The Spectator Australia

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

PORTRAIT OF THE WEEK

DIARY

Gilded age • The lessons from Trump II

Maritime

Shame faced

You can’t trust the BBC

Crowd control • Why I gave up on polyamory

How not to run a city

BAROMETER

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

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

We have to stop looking away

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

Invasive weed • The inconvenient truth about cannabis and mental illness

The engine’s pitch has changed

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

The brilliance of her technique

Dolce vita

Real life

The turf

Bridge

Aussie life

Language

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

Pauline prevails • Vote strategically

Abandon net zero, Libs

The Spectator Australia

CONTRIBUTORS

You’ve got to be kidding! • The fine art of selecting topics to write about

Imagine no possessions • Marx, Lennon and Davos share the same dream

What is the collective noun for retired Coalition PMs? • All suggestions gratefully received

Make Electricity Cheap Again • Not Kean on exporting emissions

The return of consequences • Blowing up drug boats is the easy part

Beware an AI stock bust • The damage could be even worse than the dotcom crash

The Dismissal deniers • Gough got what he deserved. Kerr did nothing wrong

Great Rewiring unravels • Renewables disaster looms as ideology crashes into reality

Surge of The Purge • Lefties projecting their very worst traits