Misplaced Pages

#879120

113-440: The centerpiece of this plan was a group of sixty-story cruciform skyscrapers built on steel frames and encased in curtain walls of glass. The skyscrapers housed both offices and the flats of the most wealthy inhabitants. These skyscrapers were set within large, rectangular park-like green spaces. At the center of the planned city was a transportation hub which housed depots for buses and trains as well as highway intersections and at

226-432: A neo-conservative magazine, even though in our editorial coverage we tend to follow roughly the conclusions of those lines of arguments." In February 2003, Johnson was the subject of a Scotland Yard inquiry relating to a column by Taki Theodoracopulos titled "Thoughts on Thuggery" targeting barrister Peter Herbert , a black man. Following the column's publication, Herbert had received over 40 racist emails, mostly from

339-573: A volte-face . Under Hunt's tenure, The Spectator may even have been steered by financial support from the court of Napoleon III . The need to promote the Buchanan position in Britain had been reduced as British papers such as The Times and The Saturday Review turned in his favour, fearing the potential effects of a split in the Union. As Abraham Lincoln was set to succeed the vacillating Buchanan after

452-463: A "family paper", the euphemistic term for a journal free from strong political rhetoric. However, events soon compelled him to confess that it was no longer possible to be "a mere Spectator". Two years into its existence, The Spectator came out strongly for wide-reaching parliamentary reform: it produced supplements detailing vested interests in the Commons and Lords, coined the well-known phrase "The Bill,

565-566: A Conservative MP. He appointed his deputy Brian Inglis , who introduced to the magazine a fresh spirit of political satire. In 1959—much to the embarrassment of Gilmour (who remained the owner)— The Spectator advised either voting for the Liberal Party or tactically abstaining. Despite a marked increase in sales, Gilmour felt that The Spectator was losing its political edge, so replaced him in 1962 with Iain Hamilton . Hamilton successfully balanced

678-598: A digital-only version of The Spectator USA . The monthly print magazine The Spectator US Edition , alongside the website spectator.us, was launched with the Inaugural Edition in October 2019 and the publication surpassed 10,000 subscribers in 2020. For the October 2020 issue, the title was changed to The Spectator Est. 1828 , with the website remaining the same. For the June 2021 issue, the website changed to spectatorworld.com as

791-501: A disarming way of being provocative." Hughes's TV series American Visions (1997) reviewed the history of American art since the Revolution . Hughes's documentary on Francisco Goya , Goya: Crazy Like a Genius (2002), was broadcast on the first night of the new British domestic digital service , BBC Four . He created a one-hour update to The Shock of the New , titled The New Shock of

904-548: A drawing by Leonard Baskin . Hughes left Australia for Europe in 1964, living for a time in Italy before settling in London in 1965, where he wrote for The Spectator , The Daily Telegraph , The Times , and The Observer , among others, and contributed to the London version of Oz . In 1970 he was appointed art critic for TIME magazine and moved to New York, where he soon became an influential voice. In 1966 Hughes published

1017-460: A general election" and discussed the looks of the two female candidates in detail. The article was condemned by Liz Kendall; the First Minister of Scotland , Nicola Sturgeon ; and the candidate for Labour nomination for Mayor of London and former Minister and MP Tessa Jowell along with several journalists and MPs from various parties. In 2018, Nelson and deputy editor Freddy Gray launched

1130-545: A harmless, helpless young writer, and the Jews who whipped up this preposterous storm should all be thoroughly ashamed of themselves". Lawson left in 1995 to become editor of The Sunday Telegraph , and was replaced by a deputy editor of the same newspaper, Frank Johnson . After the 1997 United Kingdom general election , Johnson averted a decline in The Spectator 's sales by recruiting " New Labour contributors", and shifting

1243-565: A history of Australian painting titled The Art of Australia , still considered an important work. Hughes wrote and narrated the BBC eight-part series The Shock of the New (1980) on the development of modern art since the Impressionists . It was produced and in part directed by Lorna Pegram . It was accompanied by a book with the same title. John O'Connor of The New York Times said, "Agree or disagree, you will not be bored. Mr. Hughes has

SECTION 10

#1732852444880

1356-406: A humorous column by Craig Brown . When Taki was briefly imprisoned for cocaine possession Moore refused to accept his resignation, explaining publicly: "We expect our High Life columnist to be high some of the time." The Spectator changed hands again in 1985, by which time it was facing financial meltdown, having an accumulated an overdraft of over £300,000. Cluff had reached the conclusion that

1469-814: A keener focus on current affairs with some more raucous contributions as the young team behind Private Eye were commissioned to write a mock eight-page Child's Guide to Modern Culture . Much to the shock of Hamilton and the Spectator staff, Gilmour replaced Hamilton in 1963 with Iain Macleod , the Conservative MP who had resigned from the cabinet on the controversial appointment of Sir Alec Douglas-Home to succeed Harold Macmillan as prime minister. A widely circulated letter, signed by Spectator journalists and board members, berated Gilmour for mistreating an admired editor and appointing an active politician who could jeopardise

1582-503: A leader writer at The Daily Telegraph before Chancellor recruited him to The Spectator as political commentator. Under Moore, the paper became more political than it had been under Chancellor. The new editor adopted an approach that was, in general, pro- Margaret Thatcher , while showing no restraint in opposing her on certain issues. The paper called the Anglo-Irish Agreement "a fraudulent prospectus" in 1985, came out against

