The Spectator

My new book exposes the vainglorious Duke and Duchess’s downwards spiral over the past five years towards an inglorious endgame. Dwindling fame and fortune is forcing them to revalidate their royal status. If they were able to return to Britain to stand in public alongside King Charles, that would be their ideal photo opportunity. ✍️ Tom Bower Article | spectator.com/article/is-my-…

The Tories launched their local election campaign this morning, with a beaming Kemi Badenoch surrounded by rows of flag-waving party members. The polls remain stubbornly low for the party, but the Conservative leader gave little sign of that getting to her. ✍️ James Heale Article | spectator.com/article/badeno…

On today's Coffee House Shots podcast Tim Shipman is joined by policy adviser to four prime ministers, John Bew. In an essay for the New Statesman he set out the historical context which has contributed to the malaise and decline of the British state – and hypothesises that we are living in the ‘fourth great disruption’ to the political and economic order. @ShippersUnbound spectator.com/podcast/britai…

In a surprise to no one, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted nine-zero to hold interest rates at 3.75 per cent. The unanimous decision is the first time the MPC have been in complete agreement since September 2021. ✍️ Michael Simmons Article | spectator.com/article/brace-…

Iran has supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine with its drone technology, supported China’s slave economy with its oil exports and unleashed brutal, indiscriminate violence against its own population. The rights of women, homosexuals and ethnic minorities have been suppressed while power and wealth have been concentrated in the hands of ideologues and professional sadists. ✍️ The Spectator Article | spectator.com/article/the-we…

Labour MPs who want Wes Streeting to be their leader have, apparently, one great fear. If their man triggers a contest, they are terrified it will lead to Ed Miliband entering the race to stop the Health Secretary – and coming out top. A Miliband premiership would, they worry, be the death of Labour. I’ve got news for them: we are already governed by Ed Miliband. This is now his administration. And they, and the rest of us, had better get used to it. ✍️ Michael Gove Article | spectator.com/article/keir-s…

@Simmons__ Watch Reality Check in full youtube.com/watch?v=5OGRN8…

Can Britain lead on AI and reach Net Zero? @Simmons__

When a fully greased Sir Keir Starmer is finally bundled, squealing, out of Downing Street, one wonders what he might turn his hand to by way of work to keep a roof over his head? I suspect his time as a lawyer doesn’t bear repetition and he’s hardly going to be asked to do after-dinner speaking. Perhaps he could mimic other PMs and turn to writing. I suspect, though, it will need to be children’s books that help him pay the bills. ✍️ Madeline Grant Article | spectator.com/article/pmqs-w…

There’s very little to celebrate in Downing Street these days but it must have been vodka shots all round in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s office last week when Revolut, the City’s glossiest fintech start-up, finally secured the banking licence it has been pursuing for the past five years. ✍️ Martin Vander Weyer Article | spectator.com/article/has-ra…

It’s all very well to talk about mutual tolerance, but the Quran is a totalising text. There is no other perspective. What’s haram is haram. You don’t get much more integrated than Tesco: great Ramadan deals on flour and oil; crescent moon cards and banners; lanterns; an Eid advert with genuine spiritual feeling, unlike the bleak Christmas ads. None of that makes bacon clean. ✍️ Mary Wakefield Article | spectator.com/article/the-gl…

The seemingly endless debate about the hollowness of our armed forces has concentrated on size, technical capability and sustainability – never more so than in recent days when the UK’s unreadiness for war, or even to defend its own bases overseas, has been exposed. But there has been no mention of the moral component of fighting power (morale, spirit, will), which is the most important element of combat effectiveness. ✍️ Michael Rose Article | spectator.com/article/how-th…

It’s nearly two months since Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a total oil blockade on Cuba, and life is becoming odder. At the weekend, in a down-island town called Moron, teenage kids burnt down the local Communist party headquarters. Meanwhile, here in Havana, we’re awaiting the arrival of the Irish hip-hoppers Kneecap at the head of a humanitarian relief armada carrying solar panels. ✍️ Ruaridh Nicoll Article | spectator.com/article/inside…

When Zia Yusuf first walked into the headquarters of Reform UK, he gestured at the empty room and asked: ‘Where’s the office?’ Ed Sumner, the party’s director of communications, replied: ‘This is it. It’s empty. This is the party.’ That was not even two years ago. Since then, Nigel Farage and Yusuf have built a party from scratch and expect to be the biggest winners in the local elections on 7 May. With more than 270,000 members, their grassroots base is the largest in Britain, bigger than both Labour and the Tories. ✍️ Tim Shipman and James Heale Article | spectator.com/article/well-w…

Some universities seem to be actively harming students’ chances of success. An Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and DfE report found that women graduating from the University of Bolton, now renamed the University of Greater Manchester, earn around 10 per cent less by the age of 29 than women who didn’t attend university at all. Further analysis from the IFS suggests that one in five students who go to university will earn less than their counterparts who didn’t. ✍️ Lara Brown Article | spectator.com/article/the-hi…

An interesting new perspective on London is doing the rounds. Our capital city is being advertised as a paradise. London, it seems, is suddenly a place where every building is a Wren, where every sunset is a Turner, where every neighbourhood is Notting Hill. ✍️ Angus Colwell Article | spectator.com/article/the-pe…

I’ve always had a soft spot for Louis Theroux. I wouldn’t call him a friend, exactly, but I’ve known him for about 40 years. His latest documentary, Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere, is an entertaining and at times disturbing watch. His diffident approach to drawing out these male social-media stars seems to throw them off balance. ✍️ Toby Young Article | spectator.com/article/louis-…

Finally, some good economic news: Britain may have turned a corner on jobs. Figures just released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the unemployment rate remained flat at 5.2 per cent in January. ✍️ Michael Simmons Article | spectator.com/article/britai…

Israel widened its campaign inside Iran. Late last night, the Israeli military said it had struck targets in northern Iran for the first time in the current operation, after attacking more than 200 targets in western and central Iran over the previous 24 hours, including ballistic missile storage sites, launch systems, air defences and weapons production facilities. ✍️ Jonathan Sacerdoti Article | spectator.com/article/the-ir…

It is hard to believe that there could possibly be regime change, desperately though Trump pretends that there could and – to my mind, in a cowardly manner – urges the Iranians to stick their necks above the parapet. ✍️ Rod Liddle Article | spectator.com/article/trump-…