The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week: Sunak’s D-Day misstep, Michael Mosley’s death and Macron’s snap election

From our UK edition

Home The Conservatives promised to reduce National Insurance from 8 per cent to 6 per cent (and abolish it for most of the self-employed by 2029) in their 76-page election manifesto. Despite other tax cuts already announced, the tax burden would continue to rise steadily. The Tories also promised to halve migration. In its manifesto, Labour decided after all not to reinstate the lifetime limit on tax-free pension savings, but it was tempted by capital gains tax. Labour promised 100,000 extra childcare places, with nurseries set up in classrooms expected to be empty because of falling numbers of primary school children; the costs would be met by VAT on private schools. Douglas Ross announced that he would resign as leader of the Scottish Conservatives after the election.

The Spectator

The danger of a Labour supermajority

From our UK edition

We are witnessing what could well be the last few weeks of a constrained Labour party. Sir Keir Starmer is saying as little as possible about his agenda and is instead listing what he won’t do (raise income tax, etc). He is rightly fearful that the Conservatives may do better than the opinion polls suggest. That has happened in the past. There may be a ‘shy Tory’ effect in the polls as there was in 1992, 2015 and 2019. Who would admit to voting Conservative in the current climate? Regardless, power now looks certain to come Starmer’s way – perhaps with a majority bigger than that of any modern prime minister. It doesn’t much matter that he has not enthused voters with his promises.

The Spectator

What was in the first manifesto?

From our UK edition

Made manifest What was in the first manifesto? The word ‘manifesto’ is first recorded as being used in English in a 1620 translation of the History of the Council of Trent – the series of meetings held by the Catholic Church between 1545 and 1563 in an attempt to stem the rise of Protestantism. Among the measures proposed was a ban on the sale of indulgences, an insistence that bishops must be resident in the diocese they served, a prohibition on concubinage and a ban on duelling. More controversial was a ban on divorcees marrying while their former spouse was still alive – including an innocent party whose spouse had been unfaithful. Win win Which political parties won the most seats in last week’s European elections?

Wednesday

The Spectator

The cultural chasm between Biden and Trump supporters

A new Pew Research poll with some stunning findings challenges common critiques from centrist and moderate politicos that the so-called “culture war” is a distraction or even imaginary. On the contrary, the results show a massive cultural chasm between Biden and Trump supporters that helps explain why America seems so politically divided — and why compromise often feels impossible.

Rebecca Watts

Multiverse Valentine

From our UK edition

In your lit eyes I see other candles, other flames. On the stiff white tablecloth I lay out my jokes like the contents of a handbag. Your laugh, as mine, sounds far away. But the scene — how close and familiar it all is! Uncountable sweetnesses, tragedies.

Monday

The Spectator

Biden White House rocked by protests

The Biden White House had a difficult weekend as pro-Palestinian protesters continue to be a thorn in the side of the administration and the Democratic Party. Thousands arrived outside of the White House on Saturday to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and for Biden to stop sending weapons to Israel. Police erected additional fencing around the White House in anticipation of the protests and deployed pepper spray against at least one demonstrator, but no arrests were made. Instead, the pro-Palestinian activists left graffiti on statues in Lafayette Square and trash strewn around the perimeter of the White House complex.

protests

Friday

The Spectator

Hunter Biden’s gun trial nearing its end

The gun trial for Hunter Biden will likely wrap up early next week as the prosecution rested its case on Friday. The defense expects to call about two to three witnesses, including an employee of the gun store at which Hunter purchased a firearm while allegedly being an active drug abuser, Hunter’s uncle James Biden and Hunter’s daughter Naomi Biden.Naomi took the stand Friday afternoon and testified that her father seemed “hopeful” in October 2018, the month he purchased the gun, and that she did not personally observe any drug paraphernalia or other signs of abuse in her father’s car. She had previously visited Hunter at a rehab facility in the summer of 2018 and told him she was “proud” of him.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: the problem with Ozempic

From our UK edition

At your service Sir: National service is a contentious issue with many people including the Armed Forces themselves (‘Identity crisis’, 1 June). National community service might be a far better option whereby everyone reaching the age of 18 would spend a year working in a care home, hospital, day nursery, park, graffiti cleaning, litter clearance and so on – all areas in which help is badly needed. We have a generation of young people badly affected by Covid isolation and screen addiction and this might help them feel more integrated into society.

The Spectator

When was the first televised election debate?

From our UK edition

TV clashes The concept of a televised election debate is often believed to have begun with the one held between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon before the 1960 US presidential election – an innovation not repeated until 1976. (The first televised election debate in the UK didn’t take place until the 2010 general election.) Yet its history can really be traced back to 4 November 1956 when, days before Americans were invited to choose between President Eisenhower and Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson II, the CBS News show Face the Nation held a half-hour debate between Eleanor Roosevelt, representing the Democrats, and Margaret Chase Smith, representing the Republicans.

