Spiked (magazine)

Spiked is edited by Tom Slater, who was previously its deputy editor. He was appointed in September 2021, and replaced Brendan O'Neill, who had been editor following Mick Hume's departure in January 2007. On ceasing to be editor, O'Neill became Spiked's 'inaugural chief political writer'.{{cite web |last1=O'Neill |first1=Brendan |title=It's time for a change at Spiked 27 September 2021 |url=https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/09/27/its-time-for-a-change-at-spiked/ |website=spiked |access-date=28 September 2021}}

The magazine also produces a number of podcasts, with contributors including Christopher Snowdon.{{Cn|date=October 2020}}

{{See|Bosnian genocide denial#Living Marxism}}

Spiked emerged from Living Marxism, the magazine of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Living Marxism was founded in 1988 and rebranded as LM in 1999.{{Cite news|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n13/jenny-turner/who-are-they|title=Who Are They?|last=Ideas|first=Jenny Turner reports from the Battle of|date=2010-07-08|work=London Review of Books|access-date=2018-05-24|pages=3–8|issn=0260-9592}}{{cite web |title=Thomas Deichmann |url=http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=161 |website=www.lobbywatch.org |publisher=Lobby-Watch |access-date=25 April 2019}}{{cite web | title=Licence to rile | website=the Guardian | date=15 May 1999 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/may/15/weekend7.weekend2 | access-date=29 December 2022}}

Spiked was founded in 2000 after the bankruptcy of its predecessor after losing a libel case brought against it by the broadcasting corporation ITN.{{cite news |last1=Hartley-Brewer |first1=Julia |title=High stakes in battle over Serbian guilt |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/mar/15/medialaw.media |access-date=25 April 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=15 March 2000}}{{cite news |last1=Wells |first1=Matt |title=LM closes after losing libel action |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/mar/31/medialaw.media |access-date=25 April 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=31 March 2000}} The case centered around ITN coverage of Fikret Alić and other Bosnian Muslims standing behind a barbed-wire fence at the Trnopolje camp during the Bosnian war. LM claimed to oppose Western intervention on traditional anti-imperialist grounds, and published an article titled "The Picture that Fooled the World"{{cite news |last1=Monbiot |first1=George |title=Left and libertarian right cohabit in the weird world of the genocide belittlers – George Monbiot |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jun/13/left-and-libertarian-right |access-date=25 April 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=13 June 2011}} which claimed that ITN's coverage was deceptive, the barbed-wire did not enclose the camp and the Muslims were in fact "refugees, many of whom went there seeking safety and could leave again if they wished." During the court case, evidence given by the camp doctor led LM to abandon its defence. ITN was awarded damages and costs, estimated to be around £1 million.{{cite news |last1=Pallister |first1=David |last2=Vidal |first2=John |last3=Maguire |first3=Kevin |title=Life after Living Marxism: Fighting for freedom – to offend, outrage and question everything |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jul/08/davidpallister.johnvidal1 |access-date=25 April 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=8 July 2000}}{{cite news |last1=Vulliamy |first1=Ed |title=Poison in the well of history |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/mar/15/pressandpublishing.tvnews |access-date=25 April 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=15 March 2000}}{{cite web |title=Spiked |url=http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=124 |website=www.lobbywatch.org |publisher=Lobby Watch |access-date=25 April 2019}}

The RCP itself formally dissolved in 1996, but maintained its existence as a loose network, first around LM and then Spiked. The group of writers associated with LM who went on to form the core editorial group at Spiked, are often referred to as the "LM network" or "Spiked network".{{cite journal | last=Hepworth | first=Jack | title='The moral rearmament of imperialism': the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Northern Ireland conflict, and the new world order, 1981-1994 | journal=Contemporary British History | publisher=Informa UK Limited | volume=36 | issue=4 | date=28 April 2022 | issn=1361-9462 | doi=10.1080/13619462.2022.2070479 | pages=591–621| s2cid=248438019 |quote=Subsequently, maintaining an informal network, activists formed the influential internet magazine spiked in 2000 and founded the Institute of Ideas| doi-access=free }}

