The Spectator

Thursday

Nicholas Shrimpton (With apologies to Sir Francis Hastings Doyle)

The Private of the Bluffs

Last night among his fellow roughs, He plotted, schemed, and swore; An anxious statesman of the Bluffs, Who never looked before. To-day, beneath the foeman’s frown, He stands in Charles’s place, Ambassador from Britain’s crown, And type of all her race. Rich, reckless, posh, well-born, well-taught, Bewildered and alone, A heart with leftish instinct fraught, He yet can call his own. Ay, tear his body limb from limb, Bring cord or axe or flame, He only knows that straight through him Shall England come to shame.

Nicholas Murray

The Death of the Autocrats

The world, the young woman said, is ruled by old men with hard, brutal faces and an ugly lust for power. Nothing that gym bars or strictures of the personal physician can offer will help them in the end when the dark fog drops to cover the formerly sentient mind, its edicts like arrows that once made the sky dark, repulsed its multiple enemies.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Gender in schools, election U-turns and the ‘truth’ about Navalny

From our UK edition

Home Pupils will be allowed to change gender at school, according to guidance issued by Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary; parents would be consulted, unless there was a safeguarding reason not to, and children would have their preferred pronouns used in the classroom. However, children older than eight would still have to use facilities according to their biological sex. A High Court judge dismissed a challenge to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s guidance last April that single-sex lavatories or changing rooms should be used by people of the same biological sex; the EHRC withdrew its guidance in October, and its revised guidance is being considered by the government.

The Spectator

Can Keir Starmer keep us safe?

From our UK edition

‘Shape without form, shade without colour. Paralysed force, gesture without motion.’ T.S Eliot’s lines from ‘The Hollow Men’ sum up in 11 words the emptiness of Sir Keir Starmer’s administration. Nowhere is the shade darker and the force more paralysed than in our government’s defence policy. At the Munich Security Conference last weekend, the Prime Minister boasted that he has demonstrated ‘Britain’s leadership on the world stage’ and pledged to augment our ‘huge defence capabilities’. A promise to increase defence spending further, faster, followed. But this is all gesture and no motion.

The Spectator

2737: 19×24 inches – solution

From our UK edition

The unclued lights can precede or follow ROYAL. The preamble should have read: Seven unclued lights (two of two words) follow and four precede a word defined by the title. Doc apologises for the error. First prize Andrew Bell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire Runners-up C.R. Haigh, Hassocks, W.

The Spectator

Letters: Nicky Haslam should fix the Palace of Westminster

From our UK edition

Growing pains Sir: It was reassuring to learn that Wes Streeting is a reader of The Spectator and also shares the view of many that his government has ‘no growth strategy’ (‘To lead or not to lead’, 14 February). However, it is a shame that following the October 2024 Budget he did not take up the Spectator’s ‘Refer a Friend’ offer, as both Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves may have benefited from its early insights. Many of your writers and readers clearly predicted that the disastrous Budget would create wider problems for the UK, damaging growth, adding cost of living pressures, increasing company failures, raising unemployment and prompting further wealth flight. All this is now coming to pass and underpins the current gloom.

The Spectator

How much do graduates owe in student loans?

From our UK edition

Toxic legacy Analysis by scientists at Porton Down suggested that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had been killed using epibatidine, a neurotoxin found in dart frogs from South America. — Using naturally occurring neurotoxins goes back further than anyone thought. In January scientists at Stockholm University reported that they had found traces of alkaloids from gifbol – a poisonous form of onion – on 60,000-year-old quartz arrowheads in South Africa. Debt to education How much do graduates owe in student loans?

Monday

The Spectator

Livestream: Speaker Series – An evening with John Rhys-Davies

From our UK edition

Watch the live recording of Toby Young in conversation with John Rhys-Davies. Widely regarded as having one of the most recognisable voices in film history, the legendary actor has starred in some of the biggest blockbusters of the past 40 years, including The Lord of the Rings and Indiana Jones. In this exclusive in-depth conversation with Toby Young, Rhys-Davies charts his fascinating journey from his childhood in Tanzania to his years spent across Los Angeles, New Zealand, Wales and his home on the Isle of Man. He also explores the defining roles of his career and talks about what he sees as the challenges facing western civilisation, including demographic change, the decline of traditional values and even the emergence of embodied AI.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Keir Starmer can only delay the inevitable for so long

From our UK edition

Wes Streeting is known to be a Spectator reader. Pinned on the Health Secretary’s office wall, as he revealed in an interview last Easter, is a leading article of ours asking whether he was ‘the Hamlet of the Health Service’. Streeting was ‘so riled’ by our suggestion of inactivity that he put it up to hold himself to account. It’s thus flattering, but unsurprising, that he also agrees with us about the holes at the heart of the government in which he serves. In WhatsApp conversations with Lord Mandelson, which he released helpfully early this week, Streeting lamented that the government has ‘no growth strategy’ and is not providing ‘a clear answer to the question: why Labour?’.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: McSweeney resigns, Starmer hangs on and Streeting plots

From our UK edition

Home Morgan McSweeney, the helmsman of Labour, walked the plank by resigning as chief of staff to Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, whom he had advised in 2024 to appoint Lord Mandelson as ambassador to Washington. Mr McSweeney’s resignation statement began: ‘After careful reflection, I have decided to resign from the government,’ as though he had been a member of the government. In a speech meant to be about funding for local communities, Sir Keir said he was ‘sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies and appointed him’. But he added: ‘I had no reason to believe he was telling anything other than the truth’, even though the Financial Times had in 2023 reported that Mandelson had stayed at Jeffrey Epstein’s house when the financier was in prison.

