Society

Andrew Tettenborn

Is this finally the end of non-crime hate incidents?

Roll up for a Christmas surprise on the policing front. According to a leak from the College of Policing to the Telegraph, since confirmed by its chairman and in all likelihood condoned by a government desperate for an upbeat Christmas message, non-crime hate incidents are finally to go. Next month the College and the National Police Chiefs’ Council will formally announce a move to a more selective, and less intrusive, practice. Recording will be limited to a much smaller category indicating clear risks of harm or threats to particular communities, such as anti-Semitism. There is something deeply sinister about the state formally recording that a citizen has said something entirely

Druin Burch

The welcome tyranny of Christmas cheer

In 1946, buoyed by post-War optimism, the World Health Organisation adopted a famous definition. Health, it declared, was more than the mere absence of disease or infirmity, it was ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being’. A beautiful and tyrannical idea, sentimentally idealistic and setting an impossible standard for human lives. In these qualities of cheerful and unreasonable despotism, it resembles Christmas. Our wish to make kids happy at Christmas turns us into untiring fifth columnists of festive tyranny On the first of November, collecting my cardboard cup of coffee in Costa, I noticed it was decorated with a festive scene. I scowled, which comes naturally, but felt

Francis Young

The ancient tradition of burning a Yule Log

To most modern Britons the words ‘Yule Log’ probably bring to mind that masterstroke of marketing that has enabled supermarkets to sell an ordinary chocolate roulade (with the addition of a plastic sprig of holly) as a speciality item for the Christmas table. But the edible Yule Log of our own day – to an even greater extent than the meat-free mince pies of modern Christmas – is a mere shadow of what it once was. The original Yule Log was an actual log – in theory, an enormous one that was large enough to burn between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night (5 January). Its evocative name preserved the pre-Christian Old English

Niall Gooch

The power and nostalgia of Christmas music

Picking up the children from school recently, I heard the lovely old carol ‘In Dulce Jubilo’ drifting slowly across the quadrangle. It was a recorded version played over loudspeakers as part of the Christmas light switch-on, rather than the work of rosy-cheeked choristers in gowns, and yet I felt a sudden, unexpected catch in my throat, and a pricking at the corner of my eyes. I am still trying to work out why I reacted, involuntarily, in that way. ‘In Dulce Jubilo’ does not have any specific personal resonance for me. Perhaps it was something to do with the poignant timelessness of the scene – children hurrying between ancient buildings,

Today

Patrick West

Do Eskimos really have a hundred different words for snow?

Do the Eskimos have many more words for ‘snow’ than the rest of us, and does this question matter? As we approach the full blast of winter, now would seem a good time to lay this old chestnut to bed for good. The person we have to thank for setting this debate in motion is one of the founding fathers of social anthropology, the German-American Franz Boas (1858-1942). In his landmark work The Mind of Primitive Man (1911), Boas mentioned in passing that ‘in Eskimo’, we find: One word expressing ‘snow on the ground’; another one, ‘falling snow’; a third one, ‘drifting snow’; a fourth one, ‘a snowdrift’. All quite unremarkable,

Damian Thompson

How transformative has 2025 been for Christianity?

21 min listen

Anglican author The Rev’d Fergus Butler-Gallie, Catholic priest Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith and Evangelical commentator Fleur Meston join Damian Thompson to reflect on 2025. They discuss Pope Leo XIV’s leadership so far, the choice of Dame Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury and why Christianity has been coopted by the far right. Plus, was the ‘quiet revival’ of Church-going the start of a trend – or just a blip? Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Yesterday

Alexander Larman

The ghosts of Andrew and Epstein will not stop haunting the royals

As the rest of the Royal Family prepare for the pageantry and pomp of their traditional Christmas, two ghosts have gatecrashed the party, in true Dickensian fashion. One phantom is that of the long-deceased Jeffrey Epstein, whose malign influence continues to stretch into the present day thanks to the release of the latest tranche of his emails with the great and good. And the second is that of a living figure whose reputation, rather the physical presence, is haunting the royals this festive season. The latter is, of course, the embattled Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whose reputation has been traduced by his actions involving Epstein over the past decades regarding which Andrew denies

Henry Blofeld

An obituary for Bazball

Any account of the third test match, in Adelaide, inevitably becomes an obituary notice on England’s abortive attempt to wrestle the Ashes from Australia’s iron grip. There can be no doubt that trying to win the Ashes in Australia is the hardest task in the world of cricket – if further proof was needed.  The conditions, the ruthless determination of Australia’s cricketers and their huge and intensely patriotic crowds who believe that permanent possession of the Ashes is their God-given right, all help to make it the seemingly impossible task that faced Ben Stokes’s much heralded side. It has been a long time since English cricket and its supporters have

