Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Ross King

Are we failing to learn the lesson from Ancient Rome's riches-to-rags tale?

Today’s tech billionaires, property tycoons and hedge-fund titans have nothing on the ancient Romans. Julius Caesar, who plundered Gaul for both gold and slaves – at one point selling 53,000 captives from a single tribe – had a fortune valued at $5.4 trillion (£4.1 trillion). His wealth was on a scale that makes today’s billionaires look modest. Caesar’s riches were so great that he was worth more than Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Larry Ellison combined. His fortune was inherited by his great-nephew, Octavian, who, as Augustus, added to the family pot: by seizing Egypt he became, arguably, the richest man of all time. Even the sternest Roman

Yardena Schwartz

How the first Palestinian leader became a Nazi war criminal

If the founding leader of the Palestinian national movement had been wanted for Nazi war crimes, you might assume this would figure in every modern debate about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Yet one of the darkest, most inconvenient facts of twentieth-century history has remained strangely peripheral: the intimate alliance between the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, and the Nazi regime. The founding father of the Palestinian cause was an unapologetic Nazi collaborator who abetted an actual genocide Many have seen the image of Husseini meeting with Adolf Hitler in Berlin in 1941. Yet few know what they discussed and what Husseini went on to do for the Third Reich.

Sergey Radchenko

The Ukraine war pessimists were proven right this year

As the Russian-Ukrainian full-scale war nears its fourth anniversary, Vladimir Putin looks confident, even cocky. It is not that he has achieved great breakthroughs on the battlefield. The Russians have managed, haltingly, to occupy a little more of Donbas, but one would have to zoom in on the map to see these gains, which amount perhaps to 1 per cent of the (now hopelessly ruined) Ukrainian territory – paid for with hundreds of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers. True, these things are never linear, and no one could rule out that this war of attrition will still lead to Ukraine’s military defeat. Putin probably feels that the goal is

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Why is Alaa Abd el-Fattah's return a 'top priority' for Keir Starmer?

Apparently it has been a “top priority” for Keir Starmer and his government, since the moment they came to office, to return Alaa Abd el-Fattah to the United Kingdom. A man granted British citizenship only in December 2021. A man who had previously described Britons as “british dogs and monkeys”, who wrote that he “rejoice[s] when US soldiers are killed, and support[s] killing zionists even civilians”, and who declared, without equivocation, “I’m a violent person who advocated the killing of all zionists including civilians, so fuck of [sic]”. Top priority. The Prime Minister’s enthusiasm was echoed in chorus. Yvette Cooper expressed her ‘delight’. Hamish Falconer assured the world that ‘the

Today

Brendan O’Neill

Keir Starmer will regret gushing over Alaa Abd el-Fattah

‘Top priority.’ Those two words in Keir Starmer’s tweet about Alaa Abd el-Fattah stung the hardest. What an affront to the country. On Boxing Day, as people came down from Christmas revelry that they could ill-afford, here was their prime minister prioritising the wellbeing of an Egyptian loudmouth most Britons couldn’t name. Rarely has the PM’s remoteness been so starkly exposed. ‘I’m delighted that Alaa Abd el-Fattah is back in the UK,’ Starmer wrote on X, following the arrival of the Egyptian activist who was jailed by the Sisi regime for spreading ‘fake news’. He will come to regret this gushing tweet. Abd el-Fattah is the author of racist tweets

Yesterday

Rory Hanrahan

Why pubs shouldn't ban Labour MPs

In Britain’s public houses, a rebellion is brewing. Landlords, hit hard by the Labour government’s fiscal measures – higher employer National Insurance, slashed business rates relief, and policies that threaten closures – have started discussing boycotts. The plan: bar Labour MPs from the premises as a protest against the erosion of the hospitality sector. As a pub manager approached to join this effort, I’ve considered it carefully. Yet I must reject it. Such a ban, however appealing in frustration, is anti-conservative and undermines the pub’s role as a neutral space. The plan: bar Labour MPs from the premises as a protest against the erosion of the hospitality sector The facts

Klaus Dodds

The battle for Antarctic krill is about to get uglier

Krill – the small, shrimp-like crustacean – is a keystone species. It underpins the marine ecosystem of the Southern Ocean, where it is estimated that between 300 and 500 million tonnes of them live. They are consumed by marine animals, including whales, seals and penguins, as well as fish and squid. But is krill now at risk of being overfished? And are the warnings of conservationists being ignored by countries more interested in making a quick profit? Nowadays, krill features in dietary supplements, livestock food and pet food. It is also processed to produce fish food for use in aquariums and aquacultures. The global krill industry was valued at well over