1695-498: A libertarian and pro-European outlook, he "enlivened the paper and injected a new element of irreverence, fun and controversy". He was critical of both Anthony Eden 's and Harold Macmillan 's governments, and while supporting the Conservatives was also friendly to Hugh Gaitskell and Gaitskellism . Gilmour lent The Spectator ' s voice to the campaign to end capital punishment in Britain , writing an incensed leader attacking

1808-532: A long article entitled "The Tory Leadership", ostensibly a review of a new book ( The Fight for the Tory Leadership ) by Randolph Churchill , Macleod laid out his version of events in great detail. In disclosing, from the horse's mouth, the mysterious circumstances of Douglas-Home's appointment, the article caused an immediate sensation. Churchill's book was all but obliterated by the review, which said that "four fifths" of it "could have been compiled by anyone with

1921-636: A media columnist. Our pages are precious and I do not think the internal wranglings of our trade are high on the list of Spectator readers’ priorities." Perhaps the magazine's most important innovation under d’Ancona was the Coffee House blog, led by Peter Hoskin and James Forsyth , launched in May 2007. In 2007, The Spectator moved its offices from Doughty Street, which had been its home for 32 years, to 22 Old Queen Street in Westminster. The Spectator Australia

2034-439: A pair of scissors, a pot of paste and a built-in prejudice against Mr Butler and Sir William Haley ". That week's edition, bearing the headline "Iain Macleod, What Happened", sold a record number of copies. The "Tory Leadership" article prompted a furious response from many Spectator readers and caused Macleod, for a time, to be shunned by political colleagues. He eventually regained his party's favour, however, and rejoined

2147-531: A petty way to spend your life. Hughes could be savage, but he was never petty. There was purpose to his lightning bolts of condemnation". Hughes and Harold Hayes were recruited in 1978 to anchor the new ABC News (US) newsmagazine 20/20 . Their only broadcast, on 6 June 1978, proved so controversial that, less than a week later, ABC News president Roone Arledge terminated the contracts of both men, replacing them with veteran TV host Hugh Downs . Hughes's book The Fatal Shore followed in 1987. A study of

2260-572: A poster of Kohl. Ridley resigned from Thatcher's government immediately. The Spectator caused controversy in 1994 when it printed an article entitled "Kings of the Deal" on a claimed Jewish influence in Hollywood , written by William Cash , who at the time was based in Los Angeles and working mainly for The Daily Telegraph , which had considered the article too risky to publish. Lawson thought Cash's idea

2373-433: A second wind as a novelist, Strachey died two years later in 1928. For his first year as proprietor, John Evelyn Wrench appointed John (Jack) Atkins his editor, who had worked on the paper for the last two decades, acting as editor during Strachey's recurrent bouts of illness. But the relationship did not work: as Atkins lamented to his long-standing friend, Winston Churchill , Wrench "continually wants to interfere and he

SECTION 20

#1732852444880

2486-487: A signed article he estimated "the risks involved in an American withdrawal from Vietnam are less than the risks in escalating a bloody and brutal war". In 1967, Ian Gilmour, who by then had joined parliament and was already finding the proprietorship a hindrance in political life, sold The Spectator to Harry Creighton for £75,000 (equivalent to £1,719,458 in 2023). In 1970, Creighton replaced Lawson as editor with George Gale ; there had been growing resentment between

2599-474: A solution, simply to argue that a solution would take time. The Spectator now would publicly support that 'policy'". This set it at odds with most of the British press, but gained it the sympathy of expatriate Americans in the country. Richard Fulton notes that from then until 1861, "the Spectator ' s commentary on American affairs read like a Buchanan administration propaganda sheet." and that this represented

2712-519: A study of the British convict system in early Australian history . Known for his contentious critiques of art and artists, Hughes was generally conservative in his tastes, although he did not belong to a particular philosophical camp. His writing was noted for its power and elegance. Hughes was born in Sydney, in 1938. His father and paternal grandfather were lawyers. Hughes's father, Geoffrey Forrest Hughes ,

2825-572: A vote." Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator , also opposed the move, saying "the very reason why a foreign government would want to buy a sensitive asset is the very reason why a national government should be wary of selling them." In September 2024, The Spectator was purchased by Sir Paul Marshall for £100 million. Andrew Neil resigned with immediate effect with Fraser Nelson to be retained as editor. The deal by Marshall also included The Spectator's sister title Apollo and added both titles to his OQS Media group to be jointed published with

2938-542: Is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine . It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. The Spectator is politically conservative , and its principal subject areas are politics and culture. Alongside columns and features on current affairs, the magazine also contains arts pages on books, music, opera, film, and TV reviews. It had an average circulation of 107,812 as of December 2023, excluding Australia . Editorship of

3051-582: Is generally Atlanticist and strongly Eurosceptic in outlook, favouring close ties with the United States and NATO rather than with the European Union . The magazine is a strong supporter of Israel . Some of its articles have opposed the creation of a Palestinian state, with one article arguing that a Palestinian state would be a " Trojan Horse " to destroy Israel. It has also supported Ukraine following its invasion by Russia in 2022. Ahead of

