The Spectator

Runaway crime: The early release scheme is already a disaster, says Max Jeffery 🔸 Harry Cole: What the British right can learn from the midterms 🔸 Arabella Byrne: Why the posh go to Poundland 🔸 Douglas Murray: Would you pass the ‘fake breasts’ test? 🔸 Madeleine Grant: Britain has become a chancer’s paradise Read more |

If the Holy Land is where the highest of all idealism goes to die, please let this be the case when it comes to Andy Burnham’s enthusiasm for bringing in proportional representation. Like a lot of British Jews, seeing how it works in Israel has inoculated me against this progressive temptation for life. Who won the Israeli election? Well, I can't really tell you. It's over a week since Israelis went to the polls, from the most secular Tel Avivis or devout Jerusalemites to bedouin riding out of the desert to the vote. And there still isn't a government. ✍️ Ben Judah Article |

Is now the time to bring back national service? Defence Secretary Wes Streeting says the country has 1,000 days to get war-ready amid intensifying threats and aggression from Vladimir Putin. Ted Jeffrey, co-founder of Defence On The Brink which campaigns for UK defence readiness, says a resilient, hardened and capable population is needed; not a country with 10 million people of working-age on benefits. Article | @DefenceBrink

They sound like something from the late-Soviet Union, and in many ways they are. Rent tribunals are coming to a town near you, following the expansion of powers set out in the Renters' Rights Act. Such tribunals have existed in some form for decades, but in recent months they've been beefed up – with predictable results. Tenants now have a strong interest in challenging even the smallest increase. Since rents are suspended at the former rate pending a decision, and given the shortage of judges to staff these tribunals, the chances of the challenge being dealt with quickly are slim. Tenant groups are already advising their members to try their luck, perhaps in the hope that they will flood the system and render it inoperative. It costs just £47 to submit a claim, which will lead to at least a temporary rent freeze and probably victory. ✍️ Madeline Grant Article | | @Madz_Grant

What did the BBC think would happen if its all-conquering Strictly Come Dancing show recruited 'stars' no one had heard of, shunned the elements that made it entertaining and replaced its popular presenters with a gormless trio that appears to have been picked by a HR diversity committee? Corporation bosses ought to be asking themselves this question in their post-mortem of the current car-wreck season of the celebrity dance competition. Clearly, they're not, given their apparent vexation over viewer dissatisfaction and mediocre ratings. ✍️ Michael Day Article |

A whopping 900 illegal migrants crossed the Channel in just three days. Updated Home Office figures show Shabana Mahmood is quelle surprise some way from 'smashing the gangs'. Despite the cooler temperatures, 378 people arrived on six dinghies yesterday. Sunday's total was 364, and Saturday's 161. A busy weekend in the Channel indeed. Clearly, the prospect of being housed near Piddington rather than in a hotel has done little to dampen demand. And if a woman is among those who make it across, she could even be given a free hijab, courtesy of the British taxpayer. ✍️ Steerpike Article | | @MrSteerpike

Four days after he was released from HMP Wandsworth, Michael Bogle was back inside. The 38-year-old had served 11 of 32 weeks in prison for stealing before he was freed last month via the government's early release scheme. He strolled out of jail, told reporters he would 'hopefully not' shoplift again, then stole from a Sainsbury's a few hours later. The early release scheme was meant to increase prison capacity. But it isn't working. Since it began two years ago, 80,000 people have been freed, yet there are just 1,000 extra prison spaces. Last week, the Ministry of Justice revealed that more offenders were recalled to jail in the first half of this year (25,531) than were let out (25,255). More violent and sexual crimes were committed by ex-offenders last year than any previous year on record. ✍️ Max Jeffery Article | | @MaxJeffrey_

On this week's Spectator Out Loud: Harry Cole traverses America during the US midterms; Max Jeffery dissects the problems caused by the early release scheme; Lisa Haseldine explains how to cope with ruinous hen dos; and Jonathan Sumption and Nick Lezard talk through their favourite books of the year. Listen |

On today's Coffee House Shots podcast: The government is gearing up for another EU reset, but does Burnham know what he wants from Brussels? And has Lisa Nandy's Remembrance Sunday blunder exposed divisions within the Cabinet over closer ties with Europe? Tim Shipman and James Heale discuss the upcoming EU summit, the potential economic benefits of closer alignment and whether Labour is prepared for the political battle ahead. What concessions will Brussels demand? And could Burnham be repeating Theresa May's Brexit mistakes? Listen | @ShippersUnbound @JAHeale

