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Fraser Andrew Nelson (born 14 May 1973) is a British political journalist and editor of ''
The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''Th ...
'' magazine.


Early and personal life

Nelson was born in
Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro c ...
,
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
, England but raised in
Nairn Nairn (; gd, Inbhir Narann) is a town and royal burgh in the Highland council area of Scotland. It is an ancient fishing port and market town around east of Inverness, at the point where the River Nairn enters the Moray Firth. It is the tra ...
,
Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
. He attended
Nairn Academy Nairn Academy is a secondary school in Nairn, Scotland. The school currently has a roll of 651 pupils. History The school was founded in 1832. Until 1953, the school had been known as Rose's Academical Institution, in honour of an early benefac ...
before boarding at
Dollar Academy Dollar Academy, founded in 1818 by John McNabb, is an independent co-educational day and boarding school in Scotland. The open campus occupies a site in the centre of Dollar, Clackmannanshire, at the foot of the Ochil Hills. Overview As of 2 ...
while his father, who was in the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) a ...
, was posted to Cyprus. He described himself as "one of a handful of Catholics at a Protestant school." He went on to study History and Politics at the University of Glasgow and gained a diploma in Journalism at City University. He once worked as a barman at Cleos in
Rosyth Rosyth ( gd, Ros Fhìobh, "headland of Fife") is a town on the Firth of Forth, south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to the census of 2011, the town has a population of 13,440. The new town was founded as a Garden city-style suburb ...
. Married with two sons and a daughter, he and his family live in Twickenham. 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."


Journalism career

Nelson began his journalistic career as a business reporter with ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its s ...
'' in 1997, followed by a short spell as Scottish political correspondent. At a party he met
Andrew Neil Andrew Ferguson Neil (born 21 May 1949) is a Scottish former journalist and broadcaster who is chairman of ''The Spectator'' and presenter of '' The Andrew Neil Show'' on Channel 4. He was editor of ''The Sunday Times'' from 1983 to 1994. He f ...
, then editor of ''
The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...
'' who recruited him as its political editor in 2001. In 2003 he moved to '' The Business'', a sister title of ''The Scotsman'' in the
Barclay brothers Sir David Rowat Barclay (27 October 1934 – 10 January 2021) and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay (born 27 October 1934), commonly referred to as the "Barclay Brothers" or "Barclay Twins", were British billionaires. They were identical twin brothers ...
'
Press Holdings Press Holdings and May Corporation Limited are two Jersey-registered holding companies owned by Frederick Barclay, which control the UK holding company Press Acquisitions Limited, which in turn owns the Telegraph Media Group, parent company of ...
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. He replaced Matthew d'Ancona as editor of ''The Spectator'' when the latter left in August 2009. Under his editorship, the magazine has reached a record high in print circulation. In addition to his role as editor of ''The Spectator'', Nelson was a political columnist for the ''
News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national red top tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling English-language newspaper, and at closure still had one o ...
'' from 2006 and a board director with the
Centre for Policy Studies The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a think tank and pressure group in the United Kingdom. Its goal is to promote coherent and practical policies based on its founding principles of: free markets, "small state," low tax, national independ ...
think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...
.Fraser Nelson profile
Centre for Policy Studies The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a think tank and pressure group in the United Kingdom. Its goal is to promote coherent and practical policies based on its founding principles of: free markets, "small state," low tax, national independ ...
He was named Political Columnist of the Year in the 2009 Comment Awards. In 2013, the ''Evening Standard'' named Nelson as one of the most influential journalists working in London. The British Society of Magazine Editors named Nelson the 2013 Editors' Editor of the Year. In the same year he won the British Press Award as Political Journalist of the Year.


Style and beliefs

Nelson is a supporter of the Conservative Party. He describes ''The Spectator'' magazine under his editorship as " right of centre, but not strongly right of centre". He on occasion criticised
David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
's leadership but was generally supportive, and has also been known to praise Cameron's Liberal Democrat coalition partner from 2010 to 2015,
Nick Clegg Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicepr ...
. 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.


Immigration

Nelson has stated that he is a supporter of immigration. On 4 April 2014, Nelson wrote a piece for the ''
Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...
'' 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". 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". * "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."


Gay marriage

* "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."


The nuclear family

* David Cameron is the "Prime Minister 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."


''Charlie Hebdo''

Nelson wrote two days after the
Charlie Hebdo shooting On 7 January 2015, at about 11:30 a.m. CET local time, two French Muslim terrorists and brothers, Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, forced their way into the offices of the French satirical weekly newspaper ''Charlie Hebdo'' in Paris. Armed with ...
a reflective piece in which he compared that massacre to the Deal barracks bombing by the
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...
: Nelson also noted that the
Muslim Council of Britain The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is a national umbrella body with over 500 mosques and educational and charitable associations affiliated to it. It includes national, regional, local, and specialist Muslim organisations and institutions fro ...
released an unequivocal statement condemning the Paris massacre, while the
Islamic Human Rights Commission The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) is a non-profit organisation based in London. Its stated mission is to "work with different organisations from Muslim and non-Muslim backgrounds, to campaign for justice for all peoples regardless ...
had released nothing to that date.


References


Further reading


Interview
in the Sunday Herald, June 2009

in the Independent on Sunday, March 2010


External links


Articles
at ''The Spectator'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Fraser 1973 births Living people Alumni of the University of Glasgow Place of birth missing (living people) People educated at Dollar Academy People educated at Nairn Academy People from Nairn Scottish columnists Scottish journalists The Spectator editors The Scotsman people The Times people