The Spectator
The Spectator is a
British
magazine, established in 1828 and published weekly. It is owned by the Barclay brothers, who also own
The Daily Telegraph was founded in 1855 [i], and is one of only two remaining daily British [i] ...
, and claims to be the oldest continuously-published magazine in the English language. Its principal subject area is politics, about which it generally takes a robust and even provocative
conservative line. The magazine also has extensive arts pages on books, music, opera, and film and TV reviews.
Editorship of
The Spectator has often been a route to high office in the
British Conservative Party; past editors include Iain Macleod, Ian Gilmour and Nigel Lawson, all of whom became cabinet ministers.
Encyclopedia
The Spectator is a
Britishmagazine, established in 1828 and published weekly. It is owned by the Barclay brothers, who also own
The Daily Telegraph was founded in 1855 [i], and is one of only two remaining daily British [i] ...
, and claims to be the oldest continuously-published magazine in the English language. Its principal subject area is politics, about which it generally takes a robust and even provocative
conservative line. The magazine also has extensive arts pages on books, music, opera, and film and TV reviews.
Editorship of
The Spectator has often been a route to high office in the
British Conservative Party; past editors include Iain Macleod, Ian Gilmour and Nigel Lawson, all of whom became cabinet ministers. Editorship can also be a springboard for a greater role in public affairs, as with
Boris Johnson who is still a bon-vivant minor celebrity in Britain, despite having moved on to a more serious role as Shadow Minister for Higher Education.
Policy positions
From its founding in 1828 the Spectator has always taken a pro-British line in foreign affairs; such was the case in 1904 when it raised concerns about the anti-
British and Pan-Asian attitudes prevalent amongst
Indian
students in
Japan.
Like its sister publication
The Daily Telegraph,
The Spectator is Atlanticist in outlook, favouring close ties with the
United States rather than with the
European Union, and it is usually supportive of
Israel. However, it has expressed strong doubts about the
Iraq war, and some of its contributors, such as Matthew Parris and Stuart Reid, express a more Americosceptic, old-school conservative line. Other contributors such as Mark Steyn argue from a
neoconservative and usually pro-
Bush position. Like much of the British press it is critical of the unilateral extradition treaty that has condemned the Natwest three to extradition without a
prima facie case, and the magazine recently devoted a leading article to lambast the
US SenateCultural positions
Although writing about popular culture is not a priority for
The Spectator, it is one of the few remaining magazines where one can still find an old-fashioned rant against rock music . "Culture" for
The Spectator tends towards gallery openings, new opera productions and the like. It does have a "television and cinema" section, pages most often given over to personal soliloquies by writers such as the novelist James Delingpole, who spends more time lamenting how poor and unsuccessful he is than he does reviewing television programming.
The Spectator tends to follow its educated-and-conservative target audience's fashions and social concerns: sourcing organic food at markets, the pros and cons of private education, hunting, etc. Certain British cultural establishments are also often favourably alluded to, such as the
University of Oxford , Ascot and White's.
Contributors
Although there is a permanent staff of writers
The Spectator has always had room for wide array of contributors. These have included Auberon Waugh, Jeffrey Bernard and Taki . Following Bernard's death, the "Low Life" column is now written by Jeremy Clarke.
Joan Collins contributes regularly as Guest Diarist, as does Barry Humphries. The book reviews are often 'outsourced' to outsiders who are experts in the given subject, so consequently it is rare to see the same review author twice in as many weeks. The restaurant section is also an irregular piece.
Recent times
The magazine has prospered in recent times. Under former editor
Boris Johnson and his appealing
Wodehousian aura clumsy public relations did no harm. He resigned in December 2005, on taking up an appointment as Shadow Minister for Higher Education.
The circulation was not at all hindered by the notoriety the magazine achieved after revelations about Johnson's affair with one of his columnists Petronella Wyatt, the extramarital adventures of its publisher Kimberly Quinn and affair of the associate editor Rod Liddle. The nickname
The Sextator has gained some currency.
Editors
- Robert Stephen Rintoul 1828, as founder, to 1861 when the position was shared with Hutton
- R. H. Hutton 1861–87
- John St. Loe Strachey 1887–1925
- Evelyn Wrench 1925–32
- Wilson Harris 1932–52
- Walter Taplin 1953–4
- Ian Gilmour 1954–9
- Brian Inglis 1959–62
- Iain Hamilton 1962–3
- Iain Macleod 1963–5
- Nigel Lawson 1966–70
- George Gale 1970–73
- Harold Creighton 1973–75
- Alexander Chancellor 1975–84
- Charles Moore 1984–90
- Dominic Lawson 1990–5
- Frank Johnson 1995–9
- Boris Johnson 1999–2005
- Matthew D'Ancona 2006–
References
External links
