Revolting France: The riots are driving the country’s politics to its extremes, writes Philip Delves Broughton 🔸 Douglas Murray: France is a warning – our civilisation is not immortal 🔸 George Osborne: My night with Maya Jama 🔸 Tim Shipman and Michael Simmons: What to expect from Burnham’s first Budget 🔸 Madeline Grant: The perils of baby names spectator.com

Kate Evans is a dedicated and widely respected sergeant in Avon and Somerset Police. But her ability to do the job she loves has been severely compromised. On 6 August 2025 she was on duty when a 23-year-old man swung a sledgehammer against her back – while she was on her knees. Her spine was fractured and the injuries she sustained affect her to this day and profoundly limit her personal and professional freedom. Her attacker, Samuel Corner, was a member of the proscribed 'activist' group Palestine Action, the group to which Irish novelist Sally Rooney would like to devote her royalties. ✍️ The Spectator Article | spectator.com/article/sally-…

The plans were presented as hardline when announced, but nearly a year later it looks like the country will be saddled with two million economically unproductive migrants and the opening up of new migration routes from some of the most dangerous parts of the world. There is no democratic legitimacy for any of this, and come the next general election, centre-right parties must be prepared to revoke settlement and citizenship grants. The country cannot afford anything else'. Bates is right. All of this is going to have to be overturned. It may not seem 'fair' to the Boriswavers, but it is absolutely fair to the British people. The Boriswave will have to go home. ✍️ David Shipley Article | spectator.com/article/labour… | @ShipleyWrites

Reform UK has reported ITV to the police after undercover reporters secretly filmed councillors, candidates and activists making offensive remarks. But was ITV's documentary a flop? Former diplomat Ameer Kotecha says the film should not be used to shut down legitimate debate about issues the party is raising. Read | spectator.com/article/why-di… @Ameer_Kotecha @ZiaYusufUK @reformparty_uk

Abdul El-Sayed, in his bid to be senator for Michigan, is not doing quite so badly. But the evidence suggests he does have an issue with African-American voters, who make up around 12-13 percent of his state’s electorate. In the Democratic primary, his opponent Haley Stevens carried the black vote by large margins, and a Fox News poll suggested he enjoys only about 75 percent support among black voters, which is weak compared to, say, the 87 percent of black Michiganders who voted for Kamala Harris. In a very tight race against Mike Rogers across the state, these numbers could make all the difference. ✍️ Cockburn Article | spectator.com/article/abdul-…

The news is full of speculation at the moment that we are about to see a bursting of a 'bubble' in AI. 'Will the AI bubble pop?' asks the Sun. The New York Post predicts that the entire market is about to 'burst', with a market correction to follow. But it isn't just tabloids getting carried away – the IMF is concerned about an AI correction, as are luminaries from the financial world such as Ray Dalio and Michael Burry. Burry, who famously predicted the 2008 financial crisis, has denounced Anthropic and OpenAI (the creators of Claude and ChatGPT) as 'bubble companies'. And there is already some evidence in the stock market of worries about AI infrastructure spend. CoreWeave, an American data centre company backed by Nvidia which has managed to rack up $50 billion in debt, recently saw its stock price drop by a quarter. CoreWeave, like many companies in the artificial intelligence industry, has never turned a profit, and is instead practising 'cash burn', betting billions of dollars on AI becoming so valuable that they can set very high leasing prices for the companies using it. ✍️ John Power Article | spectator.com/article/is-ai-…

London Fields, East London. Saturday the 17th of October. A slight north-northeastern wind is blowing. The sky is overcast, with a drizzle earlier in the day making the ground slightly softer than usual, but still firm enough to get a good grip. Perfect weather for the joust to make a return, after six hundred painstakingly long years. At long last, the beautiful game is back. Here we are in heaven. Like many things in the last six centuries, the mechanics of the joust have changed. ✍️ Andy Twelves Article | spectator.com/article/lime-b… | @andytwelves

On today's Coffee House Shots podcast: A week before the budget, and hours after ministers approved drilling at the Jackdaw gas field, Andy Burnham faced off with Kemi Badenoch at Prime Minister's Questions in what James Heale reckons was the PM's first win in the Commons since taking office. James and Isabel Hardman join Tim Shipman to dispute the score, pick over what Badenoch missed on welfare and immigration, and work out why John Healey's budget may be smaller than expected. Listen | spectator.com/podcast/drill-… @ShippersUnbound JAHeale

Hundreds of thousands of private emails from Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have been hacked and published online, exposing the inner workings of the party and raising the possibility that members could be harassed. The party has confirmed that unidentified hackers had accessed their private information, which allegedly consists of 421,179 emails, amounting to 281 gigabytes of data, according to the tabloid newspaper Bild. Among the material is said to be correspondence which includes the party's leader, Alice Weidel; former party chairman, Alexander Gauland; and a member of the German parliament, Leif-Erik Holm. ✍️ Elisabeth Dampier Article | spectator.com/article/is-thi…

