Angus Colwell is The Spectator’s daily newsletters editor, and lead author of Morning Press. He also reviews restaurants for the magazine.
17 min listen
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Anthony Horowitz explains why he’s no longer excited to see his name in the newspapers; James Heale tells us what the mid-term fallout means for Farage; Angus Colwell looks into why the UK's AI hopes are falling apart; and Olivia Potts muses on all things pineapples. Produced and presented by Abigail Brierley.
In January last year, Nscale, an AI company whose board includes Nick Clegg and Sheryl Sandberg, announced that a supercomputer site in Loughton, Essex was ‘scheduled to be live in Q4 2026’. Well, here we are, Q4 2026, and I am at the supercomputer site in Loughton, Essex. I don’t know what a ‘live’ supercomputer site is meant to look like, but I don’t think it is this: a barren canvas of rubble, enclosed by fencing, with weeds poking through the concrete. No one I ask has seen anything happen here, but a passer-by tells me he did see a digger once. The company has promised that the £2 billion investment will result in 250 jobs, but there seems to be just one at the moment: a man on his phone sitting in a VW Golf by the entrance.
It isn’t normal, unfortunately, to go to the pub on your own as a youngish person. There’s no real reason for that: it’s just that, if a friend saw you, they would assume you were an alcoholic. I’ve had the odd solo pint, usually while waiting for a train, but I dread, even far from home, being assumed to be on the same path as Shane MacGowan if an old acquaintance passed by the window. This is silly and I should get over myself. Of course solo drinking is fine. As Christopher Hitchens said, solitary drinks ‘can be the happiest glasses you ever drain’. But I can’t quite be bothered to lead the resistance. So what are the options if I want to decompress while out and about? Do I ride the bus in a circle? Do I find a library?
Fifteen years ago, if you were eating at 239 Brompton Road in Kensington, just over from the Oratory, you may have been enjoying steak tartare, or grilled rabbit with mustard sauce, or tête de veau, a poached portion of calf’s head with turned potatoes. This was the former premises of Racine, a French restaurant by Henry Harris, which Michael Winner said was ‘quadruple historic’. Harris now runs Bouchon Racine in Farringdon, rated the best restaurant in the country this year, after closing the Knightsbridge site in 2015. At 239 Brompton Road nowadays, on the menu you’ll find a ‘cheesecake brownie served with vanilla ice cream, Oreos and warm Nutella and Lotus Biscoff sauce’ (£10.95).
In 1757, the same year that Admiral Byng was executed pour encourager les autres, Simpson’s Tavern opened in the City of London at 38½ Cornhill. It became a popular chophouse in Georgian and Victorian London and people think it’s where Ebenezer Scrooge has dinner in A Christmas Carol. Simpson’s survived wars, pandemics and downturns, but couldn’t get through a rent dispute in 2022. At some point in that 265-year history, someone thought it was clever to outsource the job of landlord to a group of companies in Bermuda. Four years after the tavern shut, the site was bought by the restaurateurs behind Cloth, an English brasserie in Smithfield that opened in 2024.
When David Lynch’s film Mulholland Drive was released in American cinemas 25 years ago this Monday, the critic Roger Ebert rejoiced that one of Lynch’s experiments at last ‘doesn’t shatter the test tubes’. Ebert seemed delighted that Lynch had focused on some of the more prosaic aspects of filmmaking – plot, character, dialogue – instead of privileging sound and vision: he argued that his 1997 film Lost Highway was ‘about design, not cinema’. Lynch had been having a bad run. Lost Highway was largely panned by critics for being too obscure, and he responded with the 1999 road drama The Straight Story. It’s tempting to see The Straight Story as a wounded joke: the film was rated a family-friendly ‘U’.
I had this meal where I was perched on the end of a dining table inside a kitchen. My friend and I had to sit side by side. There was a dog there. I think it was a restaurant, but I’m not really sure. We were in a converted Victorian horse stable. Most of the space was outside, in the stable yard. You couldn’t book it: you had to pop your name down then head to the pub for an hour. And there were just six things on the menu, all of them cold. And the only people working there were a couple, and one waitress. And the guy from the couple went round the restaurant at the end with a bucket of his homemade vermouth, topping up people’s spritzes. And when the bill came, you just told them what you’d had.
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: James Heale reflects on Labour party conference; Angus Colwell goes on the hunt for Britain’s wokest bar; Lisa Haseldine reveals what she has been stockpiling; and Chas Newkey-Burden provides his notes on pickled onions. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.
When you hear that something represents the best of Britain, treat it as nonsense. The phrase ‘best of British’ has been used to describe the Royal Navy’s new Astute-class nuclear submarine the HMS Agamemnon, as well as Waitrose’s pork loin medallions. But turning things, people and institutions into flattering national allegories is addictive, and there’s one institution that pops up all the time: Arsenal football club. Arsenal’s sophistication, its urbane nature, its diversity, is regularly cited as a good example of British multiculturalism. A current exhibition at UCL East, ‘Black Arsenal’, says that the club has a ‘unique’ relationship with black British culture.
