The Spectator
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The Prime Minister did not have a good session, and had Badenoch continued to be strong throughout her six questions, then his delicately worded statements about Donald Trump might have started to disintegrate as well.
✍️ Isabel Hardman
spectator.com/article/nige...
✍️ Isabel Hardman
spectator.com/article/nige...
Nigel Farage was the winner of PMQs – and he wasn't even there
The one man who does gain from this kind of politics wasn’t even in the Chamber: Nigel Farage chose to listen to PMQs on the radio instead
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 3:15 PM
The Prime Minister did not have a good session, and had Badenoch continued to be strong throughout her six questions, then his delicately worded statements about Donald Trump might have started to disintegrate as well.
✍️ Isabel Hardman
spectator.com/article/nige...
✍️ Isabel Hardman
spectator.com/article/nige...
Stonewall has been on the wrong side of history since it moved away from defending lesbian and gay rights.
✍️ Joanna Williams
spectator.com/article/the-...
✍️ Joanna Williams
spectator.com/article/the-...
The collapse of Stonewall can't come soon enough
For far too long, Stonewall seemingly had free rein to control debate, shape policy, and determine practice on transgender issues.
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Stonewall has been on the wrong side of history since it moved away from defending lesbian and gay rights.
✍️ Joanna Williams
spectator.com/article/the-...
✍️ Joanna Williams
spectator.com/article/the-...
Inevitably, crime was the predominant focus of Cunningham’s initial remarks at Reform’s press conference this morning. She promised that there was ‘A new sheriff in town.’ ‘I will be launching an all out war on crime,’ she vowed.
✍️ James Heale
✍️ James Heale
January 7, 2026 at 1:30 PM
Inevitably, crime was the predominant focus of Cunningham’s initial remarks at Reform’s press conference this morning. She promised that there was ‘A new sheriff in town.’ ‘I will be launching an all out war on crime,’ she vowed.
✍️ James Heale
✍️ James Heale
Older drivers who cannot see properly might stay on the roads in denial – or they might actively lie about their capacity to drive. But in either case, until they have an accident or are stopped by the police, they remain a big danger.
✍️ James Snell
spectator.com/article/a-cr...
✍️ James Snell
spectator.com/article/a-cr...
A crackdown on dangerous elderly drivers is overdue
Drivers over the age of 70 will soon need to have their eyes checked every three years in order to keep their licence
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 1:15 PM
Older drivers who cannot see properly might stay on the roads in denial – or they might actively lie about their capacity to drive. But in either case, until they have an accident or are stopped by the police, they remain a big danger.
✍️ James Snell
spectator.com/article/a-cr...
✍️ James Snell
spectator.com/article/a-cr...
Cunningham lambasted Sadiq Khan’s record, suggesting the three-time mayor was presiding over a Wild West where ‘knife crime is out of control.’
✍️ James Heale
spectator.com/article/can-...
✍️ James Heale
spectator.com/article/can-...
Can Laila Cunningham win London for Reform?
Ex-Tory councillor Laila Cunningham has been unveiled as the Reform party candidate for the 2028 London mayoralty race
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Cunningham lambasted Sadiq Khan’s record, suggesting the three-time mayor was presiding over a Wild West where ‘knife crime is out of control.’
✍️ James Heale
spectator.com/article/can-...
✍️ James Heale
spectator.com/article/can-...
The reduction in Scotland made no difference. Data predicted it would, but that data was poor quality, observational, vulnerable to confounding.
✍️ Druin Burch
spectator.com/article/labo...
✍️ Druin Burch
spectator.com/article/labo...
Labour's new drink-driving law won't cut road deaths
A government wishing to tread lightly could stop policing the marginal habits of adults and start fixing the systems failing them so badly.
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 12:00 PM
The reduction in Scotland made no difference. Data predicted it would, but that data was poor quality, observational, vulnerable to confounding.
✍️ Druin Burch
spectator.com/article/labo...
✍️ Druin Burch
spectator.com/article/labo...
Denmark claims that other states have historically either recognised, or made no objections to, its sovereignty over Greenland. Case closed, says Copenhagen.
✍️ Páll Vilhjálmsson
spectator.com/article/does...
✍️ Páll Vilhjálmsson
spectator.com/article/does...
Does Greenland really belong to Denmark?
Trump's approach is bullying and aggressive, but Denmark's argument for why Greenland belongs to it is rather shaky
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 11:30 AM
Denmark claims that other states have historically either recognised, or made no objections to, its sovereignty over Greenland. Case closed, says Copenhagen.
✍️ Páll Vilhjálmsson
spectator.com/article/does...
✍️ Páll Vilhjálmsson
spectator.com/article/does...
Motorists still pay more in fuel duty than is spent maintaining and building new roads.
✍️ Ross Clark
spectator.com/article/ther...
✍️ Ross Clark
spectator.com/article/ther...
There's a better way for Farage to win the motorist vote
Investment in the country's road network has come to a halt. No stretch of new motorway has been opened since 2018.
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Motorists still pay more in fuel duty than is spent maintaining and building new roads.
