Society

Thursday

Tim Shipman

‘We must not be the Tory party 2.0’: Nigel Farage on his plans for power

Nigel Farage is signing football shirts when I arrive at Reform’s campaign headquarters in Millbank Tower, the building where New Labour prepared for power before 1997. The black shirts are emblazoned with ‘Farage 10’ in gold. ‘Someone called them Nazi colours,’ the leader complains. ‘This always happens when we do well.’ As favourite to be the next prime minister, Farage is sanguine. ‘They’re a special edition, £350 each.’ How many is he signing? ‘—king hundreds,’ he says, pulling his punches on the profanity. Seven hundred to be precise, a cool £245,000 for party coffers. This is the same week the party registers a £9 million donation from the crypto millionaire

Melvyn Bragg

My farewell to In Our Time

I set up In Our Time 27 years ago. I had been shunted from Start the Week to what was cheerfully known as the ‘death slot’, 9 a.m. on Thursdays, because BBC management decided I could no longer present that programme after becoming a member of the House of Lords. I know I’ve said it before elsewhere, but its success from those inauspicious beginnings was very fulfilling for me. I decided to retire from IoT in September. I will miss it as it gave me a tremendous education, but I know it will be in very good hands – Misha Glenny is a first-class broadcaster and writer. While passing on

Rod Liddle

The year wokery went into decline

We will remember 2025 as the year that a madness which had gripped us for a decade finally succumbed to that most irritating of things, reality – and the edifice it had built began to crumble like a 1970s brutalist building constructed from high alumina cement. It is not quite the case that woke is over, as Piers Morgan believes, simply that its appurtenances have become despised and those who shout most loudly in favour of its idiotic shibboleths are confined to a smaller and smaller tranche of far-left delusionals. The decision of the Supreme Court in April that the word ‘sex’ as used in the Equality Act should refer

Charles Moore

Should I wear a burka in the House of Lords?

On Advent Sunday, our grandson Christian became a Christian. He was baptised, sleeping, in the font of our parish church. On the whiteboard in the maternity ward, the newborn’s name beneath his was Mohamed. As is usual (and, in my view, preferable) nowadays, he was christened in the middle of the communion rather than separately. As is less usual, the rite was that of the Book of Common Prayer, ‘The Ministration of Publick Baptism of Infants’. It is tougher than the modern version. The godparents, in the name of the child, had to ‘renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all

Matthew and Camila McConaughey

Santa Pants: a cocktail recipe by Matthew and Camila McConaughey

Our Santa Pants cocktail is one of our go-to holiday pours when hosting at this time of year. Made with our organic tequila and ginger beer, cranberry juice and fresh lime, it brings all the sparkle and cheer of the season. It is like Christmas in a glass. And while the world doesn’t need another celebrity tequila, it could use a shot of fun. So this Christmas, enjoy yourself and keep the holiday spirit flowing. Here’s how to make it. Ingredients for one serving – 60ml Pantalones Organic Tequila – 60ml cranberry juice – 15ml lime juice – Top with ginger beer – Garnish: sugar rim, cranberries, rosemary Rim the

Toby Young

I spend more on wine than I do on my mortgage

The first time I got drunk was at a wedding. I was 12 or thereabouts and sick in the taxi on the way home. I’d like to say that set the pattern for my behaviour at weddings thereafter, but it goes way beyond that. (My Uber rating is not good.) I acquired a taste for alcohol that’s stayed with me ever since. Other intoxicants have come and gone, but I’ve always returned to my first love. Which, to be clear, is wine. That first illicit tipple was Babycham – which is basically wine, right? – so perhaps my lifelong passion has been an attempt to recreate that childhood pleasure. As

Joan Collins

LA lacks London’s Christmas spirit

‘Never again!’ I sigh every 6 January, as I pack away the abundance of Christmas decorations and baubles lovingly collected over the decades. ‘It’s too much!’ I moan to Percy. ‘Let’s go to a hot island next year and get away from it all…’ But I never do, because I just love Christmas. Every year in early November I eagerly unpack multiple boxes tenderly packed two years earlier, and the reason is because we like to spend Christmas in London one year and in LA the next, as we love both cities. I have quite a lot of extended family in each, so we know that celebrating in either one

Douglas Murray

The pleasure of not knowing

A few years ago the podcaster Lex Fridman published a list of books that he was hoping to read in the year ahead. It included works by George Orwell, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Hermann Hesse and others. If he had published this in the world of print media he might have got back some encouraging noises. But because he put the list online – worse, on the platform then still known as Twitter – he received mostly mockery. ‘Who hasn’t read Animal Farm?’ was the general tenor of the blowback, as though a man who had been a researcher at MIT was next to being a neanderthal. I watched that passing storm

The Spectator

Who inspired Winnie-the-Pooh?

Pooh-pooh Christmas Eve marks the 100th birthday of Winnie-the-Pooh, which first appeared in a short story in the Evening News on that day.   The character was inspired by a bear bought by a Canadian vet, Harry Colebourn, at a railway station in Ontario on his way to serve on the Western Front – he named it Winnipeg Bear after his home town. The animal became the unofficial mascot of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade on its voyage across the Atlantic, but on arrival in London he gave it to London Zoo, where it was seen by A.A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin. The real animal, however, was female

Her Majesty The Queen

My favourite books to give at Christmas

As Christmas approaches and we wrack our brains to find something that suits everyone, there is no present quite like a book. Whether it’s an unputdownable novel, a heart-stopping crime series, a thought-provoking biography or a collection of beautiful poetry, a book provides an escape, the perfect antidote to the hurly-burly of everyday life and, above all, hours and hours of pleasure. Here are half a dozen of my favourites, previously recommended on my Queen’s Reading Room, which you might like to add to your Christmas present list… or (if preferred) keep for yourself! The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard This is a series of books that I return