Frank Furedi, interviewed in Spiked in 2007, said that the stance of LM and Spiked originates from the "anti-Stalinist left". Environmentalists such as George MonbiotMonbiot, George (9 December 2003). [https://www.theguardian.com/education/2003/dec/09/highereducation.uk2 "Invasion of the entryists"]. The Guardian (London). and Peter Melchett have suggested that the LM Network pursued an ideologically motivated 'anti-environmentalist' agenda under the guise of promoting humanism.Melchett, Peter (19 April 2007). [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_melchett/2007/04/farming_for_the_future.html "Clear intentions"]. The Guardian (London).[http://www.lobbywatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=39 Profiles: Martin Durkin], [http://www.lobbywatch.org/lm_intro.html LobbyWatch]. Retrieved 17 April 2007. In a 2007 interview in Spiked, Frank Furedi referred to these critics as "a network of McCarthyites".{{cite news |url= http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3132/ |date=25 April 2007 |title= Humanising politics—that is my only agenda |first= Brendan |last= O'Neill |work= Spiked Online |access-date=30 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070428011938/http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3132/|archive-date=28 April 2007}} Monbiot described the views of Living Marxism as having, "less in common with the left than with the fanatical right."{{cite news |url =http://www.monbiot.com/archives/1998/11/01/far-left-or-far-right/ |title=Far Left or Far Right? |date=1 November 1998 |first= George |last= Monbiot |work= Prospect |location =London}} In 2018, Monbiot wrote that, "Its [Spiked's] articles repeatedly defend figures on the hard right or far right: Katie Hopkins, Nigel Farage, Alex Jones, the Democratic Football Lads' Alliance, Tommy Robinson, Toby Young, Arron Banks, Viktor Orbán".{{cite news |last1=Monbiot |first1=George |author-link1=George Monbiot |title=How US billionaires are fuelling the hard-right cause in Britain |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/07/us-billionaires-hard-right-britain-spiked-magazine-charles-david-koch-foundation |access-date=18 March 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=7 December 2018 }}

The Daily Beast, as well as Paul Mason of the New Statesman, have described the site as libertarian.{{cite web |last1=Mason |first1=Paul |author-link=Paul Mason (journalist)|title=David Lammy is right |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/04/david-lammy-right-encourage-left-unite-against-far-right |website=New Statesman |date=15 April 2019 |access-date=2 September 2020}} A study in Policy & Internet by Heft et al. described Spiked as populist, saying that it has "roots in the radical left‐wing scene, but now oppose the political establishment from a position on the right side of the spectrum."{{cite journal |last1=Heft & others |title=Beyond Brietbart: Comparing Digital News Infrastructures in Six Western Democracies |journal=Policy & Internet |date=25 August 2019 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=20–45 |doi=10.1002/poi3.219 |s2cid=203110947 |doi-access=free }} According to Tim Knowles, the technology correspondent for The Times, Spiked is right-wing and libertarian, while Evan Smith, a historian who has written on Spiked in the context of its free speech campaigns, has noted its "right-libertarian and iconoclastic style".{{cite web |last1=Smith |first1=Evan |title=How a fringe sect from the 1980s influenced No 10's attitude to racism|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/23/fringe-1980s-communist-faction-no-10-attitude-racism-munira-mirza|work=The Guardian|date=23 June 2020 |access-date=15 March 2021}} By contrast, digital media scholar Jean Burgess and James Bowman of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center have referred to the site as left-libertarian.{{cite book |last1=Burgess |first1=Jean |title=Youtube: Online Video and Participatory Culture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mg1rDwAAQBAJ&q=spiked |year= 2018 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=9781509533596 |access-date=13 October 2020}}

Spiked opposes many public health interventions. For example, it sees campaigns against obesity as state intrusion and “a war on the poor”.{{cite web | last=Beckett | first=Andy | title=Why Boris Johnson's Tories fell for a tiny sect of libertarian provocateurs | Andy Beckett | website=the Guardian | date=1 August 2020 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/01/why-johnsons-tories-fell-for-a-tiny-sect-of-libertarian-provocateurs-rcp | access-date=30 December 2022}} It opposes multiculturalism and (as its contributor Munira Mirza put it) sees institutional racism as “a perception more than a reality”.