3164-533: Is very ignorant". Wrench duly took over the editorship in 1926, successfully channeling the enthusiasm of Strachey. His global connections helped secure interviews with Henry Ford , Mahatma Gandhi and Benito Mussolini . Perhaps his most remembered achievement as editor of The Spectator was the campaign to ease unemployment in the mining town of Aberdare , one of the worst hit by the crisis of 1928, when joblessness reached 40% in South Wales . Within three months,

3277-562: The Dundee Advertiser and the London-based Atlas , launched the paper on 6 July 1828. Rintoul consciously revived the title from the celebrated, if short-lived, daily publication by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele . As he had long been determined "to edit a perfect newspaper", Rintoul initially insisted on "absolute power" over content, commencing a long-lasting tradition of the paper's editor and proprietor being one and

3390-512: The New Statesman , and enticed Richard West and Jeffrey Bernard from the same magazine. Another columnist recruited by Chancellor was Taki Theodoracopulos whose column ‘High Life’ was then printed beside Bernard's ‘Low Life’. Taki's column, frequently criticised for its content by the press, remains in the paper. In September 1978, a 96-page issue was released to mark The Spectator ' s 150th anniversary. William Rees-Mogg congratulated

3503-463: The 1860 United States presidential election , the owners decided to stop pumping money into a loss-making publication: as Moran confided to his diary, "it don't pay, never did since Hunt became its owner." On 19 January 1861, The Spectator was sold to a journalist, Meredith Townsend , for the marked-down sum of £2,000. Though not yet thirty, Townsend had spent the previous decade as an editor in India, and

Ville Contemporaine - Misplaced Pages Continue

3616-462: The 1959 United Kingdom general election , complaining: "The continued Conservative pretence that Suez was a good, a noble, a wise venture has been too much to stomach ... the Government is taking its stand on a solid principle: 'Never admit a mistake.'" The paper also says that it was influential in campaigning for the decriminalisation of homosexuality . It gave vocal support to the proposals of

3729-458: The 1975 leadership election . Particularly since the 7 July 2005 Islamic terrorist attacks on the London Underground , The Spectator has been critical of multiculturalism , arguing that it undermines Britain’s national identity and endangers its security through sectarianism and growing Islamic extremism . As with its sister publication The Daily Telegraph , The Spectator

3842-585: The 2019 United Kingdom general election , the leading article in the magazine argued that illegal migrants living in the UK should be offered British citizenship. The Spectator has been one of the most outspoken supporters of Brexit. The magazine campaigned against Britain joining the European Common Market in the 1975 referendum , and was one of only two national titles (alongside the Morning Star ) to back

3955-567: The Confederacy in the American Civil War , an unpopular position which, at the time, did serious damage to the paper's circulation, reduced to some 1,000 readers. The issue of 25 January 1862, published in the wake of the Trent Affair , argued that "The Southern Bid" for active support in return for an Abolition promise, "demands careful examination". In time, the paper regained readers when

4068-511: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) deciding to prosecute the magazine for breaching reporting restrictions. The magazine chose not to contest the case, and the publisher Spectator 1828 Ltd pleaded guilty at the court hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court on 7 June 2012. The magazine was fined £3,000, with £2,000 compensation awarded to Stephen Lawrence's parents and £625 costs. According to Nelson, readers' most common reaction to

4181-617: The European foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry and Neville Chamberlain 's appeasement . He praised the Munich agreement , explaining later that he believed "even the most desperate attempt to save the peace was worthwhile". Harris abandoned the newspaper's support for appeasement after the Kristallnacht pogrom, which Harris wrote "obliterated the word appeasement." When the conflict broke,

4294-742: The Radical wing of the Whigs , the Liberal Party , and the Liberal Unionists who eventually merged with the Conservatives. In 1957, the magazine was nicknamed "the Bugger's Bugle" by The Sunday Express following a sustained campaign by The Spectator to decriminalise homosexuality . It was the only national publication to endorse and support Margaret Thatcher for leadership of the Conservative Party in

4407-497: The Single European Act , and in 1989 criticised the handover of Hong Kong to China . Moore wrote that, if Britain failed to allow the city's UK passport holders right of abode in Britain, "we shall have to confess that, for the first time in our history, we have forced Britons to be slaves." Moore also introduced several new contributors, including a restaurant column by Nigella Lawson (the former editor's daughter), and

4520-485: The UnHerd website. On 25 September 2024, Fraser Nelson stepped down as editor of The Spectator, taking up the role of Assistant Editor. Former Conservative MP Michael Gove was appointed as the new Editor, with Charles Moore being appointed the company's chairman. The Spectator is politically conservative . Historically, the magazine was liberal in outlook, and over the course of its first century supported

4633-487: The Wehrmacht . In August 2015, The Spectator received media attention and criticism after publishing an article by Charles Moore regarding the 2015 Labour Party leadership election titled "Have Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall got the looks for a leadership contest?", in which he wrote "there is an understanding that no leader – especially, despite the age of equality, a woman – can look grotesque on television and win

Ville Contemporaine - Misplaced Pages Continue

4746-672: The Wolfenden Committee in 1957, condemning the "utterly irrational and illogical" old laws on homosexuality: "Not only is the law unjust in conception, it is almost inevitably unjust in practice." In March 1957, Jenny Nicholson, a frequent contributor, wrote a piece on the Italian Socialist Party congress in Venice , which mentioned three Labour Party politicians ( Aneurin Bevan , Richard Crossman , and Morgan Phillips ) "who puzzled