Robin Ashenden

How Badenoch bounced back

One of the origin stories about Kemi Badenoch’s career as politician is that, while waiting to be interviewed as candidate for Saffron Walden, she sat alone, listening through headphones to Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger’ – that pounding, sinew-stiffening theme to Rocky III. Given the ups and downs of her year as leader – not unlike a Rocky film in itself – it now seems a prescient choice of song. Kemi, in the past month, has finally come out punching. It was Badenoch’s tour de force response to Rachel Reeves’s Budget of Broken Promises, that seemed to change her fortunes Perhaps the wait was unavoidable – few newly-elected party leaders

Piotr Wilczek

Britain doesn't need to become great again – it already is

After three-and-a-half years as Poland’s ambassador in London, I’ve come home with two strong impressions. The first: the United Kingdom remains one of the most astonishing places in the world. The second: the British are suddenly, and oddly, intent on convincing themselves it isn’t. Everywhere I went — dinner parties in Hampstead, conversations with taxi drivers — the refrain was the same: ‘This country is finished’ Everywhere I went — dinner parties in Hampstead, opinion columns in the Guardian, even conversations with taxi drivers — the refrain was the same: ‘This country is finished.’ The trains are late, the NHS is on its knees, the education system is in meltdown, the

Michael Gove

Year in Review 2025 – Live

32 min listen

From scandals and cabinet chaos to Trumpian antics and the ‘special’ relationship that some say is anything but, The Spectator presents The Year in Review – a look back at the funniest and most tragic political moments of 2025. Join The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove, deputy editor Freddy Gray, political editor Tim Shipman, deputy political editor James Heale and parliamentary sketch-writer Madeline Grant, along with special guests, who’ll all share their favourite moments from the past 12 months.

Michael Gove

From Porn Britannia to Political Chaos: The Spectator’s Year in Review

31 min listen

The Spectator’s senior editorial team – Michael Gove, Freddy Gray, Lara Prendergast and William Moore – sit down to reflect on 2025. From Trump’s inauguration to the calamitous year for Labour, a new Pope and a new Archbishop of Canterbury, and the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the year has not been short of things to write about. The team take us through their favourite political and cultural topics highlighted in the magazine this year, from the Assisted Dying debate, the ongoing feud over Your Party and Reform’s plan for power, to Scuzz Nation, Broke Britain – and Porn Britannia. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.  

Friday

Mark Solomons

Save our Boxing Day football

Football’s race to destroy the sport’s finest traditions has surpassed itself, yet again. For the annual Boxing Day feast of top-flight football – something which has been part of the game’s calendar since 1913 – has been all but wiped out. This year there is only one Premier League match: Manchester United vs. Newcastle United. Once again, football fans are paying the price We shouldn’t be surprised by the death of Boxing Day football. The last few years have seen TV bosses, club owners and the Premier League itself try and suck the joy out of the game for supporters, particularly those of us who actually go to matches. Interminable

christmas markets europe
Clarissa Hard

How terrorism changed Christmas

Christmas is traditionally a time of joy, merriment and peace on Earth. Not so in the little town of Erbach, Germany, this year, where depraved individuals destroyed a living nativity scene, tortured two donkeys, vandalised and looted the Christmas market, and proceeded to smash up and defecate in a nearby Protestant church. Tidings of comfort indeed.  No luck in central Brussels, either, where the head of a baby Jesus was removed and stolen from a nativity scene. Another Jesus met a similar fate in Amiens, France. The plexiglass was smashed, the infant’s head knocked off, and other nativity figures damaged. The perplexed president of the neighbourhood committee informed a radio station that ‘the nativity scene has existed

Thursday

Alexander Larman

The King’s speech hit the wrong note

When the King delivered this year’s traditional Christmas Day speech – the fourth he has now given – he chose to break with convention by delivering it not from the usual surroundings of Buckingham Palace, but from the Lady Chapel in Westminster Abbey. It is unfortunate, then, that it is royal-adjacent ladies of quite another kind who are presently on the public’s mind, thanks to the recent revelations that Charles’s younger brother supposedly implored Ghislaine Maxwell to find him ‘new inappropriate friends’ in August 2001: the latest in a series of embarrassing and damaging revelations about the former Prince Andrew’s behaviour that resulted in his being stripped of his royal

Rupert Shortt

The revolutionary meaning of Christmas

As stale as it is flawed, the Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee’s view of Christmas nonetheless encapsulates secularist scepticism in revealing ways. Published three years ago, her broadside is a variation on complaints voiced every December in allied quarters for many decades. ‘Much as I dislike most Christian belief, the iconography of star, stable, manger, kings and shepherds to greet a new baby is a universal emblem of humanity . . . But the rest of it, I find loathsome. Why wear the symbol of a barbaric torture? Martyrdom is a repugnant virtue, so too the imposition of perpetual guilt.’ The Christian conviction is that God remakes human nature by defenceless love, rather

