Fraser Nelson | |
|---|---|
 Nelson in 2012 | |
| Born | Fraser Andrew Nelson 14 May 1973 |
| Alma mater | University of Glasgow City University |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist Editor of The Spectator |
| Spouse |
Linda Nelson (m. 2006) |
| Children | 3 |
Fraser Andrew Nelson (born 14 May 1973)[1][2] is a British political journalist and editor of The Spectator magazine.
Nelson was born in Truro, Cornwall, England[1] but raised in Nairn, Highland, Scotland. He attended Nairn Academy before boarding at Dollar Academy while his father, who was in the Royal Air Force, was posted to Cyprus.[3] He described himself as "one of a handful of Catholics at a Protestant school."[4] He went on to study History and Politics at the University of Glasgow and gained a diploma in Journalism at City University.[5] He once worked as a barman at Cleos in Rosyth.[6]
Nelson began his journalistic career as a business reporter with The Times in 1997, followed by a short spell as Scottish political correspondent.[5] At a party he met Andrew Neil, then editor of The Scotsman who recruited him as its political editor in 2001.[5] In 2003 he moved to The Business, a sister title of The Scotsman in the Barclay brothers' Press Holdings group.
In July 2004 the brothers bought The Telegraph Group, which included The Spectator and in December 2005 they sold The Scotsman Publications Ltd. Neil had been appointed Chief Executive of The Spectator after the Barclays bought it, and in 2006 he brought in Nelson as associate editor and then political editor of the magazine.[5] He replaced Matthew d'Ancona as editor of The Spectator when the latter left in August 2009.[7] Under his editorship, the magazine has reached a record high in print circulation.[8]
In addition to his role as editor of The Spectator, Nelson was a political columnist for the News of the World from 2006[5] and a board director with the Centre for Policy Studies think tank.[7][9] He was named Political Columnist of the Year in the 2009 Comment Awards.[10]
In 2013, the Evening Standard named Nelson as one of the most influential journalists working in London.[11] The British Society of Magazine Editors named Nelson the 2013 Editors' Editor of the Year.[12] In the same year he won the British Press Award as Political Journalist of the Year.[13]
In 2023, the New Statesman named Nelson the 27th most powerful person in right-wing British politics.[14]
Nelson is a supporter of the Conservative Party. In 2013, he claimed The Spectator magazine under his editorship was "right of centre, but not strongly right of centre".[5] During the 2010-2015 coalition government, he was generally supportive of David Cameron's leadership and praised Cameron's Liberal Democrat coalition partner from 2010 to 2015, Nick Clegg.[15] Since 2015, he has since been described as including more strongly right wing pundits in the Spectator's line up,[16][17] and described the magazine's political stance as "centre right" in 2023.[18]
In May 2018 he was heavily criticised for publishing a defence of German troops by Taki Theodoracopulos titled "In praise of the Wehrmacht" which said readers should feel sorry for Wehrmacht soldiers at Normandy.[19][20][21]
Nelson has stated in 2014 that he is a supporter of immigration,[22] although he said in 2023 his views on mass migration "changed".[23]
In 2012, he wrote, "The irony is that Britain does not need legislation to make it more liberal. It can already claim to be one of the most tolerant places on earth. The 2011 census showed how we have absorbed the unprecedented rates of immigration over the past decade without anything like the far-Right backlash seen on the Continent."[24]
On 4 April 2014, Nelson wrote a piece for the Daily Telegraph entitled "The British Muslim is truly one among us – and proud to be so", which praised integration of mainstream Islam in the UK and described it as one "of our great success stories".[25] He returned to the theme in May 2015, with an article entitled "The unsayable truth about immigration: it's been a stunning success for Britain".[26]
By 2023, however, Nelson was a critic of mass migration, and claimed the "problems are becoming obvious." He described migration as pressuring housing, services, and wages.[27]
Nelson discussed his views on gay marriage in a 2012 article: "If the Unitarian Church and certain strands of Judaism want to marry gay couples on their premises, then why should government stand in their way? For the record, I quite agree. Religious freedom in Britain ought to be universal, extended to the handful of churches or synagogues who want same-sex marriage."[24] He defended Kate Forbes' anti-gay marriage views in the 2023 SNP leadership election, calling the criticism of her "bigotry."[28]
According to Nelson, David Cameron was the "Prime Minister [from 2010 to 2016] of a country where 48% of children will see their parents split up. Strip out immigrants (who flatter most social statistics) and only a minority of British babies are born to married parents. By the age of 16, a British child is considerably more likely to have a television in the bedroom than a father in the house."[24]
Nelson wrote two days after the Charlie Hebdo shooting a reflective piece in which he compared that massacre to the Deal barracks bombing by the Provisional Irish Republican Army:[4]
What does a massacre in Paris have to do with [Muslims]? To denounce this would accept the premise that, as a Muslim, you are somehow caught up in all of this. The difference, of course, is that the IRA murdered in the name of Irish republicanism, not Catholicism. Few people in Britain thought that the former was an extension of the latter. Any priest who voiced support for terrorism, anywhere, would be excommunicated – so no one could credibly claim any overlap. Islam is not so lucky. It has no effective means of banning hate preachers, and now has a new breed of fanatics happy to murder in its name... Overall, British Muslims have been poorly served by their leadership.
Nelson also noted that the Muslim Council of Britain released an unequivocal statement condemning the Paris massacre, while the Islamic Human Rights Commission had released nothing to that date.
Married with two sons and a daughter,[1] Nelson and his family live in Twickenham, south west London.[29] He is married to Linda, a Swede, and said in 2014, "I am a soppy Europhile who speaks a second language at home. The idea of a united Europe was one that really excited me when I was younger, and which I love now."[30]