John Power is The Spectator’s assistant content editor.
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On Monday, the House of Lords threatened to derail the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill by reintroducing an amendment which would ban social media for the under-16s. The Commons will vote on amendments today. This is the third time that the Lords have attempted to force this amendment into the legislation. On each occasion that
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Oil prices rose this morning thanks to the fact no one really knows if the Strait of Hormuz has reopened or not. But no matter what happens, there is almost no risk that Britain will face petrol shortages because of this instability. Petrol prices at the pump have risen since the conflict began at the
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Last month, a new account called London Price Drop appeared on X. It has already gained more than 14,000 followers simply by posting screenshots from Rightmove, which illustrate how properties in the capital are falling sharply in value. One of these is a leasehold flat in Shepherd’s Bush purchased for £425,000 in 2017, before being
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Catherine Ostler, the former editor of Tatler, ponders the drama of the courtroom as she travels around the Kent countryside; following the news of the ceasefire with Iran, Paul Wood says that no-one knows what Trump will do next; John Power encourages Gen Z men to go hiking; and finally, astrophysicist David Whitehouse
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When I was four, the progressive teachers at my primary school thought it would be wise to teach us how to type on a keyboard. When it was my turn to key out the phrase ‘Biff and Chip’ on the computer, they discovered, to their horror, that I was already capable of effortless touch typing.
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The premature death of two young people from meningitis after an outbreak of the disease in Kent is a tragedy. Susan Hopkins, the CEO of the UK Health Service Agency has called the speed at which this particular infection is spreading ‘unprecedented’. But thanks to the concerted efforts of successive British governments, tragedies related to
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A new narrative began at the start of the year, pushed by senior government figures including the Prime Minister, linking the populist right, especially Reform UK, to ‘vaccine scepticism’. Starmer’s remarks followed an outbreak of measles at the start of the year, described as a ‘surge’. It was a striking intervention by Starmer. Public health
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On Tuesday, Reform UK held a press conference in a petrol forecourt near the spa town of Buxton. The party paid for motorists to receive a 25p discount on their petrol, warning that the return of the final 5p fuel duty cut – scheduled by Rachel Reeves – amounts to a rise in ‘petrol prices
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Over the weekend, following continued US-Israeli attacks on Iran and the resulting disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, several newspapers warned that Britain has ‘just two days of gas’ left in storage. This line appeared prominently in coverage from outlets including the Guardian and the Times, leaving readers with the impression that the
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The crowded market place emerging on Britain’s right is bewildering. Nigel Farage and Reform UK appeared to have successfully colonised the space for positions more robust than those offered by the current Tory party. They have been ahead in the national opinion polls for months now. But the launch of Restore Britain, a new party
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I asked the novelist and dissident Boualem Sansal, recently released from Algerian prison, how he would like to be remembered. He did not hesitate. Not as the French Salman Rushdie – to whom he is often compared – but as the Algerian George Orwell. Orwell was not just a novelist but a prophet, who saw how a peaceful society
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The forces arranged in favour of banning social media for under-16s are powerful and wide-ranging. The unlikely alliance includes the leader of the Tory party, more than 60 Labour MPs, Big Suze from Peep Show and the patron saint of all bad ideas – His Majesty King Charles III. It seems probable that when amendment
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Last summer, the Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi introduced a clause to the Crime and Policing Bill that will decriminalise all abortions. Enshrining this ‘right’ into law will mean that a mother could end the life of a baby a week, a day or even an hour before it is due to be born, without facing
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In August, The Spectator began to investigate allegations that Harry Shukman, a 33-year-old freelance journalist, had used a fake British passport as part of a two-year undercover investigation into the far-right in Britain which was sponsored by Hope Not Hate. We published an article about this in our 6 September issue titled: ‘Dirty tricks: the
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On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: John Power examines the rise in drug abuse and homelessness on British streets; Madeline Grant explains the allure of Hollywood radical Sydney Sweeney; Ysenda Maxtone Graham laments the rise of the on-the-day party flake; Calvin Po warns of a war on Britain’s historic architecture; and Gus Carter reads his
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One morning a few months ago I was walking past St James’s Park station when a dishevelled man with his fists clenched stepped into my path without warning. He stared at me furiously and blocked my path, body almost shaking. For a few tense seconds he stood there before I crossed the road to get
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The police initially treated last weekend’s stabbings on a train near Huntingdon as a possible terror attack, before confirming it wasn’t. Since then, it has been widely reported that the suspect, Anthony Williams, told one of his victims that ‘the devil’s not going to win’ as she pleaded with him not to stab her. So
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When the grooming gang crisis came under renewed scrutiny at the beginning of this year, the former Tory mayoral candidate Susan Hall asked Sadiq Khan eight times during mayor’s questions whether or not grooming gangs were operating in the capital. His response was odd, to say the least. Instead of directly answering the question, Khan repeatedly
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26 min listen
On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: John Power argues the Oxford Union has a ‘lynch-mob mindset’; Elisabeth Dampier explains why she would never date a German; Nick Carter makes the case for licensing MDMA to treat veterans with PTSD; Maggie Fergusson reviews Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island
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The case of George Abaraonye, the incoming Oxford Union president who rejoiced in the assassination of Charlie Kirk, has provoked fierce debate about free speech at Oxford. Abaraonye considered the murder of the 31-year-old father of two, whom he had met at an Oxford Union debate, to be a cause for celebration. On a WhatsApp