Excuse me, will you be closing soon?' But Denis – the elderly, headset-wearing cashier at Poundland on Witney High Street – can't hear me. He smiles thinly, in the way the hard of hearing do, before assisting a customer with a pushchair. On the adjacent till, Barbara answers for him: 'Cash only here.' Clearly, we are all talking at cross-purposes. It hardly matters: the tills keep ringing. Yet despite a brisk trade here in Oxfordshire, Poundland, the discount store in 600 locations nationwide, is to enter into administration. This would be a tragedy. ✍️ Arabella Byrne Article |

On today's Coffee House Shots podcast: Labour has a new leader, but does Andy Burnham have a plan to give voters back control? In this episode of Coffee House Shots, Noa Hoffman speaks to Claire Ainsley, Keir Starmer's former director of policy, about her new book, Control: How We Lost It and How to Take It Back. Listen |

It is not just Donald Trump’s White House which is getting a shake-up. After the Channel 4 sting in September prompted several key aides to leave Nigel Farage’s operation, Reform UK is rebooting their press team too. Ed Sumner is taking over from Dan Jukes as Farage’s Director of Communications while Robert Jenrick, the party’s Treasury spokesman, is losing the services of his trusty media man, Tom Milford. He becomes the party’s Head of Press at just 27 – roll up, roll up any ambitious Reformers who want to replace him…. ✍️ Steerpike Article | | @MrSteerpike

I'm going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost!' So concluded Donald Trump, nonsensically, as his party's disastrous midterm results came crashing in. Trump, now 80, is becoming less and less coherent. In a speech on Monday, he claimed: 'I've actually kept far more promises than I made.' On the campaign trail, he kept talking about Senator Jon Husted's 'powerful' bottom. And now, as the colossal wreck of his leadership emerges, he's taken to fantasising madly about alternative careers. 'If people in the United States get fed up with me,' he said this week, 'I'll move to Israel and become prime minister.' ✍️ Freddy Gray Article | | @Freddygray31

On today's Coffee House Shots podcast: This episode was originally posted on our Reality Check channel. To watch, head over to our YouTube. Inheritance tax is one of Britain's most unpopular taxes – but is it really as unfair as people think? Our Economics Editor Michael Simmons speak to tax expert Dan Neidle about why inheritance tax inspires such hostility, who really ends up paying it, and whether it needs reforming. Listen | | @DanNeidle @Simmons__

If further testimony was required that Donald Trump doesn't back down from a fight, then his ouster on Friday of Susie Wiles and appointment of Stephen Miller as his White House chief of staff is it. Wiles is a savvy pol who helped steer Trump to victory in 2024 but hardly an ideological MAGA bedmate. By contrast, Miller is an alter Kämpfer, or old fighter, in the movement. His motto isn't America but Trump First. ✍️ Jacob Heilbrunn Article | | @JacobHeilbrunn

There was something missing from the Scottish government's official X account on Remembrance Sunday: Remembrance Sunday. The account, which has 426,000 followers, made no mention of the commemoration at any point yesterday. Instead, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the SNP-run administration posted: 'Happy Bandi Chhor Divas. The Scottish Government sends warm wishes to Sikh communities in Scotland and around the world as they celebrate Bandi Chhor Divas.' At best, the timing of this tweet, at exactly 11 a.m., looks like a deeply disrespectful oversight; at worst, it looks like a provocation by a government that seeks out every opportunity to drive a wedge between Scottish and British identities and their national symbols. ✍️ Steerpike Article | | @MrSteerpike

I am considering sticking on a pair of prosthetic breasts and applying for a job at Oxford University. The Spectator paying what it does, all of us columnists must have a side-hustle of sorts. Perhaps this could be mine. The thought is inspired by the emergence into the news of Matt Rattley, a lecturer in biochemistry at St Hilda's College, Oxford. I know it is unkind to attack people for their looks, so allow me to describe Rattley's appearance in as neutral a manner as possible. Rattley is clearly a man – or to put it in the language of our time, he is someone who was 'assigned male at birth'. Which is to say that after the moment of birth one of those cruel NHS nurses who are so stretched for time dangled him upside down, jiggled him about a bit and said: 'Sod it, Doreen, let's just put "boy" again.' ✍️ Douglas Murray Article | | @DouglasKMurray