4859-618: The counterculture of the 1960s , exploring drug use and sexual freedom. They divorced in 1981; she died of a brain tumour in 2003. Their son, Danton, Hughes's only child, was named after the French revolutionary Georges Danton . Danton Hughes, a sculptor, committed suicide in April 2001; he was found by his partner, fashion designer Jenny Kee , with whom he had been in a long-term relationship. Robert Hughes later wrote: "I miss Danton and always will, although we had been miserably estranged for years and

4972-410: The 20th century". Hughes, according to Adam Gopnik , was drawn to work that was rough-hewn, "craft attempted with passion." Hughes's critical prose, vivid in both praise and indignation, has been compared to that of George Bernard Shaw , Jonathan Swift and William Shakespeare . "His prose", according to a colleague, "was lithe, muscular and fast as a bunch of fives. He was incapable of writing

5085-517: The 27-year-old John Addyes Scott, kept the purchase quiet, but Rintoul's death made explicit the change of guard. His tenure was unremarkable, and subscribers continued to fall. By the end of the year, Scott sought his escape, selling the title for £4,200 in December 1858 (equivalent to £533,901 in 2023) to two British-based Americans, James McHenry and Benjamin Moran . While McHenry was a businessman, Moran

5198-484: The 99 Gower Street premises separately, so the magazine moved to 56 Doughty Street). Keswick was chairman of the Jardine Matheson multinational corporation. He was drawn to the paper partly because he harboured political aspirations (the paper's perk as a useful stepping stone to Westminster was, by now, well established), but also because his father had been a friend of Peter Fleming , its well-known columnist (under

5311-624: The British penal colonies and early European settlement of Australia , it became an international best-seller. During the late 1990s, Hughes was a prominent supporter of the Australian Republican Movement . Australia: Beyond the Fatal Shore (2000) was a series musing on modern Australia and Hughes's relationship with it. During production, Hughes was involved in a near-fatal road accident. Hughes met his first wife, Danne Emerson, in London in 1967. Together they became involved in

5424-599: The Conservative Party leader Robert Peel for several years, The Spectator rallied behind him when he split the Tory party by successfully repealing the Corn Laws . Rintoul's fundamental principles were freedom of the individual, freedom of the press and freedom of trade, of religious tolerance and freedom from blind political adherence. The magazine was vocal in its opposition to the First Opium War (1839–1842), commenting that "all

5537-497: The Italians by filling themselves like tanks with whisky and coffee". All three sued for libel, the case went to trial, and The Spectator was forced to make a large payment in damages and costs, a sum well over the equivalent of £150,000 today. It has since emerged that "all three plaintiffs, to a greater or lesser degree, perjured themselves in court". Gilmour gave up the editorship in 1959, in part to abet his chance of selection as

5650-514: The New : "...the car would abolish the human street, and possibly the human foot. Some people would have aeroplanes too. The one thing no one would have is a place to bump into each other, walk the dog, strut, one of the hundred random things that people do ... being random was loathed by Le Corbusier ... its inhabitants surrender their freedom of movement to the omnipresent architect." Robert Hughes (critic) Robert Studley Forrest Hughes AO (28 July 1938 – 6 August 2012)

5763-438: The New proved to be a popular and critical success: it has been assessed "much the best synoptic introduction to modern art ever written", taking as its premise the vitality gained by modern art when it ceded the need to replicate nature in favour of a more direct expression of human experience and emotion. Hughes's explanations of modern art benefited from the coherence of his judgments, and were marked by his ability to summarise

SECTION 50

#1732852444880

5876-477: The New , which first aired in 2004. He published the first volume of his memoirs, Things I Didn’t Know , in 2006. Following his death, Jonathan Jones wrote in The Guardian that Hughes "was simply the greatest art critic of our time and it will be a long while before we see his like again. He made criticism look like literature. He also made it look morally worthwhile. He lent a nobility to what can often seem

5989-488: The Sydney periodical The Observer , edited by Donald Horne . Hughes was briefly involved in the original Sydney version of Oz magazine and wrote art criticism for Nation and the Sunday Mirror . In 1961, while still a student, Hughes was caught up in controversy when a number of his classmates demonstrated in a student newspaper article that he had published plagiarised poetry by Terence Tiller and others, and

6102-507: The Union ahead of the Liberal Party line, Townsend and Hutton aligned themselves with the Liberal Unionist wing. As a result, H. H. Asquith (the future Prime Minister), who had served as a leader-writer for ten years, left his post. Townsend was succeeded by a young journalist named John St Loe Strachey , who would remain associated with the paper for the next 40 years. When Hutton died in 1897, Strachey became co-owner with Townsend; by

6215-560: The United States and internationally could be seriously damaged by this'." The article was defended by some conservatives. John Derbyshire , who says he has "complicated and sometimes self-contradictory feelings about Jews", wrote on National Review Online regarding what he saw as the Jewish overreaction to the article that "It was a display of arrogance, cruelty, ignorance, stupidity, and sheer bad manners by rich and powerful people towards

6328-430: The United States, some of which contained death threats. Johnson called the column "a terrible thing" which "should never have gone in." In October 2004, a Spectator editorial suggested that the death of the hostage Kenneth Bigley was being over-sentimentalised by the people of Liverpool, accusing them of indulging in a "vicarious victimhood" and of possessing a "deeply unattractive psyche".’ Simon Heffer had written

