Best of the Spectator

Enoch Powell is one of the most polarising figures in modern British politics. His infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech – in which he warned that immigration would spark ethnic conflict – continues to shape some of today’s most important debates on race, identity and immigration. Michael Gove and assistant editor Madeline Grant sit down with Simon Heffer , author of Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch...

Keir Starmer has announced his plans to ban social media for under 16s in Britain. The ban is due to come in early next year and include all main social media apps. Age-recognition and digital ID checks will be used to keep children away from social media. But when it comes to child safety, will it make a difference? And what are the unintended consequences of a ban? Michael Simmons challenges The...

Freddy is joined by Daniel McCarthy, US columnist for The Spectator and the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review . They discuss the US-Iran peace deal, whether a lasting peace is possible in the region, and what's at stake for Iran and leaders in the Persian Gulf. Learn how to earn yield on gold, paid in gold, at Monetary-Metals.com/Americano Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

On this week’s  Spectator Out Loud : Tim Shipman interviews Kemi Badenoch – including excerpts from the interview; Justin Marozzi argues that Trump’s strategy has only strengthened the Iranian regime; Christopher Howse pays tribute to ‘London’s rudest landlord'; and finally, Lara Prendergasts says that ‘matrescence’ is one big con.    Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons. Hoste...

Freddy Gray is joined by Cenk Uygur after he and Hasan Piker were banned from entering Britain. They discuss free speech, debate Cenk's position on criticising Israel, Britain’s censorious turn, and what the Henry Nowak case reveals about policing and anti-racism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this week’s  Edition , William Moore is joined by the  Spectator 's commissioning editor Lara Brown, the columnist for the Wall Street Journal’s  Free Expression  newsletter Louise Perry and the  Telegraph  journalist and presenter of  Ukraine: The Latest  Francis Dearnley. This week: Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has now gone on longer than th...

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is Andrea Wulf, talking about her fascinating new book, The Traveller: George Forster and the Search for Humanity . Andrea tells me about the now-forgotten adventurer who sailed with Captain Cook, toured Europe as an intellectual celebrity and sparred with Kant and Rousseau over race and human civilisation – before throwing his lot in with the French Revol...

This week: Keir Starmer’s legacy, Andy Burnham’s next move – and should there be a general election?  With the Makerfield by-election just days away, Michael Gove is joined by Rachel Johnson to ask whether an Andy Burnham victory would spell the end of Keir Starmer’s premiership. Could Starmer really fight on – or is the Labour party heading for a regicidal ‘bloodbath’? They discuss Starmer’s...

Freddy Gray is joined by JL Partners pollster James Johnson to discuss America's polls: what the election results mean, why immigration has become a problem of the Republican's success, Trump's popularity with the Latinos & why Kamala Harris could still be the Democratic candidate 2028. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s  Spectator Out Loud : Lisa Haseldine reports from Armenia; Michael Simmons argues neoliberalism has never really been tried; Patrick Smith explains why he takes frog poison; and finally, Toby Young wonders why Nigel Farage cares if he has been banned from Desert Island Discs . Plus: the Reform UK leader reveals – exclusively to James Heale – what he would choose if he went on t...

Friend of Holy Smoke Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith joins Damian Thompson to talk about the complicated relationship between the drug cartels in Mexico and the Catholic Church. The violence of the cartels has led to a flourishing of shrines – and also cults – which have seen Catholic and pagan beliefs fuse together, and which are not always condemned by all church leaders. What motivates the Mexicans w...

Nicola Sturgeon has claimed she was deceived by her ex-husband Peter Murrell who pled guilty having embezzled tens of thousands of pounds of SNP money. Financial infidelity has become a top reason behind couples divorces. Alice Wright from The Times joins Michael Simmons to discuss. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

James Heale is in Makerfield ahead of one of the most consequential by-elections of all time, where Andy Burnham is hoping to return to Westminster and stop Reform’s Robert Kenyon – the local plumber backed by Nigel Farage. On the ground, James hears from voters split between Labour and Reform, with some hoping Burnham can hold the line and others asking what he has really done for the area. He al...

For this week’s  Edition , Lara Prendergast is joined by the  Spectator 's political editor Tim Shipman, the writer Guy Stagg and the author and host of How to Fail Elizabeth Day. This week, the guests discuss whether Nigel Farage’s Reform UK can see off the threat from Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain. Restore Britain’s success may be modest and, so far, very online but that doesn’t mean t...

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is Emily Wilson, the scholar and translator of Homer and Seneca, among many others. She tells me what tech bros get wrong about the classical world and what Cardi B can teach us about Aristophanes, as we discuss her new book, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys Through Ancient Literature . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week: the Henry Nowak case, two-tier policing – and what the latest Mandelson files reveal about Labour. After the murder of 18-year-old Henry Nowak, Michael and Madeline ask whether the police response exposed something deeply wrong in British policing. Has the fear of being accused of racism distorted the way institutions respond to victims? And does this case reveal a wider crisis of confi...

The government have rolled back on plans to impose price caps in supermarkets. Was Reeves wrong to go after them for price gouging? Michael Simmons has the data. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray is joined by Sarah Beth Spraggins to discuss her piece on Usha Vance, the wife of JD Vance who could be in line to be the next First Lady. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week’s  Spectator Out Loud : William Atkinson sends his dispatch from the Shetland Islands; James Delingpole remembers Malcolm, his ‘gloriously unfiltered’ father; Daisy Dunn reviews Mary Beard’s  Talking Classics ; and Margaret Mitchell explores corporate dread and the institutional gothic.   Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy...

When it comes to political vision, Keir Starmer’s premiership has been something of a vacuum – and power abhors a vacuum. So cue Tony Blair, who this week has rushed in with a 5,000-word essay on what is wrong with Labour and, depending on who you listen to, either an outdated or radical view of where Britain should be as a country. This has galvanised Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting and (finally) Kei...

For this week’s  Edition , Lara Prendergast is joined by the Spectator 's deputy editor Freddy Gray, associate editor – and host of the Holy Smoke podcast – Damian Thompson and consultant psychiatrist and Daily Mail columnist Dr Max Pemberton. This week, the guests examine the Pope's encyclical about Artificial Intelligence (AI), Magnifica Humanitas , which warns of the cost to humanity that...

The Spectator 's editor Michael Gove ‘was born into a sternly Presbyterian culture’, but – in this week's magazine – is ‘giving thanks to the Pope’ for producing  Magnifica Humanitas , his encyclical about artificial intelligence (AI). AI will be ‘as transformative as the Industrial Revolution’ but decisions ‘about where this technology is going and how it might be deployed are concentrated.....

Sam Leith's guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is Siri Hustvedt, talking about her new book, Ghost Stories, a memoir of her long and loving marriage to the novelist Paul Auster, and of his death from cancer. Siri tells me why this book ‘needed’ to be written, what their relationship was like, how ‘horrible things’ came to this literary golden couple, and how she explains the experience of bein...

Peter Murrell's mafia-style SNP & could the Reform-Restore feud hand Burnham Makerfield? This week: the Peter Murrell scandal and the collapse of the SNP’s moral authority. After Nicola Sturgeon’s estranged husband and the party’s former chief executive pleaded guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from SNP funds, Michael and Madeline ask what this reveals about the party that dominated Scottish...

On this week’s  Spectator Out Loud : Douglas Murray details his encounter with Labour leadership hopeful Wes Streeting; Flora Watkins explains why the Open Garden scheme is the antidote to the Chelsea Flower Show; and Nicholas Farrell says local nudists are running wild in Ravenna.   Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.