✍️ Ross Clark
spectator.com/article/ther...
✍️ Ross Clark
spectator.com/article/ther...
This is a fairly blunt warning of civil war. No one expected the Lebanese government of president Joseph Aoun and prime minister Nawaf Salam to take any action that might cause the Hezbollah leader and his patrons in Iran to act on the threat.
✍️ Jonathan Spyer spectator.com/article/isra...
✍️ Jonathan Spyer spectator.com/article/isra...
Israel won't hold back on Hezbollah for long
According to a figure issued by the IDF and published widely in Israeli media, Hezbollah committed 1,920 violations of the ceasefire in 2025.
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 10:00 AM
This is a fairly blunt warning of civil war. No one expected the Lebanese government of president Joseph Aoun and prime minister Nawaf Salam to take any action that might cause the Hezbollah leader and his patrons in Iran to act on the threat.
✍️ Jonathan Spyer spectator.com/article/isra...
✍️ Jonathan Spyer spectator.com/article/isra...
Perhaps we are ‘closer than ever’ to a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia. But until someone can explain how these challenges are to be surmounted rather than wished away, the last yards of this journey are almost impossible to complete.
✍️ Eliot Wilson spectator.com/article/brit...
✍️ Eliot Wilson spectator.com/article/brit...
Britain will struggle to put 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine
The British army is the smallest it has been since the 1790s and is still shrinking. Where will we find 'boots on the ground' for Ukraine?
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 9:30 AM
Perhaps we are ‘closer than ever’ to a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia. But until someone can explain how these challenges are to be surmounted rather than wished away, the last yards of this journey are almost impossible to complete.
✍️ Eliot Wilson spectator.com/article/brit...
✍️ Eliot Wilson spectator.com/article/brit...
This week on Quite right! Michael and Maddie dissect Donald Trump’s audacious raid on Venezuela and ask what it reveals about power, national interest and the unravelling of the rules-based order. www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3bV...
Venezuela vs Chagos: what Britain can learn from America’s ‘audacity’ | Quite right!
This week: Michael and Maddie dissect Donald Trump’s audacious raid on Venezuela and ask what it reveals about power, national interest and the unravelling of the rules-based order. Was America…
www.youtube.com
January 7, 2026 at 9:00 AM
This week on Quite right! Michael and Maddie dissect Donald Trump’s audacious raid on Venezuela and ask what it reveals about power, national interest and the unravelling of the rules-based order. www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3bV...
Clooney’s decision to up sticks to France was greeted with delight in both Washington and Paris. ‘Good news!’ proclaimed Donald Trump on social media.
✍️ Gavin Mortimer spectator.com/article/geor...
✍️ Gavin Mortimer spectator.com/article/geor...
George Clooney has been seduced by a French fantasy
Bonjour and bienvenue to the Clooneys. Gorgeous George, his wife Amal and their eight-year-old twins have been granted French citizenship. The Hollywood actor has long had a deep streak of…
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:30 AM
Clooney’s decision to up sticks to France was greeted with delight in both Washington and Paris. ‘Good news!’ proclaimed Donald Trump on social media.
✍️ Gavin Mortimer spectator.com/article/geor...
✍️ Gavin Mortimer spectator.com/article/geor...
The best national cuisines – American, Israeli, Greek, even French – allow for a little cultural importation, a little change; new spices, textures, combinations.
✍️ Zoe Strimpel spectator.com/article/ital...
✍️ Zoe Strimpel spectator.com/article/ital...
Italian food is revolting
About a week into an open-ended early pandemic stay in Ortigia, the antique, tourist-beloved spit off Siracusa on Sicily’s eastern coast, I had an epiphany. I hated the food. I’d just had a few bites…
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 8:00 AM
The best national cuisines – American, Israeli, Greek, even French – allow for a little cultural importation, a little change; new spices, textures, combinations.
✍️ Zoe Strimpel spectator.com/article/ital...
✍️ Zoe Strimpel spectator.com/article/ital...
My mum was right about quite a few things, as it transpired (that I’d end up badly if I flew too high comes to mind), but me not having a personality certainly wasn’t one of them.
✍️ Julie Burchill
✍️ Julie Burchill
January 7, 2026 at 7:30 AM
My mum was right about quite a few things, as it transpired (that I’d end up badly if I flew too high comes to mind), but me not having a personality certainly wasn’t one of them.
✍️ Julie Burchill
✍️ Julie Burchill
Hungary is bracing for its next general election in April. It is the tightest race since Viktor Orban came to power almost 16 years ago.
✍️ Daniel Thorpe spectator.com/article/will...
✍️ Daniel Thorpe spectator.com/article/will...
Is Viktor Orban about to lose power?
The media empire Orban has constructed portrays Magyar as a servant of Brussels who wants to drag Hungary into the war in Ukraine.
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 7:15 AM
Hungary is bracing for its next general election in April. It is the tightest race since Viktor Orban came to power almost 16 years ago.
✍️ Daniel Thorpe spectator.com/article/will...
✍️ Daniel Thorpe spectator.com/article/will...
