The Spectator
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Politics, culture, cartoons and more.
The gambling tax reforms announced by Rachel Reeves have sparked concerns about the impact these will have on the overseas territory.
✍️ Steerpike
www.spectator.co.uk/article/reev...
✍️ Steerpike
www.spectator.co.uk/article/reev...
Reeves's tax raid rocks Gibraltar
The Chancellor’s Budget may have gone down well with Labour backbenchers, but its ‘smorgasbord’ approach has managed to rather annoy a rather lot of people – including, it appears, those resident in…
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 8:00 PM
The gambling tax reforms announced by Rachel Reeves have sparked concerns about the impact these will have on the overseas territory.
✍️ Steerpike
www.spectator.co.uk/article/reev...
✍️ Steerpike
www.spectator.co.uk/article/reev...
I doubt you’ll see a better film starring an adorable pet meerkat called GooGoo this year.
✍️ Deborah Ross
✍️ Deborah Ross
An adorable Taiwanese debut: Left-Handed Girl reviewed
Left-Handed Girl is a Taiwanese drama about a single mother who moves back to Taipei with her two daughters to run a noodle stand in the night market. It’s one of those films where the stakes don’t...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 7:30 PM
I doubt you’ll see a better film starring an adorable pet meerkat called GooGoo this year.
✍️ Deborah Ross
✍️ Deborah Ross
It’s not unusual for history programmes to want to prove that the people in the past were Just Like Us. But in this case the parallels drawn/rather desperately imposed were a particularly uncanny fit with those same pesky assumptions and biases.
✍️ James Walton
✍️ James Walton
Gothic lives matter: BBC2's Civilisations reviewed
Anybody growing weary of the debate surrounding the BBC’s unexamined assumptions and biases about modern politics might have expected to find some relief in a scholarly documentary about the sack of...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 7:15 PM
It’s not unusual for history programmes to want to prove that the people in the past were Just Like Us. But in this case the parallels drawn/rather desperately imposed were a particularly uncanny fit with those same pesky assumptions and biases.
✍️ James Walton
✍️ James Walton
The producers of a daytime soap opera would hesitate to broadcast such banalities.
✍️ Lloyd Evans
✍️ Lloyd Evans
A sack of bilge: End, at the Dorfman Theatre, reviewed
End is the title chosen by David Eldridge for his new relationship drama. Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves star as Alfie and Julie, a pair of wildly successful creative types who live in a mansion near Highgate....
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 7:05 PM
The producers of a daytime soap opera would hesitate to broadcast such banalities.
✍️ Lloyd Evans
✍️ Lloyd Evans
An exception to the rule is Alexei Ratmansky. Plus: irresistible showmanship from Michael Keegan-Dolan and beauty from Jules Cunningham.
✍️ Rupert Christiansen
✍️ Rupert Christiansen
Why are today's choreographers so musically illiterate?
Most choreographers today have lost interest in using music as anything more than a background wash of colour and mood. More’s the pity. For an earlier generation the idea that the dance grew through...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 6:30 PM
An exception to the rule is Alexei Ratmansky. Plus: irresistible showmanship from Michael Keegan-Dolan and beauty from Jules Cunningham.
✍️ Rupert Christiansen
✍️ Rupert Christiansen
I know why Radiohead are loved. But I also know that I’ll never be able to love them like some do.
✍️ Michael Hann
✍️ Michael Hann
Thom Yorke reminds me of David Brent: Radiohead reviewed
There were times watching Radiohead’s first UK show for seven years when Ricky Gervais came to mind. As Thom Yorke dad-danced around the circular stage in the middle of the arena, his bandmates all...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 6:15 PM
I know why Radiohead are loved. But I also know that I’ll never be able to love them like some do.
✍️ Michael Hann
✍️ Michael Hann
Gilltburg has the agility and power of an old-school keyboard lion, though he uses it with Bach-like objectivity.
✍️ Richard Bratby
✍️ Richard Bratby
Evgeny Kissin's stand-in brings the house down
It was such an enticing programme, too. The Philharmonia had booked Evgeny Kissin, the last great piano prodigy of the Soviet era and one of the superstars of the late 1980s and early 1990s. And then...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Gilltburg has the agility and power of an old-school keyboard lion, though he uses it with Bach-like objectivity.
✍️ Richard Bratby
✍️ Richard Bratby
There was no relief to follow with the second drink of our challenge. William Gladstone’s choice sounded disgusting: sherry mixed with a beaten egg.
✍️ James Heale and Michael Simmons
✍️ James Heale and Michael Simmons
Bring back the Budget tipple!
Of all Gordon Brown’s mistakes, perhaps the most sobering was his decision to end the tradition of drinking at the despatch box on Budget day. Commons convention holds that alcohol in the chamber is...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 5:30 PM
There was no relief to follow with the second drink of our challenge. William Gladstone’s choice sounded disgusting: sherry mixed with a beaten egg.
