The Spectator

The Spectator is Britain’s oldest and most influential magazine, with incisive political and economic analysis, unrivalled books and arts reviews, and unmissable lifestyle writing, plus the funniest cartoons. It’s more cocktail party than political party, and we’d love it if you joined us.

Stench of failure

The Spectator

CONTRIBUTORS

PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

DIARY

The climate conundrum

THE SPECTATOR’S NOTES

Gilded age • The lessons from Trump II

Maritime

Shame faced

You can’t trust the BBC

The Z list • Is Zack Polanski our Zohran Mamdani?

How not to run a city

Crowd control • Why I gave up on polyamory

We have to stop looking away

BAROMETER

Elemental mistake • China is holding the West to ransom over rare earths

Forbidden fruit • What has happened to Britain’s ancient apple varieties?

The engine’s pitch has changed

State of mind • Psychiatrists are being deterred from sectioning dangerous patients

Invasive weed • The inconvenient truth about cannabis and mental illness

LETTERS

Income tax must rise – but Rachel Reeves must go

BOOKS OF THE YEAR II • A further selection of books enjoyed by our regular reviewers in 2025

‘I enjoyed causing trouble’

Mystical mountains

Grand designs

Hail and farewell

A web of intrigue

Political tug of war

Mother Courage and her daughters

A fine mess of words

The poor man’s food worth billions

The Wright stuff • Few artworks hold a mirror to their viewers more brightly than Joseph Wright of Derby’s candlelit visions, says Richard Bratby

Going Dutch

Two Bobs

Beauty and the beast

In a class of his own

Robert Russell Bennett & Vernon Duke: Violin Concertos

From page to stage

Here comes the sun

Losing our religion

Truffling

Dolce vita

Real life

The turf

Bridge

SPECTATOR WINE

St Louis showdown

It’s a con

2728: Friends and relations

Lord Young goes to Washington

The Battle for Britain

Pollock’s chaotic canvas

DEAR MARY YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED

Panzer thanks

Fresh hell