As Donald Trump weighs up taking control of Greenland, Britain and the EU has fallen back on a familiar strategy: talk tough, and do nothing.
✍️ James Tidmarsh spectator.com/article/trum...
✍️ James Tidmarsh spectator.com/article/trum...
Trump's Greenland grab would expose Europe's ultimate weakness
Greenland would demonstrate that sovereignty without power is conditional, and that guarantees without capacity are fragile
spectator.com
January 7, 2026 at 7:00 AM
As Donald Trump weighs up taking control of Greenland, Britain and the EU has fallen back on a familiar strategy: talk tough, and do nothing.
✍️ James Tidmarsh spectator.com/article/trum...
✍️ James Tidmarsh spectator.com/article/trum...
Once again, Starmer was giving instructions to his ministers that he seems unable to follow himself.
✍️ Isabel Hardman
spectator.com/article/its-...
✍️ Isabel Hardman
spectator.com/article/its-...
It's a bit rich for Keir Starmer to urge ministers to hold their nerve
Once again, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer was giving instructions to his ministers that he seems unable to follow himself
spectator.com
January 6, 2026 at 8:30 PM
Once again, Starmer was giving instructions to his ministers that he seems unable to follow himself.
✍️ Isabel Hardman
spectator.com/article/its-...
✍️ Isabel Hardman
spectator.com/article/its-...
The four representatives from West Midlands police were fascinating creatures. Three of them babbled while one remained completely silent.
✍️ Madeline Grant
spectator.com/article/the-...
✍️ Madeline Grant
spectator.com/article/the-...
The Maccabi mess has exposed Britain’s babbling bobbies
The four representatives from West Midlands police were fascinating creatures. Three of them babbled while one remained completely silent.
spectator.com
January 6, 2026 at 8:15 PM
The four representatives from West Midlands police were fascinating creatures. Three of them babbled while one remained completely silent.
✍️ Madeline Grant
spectator.com/article/the-...
✍️ Madeline Grant
spectator.com/article/the-...
Denmark’s ownership of Greenland is itself a piece of bare-faced colonialism.
✍️ James Gray
spectator.com/article/why-...
✍️ James Gray
spectator.com/article/why-...
Why would anyone want to rule Greenland?
America, China and Russia may want Greenland. But perhaps Greenlanders themselves need them just as much. They can no longer go it alone
spectator.com
January 6, 2026 at 2:00 PM
Denmark’s ownership of Greenland is itself a piece of bare-faced colonialism.
✍️ James Gray
spectator.com/article/why-...
✍️ James Gray
spectator.com/article/why-...
Labour MPs should ask themselves if they really want to be a party to this.
✍️ Stephen Daisley
spectator.com/article/brit...
✍️ Stephen Daisley
spectator.com/article/brit...
Britain can still escape Starmer’s dreadful Chagos deal
The government’s latest difficulties in the House of Lords over plans to surrender the Chagos islands is another humiliation for Keir Starmer.
spectator.com
January 6, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Labour MPs should ask themselves if they really want to be a party to this.
✍️ Stephen Daisley
spectator.com/article/brit...
✍️ Stephen Daisley
spectator.com/article/brit...
Those travelling with the airline are paying a premium cost for a budget service.
✍️ Alexander Larman
spectator.com/article/the-...
✍️ Alexander Larman
spectator.com/article/the-...
The inexorable decline of British Airways is a parable for modern Britain
Those travelling and flying with British Airways are essentially paying a premium cost for a budget service
spectator.com
January 6, 2026 at 11:30 AM
Those travelling with the airline are paying a premium cost for a budget service.
✍️ Alexander Larman
spectator.com/article/the-...
✍️ Alexander Larman
spectator.com/article/the-...
The mullahs, weakened by war, corruption and a water crisis, are scrambling to maintain control.
✍️ Iram Ramzan
spectator.com/article/iran...
✍️ Iram Ramzan
spectator.com/article/iran...
Iran's protests don't guarantee an end to the Ayatollah's rule
The regime has faced sustained pressure and recurring protests following the death of a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, in 2022.
spectator.com
January 6, 2026 at 10:00 AM
The mullahs, weakened by war, corruption and a water crisis, are scrambling to maintain control.
✍️ Iram Ramzan
spectator.com/article/iran...
✍️ Iram Ramzan
spectator.com/article/iran...
Trump made waves by declaring that he intends to ‘run’ the country. Running it means something other than what Washington policy wonks might understand as controlling a country.
✍️ Jacob Heilbrunn spectator.com/article/vene...
✍️ Jacob Heilbrunn spectator.com/article/vene...
Venezuela has left Trump feeling cocky
It seems that Trump is acquiring an expansive taste for imposing what he sees as law and order not only at home but also abroad.
spectator.com
January 6, 2026 at 9:00 AM
Trump made waves by declaring that he intends to ‘run’ the country. Running it means something other than what Washington policy wonks might understand as controlling a country.
✍️ Jacob Heilbrunn spectator.com/article/vene...
✍️ Jacob Heilbrunn spectator.com/article/vene...