Andy Burnham has this afternoon admitted the least well-kept secret in Whitehall – that his planned changes to benefits will at first see costs rise. In a succession of broadcast interviews, the PM pointedly did not say when the overall bill would start to fall. We are now clearly in the run-up to the publication of the Milburn review into the million young people who are not in education, employment or training (otherwise known as Neets). ✍️ Tim Shipman Article | | @ShippersUnbound

Douglas Murray says 'Palestinianism' is less a liberation movement than a cult of victimhood, arguing that each time the Palestinians have been offered a state they have refused. Watch in full | | @michaelgove @douglaskmurray

An American political operator contacted me last week, before the blue tidal wave swept aside Donald Trump's Republicans in Congress, with his favourite quote from the 1997 movie Wag the Dog, about an American president starting a war to distract from domestic difficulties: 'Change the story, change the lead,' Robert De Niro's character declares. The politico, who once ran an abortive Democrat campaign for president, then predicted: 'The bigger the defeat, the bigger the bombs Trump drops on Iran.' At that point, the results of the Israeli elections had already eroded Benjamin Netanyahu's chances of remaining Prime Minister and left two of the most dominant leaders of the last decade with their backs to the wall. ✍️ Tim Shipman Article | | @ShippersUnbound

Before his rape conviction, Russell Brand was widely feted by the left-wing press. He was even made guest editor of an edition of the New Statesman, titled 'Revolution of Consciousness'. The 2013 special issue featured celebrities such as Noel Gallagher, David Lynch, Noam Chomsky and Gary Lineker. Brand didn't exactly hide who he was back then. The first line of his piece in the magazine reads: ‘When I was asked to edit an issue of the New Statesman I said yes because it was a beautiful woman asking me.’ ✍️ Steerpike Article | | @MrSteerpike

A Green party activist described war veterans as 'agents of imperial terror' less than an hour after the Last Post was played on Remembrance Sunday, The Spectator can disclose. Leaked screenshots from the Greens Against Imperialism WhatsApp group reveal members discussing their views of British soldiers and veterans. The special interest group includes current councillors, former party candidates and serving officers, including one with responsibility for diversity, equity and inclusion. ✍️ Noa Hoffman Article | | @hoffman_noa

Pope Leo, an American, voted in the US midterms. I am surprised that a foreign head of state can do this, but presumably he is well advised – though not, on such matters, infallible. Paragraph 2240 of The Catechism of the Catholic Church, expounding the 4th Commandment 'Honour thy Father and thy Mother', says that 'Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes, to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one's country'. Leo XIV's age obviously exempts him from defence duties. I imagine that, as head of state, he is also exempt from the attentions of the American Internal Revenue Service. The normal rule is that dual nationals must file full tax returns if they have more than $10,000 in a foreign bank. ✍️ Charles Moore Article | | @CharlesHMoore

Trump's midterms trouble, Poundland's economic woes and a slavery reparations row. ✍️ The Spectator Article |

Marine Le Pen tore into Western 'multiculturalism' in a fiery interview with US programme 60 Minutes last night. Speaking to Trevor Phillips, poached by Bari Weiss to bolster CBS, the presidential frontrunner warned those who despise her culture that the door is open for them to leave Europe. Asked about her views on multiculturalism, Le Pen said: 'Your world approaches immigration through integration. We believe someone who comes to immigrate to our country must bend in to the national community. ✍️ Steerpike Article | | @MrSteerpike

Iheard some odd things working as a teaching assistant. On one occasion, in December, I asked a nine-year-old if he knew what he would be getting for Christmas. His answer? A bed. When I spoke to the headteacher about it, she told me he lived with his single mother and five siblings in a two-bedroom flat. He had spent his entire life sleeping one night in a bed, one night on the floor, alternating with his brother. Not long after this, I was told to be 'sensitive and understanding' of any misbehaviour from another boy in the class. This was because the school had just discovered the family – mother, father and four children – had been made homeless after 'causing trouble' in their council-provided accommodation. For three months they had been living in two tents in a nearby forest. In the same class were two boys I shall call David and Robert. Both were middle-class, had two parents at home and private tutors supporting their education. ✍️ Geoff Bagwell Article |

I see seven areas where the new Democratic majority is likely to squander its advantage. The first is DEI – diversity, equity, and inclusion – which may be the most important issue for the nation's race-based bureaucratic elite. Trump's executive orders outlawing DEI hiring policies and racial preferences have infuriated this portion of the left's nomenclature. Many have lost their jobs or have been forced to disguise their lawlessness. They want a restoration of their power. Congress can't really deliver that but it can spend a lot of sound and fury on it. ✍️ Peter Wood Article |

