Society

Sunday

Lana Hempsall

Welfare dependency begins at school

Over the past five years, Britain has seen a dramatic rise in the number of people claiming disability benefits. There are now 2.8 million working-age adults who are economically inactive due to long-term sickness, a figure that has risen by over 700,000 since 2019. Personal Independence Payments (PIP) are also increasing rapidly, with over 50,000 new applications every month. Personal Independence Payments (PIP) are increasing rapidly, with over 50,000 new applications every month It is certainly true that the pandemic contributed to these figures, but the UK is the only G7 country that has not seen economic inactivity fall back toward pre-Covid levels. The UK is now a stark outlier. What appears to be

Rory Hanrahan

Let’s raise a pint to BrewDog – and hope it bounces back

BrewDog is in trouble. Its beers have been axed by nearly 2,000 pubs. Punk IPA – once a craft beer titan – has vanished from bars across Britain. The firm is closing ten of its own pubs, including its flagship bar in Aberdeen. Last month, co-founder Martin Dickie left. There’s little doubt that BrewDog has lost its shine; it’s no longer the cool brand it was. But the firm’s troubles are nothing to celebrate. James Watt and Dickie, the two Scottish lads who founded the firm, are heroes of mine. They took on the beer giants and built an empire from a shed with raw cheek and grit. Their success is

Claire Jackson

The bloody confessions of a Claire’s Accessories ear piercer

During the early noughties, I pierced hundreds of ears at Claire’s Accessories, the chain store that collapsed into administration last month in the UK. These piercings rarely went smoothly and the evidence often resurfaced: a wonky earring here, a scar there. Good riddance (unemployment notwithstanding), then, to this lavender blight on teen culture. After a week or two of mutilating cardboard ears, I was let loose on real ones I had just turned 16 when I joined Claire’s and my Saturdays became filled with blood, sweat and tears. I recently saw a meme posted by a Gen Z colleague mocking a millennial for career advice that advocated walking around a

Jonathan Sacerdoti

Rabbi Sacks’s legacy shines brighter than ever

When King Charles paid tribute to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks following his death in 2020, he called him ‘a light unto our nation’. It was a phrase that captured something profound and widely felt. Rabbi Sacks, who had served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013, was a towering figure in British public life and a moral voice of global reach. His speeches echoed in parliament and pulpits alike, his words sought out by broadcasters and schoolchildren, his counsel prized by religious and secular leaders across the world. This autumn sees the publication of a remarkable new edition of the Chumash, the Five

Mark Nayler

Should we believe in the miracles of the first Gen-Z saint?

Today, Pope Leo XIV will perform his first two canonisations, both of which were due to take place earlier this year but postponed after the death of Pope Francis. The recipients will be Pier Giorgio Frassati, an early twentieth century Catholic activist from Turin, and the 21st century’s first saint, Carlo Acutis – also known by the awful Gen-Z nickname of ‘God’s influencer’. The canonisation process – from death to beatification and eventually sainthood, which can take centuries – rests on miracle-attribution, an activity that is as fascinating as it is philosophically flawed. Carlo Acutis is also known by the awful Gen-Z nickname of ‘God’s influencer’ Acutis, a London-born Italian, was 15 years

Saturday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Why the canonisation of the first millennial saint is a cause to celebrate

37 min listen

On Sunday the Catholic Church will acquire its first millennial saint, when Pope Leo XIV canonises someone who, if he were alive today, would be young enough to be his son.  Carlo Acutis, a ‘computer geek’ from a prosperous Italian family, died aged just 15 in 2006. In this episode of Holy Smoke, Damian Thompson talks to Mgr Anthony Figueiredo and the Italian-based journalist Nicholas Farrell about the extraordinary phenomenon of St Carlo, the miracles associated with him – and the scepticism they arouse – and a mean-spirited attack on him by one of the late Pope Francis’s closest advisers.  Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Druin Burch