Spiked opposed the post-9/11 invasions of Afghanistan and of Iraq and Western interference in developing nations in general.{{cite web |author1=Nadine Strossen |author2=Faisal Devji |author3=Jeffrey Rosen |author4=Brendan O'Neill |author5=Michael Baum | title = Life, liberty and politics after 9/11 | url = http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/1602/ | work = Spiked |access-date =15 July 2006 |display-authors=etal}}{{cite web |last = Hume |first=Mick | title = The age of PR imperialism | url = http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/2120/ | work = Spiked |access-date =15 July 2006 }}{{cite web |last = Cunliffe |first=Philip | title = Exposing 'Empire in denial' | url = http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/1601/ | work = Spiked |access-date =15 July 2006 }}{{primary inline|date=February 2024}}

Spiked saw the UK's vote to leave the European Union as a demonstration of democracy against ruling elites and has celebrated Nigel Farage's Brexit Party and Boris Johnson's Conservative government for their stance on this.{{cite journal | last=Smith | first=Evan | title=A Platform for Working Class Unity? The Revolutionary Communist Party's The Red Front and the pre-history of Living Marxism/Spiked Online in the 1980s | journal=Contemporary British History | publisher=Informa UK Limited | date=21 November 2022 | volume=37 | issn=1361-9462 | doi=10.1080/13619462.2022.2142780 | pages=89–127| s2cid=253791729 }} Activists associated with Spiked, sometimes described as part of 'the Spiked network', were active in campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, with a number of its activists involved in the Brexit Party as candidates or publicists.{{cite web | title=Revealed: Nigel Farage's Brexit Party candidate spread "propaganda" for Balkan warlord, was 'bugged' by MI6 | website=openDemocracy | date=2019-05-21 | url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/revealed-nigel-farages-brexit-party-candidate-lobbied-for-balkan-warlord-and-was-bugged-by-mi6/ | access-date=2019-06-10}}{{cite web | last=Smith | first=Julia Llewellyn | title=The Brexit Party's Claire Fox on why she's fighting for Farage | website=The Sunday Times | date=2019-04-28 | url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/the-brexit-partys-claire-fox-on-why-shes-fighting-for-farage-dbj7jmdwp | access-date=2019-06-10}}{{cite web | last=English | first=Otto | title=Fox Breaks Cover – from Revolutionary Communist to Farage's Right Hand Woman – Byline Times | website=Byline Times | date=2019-04-24 | url=https://bylinetimes.com/2019/04/24/fox-breaks-cover-from-revolutionary-communist-to-farages-right-hand-woman/ | access-date=2020-09-03}}{{cite web | last=English | first=Otto | title=AstroTurfers of Britain Part Two: Who is Behind Brexit Party Recruitment and its PR Makeover? – Byline Times | website=Byline Times | date=2019-05-13 | url=https://bylinetimes.com/2019/05/13/astroturfers-of-britain-part-two-who-is-behind-brexit-party-recruitment-and-its-pr-makeover/ | access-date=2019-06-10}} Among those associated with Spiked who joined the Brexit Party were Claire Fox, who said she largely disagreed with Farage on domestic policies.

In 2018 Monbiot wrote that "Spiked's writers rage against exposures of dark money. It calls The Observer{{'}}s Carole Cadwalladr, who has won a string of prizes for exposing the opaque spending surrounding the Brexit vote, 'the closest thing the mainstream British media has to an out-and-out conspiracy theorist'".

Spiked opposed lockdown as a policy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In July 2020, an exposé by The Daily Beast reported that Spiked was one of several mainly conservative websites that had inadvertently published articles attributed to non-existent experts on the Middle East. This network of fake journalists promoted the United Arab Emirates and pushed for harsher treatment of that country's opponents. Spiked did not remove the two articles, instead leaving an editorial note mentioning the articles' questionable authorship.{{cite news |last1=Rawnsley |first1=Adam |title=Right-Wing Media Outlets Duped by a Middle East Propaganda Campaign |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/right-wing-media-outlets-duped-by-a-middle-east-propaganda-campaign?ref=home |access-date=20 September 2020 |work=The Daily Beast |date=6 July 2020 |language=en}}{{cite news |last1=Charbonneau |first1=Madeleine |date=7 July 2020 |title=Conservative Sites Pull Articles |website=The Daily Beast |publisher= |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/twitter-suspends-19-accounts-tied-to-middle-east-propaganda-network |access-date=}}

