Issue: July/August 2020
Too much of a maverick
Andrew Roberts reviews Haldane, by John Campbell
Matters of life and death
John Self reviews Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell, The Liar’s Dictionary by Eley Williams, and The End of Me by Alfred Hayes
Spuds with everything
Potatoes were hyped as the key to a well-nourished populace by the European intelligentsia in the 1700s
Angels still sitting on my shoulder
Douglas Murray discusses the importance of intellectual mentors and reveals two who continue to guide him
Passing the Tebbit test
Dominic Lawson reviews 10,000 Not Out: The History of The Spectator, 1828-2020 by David Butterfield
A very private affair
Even without the Human Rights Act, our judges would have developed a new law on privacy by now
Black Lives Matter are pushing division, not unity
BLM’s radical ideas, such as defunding the police, would only make the lives of black communities worse
Heartbreaking? Ha!
Claudia Savage-Gore refuses to be health-shamed into having the children home all day
Most Read
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
The lonely death of Henry Nowak
We must draw lessons from a horrendous and disgraceful case
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
A failed war on fags
The black market has taken over the tobacco trade Down Under
Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law
Punishing anyone before they have even been convicted of anything makes me uneasy
Westminster is not Manchester
Andy Burnham would find being the PM a lot more difficult than being a mayor
Will we miss Mahmood?
Shabana Mahmood has been a voice of sanity in the Labour Party
Critical briefing: Tisza
What you need to know about the new Hungarian establishment
Crisis? Watt crisis?
Renewable energy promises the gold at the end of a rainbow
Labour’s toxic medicine
The more they treat the symptoms of decline, the worse things get
Murders for June
Bodies in Brighton and spies in Scotland are features of our first crop of summer murder mysteries
Escape to the country
Some tractor-acceptance meditation might help with moving day
Out with the old?
Reform seems to be thriving, and Labour seems to be losing, but what can actually change?
Britain’s mutilated constitution
We must restore the old to build the new
Welcome to the low-trust economy
The multi-billion pound cost of Britain’s shoplifting surge