A farewell to aspirin

At last weekend’s European Society of Cardiology conference in Madrid, a quiet funeral bell tolled for aspirin. The drug has already been largely dropped as a painkiller, on the basis of having more side effects than paracetamol. Most often now it’s taken to prevent a heart attack. Now, a new study, published in the Lancet and presented in Spain, shows another drug, clopidogrel, does it better. The difference is small, but medicine, like life, is often about finessing small differences. They sum together, and aspirin is part of why living a long, healthy life has become the norm when it used to be unusual good luck.  The history of aspirin

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

Why Gay Times hit the buffers

Gay Times, the longstanding monthly magazine formerly aimed at gay men – but now repurposed as an ‘LGBTQ+’ title – is in trouble: it has lost 80 per cent of its advertisers in the last year, and £5 million in advertising revenue as a result. ‘Good old-fashioned discrimination’ is to blame, according to its chief executive Tag Warner. The real reason is rather more straightforward: Gay Times‘s troubles show, once again, that if you go woke, you risk going broke. Gay Times‘s troubles show, once again, that if you go woke, you risk going broke. The Guardian suggests instead that Donald Trump might be to blame. ‘There has been a

James Graham

How to dismantle the green industrial complex

Politicians have spent years talking about the need to create ‘green jobs’. In many ways they have succeeded: there are now nearly 700,000 people employed in green jobs in the UK.  But while the likes of Ed Miliband may think this is a victory, the reality is that many of these jobs are a product of government subsidy, paid for by the taxpayer. These subsidies distort the energy market and have resulted in a massive misallocation of human talent, not to mention money. We now have, without doubt, a green industrial complex in Britain. Last year environmental levies, including costs for renewable obligations and contracts for difference, or CfDs, (in which the government agrees

Friday

Alexander Larman

It’s a pity David Bowie never finished his Spectator musical

Anyone who’s remotely interested in music, fashion, cinema, literature or indeed any of the things that make life worth living, will know that the late David Bowie bestrode all these areas, and more, like a particularly well-dressed South London colossus. But what passed undeservedly unnoticed during his lifetime, and beyond, was that Bowie was also a fully paid-up admirer of Britain’s greatest magazine. Indeed, he was so impressed by it – and its colourful and decidedly storied history – that it has been revealed that a musical that he was working on at the time of his death in 2016, set amidst the rogues, vagabonds and literati of the eighteenth

Tim Shipman

Tim Shipman, Colin Freeman, Rachel Clarke, Michael Gove & Melanie Ferbreach

40 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Tim Shipman interviews shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick (plus – Tim explains the significance of Jenrick’s arguments in a special introduction); Colin Freeman wonders why the defenders of Ukraine have been abandoned; Rachel Clarke reviews Liam Shaw and explains the urgency needed to find new antibiotics; Michael Gove reviews Tom McTague and ponders the path that led to the UK voting to leave the EU; and, Melanie Ferbreach provides her notes on made-up language. Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Stephen Pollard

The truth about the Fabian Society

It’s a strange feeling finding out that you have been part of a revolutionary group that secretly controls Britain and, er…didn’t realise it. For four years in the 1990s, I was the Research Director of the Fabian Society. It was a wonderful job, at a time when Labour under Tony Blair was open to new ideas and policies. As a Labour-affiliated, mildly left-of-centre organisation, the Fabians were very well placed. Earnest thinkers, networkers and youngsters finding their feet in politics all had a space in which they could come together and think about and discuss politics and ideas in an environment where questioning the received wisdom was the point, rather

Sam Olsen

The centre of gravity is shifting to Beijing

Beijing gave us a glimpse of the future this week. Across Tiananmen Square rolled column after column of tanks, missile launchers and robot dogs. Above, sleek new J-35 stealth fighters cut through the smog, together with drones and surveillance aircraft. The centrepiece was unmistakable: gleaming hypersonic and ballistic missiles, designed to extend China’s military reach across continents. Reviewing all this was Xi Jinping, flanked by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. It was military theatre, yes. But it was also a declaration: China is no longer just a regional power. It intends to set the rules of a new world order. Trump staged a piece of political nostalgia;

