Editing The Spectator (section)

==1925–1975==
===Evelyn Wrench and Wilson Harris===
For his first year as proprietor, [[Evelyn Wrench|John Evelyn Wrench]] appointed John (Jack) Atkins his editor, who had worked on the paper for the last two decades, acting as editor during Strachey's recurrent bouts of illness. But the relationship did not work: as Atkins lamented to his long-standing friend, [[Winston Churchill]], Wrench "continually wants to interfere and he is very ignorant".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Image Browser |url=http://www.churchillarchive.com/explore/page?id=CHAR+2/147/160 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417232348/https://www.churchillarchive.com/explore/page?id=CHAR+2%2F147%2F160 |archive-date=17 April 2022 |access-date=17 April 2022 |website=www.churchillarchive.com}}</ref> Wrench duly took over the editorship in 1926, successfully channeling the enthusiasm of Strachey. His global connections helped secure interviews with [[Henry Ford]], [[Mahatma Gandhi]] and [[Benito Mussolini]]. Perhaps his most remembered achievement as editor of ''The Spectator'' was the campaign to ease [[Unemployment in the United Kingdom|unemployment]] in the mining town of [[Aberdare]], one of the worst hit by the crisis of 1928, when joblessness reached 40% in [[South Wales]]. Within three months, the paper's appeal for the town's relief raised over £12,000 ({{Inflation|UK|12000|1928|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).<ref name="Courtauld 1999" /> A statuette of an Aberdare miner, presented in gratitude to ''The Spectator'', still sits in the editor's office, bearing the inscription: "From the Townsfolk of Aberdare in Grateful Recognition: 'The Greatest of These is Love'".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Spectator |url=https://www.facebook.com/OfficialSpectator/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424180801/https://www.facebook.com/officialspectator |archive-date=24 April 2020 |access-date=26 April 2020 |website=www.facebook.com}}</ref>

Wrench retired as editor in 1932 (he remained the magazine's proprietor), appointing the political editor [[Wilson Harris (journalist)|Wilson Harris]] his successor. Under Harris ''The Spectator'' became increasingly outspoken on [[International relations (1919–1939)|developing international politics in the 1930s]], in particular on the rise of [[fascism]]. Beneath a reader's letter referring to the [[Nazi Party]] as "peaceful, orderly and kindly", Harris printed the following reply:
<blockquote>No facts in recent history are established more incontestably&nbsp;... than the numerous cases of murder, assault, and various forms of intimidation for which the National Socialist Party in Germany has been responsible&nbsp;... The [[Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses|organized economic boycott of the Jews]] is the climax. ''The Spectator'' has consistently shown itself a friend of Germany, but it is a friend of freedom first. Resort to violence is not condoned by styling it revolution.<ref>''The Spectator'', 7 April 1933</ref> </blockquote>

Harris broadly supported the [[European foreign policy of the Chamberlain ministry]] and [[Neville Chamberlain]]'s [[appeasement]]. He praised the [[Munich agreement]], explaining later that he believed "even the most desperate attempt to save the peace was worthwhile".<ref name="Courtauld 1999" /> Harris abandoned the newspaper's support for appeasement after the [[Kristallnacht]] pogrom, which Harris wrote "obliterated the word appeasement."<ref>Bouverie, Tim (2019). ''Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War'' (1 ed.). New York: [[Tim Duggan Books]], p. 307. {{ISBN|978-0-451-49984-4}}. {{OCLC|1042099346}}.</ref> When the conflict broke, the team abandoned their Gower Street office for [[Harmondsworth]], but within a few days decided to return to London: the basement caught fire from shrapnel, and the printers were [[The Blitz|bombed]], but the paper continued to appear each week. Although the Second World War required ''The Spectator'' to downgrade its size and paper quality, its readership doubled during the conflict, exceeding 50,000. From 1945 to 1950, Harris served as MP for [[Cambridge University (UK Parliament constituency)|Cambridge University]]; although he stood as an independent, this was the first formal overlap between ''The Spectator'' and the House of Commons. In February 1947, when a fuel shortage suspended the publication of weekly magazines, ''The Spectator'' appeared in an abridged form over two successive Thursdays on page 2 of the ''[[Daily Mail]]''.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