Among the worst offers is Police Scotland, which managed to not only fail to mark the occasion on its Twitter account yesterday, but actually posted a reminder about a Sikh holiday at the fateful hour of 11 a.m. So much for Remembrance… Now Mr S can bring news of another blunder. The British Library – that bastion of education and enlightenment – managed to mark the occasion yesterday by getting the time of the two-minute silence completely wrong. ✍️ Steerpike Article | | @MrSteerpike

Britain's prisons are in crisis. So, naturally, Whitehall has managed to snuff out one of the few organisations that might know how to fix them. Unlocked Graduates was founded in 2016 by Natasha Porter, a former teacher. Its goal was to solve one of the prison service's most fundamental problems: the quality of its workforce. Prison officers have long been treated as glorified security guards. Applicants need not possess a single GCSE. Almost all candidates will never attend a face-to-face job interview and the governor does not meet those being recruited. Unsurprisingly, this system has not yielded good results. Unlocked changed this. It persuaded ambitious graduates who might otherwise go into banking, consulting or the civil service to spend two years working in one of the most gruelling public service roles. ✍️ Lara Brown Article | | @lara_e_brown

Twenty years or so ago, in a Madrid cinema, I witnessed something I've never seen before or since: an entire audience of regular filmgoers bursting into applause at the end of a film. The film was The Lives of Others, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's picture of life in East Germany under the Stasi, and it drew plaudits on all sides. 'Simply put, it's stunning,' wrote Harry Guerin of RTE. 'It wouldn’t be out of place on any list of the top films of the past five decades.' Anthony Lane, in a superlative New Yorker review, wrote that if there were any justice, it would receive the Academy Award for best foreign picture (it did). ✍️ Robin Ashenden Article |

No other media star must ever be allowed to abuse women so openly and prolifically. But in the rush to act, a gap risks emerging between the reality of Brand's offending and the solutions being posited. We need to ask why, for almost two decades, those in the entertainment industry, on the comedy circuit, in journalism and in politics ignored Brand's bad behaviour. Instead, people from the Prime Minister down are now asking us to focus on what happened in just four weeks in one London courtroom. We need to ask why celebrities and politicians alike were so readily deceived by Brand, even while accusations were levelled against him in private and in public. ✍️ Joanna Williams Article | | @jowilliams293

It was like watching a hungry seagull try to lecture on metaphysics. Despite her obvious lack of ability, Haigh still trotted out stock insults aimed at her opposite number. At one point she suggested that Alex Burghart shouldn't read out his questions, before reading out her answers (and not answering his questions). In fact, I got the sense that Burghart was being gentlemanly in his reticence to go in for the kill: had Labour put up an open can of sardines in the bottom of a barrel, it would have been a less obvious target than Haigh. But if anything, his stoic demeanour seemed to rile her further. Burghart's questions were mostly about benefits. He highlighted the fact that the bill was higher now than it had been even during Covid. Again and again Haigh – who yelled like an unlikeable landlady – insisted that the bill was coming down without explaining in any way how it would do so. ✍️ Madeline Grant Article | | @Madz_Grant

Has Labour lost control of Britain's prisons? As the government's early release scheme comes under increasing scrutiny, Michael Gove diagnoses the failures of the prison system and the growing strain on probation services. Watch in full | | @michaelgove

The pictures will be all over the internet. Social media will be buzzing with memes, the Netflix dramatization is probably already being scripted, while even the usually sober financial press will have something a lot racier than tariffs and currency swaps to write about. The affair between the Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and the Chinese "honeytrap" agent Alice Huang makes for a great story, and one that will dominate the headlines for weeks. And yet all the speculation should not obscure one important fact. The real loser from the affair will not be Huang himself, nor will it be Nvidia. It will be China – because the operation has backfired spectacularly. ✍️ Matthew Lynn Article | | @mattlynnwriter

Leaders from the opposition bloc opposing Netanyahu have been clear that much of the blame lies with the Israeli Prime Minister, fearing that keeping Netanyahu in power will only lead to increased isolation for Israel. Writing on X, Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing opposition Democrat party, said the midterm results revealed 'just how toxic Netanyahu has become' across the American political spectrum. Opposition leader and former prime minister Yair Lapid accused Netanyahu of being a danger to Israel and said that the midterm election results should end his bloc's hopes of forming a governing coalition. A week on from the Israeli elections, where the opposition bloc won fewer seats than the pro-Netanyahu coalition without either gaining a majority, the American midterms have injected some fight into the Israeli opposition. ✍️ Patrick Gibbons Article |

