The Spectator
@thespectator1828.bsky.social
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Politics, culture, cartoons and more.
‘It is particularly annoying, I know, to have an Aga in Notting Hill.’ ✍️ Rachel Johnson says enough with the Aga-shaming!
www.spectator.co.uk/article/enou...
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Enough with the Aga-shaming
So what if my cooker has ‘Tory energy’, asks Rachel Johnson – the proud owner of not one but two Agas.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/enough-with-the-aga-shaming/
about 7 hours ago
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‘James Watson, the Nobel Prize-winning biologist, was in fact one of the earliest victims of cancel culture.’
www.spectator.co.uk/article/jame...
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James Watson deserved better
James Watson has died at the great age of 97. Obituaries of the American scientist, who, with his late British collaborator Francis Crick, first proposed the double helix structure of the DNA…
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/james-watson-deserved-better/
about 8 hours ago
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‘I wish to suggest a compromise – narcotics licences. If you want to take marijuana, or cocaine, ecstasy, amphetamines or even heroin for that matter, you apply for a licence in the way you might for a gun.’ ✍️ Ed West
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...
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The case for narcotics licences
I’ve just been in New York for the first time in two decades. It’s a young person’s city, it has to be said, but my view was slightly darkened by being far out in Brooklyn and having to spend a lot…
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-case-for-narcotics-licences/
about 10 hours ago
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‘You don’t need to be the Witchsmeller Pursuivant to catch the whiff of incoherence emanating from No. 11 and the Treasury.’ ✍️ Tim Shipman
www.spectator.co.uk/article/what...
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What the heck is Rachel Reeves up to?
Welcome to my first Evening Blend. Unless there are earth-shattering events each Friday, my intention is to try to cut through the events of the week and say what really mattered over the past five…
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-the-heck-is-rachel-reeves-up-to/
about 11 hours ago
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‘Unless the government steps in and forces the BBC’s top tier to quit and ride off into the sunset on their Brompton bikes, the corporation is finished.’ ✍️ Charlie Walsham
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...
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The leaked BBC memo is no surprise
As a BBC News journalist who has been driven to distraction by the corporation’s repeated displays of apparent bias, I didn’t think I was capable of being shocked anymore. It turns out I was wrong.…
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-leaked-bbc-memo-is-no-surprise/
about 11 hours ago
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‘Northern Ireland’s lesson is stark: entrench extremes, and moderation dies; let sectarianism fester, and democracy becomes zero-sum.’ ✍️ Rory Hanrahan
about 12 hours ago
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Reeves has generated the maximum volume of hissing while obtaining hardly any feathers at all. ✍️ Hamish McRae
www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...
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The October Budget was Reeves’s original sin
With hindsight, Rachel Reeves’s first Budget in October last year looks even worse than it did at the time.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-october-budget-was-reevess-original-sin/
about 13 hours ago
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Britain ultimately prevailed in 1945 not because we were hobbits, nor in spite of being hobbits, but because we were nothing like them at all. ✍️ Alan Allport
www.spectator.co.uk/article/no-e...
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No, Elon Musk: we Brits aren't hobbits
'When Tolkien wrote about hobbits, he was referring to the gentlefolk of the English shires,' Elon Musk said
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/no-elon-musk-we-brits-arent-hobbits/
about 14 hours ago
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In a sense, Pelosi has had more than a small measure of vengeance against her detractors. ✍️ Jacob Heilbrunn
www.spectator.co.uk/article/nanc...
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Nancy Pelosi was a ruthless operator
Nancy Pelosi’s career ends as it began. She entered Congress in 1986 during the Reagan administration and is ending it under the most influential Republican president since the Gipper. On Thursday…
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/nancy-pelosi-was-a-ruthless-operator/
1 day ago
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On today's Coffee House Shots: With three weeks until the Budget, the main political parties have been setting out their economic thinking.
www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/why-...