===Ian Gilmour===
In 1954, Wrench and his co-owner Angus Watson sold ''The Spectator'' to the barrister [[Ian Gilmour]], who restored the ''Spectator'' tradition of simultaneously acting as editor. Having a libertarian and pro-European outlook, he "enlivened the paper and injected a new element of irreverence, fun and controversy".<ref name="Blake" /> He was critical of both [[Anthony Eden]]'s and [[Harold Macmillan]]'s governments, and while supporting the Conservatives was also friendly to [[Hugh Gaitskell]] and [[Gaitskellism]].<ref name="royjenkins-auto">{{Cite book |last=Jenkins, Roy |title=A Life at the Centre |publisher=Politico's |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-84275-177-0 |pages=117–118, 130}}</ref> Gilmour lent ''The Spectator''{{'}}s voice to the campaign to end [[capital punishment in Britain]], writing an incensed leader attacking the hanging of [[Ruth Ellis]] in 1955, in which he claimed "Hanging has become the national sport", and that the home secretary [[Gwilym Lloyd George]], for not reprieving the sentence, "has now been responsible for the hanging of two women over the past eight months".<ref name="Courtauld 1999" />

''The Spectator'' opposed Britain's involvement in the [[Suez crisis]] in 1956, strongly criticising the government's handling of the debacle. The paper went on to oppose Macmillan's government's re-election in the [[1959 United Kingdom general election]], complaining: "The continued Conservative pretence that Suez was a good, a noble, a wise venture has been too much to stomach&nbsp;... the Government is taking its stand on a solid principle: 'Never admit a mistake.'"<ref name="Courtauld 1999" /> The paper also says that it was influential in campaigning for the [[decriminalisation of homosexuality]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Butterfield |first=David |date=27 July 2017 |title=Persistent buggers: how The Spectator fought to decriminalise homosexuality |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/persistent-buggers-how-the-spectator-fought-to-decriminalise-homosexuality |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616155653/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/persistent-buggers-how-the-spectator-fought-to-decriminalise-homosexuality/ |archive-date=2024-06-16 |website=www.spectator.co.uk}}</ref> It gave vocal support to the proposals of the [[Wolfenden Committee]] in 1957, condemning the "utterly irrational and illogical" old laws on homosexuality: "Not only is the law unjust in conception, it is almost inevitably unjust in practice."<ref name="Courtauld 1999" />

In March 1957, Jenny Nicholson, a frequent contributor, wrote a piece on the [[Italian Socialist Party]] congress in [[Venice]], which mentioned three [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] politicians ([[Aneurin Bevan]], [[Richard Crossman]], and [[Morgan Phillips]]) "who puzzled the Italians by filling themselves like tanks with whisky and coffee".<ref>''The Spectator'', 1 March 1957</ref> All three sued for libel, the case went to trial, and ''The Spectator'' was forced to make a large payment in damages and costs, a sum well over the equivalent of £150,000 today.<ref name="Courtauld">{{Cite news |last=Courtauld |first=Simon |title=A Notorious Case of Perjury |work=The Spectator (175th Anniversary Issue)}}</ref> It has since emerged that "all three plaintiffs, to a greater or lesser degree, perjured themselves in court".<ref name="Courtauld" />

Gilmour gave up the editorship in 1959, in part to abet his chance of selection as a Conservative MP. He appointed his deputy [[Brian Inglis]], who introduced to the magazine a fresh spirit of political satire. In 1959—much to the embarrassment of Gilmour (who remained the owner)—''The Spectator'' advised either voting for the Liberal Party or tactically abstaining. Despite a marked increase in sales, Gilmour felt that ''The Spectator'' was losing its political edge, so replaced him in 1962 with [[Iain Hamilton (journalist)|Iain Hamilton]]. Hamilton successfully balanced a keener focus on current affairs with some more raucous contributions as the young team behind ''[[Private Eye]]'' were commissioned to write a mock eight-page ''Child's Guide to Modern Culture''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Child's Guide to Modern Culture » 23 Nov 1962 » The Spectator Archive |url=http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/23rd-november-1962/33/a-childs-guide-to-modern-culture |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024034024/http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/23rd-november-1962/33/a-childs-guide-to-modern-culture |archive-date=24 October 2020 |access-date=23 May 2020 |website=The Spectator Archive}}</ref> Much to the shock of Hamilton and the ''Spectator'' staff, Gilmour replaced Hamilton in 1963 with [[Iain Macleod]], the Conservative MP who had resigned from the cabinet on the controversial appointment of Sir [[Alec Douglas-Home]] to succeed [[Harold Macmillan]] as prime minister. A widely circulated letter, signed by ''Spectator'' journalists and board members, berated Gilmour for mistreating an admired editor and appointing an active politician who could jeopardise the independence of the magazine: "We believe strongly that ''The Spectator'', with its long and honourable history of independent opinion, should not be tossed about at the whim of the proprietor or lose its independence by identification with a narrow political faction."<ref>Letter first printed in ''The Times'' of 2 November 1963.</ref>