✍️ James Heale and Michael Simmons
✍️ James Heale and Michael Simmons
Portrait of the week: a shambolic Budget, Ukrainian plan and justice overhaul.
✍️ The Spectator
✍️ The Spectator
Portrait of the week: a shambolic Budget, Ukrainian plan and justice overhaul
Home Before Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered the Budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility accidentally released its contents. She will increase the tax take to an all-time...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Portrait of the week: a shambolic Budget, Ukrainian plan and justice overhaul.
✍️ The Spectator
✍️ The Spectator
The OBR was quick to apologise over the leak and confirmed it had launched a probe into the whole palaver.
✍️ Steerpike
www.spectator.co.uk/article/obr-...
✍️ Steerpike
www.spectator.co.uk/article/obr-...
OBR chief offers to quit over Budget chaos
As if the Labour lot hadn’t leaked enough ahead of Rachel Reeves’s big Budget announcement, a slip-up at the OBR meant that the report the Chancellor was set to unveil became readily available, er,…
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 5:00 PM
The OBR was quick to apologise over the leak and confirmed it had launched a probe into the whole palaver.
✍️ Steerpike
www.spectator.co.uk/article/obr-...
✍️ Steerpike
www.spectator.co.uk/article/obr-...
Ironically, in its decision yesterday, the Court of Appeal concluded that the Upper Tribunal had reached the wrong decision
✍️ Alexander Horne
www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-...
✍️ Alexander Horne
www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-...
Why the Gazan family weren’t entitled to asylum
The Court of Appeal has delivered a judgment on the so-called ‘Gaza family’ claim, which sparked such outrage at Prime Minister’s Questions back in February. The row related to a decision of the…
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Ironically, in its decision yesterday, the Court of Appeal concluded that the Upper Tribunal had reached the wrong decision
✍️ Alexander Horne
www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-...
✍️ Alexander Horne
www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-...
The Green party is not going to win the next election, although there is a chance that it could feature in a left-wing coalition.
✍️ Christopher Snowdon
www.spectator.co.uk/article/zack...
✍️ Christopher Snowdon
www.spectator.co.uk/article/zack...
Zack Polanksi’s insane economics
When the ubiquitous Green party leader Zack Polanksi was on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show singing the praises of wealth taxes last month, he said something that got my spider-sense…
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 4:15 PM
The Green party is not going to win the next election, although there is a chance that it could feature in a left-wing coalition.
✍️ Christopher Snowdon
www.spectator.co.uk/article/zack...
✍️ Christopher Snowdon
www.spectator.co.uk/article/zack...
Today’s roadman vibe is about what was identified by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2009 as an urban culture ‘originating among young, black, working-class people.
✍️ Dot Wordsworth
✍️ Dot Wordsworth
Who has ‘roadman’ vibes?
The Alibi bar in Altrincham, Cheshire, caused a hoo-ha last week by banning single entrants after 9 p.m. The landlord, Carl Peters, explained: ‘Sometimes, if you let people in on their own, the reason...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Today’s roadman vibe is about what was identified by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2009 as an urban culture ‘originating among young, black, working-class people.
✍️ Dot Wordsworth
✍️ Dot Wordsworth
If demand for wine had not fallen, there would have been an obvious remedy: even higher prices.
✍️ Bruce Anderson
✍️ Bruce Anderson
A Frenchman who does not drink wine is a disgrace
The world is in an even greater mess than was apparent. I am not referring to Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan or other swamps of mayhem and misery, although they are bad enough. No: the new crisis is in France,...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 3:30 PM
If demand for wine had not fallen, there would have been an obvious remedy: even higher prices.
✍️ Bruce Anderson
✍️ Bruce Anderson
No need to fall out with this old friend. You can still have a laugh with her over the phone, on a walk or on a long drive.
✍️ Mary Killen
✍️ Mary Killen
Dear Mary: Can I remain friends with someone who has a frozen face?
Q. A close friend of my own age, 52, has had various things done to her face and now looks different. She definitely looks younger than 52 – certainly when photographed – but in real life the effect...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 3:15 PM
No need to fall out with this old friend. You can still have a laugh with her over the phone, on a walk or on a long drive.
✍️ Mary Killen
✍️ Mary Killen
Some higher education is the equivalent of a nice interview suit which costs £50,000 and takes three years to make.
✍️ Rory Sutherland
✍️ Rory Sutherland
Could a degree make you less employable?
A few years ago my employer, the advertising agency Ogilvy, introduced a recruitment scheme called ‘The Pipe’. It was a ‘non-graduate’ recruitment scheme, the name a pun on the smoking implement...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Some higher education is the equivalent of a nice interview suit which costs £50,000 and takes three years to make.
✍️ Rory Sutherland
✍️ Rory Sutherland
The finished sauce is thick and luscious, striped through with straggles of gently fried onion. It’s glossy and ever-so-slightly tangy from a generous tablespoon of ketchup stirred in at the very end.
