Freddy Gray

Freddy Gray

Freddy Gray is deputy editor of The Spectator and the editor of the US edition. He hosts Americano on YouTube.

What was it really like to work for Cambridge Analytica?

From our UK edition

From 2009 to 2010 Sven Hughes worked for SCL group, the parent company of the controversial — now deceased —  Cambridge Analytica. SCL/Cambridge Analytica and its CEO Alexander Nix have been in the news a lot lately, chiefly because of their role in the Trump campaign. The fall of Cambridge Analytica was prompted by a

The new identity politics is conservative

Celebrity opinion, that awful juggernaut, is beginning to shift. It could take another 30 years before we see any great turn. Yet slowly, slowly, famous people are realising that intense political correctness isn’t working. Old fashioned identity politics now bores the fans. One by one, celebrities are starting to reposition themselves.  The stars are working … Read more

Parliament got Syria right in 2013 – it deserves to vote again

From our UK edition

As I’ve said before, but it needs saying again because these people never stop — the let’s-bomb-Syria brigade has never quite gotten over the horror of being rebuffed by Parliament in 2013. And this week, what with the latest reported use of chemical weapons by Assad in Syria, they’ve got their tails up again. We don’t

En marche

From our UK edition

Remember the never-ending handshake? It was 14 July 2017, Bastille Day, and Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump opened their formal relationship as leaders of their respective countries by interlocking palms and refusing to let go. They kept at it for a good 30 seconds. They didn’t release even as Trump began kissing Macron’s wife. It

The citizenship game

From our UK edition

The Cambridge Analytica story is full of hot air. Everybody delights in talking about how scary Facebook is, and lots of people believe the Donald Trump and Brexit campaigns somehow hoodwinked whole electorates — because, well, how else could they have won? We hear about creepy and sophisticated–sounding techniques such as ‘micro-targeting’ and ‘psychographics’. But

Revealed: Cambridge Analytica and the passport king

The Cambridge Analytica story is full of hot air. Everybody delights in talking about how scary Facebook is, and lots of people believe the Donald Trump and Brexit campaigns somehow hoodwinked whole electorates — because, well, how else could they have won? We hear about creepy and sophisticated-sounding techniques such as ‘micro-targeting’ and ‘psychographics’. But

Did Trump appoint John Bolton to distract from his spending bill failure?

Another massive America news blizzard yesterday: Trump lawyer quits, tariffs tariffs tariffs, stock-market slide, former alleged mistresses of the President speaking out, McMaster out (finally), Bolton in (finally). And then, as a night cap, the Senate approves a whooping $1.3 trillion spending plan to prevent a government shutdown. The Bolton news has, so far, been

Is Steve Bell pastiching Nazi propaganda? Or plagiarising it? 

From our UK edition

My objection to Steve Bell, the Guardian cartoonist, is not that he is risqué. Nor is it that he’s rabidly anti-Tory. It’s that his cartoons are often unfunny to the point of being humourless. I’m not exactly his target audience, though, so I would say that.  But a friend has pointed out that his drawing

Meet Boris Titov: the man who wouldn’t be president

Boris Titov is running to be president of Russia, but he’s eager to talk himself out of the job. ‘I am not a good politician,’ he says, over breakfast at the Lanesborough hotel in Knightsbridge, London. ‘To be a president means you need to be wise, a big politician like Thatcher, Deng Xiaoping, Lee Kuan … Read more

Rex Tillerson’s sacking isn’t about Russia

Sometimes it’s almost as if Donald Trump wants the world to think he’s a Russian patsy. Yesterday, Rex Tillerson, as Secretary of State, warned Putin that Russia’s alleged assassination attempt on British soil would trigger ‘a response’. Today he’s been sacked. But the sacking almost certainly isn’t about Russia. It seems Trump asked Tillerson to

No, Britain shouldn’t invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty

From our UK edition

Theresa May might regret using such strong language in her statement on the Skripal case last night. Saying that there had been the ‘unlawful use of force’ on British soil and that a response would be imminent has led to a lot of people invoking Article 5 of the NATO treaty – something mentioned in

Welcome to Spectator USA

From our UK edition

It’s an exciting day at the office. We’ve just launched Spectator USA, a new website from the world’s oldest weekly magazine. For 190 years, The Spectator has been producing some of the sharpest, funniest and best-written journalism. Now we want to do more of the same for an American audience. Spectator USA will cover politics,

Surprise, surprise — here comes the tariffs retreat

We should by now be used to Trump’s modus operandi. But we aren’t. We should all know the art of his deals. But we don’t. He is the counterpuncher who quite often smacks first and then retreats. Look at the tariffs story now unfolding. It goes like this: Trump makes fierce opening gambit. This shocks … Read more