Following the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Spiked took a strong pro-Ukrainian position, often publishing articles praising the Ukrainian people and attacking Russian President Vladimir Putin.{{Cite web |last=Black |first=Tim |date=21 September 2022 |title=Putin is the one escalating the war in Ukraine |url=https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/09/21/putin-is-the-one-escalating-the-war-in-ukraine/ |access-date= |website=Spiked |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Black |first=Tim |date=12 October 2022 |title=Russia is terrorising Ukraine |url=https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/10/12/russia-is-terrorising-ukraine/ |access-date= |website=Spiked |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Jacob |date=12 September 2022 |title=Ukraine is one step closer to freedom |url=https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/09/12/ukraine-is-one-step-closer-to-freedom/ |access-date= |website=Spiked |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Jacob |date=19 October 2022 |title=We must not give up on Ukraine |url=https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/10/19/we-must-not-give-up-on-ukraine/ |access-date= |website=Spiked |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Reynolds |first=Jacob |date=11 November 2022 |title=The liberation of Kherson should inspire us all |url=https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/11/11/the-liberation-of-kherson-should-inspire-us-all/ |access-date= |website=Spiked |language=en-GB}}{{Cite web |last=Bailey |first=Tom |date=15 November 2022 |title=How Poland and Ukraine overcame a dark history |url=https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/11/15/how-poland-and-ukraine-overcame-a-dark-history/ |access-date= |website=Spiked |language=en-GB}} However, it also criticized Western media reaction following the 2022 missile explosion in Poland, accusing such media of not taking the risk of a major escalation with Russia seriously enough.{{Cite web |last=Black |first=Tim |date=16 November 2022 |title=Do the Western media want World War 3? |url=https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/11/16/do-the-western-media-want-world-war-3/ |access-date= |website=Spiked |language=en-GB}}{{primary inline|date=February 2024}}

Image:SRB masthead.gif

In May 2007 Spiked launched the Spiked Review of Books as a monthly online literary criticism feature. This coincided with controversy in the United States following the scaling back of newspaper book review sections.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070504014440/http://www.bookcritics.org/?go=saveBookReviews The National Book Critics Circle's Campaign to Save Book Reviews], John Freeman, President, National Book Critics Circle.

Spiked produces annual "free speech rankings" of UK universities.{{cite web | author=Carl Thompson | title=Free Speech Rankings: misleading, ill-informed and worryingly influential | website=Times Higher Education (THE) | date=2018-02-17 | url=https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/free-speech-rankings-misleading-ill-informed-and-worryingly-influential | access-date=2020-09-03}}{{cite web | last=Malik | first=Nesrine | title=There is a crisis on campuses – but it's about racism, not free speech | website=The Guardian| date=2019-10-13 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/13/universities-crisis-racism-not-political-correctness | access-date=2020-09-03}}

A joint investigation between DeSmog UK and The Guardian revealed that Spiked US Inc. received funding from the Charles Koch Foundation between 2016 and 2018 to develop live campus events connected with The Toleration and Free Speech program sponsored by the Charles Koch Foundation.{{cite web |url=https://www.spiked-online.com/2018/12/03/the-new-mccarthyism-is-ruining-public-life/ |title=The New McCarthyism is ruining public life |work=Spiked |date=3 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190331165917/https://www.spiked-online.com/2018/12/03/the-new-mccarthyism-is-ruining-public-life/ |archive-date=31 March 2019 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.desmog.co.uk/2018/12/04/spiked-lm-dark-money-koch-brothers |title=Revealed: US Oil Billionaire Charles Koch Funds UK Anti-Environment Spiked Network |last=Small |first=Mike |date=6 December 2018 |work=DeSmog UK |access-date=24 April 2019 }} The Guardian suggested that this was due to the online magazine's attacks on left-wing politics, its support and defence of hard right and far-right figures, and the many articles it publishes by writers supported by the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Koch-funded Cato Institute.{{cite news |last1=Busby |first1=Mattha |last2=Halliday |first2=Josh |title=Zuckerberg must end far right's fundraising on Facebook – Tom Watson |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/dec/08/mark-zuckerberg-must-end-far-right-fundraising-on-facebook-says-tom-watson |access-date=25 April 2019 |work=The Guardian |date=8 December 2018 }} Spiked's editor Brendan O'Neil dismissed such accusations as "McCarthyism" and stated that such funding was used to promote debate about free speech, saying that the Toleration and Free Speech Programme at the Charles Koch Foundation supports "projects from both progressive and conservative groups", naming as examples the American Civil Liberties Union, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Newseum, the Knight Foundation and the American Society of News Editors.{{Cite web |last=O'Neill |first=Brendan |date=3 December 2018 |title=The New McCarthyism is ruining public life |url=https://www.spiked-online.com/2018/12/03/the-new-mccarthyism-is-ruining-public-life/ |access-date= |website=Spiked |language=en-GB}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{official website|http://www.spiked-online.com}}

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Category:Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1978)