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The Critic (modern magazine)

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The Critic
border
April 2021 cover issue
EditorChristopher Montgomery[1]
Deputy EditorGraham Stewart
Online EditorBen Sixsmith
Associate EditorSebastian Milbank
Former editorsMichael Mosbacher
Categories
FrequencyMonthly
FormatA4
Paid circulation8,950[2]
Unpaid circulation10,704[2]
Total circulation19,654 (November–December 2020)[2]
Founded2019
First issueNovember 2019
CompanyLocomotive 6960 Ltd
CountryUnited Kingdom
Based inLondon
LanguageEnglish
Websitethecritic.co.uk
ISSN2633-2655
OCLC1140170196

The Critic is a British conservative[7] monthly political and cultural magazine.[8] The magazine was founded in November 2019,[9] with Michael Mosbacher, former editor of Standpoint, and Christopher Montgomery, a strategist with the European Research Group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs,[10] as co-editors. It was funded by Jeremy Hosking, a City of London financier and donor to Reform UK,[11] the Conservative party,[6] and Laurence Fox's Reclaim Party,[12] who had previously donated to Standpoint.[13]

Contributors include David Starkey, Peter Hitchens, Douglas Murray, Toby Young, Patrick Kidd, Yuan Yi Zhu and Robert Hutton.[8]

History

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Founding co-editor Michael Mosbacher said that Jeremy Hosking had been unwilling to continue funding Standpoint after its board resisted Hosking's demand for more "culture wars content". Mosbacher said of Hosking, "He's a strong Brexiteer, Eurosceptic and right-of-centre, but we are not trying to fit into that narrowly".[6]

Mosbacher characterised The Critic as covering the cultural issues that underpin Brexit.[6] The Times Literary Supplement described it as having a resemblance to The Spectator, with a mission "to criticize the critics".[14] An editorial from the first issue in 2019 attacked the "the closed mind", whose "high priests" are found in the universities, "the civil service, the BBC, the courts, the churches, the arts and the quangos".[8] The Critic has been described as combining "more radical forms of populism and more communitarian forms of conservatism", and "[flirting] with the outer-most limits of respectable nationalism".[15] It is considered to be opposed to net-zero targets,[16] and "wokeness".[15]

In January 2020, Mosbacher said that the magazine planned to introduce a paywall if subscriber numbers increased to allow the magazine to be self-sufficient.[6]

An April 2020 article by John McTernan, former political strategist for Tony Blair, encouraged Keir Starmer to purge "Corbynistas" from the Labour party, saying that "there's no problem with a witch-hunt when there really are witches to hunt".[15][17]

In July 2020, after historian David Starkey was forced to apologise for an interview comment in which he referred to "so many damn blacks in Africa", The Critic decided to retain him as a columnist, expressing opposition to cancel culture. The Sunday Times noted that Starkey's column in the then latest issue of The Critic concerned Black Lives Matter.[18]

Reception

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In his essay wishing success for the new publication, David Goodhart, founder of Prospect, remarked, "Does the world need another magazine of tastefully-written, somewhat contrarian, conservatively-inclined thinking? Probably not."[6][8] Peter Wilby of the New Statesman responded, "I would say probably yes, so why do we never get one?"[8]

Solomon Hughes in the Morning Star derided The Critic, along with Standpoint and UnHerd, as "rich men's megaphones", which in contrast to left-wing publications, "rely on millionaires more than actual readers". He said that such magazines are treated seriously by the mainstream press in part because of their "glossy" presentation, but more so "because they will pay a slumming mainstream journalist very well".[19]

Josh White, writing in Battleground, said, "Any Conservative who is aggrieved by the lack of social cohesion in the wake of austerity may pick up the mag and feel his (usually his) prejudices reaffirmed".[15]

openDemocracy criticised Hosking's opposition to net-zero, and that of the publications he funds, noting his substantial financial interest in the fossil fuel industry.[16]

References

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  1. ^ "About The Critic". The Critic. 2021. Archived from the original on 21 September 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "The Critic" (PDF). Audit Bureau of Circulations (UK). 11 February 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  3. ^ Sandset, Tony (2 September 2021). "The necropolitics of COVID-19: Race, class and slow death in an ongoing pandemic". Global Public Health. 16 (8–9). Taylor & Francis: 1411–1423. doi:10.1080/17441692.2021.1906927. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  4. ^ Allfrey, Fran (24 November 2021). "Ethnonationalism and medievalism: reading affective 'Anglo-Saxonism' today with the discovery of Sutton Hoo". Postmedieval. 12 (1–4). Palgrave Macmillan: 75–99. doi:10.1057/s41280-021-00209-9. Retrieved 18 January 2025. Holland's book was praised in The Critic, a conservative magazine, as evidence of the West's superiority in contrast to the 'moral horror of cultures unleavened by Christianity's influence...'
  5. ^ Bushman, Heather (14 November 2024). "New College to offer 'woke movement' course taught by right-wing media personality". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Burrell, Ian (30 January 2020). "Does Britain need another contrarian conservative magazine? The Critic makes its case". The Drum. Archived from the original on 24 September 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  7. ^ Sources describing The Critic as conservative: [3][4][5][6]
  8. ^ a b c d e Wilby, Peter (13 November 2019). "The FT's first female editor, the launch of the Critic, and the tuneless Welsh". New Statesman. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  9. ^ "Welcome to The Critic". The Critic. November 2019. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  10. ^ Hope, Christopher (14 September 2019). "Three intellectual magazines to launch as right and centre-left engage in battle of ideas". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 8 February 2020.
  11. ^ Uddin, Rafe (24 June 2024). "City financier Jeremy Hosking donates £125,000 to Reform UK". Financial Times. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  12. ^ Mortimer, Josiah (22 August 2024). "Laurence Fox's Reclaim Party is Bankrolled by One Man, New Accounts Reveal". Byline Times. Retrieved 13 July 2025.
  13. ^ Fortado, Lindsay; Fletcher, Laurence (17 June 2019). "City financier Jeremy Hosking donates £850,000 to Standpoint magazine". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 17 June 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  14. ^ J.C. (8 November 2019). "Critical moment". The Times Literary Supplement. No. 6084. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
  15. ^ a b c d White, Josh (29 May 2023). "A Magazine for Closed Minds". The Battleground. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  16. ^ a b Thévoz, Seth (22 March 2022). "Brexiteer behind net-zero backlash has $130m in fossil fuel". openDemocracy. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  17. ^ McTernan, John (April 2020). "Memo to Keir Starmer from John McTernan". The Critic. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  18. ^ White, Roland (11 July 2020). "The Critic stands by disgraced David Starkey". The Times. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  19. ^ Hughes, Solomon (3 December 2020). "Standpoint, the Critic and UnHerd: who's their daddies?". Morning Star. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
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