SNP leader John Swinney finally agrees with Westminster on something. The Holyrood first minister has welcomed Downing Street's decision to press ahead with drilling at the Jackdaw natural gas field in the North Sea, a year and a half after production was blocked by the Court of Session at the behest of the green lobby. Swinney posted on X: 'I hope today's announcement on Jackdaw will provide some certainty for the North East after many years of difficulty thanks to UK Government policy.' ✍️ Stephen Daisley Article | spectator.com/article/the-sn… | @JournoStephen

The latest report of the Covid Inquiry has concluded that elderly care home residents were sacrificed to save the NHS during the pandemic. It says the virus was allowed to 'spread like wildfire' through care homes, and that it was a 'significant omission' that the government did not advise that patients discharged from hospitals into care homes should be isolated. ✍️ Jawad Iqbal Article | spectator.com/article/what-e…

Marine Le Pen is the political winner from the anarchy that erupted in France at the weekend. A poll conducted in the 48 hours after the nationwide riots found that the leader of the National Rally is the only figure whose approval rating has increased. Le Pen is now up to 38 per cent, a popularity not seen since Francois Mitterrand enjoyed widespread support in the 1980s. According to Frédéric Dabi, one of France's leading political scientists, Le Pen is regarded as 'the representative of the party of order, the party of those who can no longer tolerate the chaos'. ✍️ Gavin Mortimer Article | spectator.com/article/the-da… | @PhoneyMajor

Sir David Bell's report into anti-Semitism in schools (which will be published this afternoon but has been widely trailed) is an important document with a series of worthwhile recommendations. He finds that three in five Jewish students have experienced anti-Semitism – a statistic that should be profoundly shocking but is now entirely unsurprising – and that fewer than half think that there is any point reporting it, given that schools have consistently refused to take serious action when it is reported. In that context, Sir David's recommendation that schools and colleges should be forced to recognise anti-Semitism as a specific category of harm – as opposed to the general requirement to tackle racism – and to take explicit action to tackle it is eminently sensible. ✍️ Stephen Pollard Article | spectator.com/article/whats-… | @stephenpollard

It has been mere hours since Andy Burnham gave the go-ahead to Jackdaw, and Labour backbenchers are already throwing a tantrum. Eighteen have publicly condemned the decision so far, with many more agreeing in private. In a letter to Miatta Fahnbullah, sent last night before the announcement, Labour MPs moaned: We must resist shortsighted calls to abandon progress towards net zero, which would accelerate the destruction of our natural world while doing nothing to bring down bills. ✍️ Steerpike Article | spectator.com/article/labour… | @MrSteerpike

J.D. Vance is clearly trying to thread a needle as he prepares to run for the Republican presidential nomination next year. On the one hand, the Vice President doesn't want to appear too eager for the job. He insisted last week he might choose not to run because "we've got four little kids" at home. On the other hand, he told 2WAY’s Mark Halperin Monday, "I think if I run, the President will endorse me." ✍️ John Fund Article | spectator.com/article/jd-van… | @johnfund

It will likely only be brief, but the government is in danger of looking half-sensible. Not only has John Healey backtracked from imposing a Capital Gains Tax rise on business, but the new energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh has this morning announced that the development of the Jackdaw gas field can go ahead. The case for it is overwhelming, even on environmental grounds. ✍️ Ross Clark Article | spectator.com/article/the-gr… | @RossjournoClark

The run of good economic news has come to an end. A double whammy of releases from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) make clear the problems John Healey will have to overcome at his first Budget next week. Inflation sped up to 3.5 per cent in September which while expected by economists was higher than they'd predicted. The previous figure was 3.1 per cent and the increase was driven by motor fuels as diesel hit its highest price in four years. ✍️ Michael Simmons Article | spectator.com/article/john-h… | @Simmons__

📣Live from London: Christopher Caldwell joins Freddy Gray for a live edition of the Americano podcast. Book your tickets now. With the midterm elections on the horizon, all eyes are on Donald Trump. But as his approval ratings hit record lows, is Trumpism beginning to unravel? 📍6 Old Queen Street, London 📅Tuesday 3 November ⏰Discussion starts 7pm 🎟️Book your tickets: spectator.com/americanoticke… @Freddygray31 | @SpectatorEvents

The latest Covid inquiry report barely caused a ripple in Westminster yesterday. It's not just that this is the sixth module of the inquiry, which has been running since 2022, but also that the report itself has offered little in the way of revelations. The care sector suffered particularly as a result of poor pre-pandemic planning. Ministers' claim to have thrown a 'protective ring' around care homes was manifestly untrue. ✍️ Isabel Hardman Article | spectator.com/article/why-ar… | @IsabelHardman

There is a direct action group in this country which the government fears so much that its very existence has been criminalised. The Home Office accuses it of holding 'provocative street demonstrations' and 'stunts aimed at intimidating local communities'. The authorities say the organisation's 'activities and propaganda materials are particularly aimed at recruiting young people'. Explaining its reasons for proscription, the government charges the group with 'condoning and celebrating' a terrorist attack and of 'the unlawful glorification of terrorism'. ✍️ Stephen Daisley Article | spectator.com/article/depros… | @JournoStephen