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Why energy is the new political battleground
With three weeks until the Budget, the main political parties have been setting out their economic thinking. Each faces the same bind: anaemic growth, fiscal constraints and uncomfortable exposure to…
https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/why-energy-is-the-new-political-battleground/
1 day ago
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Books of the Year II – further recommendations from our regular reviewers. ✍️ The Spectator
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Books of the Year II – further recommendations from our regular reviewers
Philip Hensher I have a theory that Mick Herron’s Slow Horses novels are an ingenious variation on Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays. If, in a future episode, River Cartwright ascends to his kingdom renouncing...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/books-of-the-year-ii-further-recommendations-from-our-regular-reviewers
1 day ago
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Hopkins has long been in demand to play devils, killers, bullies, werewolves, ancient gods and ruthless kings. ✍️ Roger Lewis
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‘I could turn very nasty – I was an egotistical brute’, says Anthony Hopkins
It’s a good job Anthony Hopkins is only an actor, as think what he’d be like as a dictator or grand inquisitor. ‘I could turn very nasty,’ he tells us in his memoir. Doing National Service: ‘I...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/i-could-turn-very-nasty-i-was-an-egotistical-brute-says-anthony-hopkins
1 day ago
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‘Snow imposes the sky’s thoughts on the earth,’ says Tesson, revelling in the French fondness for the abstract. ✍️ Sara Wheeler
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Faith – and why mountains move us
Sylvain Tesson’s White unfolds the story of a gruelling ski journey across the Alps during which the author aims to fulfil ‘a long-held dream of transforming travel into prayer’. Born in Paris in...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/faith-and-why-mountains-move-us
1 day ago
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There’s a theory that the landscape at Blenheim was based on the Duke of Marlborough’s battle plan. ✍️ Ambra Edwards
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Serenity and splendour: a choice of gardening books
This year marks the centenary of Britain’s National Pinetum at Bedgebury in Kent, originally founded to rescue the smog-ravaged collection of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and now part of a global...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/serenity-and-splendour-a-choice-of-gardening-books
1 day ago
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The room showing his work in Derby is one of the most sublime experiences on offer in any European gallery. ✍️ Richard Bratby
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The melancholy genius of Joseph Wright of Derby
If you lived in the 1760s and were affluent enough – and curious enough – science could be a family affair. The instrument maker Benjamin Martin actually marketed scientific equipment for amateurs,...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-melancholy-genius-of-joseph-wright-of-derby
1 day ago
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El Greco volunteered to repaint the Sistine Chapel because he didn’t think Michelangelo was much good. ✍️ Marcus Berkmann
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A feast for quiz-lovers: Christmas gift books
The Christmas gift book market is a fascinating thing. Things come into fashion, other things drop out, although the desire to amuse and/or make the mind boggle is pretty much constant. This year’s...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a-feast-for-quiz-lovers-christmas-gift-books
1 day ago
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These intimate objects reveal a life more collective, communal and precarious than ours. ✍️ Tiffany Jenkins
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Lice combs, vaginal syringes and cesspits: at home in 17th century Holland
The room is dark, the lighting deliberately low. At its centre stands a solitary object: a yellow and green earthenware vessel decorated with biblical symbolism. It’s a fireguard – or ‘curfew’...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/lice-combs-vaginal-syringes-and-cesspits-at-home-in-17th-century-holland
1 day ago
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The reluctant spy: The Predicament, by William Boyd, reviewed. ✍️ Charlotte Stroud
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The reluctant spy: The Predicament, by William Boyd, reviewed
According to the literary critic Harold Bloom, male writers have daddy issues. So keenly do they feel the oppressive influence of their forefathers that when they take up the pen it is to use it as a...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-reluctant-spy-the-predicament-by-william-boyd-reviewed
1 day ago
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The Mamdani years will be frustrating for Republicans and centrist Democrats. ✍️ Stephen Daisley
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Zohran Mamdani will not be a radical mayor
Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City has prompted triumphalism in his supporters and despondency among his detractors. Depending on your political proclivities, the Big Apple is about...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/zohran-mamdani-will-not-govern-as-a-radical
1 day ago
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Whether or not Zitouni is an immigrant isn’t clear – and nor does it matter. ✍️ Andrew Tettenborn
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Who cares if the Huntingdon train hero is an immigrant?
