Society

Tuesday

Alexander Larman

What is the point of Pizza Hut?

When did you last go to a Pizza Hut? It’s one of those curious groups of fast food establishments – ‘restaurant’ seems rather too grandiose a term – that fell through the reputational cracks several years, perhaps even decades, ago, and has yet to expire. It was too expensive and fancy for those who wanted a Dominos or Papa Johns, not middle-class enough for the Pizza Express habitués and, of course, its pizzas – large, American-inspired creations that were served without particular flair or engagement – could not even begin to compete with the new vogue for Neapolitan thick-crusted delights that were ushered in by the arrival of Franco Manca

Stephen Pollard

We have allowed Jew hate to take over the streets

Last night’s decision by Maccabi Tel Aviv to not take up its allocation of away tickets is deeply depressing. The statements of principle that have come from across the political spectrum, arguing that it is wrong to ban Jewish fans because of the sectarian bigotry of many in that area, are now irrelevant. Castigation of West Midlands police for deciding it was easier to tell Jews to stay away than to protect them is now wasted breath. And the work of ministers to try to facilitate the fans’ attendance has now been shown to be ineffectual.  It is now unarguable that anti-Semitism is out of hand But appalling as it

Arabella Byrne

Hands off my tumble dryer, Martin Lewis

I did not expect to have to write this, but I can say publicly and without reservation that I absolutely love my tumble dryer. I love its stern prompts to empty the lint filter or the water reservoir. I love the bossy beeping sound it makes when it has finished a cycle, asking me to stop what I am doing to attend to the fruits of its labour. Most of all though, I love the smell that this faithful matron workhorse casts around the house: a smell of clean clothes and boiled Persil. In short, the smell of domestic order. Sniff closely enough and you will detect the curious whiff

Adrian Hilton

Good riddance (or not) to George Abaraonye

It was rather sly of George Abaraonye to move the motion of no confidence in himself as president-elect of the Oxford Union. He said it was an act of ‘true accountability’, but it seemed to me more a sense of false virtue. The ballot question was: ‘Should George Abaraonye, President-Elect, be removed as an Officer of the Society?’ The franchise wasn’t limited to current students or those in the environs of Oxford who could conveniently vote in person, but was extended extraordinarily to potentially thousands of life members all over the world who could vote by proxy. This was at the request of the standing committee – at quite short

Brendan O’Neill

The shameless attempt to cover up the Amsterdam Jew hunt

I often wonder – we all do – how human beings can be made to forget terrible events. Like the Tiananmen Square massacre, wiped, just like that, from a billion minds in China. Or the burning of the Jews of Jedwabne in Poland in 1941, which lay unforgivably unremembered until the truth was dug up, literally, in the 1990s. To this list of shamefully erased horrors from history, we might now add the Jew hunt of Amsterdam in 2024. It is a crime against truth to speak of Amsterdam without mentioning the open racial hatred that fuelled the hunt for men from Israel No, the hunting of Maccabi Tel Aviv

William Moore

Best of Notes on...

29 min listen

The Best of Notes on… gathers the funniest, sharpest and most wonderfully random pieces from The Spectator’s beloved miscellany column. For more than a decade, these short, sharp essays have uncovered the intrigue in the everyday and the delight in digression. To purchase the book, go to spectator.co.uk/shop On this special episode of Spectator Out Loud, you can hear from: William Moore on jeans; Laura Freeman on Brits in Paris; Justin Marozzi on boxer shorts; Mark Mason on coming second; Michael Simmons on doner kebabs; Fergus Butler-Gallie on Friday the 13th; Hannah Tomes on rude place names; and, Margaret Mitchell on lobsters. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons, with an introduction from William Moore.