Wednesday

Madeline Grant

Keir Starmer is not waving but drowning at PMQs

Benjamin Disraeli once observed that the difference between a misfortune and a calamity was that if Mr Gladstone fell in the Thames it would be a misfortune, but if someone pulled him out it would be a calamity. As the government moves indisputably from being victims of misfortune to being agents of calamity, so we might recycle the quip about Sir Keir Starmer. The Prime Minister today entered his ‘not waving but drowning’ era. And he is, to use the sort of girlboss gibbering signalling which his MPs routinely resort to, slaying it. Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was, deliciously, one of his worst yet. Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was, deliciously,

Patrick West

Pantone’s 'colour of the year' isn't racist

For those of you dreaming of a white Christmas, here’s some advice: keep your thoughts to yourselves. Or at least select carefully who you share such sentiments with. That’s because there are some people today who even find the concept ‘white’ offensive and unacceptable. For those of you dreaming of a white Christmas, here’s some advice: keep your thoughts to yourselves Pantone has nominated a shade of white – ‘Cloud Dancer’ – as its 2026 ‘Colour of the Year’, describing it as ‘a symbol of calming influence in a frenetic society’. That alone would seem unremarkable, seeming to be just one of those harmless and inane corporate publicity ruses that

Ross Clark

The special needs racket is out of control

We are, as vicars like to tell us, all special in our own way. But none so much as children in Scottish primary schools, 43 per cent of whom are classified as having special needs. This can entitle them to extra tuition and, when they are older, extra time in exams. The expansion of Send is diverting resources from genuine special needs pupils as well as from classrooms in general If ever we needed more evidence that special educational needs and disabilities (Send) is a runaway juggernaut that is bringing the education system to its knees, this is it. Children are routinely being made out to be disabled in some

Stephen Bayley

The Great British Railways trains are an abomination

Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, has revealed new train designs for the nationalised Great British Railways. By next spring, a train looking like a nursery school project will be arriving at a station near you. According to Alexander, the Union Jack-based design supposedly ‘represents a new railway, casting off the frustrations of the past and focused entirely on delivering a proper public service for passengers.’ As far as its appearance is concerned, it would have been better if it was not so much on time, as cancelled entirely. The design is an advertisement of failure The physicist Wolfgang Pauli once rejected a student’s thesis, saying ‘It’s not even wrong’. He meant

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

From grooming gangs to maternity safety: how the British state is failing

Is anyone happy with the latest maternity safety report, published by Baroness Amos today? The former UN diplomat says the standard of care that she has found so far in the NHS has been ‘much worse’ than she’d anticipated. This is quite striking, given the appalling findings of the many reviews that have already taken place into failings in maternity units across England. You might expect this review to merely have confirmed what has already been uncovered. From grooming gangs to maternity safety to unsafe housing, the intrays of Whitehall are groaning under ‘recommendations’ But many campaigners have responded to Amos’s interim report with a weariness and frustration. Victims of

Druin Burch

Is racism to blame for the NHS maternity crisis?

‘Nothing prepared me,’ said Baroness Amos as she released her ‘reflections and initial impressions’ about England’s maternity and neonatal services, ‘for the scale of unacceptable care that women and families have received, and continue to receive, the tragic consequences for their babies, and the impact on their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing.’ Amos’s words today paint a bleak picture of English maternity services, staffed by people who often don’t care, don’t listen, and deliver worse outcomes for the working class and people who aren’t white. It’s a picture that many parents – including myself – recognise. But is it right to suggest that black mums are being discriminated by the

Brendan O’Neill

Why were these Afghan rapists even in Britain?

Everything about that rape of a 15-year-old girl in Leamington Spa is horrifying. First and foremost, the barbaric act itself. It took place on 10 May. Just after 9pm the girl was separated from her friends and abducted by Jan Jahanzeb, a 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker. He frogmarched her to a darkened park with the intention of sexually assaulting her. If officialdom had done what voters have begged it to, and properly policed our borders, these young men might not have made it here Then there was Jahanzeb’s sickening phone call to his friend, Israr Niazal. ‘Come quick’, he said. Come and help me rape this girl – that’s what

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Piers Morgan fell into Nick Fuentes’s trap

When Michael Gove introduced me to Piers Morgan last week at the Spectator Christmas reception, Morgan seized my hand and beamed, ‘I know Jonathan. We’re old friends.’ This was generous of him, not least because it isn’t true. We’d met once before, briefly. But some months earlier I had written a critique of his YouTube show for The Spectator which, to judge by his response, he did not enjoy. He called me a ‘disingenuous twerp’ on X and blocked me there. He then wrote a piece in the magazine entitled, ‘In defence of Piers Morgan, by Piers Morgan’. I mention this not to litigate any grievance, but in the interest of full

David Shipley

The open borders crime scandal

On 10 May this year a 15-year-old girl was with friends near parkland on the outskirts of Leamington Spa. Shortly after 9 p.m. she was separated from those friends and abducted by Jan Jahanzeb, a 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who arrived in the UK in January. The victim had the quick thinking to record the start and aftermath on her phone, so footage of the incident exists. As a result we know that while she was being taken away from her friends, the girl screamed for help, but Jahanzeb placed his hand over her mouth. Every single one of these horrific crimes is not just a tragedy. Every single one

Damian Thompson

How was Commercial Christmas born?

31 min listen

Historian and writer Charles Coulombe joins Damian Thompson to talk about how Christmas has changed over the past two centuries, the differences between Catholic and Anglican Christmas – and how a modern, commercial Christmas developed over time. Plus, he takes us through the origins of Christmas traditions from Christmas trees to Advent and whether we should say ‘Happy’ or ‘Merry’ Christmas.