6441-496: The Wolverhampton Express & Star , and The Daily Telegraph . He had also briefly been political commentator for The Spectator under Dominic Lawson, but Frank Johnson replaced him with Bruce Anderson in 1995. Succeeding Frank Johnson in 1999, Johnson increased Spectator subscriptions to a record 70,000 per year, and has been described as a "colourful editor". In the 2001 United Kingdom general election , Johnson

6554-467: The alleged aims of the expedition against China are vague, illimitable, and incapable of explanation, save only that of making the Chinese pay the opium-smugglers." The magazine further wrote: "There does not appear to be much glory gained in a contest so unequal that hundreds are killed on one side and none on the other. What honour is there in going to shoot men, certain that they cannot hurt you? The cause of

6667-554: The chief example." As The Spectator was bought by the Telegraph Group , Moore resigned the editorship in 1990 to become deputy editor of The Daily Telegraph . He was replaced by his own deputy editor, Dominic Lawson —the former editor's son. Shortly after becoming editor, Lawson became responsible for the resignation of a cabinet minister when he interviewed the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry , Nicholas Ridley . During

6780-406: The columnist was "don't tone down Rod", but "our non-readers don't like" him. In June 2013, The Spectator Archive was launched, containing 1.5 million pages from 180 years of published articles. In July 2013, the magazine ran a column by Taki Theodoracopulos defending the far-right Greek political party Golden Dawn , which drew criticism. In May 2018, Theodoracopulos published a column defending

6893-407: The conflict it seemed to be behind the times, and circulation began to fall away. Even the introduction of signed articles, overturning the paper's fixed policy of anonymity for its first century, did little to help. After years of illness, Strachey decided at the end of 1924 to sell his controlling interest in the paper to his recently appointed business manager, Sir Evelyn Wrench . Although he gained

SECTION 60

#1732852444880

7006-495: The editorship himself, but was, if possible, even less successful in stemming the losses. Circulation fell from 36,000 in 1966 to below 13,000. As one journalist who joined The Spectator at that time said: "It gave the impression, an entirely accurate one, of a publication surviving on a shoestring". George Gale later remarked that Creighton had only wanted the job to get into Who's Who . In 1975, Creighton sold The Spectator to Henry Keswick , again for £75,000 (Creighton sold

7119-425: The end of the year Strachey was made sole editor and proprietor. As chief leader-writer, general manager, literary critic and all things beside, Strachey embodied the spirit of The Spectator until the 1920s. Among his various schemes were the establishment of a Spectator Experimental Company, to show that new soldiers could be trained up to excellence in six months, the running of a Cheap Cottage Exhibition, which laid

7232-460: The essential qualities of his subject. Whether positive or negative, his judgments were enthusiastic. He championed London painters like Frank Auerbach and Lucian Freud , helping to popularise the latter in the United States, and wrote with unabashed admiration for Francisco Goya and Pierre Bonnard . By contrast Hughes was dismissive of much postmodernism and neo-expressionism , of painters like Julian Schnabel and David Salle , as well as

7345-433: The foundations for Letchworth Garden City, and the impassioned defence of Free Trade against Joseph Chamberlain 's protectionist 'Tariff Reform' programme. Within two years he had doubled the paper's circulation, which peaked at 23,000. In the early decades of the twentieth century it was heralded as "the most influential of all the London weeklies". The First World War put the paper and its editor under great strain: after

7458-521: The hanging of Ruth Ellis in 1955, in which he claimed "Hanging has become the national sport", and that the home secretary Gwilym Lloyd George , for not reprieving the sentence, "has now been responsible for the hanging of two women over the past eight months". The Spectator opposed Britain's involvement in the Suez crisis in 1956, strongly criticising the government's handling of the debacle. The paper went on to oppose Macmillan's government's re-election in

7571-501: The history of The Spectator ". Chancellor's editorship of the paper relied principally on a return to earlier values. He adopted a new format and a more traditional weekly style, with the front page displaying five cover lines above the leader. Most significantly, he recognised the need "to bring together a number of talented writers and, with the minimal of editorial interference, let them write". To this end he persuaded Auberon Waugh (who had been sacked by Nigel Lawson) to return from

7684-530: The independence of the magazine: "We believe strongly that The Spectator , with its long and honourable history of independent opinion, should not be tossed about at the whim of the proprietor or lose its independence by identification with a narrow political faction." Two months into his post, in January 1964, Macleod intensified the shock by revealing the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Conservative party. In

7797-490: The interview, Ridley described the proposed Economic and Monetary Union as "a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe", and seemed to draw comparisons between the German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Adolf Hitler . The interview appeared in the issue of 14 July 1990, the cover of which showed a cartoon by Nicholas Garland that showed Ridley painting a crude comb-over and a Hitler moustache onto

7910-478: The jargon of the art world, and consequently was treated by its mandarins with fear and loathing." In different moods he could write that " Schnabel’s work is to painting what Stallone’s is to acting: a lurching display of oily pectorals," as well as conclude that Antoine Watteau "was a connoisseur of the unplucked string, the immobility before the dance, the moment that falls between departure and nostalgia." The Spectator Defunct The Spectator

8023-503: The leader but, as editor, Johnson took full responsibility for it. Michael Howard subsequently ordered him to visit Liverpool on a "penitential pilgrimage". At this time, the paper began jokingly to be referred to as the 'Sextator', owing to the number of sex scandals connected with the magazine during his editorship. These included an affair between columnist Rod Liddle and the magazine's receptionist, and Johnson's own affair with another columnist, Petronella Wyatt . Johnson at first denied