✍️ Olivia Potts
✍️ Olivia Potts
The glory of gravy
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, when Ben Gunn is found by Jim Hawkins, sunburnt and wide-eyed after three years of being marooned on the island, the first thing he asks Hawkins for is cheese:...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 2:30 PM
The finished sauce is thick and luscious, striped through with straggles of gently fried onion. It’s glossy and ever-so-slightly tangy from a generous tablespoon of ketchup stirred in at the very end.
✍️ Olivia Potts
✍️ Olivia Potts
Caroline says that if this experience teaches me to stop gambling, it was money well spent.
✍️ Toby Young
✍️ Toby Young
Is bet365 punishing me for being a peer?
On my way to the QPR game against Hull last Saturday, I was astonished to discover that Ladbrokes had made QPR the favourites. Eh? Going into this game, the Rs were 18th in the table, whereas Hull were...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Caroline says that if this experience teaches me to stop gambling, it was money well spent.
✍️ Toby Young
✍️ Toby Young
The story of the Budget is the faintly tragic tale of a country drifting away from work.
✍️ James Kirkup
www.spectator.co.uk/article/brit...
✍️ James Kirkup
www.spectator.co.uk/article/brit...
Britain is giving up on work
The story of the numbers underlying Rachel Reeves's Budget is the faintly tragic tale of a country drifting away from work
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 2:00 PM
The story of the Budget is the faintly tragic tale of a country drifting away from work.
✍️ James Kirkup
www.spectator.co.uk/article/brit...
✍️ James Kirkup
www.spectator.co.uk/article/brit...
News and comment are now consumed from such a multiplicity of online and social media sources, while newspaper circulations steadily decline, that the danger is long gone of an oligopoly of powerful owners promoting their own prejudices.
✍️ Martin Vander Weyer
✍️ Martin Vander Weyer
Let the Daily Mail buy the Telegraph
When I first joined The Spectator under the proprietorship of Conrad Black, we operated in sisterhood with the Telegraph titles which he also owned, and no one objected to the Daily Mail ringing the Spectator...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 1:30 PM
News and comment are now consumed from such a multiplicity of online and social media sources, while newspaper circulations steadily decline, that the danger is long gone of an oligopoly of powerful owners promoting their own prejudices.
✍️ Martin Vander Weyer
✍️ Martin Vander Weyer
Right out of the box, I found writing easy. Well, it was not exactly writing; copying is the better word.
✍️ Taki
✍️ Taki
My life as a writer
It was roughly 55 years ago, at the tail end of the 1960s, that I took the monumental decision to become a writer. It wasn’t exactly an agonising one. By then I’d been on the European tennis circuit...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Right out of the box, I found writing easy. Well, it was not exactly writing; copying is the better word.
✍️ Taki
✍️ Taki
Perhaps we’ve misjudged magpies. After all, the mistrust is a distinctly western phenomenon.
✍️ William Atkinson
✍️ William Atkinson
Why are we so suspicious of magpies?
I started counting magpies during my brief, doomed time as a history teacher. Trudging in every morning, the grim prospect of Weimer Germany with the Year 11s ahead, I began to take note of the number...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Perhaps we’ve misjudged magpies. After all, the mistrust is a distinctly western phenomenon.
✍️ William Atkinson
✍️ William Atkinson
Rachel Reeves has become the prisoner of Downing Street, not its mistress. She is being kept in office as a human shield for the Prime Minister.
✍️ Kwasi Kwarteng
✍️ Kwasi Kwarteng
I sympathise with Rachel Reeves
The British establishment cuts its deals with fish knives. If you want to catch this country’s business leaders and political grandees in their native habitat, go to a seafood restaurant. J. Sheekey...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Rachel Reeves has become the prisoner of Downing Street, not its mistress. She is being kept in office as a human shield for the Prime Minister.
✍️ Kwasi Kwarteng
✍️ Kwasi Kwarteng
For women raised to ‘live their best lives’, marriage feels like a hindrance because it requires compromise.
✍️ Lara Brown
✍️ Lara Brown
Are you too cool for marriage?
The term ‘spinster’ doesn’t seem to scare young women like it once might have. In fact, it is rarely heard nowadays. Instead, women are declaring themselves ‘alpha singles’ and eschewing dating...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 11:30 AM
For women raised to ‘live their best lives’, marriage feels like a hindrance because it requires compromise.
✍️ Lara Brown
✍️ Lara Brown
Many Ukrainians fear that their army and economy will crumble faster than Russia’s.
✍️ Owen Matthews
✍️ Owen Matthews
The path to peace in Ukraine will be tortuous
In order to impose peace terms, you first need to win the war. That fundamental principle seems, for the moment, to elude Ukraine’s European allies. Donald Trump, on the other hand, has taken the more...
www.spectator.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Many Ukrainians fear that their army and economy will crumble faster than Russia’s.
✍️ Owen Matthews
✍️ Owen Matthews