Monday

Ian Acheson

Jim Gamble is the right man to lead the grooming gang inquiry

We desperately need the national inquiry into child grooming gangs to get underway – both for the sake of the many victims and to hold both institutions and individuals to account. After months of backsliding then hopeless dithering by this government we are close to getting an inquiry chair appointed. Two candidates are in the frame, one of them is Jim Gamble. Since his name has been announced, he has been the subject of completely unwarranted attempts to blacken his reputation by casting him as an unsuitable establishment stooge. I would argue he’s exactly the sort of person we need to rip the covers off this child protection scandal. Since his

Lee Cohen

How King Charles can restore the monarchy

Britain once stood as the world’s unyielding shield – forged in Magna Carta’s fire, tempered by Elizabeth I’s resolve, and steeled by Churchill’s defiance. From across the Atlantic, where we enlightened Americans still trace our liberty to your common law and political traditions, we watch with unease as the Royal Family – once a byword for dignity and duty – slides toward unreality. These days, royal rogues have cast a reputational shadow so that Britain resembles less the Land of Hope and Glory, and more the Land of Oz. The monarchy depends on a respect that cannot coexist with double standards The misdeeds of the Yorks and Sussexes are not merely distractions. They

Laurie Wastell

The real reason Birmingham isn’t safe for Jews

The decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending their Europa League game against Aston Villa next month has led to a major row about two-tier policing. Why exactly is the arrival of several thousand Israelis in Birmingham expected to precipitate a major, violent riot? And shouldn’t West Midlands Police, rather than advising the local council that the ban should go ahead over safety concerns, have simply pledged to come out in force to allow the game to proceed as usual? The focus on the police and the ‘optics’ here has the whiff of displacement activity The outrage and apparent shock at this decision has been oddly fulsome. Sir

Stephen Pollard

Why does the Met think the Star of David is offensive?

Two years ago I started wearing a Star of David necklace, for the first time in my life. The regular weekend hate marches had led to many Jews feeling so intimidated that they no longer felt able to be in central London on Saturdays. Added to that, the more general explosion in anti-Semitic incidents was creating an atmosphere in which many were worried about showing their identity as Jews. It has long been clear that the mantra ‘anti-Semitism has no place on the streets of London’ – or anywhere else – is nonsense My reaction to such hate has always been to try to turn it on its head. So

Sam Leith

In defence of the rules-based order

The last time I saw my cousin, the former Tory MP Danny Kruger, I found myself trying to ginger him up a bit. I said, which I thought then and thought now – and which I can’t think it is betraying a confidence to say publicly – that the low state of the Conservative party was a bummer for those who sat on its benches, but also an opportunity for the likes of him.   After years of drift, venality, lurching ideological changes and idea-free opportunism, they had the chance to rebuild. Danny looked well placed to take a leading part in that project. Tory intellectuals are thin on the ground these days, and he is one. He’s certainly the only current MP who once

Sunday

Stephen Daisley

Anti-Jewish sentiment has poisoned our police

Amid the grim fluorescence of a police interview suite, a glimpse of where we are and where we are heading. The place is Hammersmith police station, the date August 30, and the time a little after 2 a.m. An unnamed lawyer in his 40s, whom we are told is Jewish, has been detained for allegedly repeatedly entering an area set aside for anti-Israel protestors.  He was there, he says, as an independent legal observer and was documenting a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in Kensington and the police response thereto. Since October 7, 2023, Jewish and pro-Israel groups have grown concerned at the Metropolitan Police’s handling of pro-Palestine marches. This

Alexander Larman

Nothing can save 'Prince' Andrew now

If the Royal Family had hoped the punishment meted out to ‘the Banned Old Duke of York’ would suffice in the court of public opinion, they would now be disappointed. Since Friday’s revelations that Prince Andrew would ‘no longer use’ his dukedom or other honours following the stream of scandals about his friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, more unedifying details have emerged. It seems that the nuclear royal option – to strip him of his princely title – grows more inevitable by the day. The nuclear royal option, to strip Andrew of his princely title, grows more inevitable by the day This final resort would undeniably be popular in many

Ian Acheson

Only Harry Potter can charm Devon's drivers

As a title, Harry Potter and the Potholes of Devon wouldn’t survive the editor’s pen – but sometimes life is more spellbinding than fiction. Just ask the villagers of Lustleigh, a few miles from where I live on Dartmoor, who have J. K. Rowling’s franchise to thank for making one of the lanes of their chocolate-box home usable again.  For years, Lustleigh residents have been cursed by gaping holes in the road surfaces. But last week the TV company HBO, which is filming in the village for its adaptation of the young wizard’s exploits, was forced to do what Devon County Council apparently couldn’t and fill in the holes on