8136-518: The magazine has often been a step on the ladder to high office in the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. Past editors include Boris Johnson (1999–2005) and other former cabinet members Ian Gilmour (1954–1959), Iain Macleod (1963–1965), and Nigel Lawson (1966–1970). The former Conservative MP Michael Gove took over from Fraser Nelson as editor on 4 October 2024. Today,

8249-473: The magazine is a print-digital hybrid. In 2020, The Spectator became the longest-lived current affairs magazine in history, and was also the first magazine ever to publish 10,000 issues. In September 2024, The Spectator was acquired by British investor Paul Marshall , owner of UnHerd and major investor in GB News . The Spectator ' s founder, Scottish reformer Robert Stephen Rintoul , former editor of

8362-480: The magazine's direction slightly away from politics. In 1996, the magazine's Christmas issue featured an interview with The Spice Girls , in which the band members gave their " Euro-sceptic and generally anti-labour" views on politics. Shortly before her death Diana, Princess of Wales , was depicted on the magazine's cover as the figurehead of Mohamed Al-Fayed 's boat, The Jonikal. Before joining The Spectator as editor, Boris Johnson had worked for The Times ,

8475-487: The magazine, "not all of which were universally popular with readers". He ended the traditional summary of the week's events, "Portrait of the Week", and in 2006 launched a new lifestyle section entitled "You Earned It". He removed Peter Oborne as political editor, and appointed Fraser Nelson in his place. He decided not to appoint a new media columnist to succeed Stephen Glover , explaining, "I do not think The Spectator needs

8588-618: The magazine: she is now the magazine's commissioning editor and is married to Johnson's former political advisor Dominic Cummings . In 2004, the Barclay Brothers purchased the Telegraph Group from Hollinger International which included The Spectator within its titles. D’Ancona had been Deputy Editor at The Sunday Telegraph , and before that an assistant editor at The Times . During his four years as editor of The Spectator , he made several editorial and structural changes to

8701-408: The name "Strix"). Keswick gave the job of editor to "the only journalist he knew", Alexander Chancellor , an old family friend and his mother's godson, with whom he had been at Eton and Cambridge . Before then, Chancellor had worked at Reuters news agency and had been a scriptwriter and reporter for ITN . In spite of his relative inexperience, he was to become known as "one of the best editors in

8814-542: The name changed again to The Spectator World . In June 2023, it was reported that, following a breakdown in discussions relating to a financial dispute, Lloyds Bank was planning to take over control of the companies owning the Daily Telegraph and Spectator titles and sell them off. Representatives of the Barclay family have described the reports as "irresponsible". That same month, Telegraph Media Group Limited (TMG)

8927-503: The nineteenth century". Townsend's writing in The Spectator confirmed him as one of the finest journalists of his day, and he has since been called "the greatest leader writer ever to appear in the English Press." The two men remained co-proprietors and joint editors for 25 years, taking a strong stand on some of the most controversial issues of their day. They supported the Union against

9040-522: The numerous cases of murder, assault, and various forms of intimidation for which the National Socialist Party in Germany has been responsible ... The organized economic boycott of the Jews is the climax. The Spectator has consistently shown itself a friend of Germany, but it is a friend of freedom first. Resort to violence is not condoned by styling it revolution. Harris broadly supported

9153-420: The pain of his loss has been somewhat blunted by the passage of time". Hughes was married to his second wife, Victoria Whistler, from 1981 until their divorce in 1996. In 1999, Hughes was involved in a near-fatal car accident south of Broome, Western Australia . He was returning from a fishing trip and driving on the wrong side of the road when he collided head on with another car carrying three occupants. He

9266-412: The paper "would be best secured in the hands of a publishing group", and sold it to Australian company John Fairfax , which promptly paid off the overdraft. With the support of its new proprietor, the paper was able to widen its readership through subscription drives and advertising, reaching a circulation of 30,000 in 1986, exceeding the circulation of the New Statesman for the first time. The magazine

9379-470: The paper in a Times ' s leading article, praising it in particular for its important part in "the movement away from collectivism ". Chancellor was replaced by the 27-year-old Charles Moore in February 1984, after the magazine's then owner Algy Cluff had become concerned that The Spectator was "lacking in political weight" and considered Chancellor to be "commercially irresponsible". Moore had been

9492-530: The paper's appeal for the town's relief raised over £12,000 (equivalent to £913,252 in 2023). A statuette of an Aberdare miner, presented in gratitude to The Spectator , still sits in the editor's office, bearing the inscription: "From the Townsfolk of Aberdare in Grateful Recognition: 'The Greatest of These is Love'". Wrench retired as editor in 1932 (he remained the magazine's proprietor), appointing

9605-469: The paper's enduring contempt for him as a "popular" writer "amusing the idle hours of the greatest number of readers; not, we may hope, without improvement to their hearts, but certainly without profoundly affecting their intellects or deeply stirring their emotions." Rintoul died in April 1858, having sold the magazine two months earlier. The circulation had already been falling, under particular pressure from its new rival, The Saturday Review . Its new owner,

