Josh Spero
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joshspero.ft.com
Josh Spero
@joshspero.ft.com
11K followers 900 following 3.8K posts
Wealth editor, Financial Times. I like swimming, classical music and cryptic crosswords. he/him 🏳️‍🌈 [email protected]
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joshspero.ft.com
I know you come for the spicy takes so here’s one: I think the new Fortnums double-helix staircase makes the space much darker (it occupies a light well) and I don’t like it
A large helical staircase in the middle of a red-carpeted shop floor
November 25, 2025 at 6:02 PM
joshspero.ft.com
When the medium meets the message
Mind the gap stencilled in white on a tube platform, with a larger gap between the and gap than mind and the
November 25, 2025 at 8:59 AM
joshspero.ft.com
Smiling selfie of a bearded man with a hairy chest in front of a lido
November 25, 2025 at 8:25 AM
joshspero.ft.com
Why ‘Joshes’ are swimming through the winter

JOSH SPERO
Opinion Conservative party UK Why 'Henrys' are turning their back on the Tories The Conservative party has lost touch with affluence — and with the generation that would like to enjoy its benefits HENRY HILL
November 25, 2025 at 8:24 AM
joshspero.ft.com
Pleased to welcome Frederick the Great to my parade of German history, featuring Goethe and Dürer (and guest star Van Gogh)
Four Playmobil figures on a wooden desk, including Goethe holding a quill and manuscript, Van Gogh a paintbrush and palette, Frederick on a horse with a sword and dog beside him and Dürer painting a self-portrait
November 22, 2025 at 7:56 AM
joshspero.ft.com
Ah Davos —> on.ft.com/3MfzDGY Davos assured Trump ‘woke’ topics were off the agenda
Senior US officials asked Davos management to tone down or avoid discussions on areas including female empowerment and diversity, the green transition, climate change and international development finance as a condition of his participation, two of the people said. "The US side wanted to make sure Trump's appearance at the elite, progressive event would still play well with his Maga base," one of the people said. One of the people said the WEF, which had already become more pragmatic about the global geopolitical backdrop, was able to offer such "reassurances" to Trump administration officials.
November 21, 2025 at 7:45 AM
joshspero.ft.com
Gobsmacking allegation of behaviour from an Oxford college head in a sexual harassment case, per a disturbing Bloomberg investigation www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Some women expressed dismay and frustration at the behavior of other leaders at Oxford in recent years. In 2019, a female student at Balliol made a formal internal complaint that she had been sexually assaulted by a male student. She described her experience to a news organization in 2021. After publication, Helen Ghosh, the head of Balliol, called a meeting for students at which she challenged the woman about her account. Ghosh had leaflets printed out with details of the woman's account, including private information such as the date of her alleged assault, she said. The whole situation had been traumatizing, the woman said. She described feeling ashamed and as if she were going mad. She said she felt the college's system was deliberately chaotic and orchestrated by people who did not intend to help. Following a student backlash, Balliol appointed an external investigator who upheld some of the woman's complaints. The college went on to carry out a welfare review that led to policy changes, for which Ghosh received praise, according to an email seen by Bloomberg. Ghosh was later promoted to lead Oxford's Conference of Colleges
November 19, 2025 at 6:50 PM
joshspero.ft.com
Artist’s photo of me walking on a road as my wig blows off
November 16, 2025 at 12:01 PM
joshspero.ft.com
Photo of a slightly run-down three storey end of terrace house
November 15, 2025 at 1:52 PM
joshspero.ft.com
That’s some nominative determinism right there
Poster with a painting of St Paul’s cathedral by Paul Catherall
November 12, 2025 at 9:15 PM
joshspero.ft.com
Well I didn’t see this collab coming
Advert for Shake Shack x Fortnum & Mason collab, including Christmas cranberry fifty-fifty and a Merrilossus shake (I have no idea what these are)
November 12, 2025 at 1:01 PM
joshspero.ft.com
You may remember over the summer I was photographed by Changke Li, a student at the London College of Communication in fab trousers (1). Her concept was I was walking down the street when my wig blew off. Final picture just landed (2)
A smiling bearded man wearing inflatable black rubber trousers which make me look like a pair of scissors Taken from a high angle: me walking down the street as my wig blows off; in front of me is my shadow and the shadow of the wig
November 6, 2025 at 7:59 PM
joshspero.ft.com
Louvre suspects:
McDonalds advert showing chicken nuggets under the slogan It’s not theft, it’s a flavour relocation
November 6, 2025 at 7:41 PM
joshspero.ft.com
on.ft.com/4nD0ABu
“It’s so nice to support a politician who is too young to have been friends with Jeffrey Epstein,” says Gianmarco Soresi, a stand-up comic who hosted the October rally in upper Manhattan.