Following disastrous midterm results for Donald Trump, Republicans will be wondering where it all went wrong. Tim Stanley argues that right-wing pundits such as Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes will claim they swung the vote by agitating against the White House and attacking America's links to Israel. Watch in full | @timothy_stanley

A long-standing member of the Western Front Association, Farage regularly attended and then conducted battlefront tours from the mid-1980s until the mid-2010s. Now, his team are trying to showcase that great passion by releasing a film of his first battlefield visit in a decade to coincide with Remembrance Sunday today. A 43-minute documentary shows Farage touring the trenches of the Great War, visiting memorials and explaining what life was like for the soldiers. Various journalists, including myself, were invited to a screening on Thursday, ahead of its release. ✍️ James Heale Article | | @JAHeale

The Democrats have delivered a historic rebuke to Donald Trump. But a repudiation is not an eviction. For Britain, the question is what this political earthquake changes – and what it leaves intact. Westminster should discard the comforting assumption that normal service is about to resume. Having recently finished five years as a British diplomat in Washington, spanning Biden and Trump, I see five lessons for Britain. None assumes America will now morph into a less challenging ally. First, resist the temptation to wait this out. Trump's term ends at lunch time on 20 January 2029. More than two years in which his decisions can profoundly affect British prosperity and security. A Democratic Congress can block legislation, contest spending and investigate his administration. The scale of this defeat will also test Republican loyalty to him. Yet the president retains considerable freedom over diplomacy, military operations and executive powers. ✍️ Ed Roman Article |

On today's Book Club podcast Sam Leith is joined by Marina Litvinenko, widow of former Russian FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, to discuss her new book, A Life in Fragments: Our Love, His Murder, My Resistance. In 2006, Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium in London, in an assassination executed by the Russian state. Marina recounts their life together, from meeting in post-Soviet Russia and Sasha's growing disillusionment with the FSB, to their dramatic escape from Russia and his eventual murder. Listen | | @questingvole

The tragic events of this weekend contrast with Poland's reputation as a remarkably safe country. The places the shooter drove past – Kraków's main square, Old Town, the churches of St Andrew and of the Apostles Peter and Paul – will be familiar to the hundreds of thousands of Brits who visit the city every year. But the reaction of the Polish police was exemplary. It took the two policemen only 23 seconds from when the first shots were fired to begin pursuing the attacker. It took them only three minutes to begin firing back. This is all the more remarkable given the mismatch between the two constables and the shooter, who arrived with 11 weapons in his car, including a semi-automatic rifle, and dressed in full tactical gear, including a bulletproof vest. ✍️ Bartek Staniszewski Article |

Donald Trump’s party got an absolute battering in the midterms with senior Republicans pinning the blame on the Iran war. But another issue was on voters’ minds: corruption. The Spectator's US editor Freddy Gray reports. Article | | @Freddygray31

Marco Rubio, the so-called “Secretary of Everything” in the Trump administration, has vigorously rejected the idea that he is about to resign. “I don't know where these things come from, to be honest with you,” he told the New York Times, following reports in the Independent and Bloomberg that, after the crushing midterms, he would be stepping down to work on his 2028 presidential bid. “I love the work I'm doing… And plus I always laugh when they say he's going to leave his job. I go, ‘Which one?'” ✍️ Freddy Gray Article | | @Freddygray31

What about his Christian conversion of two years ago? He was baptised in the Thames by Bear Grylls, who has semi-apologised for sharing a watery platform with him: Brand's faith 'seemed genuine to me at the time,' he said on X. It is not good form to question the authenticity of another Christian's faith, but I think I can be forgiven for pointing out that Brand was quick to seek a huge new American fan-base on the basis of his piety, and also that he was trying to build a new image as the rape allegations closed in. Maybe historians will see Brand as the last figure of the long 1960s. As it happened, I channel-hopped after watching the news about his conviction, and landed on a Pierce Brosnan Bond film (the first Bond film was released in 1962). ✍️ Theo Hobson Article |

