Best of the Spectator

First up: how the Bank of England wrecked the economy Britain’s economy is teetering on the brink of a deep fiscal hole, created by billions of pounds of unfunded spending – never-ending health promises, a spiralling welfare bill and a triple lock on the state pension, which will cost three times as much as originally estimated. Although politicians ‘deserve much of the blame for the economic stat...

My guest this week is Irvine Welsh – who, three decades after his era-defining hit Trainspotting , returns with a direct sequel, Men In Love . Irvine tells me what Sick Boy, Renton, Spud and Begbie mean to him, why his new book hopes to encourage a new generation to discover Romantic verse and shagging, and why MDMA deserves more credit for the Good Friday Agreement than Tony Blair. Hosted on Acas...

Candice Chung is a food writer whose work has been featured in many publications, including the Guardian . Her first book, Chinese Parents Don’t Say I Love You , is out now. On the podcast, she tells Liv about her earliest memories of food growing up in Hong Kong, why trying lasagne for the first time was a magical experience, and how Chinese parents show their love through food. Hosted on Acast....

Last week The Spectator held a live event entitled ‘Recovering the Sacred’ in the glorious surroundings of St Bartholomew the Great, the oldest parish church in the City of London. The speakers included two London parish priests – one Anglican, one Catholic – who have contributed much to the growing interest among young people in traditional liturgy and Christian theology, a development that the h...

As Labour looks to get a grip on public spending, one rebellion gives way to another with the changes to the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) system threatening to become welfare round two.  On this week’s Saturday edition of Coffee House Shots , Lucy Dunn is joined by The Spectator ’s Michael Simmons and former Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman to explore what the government is p...

This week: Sophia Falkner profiles some of the eccentric personalities we stand to lose when Keir Starmer purges the hereditary peers; Roger Lewis’s piece on the slow delight of an OAP coach tour is read by the actor Robert Bathurst; Olivia Potts reviews two books in the magazine that use food as a prism through which to discuss Ukrainian heritage and resistance; Aidan Hartley reads his Wild Life...

This week: Peerless – the purge of the hereditary peers For this week’s cover, Charles Moore declares that the hereditary principle in Parliament is dead. Even though he lacks ‘a New Model Army’ to enforce the chamber’s full abolition, Keir Starmer is removing the hereditary peers. In doing so, he creates more room, reduces the Conservatives’ numerical advantage, and improves ‘the sex and ethnic b...

My guest this week is the writer M. John Harrison, who joins me to talk about the rerelease of his 1992 novel The Course of the Heart – a deeply strange and riddling story of grief, friendship, memory and occult magic. We talk about why this book is so personal to him, what he learned from Charles Williams and Arthur Machen, turning his back on science fiction/fantasy and returning to it – as well...

Zut alors! The French are in town. Emmanuel Macron is on his state visit this week, spending time today with the King and tomorrow with the Prime Minister. His itinerary includes a state dinner and an address to both Houses of Parliament this afternoon. All the pageantry, of course, is for a reason: to defrost what Tim Shipman calls the ‘entente glaciale’ and the stalemate over migration. Keir wil...

Victor Davis Hanson, classicist, historian, and author of The End of Everything, joins Freddy Gray to discuss Zoran Mamdani’s shock candidacy win, the future of the Democratic Party, and rising class tensions in American politics. They also explore third-party prospects, Trump’s economic policies, and shifting global dynamics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cast your mind back a year. Labour had just won a storming majority, promising ‘change’ to a stale Tory party that was struggling to govern. But have things got any better? In the magazine this week, Tim Shipman writes the cover piece to mark the occasion of Labour’s first year in government. He takes readers through three chapters: from Sue Gray (freebies scandal and winter fuel cut) to Morgan Mc...

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud : John Connolly argues that Labour should look to Andy Burnham for inspiration (1:51); Gavin Mortimer asks if Britain is ready for France’s most controversial novel – Jean Raspail’s The Camp of the Saints (4:55); Dorian Lynskey looks at the race to build the first nuclear weapons, as he reviews Frank Close’s Destroyer of Worlds (11:23); Steve Morris provides his n...

This week: one year of Labour – the verdict In the magazine this week Tim Shipman declares his verdict on Keir Starmer’s Labour government as we approach the first anniversary of their election victory. One year on, some of Labour’s most notable policies have been completely changed – from the u-turn over winter fuel allowance to the embarrassing climb-down over welfare this week. Starmer has appe...

