What’s next for DoGE fever?
Plus: Trump plans more tariffs
The Spectator
Friday
Thursday
Letters: The army that Britain needs
From our UK edition
Common ground Sir: Katy Balls asks ‘Lawyer or leader?’ (Politics, 25 January), but it became fairly clear which Keir Starmer is when he appointed as his Attorney General Lord Hermer, a human rights lawyer. As was mentioned, Lord Hermer has often represented those rejecting British values rather than standing up for them. Sir Keir and
Where will you find the most shoplifters?
From our UK edition
Power of assembly Nigel Farage claimed he would put together the biggest political rally in British history to launch Reform UK’s local election manifesto in March. How many people will have to assemble to fulfil his promise? – The Chartists claimed to put together a crowd of 500,000 when presenting a petition demanding electoral reform
2686: Poem VIII – solution
From our UK edition
The poem is ‘Say not the struggle nought availeth’ by Arthur Hugh Clough. The final words are SUN CLIMBS SLOW, HOW SLOWLY, BUT WESTWARD, LOOK, THE LAND IS BRIGHT. The other two extracts are DUPES (25A) and THE FIELD (22). CLOUGH (3) was to be shaded. First prize Will Snell, London SE10 Runners-up Mike Conway,
Britain could learn from Trump’s approach to foreign policy
From our UK edition
The Foreign Secretary describes his approach to diplomacy as ‘progressive realism’. One can legitimately ask what is progressive about a closer accommodation with the slave-labour-deploying Leninists of Beijing or what is realistic about ceding the UK’s sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to China’s ally Mauritius. But David Lammy seems happy in his work. His choice
Portrait of the week: Shoplifting surges, Trump eyes Gaza Strip and Norway’s government collapses
From our UK edition
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, flew to Brussels for an EU summit, sought a ‘reset’ of relations and had celeriac soup and sea bream for dinner. AstraZeneca dropped plans to invest £450 million in a vaccine manufacturing plant in Speke, Liverpool, blaming the government’s ‘final offer compared to the previous government’s proposal’. Rachel
Wednesday
Introducing the MAGA-za Strip
Plus: See ya to the CIA?
Not Quite Laid Up
From our UK edition
Grunting, you slipper-creep across the floor slower than a sailboat in a Force 1 breeze. I wonder whether in that ancient circuit board of a head from which so little intelligible has issued for weeks the Beaufort Scale still means anything or whether, if mentioned, you would as usual get totally muddled, mistake Force 1,
Monday
USAID in the DoGE house
Plus: Other countries tariff-ied
Friday
Plane crash tragedy exposes other close calls
Plus: What the coming tariffs might mean for Americans
Thursday
Letters: What we lose when we lose our factories
From our UK edition
Chains of command Sir: Matthew Lynn is correct to emphasise the economic dangers of deindustrialisation (‘Not made in Britain’, 25 January). But there are cultural dangers too. It’s now 40 years since Correlli Barnett and I made a television programme called Assembled in Britain, drawing attention to the alarming retreat of manufacturing. No recent government has
How Heathrow went from six runways to two
From our UK edition
Chocks away Rachel Reeves backed a third runway for Heathrow, reigniting a debate which has been going on for years. Yet Heathrow, when originally laid out in 1946, had six runways varying in length between 5,300 and 9,200ft: three pairs of parallel runways running east to west, north-west to south-east and north-east to south-west. As aircraft
2685: Scocourban – solution
From our UK edition
The unclued lights (including the pair at 4 and 37) are former county towns of eight historic Scottish counties. First prize Eleanor Morrall, Coseley, West Midlands Runners-up Revd John Thackray, Ipswich, Suffolk; Tom Fanshawe, Wantage, Oxon
DeepSeek’s cheap information comes at a high price for the West
From our UK edition
This week, Chinese technology has shown the West the challenge it faces – ruthless, implacable and impossible to ignore. The unveiling of the Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek has not only disrupted the business models of America’s tech behemoths; it has also shown that, in the race to develop the tools for economic hegemony, Beijing
Portrait of the week: DeepSeek, Duke of Sussex’s damages and an iceberg the size of Cornwall
From our UK edition
Home The government would invest 2.6 per cent of GDP a year to create growth, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a speech. Standing behind a placard reading ‘Kickstart economic growth’, she kept repeating the word ‘growth’. Welfare and the visa system would be reformed. A third runway at Heathrow would bring
Wednesday
DoGE issues return-to-office order
Plus: Why Kamala missed out on Rogan
Monday
Colombia yields to Trump’s tariff threats
Plus: Comer’s crime against publishing
Friday
Trump makes good on deportation promise
Plus: Behind Trump’s first presidential phone calls
This month in culture: February 2025
What to watch this February
Thursday
DEI going to DIE in federal government
Plus: Cabinet confirmations continue
