The Spectator

Friday

The Spectator

This month in culture: February 2025

Kinda Pregnant In theaters February 5 Amy Schumer stars as Lainy, a woman who dons a prosthetic pregnant belly when she grows envious of her best friend’s maternal glow. Once inside the secret world of mommies, Lainy learns how far she will go to stay close to her friends while being pulled toward a new love — Will Forte, who assures Lainy that she’s the least pregnant person he’s ever dated. Striking the balance of irreverence and heart Schumer is known for, Kinda Pregnant is buoyed by an accomplished comedic cast and backing from Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions.

culture

Thursday

The Spectator

DEI going to DIE in federal government

President Donald Trump is making quick work of his first week in office, signing a flurry of executive orders on everything ranging from the southern border to abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs for much of the federal workforce.Starting this week, Trump wants “radical and wasteful” DEI offices to be placed on paid leave, according to a memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management. “President Trump campaigned on ending the scourge of DEI from our federal government and returning America to a merit-based society,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said of the move.

The Spectator

Letters: Were we deceived by Labour?

From our UK edition

Forced Labour Sir: Matthew Parris wonders ‘Why was everyone fooled by Rachel Reeves?’(18 January) and goes on to include Sir Keir Starmer in this question. The former he concludes is ‘an empty vessel’ and the latter ‘bereft of ideas’. By ‘everyone’ he chiefly means the commentariat, although he claims he was not himself misled. They and many others were fed up with the failure of successive Conservative governments, and wanted so badly to believe in Labour’s ability to form an effective administration that they never seriously applied due diligence by questioning its credibility or competences. At no stage were any stones lifted to determine what ‘nasties’ lay underneath.

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Who performed at past presidential inaugurations?

From our UK edition

Gig economy Donald Trump had the Village People perform at a concert prior to his inauguration. Who topped the bill at previous presidential inaugurations, either on the day or at accompanying concerts? – Joe Biden (2021): Lady Gaga – Donald Trump (2017): Kid Rock – Barack Obama (2013): Beyoncé – Barack Obama (2009): Aretha Franklin – George W. Bush (2001): Wayne Newton – Bill Clinton (1993): Michael Jackson – George H.W. Bush (1989): Stevie Ray Vaughan (rhythm and blues star) – Ronald Reagan (1981): Frank Sinatra – Jimmy Carter (1977): Leonard Bernstein Trade marks President Trump is threatening a trade war. How important is our trading relationship with the US? – In 2023 we imported £57.9bn in goods and £57.

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2684: Romans 5

From our UK edition

Unclued lights were familiar three-word Latin expressions, all starting with ‘in’: IN STATU (2) PUPILLARI (11), IN MEDIAS (3) RES (40), IN LOCO (8) PARENTIS (43), IN FLAGRANTE (19) DELICTO (15), and IN VINO (36) VERITAS (20).

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Why won’t Keir Starmer use the word ‘terrorist’?

From our UK edition

Why does Keir Starmer find it so hard to use the word ‘terrorist’ when talking about a man who buys ricin and a machete online, reads up about killing people in an al Qaeda training manual – and then goes out and stabs to death three young girls attending a dance class? When asked this week whether he regarded the crimes committed by Axel Rudakubana as a terrorist act, the Prime Minister couldn’t quite bring himself to do so, instead referring to it as an act of ‘extreme violence clearly intended to terrorise’. The fight against terrorism seems to have been infected by the fear of appearing racist or Islamophobic Starmer has obfuscated over the Southport killings since they occurred in July. Like the police, he immediately declined to treat the attack as terrorism.

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Portrait of the week: Trump’s inauguration, Israel-Hamas ceasefire and cardboard humans comfort lonely fish

From our UK edition

Home Axel Rudakubana, 18, pleaded guilty to the murder of three girls in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class at Southport on 29 July 2024, and to ten attempted murders as well as possessing al Qaeda literature and producing the poison ricin. He had been charged with murder on 31 July but police insisted then that the incident was not being treated as terror-related; the culprit was charged with two terrorism offences on 29 October. From 30 July, rioting had swept the country for a week. Now it was disclosed that the murderer had been referred three times to Prevent, the anti-terrorism programme, when he was 13 and 14. Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, gave a press conference.

