Rishi Sunak has confirmed that the HS2 line between Birmingham and Manchester will be scrapped. The Prime Minister said he was ending the ‘long-running saga’ and vowed to invest the money saved – £36 billion – ‘in hundreds of new transport and infrastructure’ projects. The PM also used his Tory conference speech to unveil a crackdown on smoking. He also announced a new qualification to replace A levels.
‘For the Greeks, it feels like a gaping wound,’ says Sarah Baxter, a columnist at the Sunday Times, of the Elgin Marbles. For 200 years, the Parthenon sculptures have taken pride of place at the British Museum. The Greeks want them back, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says he thinks Britain is edging closer to finally accepting that the marbles should be returned. ‘It will be a fantastic gesture, and that’s what I’ll tell (Liz Truss),’ he said of the return of the 2,500-year-old sculptures. But will he have any more success than his predecessors? Lord Vaizey, former culture minister, thinks it is time
Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February this year marked a watershed moment in the debate on energy security. How we heat our homes, power our businesses, and what needs to be done to protect those energy sources was thrust once again to the top of each European country’s agenda. The fallout from war in Ukraine has also led to a question being asked: is it time to look again at nuclear power? This was the topic of discussion at a Spectator panel at Tory conference. Robert Buckland, Secretary of State for Wales thought so: ‘We cannot afford to lose any time in investment in nuclear.’ This was proved most painfully
Aukus is a pact between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. But its primary purpose is combatting another country: China. ‘It’s about China, let’s be quite clear,’ says security minister Tom Tugendhat. ‘You will not see many direct references to China in Aukus literature,’ says Sophia Gaston, director of the British Foreign Policy Group, ‘but it is certainly implicit. China is looming in the background; a spectre’. For Australia, it’s vital that the Aukus pact succeeds in the face of the growing threat from Beijing That spectre was the focus of a fringe event at Tory party conference, discussing whether Aukus can shift the balance in the Pacific. Tugendhat
There’s something troubling happening in our schools. In art class, my children have been instructed to make Black Lives Matter posters. Their assemblies in recent years have been a dreary parade of presentations on sexuality, identity and race politics. They have been subjected to workshops involving LGBTQI+ flash cards and printouts of tweets about transgenderism, and taught that Sam Smith – who is obviously overweight and wears provocative bondage clothing – is a shining example of ‘body positivity.’ The government, until very recently, has effectively conceded the education system to a cabal of zealots It’s not that I object to them being exposed to this stuff at school. I’d be quite happy
The unclued lights are characters in Coronation STREET. The three forenames are (27, 34, 46), along with one surname (1A), four full names (18, 19, 42, 44) and two pairs (1B/7 and 3/5). First prize B.J. Widger, Altrincham Runners-up Brian Taylor, Horwich, Bolton; Stephen Saunders, Midford, Bath
Rarely a week goes by in politics without a reminder of the Conservatives’ ambitions to hit net zero by 2050. But how well do they understand the path to get there? Amidst the barrage of funding announcements and energy strategies, there remain outstanding questions about the road ahead – and one of the most persistent is around the role of hydrogen. To its advocates, this abundant chemical element could be the key to weaning large economies off their dependence on natural gas, providing a reliable and greener power source that can be deployed at scale. Yet to its doubters, the hydrogen dream remains inefficient and impractical – rendering it a
When it comes to renewable energy, the ambitions of recent Conservatives have verged on the superlative: from one prime minister’s infamous pledge to turn Britain into the ‘Saudi Arabia of wind power’ to a seemingly exponential explosion of green jobs across the country (half a million by 2030, according to Grant Shapps). The green transition has launched quite the rhetorical arms race. Can the UK really emerge as a world-leader in renewables? That was the question on the agenda as The Spectator convened a panel of experts, industry voices and politicians at this year’s energy summit. It was time to get beyond the bluster and shine some light on that all-important question:
Britain’s asylum system is in need of reform. At the end of last year, there were 166,261 asylum applications awaiting a decision – a 200 per cent increase from just three years ago. As a result of slow decision making, there’s a bottleneck in the system, meaning normal asylum accommodation is full and £5.6 million is being spent every day on hotel accommodation for asylum seekers. New plans announced in March also mean asylum-seekers currently in hotels will be moved to disused army barracks and barges. The Prime Minister recognised the degree of public concern in his pledge to stop dangerous journeys being made across the Channel in small boats. But
