The Spectator
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Politics, culture, cartoons and more.
Marston’s Against the Tide just might be the best thing she’s ever done.
✍️ Rupert Christiansen
✍️ Rupert Christiansen
The best thing Cathy Marston has ever done
The Royal Ballet has scheduled what – on paper at least – looks like one of the most dismally dull and cautious seasons I can recall. The company is hobbled by a £21.7 million government loan (that...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Marston’s Against the Tide just might be the best thing she’s ever done.
✍️ Rupert Christiansen
✍️ Rupert Christiansen
What you should watch instead is this gripping Netflix drama about the assassination of a forgotten American president.
✍️ James Delingpole
✍️ James Delingpole
Pluribus is a mess
Pluribus is another drama set in the dystopian future. But on this occasion the integrity of the entire human race depends not on someone ordinary and likeable who could almost be you, but on a bolshie,...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 7:30 PM
What you should watch instead is this gripping Netflix drama about the assassination of a forgotten American president.
✍️ James Delingpole
✍️ James Delingpole
Loyle Carner is very loveable but his songs lack bite.
✍️ Graeme Thomson
✍️ Graeme Thomson
The tedium of softboi rap
A male British rapper who is unafraid to show tenderness and vulnerability is not a particularly new phenomenon: Dave, Stormzy, Headie One and Kano have all walked this path in recent times. None, however,...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Loyle Carner is very loveable but his songs lack bite.
✍️ Graeme Thomson
✍️ Graeme Thomson
Plus: ENO's Dead Man Walking is much better than I had expected.
✍️ Richard Bratby
✍️ Richard Bratby
The orchestra that makes pros go weak at the knees
Stravinsky’s The Firebird begins in darkness, and it might be the softest, deepest darkness in all music. Basses and cellos rock slowly, pianissimo, in their lowest register; using mutes to give the...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Plus: ENO's Dead Man Walking is much better than I had expected.
✍️ Richard Bratby
✍️ Richard Bratby
I was looking forward to shooting the breeze with Alex Frost, the smartest entrepreneur in horse racing.
✍️ Charlie Brooks
✍️ Charlie Brooks
Only the Tote can save British racing
For the past 30 years Robin Oakley has taken you through the front door of the horse-racing world and kept you in the best of company. There’s not a chance of me lasting that long, and more often than...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 22, 2025 at 1:30 PM
I was looking forward to shooting the breeze with Alex Frost, the smartest entrepreneur in horse racing.
✍️ Charlie Brooks
✍️ Charlie Brooks
In a letter, Iqbal Mohamed slammed the ‘false allegations and smears’ about him, which he described as ‘surprising and disappointing’.
✍️ Steerpike
✍️ Steerpike
Second MP quits Your Party
Another one bites the dust. Iqbal Mohamed has become the second Independent MP to quit the left-wing Your Party amid party infighting. The group, founded by Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, has seen unedifying...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 6:30 PM
In a letter, Iqbal Mohamed slammed the ‘false allegations and smears’ about him, which he described as ‘surprising and disappointing’.
✍️ Steerpike
✍️ Steerpike
Zelensky is seeking support from Ukrainians during these decisive negotiations.
✍️ Svitlana Morenets
✍️ Svitlana Morenets
Volodymyr Zelensky is facing the ultimate test
Ukraine faces ‘one of the most difficult moments in our history’, he said, while the Trump administration presses it into a deal with Russia.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Zelensky is seeking support from Ukrainians during these decisive negotiations.
✍️ Svitlana Morenets
✍️ Svitlana Morenets
On Coffee House Shots: What are the political ramifications of the Covid enquiry? Tap to listen 👇 www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/covi...
Covid report: ‘a £200 million I told you so’
Yesterday we had the publication of the second module of the Covid Inquiry on the decision-making at the heart of government. It confirmed a toxic and disorganised culture at the heart of No. 10 and…
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 5:15 PM
On Coffee House Shots: What are the political ramifications of the Covid enquiry? Tap to listen 👇 www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/covi...
Short money, I discover, immortalises the name of Edward Short (later Lord Glenamara, after a place near Ullswater).
✍️ Dot Wordsworth
✍️ Dot Wordsworth
What makes money ‘short’?