Tuesday

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Live from the Presidential Inaugural Ceremony

The 60th Presidential Inaugural Ceremony Viewing and Parade at the Capitol One Arena was an event of juxtaposition. The piercing cold endured by those who waited for hours, in weather so frigid it forced the day’s festivities indoors, contrasted sharply with the heat and energy that filled the stadium during the celebration of their political victory.The red carpet and the caps of the crowd blended with the blue lights above, mirroring not only the colors of the nation’s flag but also the hue of the 47th president’s inaugural tie.

Friday

The Spectator

Is time up on TikTok?

TikTok is hoping that 2025 can be its year — but what comes next for the social media company is truly anyone’s guess. Will someone buy it? Will it divest from its Chinese Communist Party ownership? Will it exist in America next week (the app is fully banned in China as is)? Stay tuned.The social-media app is seeking yet another revival at the eleventh hour. Despite a bipartisan bill signed by President Joe Biden that restricts the ability for foreign adversaries to run social-media companies in the United States, TikTok is activating its army of supporters once more (the app is presumably hoping that its child soldiers will not threaten to kill themselves or lawmakers this time)... and it just might work.

Thursday

The Spectator

Christmas crossword: Organic Message solution

From our UK edition

Letters omitted from across answers, read in clue order, give MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM SPECTATOR… the ‘organ’ in the title.  The first prize of £100, three prizes of £25 and six further prizes of Adrian Bliss’s The Greatest Nobodies of History: Minor Characters from Major Moments (Century) go to the following. The first four winners will each also receive a bottle of champagne. First prize Keith Williamson, Cambridge Runners-up Wendy Meredith, Exeter, Devon; Henry Machin, Gateford, Nottinghamshire; Lin Barrett-West, Billericay, Essex Further runners-up Kevin Ward, Quorn, Leicestershire; Kenneth Mills, Londonderry; Sarah Darlington, Acton Trussell, Stafford; J.J.

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Letters: The dangers of the ADHD ‘industry’

From our UK edition

Nothing left Sir: Rod Liddle is right to ascribe the establishment’s desire to suppress the truth in relation to grooming gangs to its fundamentally anti-working class mindset (‘We demand a right to truth’, 11 January). But he’s characteristically wrong to attribute this to ‘liberalism’. The contemporary left’s identity-politics agenda is born from the opposite: the postmodernist-derived idea that reality can be radically reconstructed through control of what is, and is not, communicated. Its various fantasies – and the public-sector interests that depend upon them – necessarily involve suppressing our powers of rational cognition.

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Which were the most destructive fires in history?

From our UK edition

Swing states Where would Canada and Greenland rank if they became US states? – Canada would be, by far, the largest state. In fact, at 3,855,100 square miles it is marginally larger than the current US (3,796,742 square miles). – It would also be the largest state by population, with 41.5m inhabitants, putting it ahead of California (39.4m). – It would have the third largest GDP, at $2.58tn, behind California ($4.08tn) and Texas ($2.69tn). – Unless Canada also joined, Greenland would become the largest US state, at 836,330 square miles, ahead of Alaska (665,384 square miles). – It would be the smallest in terms of population, its 56,600 inhabitants less than a tenth of the current least-populous state, Wyoming (587,618).

The Spectator

The folly of Keir Starmer’s Chagos Islands deal

From our UK edition

It would be natural to assume that sinking bond markets would be the government’s priority this week, as low UK growth and high borrowing rattles investors. Yet remarkably the Prime Minister’s attentions seem to be focused elsewhere: on advancing a deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius in the days before Donald Trump is inaugurated for his second term as US President. Trump is an opponent of the deal for good reason. The US military base on Diego Garcia proved invaluable during the two Gulf Wars. Keir Starmer is yet to meet an international tribunal he won’t genuflect before Keir Starmer, a former human rights lawyer, appears to be motivated by a desire to observe the rule of international law.