Francis Pike

Black Christmas and the battle for Hong Kong

The Peak is where the smart set in Hong Kong has always lived. It’s an area of relative peace and tranquillity that sits above the hubbub of the city. Before the Pacific war, Chinese people were banned from living there. It was from her terrace here on 8 December 1941 (the day after Japan’s carrier fleet attacked Pearl Harbor) that Emily ‘Mickey’ Hahn – an implausibly beautiful New York bohemian, opium addict, mining engineer and journalist – watched as Japanese bombers pelted Hong Kong 85 years ago. On the adjoining property she heard an Englishman harrumph, ‘That’s it. The Japanese have committed suicide.’ He was right, but not quite in

Arabella Byrne

Country drivers are the real menace this Christmas

Driving home for Christmas? If you live in London you might well be a menace, according to research published by insurer NFU Mutual. Its survey of 2,000 motorists found that 38 per cent of those from the capital had been in a crash on a country road, compared with 23 per cent of the general population. Cocky Londoners are, according to the survey, the most likely to consider themselves ready to drive on country roads as soon as they gingerly reverse out of the DVLA test centre with their new licence – with some 75 per cent declaring that they were raring to go for a spin down some country lanes.  Since moving from London to the country, the most

Jonny Ford

In defence of nepo babies

What do Mary Shelley, John Stuart Mill and Tim Berners-Lee have in common? They’re all nepo babies, of course: weasels with no talent who swanned into the professions of their successful parents. Frankenstein, On Liberty, and the world wide web: the flukes of unworthies. You get my point, though it’s not a popular one. Nepo babies are fair game. The very phrase, coined in 2020, isn’t meant as a compliment. At least not to Julie Burchill. In these pages in October, she rinsed India Knight’s new book for its witlessness and its author for being the daughter of a journalist – or ‘nepo-baby hack’. The article was a laugh, the

Monday

Alexander Larman

David Walliams's children's books were pure slop

Harper Collins announced last week that it would no longer be publishing any children’s books by their one-time cash cow David Walliams. The Little Britain star has been accused of ‘harassing’ junior female employees at the publishing house – he has strongly denied allegations of wrongdoing against him. According to a new investigation, one member of Harper Collins staff was reportedly given a five-figure payoff after raising concerns about his behaviour, while other junior staff were advised never to visit his home alone. The Daily Telegraph’s well-sourced investigation into this behaviour represents the first time that these allegations have been made public.  It seems unlikely that Walliams will be publishing any

Druin Burch

Death at Christmas

That time of year thou mayst in me beholdWhen yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hangUpon those boughs which shake against the cold,Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.In me thou see’st the twilight of such dayAs after sunset fadeth in the west,Which by and by black night doth take away,Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest. Not the most festive of openings, but Christmas is about darkness as well as light, and the sonnet is in the key of bleak midwinter. We know roughly what year Christ was born – although, since it was before Herod died, it may have been a few years

Sunday

Melanie McDonagh

Banning trail hunting is part of Labour’s endless culture war

If you actually wanted to create a law that would genuinely transform animal welfare in the UK, the sane approach would be to follow the example of the organisation Compassion in World Farming. They call for farming practices that ‘enable animals to engage in their natural behaviours as identified by scientific research’ (not that we need much scientific research to know what makes chickens and pigs happy). We would then have to pay and protect farmers to provide that kind of husbandry. It would be a very big, very expensive ask. The provisions in the current animal welfare bill banning colony cages for hens and farrowing pens fall way short

Jim Lawley

The Bazball experiment has failed

England’s cricketers have lost the Ashes, after being defeated in the third Test match in Adelaide by 82 runs. The Adelaide defeat follows humiliating routs by eight wickets in both Perth and Brisbane, leaving us 3-0 down; after barely 11 days of cricket, the five-match series is now a dead rubber. We lost the previous three Ashes series ‘down under’ 5-0, 4-0 and 4-0. Apparently England’s cricket management learned nothing from those reality checks. The Bazball experiment has just been stress-tested, found wanting, pulverised and buried And to make it all worse, we’d been told that this tour would be different. Regaining the Ashes was to be the culmination of

Terry Barnes

What winning the Ashes means for Australia

This has been a week when Australia could no longer deny the dark stain of anti-Semitism on our national soul. When our Prime Minister, faced with the horror of Bondi and Islamic jihadist fanatics, failed to rise to the crying need for genuine national leadership. When all Australians, not just our Jewish brothers and sisters, are lost, bewildered and angry. But there has been something that has at least provided a modicum of comfort after the raw emotions: the Ashes cricket Test in Adelaide. As former England bowler and BBC commentator Phil ‘Tuffers’ Tufnell says, touring teams don’t just play an Australia XI; they play an entire country. If there

Laurie Wastell

Why weren’t the grooming gangs treated as race-hate crimes?