On today's Coffee House Shots podcast: Donald Trump has suffered a generational defeat in the US midterms, with Democrats making sweeping gains across the country. Has the Trump coalition finally fallen apart? And what does the result mean for the future of the Republican Party? James Heale is joined by US Editor Freddy Gray and Political Editor Tim Shipman to discuss the fallout. Is this a vote against Trump rather than an endorsement of the Democrats? And could the result pave the way for a 2028 presidential run by Ron DeSantis or JD Vance? Listen | @ShippersUnbound | @Freddygray31

'Too many conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic looked at Trump and thought - cruelty works' Tim Stanley explains how the Republican's midterm elections bullying playbook spectacularly backfired. Watch in full | @timothy_stanley

Why do we find it so funny when a man gets hit in the genitals? It's a regular occurrence in football matches, usually when a defender accidentally blocks a shot with the most sensitive part of his body. Fans and commentators alike treat themselves to a good old snigger. The euphemisms start flowing – 'caught amidships', 'the crown jewels' and so on. Or, switching to cricket, when Graeme Swann commentated on his former team-mate Alastair Cook: 'Something got trapped against his leg.' That injury happened not as Cook was batting, but as he fielded in the slips. The ball evaded his hands and thudded, at considerable pace, into his – let's throw in a euphemism of our own – 'gentleman's area'. So serious was the incident that Cook had to leave the field. Yet the Test Match Special team, and indeed Cook's fellow player Joe Root, were chuckling away. ✍️ Mark Mason Article |

Douglas Murray concedes that, while October 7th happened on Benjamin Netanyahu’s watch, one must balance this against Israel's 'unbelievable victories' since, including the decimation of Hamas and Hezbollah, and the breaking of the 'Iranian noose'. Watch in full | @michaelgove | @DouglasKMurray

After Israeli jets and American B-2 bombers destroyed Iran’s nuclear reactors, Tehran struck back at Israel's Weizmann Institute destroying its cancer research unit, which Douglas Murray says 'tells us an awful lot' about the moral gap between Israel and its enemies. Watch in full | | @michaelgove @douglaskmurray

This year’s Remembrance Sunday set a record. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, no fewer than nine former Prime Ministers lined up to pay their respects at the Cenotaph. There’s a light lick of irony that the occasion was Remembrance Day. Until you saw them there pulling their best solemn faces there were a couple you might easily have forgotten used to occupy Number Ten, and for “might easily” you could freely substitute “would rather”. As some news outlets noticed, this will almost certainly be the last year in which former Prime Ministers are outnumbered at the ceremony by veterans of one of the two World Wars. The reaper’s scythe is going through the latter, and the state of our politics adding to the number of the former, at a similar rate. ✍️ Sam Leith Article | | @questingvole

Everything is bigger in Texas, and so it makes sense that the Democrats' midterm blue tsunami reached its height in the Lone Star state. James Talarico defeated Ken Paxton to become the first Dem senator from Texas since Lloyd Bentsen in 1993. Yes, the 37-year-old benefited from the unpopularity of the state's attorney general. You could leave a million dollars outside the state capitol for anyone willing to identify themselves as a friend of Ken Paxton and you'd still have a million dollars a week later. But Talarico is not some blue-dog, conservative Democrat of yesteryear. He is a progressive – and then some. Republicans not only lost Texas, they lost it to a guy who once called God 'non-binary'. Talarico's victory is towering in its own right, but set beside Gina Hinojosa's win in the state’s gubernatorial race it borders on the dwarfish. Greg Abbott has been in the governor's mansion since 2015. He is the longest-serving incumbent governor in the country today. ✍️ Stephen Daisley Article | | @JournoStephen

Damaged at birth and neglected as a child, Stallone – like his creation Rocky Balboa – eventually found success through dogged determination. Stallone was born in New York in 1946 'to the surprise of my mother, who never wanted to have kids'. Jackie was on a bus when she went into labour and a kind passenger took her to hospital. The baby had to be delivered by forceps, which damaged a nerve in his cheek, leaving him with a crooked smile and slurred speech. In fact Jackie had had a baby four years earlier, Sly's older brother Frank, but she always denied giving birth to him. She was 'very peculiar', we are told. ✍️ Lynn Barber Article |

The other Friday, via the reader comments section, I was contacted by a chap, Simon, inviting me to attend a piano concert in the next village, the proceeds of which were going to those affected by the recent wildfires. I was thrilled, Radio 3 is on at home 16 hours a day sometimes. Especially since those heartless wankers at the BBC pulled the plug on the Sounds app last year for people outside the UK. ✍️ Catriona Olding Article |