The Spectator

The EU ‘elections’ vindicate Brexit

From our UK edition

If Britain had not left the European Union, we would be going to the polls this week as well as on 4 July. The European parliament elections have come round again and it is likely that there will be a mass revolt against the direction of the EU project. Across the continent, voters disillusioned with the EU model of democracy are turning to the Eurosceptic right. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is on course to become the biggest single party in the European parliament. AfD is polling in second place in Germany. Geert Wilders’s Freedom party is comfortably ahead in the Netherlands. Chega, a new far-right party from Portugal, is expected to make big gains, as is the Freedom party in Austria and the Croatian Homeland movement.

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week: Farage returns, Abbott reselected and Trump guilty 

From our UK edition

Home Nigel Farage took over leadership of the Reform party from Richard Tice and is standing for parliament in Clacton. This came as news on Monday to Tice, and to Reform’s candidate for Clacton, Tony Mack. Outside the Wetherspoons pub where he launched his campaign, Farage had a McDonald’s banana milkshake thrown over him. Farage proposed net-zero immigration. The Conservatives then said they would ask the independent Migration Advisory Committee for a recommended level for an annual cap on visas, and put that to a parliamentary vote. Invasive Asian hornets, which can eat 50 bees a day, were found to have survived a British winter and might stay permanently.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Biden’s faux border crackdown

President Joe Biden announced an executive order this week that he claims will “help us to gain control of our border, restore order to the process” by banning migrants from seeking asylum if they cross the border illegally. At first glance, this seems like a welcome move to reduce a major pull factor for illegal crossings, even if it flies in the face of Biden’s claim in January that he had “done all I can do” on the border.As always, though, the devil is in the details. First, the limitations on asylum seekers only kick in once illegal crossings exceed 2,500 per day, which is nearly 1 million per year. As Ammon Blair, a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation told me, Biden is going to “meter the invasion.

Monday

The Spectator

Fauci in the hot seat

“This might be the most insane hearing that I have ever attended,” freshman Representative Robert Garcia quipped during today’s hearing featuring former head of the NIAID Dr. Anthony Fauci – the first time that “America’s Doctor” testified publicly in Congress since leaving government service. Fauci, who played a dominant role in dictating public health policy across multiple presidential administrations, appeared diminutive in both his physical stature and in addressing the role he played as America grappled with a once-in-a lifetime pandemic.

Friday

The Spectator

Trump rails against ‘rigged’ trial

Former president Donald Trump railed against the “rigged” trial that saw him convicted on thirty-four felony charges during a forty-minute press conference at Trump Tower in New York on Friday. In addition to speaking about the case and the individuals he believed to be responsible for corrupting it — DA Alvin Bragg, Judge Juan Merchan and his former lawyer Michael Cohen, among others — Trump went on offense against the Biden campaign and administration and tied this latest trial to the years-long investigation into alleged Russian collusion and the three other cases pending against him. He claimed the United States is now officially a “fascist” country, flipping the term that Democrats have long used to describe him and and his plans for a second term.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: why the Tories need to lose

From our UK edition

Back to blue Sir: What a pity your leading article (‘The valley of death’, 25 May) did not reach Downing Street in time. It might have dissuaded the Prime Minister from ruining a good suit, rushing off to Belfast to associate himself with Titanic and allowing himself to be photographed on an aeroplane under a sign proclaiming ‘Exit’. The coming Labour landslide does, however, present an opportunity for the Conservatives, if they are willing to use the wilderness years wisely. The years in opposition before 1979 enabled Margaret Thatcher to devise and refine a programme of radical right-wing policies.

The Spectator

How many countries have conscription?

From our UK edition

Halfway points Rishi Sunak told us we would have an election in the second half of the year, and we will have one on 4 July. When, exactly, is the halfway point of 2024? – There are 366 days in 2024, so we will be halfway through after 183 of them. That brings us to midnight at the end of 1 July, a day later than many might assume. – However, there is also the effect of daylight saving, which takes a hour away from March and puts it in October, shifting the halfway point of the year forwards by an hour to 1 a.m. on 2 July. Only two days of campaigning plus the voting itself will therefore fall in the second half of the year. – In 2019, 21% of people had a postal vote; if this is repeated a fifth of the population will be voting in the first half of 2024.

The Spectator

2653: Order! Order! – solution

From our UK edition

The twelve symmetrically placed unclued entries NATURAL, MAIL, MONASTIC, STANDING, PECK, LOGICAL, BATTING, APPLE-PIE, OPEN, EVICTION, BANKERS and SIDE can precede the word ORDER, and the title alluded to an ‘A to Z’. Thus unclued entries had to be entered in alphabetical order.

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week: Sunak’s downpour, national service and the ‘triple lock plus’

From our UK edition

Home Parliament was dissolved, leaving no MPs until the general election on 4 July. With hours to go, Diane Abbott had the Labour whip restored to her, and Lucy Allan MP was suspended from the Conservative party for endorsing the Reform UK candidate for Telford. Among bills that were lost was one prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 31 December 2008. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, had provided an abiding memory by announcing the election standing in heavy rain in Downing Street and making a speech as though it weren’t raining. The Conservatives suddenly said that everyone should do a form of national service at the age of 18. The Tories proposed adding to the triple lock for state pensions a promise that they would never incur income tax.