The Spectator

The timing of the death this weekend of Ken Bates, the former owner of Chelsea and Leeds United, will have struck many older football fans as significant, incongruous or – as football commentators are apt to say – ironic. On the same morning in which millions of Englanders of all backgrounds were preparing to cheer on a conspicuously multi-ethnic England team, the announcement of his passing, aged 94, will have undoubtedly evoked memories of a time when the sport in this country was in a very different state, and when some of its fans were of a very different disposition. ✍️ Patrick West Article | spectator.com/article/ken-ba… | @patrickxwest

From the earliest pages of The Brothers Karamazov I sensed that I was not important to Dostoevsky – that he wrote without worrying too much about what he put his readers through. That impression has been reinforced by most pages since. In his last book Inside Story, Martin Amis likens a writer to a host, welcoming the reader in, making them comfortable, entertaining as well as edifying them. Amis was a wonderful host, but Dostoevsky is insufferable. I couldn't wait to leave and doubt I'll be going over again. But it wasn't all drudgery. The murder mystery at the core of The Brothers Karamazov has gripping twists and the final courtroom scenes unfold with high drama. The character of Aglaya in The Idiot is hilariously capricious and nasty. ✍️ Mark Nayler Article | spectator.com/article/dostoe…

Did Nigel at no point wonder whether there was any agenda beyond rewarding him personally for being a smashing chap and a real laugh to have a pint with? If he had wondered that, and the thought had crossed his mind that the whole thing might look a bit iffy to the voting public, he would surely have thought it best to make a note of it in the register of Members' Interests – y’know, just to be on the safe side. It might have occurred to him, too, that there was a bit of a public-relations risk in the way Reform's unusually well-developed policy on cryptocurrency aligned almost exactly with the interests of his great benefactor Christopher Harborne. As well, come to that, of his pal Posh George Cottrell. ✍️ Sam Leith Article | spectator.com/article/george… | @questingvole

As the new Sentencing Acts takes effect, people will be serving shorter sentences and spending more time supervised by probation, meaning that the number on tags is going to rise and rise. The tagging system has been the subject of much concern ever since a Spectator scoop two years ago, in which we revealed that many people who should have been tagged, hadn't been. At the time, I know ministers were furious with Serco, the outsourced tagging provider. The implications for public safety were obvious and severe. Often very dangerous criminals who were supposed to be having their risk managed by tags were wandering around entirely unmonitored. The government made it clear how committed they were to improving the situation. ✍️ David Shipley Article | spectator.com/article/labour… | @ShipleyWrites

Slash, rarely seen without a cigarette in his mouth back in the day, has put on so much weight, he isn't exactly an advert for kicking the fags and skag. But he is an extraordinary guitarist. During one of his solos, my son says, 'This is the best day of my life,' and slips his hand into mine. Why do my tweenagers listen to the same bands I did in the Nineties? Well, for a start, they were pretty damn good. But also, I think, because in a record industry that's had to pivot to a streaming model, there are very few bands coming through. The money doesn't go four or five ways, which is why you see so many duos and solo artists now, like Yungblud, who is an obvious frontman in the Axl mould, though without the misogyny. ✍️ Flora Watkins Article | spectator.com/article/rock-n… | @florawriting

I have adored changing gears in some cars, like a characterful old Alfa, a cheeky MR2 or a gun-bolt precision of a Porsche 911. Anyway, whatever the marque or memory, that dialogue will soon be silenced. Data released earlier this month via Auto Express Marketplace reveals enquiries for new manual cars have collapsed to a record low of under 8 per cent. In 2000, manual gearboxes accounted for 86 per cent of UK car sales. Now the industry expects no new cars will offer them within four years. ✍️ Simon Heptinstall Article | spectator.com/article/why-th…

Everything I heard about Germany made me hate them more, from their oompah-music to their excessive pig-consumption. Their horrible language, which sounded as if they were trying to clear their throats – probably of pieces of pig. When I was assigned to learn German at school, it was the start of my career as a prolific truant. A few years later, as a 17-year-old, I was stuck in an old-fashioned railway carriage with no corridors when a bunch of perfectly pleasant German backpackers got in. I bore their chatter for awhile and then I did a thing I've never done before or since – pulled the communication cord and jumped out in the middle of nowhere. As Martin Crane said to Frasier; 'Maris is learning German? ✍️ Julie Burchill Article | spectator.com/article/thomas… | @BoozeAndFagz