The new Spectator app has a fresh look and plenty of new features to help you make the most of our world-class writing and broadcasts. Get instant worldwide delivery of the weekly issue to your device from 4 a.m. on Thursdays. Or, get the latest analysis on the breaking news of the day in the Coffee House section. Make the most of your subscription – download the Spectator app today. App highlights: • A daily mixture of political commentary, cultural criticism and humour • Each issue of the weekly magazine published every Thursday at 4 a.m. • Receive alerts on breaking news – and the latest from Spectator writers • Listen to all Spectator podcasts • Read articles when
Inflation may be falling, but 2023 looks set to be another difficult year for the British economy. The Spectator’s economics editor Kate Andrews sat down recently with Charlotte Lambeth, director of private clients at Charles Stanley Wealth Managers, and The Spectator’s business editor Martin Vander Weyer, for a special virtual event on Spectator TV. They discussed how in yet another year of high inflation, low growth and general economic turbulence, you can take control of your wealth and preserve it for the next generation. Following on from that discussion, Rachel Fowler, financial planner with Charles Stanley, answers some of your questions. How much should I keep in cash? It’s often
1. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin 2. Scoop 3. The Thirty-Nine Steps 4. Moll Flanders 5. The Girl on the Train 6. Go Set a Watchman 7. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 8. Under the Volcano 9. Dead Souls 10. The Catcher in the Rye 11. Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone 12. Love in a Time of Cholera 13. Brave New World
Verbals 1. Boris Johnson, on resigning as leader of the Conservative party 2. Liz Truss, on being elected leader of the Conservative party 3. King Charles, greeting Liz Truss for her first audience as prime minister with him 4. Sue Gray in her report on ‘Alleged gatherings on government premises during Covid restrictions’ 5. President Joe Biden of the United States, of President Vladimir Putin of Russia, in a speech in Warsaw 6. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister 7. Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, in Parliament 8. Giorgia Meloni, leader of the Fratelli d’Italia party, who became prime minister of Italy 9. Liz Truss, as foreign secretary, on being asked
Brexit was hailed by its supporters as an opportunity for Britain to go out and into the world. But six years on from the EU referendum, are we making the most of Britain’s departure from the EU? Not so, according to Conor Burns, Minister of State in the Department for International Trade. Burns says that, as an early supporter of Brexit, dating back to when he read the Maastricht Treaty as a student, he relished the opportunities that leaving the EU would offer in doing things ‘differently’. Sadly, he says, there has been a ‘failure’ to capitalise on these. Even Brexit’s firmest supporters admit there has been turbulence. Since Britain’s departure from
The Spectator’s panel on tech-driven economic growth at Tory party conference began with a disclaimer. ‘Just to clarify, I am not inside the tent’, says economist Gerard Lyons. Lyons was an advisor to Boris Johnson at City Hall so is no stranger to frontline politics, but in recent weeks, he’s been identified as one of the ‘three Trusketeers’, the economists advising Liz Truss on her radical economic agenda. Lyons is still a supporter of Trussonomics, whatever that may be. ‘We are moving away from cheap money globally, not just in the UK’, he says, trying to contextualise the difficulty that the government has faced on the bond markets. He also argued
The Spectator is delighted to return to Conservative party conference in Birmingham this year, where we’ll be hosting a packed schedule of entertaining fringe events. Every event includes a free G&T. Make sure to come early to get a seat – or reserve one to jump the queue! Tickets are £5 and all ticket money will be donated to Jericho, a local charity. Our full schedule is below: Sunday 2 October 4.30pm – 5.30pm Come pick up our conference programme, grab a G&T, and say hello to the Spectator team. The Spectator Conference Launch – Hall 7 ICC (Secure Zone) ——— Monday 3 October 12.00pm – 1.00pm What does ‘levelling
‘The people of England were long habituated to queues; some had joined the procession ignorant of its end – hoping perhaps for cigarettes or shoes – but most were in a mood of devotion.’ In Unconditional Surrender, his novel of the Second World War, Evelyn Waugh describes the queue to see ‘the Sword of Stalingrad’, wrought of silver, gold and Sheffield steel, which was displayed in Westminster Abbey in 1943 before it was presented by Churchill to Stalin in honour of the Russian people’s resistance to Hitler. Here, wrote Waugh, in ‘the sacring place of the Kings of England’, the sword stood for the timeless and transcendent against the grossly
My dog was bitten by an adder last week. Jessie had been snuffling around in bracken a few yards from where I was walking when I suddenly heard this anguished yelp, followed by still more disquieting, even harrowing yelps. I knew immediately exactly what had happened. I have been boring my family for months with warnings about where not to take Jessie for a walk, because of the adders. They think adders are a manifestation of my warped imagination and do not really exist, possibly something dreamed up by the QAnon people. They never believe me when I tell them anything about animals and yet – ironically, you might think
