Burnham and Powell want to bring back stupid
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Vibes / It’s amazing how far Burnham has got by not being Keir Starmer
Hospital pass / Why a ‘social care levy’ is a bad idea
Post-literate / Does Lucy Powell really think ‘knight’ is an obscure word?
Pop / Wet Leg have become a proper rock band
Drink / A toast to my good health
Any other business / The cinema is back
Bowled over / Lord’s is better than the Oval
That's amore / Do I need an ‘attachment coach’?
Drive ex machina / AI’s come for our carmakers
Pop / Wet Leg have become a proper rock band
Drink / A toast to my good health
Any other business / The cinema is back
Bowled over / Lord’s is better than the Oval
From Spectator Life
That's amore / Do I need an ‘attachment coach’?
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Drive ex machina / AI’s come for our carmakers
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Exception française / Patrick Bruel and the death of French seduction
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All the latest analysis of the day's news
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Spectator Life
An intelligent mix of culture, food, style and property, plus where to go and what to see.
Lord’s is better than the Oval
From Spectator Life
What on earth would you cook for Meghan?
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Reading isn’t dead
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Hell is a holiday resort
From Spectator Life
AI’s come for our carmakers
From Spectator LifeDuring the first half of this year, Chinese carmakers achieved a feat of hyper-production that sounds less like industrial manufacturing and more like a plague of locusts. In just six months, they unveiled 650 new models – an average of four brand-new cars every day. At the same time, on the other side of the Pacific, Elon Musk abandoned Tesla’s car assembly lines. He retooled the entire factory to mass-produce the Optimus humanoid robot. What on earth is happening to the world’s car industry? These two bizarre developments seem to signal the end of the global automotive industry as we know it. The age of spanner-wielding, oily-fingered car worker emerging from under a jacked-up rolling chassis appears to have been vaporised.
Do I need an ‘attachment coach’?
From Spectator Life
Magazine
This week's magazine
Simply red
Andy Burnham’s centrist act isn’t fooling anyone
Andy Burnham’s centrist act isn’t fooling anyone
When Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood arrived in Downing Street on Monday afternoon, the image of political rivals arm in arm symbolised a new government of differing views taking shape. It might have been more awkward. As they neared the door of No. 10 and the waiting television cameras, Miliband turned to Mahmood and asked: ‘Should we turn around for a photo together?’ Mahmood gave the idea short shrift: ‘We’re not getting married, Ed!’ But in a sense Labour is seeking a new relationship with the British public and everyone around Andy Burnham is alive to the importance of images, symbols and vibes. As Wes Streeting, the new Defence Secretary, put it in cabinet on Tuesday: ‘We have a second chance to make a first impression with the voters.
Andy Burnham’s centrist act isn’t fooling anyone
When Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood arrived in Downing Street on Monday afternoon, the image of political rivals arm in arm symbolised a new government of differing views taking shape. It might have been more awkward. As they neared the door of No. 10 and the waiting television cameras, Miliband turned to Mahmood and asked: ‘Should we turn around for a photo together?’ Mahmood gave the idea short shrift: ‘We’re not getting married, Ed!’ But in a sense Labour is seeking a new relationship with the British public and everyone around Andy Burnham is alive to the importance of images, symbols and vibes. As Wes Streeting, the new Defence Secretary, put it in cabinet on Tuesday: ‘We have a second chance to make a first impression with the voters.
Culture
The good, the bad and the ugly in books, exhibitions, cinema, TV, dance, music, podcasts and theatre.
A Sound of Music with brains as well as heart
From the magazineIf you’re interested in how words work with music, the collected lyrics of Stephen Sondheim are an investment you’ll never regret. But Sondheim isn’t infallible, and when he writes about his mentor Oscar Hammerstein II he’s often plain wrong. Sondheim mocks one particular lyric from The Sound of Music: ‘Like a lark that is learning to pray.’ ‘Wait a minute – a lark praying?’ he snarks. But the character who sings those words is a devout young Austrian woman with a head full of Schubert and folksongs. Hammerstein is writing as Maria, not himself. It’s an art that Sondheim never quite mastered, which is why his characters – whether Swedish aristocrats or East End cannibals – all sound like New Yorkers in therapy.
Wet Leg have become a proper rock band
From the magazineThe invincibility of menopausal women in TV drama
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The finest vacuum-cleaner romance you will see
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The finest music ever composed by a Breton naval officer
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This J. Edgar Hoover musical is destined for Broadway
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The Victorian Hieronymus Bosch
From the magazine
Cartoons
‘‘How many prime ministers have I missed?’’
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‘‘He’s not the messiah, he’s a very northern boy.’’
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‘‘Andy wants to tour the country and meet some of his subjects’’
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