The Spectator
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The EU’s role in the demise of British Steel
How ironic that British Steel goes into administration on the day before the European elections, putting 4,200 jobs at risk in a leave-voting constituency. And how utterly fatuous to blame Britain’s…
Watch: Labour MP pretends to have read the new Withdrawal Agreement Bill
Laura Pidcock has been a rising star in Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party ever since she became an MP in 2017. But the shadow minister for labour was somewhat caught out today when she appeared on…
What will Farage-onomics look like?
It might be 30 per cent. It might be 35 per cent. It could even be 40 per cent or higher. Until the results of the European elections come in late on Sunday night, we won’t know what percentage of…
The complete guide to the European Elections
The European Elections are fast approaching with voting taking place on Thursday 23 May. With the Brexit party soaring and the Remain supporting Lib Dems doing well in the opinion polls, the…
Britain doesn’t need another Holocaust memorial
David Cameron announced five years ago that he was establishing a “Holocaust Commission”. The purpose? To “investigate what more needs to be done to ensure Britain has a permanent and fitting…
Has James Cleverly joined the Tory leadership race?
It’s quicker these days to list the number of Tory MPs not running to be leader than those expected to go for the top job. Last night another candidate appeared to join the list at an unofficial…
Can Brexiteers trust Boris Johnson to deliver a ‘real’ Brexit?
The current Westminster consensus that Boris Johnson is the next Tory leader and prime minister raises all sorts of thoughts. Among them is to speculate about the sheer terror this consensus should…
Full text: Theresa May’s speech calling for a second referendum
I became Prime Minister almost three years ago – immediately after the British people voted to leave the European Union. My aim was – and is – to deliver Brexit and help our country move beyond the…
A guide to the Chelsea Flower Show 2019
From the Duchess of Cambridge’s play garden to the trend for trees and woods, this year’s show finds its wild side
Brexit and the tragedy of Philip Hammond
It is still a few hours before Philip Hammond makes his speech to the CBI this evening but so much of it has been trailed in advance that delegates might as well just read the newspapers – and then…
Tantrums and a top-notch tabbouleh: Ergon House in Athens reviewed
Ergon House is an epicurean boutique hotel in downtown Athens. (I quote the blurb — I never write ‘boutique’ willingly.) Did Pericles know that Athens had a downtown? I shall dispense with the…
‘Bolection’ and how the language of architecture was moulded
A pleasant menagerie of words grazes in the field of architectural mouldings (the projecting or incised bands that serve useful and aesthetic purposes): gadroon, astragal, larmier and rabbet, but…
The death of New York’s nightlife
New York This is my last week in the Bagel and I’m going to give it the old college try. Two weeks without booze, ciggies or ladies have made Taki a very dull boy. The next seven days — or rather…
The truth about the Brexit Party’s ‘dark money’
I have a question. How come when someone like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez funds themselves through small donations it’s a sign of how engaged and democratic they are, but when the…
Could France’s far left and far right come together again?
As the European elections approach, Europe’s oldest liberal democracies – Britain and France – are in turmoil. Taking the long view, Britain’s problems are circumstantial and exceptional. France’s,…
We’re already having a ‘people’s vote’
Frustrated Remainers wanted a second referendum – or what they ludicrously call a ‘people’s vote’, on the basis, presumably, they think the last referendum was decided by cloven-hoofed beasts and…
Change UK’s latest transformation is its worst yet
As Change UK struggle for relevance, they have become a Revoke party. This is a significant shift from being a second referendum party. One might disagree with having a second referendum before the…
Watch: Nigel Farage hit by milkshake
Nigel Farage became the latest politician to be pelted by milkshake today, as he toured the centre of Newcastle ahead of the European elections on 23 May. The Brexit Party leader was talking to…
A Saturday-night variety show: Take That at the O2 reviewed
Being old is big business in live music nowadays, in a way it wasn’t even 25 years ago. When Take That were still a boy band in the early 1990s, as opposed to a man band, the idea that in middle age…
Tommy Robinson and the double standards of political violence
So it’s acceptable now to assault electoral candidates? That’s the pretty scary take-home message from the Tommy Robinson ‘milkshaking’ incidents. Journalists and even politicians have been going…
Anderszewski went at Beethoven’s Diabellis with a nail gun
Are Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli’ Variations really ‘the greatest of all piano works’, as Alfred Brendel claims? It’s hardly what you would call received wisdom. Even Stephen Kovacevich, who has given us…
The good, the bad and the ugly of Jean-Claude Juncker’s presidency
For five years, Jean-Claude Juncker has been head of the European Commission. Luxembourg’s former Prime Minister is known for always being able to crack a joke, but as his term ends this year, it’s a…
Letters: Why we deserve Corbyn
Labour’s fence-sitting Sir: James Forsyth writes that Mrs May and Mr Corbyn are ‘not, in fact, that far apart’ (‘May’s compromising position’, 11 May). To many, the Labour left is simply playing its…
How do Britain’s pubs get their names?
An easy one: what links Jack Straw’s Castle, The Labouring Boys and The Jolly Taxpayer? No, not the parliamentary expenses scandal of yesteryear, but the weird and whimsical world of British pub…