9718-467: The paper, shrinking the cover illustration slightly, shifting the cover lines, in general, to the bottom, and spreading the contents section over a double-page. Playing down the changes, Nelson described the new look as "a tidy-up ... rather like restoring an old painting." An article in November 2011 by Rod Liddle on the trial of two men eventually convicted for the murder of Stephen Lawrence led to

9831-460: The political editor Wilson Harris his successor. Under Harris The Spectator became increasingly outspoken on developing international politics in the 1930s , in particular on the rise of fascism . Beneath a reader's letter referring to the Nazi Party as "peaceful, orderly and kindly", Harris printed the following reply: No facts in recent history are established more incontestably ... than

9944-545: The relationship, dismissing the allegations as "an inverted pyramid of piffle", but was sacked from the Shadow Cabinet in November 2004 when they turned out to be true. In the same year David Blunkett , the Home Secretary, resigned from the government after it emerged he had been having an affair with the publisher of The Spectator , Kimberly Quinn , and had fast-tracked her nanny's visa application. In 2005, circulation

10057-416: The same person. Although he wrote little himself, "every line and word passed through the alembic of his brain." The Spectator ' s political outlook in its first thirty years reflected Rintoul's liberal-radical agenda. Despite its political stance, it was widely regarded and respected for its non-partisanship, in both its political and cultural criticism. Rintoul initially advertised his new title as

10170-605: The shadow cabinet in the same year. On his appointment as Shadow Chancellor in 1965, he stepped down as editor on the last day of the year, to be replaced by Nigel Lawson . Sometimes called "The Great Procrastinator" because of his tendency to leave writing leaders until the last minute, Lawson had been City editor for The Sunday Telegraph and Alec Douglas-Home's personal assistant during the 1964 United Kingdom general election . In 1966, largely due to Lawson, The Spectator opposed America's increasing military commitment in Vietnam . In

10283-559: The team abandoned their Gower Street office for Harmondsworth , but within a few days decided to return to London: the basement caught fire from shrapnel, and the printers were bombed , but the paper continued to appear each week. Although the Second World War required The Spectator to downgrade its size and paper quality, its readership doubled during the conflict, exceeding 50,000. From 1945 to 1950, Harris served as MP for Cambridge University ; although he stood as an independent, this

10396-418: The top, an airport. Le Corbusier segregated the pedestrian circulation paths from the roadways, and glorified the use of the automobile as a means of transportation. As one moved out from the central skyscrapers, smaller multi-story zigzag blocks set in green space and set far back from the street housed the proletarian workers. Robert Hughes spoke of Le Corbusier's city planning in his series The Shock of

10509-474: The two men. Gale shared Creighton's political outlook, in particular his strong opposition to the EEC, and much of the next five years was spent attacking the pro-EEC prime minister Edward Heath , treating his eventual defeat by Margaret Thatcher with undisguised delight. Gale's almost obsessive opposition to the EEC and antagonistic attitude towards Heath began to lose the magazine readers. In 1973 Creighton took over

10622-443: The vicissitudes of a money-fuelled art market. While his reviews expressed antipathy for the avant-garde , he was beholden neither to any theory nor ideology, and managed to provoke both ends of the political spectrum. He distrusted novelty in art for its own sake, yet he was also disdainful of a conservative aesthetic that avoided risk. He famously labelled contemporary Australian indigenous art as "the last great art movement of

10735-598: The victory of the North validated its principled stance. They also launched an all-out assault on Benjamin Disraeli , accusing him in a series of leaders of jettisoning ethics for politics by ignoring the atrocities committed against Bulgarian civilians by the Ottoman Empire in the 1870s. In 1886, The Spectator parted company with William Ewart Gladstone when he declared his support for Irish Home Rule . Committed to defending

10848-484: The views of James Buchanan , then President of the United States, came to the fore. Within weeks, as the last pre-American ownership issue appears to have been that of 25 December 1858. the editorial line followed Buchanan's pronouncements in being "neither pro- slavery nor pro- abolitionist . To unsympathetic observers Buchanan's policy seemed to apportion blame for the impasse on the slavery question equally on pro-slavery and abolitionist factions – and rather than work out

10961-477: The war, be it remembered, is as disreputable as the strength of the parties is unequal. The war is undertaken in support of a co-partnery of opium-smugglers, in which the Anglo-Indian Government may be considered as the principal partner." In 1853, The Spectator ' s lead book reviewer George Brimley published an anonymous and unfavourable notice of Charles Dickens 's Bleak House , typical of

11074-727: The whole Bill and nothing but the Bill", and helped drive through the Great Reform Act of 1832 . Virulently anti- Tory in its politics, The Spectator strongly objected to the appointment of the Duke of Wellington as prime minister, condemning him as "a Field Marshal whose political career proves him to be utterly destitute of political principle – whose military career affords ample evidence of his stern and remorseless temperament." The paper spent its first century at premises on Wellington Street (now Lancaster Place ). Despite its robust criticism of

11187-598: Was a pilot in the First World War , with later careers as a solicitor and company director. He died from lung cancer when Robert was aged 12. His mother was Margaret Eyre Sealy, née Vidal. His elder brother was Australian politician Thomas Eyre Forrest Hughes , the father of former Sydney Lord Mayor Lucy Turnbull , the wife of former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull . He had another brother Geoffrey and one sister, Constance. Growing up in Rose Bay, Sydney , Hughes