==="The Tory Leadership" article===
Two months into his post, in January 1964, Macleod intensified the shock by revealing the behind-the-scenes machinations of the Conservative party. In a long article entitled "The Tory Leadership", ostensibly a review of a new book (''The Fight for the Tory Leadership'') by [[Randolph Churchill]], Macleod laid out his version of events in great detail. In disclosing, from the horse's mouth, the mysterious circumstances of Douglas-Home's appointment, the article caused an immediate sensation. Churchill's book was all but obliterated by the review, which said that "four fifths" of it "could have been compiled by anyone with a pair of scissors, a pot of paste and a built-in prejudice against Mr [[Rab Butler|Butler]] and Sir [[William Haley]]".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Macleod |first=Iain |date=17 January 1964 |title=The Tory Leadership |url=https://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/17th-january-1964/5/the-tory-leadership |access-date=16 March 2024 |magazine=The Spectator |page=5}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Wheatcroft |first=Geoffrey |date=17 January 2004 |title=The end of the Etonians |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-end-of-the-etonians/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616160713/https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-end-of-the-etonians/ |archive-date=2024-06-16 |access-date=16 March 2024 |website=The Spectator}}</ref> That week's edition, bearing the headline "Iain Macleod, What Happened", sold a record number of copies.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

===Nigel Lawson, George Gale, and Harry Creighton===
The "Tory Leadership" article prompted a furious response from many ''Spectator'' readers and caused Macleod, for a time, to be shunned by political colleagues. He eventually regained his party's favour, however, and rejoined the shadow cabinet in the same year. On his appointment as Shadow Chancellor in 1965, he stepped down as editor on the last day of the year, to be replaced by [[Nigel Lawson]]. Sometimes called "The Great Procrastinator" because of his tendency to leave writing leaders until the last minute,<ref name="Blake" /> Lawson had been City editor for ''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' and Alec Douglas-Home's personal assistant during the [[1964 United Kingdom general election]]. In 1966, largely due to Lawson, ''The Spectator'' opposed America's increasing military commitment in [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]]. In a signed article he estimated "the risks involved in an American withdrawal from Vietnam are less than the risks in escalating a bloody and brutal war".<ref name="Courtauld" />

In 1967, Ian Gilmour, who by then had joined parliament and was already finding the proprietorship a hindrance in political life, sold ''The Spectator'' to [[Harold Creighton|Harry Creighton]] for £75,000 ({{Inflation|UK|75000|1967|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 July 2003 |title=Howard Creighton Obituary |work=[[The Times]] |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article1151035.ece |url-status=dead |access-date=17 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417232335/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/ |archive-date=17 April 2022}}</ref> In 1970, Creighton replaced Lawson as editor with [[George Gale (journalist)|George Gale]]; there had been growing resentment between the two men.<ref name="Courtauld" /> Gale shared Creighton's political outlook,<ref name="Blake" /> in particular his strong opposition to the EEC, and much of the next five years was spent attacking the pro-EEC prime minister [[Edward Heath]], treating his eventual defeat by [[Margaret Thatcher]] with undisguised delight. Gale's almost obsessive opposition to the EEC and antagonistic attitude towards Heath began to lose the magazine readers. In 1973 Creighton took over the editorship himself, but was, if possible, even less successful in stemming the losses. Circulation fell from 36,000 in 1966 to below 13,000. As one journalist who joined ''The Spectator'' at that time said: "It gave the impression, an entirely accurate one, of a publication surviving on a shoestring".<ref name="Courtauld" /> George Gale later remarked that Creighton had only wanted the job to get into ''[[Who's Who (UK)|Who's Who]]''.<ref name="Courtauld" />