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Dire straits
The Hormuz crisis is about to cause huge economic turmoil
King of the north / ‘Being a Labour mayor in Manchester is playing politics on easy mode’: Is Andy Burnham up to the job of PM?
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Watch: Rachel Reeves heckled by white van driver
Fifa’s Iran flag ban is a new low
Why is Bridget Phillipson teaming up with a Towie star?
Keir Starmer is resigned to resigning
HS2 is a national scandal
Trump’s Nato troop reduction isn’t Europe’s biggest problem
It’s no surprise Starmer’s ‘pompous’ tone annoys voters
Watch: Sir Keir Starmer hails trade deal with ‘North Korea’
The Nova exhibition is a glimpse into the abyss of humanity
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‘The progressives killed Labour’: Maurice Glasman on why Starmer failed | Quite right!
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‘It’s all small plates because the girls are the main course’: Rhino at The Windmill reviewed
From the magazine
I gave up drinking. Don’t call me teetotal
From Spectator Life
Is the end of writing finally upon us?
From Spectator Life
The National Trust needs children more than ever
From Spectator Life
Our local nudists are running wild
From the magazineDante’s Beach, Ravenna It was midnight, more or less, and my middle daughter, Magdalena, 18, said with all the untroubled bravado of youth: ‘Let’s go and find il rospo!’ She was at the wheel of the Land Rover Defender and we were involved in a nocturnal driving lesson. Rospo is Italian for toad. And if you say ‘Dio Rospo’ (‘Toad God’), that’s blasphemy, so as a good Catholic she doesn’t, whereas, as a bad one, I do because it is funny, as God would surely agree. ‘Il rospo’ is our family nickname for the fat man with the eyes of a dead person who emerges after dark in the village thanks to the theft of part of our beautiful beach by highly trained nudists.
Forties’ love: tennis serves me a perfect midlife crisis
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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
The good, the bad and the ugly in books, exhibitions, cinema, TV, dance, music, podcasts and theatre.
I’m done with Rivals
From the magazineEverybody has been raving about Legends, the Netflix series about undercover customs officers in the 1990s busting a heroin ring. But even though it’s ‘based on a true story’, there are times when it feels more like a histrionically implausible, over-reverential recruitment drive for HM Customs and Excise. ‘Thought they were just those men in white shirts embarrassing you at the airport by exposing the stash of cheap baccy hidden in your holiday underwear? Think again!’, you can imagine the tagline running. The model here, of course, would be Top Gun – the 1986 movie, heavily supported by the US military, which supposedly caused the number of men applying to become US Navy fighter pilots to increase by 500 per cent (a figure that’s since been debunked).
Why is this Tudor drama full of swearing?
From the magazineJoy and melancholy from Tame Impala
From the magazine
What have they done to Tom & Jerry?
From the magazine
The Arts Council’s bleak vision for the future of opera
From the magazine
The Venice Biennale was just that bit worse than usual
From the magazine
Another heroic freethinker is wiped from Russian history
From the magazine
Cartoons
‘‘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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