I heard on the wireless a reference to the growing number of small political parties getting funds from short money. I’m afraid I let it slide past me as one of the many things about money that I don’t...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Short money, I discover, immortalises the name of Edward Short (later Lord Glenamara, after a place near Ullswater).
✍️ Dot Wordsworth
✍️ Dot Wordsworth
Carbone is the definitive oligarch’s restaurant.
✍️ Tanya Gold
✍️ Tanya Gold
‘The food is not the point here’: Carbone reviewed
People say that Carbone is Jay Gatsby’s restaurant – Gatsby being the metaphor for moneyed doomed youth – but it is something more awful and, because people are asleep, no London restaurant has...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Carbone is the definitive oligarch’s restaurant.
✍️ Tanya Gold
✍️ Tanya Gold
Q. I want to know if my expensive birthday gift of Fortnum’s chocolates is being regifted by my brother's parsimonious wife. How can I catch my sister-in-law out?
✍️ K.W., London NW1
✍️ K.W., London NW1
Dear Mary: How can I catch a ‘re-gifter’ out?
Q. I live in a small house in Hampstead and have taken in a friend of a friend as a lodger. He pays me a reduced rent for use of one of my spare bedrooms. I like him, but the agreement was that he would...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Q. I want to know if my expensive birthday gift of Fortnum’s chocolates is being regifted by my brother's parsimonious wife. How can I catch my sister-in-law out?
✍️ K.W., London NW1
✍️ K.W., London NW1
Falling out of education and employment in your early twenties can have a devastating impact.
✍️ Joanna Williams
✍️ Joanna Williams
Why so many young people don’t have a job
Why are so many young adults not in education, employment or training? The latest statistics show that almost one million 16 to 24-year-olds are unemployed, or ‘Neet’, to use the inappropriately cheery-sounding...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Falling out of education and employment in your early twenties can have a devastating impact.
✍️ Joanna Williams
✍️ Joanna Williams
Clearly and pleasingly, England seem to have got under the Aussies’ skin to an even greater degree than usual.
✍️ Roger Alton
✍️ Roger Alton
Ben Stokes will go down as the greatest captain of modern times
And so it begins, as Donald Trump likes to say, though not usually about cricket. He was offering his thoughts on the New York mayoral elections, which is not as much fun as the Ashes. Pleasingly, the...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Clearly and pleasingly, England seem to have got under the Aussies’ skin to an even greater degree than usual.
✍️ Roger Alton
✍️ Roger Alton
Portrait of the week: an immigration overhaul, Budget chaos and doctors’ strikes.
✍️ The Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/port...
✍️ The Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/port...
Portrait of the week: an immigration overhaul, Budget chaos and doctors’ strikes
Home Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, proposed that refugees would only be granted a temporary right to stay and would be sent home if officials deemed their country safe to return to. They would…
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Portrait of the week: an immigration overhaul, Budget chaos and doctors’ strikes.
✍️ The Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/port...
✍️ The Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/port...
How much is the famously conciliatory Vladimir Putin really willing to compromise on? He has the whip hand.
✍️ Ben Clerkin
✍️ Ben Clerkin
Ukrainians think Trump is putting the screws on Zelensky
Kyiv, Ukraine The rumour reverberating around Kyiv is that the FBI has been leaning on Ukrainian anti-corruption police to investigate Zelensky’s inner circle in order to force him to swallow the bitter...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 3:00 PM
How much is the famously conciliatory Vladimir Putin really willing to compromise on? He has the whip hand.
✍️ Ben Clerkin
✍️ Ben Clerkin
The ex-Reform Wales leader was flagged to police by intelligence sources who found messages between Gill and pro-Russian politician Oleg Voloshyn.
✍️ Steerpike
✍️ Steerpike
Ex-Reform Wales leader given jail time over bribery
News just in: the former leader of Reform UK in Wales has been handed a prison sentence of 10 and a half years for bribery. Nathan Gill admitted to taking pro-Russia bribes and was paid thousands to give...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 2:30 PM
The ex-Reform Wales leader was flagged to police by intelligence sources who found messages between Gill and pro-Russian politician Oleg Voloshyn.
✍️ Steerpike
✍️ Steerpike
At the time, they seemed of roughly similar quality, the important difference being that the Chinese ones were half the price of the British.
