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The Spectator
@thespectator1828.bsky.social
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thespectator1828.bsky.social
‘They should be saying: “We’re taxing the rich to pay for public services”’.

✍️ Tim Shipman
Labour’s plan to unite the left
It is easy to criticise the Budget. The process was a chaotic mess. For many on the right, Rachel Reeves’s £26 billion tax raid to placate Labour MPs was a form of madness as well as badness. But good...
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 1:30 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
How can Britain lead a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ when we would struggle to muster a force of 5,000?

✍️ The Spectator
Labour’s dereliction of duty over defence
Last week, our political editor, Tim Shipman, revealed a recent meeting between Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, the Chief of the Defence Staff, and the three heads of the services to discuss the...
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 1:15 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
As a result of correspondence from their lawyers, we now know the passport was not ‘fake’ at all: the true story is even more interesting.

✍️ John Power
www.spectator.co.uk/article/an-a...
An apology to Hope Not Hate and Harry Shukman
In August, The Spectator began to investigate allegations that Harry Shukman, a 33-year-old freelance journalist, had used a fake British passport as part of a two-year undercover investigation into…
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 1:00 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The monarchy is the first thing much of the world thinks about when it thinks about Britain.

✍️ Robert Hardman
Why British diplomacy needs the royals
Watching David Dimbleby watching the royal family, I am instantly reminded of the BBC’s other royal David. It is pure Attenborough as he examines the exotic plumage and rituals of rex Windsorianus in...
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 12:00 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Surely it was absurd that the mass and sacraments should be available only in a language which the worshippers did not understand but simply had to repeat like so many parrots.

✍️ Peter Jones
Why does the Latin mass prevail?
The Pope is visiting Lebanon and Turkey. Will anyone be raising the vexed question of the Latin mass and sacraments with him and asking him exactly why it is so vexed? Though Jesus spoke Aramaic, the...
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 11:30 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The tears pricked my eyes as I looked at it all smashed up on the loader.

✍️ Melissa Kite
The power of tear pressure
The smashed pick-up truck was delivered back to us after I burst into tears and began wailing at the recovery man. When all else fails, men usually cave in to what I like to call tear pressure. Their...
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 11:00 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
It isn’t often in political life that people actually announce that they are mad.

✍️ Douglas Murray
Where was my invitation to Your Party?
For perhaps the first time in my life I have experienced ‘fomo’ – fear of missing out. It is strange to feel this teenage sentiment now I am safely in my forties, and even odder that it should occur...
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 10:00 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The meaning of fudge 180 years earlier had been ‘a made-up story, a deception’. It covered some of the field of the later spoof.

✍️ Dot Wordsworth
The changing flavour of ‘fudge’
‘Do you know what vibe coding is, darling?’ I asked my husband. ‘What do you take me for?’ he replied. ‘Or 67?’ ‘Ah, I do know that the Prime Minister had to apologise for leading a classroom...
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 9:40 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Lilibet’s should, if it must exist, serve sausage and mash in front of electric fires.

✍️ Tanya Gold
www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-ri...
A right royal travesty: Lilibet’s reviewed
Elizabeth II was a god and a commodity: now she is gone it is time for posthumous exploitation. Lilibet’s is a restaurant named for her childhood nickname at 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair, on the site of…
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 9:30 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Dear Mary: How do I avoid getting shown up by a more chivalrous bachelor?

✍️ Mary Killen
Dear Mary: How do I avoid getting shown up by a more chivalrous bachelor?
Q. My godfather, who has managed to get me a valuable internship in the Far East, has also sent me a business-class ticket to fly out there in the new year. I have seen how much the ticket costs (£3,800)...
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 9:00 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
What happened in Perth wasn’t exactly fun for an England supporter but it was, after all, just a game.

✍️ Roger Alton
Ben Stokes’s run-in with Aggers
There’s tetchy, and then there’s Ben Stokes ‘tetchy’ – pulling out his mic and stomping off cursing, or so I’m told, after Jonathan Agnew asked a disobliging question. Admittedly it’s hard...
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December 4, 2025 at 8:40 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Juries are more likely to acquit than magistrates or judges across the piece, but particularly so in speech-related cases.

✍️ Toby Young
www.spectator.co.uk/article/juri...
Juries are defenders of free speech
On Tuesday, David Lammy announced in parliament that a bill would be included in the next King’s Speech restricting the right to trial by jury in England and Wales to those accused of serious crimes,…
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 8:30 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
I could see one of the more senior members of the club was itching to give me a good whack with his walking stick.

