Spiked's quarter-century

Tonight, I’ll be in London celebrating Spiked’s quarter century. It seems incredible to think that this brilliant, irreverent, intelligent magazine has been around for half my life. But if Spiked has been a constant in a rapidly-changing landscape, that’s only because politically it has never stood still and has always been ahead of the curve.

Spiked has kept me sane and helped me make sense of the world. But I owe Spiked far more than this. It has been an absolute honour not just to read Spiked but to be able to contribute to it as well. It would have been impossible for me to work out my own ideas on a number of - at the time - highly contested issues without Spiked providing me with a platform.

My first article for Spiked appeared right back in 2001 when I wrote about the mis-use of technology in schools. Clearly, this is still an important issue, although the days of trooping kids down the corridor to the ‘computer room’ are long gone. I wrote for Spiked sporadically for the next ten years, while juggling having babies with getting a PhD.

It was in 2013 that I began writing for Spiked more regularly and I have written pretty much weekly since then. Initially, I concentrated mainly on education and particularly the changing nature of universities. This was the time when student satisfaction and free speech on campus were becoming big issues. One piece from this time was Turning adult students into cotton-wool kids.

I still remember the lunch I had with Spiked’s then-editor Brendan O’Neill and managing editor Viv Regan more than a decade ago now, when they dared suggest that I might consider writing about something other than education! The result - Cut the crap about the gender pay gap - sparked widespread discussion.

There are a few other pieces I’ve written since then that seemed to push the boundaries of public debate. In 2014 I criticised the campus BDS movement and in 2015 I decried sex education for primary-school children. In 2016, I began writing about the problem with gender ideology and why ideas of gender restrict rather than liberate women. In 2018 I argued we need to keep transgenderism out of schools.

That same year, I wrote about the girls in Telford who were being abused by grooming gangs. I argued that the #MeToo set’s silence on the rape of working-class girls is deafening. It blows my mind now to think how controversial this was at the time. I wrote about cancel culture, culture wars, victim feminism and the dangers of transitioning children. But the two pieces that caused most controversy were criticising Meghan Markle before it became fashionable and arguing - in March 2020 - that it was wrong to even think about closing schools because of Covid.

I am so proud of having been able to write these articles for Spiked. But the important point is that none of them were solely a result of my individual foresight or personal political instincts - they were possible simply because of being part of a Spiked team that has always stimulated, motivated and challenged me. Whether led by Mick Hume, Brendan O’Neill or, now, the inspirational Tom Slater, Spiked has always created a culture where new thinking is encouraged not rejected outright and where lazily rehashing the same arguments in a new context is not tolerated. For that I will be forever grateful.

So happy anniversary Spiked. And thank you!

Please donate to Spiked’s birthday fund to keep it going for the next 25 years.