It has been described by Labour insiders as the 'don't look back in anger tour', helping to reset relationships with voters using an upbeat message, intended as the opposite to Keir Starmer's early days in office which were filled with doom and gloom about the mess inherited from the Conservatives. As if. It is not happy-clappy stuff that voters want. What people actually crave from their political leaders is competence, ideas and concrete help to make their lives better. On all this, and more, Burnham remains a blank sheet. No amount of carefully orchestrated political 'meet and greets' can disguise this. ✍️ Jawad Iqbal Article | spectator.com/article/burnha…

Bridget Phillipson's proposal to extend 30 free hours of childcare to families on benefits is lunacy. Over eight years working on and off in childcare, as both a nanny and in nursery settings, I spent countless hours changing nappies and managing meltdowns, including leading the two-to-three-year-olds class of a nursery in a town made famous by Raoul Moat's shooting spree. More often than anyone in Whitehall would care to admit, I was raising other people's children for most of their waking week. What I saw in my time working in the nursery makes me convinced the Education Secretary’s proposal is a bad idea. Working parents pay eye-watering sums for full-time childcare, often thousands – or even tens of thousands – of pounds a year, while funding "free" places for others through their taxes, and rightly, targeted support for working families is necessary. Some mothers handed their children over to me in tears, knowing they had no choice but to return to work to keep their households afloat. At the same door, non-working parents dropped off their toddlers for funded hours and cheerfully described days of errands and shopping ahead. In both camps, there were excellent, loving parents, but the system unfairly forced one group to effectively subsidise the other, denying them much-desired time with their own children. ✍️ Fleur Power Article | spectator.com/article/the-pr…

In my last column I discussed the old Italian conspiracy theory that Winston Churchill wrote deeply compromising letters to Benito Mussolini before and during the second world war. I feel I must return to the issue, not least because a reader wrote in the comment section that at long last I had written something interesting, but also for the sake of fair play. ✍️ Nicholas Farrell Article | spectator.com/article/the-br…

When Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in New York in 1831, he found a city a quarter of the size of Paris, perched on the lower tip of Manhattan, roamed by pigs. Speaking to everyone he met, high and low, he was struck by how many of the rich used to be poor. There was, he observed, an 'equality of conditions' that filtered down to the way parents treated their children. ✍️ Daisy Dunn Article | spectator.com/article/alexis…

Who cares how they did it? The dream of England winning the World Cup is alive and well ✍️ Jawad Iqbal spectator.com/article/thank-…

Should Green Boots’ body remain on Everest? ✍️ Billi Bierling spectator.com/article/should…

Starmer is determined to kill racing ✍️ Rupert Hawksley spectator.com/article/starme…

Why the ‘extreme male brain’ theory of autism has been disowned ✍️ David Cohen spectator.com/article/why-th…

Death, schism and conspiracy: the strange tale of Orkney’s renegade Catholic monks ✍️ Christopher Akers spectator.com/article/death-…

The Gliberal can tell you the best vinyl shops in Tokyo and the best restaurants in Bologna. But not the name of their next-door neighbour ✍️ Theo Hobson spectator.com/article/are-yo…

Unfortunately, I think Miliband as foreign secretary would represent at best stale continuity and at worst disaster ✍️ Ameer Kotecha spectator.com/article/david-…

I start composing an angry text accusing her of being a Gen Z algorithm-obsessed Polanski-loving teetotaller when there’s a knock at the door. Ooh, yes! It is the mystery gigolo who’s been making his way around the Cheltenham Ladies’ class of ’83. Hung like a horse and built like a bull, per the giggling reviews. Despite having never seen his face I am already ready to mount it as I open the door. ✍️ Helen D'Vorcee Article | spectator.com/article/why-do…

‘Her hard-right, string-em-up politics may not have been for everyone. But at a time when ‘Blair’s Babes’ were on the rise, she was a breath of whisky-tinged fresh air.’ ✍️ Colin Freeman spectator.com/article/my-deb…