After months of turmoil, the chair and the terms of reference of the government’s national grooming gangs inquiry have at last been announced. The inquiry will be led by Baroness Anne Longfield, a Labour peer and former children’s commissioner. She will investigate the ‘systemic, institutional and individual’ failures to deal with these gangs and to protect their victims. It is unclear still what shape the inquiry will take, and whether or not it will be a whitewash. Some survivors have already criticised the decision to make the inquiry chair a Labour peer.   The failure to treat these offences as racially aggravated points to a systemic problem in our institutions

Meghan Markle, as told to Julie Burchill

My Christmas round robin

Happy Holidays, friends. Think about that word for a moment. Hold it in your sacred space. Surely that’s what the Holidays are all about? Friends. Like family – only better. Friends – the family we choose. People who are respectful and loving towards us. Like Oprah. (Hi, Oprah!) Or like people who are proficient at hair and makeup and are keen to gift their gift. Friends. Let’s dissect that beautiful word. It comes so close to being fiends – but narrowly avoids it by the felicitous presence of the letter R. Note also that it contains ends –which is what must happen to the relationship, regrettably, if fiendish behavior is ever displayed by the

James Graham

How sustainability stole Christmas

The glitz and glow of the Christmas period, from gently twinkling lights to the fireworks of New Year, is something we look forward to every year. Yet through the years, the season seems to have lost a little of its magic. Things sparkle a little less than they once did. Is it just nostalgia to think so? Everything looks more impressive as a ten-year-old, after all. That our Christmas loses a little sparkle is a small price to pay in the corporate central planners’ march towards a ‘circular economy’ But the now annual denunciations of Quality Street suggest otherwise. For those unaware, in 2022 Quality Street abandoned its shiny crinkle

Heddwen Uruska

Why Gen Z is relying on death to pay for life

What’s wrong with planning a once-in-a-lifetime holiday? Or dreaming of buying your first home? Nothing, of course – unless it hinges on the death of your elderly mother. Increasingly, it seems, many people’s future plans depend on such family tragedies. The sorrow of losing a loved one, soothed by an inheritance pay cheque. Friends speak openly about moving into a bigger house once their inheritance ‘comes through’ There is something unpalatable about the idea of using a deceased relative’s estate to repay a loan you chose to borrow, or finally booking the cruise that has been sitting in your Tui basket since your father’s first dose of chemo. But more

Dominic Sandbrook

Christmas Out Loud II: Dominic Sandbrook, Philip Hensher, Steve Morris, Christopher Howse, Michael Hann & Mary Killen

41 min listen

On this week’s special Christmas edition of Spectator Out Loud – part two: Dominic Sandbrook reflects on whether Lady Emma Hamilton is the 18th century’s answer to Bonnie Blue; Philip Hensher celebrates the joy of a miserable literary Christmas; Steve Morris argues that an angel is for life, not just for Christmas; Christopher Howse ponders the Spectator’s enduring place in fiction; Michael Hann explains what links Jeffrey Dahmer to the Spice Girls; and, the Spectator’s agony aunt Mary Killen – Dear Mary herself – answers Christmas queries from Emily Maitlis, Elizabeth Day, Rory Stewart and an anonymous Chief Whip of Reform UK.  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Saturday

Mike Jakeman

The circus of the Joshua-Paul boxing fight

‘The numbers are putrid, to say the least,’ harrumphed commentator Maura Ranallo at the start of the fourth round of last night’s fight between British boxer Anthony Joshua and American YouTuber Jake Paul. For the first three rounds, Paul skittered around the edges of the unusually large ring, evading Joshua’s every attempt at a setup. Paul had no interest in trying to hit Joshua. Stepping in would have risked being clobbered himself, given the Brit’s far longer reach. Instead, he put his mind towards provoking Joshua by dropping his hands, sticking his tongue out, coming in for a clinch whenever he could. By the end of the fourth, the referee,

Terry Barnes

A gun crackdown is easier than confronting Australia's Islamist menace

It’s hard to disagree with the verdict of former Australian cabinet minister Josh Frydenberg on the Bondi Beach attack. ‘Guns may have stolen the life of 15 innocent civilians,’ he said, ‘but it was radical Islamist ideology that pulled the trigger’. Despite that furious denunciation of Australian government inertia on antisemitism since 7 October – and ex-prime minister John Howard labelling gun control a ‘distraction’ – Anthony Albanese is determined to focus on cracking down on firearms. But is he ignoring the Islamist elephant in the room? Cracking down on guns is sensible, but it won’t defeat the Islamist and antisemitic hate pulling the trigger The Australian leader has announced

Thomas Colsy

How the English Reformation nearly finished off Christianity in Japan

Christmas is for the Japanese, rather miserably, a regular working day. This might easily not have been the case. The Japanese were once on the verge of adopting the Christian faith at every strata of society, from peasant to ruler. The English Reformation had a surprisingly significant role in ensuring this didn’t come to pass. By the eighteenth century, organised Christianity had disappeared from public life When St Francis Xavier arrived in Japan in 1549, Christianity was entirely unknown there. Within half a century, it had become the fastest-growing religion in the country’s history. By the early seventeenth century, contemporary missionary estimates placed the number of Japanese converts at over