Sam Leith's guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is one of the most popular living thriller writers. Karin Slaughter has made her native Georgia her fictional territory, and she joins Sam as she launches a new series set in a whole new county, with the book We Are All Guilty Here . They talk 'planning versus pantsing', what it means to write violence against women as a woman and how becoming the...

Nearly everyone loves Robert Prevost, the unassuming baseball fan from Chicago who unexpectedly became Pope Leo XIV this year. But as he prepares to spend his summer in Castel Gandolfo he has some difficult decisions to make. Is he prepared to clear up all the doctrinal confusion created by his predecessor Pope Francis? And will he allow liberal bishop to continue to persecute Catholics who prefer...

Thomasina Miers is a chef, writer and restaurateur who co-founded Wahaca – the award-winning restaurant group that brought bold, sustainable Mexican street food to the UK. Her new book, Mexican Table , is out in August. On the podcast, Thomasina tells Lara about early memories of stirring onion with her mother, why she moved her family across the world to live in Mexico, and why bread is the ultim...

There have been a number of navel-gazing interviews with the Prime Minister over the weekend. Across thousands and thousands of words, he seems to be saying – if you read between the lines – that he doesn’t particularly enjoy being PM. In better news, Labour seems to have quelled the welfare rebellion. Liz Kendall is making a statement in the Commons this afternoon, in which she will outline the c...

As Labour rebels appear to have forced concessions from Keir Starmer over welfare this week, former Conservative MP Steve Baker joins James Heale to reflect on his own time as a rebel, and to provide some advice to Labour MPs. Steve, an MP for 14 years and a minister under Theresa May, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, tells James about the different rebellions he was a part of (from Brexit to Covid), ex...

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud : Peter Frankopan argues that Israel’s attack on Iran has been planned for years (2:00); just how bad are things for Kemi Badenoch, asks Tim Shipman (13:34); Francis Pike says there are plenty of reasons to believe in ghosts (21:49); Hermione Eyre, wife of Alex Burghart MP, reviews Sarah Vine’s book How Not To Be a Political Wife: A Memoir , which deals with Vine’...

Against all odds, Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old state assemblyman and proud 'Muslim democratic socialist' won as as the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor. Aidan McLaughlin wrote about this for Spectator World. On this episode of Americano, Freddy Gray speaks to Aidan about how Mamdani defeated the favourite Andrew Cuomo, whether his success is attributed to TikTok and whether Zohran is...

This week: war and peace Despite initial concerns, the ‘Complete and Total CEASEFIRE’ – according to Donald Trump – appears to be holding. Tom Gross writes this week’s cover piece and argues that a weakened Iran offers hope for the whole Middle East. But how? He joined the podcast to discuss further, alongside Gregg Carlstrom, the Economist ’s Middle East correspondent based in Dubai. (01:51) Next...

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is science writer Carl Zimmer, whose new book Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe explores the invisible world of the aerobiome – the trillions of microbes and particles we inhale every day. He tells me how Louis Pasteur's glacier experiments kicked off a forgotten scientific journey; how Cold War fears turned airborne research into a biow...

It is rare to see the President so visibly frustrated (see  The Apprentice , circa 2004), but after Iran and Israel seemingly ignored his ceasefire announcement – and his plea on Truth Social, ‘PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT!’ – Donald Trump has come down hard on both sides. In a clip taken this afternoon he exclaimed: ‘These are countries who have been fighting so long and so hard, that they don’t...

Today’s Holy Smoke is a curtain-raiser for ‘Recovering the Sacred’, a Spectator event at St Bartholow-the-Great in the City of London in which a panel of experts will explore the rediscovery of traditional worship and theology by young Anglicans and Catholics. The event will be held on Tuesday 8th July; for more details, and to book tickets, go to: spectator.co.uk/church In today’s episode Da...

On this week’s special Saturday edition of Coffee House Shots , James Heale sits down with Jeremy Hunt to discuss his new book, Can We Be Great Again? . The former chancellor and foreign secretary argues that Britain remains one of the world’s most influential nations – but is in danger of losing its nerve. He reflects on working in the Foreign Office during Donald Trump’s first term, makes the ca...