✍️ Charlie Brooks
My House of Lords dinner disaster
It was just a straightforward dinner in the bosom of the House of Lords, talking to members of the Jockey Club. What could possibly go wrong? When I rashly accepted with gay abandon the invitation to...
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 8:20 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Singapore wasn’t all boardrooms and panels. Every morning began with mass at the Church of the Sacred Heart at seven.

✍️ John Studzinski
Singapore’s future is in capable hands
I was in Singapore last week, a city that hums with energy. It feels efficient, cosmopolitan and yet personal – if you know where to look. My schedule was packed, but in the best way. First stop: Jamie...
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 8:00 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
We are living through a historic transfer – fiscal and human – from work to welfare.

✍️ Michael Simmons
www.spectator.co.uk/article/labo...
Labour is now the party of welfare, not work
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have gone into bunker mode. The pair – whose political fortunes are so tightly bound – have been forced all week to defend the Chancellor’s claims at last week’s Budget…
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 7:50 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Britain cannot lead Europe if it cannot defend itself.

✍️ Sam Olsen
www.spectator.co.uk/article/puti...
Putin is warning Britain – but we're not listening
When Vladimir Putin declared this week that Russia was ‘ready’ to fight a war in Europe, the remark barely seems to have rippled the surface of Britain’s political consciousness. It should have sent…
www.spectator.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 7:30 AM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Those close to Robert Jenrick have been quick to dismiss claims that he is about to defect.

✍️ James Heale

www.spectator.co.uk/article/will...
Will Robert Jenrick join Reform?
For more than a decade, Westminster has been obsessing about whether Nigel Farage will do a deal with the Tories.
www.spectator.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 6:15 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
On Book Club; James Geary, talks to Sam Leith about the new edition of his classic The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism.

www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/jame...
James Geary: A Brief History of the Aphorism
My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is James Geary, talking about the new edition of his classic The World in a Phrase: A Brief History of the Aphorism. He tells me about what separates an…
www.spectator.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 6:00 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Starmer’s pomposity came back to bite him as Mrs Badenoch mocked him.

✍️ Madeline Grant

www.spectator.co.uk/article/its-...
It's a bit rich for Starmer to say the Tories should be ashamed
It's a bit rich for Keir Starmer to talk about shame. It’s like being given a school assembly by Dr Crippen
www.spectator.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 5:30 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
The SNP now seems significantly more open to an investigation.

✍️ Lucy Dunn

www.spectator.co.uk/article/scot...
Scotland bows to pressure to launch grooming gang review
Currently a national inquiry into grooming gangs operating in England and Wales is taking place – although it has not had the smoothest start.
www.spectator.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 5:00 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
On Coffee House Shots; At PMQs Kemi Badenoch opened with the head of the OBR's departure.

The latest rumours are about a Tory/Reform pact.

www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/pmqs...
PMQs: at least Kemi is enjoying herself
It was PMQs today and it is clear to see that Kemi Badenoch is starting to enjoy herself. She opened with the departure of the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), as it allowed her to…
www.spectator.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 4:15 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Like Reeves, Starmer chose to ridicule Badenoch rather than engage with her very bold claim about market abuse.

✍️ Isabel Hardman

www.spectator.co.uk/article/kemi...
Kemi Badenoch is enjoying herself
Kemi Badenoch had plenty to work with at Prime Minister’s Questions today. She opened with the departure of the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, as it allowed her to suggest that Starmer…
www.spectator.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 2:15 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Call her Meghan Poppins, practically perfect in every way.

✍️ Alexander Larman

www.spectator.co.uk/article/megh...
Meghan's Netflix Christmas special is unendurable
As with the earlier series of With Love, Meghan, the roster of B-listers are on hand to tell Meghan how astonishing, kind, wonderful she is.
www.spectator.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 2:00 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Why the BMA has called another strike is clear. They haven’t got what they wanted, and their current mandate expires in early January.

✍️ Druin Burch

www.spectator.co.uk/article/juni...
Junior doctors are striking for the wrong reason
Oh God, another junior doctor strike. That seems to be the feeling of the country and of the junior doctors I’ve spoken to. Certainly it’s the feeling of the consultants, like myself, who will be…
www.spectator.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 1:30 PM
thespectator1828.bsky.social
Men who think they are women can still don a frock and call themselves Brown Owl.

✍️ Joanna Williams

www.spectator.co.uk/article/are-...
Are the Girl Guides ashamed of their trans ban?
What’s troubling for those of us who believe young girls should experience female bonding is the apologetic tone adopted by Girlguiding UK.
www.spectator.co.uk
December 3, 2025 at 1:15 PM