Brand deserves what's coming to him but his army of enablers, the people who gave him the seal of establishment approval, gilded his path to stardom, and generally prostrated themselves before his empty brand of political messianism, must not be allowed any hiding place. The roll call of shame stretches far and wide. First, let's start with the political Left. They will not thank you now for pointing out how the comedian was feted, quickly becoming a favourite in left-wing circles. Those involved happily soaked up his anti-establishment and anti-Tory posturing, cosying up to him at every opportunity. Take Ed Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, a politician who likes to present himself as a man on a moral mission. Yet when he was Labour leader, his moral compass seems to have failed him when it came to Brand. ✍️ Jawad Iqbal Article |

Another day, another Labour plot to nationalise a business. This time, the not-so lucky company in question is… beleaguered Poundland. In the House of Lords this afternoon, Sir John Redwood asked business minister Lord Leong whether he would rule out a subsidy or nationalisation of Poundland in response to the retail giant's closure plans. Lord Leong's answer was categorical: 'The answer is no.' ✍️ Steerpike Article | | @MrSteerpike

Next week marks a major milestone for the Coalition of the Willing. Starting on Monday, its military arm, the Multinational Force Ukraine (MNF-U), will conduct its first 'boots on the ground' exercise – a fortnight-long event – in Poland. Britain and France, as co-leaders of the coalition, will also lead on the exercise, the purpose of which is to rehearse how allied troops might provide support to Ukraine and its military following the end of its war with Russia. ✍️ Lisa Haseldine Article | | @lisahaseldine

The left in France believe that Donald Trump's mid-term mauling is an omen. The Greens, Socialists and the far-left La France insoumise are convinced that the age of 'populism' is over. Trump is finished and so too, they cheer, is Marine Le Pen's dream of becoming president of the Republic next year. In a tweet this week Marine Tondelier, the leader of the Greens, declared that Le Pen's National Rally 'is as fascist as Donald Trump' and as 'incapable of solving our problems'. ✍️ Gavin Mortimer Article | | @PhoneyMajor

If this is a sumptuous brand – cars named Cortina and Capri were trying to evoke it, because everyone longs for Italy in the end – it is ever more respectable. You will no longer find a sex-crazed car at Alfa Romeo. I looked. They are more cautious: like Ben Braddock, they grew up – though I don't know if he took the job in plastics. I think he did. The Alfa Romeo website offers many respectable cars, all sprayed red – a darker red than the classic Ferrari, hotter, more female and dangerous. (Ferraris are always male. You sit in one, and you know. ✍️ Tanya Gold Article | | @TanyaGold1

Few people will be surprised to hear that Andy Burnham has indicated that the forthcoming deals with the European Union – over food and farming, emissions trading and youth mobility – will be just the start of a longer process. As the Prime Minister told the Sunday Mirror yesterday, ahead of next week's EU-UK meeting which will finalise the details of Britain's EU reset: This summit will show what we can achieve together – but it doesn't need to be the end of our ambition. Working more closely with Europe could drive growth, make our country safer and give us more tools to tackle illegal migration. That's a conversation worth having. Few will be surprised because the Labour party has been itching to reverse Brexit ever since it returned to power two years ago, and this summer it finally got a leader willing to make it happen. ✍️ Patrick West Article | | @patrickxwest

A week after inconclusive election results that saw neither side win a large enough majority to form a government, Israel woke on Wednesday to two more major problems. President Trump announced in an interview with Fox News that the United States will stop military aid to Israel by the end of the year. Meanwhile in Michigan Abdul El-Sayed, America's first Muslim senator and vociferous critic of the Jewish state, swept to victory, spearheading the rise of the Democrats' progressive left. President Trump claimed that the terms of a supposed deal had been finalised months ago with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. 'We've already agreed that by the end of this year we won't be paying Israel.' ✍️ Adam LeBor Article |

This midterm, no question, was a rebuke of the president and the Congress by Democrats, independents and some Republicans that crossed over. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that the Trump administration is frantically working to prevent further conservative defections. The White House Office of Public Liaison issued a memo to over 3,000 conservative organisations that ended with a not-so-veiled threat: ‘As always, we are monitoring statements, press releases, and media engagements from your organisations.’ ✍️ Jacob Heilbrunn Article | | @JacobHeilbrunn