Whether or not Samir Zitouni, the Huntington train hero, is an immigrant isn't clear – and nor does it matter
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/who-cares-if-the-huntingdon-train-hero-is-an-immigrant
1 day ago
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Reform shouldn’t be a party of loud statements, here-today-gone-tomorrow policies and U-turns. ✍️ Joanna Marchong
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Does Farage know the difference between populism and a plan?
Reform UK has long hinted that it would scrap the two-child benefit cap. This week, Farage clarified his position. The problem is in the detail - or the lack of it.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/does-farage-know-the-difference-between-populism-and-a-plan
1 day ago
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What steps has the Prisons Minister, Lord Timpson, taken following this most recent incident? ✍️ David Spencer
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When will the prisons minister face up to the jail crisis?
The latest episode in the rolling farce that is His Majesty’s Prison Service was revealed to be another foreign sex offender released in error
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/when-will-the-prisons-minister-face-up-to-the-jail-crisis
1 day ago
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The Bank of England blames Rachel Reeves for pushing up prices. ✍️ Michael Simmons
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The Bank of England blames Rachel Reeves for pushing up prices
The Bank of England has held interest rates at four per cent
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-bank-of-england-blames-rachel-reeves-for-pushing-up-prices
1 day ago
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The idea of bringing back military service is proving very unpopular with Germany’s youth. ✍️ Lisa Haseldine
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Is Germany ready for military service?
Boris Pistorius has grand plans to grow the German army to 260,000 active troops and 200,000 reservists by 2035.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-germany-ready-for-military-service
1 day ago
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Can Ukraine afford Zelensky’s winter giveaway? ✍️ Svitlana Morenets
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Can Ukraine afford Zelensky’s winter giveaway?
Since taking office in 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky’s decisions have often been a mix of blatant populism and good intentions.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/can-ukraine-afford-zelenskys-winter-giveaway
1 day ago
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Even after the Cass Review and the Supreme Court judgment, the language police have not yet gone away. ✍️ Debbie Hayton
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Why has Martine Croxall been censured by the BBC?
Martine Croxall’s eyes spoke louder than her words when she corrected the clumsy and unnatural use of ‘pregnant people’ on her autocue earlier this year. As a result, the newsreader found herself...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-has-martine-croxall-been-censured-by-the-bbc
1 day ago
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The programme is looking at behaviours that are ‘violence-oriented’, which risks blurring our understanding of the real terror threat in the UK. ✍️ Ghaffar Hussain
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Prevent's purpose is drifting from terrorism
When I was a Prevent counter terror officer a decade ago our case load was largely focused on Islamist terrorism – clear, defined ideological extremism. Today the picture looks very different. The majority...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/prevents-purpose-is-drifting-from-terrorism
1 day ago
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The problem is that the bigger the sport the more it likes to signal its virtue. ✍️ Robert Taylor
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Sports are finally giving up on virtue-signalling
Thank heavens for that. English football clubs will no longer have a minute’s silence for tragedies like floods, earthquakes and volcanoes across the other side of the world. Of course, it’s lovely...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/sports-are-finally-giving-up-on-virtue-signalling
1 day ago
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That Villa Park was overrun by frothing keffiyeh-wearers wishing death on the army of the Jewish state and damning peaceful Jews as ‘baby killers’ is a scandal. ✍️ Brendan O’Neill
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When the oldest hatred came to Villa Park
‘Scum’ barked at a Jewish man for the crime of taking a small Israel flag from his bag. ‘Get the f**k out of my city’ hollered at Jews. Masked men hanging signs saying ‘Zionists not welcome’....