Thursday

Jake Wallis Simons Jake Wallis Simons

Even bike races aren’t safe from the Gaza mob

In a parallel universe, activists all over the world are rising up against the jihadi butchers who carried out the atrocities of October 7, who refuse to release the hostages almost two years later, and would like nothing better than the scalps of every kuffar in the West. But this is the real world, or what passes for it. Thus, as bizarre as it may seem to the few who remain in possession of a functioning moral compass, we have arrived at the point where even bicycle races are being disrupted in the name of Gaza. Yesterday, the finish to stage 11 of the Vuelta a Espana had to be cancelled

Alexander Larman

The style and influence of Giorgio Armani

When I was younger, I once saw an Armani overcoat in the window of the company’s store in London and vowed that I would do everything I could to buy it. It seemed to me the quintessence of sophistication and style, being a beautifully cut, long, dark coat that flattered its wearer’s body shape and gave them the look of being classy and well-heeled. A year or two later, I was able to buy it in the New Year sales. I remember feeling like a million dollars every time I wore it. Perhaps as a precaution, I even bought another, inferior overcoat for everyday wear, so as to preserve my

Lucy Dunn

Bell Hotel asylum seeker found guilty of sexually assaulting teenager

Hadush Kebatu, an asylum seeker from Ethiopia who was staying at the Bell Hotel in Epping, has been found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, one count of attempted sexual assault, inciting a child into sexual activity, and harassment without violence. Kebatu did not react as he was found guilty at Chelmsford magistrates’ court of all five counts he was charged with, keeping his hand held to his face. During the proceedings, the court heard that the 38-year-old asylum seeker had approached a group of teenagers and asked a girl back to his room at the hotel to ‘make babies’. The judge told Kebatu the evidence against him was

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

Reform’s camp following, masculine rage & why do people make up languages?

51 min listen

First: Reform is naff – and that’s why people like it Gareth Roberts warns this week that ‘the Overton window is shifting’ but in a very unexpected way. Nigel Farage is ahead in the polls – not only because his party is ‘bracingly right-wing’, but ‘because Reform is camp’. Farage offers what Britain wants: ‘a cheeky, up-yours, never-mind-the-knockers revolt against our agonisingly earnest political masters’. ‘From Farage on down,’ Roberts argues, ‘there is a glorious kind of naffness’ to Reform: daytime-TV aesthetics, ‘bargain-basement’ celebrities and big-breasted local councillors. ‘The progressive activists thought they could win the culture war simply by saying they had won it’, but ‘the John Bulls and

David Spencer

The questions the Met must answer over the Graham Linehan debacle

Is the Met on an inadvertent campaign to make Nigel Farage the Prime Minister? Politically he is the only winner from the arrest of the comedy writer Graham Linehan at Heathrow Airport on Monday, for a series of posts made on the social media platform X earlier this year. A senior police officer with a functioning brain cell should have reviewed the investigation and ended the fiasco The circumstances behind the arrest, by armed officers, are so bizarre that they almost beggar explanation. As a former Detective Chief Inspector in the Metropolitan Police I have a fairly good sense about what happened in this case – and how it could have been

Rod Dreher

Graham Linehan’s arrest exposes Britain’s soft totalitarianism

A softer version of totalitarianism has been gnawing its way through the British body politic like a cancer for many years now. With the Graham Linehan arrest at Heathrow this week, it seems to have metastasized into something entirely malignant. If Linehan’s arrest isn’t a bright red line for Britain, what on earth would be? If Linehan’s arrest isn’t a bright red line for Britain, what on earth would be? A decade ago, living in the United States at the dawn of the Great Awokening, I began hearing from older people who had fled to America from the Soviet bloc, seeking freedom. They were telling me that the things they

Melanie Ferbreach

The discombobulating delight of made-up languages

I wasn’t supposed to understand Potato language. It was my parents’ speech device employed when wishing to discuss certain apparently secret subjects in front of my brother and me. While chewing over some esoteric topic, they would suddenly lapse into Potato language, a.k.a ‘P-language’ or just ‘P’. Being a young child, the subject matter didn’t interest me – I was more intent on trying to figure out why on a whim they’d switch to speaking a discordant, discombobulated version of our every-day language. Unbeknown to them, from the age of about seven I gradually became bilingual in P and by ten, I was fluent. As I grew older, I realised