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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?
Diary / My first act as prime minister
Oxford university / The performative hypocrisy of the pro-Palestine mob
Books / How Rupert Murdoch destroyed the innocent enjoyment of watching sport
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All the latest analysis of the day's news
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
Starmer’s sanctions U-turn will put money in the Kremlin’s pocket
AI paranoia has come for fiction
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‘The progressives killed Labour’: Maurice Glasman on why Starmer failed | Quite right!
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Spectator Life
An intelligent mix of culture, food, style and property, plus where to go and what to see.
Is the end of writing finally upon us?
From Spectator Life
The National Trust needs children more than ever
From Spectator Life
Your hormones aren’t linked to the stars
From Spectator Life
The steady rise of ‘Slow TV’
From Spectator Life
Forties’ love: tennis serves me a perfect midlife crisis
From the magazineThere comes a time when every man must choose how to tackle an impending midlife crisis. A Maserati? A marathon? A mistress? Lacking the wealth, stamina or sheer Italian-ness for any of the above, I’ve plumped for that most gentile of sports to feel alive again: tennis. The problem with a new hobby, of course, is that you immediately feel more infantile than raffishly young. Picking up fresh skills means relearning how to learn, decades after university, when you actually had the appetite for self-improvement. Sure, tennis is, as studies have found, one of the most effective activities for staying healthy. It’s also infuriatingly finicky. Technique-wise, I can fire off a decent groundstroke (forehand and backhand), thanks to lessons as a mopey teen.
I gave up drinking. Don’t call me teetotal
From Spectator Life
Magazine
This week's magazine
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.’’
Cartoon
‘‘It’s ok, ladies, we’re left-wing men!’’
Cartoon
‘‘I’ve decided to dedicate the rest of my life to saving the pub.’’
Cartoon
