Toby Young

Toby Young is the co-author of What Every Parent Needs to Know and the co-founder of several free schools. In addition to being an associate editor of The Spectator, he is an associate editor of Quillette. Follow him on Twitter @toadmeister

Adolescence demonises white working-class boys

25 March 2025 6:04 am

This is an extract from today’s episode of Spectator TV, with Toby Young and James Walton, which you can find…

The curse of Disney’s Snow White

22 March 2025 9:00 am

One of the early decisions David Zaslav made after becoming the CEO of Warner Bros Discovery in 2022 was to…

I was right – and Gove was wrong – on lockdown

15 March 2025 9:00 am

In an otherwise excellent article for the Sunday Telegraph last week about our government’s hopeless pandemic response, Dan Hannan made…

Are you offended by ‘hard-working families’?

8 March 2025 9:00 am

Scarcely a day passes without a newspaper story about some absurd ‘language guide’ issued by a public body. This week…

Cracks are appearing in the Cathedral walls

1 March 2025 9:00 am

Is the ‘Cathedral’ about to fall down? That’s the name given by the right-wing blogger Curtis Yarvin to denote the…

Colombia is a better place to watch football than Loftus Road

22 February 2025 9:00 am

I’ve just returned from Colombia, where I’ve been visiting my daughter. She’s doing a modern languages degree and has to…

Should free speech campaigners hope Andrew Gwynne is prosecuted?

15 February 2025 9:00 am

David McKelvey, a former detective chief inspector in the Met Police, has called for the prosecution of Andrew Gwynne, the…

The trouble with criminalising ‘Islamophobia’

8 February 2025 9:00 am

When I first heard that Angela Rayner had been tasked with creating an advisory council that will draw up an…

Beware this terrible new AI email feature

1 February 2025 9:00 am

A friend of mine got a nasty shock last week after a Google Meet call, thanks to a new AI…

James Tooley’s ordeal is over – but why was he ever suspended?

30 January 2025 1:52 am

It’s wonderful to hear that Professor James Tooley, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, has been reinstated after a…

The Trump I (barely) know

25 January 2025 9:00 am

I can’t say I know the new President of the United States very well, but during the five years I…

The highs and lows of Dry January

18 January 2025 9:00 am

The first week of Dry January was relatively easy. Not falling asleep in front of the television was a pleasant…

Farewell Justin Trudeau, the last of the lockdown tyrants

11 January 2025 9:00 am

So farewell then, Justin Trudeau, last of the lockdown tyrants. Or should that be the last of the democratically elected…

Can I be cancelled twice?

4 January 2025 9:00 am

One of the biggest regrets of my life was saying yes when Jo Johnson asked if I wanted to be…

Should I become Lord Young of Loftus Road?

21 December 2024 6:50 am

When the editor of this magazine called to congratulate me on being given a peerage, he said: ‘It’s QPR’s first…

Could I limit myself to 100 bottles of wine in a year?

14 December 2024 9:00 am

Back in January, I wrote about my new year’s resolution to cut down on my drinking. The thought of total…

Why Elon Musk shouldn’t be kicked out of the Royal Society

7 December 2024 9:00 am

In a notorious interview in the Sunday Times in 2007, the Nobel Prize-winning geneticist James Watson said, among other things,…

At 61, it’s official: I’m ‘young old’

30 November 2024 9:00 am

I read with some disappointment recently that the Encyclopaedia Britannica considers 61 – the age I am now – to…

Carry on Kafka: this is our Brave New World

23 November 2024 9:00 am

An ex-copper who blogs as Dominic Adler – not his real name – came up with a good phrase this…

Must try harder, Education Secretary

16 November 2024 9:00 am

The headmaster of one of the best comprehensives in the country was once asked the following question by Tony Blair:…

Did I deny my son a shot at the Premier League?

9 November 2024 9:00 am

When my youngest son Charlie was seven he was talent-spotted by a QPR scout who saw him playing football in…

Will Keir Starmer get me banned from football games?

2 November 2024 9:00 am

Last Saturday, I made the 400-mile round trip to Burnley with my 16-year-old son Charlie to see Queens Park Rangers…

A British First Amendment wouldn’t save free speech

26 October 2024 9:00 am

Does the United Kingdom need a First Amendment? That’s a question I’ve been thinking about a lot recently, given the…

Why is Labour axing the Tories’ most successful education policy?

23 October 2024 9:47 pm

By any measure, the free schools programme has been a resounding success. If you judge schools by how much progress their…

Starmer’s snowflakes’ charter

19 October 2024 9:00 am

I almost choked on my cornflakes when I read that the Prime Minister had said he would slash red tape…