Patrick West

Why football fans stopped watching Match of the Day

That hoary aphorism ‘be careful what you wish for’ may be a hackneyed one, but there’s nothing football pundits like more than a sagacious cliche. I dare say Gary Lineker used it on more than one occasion during his long tenure as Match of the Day presenter. And many people were glad and relieved when the lavishly-remunerated pundit was forced to relinquish that role in May, following a stream of unwise political interventions on social media. But, as the saying goes, they may now regret that their wish came true. The new direction taken by Match of the Day represents the thin end of the wedge The new incarnation of

Charles Moore

How did faith shape Thatcher?

38 min listen

How did faith shape Margaret Thatcher’s politics? To mark the centenary month of Margaret Thatcher’s birth, Damian Thompson introduces a conversation between the Spectator’s Natasha Feroze, Thatcher’s biographer Lord Moore and Bishop Chartres who delivered the eulogy at her funeral. They discuss her relationship with faith, how both her family background and her training as a scientist influenced her beliefs and her understanding of the relationship between wealth and society based on Jesus’s parables. Plus – what would Thatcher have made of the much talked about ‘Christian revival’ in the West? Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Natasha Feroze.

Saturday

Arnout Nuijt

The flag wars have come to the Netherlands

The small community of Uithoorn, just outside Amsterdam, has unexpectedly found itself on the front line of Europe’s flag wars. Late last week, Dutch national flags – in bold red, white and blue – began appearing across the town. Their purpose? Perhaps a spontaneous show of resistance to a planned asylum centre earmarked for the suburb. Or perhaps something more calculated: a shrewd piece of political theatre ahead of the country’s elections on 29 October. No one can say for sure. But the response was immediate. With Pavlovian swiftness, the town council began removing flags from public spaces – although they left those flying from private property untouched. The council

Philip Patrick

How sumo wrestling bounced back

Sumo is the featured attraction at the Royal Albert Hall this weekend in a rare foray for the ancient sport outside of its spiritual home of Japan. The five-day tournament started on Wednesday and features 40 rikishi (wrestlers) (about six-tonnes’ worth) squaring off in a specially constructed dohyo (ring). Reinforced chairs and upgraded toilets have been installed for the exclusive use of the 28-stone ‘naked ambassadors’ (as they are being called here in Japan). Like test cricket, sumo wrestling is set apart and sustained by its antiquity It has been a huge success so far. Tickets sold out long ago but can be picked up for hundreds of pounds on

Friday

Brendan O’Neill

The farce of the Maccabi ban

Tel Aviv Bemusement seems to be the main emotion in Tel Aviv following the UK’s mad ban on Maccabi fans. A Maccabi supporter sipping an espresso in bustling Dizengoff Square doesn’t get it. ‘You’re keeping the fans out because you’re worried they’ll be attacked?’ He screws up his face. ‘You should stop the attackers, not the fans.’ He has a point. Britain seems to have rustled up a novel way to deal with Jew hatred – just hide away the Jews. No Jews, no anti-Jewish mob. No Maccabi fans, no violent outbursts of Israelophobia from that unholy, unhappy union of Islamists and leftists who think Israelis are demonic. Problem solved. 

Laurie Wastell

Students shouldn’t be arrested for speech 

‘Gaza, Gaza, make us proud, put the Zios in the ground’, Oxford student Samuel Williams appeared to chant at a central London pro-Palestine demonstration last Saturday, footage of which has since gone viral on social media. In the early hours of Wednesday morning, a 20-year-old man presumed to be Williams (although this remains unconfirmed by the police) was arrested in Oxfordshire by the Metropolitan Police for stirring up racial hatred and held in custody. He was also suspended from Oxford University. That we are having this conversation at all shows the grim extent of speech restrictions Brits currently suffer under Since this is now a live case, there is a limit