The Spectator
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- This article is about the British weekly magazine. For Addison and Steele's influential literary magazine, see The Spectator (1711), and other links at The Spectator (disambiguation). See also The American Spectator magazine.
The Spectator is a British weekly, and claims to be the oldest continuously-published magazine in the English language.
It is currently owned by the Barclay brothers, who also own The Daily Telegraph. 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 (1999 to 2005) who is still a bon-vivant public figure in Britain, despite having moved on to a post as Shadow Minister for Higher Education.
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[edit] 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 generally Atlanticist and Eurosceptic 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 the American Irwin Stelzer 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 Senate[1].
[edit] Cultural positions
The "back of the magazine" sections of The Spectator have always had an eclectic mix of high culture (gallery openings, literature, and new opera productions) and the more proletarian arts. There are Television, Film, Radio, Restaurant/Food and Wine and Sports columns often with somewhat eccentric but well written content. James Delingpole, The TV critic, often fails to review any TV progammes at all and his column is not infrequently a begging letter asking for alms to fun his children's private education. Deborah Ross, the restuarant critic is more likely to review an Italian bistro near her Islington home than the latest Michelin starred restaurant in the West End.
The Spectator tends to follow its audience's fashions and social concerns: rejecting the politically correct organic food in favour of rare roast beef. The pros and cons of private education, hunting, the merits of different luxury goods suppliers and other subjects that might be of interest to an affluent, discerning reader who generally prefers the traditional to the novel generally find a place.
[edit] Contributors
Although there is a permanent staff of writers, The Spectator has always had a wide array of contributors. These have included Auberon Waugh, Jeffrey Bernard (the "Low Life" column) and Taki (the "High Life" column). 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 outside experts in a given subject, so it is rare to see the same reviewer appearing in consecutive issues. The restaurant section is also an irregular piece, usually written by Deborah Ross.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Trivia
The satirical Private Eye magazine usually refers to the Spectator as The Spectacularlyboring or The Hasbeano. Former editor Boris Johnson was known as "Boris the Menace", with other Spectator writers portrayed in the parodic comic strip "The Beano".
[edit] 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
- Henry 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–
[edit] References
- ^ The Spectator, 8th July 2006
[edit] External links
- The Spectator official site
- Digital edition