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/when-the-oldest-hatred-came-to-villa-park
1 day ago
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Reeves is increasingly expected to increase hike tax by 2p next month. ✍️ James Heale
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Reeves set to break manifesto pledge – and hike income tax
Rachel Reeves billed her £38 billion in tax increases last year – the biggest tax-rising Budget since Black Wednesday – as a ‘one and done’ approach. As she prepares to deliver her second Budget...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/reeves-set-to-break-manifesto-pledge-and-hike-income-tax-rise
1 day ago
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Change is rarely so clear-cut. ✍️ Eliot Wilson
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Is the British Army right to invest in new battle tanks?
Pollard was in south Wales to announce the achievement of 'initial operating capability' for the Ajax armoured fighting vehicle.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-the-british-army-right-to-invest-in-new-battle-tanks
1 day ago
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It appears that West Midlands police are unfit to take decisions surrounding the safety of Jews and the policing of local hate protests. ✍️ Stephen Pollard
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West Midlands Police surrendered to the Jew haters
On the field, last night’s losers were Maccabi Tel Aviv, beaten 2-0 by Aston Villa in their Europa League match. Off the field, however, the story was rather different. For one thing, the Maccabi Tel...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/west-midlands-police-surrendered-to-the-jew-haters
1 day ago
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If David Lammy is serious about his reputation and public confidence he must turn his ire towards his own officials. ✍️ Ian Acheson
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The real reason prisoners keep being accidentally released
You’d need a heart of stone not to feel sympathy for Alex Davies-Jones. Labour’s minister for victims was on human sandbag duty for the Justice Secretary David Lammy this morning – tasked with explaining...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-reason-prisoners-keep-being-accidentally-released
1 day ago
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For Mamdani, his youth is a virtue, but with Bardella it’s a weakness. ✍️ Gavin Mortimer
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Is it only left-wing leaders who are allowed to be young?
The victory of Zohran Mamdani in the New York mayoral race has caused much joy in left-circles around the world
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-it-only-left-wing-leaders-who-are-allowed-to-be-young
1 day ago
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Two bets for the big Aintree chase tomorrow.
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Two bets for the big Aintree chase tomorrow
The first race of the season over the Grand National fences at Aintree takes place tomorrow when 17 runners are due to line up for the William Hill Grand Sefton Handicap Chase (2.40 p.m.). A good case...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/two-bets-for-the-big-aintree-chase-tomorrow
1 day ago
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MacBryde died a few years later, run over in 1966 outside a pub in Dublin while dancing a jig. ✍️ Hermione Eyre
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The Two Roberts drank, danced, fought – but how good was their art?
The Two Roberts, Robert MacBryde (1913-66) and Robert Colquhoun (1914-62), are figures of a lost British bohemia. Both born in Ayrshire, they met on their first day at the Glasgow School of Art, becoming...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-two-roberts-drank-danced-fought-but-how-good-was-their-art
1 day ago
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The furious tug of war between 18th-century Whigs and Tories. ✍️ Clemmie Read
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The furious tug of war between 18th-century Whigs and Tories
A foul-mouthed fantasist with a chin like an ironing board starts a wild conspiracy theory about the King’s brother. An alcoholic racing fanatic turns his gambler’s eye to the ballot box. A maniacal...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-furious-tug-of-war-between-18th-century-whigs-and-tories
1 day ago
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Rioja is the most celebrated of Spanish wines. And if you love Rioja, you’ll love these. ✍️ Jonathan Ray
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Wine Club: if you love Rioja, you’ll love these from Bodegas Urbina
It was just going to be Nigel and me. You know, two old chums meeting for a quiet Monday evening drink and a natter. When I pitched up, though, Pete and Nick were also there, and if anything triggers...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/wine-club-if-you-love-rioja-youll-love-these-from-bodegas-urbina
1 day ago
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Using someone else’s youth and libido to improve my own sex life feels a bit vampiric. ✍️ Rebecca Reid
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Confessions of a reformed polyamorist
There is an adage, attributed to author Robert Heinlein, that every generation thinks it invented sex. This often means finding a ‘new’ way to conduct relationships. For my generation, the millennials,...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/confessions-of-a-reformed-polyamorist
1 day ago
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It’s hard not to conclude that western democracies sleepwalked into this crisis. ✍️ Ian Williams
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China is holding the West to ransom over rare earths
China’s naked weaponisation of rare earths brings to mind Mao Zedong’s ‘four pests’ campaign, the old tyrant’s fanatical effort to exterminate all flies, mosquitoes, rats and sparrows, which...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/china-is-holding-the-west-to-ransom-over-rare-earths
1 day ago
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How popular is the British royal family? ✍️ The Spectator
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How popular is the British royal family?