November 5, 2025 at 9:12 AM
joshspero.ft.com
Made a costume but too tired to go to the party 😂
Smiling bearded man wearing a clear pyramidal hat and a white T-shirt with an empty plinth drawn on underneath a plastic tunic with a jagged hole cut out
October 31, 2025 at 8:59 PM
joshspero.ft.com
Apparently this is sexually suggestive, per Bluesky. Thanks, I guess?
Screenshot showing a label has been applied to this picture
October 27, 2025 at 9:17 AM
joshspero.ft.com
Off to Florence in January — all recommendations welcome, especially food and non-€€€ hotels
Botticelli’s Birth of Venus showing a nude woman standing on a gigantic clam shell, with my face eating a bagel superimposed on hers
October 27, 2025 at 7:57 AM
joshspero.ft.com
Scary stats about the black cab trade (my dad’s profession) in London: “Just 104 new drivers were given black cab licenses last year; that number was closer to a thousand less than a decade ago.” www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
Graph showing the declining number of black cab drivers from 25,000 around 2013 to 16,000 in 2025
October 27, 2025 at 7:51 AM
joshspero.ft.com
Screenshot of me muting the word traitors forever
October 23, 2025 at 9:21 AM
joshspero.ft.com
OMG Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” was inspired by something James Brolin said to Barbra Streisand. I am DEAD.
And then he said something one night that I'll never forget. We were lying in bed, spooning. He was holding me, and just as I was about to fall asleep, he whispered in my ear, "I don't want to fall asleep.' Drowsily, I asked, "Why not?" "Cause I'll miss you." What a beautiful, poetic thing to say. And it captured a moment of complete bliss... physical, emotional, spiritual. I told that story when Jim and I appeared on 20/20 with Barbara Walters in 1997, and the songwriter Diane Warren happened to be watching that night. She was so taken with Jim's words and thought the idea was so original that she was inspired to write a song and use it in the lyric: I don't want to close my eyes I don't want to fall asleep 'Cause I'd miss you, babe And I don't want to miss a thing. Performed by Aerosmith, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" debuted at number 1 and became their biggest hit, selling millions of copies around the world. It was so gratifying to see so many people responding to Jim's words.
October 21, 2025 at 5:20 PM
joshspero.ft.com
Asked and answered, your honour
Two ads on a Tube platform. The left is for Jack Daniels and has the strapline: You don’t know Jack. The right is for the London Dungeon and has the strapline: Can you hunt down Jack the Ripper?
October 20, 2025 at 5:00 PM
joshspero.ft.com
Young George Condo was a smokeshow! (Ignore Drella)
Black and white photo of a handsome young man with dark floppy hair being hugged by Andy Warhol, ghostly pale with blond hair
October 20, 2025 at 8:52 AM
joshspero.ft.com
Your timeline is blessed with a triple-m German word (voice module)
Stimmmodul
October 17, 2025 at 3:48 PM
joshspero.ft.com
Commonwealth tree? Looking good, Dalston
A tree thickly hung with large bright flags
October 17, 2025 at 7:58 AM
joshspero.ft.com
on.ft.com/4hgVV6W How Vladimir Putin’s history rant in Alaska nudged Donald Trump closer to Ukraine
There are some signs Putin may be aware the Alaska talks could have gone better. “It’s not funny,” he said, when asked earlier this month if he had explained the history of Ukraine to Trump.
October 17, 2025 at 5:49 AM