Everyone is obsessing about the 'blue tsunami'. But there is remarkably little about this election that matters. The House and Senate flipping to the Democrats could disadvantage purposes I technically share with Donald Trump: the death of DEI, an end to the poisoning, mutilation and castration of minors, at long last the enforcement of immigration law. But with majorities in both houses for nearly two years, this administration has passed minimal legislation that lastingly affects any of these issues. So why does Trump losing the midterms matter? ✍️ Lionel Shriver Article | | @LShriver89068

According to the OECD, France spends more per lycée pupil than the OECD average. So, French students are comparatively well looked after. Not much to complain about, then. Yet credulous teenagers were addressed by left-wing rabble-rousers like Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of Saint–Denis, who stood outside the gates of a blockaded school and said, 'Violence can become legitimate at a certain point' (i.e. when students are fired upon by riot police). 'Whenever it can be avoided, it is better,' he added – but the students kept rioting. ✍️ Toby Young Article | | @toadmeister

After another punishment beating for buy-to-let investors in the Budget, it would be tempting to think that frustrated would-be homebuyers can now have things a little more their own way: no more being outbid by investors and speculators who have been pricing the young out of the market. But things aren't quite working out for first-time buyers as might have been imagined. Yesterday's rise in the Bank of England's base rate to 4 per cent is a painful reminder that yes, the era of near-zero interest rates is well and truly over. According to one mortgage company, the average rate for a buyer with a 5 per cent deposit is now 5.75 per cent. ✍️ Ross Clark Article | | @RossjournoClark

We all need friends we can go to when we are in trouble, and when we are in disgrace. Seeking forgiveness for our sins requires us to recognise them as our own. Houghton stood by his friends who were disgraced not because he felt their disgrace was undeserved but because he believed disgrace was not all there was. I don't know what happened to my patient after they left my care. The last I said to them was that they had a family, and that guilt, however awful, does not wipe out what we owe to others. I don't know whether they believed me. ✍️ Druin Burch Article |

What does it mean? More to the point, was last night's election a referendum on the MAGA movement in general and Donald Trump in particular? In part, perhaps. The war in Iran is not popular – at least the higher gas prices it has entailed have been a thorn in the side of the GOP, notwithstanding the fact that gas prices and inflation were higher under Joe Biden than they are now. But long memories are not a characteristic of the electorate. Stepping back, I would say this: people on both sides of the aisle like to talk about "the American Experiment." What was the nature of that experiment? It was an adventure in enlightened self-rule. Is that what we had last night? ✍️ Roger Kimball Article |

As a child growing up in the 1980s, Autumn was my favourite time of the year. It combined two of my favourite things – fire and explosions. Back then, getting your hands on the kind of firepower usually left behind in third-world coups required little more than asking your mate's older brother to go to the corner shop. Laws were rarely, if ever, enforced. It may have been the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness for Keats, but to a kid armed with Black Cat bangers and a disposable lighter, it was the season of sulphur and scorched grass. ✍️ Noel Yaxley Article |

Last week North Korea pulled off the biggest heist in history when state-sanctioned hackers stole $6.3 billion from the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. About half of the assets made their way into Pyongyang's coffers. As the world's largest exchange, Binance said it would cover its customers' losses, but the hack still spooked many crypto traders, who are notoriously jumpy. They withdrew $3.6 billion on Sunday. The paranoia around holding cryptocurrency is well founded. In essence, they are just digital currencies which are incredibly hard to trace. You can follow the transactions, but you don't know the identity of who owns them. ✍️ Sam McPhail Article |

In Rome's Piazza Navona, I spot an elderly Parson terrier ambling stiffly over the cobbles and hurry over to its middle-aged owner, chic in her silk neck scarf and quilted jacket. 'I have the same in London,' I say, thrusting my phone at her and pointing at the screen. She's very gracious and we have a faltering conversation in which I learn that her rough-coated Parson is called Lola and she's ten years old. In a Montepulciano wine bar, I meet a Boxer called Evie. ✍️ Sophia Money-Coutts Article |

Next week, Britain will lead a multinational military training exercise in Poland to prepare for peace in Ukraine. But is this rehearsal too optimistic when there is no indication that Ukraine and Russia are close to striking a peace deal? The Spectator's Lisa Haseldine reports. Read Lisa's full article here | @lisahaseldine

Douglas Murray says the roots of Islamic anti-Semitism can be traced back hundreds of years, and explains why Judaism continues to stand as a rebuke to Islam. Watch in full | | @michaelgove @douglaskmurray