✍️ Charles Moore
✍️ Charles Moore
What my pyjamas taught me about China
About seven years ago, I bought two pairs of pyjamas, one British, the other Chinese. At the time, they seemed of roughly similar quality, the important difference being that the Chinese ones were half...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 2:15 PM
At the time, they seemed of roughly similar quality, the important difference being that the Chinese ones were half the price of the British.
✍️ Charles Moore
✍️ Charles Moore
Sir Keir appears keen to build stronger economic ties with China – with Sky News reporting that the PM is planning to travel to China in early 2026.
✍️ Steerpike
✍️ Steerpike
Will Starmer approve the Chinese super-embassy?
Well, well, well. Just days after MI5 alerted MPs and peers to Chinese espionage threats, it appears that Prime Minister Keir Starmer could be ready to give a Chinese embassy in London the green light....
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Sir Keir appears keen to build stronger economic ties with China – with Sky News reporting that the PM is planning to travel to China in early 2026.
✍️ Steerpike
✍️ Steerpike
He also has winning form at Ascot, the ground will be perfect for him and he should handle the longer trip too
✍️ Penworthy
✍️ Penworthy
Three bets for Haydock and Ascot
Herefordshire trainer Tom Symonds has his string in fine form with four winners from his last eight runners for a strike rate of 50 per cent over the past fortnight. Even his supposed no-hoper Gaelic Saint...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 1:30 PM
He also has winning form at Ascot, the ground will be perfect for him and he should handle the longer trip too
✍️ Penworthy
✍️ Penworthy
Interest in Bitcoin is no longer confined to just a handful of slightly wild-eyed enthusiasts.
✍️ Matthew Lynn
✍️ Matthew Lynn
Don't write off Bitcoin yet
Bitcoin has been through plenty of bear markets and has always bounced back – there is little reason to believe this crash will be different.
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Interest in Bitcoin is no longer confined to just a handful of slightly wild-eyed enthusiasts.
✍️ Matthew Lynn
✍️ Matthew Lynn
England’s remarkable Ashes fightback.
✍️ Michael Henderson
✍️ Michael Henderson
England’s remarkable Ashes fightback
It was a madhouse in Perth, in the latest instalment of sport’s oldest international skirmish. England, who opted to bat after Ben Stokes won the toss, were skittled before tea for 172: no score at...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 1:00 PM
England’s remarkable Ashes fightback.
✍️ Michael Henderson
✍️ Michael Henderson
He also has winning form at Ascot, the ground will be perfect for him and he should handle the longer trip too
✍️ Penworthy
✍️ Penworthy
Three bets for Haydock and Ascot
Herefordshire trainer Tom Symonds has his string in fine form with four winners from his last eight runners for a strike rate of 50 per cent over the past fortnight. Even his supposed no-hoper Gaelic Saint...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 11:30 AM
He also has winning form at Ascot, the ground will be perfect for him and he should handle the longer trip too
✍️ Penworthy
✍️ Penworthy
This event lies somewhere between a fandom convention and asecular pilgrimage.
✍️ Muriel Zagha
✍️ Muriel Zagha
The cult of Powell & Pressburger's I Know Where I'm Going!
I know where I’m going. I’m on the sleeper train chugging out of Euston and heading to Fort William. A wedding dress hangs on the wall in its transparent cover. I know from my printed itinerary that...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 11:00 AM
This event lies somewhere between a fandom convention and asecular pilgrimage.
✍️ Muriel Zagha
✍️ Muriel Zagha
Small children may enjoy this show but anyone over 13 will be bored senseless.
✍️ Lloyd Evans
✍️ Lloyd Evans
The babyishness of Hunger Games on Stage
The Hunger Games is based on a 2008 novel about a despotic regime where brainwashed citizens are entertained with televised duels between teenagers. Not a bad idea. We go behind the scenes and watch...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Small children may enjoy this show but anyone over 13 will be bored senseless.
✍️ Lloyd Evans
✍️ Lloyd Evans
In the six-month period from 3 July 2024 to 4 January 2025, 16,400 migrants were returned to their home countries.
✍️ The Spectator
✍️ The Spectator
How many illegal migrants does Britain return?
Condemned leaders Former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity, for using lethal force against student protests last year. But on past records, she...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 9:51 AM
In the six-month period from 3 July 2024 to 4 January 2025, 16,400 migrants were returned to their home countries.
✍️ The Spectator
✍️ The Spectator