Austere environment Who introduced the word ‘austerity’ into the political lexicon? While chiefly associated with attacks on the Conservatives, and subsequently Reform UK, by Labour and other left-wing...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-popular-is-the-british-royal-family
1 day ago
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Since the 1950s, 90 per cent of traditional orchards – distinct in their varieties – have disappeared. ✍️ Margaret Mitchell
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Save England’s apples!
On a grey autumn morning, the apples in the National Fruit Collection look vivid. They pile up in pyramids of carmine, salmon and golden-orange around dwarf trees, which have been bred to human proportions....
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/save-englands-apples
1 day ago
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The obvious hit me. This is it, now. There’s no Bigger Thing that’s ever going to come within my grasp. ✍️ Matthew Parris
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The engine’s pitch has changed
On a long flight there’s an instant, and perhaps you’ve noticed it, when a very slight alteration in the pitch of the engine occurs. Some considerable time remains before the ‘prepare for landing’...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-engines-pitch-has-changed
1 day ago
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Letters: Venezuela’s middle-class exodus. ✍️ The Spectator
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Letters: Venezuela’s middle-class exodus
Minimum requirement Sir: Some of Charles Moore’s observations about the minimum wage are pertinent (Notes, 1 November). However, what many also lose sight of (most of all our Chancellor) is that by...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/letters-venezuelas-middle-class-exodus
1 day ago
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Top Tory team suffer bad night. ✍️ Steerpike
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Top Tory team suffer bad night
After a decent conference speech, there was some hope among the Tories that Kemi Badenoch had finally turned the corner. Her PMQs performances are much more assured and there have been some notable Labour...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/top-tory-team-suffer-bad-night
1 day ago
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Mamdani may end up having a similar effect on New York’s restaurant industry to Covid. ✍️ Gage Klipper
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Mamdani will hand New York’s restaurants to the rich
The wildly expensive, exhaustingly derivative restaurants that dominate New York’s food scene are likely to become more dominant.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/mamdani-will-hand-new-yorks-restaurants-to-the-rich
1 day ago
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I can understand – for the first time in my whole life – what all the foreign people around me are saying. ✍️ Sean Thomas
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The headphones that play the future
Can Apple’s AirPods 3 really break the language barrier? One Brit’s experiment in Naples reveals both the marvel and the madness.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-headphones-that-play-the-future
1 day ago
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Cheney was a man devoid of empathy, who used US superpower to slay hundreds of thousands of people and smash things. ✍️ Michael Day
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Is is too soon to say the truth about Dick Cheney?
America’s torturer-in-chief and the real power behind the Oval Office desk was vice president Dick Cheney, who died on Monday at the age of 84
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-is-too-early-to-say-the-truth-about-dick-cheney
1 day ago
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The idea that a group of pen-pushers in Edinburgh is going to create a new generation of small private landholdings is fanciful. ✍️ Iain Macwhirter
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The SNP’s useless land revolution
Few would argue that Scotland’s present pattern of land tenure is ideal. Around half of private land is owned by fewer than 500 individuals, corporates or pension funds. The vast estates date from two...
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-snps-useless-land-revolution
1 day ago
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The new ‘diplomatic Iron Dome’ protects Washington’s vision, not Israel’s freedom of action. ✍️ Jonathan Sacerdoti
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The looming threat to Israel
Israel’s approach to negotiations with jihadist organisations systematically privileges humanitarian optics over strategic integrity.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-looming-threat-to-israel
1 day ago
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