Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray is associate editor of The Spectator and author of The War on the West: How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason, among other books.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

Is our Ukrainian ambassador OK?

I know the following sentence is going to get me into trouble. Still, there are times when you wonder whether highly feminised people should perform certain jobs. I am not saying ‘women’ and I am not saying ‘always’, just ‘times’. Still, I can hear you say: what sort of a dinosaur are you? Well, join me in the Jurassic period for a moment by contemplating the social media activity of our lead diplomatic representative and ambassador in the Ukraine, Melinda Simmons. Simmons is in a rather important position at present, yet her social-media account suggests otherwise. Here is Simmons a few months ago, writing on Instagram about a photograph of her at a podium with a chaplain to one side and a military guard at the other.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

This government’s greatest failure is economic

‘The main job of a government is to ensure that the economics don’t go wrong.’ So argued an economist friend of mine to me many years back. And I must admit that my first response was uncommonly cynical. ‘Well, you would say that, wouldn’t you?’ I replied. ‘You’re a political economist.’ It is to be expected. In the same way a military-defence type might say that the most vital job of government is to be able to defend these islands and project military force. Or Lulu Lytle might explain that the most important thing in government is to get the interiors right. But as the years have gone by, I have realised that my cynicism was wrong and my friend’s argument was true.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

‘Operation Red Meat’ won’t beef up the government

Are you ready for ‘Operation Red Meat’? If not, then you should brace yourself. For it looks set to be one of the most fearsome operations of modern political times, liable to make Conservative voters quiver with excitement and feel almost too stimulated. Alert readers will have noticed that Boris Johnson did not have the best end to 2021. Unfortunately he hasn’t had the best start to 2022 either. Hardly a day has gone by when we haven’t learned of some new shocker from No. 10. The impression has been not just of shambolic-ness but of dishonesty, double standards and general incompetence. The point is that the Prime Minister and the fawning court around him seem to have noticed that he has lost his lustre. The joke has worn thin.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

I tempted fate – and got Covid

Well, I did warn you. As I typed my column last week on the imminent end of Covid I said I knew that I was tempting fate. The main fear I had in mind was that the moment the magazine hit the newsstands some wild new strain of the virus would break out, wipe out half of humanity and lead to quite a cross letters page the following week. Fate had a more minimalist plan. Having dodged Covid for two years, it took me writing a column predicting the end of the virus for the fates to eye me up and snicker: ‘Now we’ve got him.’ The day after I filed, I developed a sore throat and a blocked nose. By the time the magazine was on the stands, I was wondering whether Betty White had chosen to strike me down from beyond the grave.

Saturday

Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray, Nyrola Elimä, Theo Hobson

27 min listen

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Douglas Murray on why he thinks that the Coronavirus is over. (00:51)Next, Nyrola Elimä on her family’s experiences as Uighurs living under the rule of the CCP. (08:27)And finally, Theo Hobson on why the different factions of the Church of England need to come together. (16:54)Produced and presented by Sam HolmesSubscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:spectator.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

The time has come to get on with our lives

If anyone had any doubts about the wisdom of tempting fate then they probably haven’t considered the case of Betty White and People magazine. Assuming that some Spectator readers are not also subscribers to People, I should inform you that the cover for the current issue features the last of The Golden Girls. ‘Betty White turns 100!’ sings the headline, with the subtitle ‘Funny never gets old’. But while funny may not get old, the issue soon did. White died a few days shy of her 100th birthday, just as People magazine hit the newsstands. It sits there still, the worst example of a cover tempting fate since November 2016, when Newsweek brought out an issue with Hillary Clinton on the front under the headline ‘Madam President’.

Friday

Douglas Murray

Year in Review – 2021

42 min listen

Douglas Murray joins Freddy Gray for a look back at yet another tumultuous year in American politics. They discuss the irreconcilable divide between left and right, the origins of Covid-19, the war in Afghanistan, the fallout from the 2020 election and much more, including the temptations of a bottle of Glenmorangie whiskey.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

Christmas Special

90 min listen

Welcome to the special Christmas episode of The Edition! In this episode, we look at five major topics that dominated the news this year and the pages of The Spectator. First up a review of the year in politics with our resident Coffee House Shots' team James Forsyth, Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. We discuss how Boris seemed to make such a strong start to the year through the vaccine rollout, but squandered this goodwill with several own goals. We also touch on some of the big political moments of the year: Partygate, the Owen Paterson affair and of course Matt Hancock. (00:39) Next, we go global and look at three of the major powerhouses that took headlines this year. The EU, who ends the year in a panic over Russia, extreme Covid measures, and upcoming elections.

Douglas Murray

Our growing unwillingness to understand the past

I was recently reading the works of the 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey, who at one point mentions a ghost craze that had broken out in Cirencester. The ‘apparition’ was reported to have disappeared with ‘a curious perfume and most melodious twang’. Reading this I unconsciously got ready for a man as wise as Aubrey to pooh-pooh the whole thing, pouring scorn on such superstition. But no; while Aubrey does indeed have a correction, it comes via his friend — one Mr W. Lilly — who ventures that the common view is wrong, for he ‘believes it was a fairy’. One of the most familiar joys of reading is the moment of recognition, when a hand seems to reach out across the centuries and a voice seems to say: ‘I was there too.

Saturday

Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray, Mary Wakefield, Peter Hitchens

22 min listen

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Douglas Murray on the political fate of US vice president Kamala Harris. (00:58)Next, Mary Wakefield on her experience during storm Arwen and subsequent media coverage. (09:39)And finally, Peter Hitchens on his fears regarding the future of the city of Oxford. (15:58)Produced and presented by Sam HolmesSubscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher: spectator.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

Does Kamala Harris deserve to be vice president?

