A reasonable magazine (Spectator, The)

Member Name: oxjdc

Product:	Spectator, The
Date:	14/08/00 (27 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You look good, and learn things.

Disadvantages: Not a fun read

While the other current opinion on this places the Spectator "to the right of the BNP", I don't think that's fair.

It is of course the case that someone thinking it was an objective journal would gain a skewed view of British politics, but nonetheless it carries pieces from the liberal right as much as from the conservative right, and frequent writers from other viewpoints.

Where the Spectator falls down is in pitching itself too high, and attempting to be two things at once. Ultimately it doesn't appeal to the hardcore intellectual market, as there are publications of pure thinking material which will always beat it there. At the same time it is often to obscure and contrived to be mass-market material in the same way as, for instance, "L'Express" in France.

So yes, the New Statesman is probably a better read, although buyers should beware that since the change of ownership and editor it follows a political agenda at least as much as does the Spectator, albeit the political agenda of New Labour rather than the right.

jdcxxx

Summary: