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1 week ago | 
thespectator.com | Teresa Mull |Ella Dorn |Ani Wilcenski |Theo Hobson
I was determined to write something positive about Blue Origin’s “historic all-female spaceflight.” The spectacle was an all-American underdog story. Jeff Bezos worked his way up from dorky book salesman to buff billionaire who can launch his busty bride-to-be into space alongside some celebrities — because hey, why not? Then I saw the group photos of the girl gang, and I just couldn’t. My resolve dissolved faster than the lip fillers in Khloé Kardashian’s fake face.
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2 weeks ago | 
spectator.com.au | Theo Hobson
I wasn’t intending to write about Lily Phillips again. Her story would ideally be ignored. But if it does appear in the media, we must be vigilant about how it is represented, especially if the BBC is doing the representing. On some issues, neutrality is a bogus aspiration. It means allowing a very dubious narrative to stand, because contesting it would be awkward.
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2 weeks ago | 
spectator.co.uk | Theo Hobson
I wasn’t intending to write about Lily Phillips again. Her story would ideally be ignored. But if it does appear in the media, we must be vigilant about how it is represented, especially if the BBC is doing the representing. On some issues, neutrality is a bogus aspiration. It means allowing a very dubious narrative to stand, because contesting it would be awkward. I am talking about Newsnight’s interview with Phillips this week, and the studio debate that followed it.
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2 weeks ago | 
spectator.co.uk | Theo Hobson
My daughter has asked for my advice about what to study at university. Yeah right. She’d rather eat her own hoodie. But I’m going to give it anyway. She is wavering between history and English. Do both, I say. But not many universities offer a joint honours degree, and her (otherwise excellent) teachers seem to think that it is better to focus on one subject, to demonstrate laser-like commitment to your chosen path. I see specialisation as the enemy of the humanities.
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3 weeks ago | 
spectator.com.au | Theo Hobson
Many Brits who were raised as Christians have abandoned their faith, according to a report by the Pew Research Centre. The survey found that 38 per cent of those brought up as Christians are ‘religiously unaffiliated’, while 4 per cent had converted to other religions. The verdict on religion seems gloomy.
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3 weeks ago | 
spectator.co.uk | Theo Hobson
Many Brits who were raised as Christians have abandoned their faith, according to a report by the Pew Research Centre. The survey found that 38 per cent of those brought up as Christians are ‘religiously unaffiliated’, while 4 per cent had converted to other religions. The verdict on religion seems gloomy. But I have a slight quibble with this finding: were these people really raised as Christians? Or did they just glance in its direction now and then as children?
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1 month ago | 
spectator.co.uk | Theo Hobson
I recently offered my services as a part-time RE teacher to my local comp, an inner-city affair with a Muslim majority. Yes please, said the nice headmistress: the Covid-blunted Year 11s needed all the help they could get with GCSE revision. The syllabus consisted of Christianity and Islam. What could go wrong? The first thing that went wrong was that I talked about the Jewish roots of Christianity and Islam: Judaism was the original monotheism.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Nicholas Farrell |Theo Hobson |Lawrence Osborne |Catriona Olding
Dante’s Beach, RavennaThe closest I get to a social life these days is when I sneak out into town for an hour or so to buy red wine, trying not to get caught by my wife and six children. I have found a place that sells a fantastic Sangiovese at €2.60 a liter which is dispensed like gasoline from a cask behind the counter into one-and-a-half liter plastic bottles that once contained mineral water. I buy four bottles each time I go.
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2 months ago | 
thespectator.com | Theo Hobson |Teresa Mull |Brendan O’Neill |Mary Wakefield
This is the article I have thought about writing for years, but I have always ended up asking what would be the point. And how annoying that some people would call it “brave,” meaning shameful. I’ve always earned a lot less money than my wife. There, I’ve said it. Is that still a big deal these days, a difficult thing to admit? Yes and no — and the ambiguity is rather interesting. Our culture claims to be liberated from old stereotypes about gender roles. But is it hell.
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2 months ago | 
spectator.co.uk | Theo Hobson
Do kids still have hobbies? Maybe hobbies isn’t quite the right word. What I mean is a passionate interest in something fairly adult, something more than playing with toys. For example, a child might get precociously into theatre or birdwatching or medieval history and have a first taste of adult enthusiasm for something. I was into magic, meaning conjuring tricks. This seemed the most interesting thing about the world, the clear pinnacle of its complicated cultural array.