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Portrait of the week: Tulip Siddiq quits, Sturgeon splits from husband and Trump spared jail

From our UK edition

Home Tulip Siddiq resigned as economic secretary to the Treasury, although she was found not to have broken the ministerial code; she had, however, lived in a flat provided by allies of her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, the deposed prime minister of Bangladesh, apparently under the impression that the flat was a gift from her parents, despite having signed a Land Registry transfer form for it. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, flew to China and met He Lifeng, one of the four vice-premiers. In her absence the cost of government borrowing rose again, with the yield on 30-year gilts rising to 5.42 per cent, the highest for 27 years. Downing Street said she would remain in her role ‘for the whole of this parliament’. But people wondered.

Wednesday

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Is Biden working to sabotage Trump’s transition?

President Joe Biden has taken actions that will make former and President-elect Donald Trump’s transition into the White House difficult, slowing him down with federal rules and other roadblocks, according to inside sources and Trump himself.  Last week, Trump talked to reporters outside of Mar-a-Lago about the departing Biden administration.  “They’re trying everything they can to make things more difficult,” Trump said.  He also told reporters that Biden was being “sneaky,” despite the current president’s public pledge to cooperate with the incoming administration’s transition into the White House.  “They try to be sneaky,” Trump said at a press conference.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Trump show starts in earnest with cabinet picks

Donald Trump doesn’t take office for another week, but the Trump show starts in earnest this week with a confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, followed shortly by Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, Doug Burgum, Doug Collins and others.While some drama is to be expected, Trump’s current nominees have mostly run the gauntlet unscathed. Not all were so lucky, however. Former congressman Matt Gaetz quickly withdrew his name from consideration to be attorney general once he felt that he no longer had a foreseeable path forward; another Florida man, Hillsborough County sheriff Chad Chronister, withdrew his name from consideration due to concerns from the right about his record during Covid-era lockdowns.

pete hegseth cabinet

Monday

The Spectator

Trump show starts in earnest this week with cabinet picks

Donald Trump doesn’t take office for another week, but the Trump show starts in earnest this week with a confirmation hearing for Pete Hegseth, followed shortly by Pam Bondi, Kristi Noem, Doug Burgum, Doug Collins and others. While some drama is to be expected, Trump’s current nominees have mostly run the gauntlet unscathed. Not all were so lucky, however. Former congressman Matt Gaetz quickly withdrew his name from consideration to be attorney general once he felt that he no longer had a foreseeable path forward; another Florida man, Hillsborough County sheriff Chad Chronister, withdrew his name from consideration due to concerns from the right about his record during Covid-era lockdowns.

Friday

The Spectator

Trump will not be punished for ‘hush-money’ case

New York justice Juan Merchan sentenced President-elect Donald Trump this morning for his conviction in the so-called “hush-money” case that saw a jury convict him last year of thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records. As was predicted, Judge Merchan handed down an “unconditional discharge” sentencing, meaning Trump will not go to jail, be forced to pay fines or be punished in any way. Trump will remain, however, a convicted felon.The hush-money case, we’ll recall, centered around allegations porn star Stormy Daniels made that Trump paid her $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair between the pair. Trump’s conviction had him facing up to four years in prison and steep fines.

Thursday

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Letters: In private schools, struggling children find the help they need

From our UK edition

Growing problem Sir: The first leading article of the year (‘Growing apart’, 4 January) points to the gap in economic growth between the US and the UK, while the first cover piece (‘Shift key’) identifies a shift rightwards in values and voting intention, in reaction to the bigger state model of Keir Starmer’s government. Sandwiched between the two is ‘Reeves’s new year’s resolution’, in which James Heale tells us of the Labour Growth Group, a WhatsApp group with 99 MPs that is only marginally more credible than a Turkeys for Christmas cabal. Have these Labour MPs studied the research cited in Jon Moynihan’s excellent Return to Growth? Has Rachel Reeves?

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What does Keir Starmer’s social media use say about him?

From our UK edition

Social networking Wes Streeting suggested that Elon Musk requires a ‘social media detox’ after the Prime Minister entered into a spat on X with the owner of the platform. What about Keir Starmer’s own social media use? – Starmer’s X profile claims he is following 410 users, yet only 69 of them are visible. They include Angela Rayner, Jess Phillips, Andy Burnham, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and namesake Labour MP Keir Mather. However, he does not appear to be following Wes Streeting, Rachel Reeves, David Lammy or Yvette Cooper.