The Spectator

2736: Jammy – solution

From our UK edition

Associations with BLACK were 7 SABLE, 25 BOYCOTT and 32 SOMBRE; with CUR 6A RASCAL, 14 VARLET and 20 WRETCH; and with RANT 1A HARANGUE, 15 TIRADE and 24 RAIL. First prize Brian Taylor, Horwich, Bolton Runners-up Laura Gould, Shrewsbury; A.

The Spectator

Letters: AI won’t save the army

From our UK edition

Brute force Sir: General Sir Nick Carter is correct to point out the fragility of the UK’s armed forces today (‘Empty shell’, 7 February). He is also right to highlight the level of expenditure which will be necessary to overcome 25 years of structural under-investment in defence if the UK and its allies are to deter or win any future war. However, the suggestion that the British armed forces might be saved – relatively cheaply – by the institution of AI-automated kill chains alone is questionable. Indeed, it may be just another mirage of the type which has contributed to the current predicament. Autonomous weapons systems have existed for many years. With AI, they will proliferate and may become more important.

Friday

The Spectator

The Spectator’s 2026 no-CV internship scheme is now open

From our UK edition

The Spectator runs the UK’s only double-blind internship scheme. We don’t ask for a CV, we don’t use your name. We don’t care where (or whether) you went to university, we anonymise your application. We give each applicant a city name, mark out of 100 and give offers to the best ones. You’ll come in for a week of your choosing in the summer. It’s a useful window into journalism and gives us the chance to meet new talent. When jobs come up, as they do in various fields, we look to hire past interns. About a third of our editorial staff came through this way — full list below. No other publication goes to such lengths to find interns, which is perhaps why those who make it on our staff list are often snapped up by other publications.

Thursday

Robert Saxton

Blue Moon Valley

There’s a magical muddle          that clings to the page like mist to a meadow. No help in the hurting,          no truth in the light, just haze on the harvest. I’ve cancelled my comeback          and chosen instead to be cloistered in clover. In the blare of the body          the spirit lies mute like a book in a bottle. I’ll hunker in hollows          where wisdom is vague and history can’t happen. There’s a heaven of honey          in hives of friends’ hearts.

Wednesday

Nicholas Shrimpton

The Private of the Bluffs

From our UK edition

Last night among his fellow roughs, He plotted, schemed, and swore; An anxious statesman of the Bluffs, Who never looked before. To-day, beneath the foeman’s frown, He stands in Charles’s place, Ambassador from Britain’s crown, And type of all her race. Rich, reckless, posh, well-born, well-taught, Bewildered and alone, A heart with leftish instinct fraught, He yet can call his own. Ay, tear his body limb from limb, Bring cord or axe or flame, He only knows that straight through him Shall England come to shame.

The Spectator

How teetotal is Britain?

From our UK edition

Royal removals The King has had more success in stripping Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of his royal titles than George IV had in removing the title of his Queen, Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel. George, then Prince of Wales, and Caroline married in 1795 having got engaged before they actually met. On their wedding night, both found each other physically disgusting – although they did manage to conceive a daughter. Caroline went on to have a string of affairs, prompting delicate royal investigations, even though George was hardly a picture of fidelity himself. She later left England and set up with an Italian manservant, Bartolomeo Pergami, but returned to England when George ascended to the throne in 1820. His efforts to dethrone her via a Pains and Penalties Bill failed.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Peter Mandelson resigns, Keir Starmer returns and gold rallies 

From our UK edition

Home Lord Mandelson resigned his membership of the Labour party and then retired from the House of Lords; some of the three million items released by the US Department of Justice relating to the late Jeffrey Epstein suggested that, while serving as business secretary in Gordon Brown’s cabinet, he sent market-sensitive government information to Epstein. The Metropolitan Police launched a criminal investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office by Lord Mandelson. Mr Brown sent the Met ‘relevant’ information for their investigations. In an exchange with Lord Mandelson two days before Mr Brown’s resignation as PM, Epstein emailed: ‘Bye, bye smelly?’ The Conservatives questioned in parliament the decision to appoint Lord Mandelson ambassador to Washington.

The Spectator

How to fight the AI revolution

From our UK edition

Ask ChatGPT to write a Spectator leader about the risks of AI and it begins like this: ‘There are two kinds of people talking about artificial intelligence today. One group is exhilarated, convinced that AI will usher in a new era of abundance, productivity and human flourishing. The other is distinctly alarmed, warning of mass unemployment, runaway systems and even existential catastrophe. They disagree on almost everything – except one crucial point. This is going to be a big change. And Britain, like most countries, is not nearly ready for it.’ As the bot identifies, the consensus among experts is that AI’s impact will be seismic, whether for good or ill.

The Spectator

Letters: Let children drink

From our UK edition

Chagos stupidity Sir: To British Establishment watchers, Michael Gove’s dissection of the dubious and devious machinations of Jonathan Powell, Richard Hermer, Philippe Sands et al over the Chagos Islands (‘The guilty men’, 31 January) should come as no surprise. Powell, in the Irish Troubles context in particular, has form. His negotiating position more resembled that of an imported diplomat than an official of the UK government. What is surprising in the Chagos fiasco, however, is the seeming gullibility of some at least on the American side. Are they, one wonders, working to a covert agenda of withdrawal and retrenchment, or are they just very stupid? Terry Smith London NW11 Democracy denial?