Wednesday

Druin Burch

The welcome tyranny of Christmas cheer

In 1946, buoyed by post-War optimism, the World Health Organisation adopted a famous definition. Health, it declared, was more than the mere absence of disease or infirmity, it was ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being’. A beautiful and tyrannical idea, sentimentally idealistic and setting an impossible standard for human lives. In these qualities of cheerful and unreasonable despotism, it resembles Christmas. Our wish to make kids happy at Christmas turns us into untiring fifth columnists of festive tyranny On the first of November, collecting my cardboard cup of coffee in Costa, I noticed it was decorated with a festive scene. I scowled, which comes naturally, but felt

Marcus Solarz Hendriks

Prepare for ‘unpeace’ in the Middle East

On several occasions this year, US President Donald Trump has suggested that, thanks to his dealmaking prowess, long-coveted ‘peace in the Middle East’ may well be nigh. Yet 2026 is more likely to witness ‘unpeace’ in the region, as the long tail of the Iran-Israel conflict creates further instability and impedes the construction of a more stable order. ‘Unpeace’ is an Anglo-Saxon concept which describes the liminal point between open conflict and stability. The perennial cycle of war and peace that characterised the Early Medieval period would certainly be familiar to those living in the Middle East today. Equally, the Anglo-Saxons would recognise the persistent violence – in Gaza, the

Tuesday

Stephen Daisley

Starmer has nothing going for him

Why would anyone support this government? Keir Starmer has a near-invincible majority, a divided opposition and 14 years of Tory-managed decline against which to define his project. Problem is he doesn’t have a project, or a plan, or, at this rate, a policy.  Tim Shipman reveals that Labour will U-turn on inheritance tax changes which have been branded a ‘family farm tax’. The threshold will increase from £1 million to £2.5m, or £5m if there is a surviving spouse, which addresses many of the objections raised by farmers.  It joins a growing litany of policies jettisoned by a government that takes fright at public and especially backbench opposition. Labour has reversed course

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Iran has a ceaseless obsession with Israel

When Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Florida at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in a few days’ time, near the top of his agenda will be a sober accounting of Iranian military activity and what it may yet presage. He will brief the President on a sustained sequence of Iranian ballistic-missile drills conducted across multiple regions, the visible movement of missile units, launchers and support infrastructure by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Israel’s assessment that these actions serve a dual purpose. They resemble routine exercises in form, yet replicate with unnerving fidelity the preparations that would precede an actual strike. At the same time, they reflect a discernible Iranian shift toward

Tim Shipman

Starmer caves to the farmers

The government has delivered an early Christmas present to farmers by modifying the new rules on inheritance tax. Or that’s one way of looking at it. The other is that it’s a huge political U-turn, the latest of many, after months of digging in and insisting there was nothing to see here. Following talks last week between Keir Starmer and Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers Union, the government has increased the threshold at which IHT will apply from £1 million to £2.5 million. It allows spouses to pass on £5 million worth of assets between them before being hit by inheritance tax. The number of estates affected

Gareth Roberts

Where is the pop culture rage at Keir Starmer?

Keir Starmer is unpopular. You may have noticed this from his record-breakingly low approval ratings. The weekend just gone brought pungent public confirmation: booing at the mention of his name at the Royal Variety performance at the Albert Hall and a spirited chant among the crowd at the World Darts Championship at Alexandra Palace, which threw an accusation of onanism on to the critical palette. This is not a new phenomenon. You will remember that George Osborne was booed at the Olympics. And older readers will recall that Margaret Thatcher’s name was greeted with hisses and rumbles even in politer times. But above the street level, in the broad flow

Matthew Bowles

A Green Christmas would be more awful than you could imagine

It is remarkable how a country can adjust to diminished expectations. Think of Japan post-Fukushima, or even post-war Britain under rationing. By December 2029, Britain, governed by the Green-Your Party coalition under prime minister Zack Polanski, will have quickly learned how to make do with very little. Let’s wind forward four years. Four years from now, Polanski’s new government has spent its initial months in power congratulating itself on an historic decision to decommission all North Sea oil and gas sites and accelerate the phase-out of nuclear power. ‘A Christmas gift to the planet,’ ministers call it as they do the rounds on Good Morning Britain, Newsnight and PoliticsJOE. Yet, energy, it

Lucy Dunn

Stephen Flynn: Reform can learn from the SNP

Stephen Flynn’s Westminster group may consist of only nine MPs, but the SNP has still managed to make its mark in London. Flynn’s performance in Prime Minister’s Questions – when his group get a question – has marked him out as a savvy political operator and earned him grudging respect from politicians from all sides of the Chamber. The SNP has used parliamentary procedure to pile pressure on Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government – the Gaza vote last year, for example, saw the PM suspend six politicians, one of whom has now gone on to form her own new party. Ahead of an election year in Scotland, the SNP has