11300-408: Was again sold in 1988, after an uncertain period during which several candidates, including Rupert Murdoch , attempted to buy the magazine. Moore wrote to Murdoch, saying: "Most of our contributors and many of our readers would be horrified at the idea of your buying The Spectator . They believe you are autocratic and that you have a bad effect on journalism of quality – they cite The Times as

11413-459: Was also survived by two stepsons from his wife's previous marriage, Freeborn Garrettson Jewett IV and Fielder Douglas Jewett; his brothers, Tom and Geoffrey Hughes; a sister, Constance Crisp; and many nieces and nephews. When The Shock of the New was proposed to the BBC, television programmers were sceptical that a journalist could properly follow the aristocratic tone of Kenneth Clark , whose Civilisation had been so successful. The Shock of

11526-457: Was an Australian-born art critic , writer, and producer of television documentaries . He was described in 1997 by Robert Boynton of The New York Times as "the most famous art critic in the world." Hughes earned widespread recognition for his book and television series on modern art , The Shock of the New , and for his longstanding position as art critic with TIME magazine. He is also known for his best seller The Fatal Shore (1986),

11639-536: Was an assistant secretary to the American ambassador, George M. Dallas ; they saw their purchase as a means to influence British opinion on American affairs. The editor was Thornton Leigh Hunt , a friend of Moran who had also worked for Rintoul. Hunt was also nominally the purchaser, having been given the necessary monies in an attempt by McHenry and Moran to disguise the American ownership. Circulation declined with this loss of independence and inspirational leadership, as

11752-525: Was as high as 60,000 by the time Johnson left to be the Shadow Minister for Higher Education. On the announcement of his departure, Andrew Neil , chairman of The Spectator paid tribute to his editorship; however, Neil later rebuked Johnson for having delegated most of his responsibilities to an assistant, in a Channel 4 Dispatches episode titled Boris Johnson: Has He Run Out of Road? During Johnson's editorship, Mary Wakefield began working at

11865-487: Was as old as Hollywood itself and that Lawson's being Jewish would mitigate adverse reactions to publication. There was considerable controversy. Although owner Conrad Black did not personally rebuke Lawson, Max Hastings , then editor of The Daily Telegraph , wrote with regard to Black, who also owned The Jerusalem Post at the time, "It was one of the few moments in my time with Conrad when I saw him look seriously rattled: 'You don't understand, Max. My entire interests in

11978-530: Was educated at Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview before studying arts and then architecture at the University of Sydney . At university, he associated with the Sydney "Push" – a group of artists, writers, intellectuals and drinkers. Among the group were Germaine Greer and Clive James . Hughes, an aspiring artist and poet, abandoned his university endeavours to become first a cartoonist and then an art critic for

12091-475: Was elected MP for Henley , and by 2004 had been made vice-chairman of the Conservative party, with a place in Michael Howard 's shadow cabinet. In 2003, he explained his editorial policy for The Spectator would "always be roughly speaking in favour of getting rid of Saddam, sticking up for Israel, free-market economics, expanding choice" and that the magazine was "not necessarily a Thatcherite Conservative or

12204-601: Was fined A$ 2,500. Hughes recounts the story of the accident and his recovery in the first chapter of his 2006 memoir Things I Didn't Know . In 2001, Hughes wed his third wife, the American artist and art director Doris Downes . "Apart from being a talented painter, she saved my life, my emotional stability, such as it is", he said. After a long illness, reportedly exacerbated by some 50 years of alcohol consumption, Hughes died at Calvary Hospital in The Bronx , New York City, on 6 August 2012, with his wife at his bedside. He

12317-470: Was launched in October 2008. Apparently printed in Australia at the same time as, and with almost all the content of, the parent edition it finds its own cover illustrations and its first dozen pages are Australian. Circulation reached a weekly average of 10,389 in January to December 2020. In August 2009, Fraser Nelson replaced d'Ancona as editor of The Spectator . In 2010, he unveiled a slight redesign of

12430-552: Was prepared to restore to the paper an independent voice in a fast-changing world. From the outset, Townsend took up an anti-Buchanan, anti-slavery position, arguing that his unwillingness to act decisively had been a weakness and a contributor to the problems apparent in the US. He soon went into partnership with Richard Holt Hutton , the editor of The Economist , whose primary interests were literature and theology. Hutton's close friend William Gladstone later called him "the first critic of

12543-466: Was put up for sale, after its parent company B.UK, a Bermuda-based holding company, went into receivership. Howard and Aidan Barclay were removed as directors. When a company linked to the United Arab Emirates attempted to buy TMG, chairman Andrew Neil threatened to quit, saying: "You cannot have a major mainstream newspaper group owned by an undemocratic government or dictatorship where no one has

12656-555: Was the first formal overlap between The Spectator and the House of Commons. In February 1947, when a fuel shortage suspended the publication of weekly magazines, The Spectator appeared in an abridged form over two successive Thursdays on page 2 of the Daily Mail . In 1954, Wrench and his co-owner Angus Watson sold The Spectator to the barrister Ian Gilmour , who restored the Spectator tradition of simultaneously acting as editor. Having

12769-405: Was trapped in the car for three hours before being airlifted to Perth in critical condition. Hughes was in a coma for five weeks after the crash. In a 2000 court hearing, Hughes's defence barrister alleged that the occupants of the other car had been transporting illicit drugs at the time of the accident and were at fault. In 2003 Hughes pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing bodily harm and

#879120