For this week’s Edition, Lara Prendergast is joined by the Spectator’s political editor Tim Shipman, restaurant critic Angus Colwell and Telegraph associate editor Poppy Coburn. This week: does the country want Kemi Badenoch’s tough love? Ahead of Tory party conference, Tim speaks to the Tory leader about her plans to get Britain working again. She argues that if you can work, you should; young people without a work history could be put onto a six-month ‘get to work’ scheme rather than Universal Credit. Badenoch says the Tories have spent too long worrying about being called the ‘nasty party’ and now need to plant their flag on welfare, the economy and conservative values. But while her personal fortunes have improved, has the Tory brand recovered with her?
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Tim Shipman has interviewed Kemi Badenoch ahead of Tory party conference this weekend. In the interview, the Conservative party leader exclusively reveals the Tories plan to ban benefits to under 25s who have never worked before. For this special episode of Coffee House Shots, here is an extract from the Spectator's Edition podcast, where Tim sat down with the Spectator's Lara Prendergast and Angus Colwell and the Telegraph's Poppy Coburn. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
Annalisa Quinn is an editor at the Boston Globe magazine, and through a mixture of good fortune, good journalism and good writing, she published the perfect story for our times last week. On 31 August, a lesbian bar in western Massachusetts called Last Ditch posted on Instagram that ‘it is with love we inform our immuno-compromised disabled divas we will be opening Saturday nights as mask optional’. Previously, KN-95 face masks were the minimum level of protection required to attend the bar at all times. The owners were swiftly accused of being eugenicists. One commentator said: ‘People like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience.’ Another wished the venue to be firebombed. Last Ditch attempted an apology.
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Freddy Gray delves into how a smooth-talking Democrat could win the Michigan mid-terms; Michael Simmons explores where the billionaires who leave Britain actually go; Elisabeth Braw explains how we will soon be in a battle for the sea bed; and Angus Colwell reflects on the food on offer at Reform conference. Produced and presented by Abigail Brierley.
You know what, I was looking forward to Reform’s party conference in Birmingham. Up there as a journalist, not a member, mind you. Yet you hear a lot of sighing and moaning from journalists about going to these things (never mind the fact that many would kick off if their editors didn’t let them go). What’s the matter, guys? It’s a trip away, lots of mingling, lots of material. But there’s not much in the way of good food. Not to sound like a child emperor demanding a veal sweetbread at every meal, but the offering at these things is really, really bad. And I think Reform needs to sort it out. Reform-coded conference food could be very good.
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Tali Fraser delves into why Labour’s socioeconomic duty is attacking the middle classes; John Power tells us how clipping is changing politics, Sophia Money-Coutts muses over which car would best suit her dog; and Angus Colwell spills the beans on Soho’s newest Turkish restaurant. Produced and presented by Abigail Brierley.
Well, I’m still full. That’s the first thing to know. -Probably will be at the time you read this too. It’s 16 hours since I finished dinner at Kid, and I think I might be ready to eat again at dinner tomorrow. So was it worth it? I’m writing this more quickly after the meal than usual. Why the rush? This is because, for one time only, I wanted to be the FIRST critic to review a HOT NEW OPENING. There was nothing in the papers last week, so I think I’ve done it… although the Times puts Giles Coren online on a Wednesday, and as I have to write on Tuesday, I don’t know yet. It’s an utterly pointless thing to strive for, but you’ve got to show commitment.
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Simon Sebag Montefiore explains how his ancestor dealt with antisemitism; Vanessa Feltz says she is coming for Piers Morgan; Sophia Money-Coutts argues we should cut the price of stamps to save the Christmas card; and finally, Angus Colwell takes on the Cornish culinary mafia. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.
‘Expect David Cameron to be there.’ This was the main thing I had been told before I went to Four Boys in Rock, Cornwall. As I arrive, it makes sense. This is a Cameron-y sort of place and not just because every man in here looks a bit like David Cameron. Why? Well, Cameron’s big idea as leader of the Conservative party was to modernise it. ‘We’ll get elected if we hug hoodies and manage to not pull a face when we see an avocado.’ Four Boys, with its awareness of fashion, is doing something similar. I notice something at the top of the menu when I sit down. ‘We recommend sharing our food.’ What? Small plates?! Sharing?! I’m trying to get away from east London! Yet all has been done judiciously.
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William Moore is joined by The Spectator’s associate editor Toby Young, commissioning editor Lara Brown and newsletter editor and restaurant critic Angus Colwell. This week: What has gone wrong with British universities? Lara unpacks the wider academic crisis in the wake of the Jason Arday scandal, from ‘surviving the apocalypse’ courses at Warwick to maths departments promising to ‘decolonise’ the subject. Has the sector lost its nerve? Also: Balding. Toby explains why he’s trying to talk his three sons out of hair transplants, while Angus and Lara weigh in on whether men vastly overestimate the importance of their hair on the dating market. Plus: is Indian the best cuisine?
One of the things I find most confusing is the practice of going for a curry when you’re hammered. Having tried this with friends a couple of times, I have concluded that anyone who likes the pints-then-curry act is a liar or feels so awful regularly that the feeling afterwards is nothing abnormal. There is no type of food I dislike more than bad Indian: the places where a vindaloo means three scoops of curry powder and a rogan josh means two; where onion is undetectable in the sunflower oil bhaji.
