Keir Starmer and the myth of the metropolitan elite
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The art world isn’t free
No one recognised me on the Cannes red carpet!
Banana republic / Trump’s lawfare against lawfare
Time travel / Welcome to Transnistria: the country that’s not a country
Cultural shield / Inside the Ukrainian army’s art division
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Why Labour’s fate will be decided in the Strait of Hormuz – with Julie Bindel & Cleo Watson | The Edition
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An intelligent mix of culture, food, style and property, plus where to go and what to see.
Hay Festival has forgotten about books
From Spectator Life
Why new mothers need the lost art of ‘nidgeting’
From Spectator Life
Our local nudists are running wild
From the magazine
Forties’ love: tennis serves me a perfect midlife crisis
From the magazine
Welcome to Transnistria: the country that’s not a country
From Spectator LifeI’ve been on holiday to a country that doesn’t officially exist. It has its own border, passport, flag, currency and army but no one recognises it – not even its main sponsor, Vladimir Putin. Transnistria is sandwiched between its proper motherland Moldova – which is itself really Romania – and Ukraine, which Putin thinks is part of his motherland. Confused? It doesn’t get any easier. In 1992 there was a short war between the newly created state of Moldova and separatist, ethnic Russians which resulted in nearly 1,000 deaths and the breakaway ‘country’ (via a peace accord) policed by Russian ‘peacekeepers’.
Four bets for the weekend and Royal Ascot
From Spectator Life
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Dire straits
The Hormuz crisis is about to cause huge economic turmoil
Burnham’s fate will be decided in the Strait of Hormuz
In the last few days, the government has performed two extraordinary about-turns. On Tuesday, it was revealed that the Treasury is covertly pressuring supermarkets to freeze prices on essential goods. This was odd: when Rishi Sunak floated a similar idea as prime minister, the Labour opposition accused him of acting like Ted Heath. On Wednesday, we woke up to even stranger news: Keir Starmer would be lifting some sanctions on Russian oil to ease our supply problems. This is a prime minister who has spent the past year telling anyone who will listen that Nigel Farage is in league with Vladimir Putin; a prime minister who loves nothing more than being pictured with Volodymyr Zelensky on the steps of No. 10. So how do you explain these two politically painful manoeuvres?
Burnham’s fate will be decided in the Strait of Hormuz
In the last few days, the government has performed two extraordinary about-turns. On Tuesday, it was revealed that the Treasury is covertly pressuring supermarkets to freeze prices on essential goods. This was odd: when Rishi Sunak floated a similar idea as prime minister, the Labour opposition accused him of acting like Ted Heath. On Wednesday, we woke up to even stranger news: Keir Starmer would be lifting some sanctions on Russian oil to ease our supply problems. This is a prime minister who has spent the past year telling anyone who will listen that Nigel Farage is in league with Vladimir Putin; a prime minister who loves nothing more than being pictured with Volodymyr Zelensky on the steps of No. 10. So how do you explain these two politically painful manoeuvres?
‘Being a Labour mayor in Manchester is playing politics on easy mode’: Is Andy Burnham up to the job of PM?
The performative hypocrisy of the pro-Palestine mob
Cultural amnesia explains our fury at the past
What lists of our greatest novels get wrong
Culture
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Derek Jacobi on playing Lucian Freud
From the magazineLucian Freud almost had a second career in the cinema. He acted as an extra in a couple of films during the early 1940s; the only one in which he made the final cut was a farce starring the ukulele-playing comedian George Formby in which his 19-year-old face can be seen peering out of the background in one scene. Years later, Lucian claimed, John Huston asked him if he’d like to play the part of his grandfather Sigmund in a biographical screen drama from 1962 entitled Freud: The Secret Passion (which had, at one point, a script by Jean-Paul Sartre). Eventually Montgomery Clift was cast instead, which was just as well because Freud was definitely an observer rather than a performer.
I’m done with Rivals
From the magazineWhy is this Tudor drama full of swearing?
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Joy and melancholy from Tame Impala
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What have they done to Tom & Jerry?
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The Arts Council’s awful vision for the future of opera
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The Venice Biennale was just that bit worse than usual
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‘‘I’m sorry, Marjorie – I just don’t have the headspace for this.’’
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‘‘It’s ok, ladies, we’re left-wing men!’’
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‘‘I’ve decided to dedicate the rest of my life to saving the pub.’’
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