Katie Jenkins

Katie Jenkins is Digital Editor (Production) at The Spectator.

Thursday

Katie Jenkins

Strictly won’t survive without Claudia (or Tess)

From our UK edition

Put down the glitterball. Mop up the sequins. The news – oh, the unthinkable news – has arrived: Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are quickstepping away from Strictly Come Dancing.  ‘We have loved working as a duo and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream,’ the pair announced on Instagram this morning. ‘We were always going to leave together and now feels like the right time.’ You can almost hear the wails from Broadcasting House: how sad, how shocking, how very bittersweet! Another era of prime-time ratings dribbling down the drain. The show wasn’t just about the ratings or the romance rumours or, even, the glamour.

Sunday

Katie Jenkins

Don’t underestimate Bolivia’s election

From our UK edition

Towering above the baroque low-rises of Bolivia’s largest city is the 29-storey presidential palace. Built by the then left-wing leader Evo Morales in 2018, the £25 million glass-fronted skyscraper comes kitted with a designer-furnished gym, spa, helipad, three underground floors and even a private elevator for the president’s personal use. ‘Morales claimed he built this for the people. That it was the symbol of the new Bolivia,’ said my ‘guide’, an unemployed biochemistry graduate, when I visited the building in La Paz last year. Gesturing at the golden motifs adorning its facade, he added with a wry smile: ‘This is what socialism really looks like. No?’ Today, the ‘Great House of the People’ as the skyscraper is named will get a new resident.

Sunday

Katie Jenkins

Running is being ruined by the ‘wellness’ brigade

From our UK edition

Is there a more obnoxious introduction in 21st-century Britain than the words ‘I’m a runner’? ‘I’m a runner,’ followed by the gulp of a protein shake or (shudder) the announcement of a 5k personal best. ‘I’m a runner,’ from a wheezing wannabe in carbon-plated trainers: ‘The shoes Kelvin Kiptum wore when he broke the marathon world record? Yes, yes they are.’ I am no Kelvin Kiptum. I’m not even Simon Pegg in Run Fatboy Run. But I am a runner, with the blackened toenails, tight hamstrings and race medals to prove it. It seems that those things are no longer worth much, though.