The Spectator

The Spectator is a weekly magazine from the UK that leans towards conservative viewpoints. It was established on July 6, 1828, making it the longest-running magazine in the English language. The publication is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also own The Daily Telegraph through their company, Press Holdings. The magazine mainly focuses on topics related to politics and culture.

National, Consumer

English

Magazine

Outlet metrics

Domain Authority

Ranking

Global

#12932

United Kingdom

#553

News and Media

#47

Traffic sources

Monthly visitors

Articles

Bridge | 26 April 2025

1 day ago | spectator.co.uk | Janet de Botton

One FAQ by people who are thinking of learning bridge is: ‘Do you have to be good at maths to become a good bridge player?’ The answer is you don’t need to be Rain Man but familiarity with numeracy will be an asset. Logic plays a big part in making a good player and, if all that fails you, there is the greatest asset of all – table presence! That virtually unnoticeable nanosecond’s hesitation or a slow player playing faster than normal at a crucial moment.
A football regulator would be an own goal

1 day ago | spectator.co.uk | Roger Alton

It’s that time of the year again in football when the Championship sweeps all before it: it’s full of joy and life with packed houses, goals, drama and uncertain outcomes. It’s stacked with great names: Leeds, Burnley, Sunderland, Coventry, Blackburn, Norwich, Preston, Derby (take your pick). It’s where Coventry vs Middlesbrough on the last day of the season should be a big, big match.
Dear Mary: Must I take my mother-in-law’s hideous cast-offs?

1 day ago | spectator.co.uk | Mary Killen

Q. My soon-to-be mother-in-law has started off-loading large amounts of her expensive but hideous cast-off clothes on to me. I don’t want them for many reasons, but we are moving into a much larger flat with lots of cupboards, so I can’t use limited space as a reason to reject them. She is not controlling, just tone-deaf. Can you help at all? A.
Is an Epsom renaissance on the way?

1 day ago | spectator.co.uk | Robin Oakley

Through 30 years of living within walking distance of the Derby course I was ever hopeful of seeing Epsom’s status revived to the 600 horsepower training centre it once was with the likes of Walter Nightingall turning out winners for Winston Churchill. There have been brief dawns as when Laura Mongan won the St Leger with Harbour Law in 2016, or Adam West won the Nunthorpe with Live in the Dream.
Northern Europe doesn’t get salads: Claro reviewed

1 day ago | spectator.co.uk | Tanya Gold

Claro is at 12 Waterloo Place, St James’s, and, when I tried to find out what it used to be – it has the energy of a bank – I found an advert from the Crown Estate offering the lease for a ‘retail or wellness opportunity’. 12 Waterloo Place was pictured in pen and ink, with a woman holding a yoga mat idling past, and a woman in cycling shorts hanging back. I wonder why the Crown Estate is pushing wellness, which I think is being rich, bored and female while not dying.
The joy of Channel Island hopping

1 day ago | spectator.co.uk | Matthew Parris

Seldom has a collective term been less appropriate: ‘the Channel Islands’ – as though these were in any sense (other than the geographical) a place. Entertained in my English mind had been a scatter of similar, pretty but perhaps over-manicured little islands stuck in the mid-Channel between Great Britain and France but sunnier, and where tax-avoiders are the indigenous population. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Putin's tacky gift to Trump reveals his dark sense of humour

1 day ago | spectator.co.uk | Alexander Larman

For all his many faults, Vladimir Putin is not without a jet-black sense of humour. The Russian president has given Donald Trump a painting. Many might have expected this to be a traditional piece of Russian art, depicting some rural scene, or perhaps something more avant-garde, from the contemporary Moscow movement. But no; Putin has instead sent Trump a picture of the aftermath of his assassination attempt last July.
Why Trump won't fire Pete Hegseth - yet

1 day ago | spectator.co.uk | Jacob Heilbrunn

On Monday, the liberal outlet National Public Radio reported that Donald Trump’s administration was looking for a replacement for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. This report may in fact have helped shield Hegseth from being sacked for having arranged a second Signal chat group about impending war plans for Yemen that apparently included his wife, Jennifer, his brother, Phil and personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore.
The drama of the Vatican

1 day ago | spectator.co.uk | Nigel Jones

Next week, after Francis’s funeral, the College of Cardinals will assemble in Rome to choose the man who will lead their Church through these increasingly troubled times. That gathering has become more familiar to a wider, non-Catholic public thanks to the recent films Conclave and The Two Popes – though these are far from the first time that novels and the silver screen have made a drama out of a conclave.
Prince Andrew's Easter appearance was a royal blunder

2 days ago | spectator.co.uk | Alexander Larman

Every Christmas, Easter and other public gathering, the Royal Family are faced with an unfortunate choice: what to do about the two pariahs in their midst? One of them, Prince Harry, is sulkily ensconced in Montecito, and tends mainly to pop up in this country when he’s fighting yet another legal battle. The other, however, who has been even more of a public embarrassment over the past six years, resists any entreaty to remove himself from the spotlight.