James Tidmarsh

The sad decline of the French village fête

16 August 2025 4:00 pm

France’s village fêtes are disappearing. A survey by the association Les Plus Belles Fêtes de France found that in just…

Could the Arctic be key to ending the Ukraine war?

11 August 2025 9:08 pm

‘It is in Alaska and in the Arctic that the economic interests of our countries converge and prospects for implementing…

Donald Trump is humiliating Switzerland

6 August 2025 8:45 pm

The Swiss president and economy minister are rushing to Washington in a last-ditch attempt to reverse Donald Trump’s decision to…

Why France is cracking down on topless tourists

28 July 2025 4:00 pm

Police have been sent out to patrol France’s seaside promenades. Not to chase hardened criminals – but to look for bare-chested…

Remembering Jonathan Miller

9 July 2025 2:02 am

The long-time Spectator contributor Jonathan Miller has died. James Tidmarsh remembers him here: Jonathan Miller liked to say that Emmanuel…

France wants to know the true cost of immigration

25 June 2025 9:44 pm

The right-wing UDR group in the French parliament, led by Eric Ciotti, has called for a parliamentary commission to calculate…

Has Trump brought peace to the Congo?

25 June 2025 2:10 am

It remains to be seen whether Trump’s ceasefire between Iran and Israel will hold, but on the other side of…

The danger of the fatwa against Gabriel Attal

19 June 2025 4:39 pm

An imam at the Grand Mosque of Massy, just outside Paris, has threatened to issue a fatwa against former Prime…

France’s toddler screen ban is pure state overreach

17 June 2025 9:25 pm

The French government is preparing to ban all screen time for children under the age of three. The measure, announced…

How can France ban outdoor smoking?

31 May 2025 12:13 am

Faced with a cost-of-living crisis, rising delinquency, failing public services, and riots in the suburbs, the French government has finally…

Anne Hidalgo has ruined Paris – now she wants to be UN refugee chief

29 May 2025 4:00 pm

Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, is being lined up for one of the world’s most powerful humanitarian jobs: United…

Why France’s taxi drivers are on strike

27 May 2025 5:32 pm

A taxi drivers’ strike has plunged Paris, Marseille, and other big cities into chaos. Approximately 5,000 taxi drivers have taken…

Brussels is dropping a bureaucratic bombshell on Europe

24 May 2025 4:00 pm

Brussels makes one thing better than anywhere else: regulation. Reporting duties, due diligence checks, ESG disclosures, and endless frameworks for…

Bruno Retailleau’s quiet revolution

20 May 2025 9:21 pm

Bruno Retailleau has done something nobody expected. He has made himself the most serious contender for the French presidency, not…

Can France dismantle the NGO-migrant complex?

13 May 2025 9:53 pm

France’s interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, and his party Les Républicains (LR) are moving to end the decades-long monopoly on providing legal…

Why is Macron courting the Freemasons?

9 May 2025 8:33 pm

Emmanuel Macron turned this week to France’s shadowy Freemasons for support. In a speech delivered to the secretive Grande Loge…

France is quietly tightening its citizenship rules

7 May 2025 7:14 pm

Bruno Retailleau, the hardline French Minister of the Interior, has issued a confidential circular to regional prefects with a simple…

Was this right-wing TV host joking about taking on Marine Le Pen?

3 May 2025 4:00 pm

A controversial and wildly popular right-wing television star says that he orchestrated a ‘prank’ that he was about to jump…

Medical migration is crippling France’s healthcare system

30 April 2025 9:14 pm

Doctors are sounding the alarm. Across France patients are unable to get appointments and wait times in hospital emergency departments…

The African cardinal who terrifies Macron

25 April 2025 4:00 pm

Cardinal Robert Sarah from Guinea in West Africa has been named among the potential successors to Pope Francis and the…

Pet theft in France is out of control

22 April 2025 8:33 pm

Dog theft in France is soaring. Animal protection groups estimate that up to 70,000 dogs are stolen each year –…

Donald Trump is taking on China in Africa

11 April 2025 4:00 pm

Donald Trump has opened a new front in his trade war with China, deploying a family confidant to Kinshasa to…

Should Marine Le Pen step down?

7 April 2025 5:00 pm

It was a rally for Marine Le Pen billed as a rendez-vous historique. In the end, barely a few thousand…

Could France’s GB News be shut down?

5 April 2025 1:33 am

France’s media regulator, Arcom, has been asked to investigate the right-leaning news channel CNews over its coverage of Marine Le…

Marine Le Pen is in a race against the clock

2 April 2025 6:04 pm

Marine Le Pen is fighting back, launching an all-out counterattack against a Paris court’s decision to suspend her from politics.…