jennifer Aniston and the allure of woo-woo
'Woo-woo' – extreme silliness masquerading as spirituality – is especially attractive to disappointed women of a certain age. Just look at Jennifer Aniston's new 'wellness coach' boyfriend, Jim Curtis.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 8:00 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The final pages of this novel are astonishing and shocking, but also deeply satisfying.

✍️ Jim Lawley
Give Andrew Miller the Booker
The winner of the Booker will be announced on Monday. Of the six shortlisted novels, Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter looks like a good bet.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:30 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
It’s the kind of pub which, at one time, every village, town, urban neighbourhood or estate would have had on their doorstep.

✍️ Mark Solomons
How we saved our local pub from closure
You won’t find it in any of the ‘best pub’ guides that seem to appear every other week, but our local is the best pub simply because it’s, well, our local. And that is why our village has come...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:15 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Learning to read, write and speak a foreign language is not only a ‘skill’. It’s about learning how to think differently and think better.

✍️ Patrick West
Learning French taught me to love English
One of the greatest dangers posed by the government’s curriculum review is that it will result in children abandoning more demanding subjects
www.spectator.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 7:00 AM