Is it rude to refer to the Vice President of the USA as the world’s most famous diversity hire? Possibly. But it is the same with so many things that are true. You needn’t take my word for it. Joe Biden made his selection priorities clear when he was confirmed as his party’s nominee last year. He immediately declared that his search for a running mate was going to focus on non-white women. And in some ways it was a savvy move. Like John McCain in 2008, he knew that the US media might not thrill to a ticket made up of a couple of white, male soon-to-be octogenarians. Yet the decision left him with a relatively small list of qualified people to choose from. It would be the same if he’d decided that his running mate had to be a gay.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

‘The type of person who makes the world work’: remembering Anthony Smith

I’m not sure how many readers know the name of Anthony Smith, who died on Sunday aged 83, but a fair number will. He spent almost a decade at the BBC, helped start Channel 4, directed the British Film Institute, chaired many committees and for 17 years was president of Magdalen College, Oxford. But while not every reader will know him, you are lucky if you know the type: that rare person whose passion is helping other people — the type, in other words, who makes the world work. I first met him when I was a precocious schoolboy of 16. I had asked permission from Magdalen’s librarian to look at some manuscripts for a book I was researching. Tony was clearly alerted to this and made the effort to introduce himself and take me for a walk around the college grounds.

Saturday

Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray, Henry Eliot, Sam Holmes

21 min listen

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Douglas Murray who says that the case of Kyle Rittenhouse shows nothing in America matters more than your identity. (00:55)Next, Henry Eliot wonders, what makes a book a classic? (08:30)And finally, Sam Holmes tells us about his time as a Hamleys Christmas elf. (16:31)Produced and presented by Max JefferySubscribe to The Spectator today and we'll send you a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label worth £30spectator.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

The American identity crisis

There was no reason for the world ever to hear the name Kyle Rittenhouse. Except that in the summer of 2020 the USA was staring over a precipice. The Covid lockdowns effectively ended after the killing of George Floyd by a Minnesotan policeman. Suddenly mass gatherings in the name of BLM were a public-health duty and, because it was an election year, neither Democrats nor Republicans seemed to know how to react to protests that soon degenerated into serious disorder. For a country that is only one bad police interaction away from meltdown, it was inevitable that something would happen again. Sure enough in August a man called Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Friday

Douglas Murray

I’m getting sick of the Tories

I suppose this happens to all of us at different speeds, but I am getting a little fed up of this government. In particular, I am getting fed up of the gap between its rhetoric and its actions. Most of the time this is most noticeable with the Prime Minister, who gives his base the occasional morsel of right-wingery only to then force-feed them great dollops of lefty-greenery. On a trip to Washington, Priti Patel has demonstrated that she is also no stranger to this tactic. So far we have had Patel (the DC version) talk about ‘the mass migration crisis’, as though she is merely an observer of the crisis in the Channel rather than one of the only people actually able to solve it.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

MPs aren’t the elite – faceless bureaucrats are

I see that the most boring conversation in the nation is back. The one even worse than people in the country telling you that the only real difficulty in getting to their part of Gloucestershire/Norfolk/the Orkneys is the drive out of London. I refer to, of course, the reform of the House of Lords. The debate is perennial because there is no good answer to it. The ‘cash for peerages’ scandal comes around every few years because it is unsolvable. If you don’t offer inducements for political donations then what sane person would give millions of pounds to a political party? Besides which, all the constitutional alternatives are worse.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

What if Clinton had come clean?

What if Bill Clinton had told the truth? Would America’s sexual and political history be different? The thought occurs because of the new TV drama Impeachment (being shown in Britain on BBC2) about the Monica Lewinsky affair. Somewhat unfairly to both main parties, it is part of the American Crime Story series. Previous subjects have included O.J. Simpson and Andrew Cunanan, who killed Gianni Versace. It’s a bit rich putting Bill Clinton in the same bracket as these murder cases. Nonetheless, the result is intriguing, not just because of the magnificent acting and production — and not only because in the quarter of a century since the world’s most famous blow job a certain axis of society seems to have turned.

Saturday

Douglas Murray

Douglas Murray, Owen Matthews, Lionel Shriver

29 min listen

On this week's episode, we’ll hear Douglas Murray on how the Prevent scheme has lost sight of its founding intention. (00:43)Then Owen Matthews on Rome’s rubbish. (12:35)And finally, Lionel Shriver gives her review of Dave Chappelle’s transgressive new Netflix Special.

Thursday

Douglas Murray

Plan Z: the rise of Éric Zemmour

34 min listen

In this week’s episode: Who is Eric Zemmour – can he take on President Macron? In our cover story this week, Freddy Gray looks at the rise of Eric Zemmour, the TV presenter who looks set to stir up French politics ahead of next year’s election. Freddy is joined on the podcast by Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief for The Economist and a biographer of French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss. (00:46) Also this week: Is the Prevent anti-radicalisation programme failing?Douglas Murray says in this week’s issue that Prevent is failing to tackle Islamic extremism in the UK. He talks about the changes Prevent needs to make along with William Baldet, a Prevent Coordinator. (11:46) And finally: what’s it like to dine naked?

Douglas Murray

Britain’s fatal unwillingness to confront Islamic extremism

More than any other country in the West, Britain has become practised in the arts of self-deception and subject avoidance. If a politician in France had been butchered by a Muslim of Somali descent, the French media and political class would have gone through a cycle of debate about the ideology that propelled the killer. Government and security sources would have talked about the networks surrounding the suspect. And the whole society would have learned a little more about what might have led to such an outrage. In Britain the situation is otherwise. David Amess was stabbed to death in a church while holding a surgery for his constituents. The man apprehended for his killing is a 25-year-old of Somali descent named Ali Harbi Ali.