Best of the Spectator

Congressman Thomas Massie, one of the most vocal Republican critics of Donald Trump lost his fight for re-election in Kentucky to a Trump-backed challenger. Freddy Gray is joined by Spectator contributors Daniel McCarthy and Christopher Caldwell to discuss where Thomas Massie went wrong, how corruption centred around the campaign, whether or not Trump's success is a reflection of the upcoming midt...

The Labour leadership contest may be rumbling on in the background, but today Coffee House turns to the Conservatives – and whether Kemi Badenoch can really revive a party still reeling from electoral collapse. Her allies argue that Badenoch is beginning to cut through: from her conference speech to her response to Rachel Reeves’s Budget, and her decision to sack Robert Jenrick. Her personal ratin...

For this week’s  Edition , Lara Prendergast is joined by  The Spectator 's John Power, feminist campaigner Julie Bindel and former adviser to Boris Johnson – and co-host of the  In The Room  podcast, Cleo Watson. They explore the idea that the Strait of Hormuz, not Makerfield, will determine the fate of the current Labour government. Starmer may be facing a challenge to his aut...

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is Edmund Richardson, author of a new biography of Alexander the Great called Alexander: God, King, Man. Edmund tells me why there is still a fresh story to tell about this most storied of historical figures, why his empire collapsed as soon as it came into being yet nevertheless changed history – and how Alexander conquered the world by mistake. Hosted on...

Maurice Glasman, Labour peer and founder of Blue Labour, has spent years warning that Labour has lost touch with the people it was created to represent. In the first of a two-part conversation on Quite right! , he joins Michael and Maddie to explain why he thinks Keir Starmer’s project was never really Labour at all – and why the party’s working-class traditions have been replaced by progressive l...

One year on from when Pope Leo became head of the Catholic church and he remains a bit of an enigma. Is he a Conservative or Liberal? What did we learn from his clash with Donald Trump? Damian Thompson is joined by editor of The Pillar Ed Condon and two Spectator favourites – Freddy Gray and Mary Wakefield. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

British favourability dropped sharply sometime around 2016 and then further declined in 2024. Trump is clearly the main driver of negative feelings, although not the only one. There was much antipathy in 2020, which may have been related to the election but seems more likely due to the chaotic scenes that followed George Floyd’s death. To discuss this, Freddy Gray is joined by Ed West, who has wri...

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is Jeffrey Winters, whose new book The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracies makes the case that democracy as it functions now isn’t, as many of us imagine, the only thing keeping the robber barons in check – it is, in fact, the very system that has enabled them to thrive. He tells me how the wealth gap in the US is now many multiples of that...

On today’s Saturday shots, James Heale is joined by former Conservative MP Steve Baker to discuss the fallout from Wes Streeting’s resignation and the ‘orgy of chaos’ that has ensued. Steve takes James inside the dark arts of a Westminster coup: why numbers matter, why you should pay attention to individual grievances, the importance of discipline – and why Labour’s rebels may already be getting i...

This week: William Moore is joined by The Spectator’s political correspondent Noa Hoffman, Telegraph columnist and Planet Normal co-host Liam Halligan, and The Spectator’s real life columnist Melissa Kite. They unpack Tim Shipman and Noa Hoffman’s cover piece on the mounting coup against Keir Starmer. As Wes Streeting makes his move, Ed Miliband waits in the wings and Andy Burnham’s allies search...

Wes Streeting has made his move today for the Labour leadership – but does he have the numbers? There was some frantic briefing last night, with competing claims about who has the required number of MPs and who might be prepared to give up their seat to Andy Burnham. It almost takes us back to the days of Tory infighting. But the big news this morning is that Angela Rayner has been cleared by HMRC...

This week: Keir Starmer’s leadership is in crisis. As pressure builds on the Prime Minister, Michael and Madeline ask whether Starmer can survive the rebellion now gathering pace in his own party. They discuss the runners and riders who could replace him, from Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner to Andy Burnham – and the risks each would pose for Labour. Could Burnham find a safe seat? Would Streeting...

Freddy Gray is joined by Josef Palermo, who formerly worked for the Kennedy Center to discuss the historical building and whether its cultural and ethos has been ruined by the Trump administration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week: Lisa Haseldine on Britain's failing maternity services, Roya Nikkah writes the diary and Lionel Shriver on gerrymandering in America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s Q&A: how do you mount a Labour leadership coup? As the results of the local elections roll in and speculation builds about Starmer’s future, Michael and Maddie discuss the mechanics of leadership bids, the dangers facing Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham, and why the best advice for Labour’s next leader may be: don’t. Also this week: has Britain really had enough of experts? Michael re...

As the full picture of the local elections emerges, Labour faces a dilemma: stick with Keir Starmer, or put forward an alternative? Calls for Starmer to resign have intensified, and we are braced for MPs to stick their heads above the parapet this weekend. The message from the Prime Minister is that he ‘will not go’ and will not set out a path for his resignation either. So where does Labour go fr...

This week: Lara Pendergast is joined by Tim Shipman, Lionel Barber and Alice Loxton, author of Eleanor: A 200-Mile Walk in Search of England’s Lost Queen.  They unpack Michael Gove’s cover piece which asks whether the local elections will push Labour further to the left. As the Greens threaten Labour in its metropolitan heartlands and Reform eats into its working-class vote, is Keir Starmer f...

My guests on this week’s Book Club podcast are Amanda Golden and Karen V. Kukil, editors of the new The Poems of Sylvia Plath , a variorum collection of every poem Plath wrote. They tell me what light her juvenilia sheds on her later work, how art and music fed into her poetry, and how deep her poetic partnership with Ted Hughes ran. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To listen to this week's podcast in full, search 'Quite right!' wherever you get your podcasts. This week: antisemitism in Britain, the government’s response – and where Reform may have gone too far. After the attack in Golders Green, Michael and Madeline ask whether antisemitism has become a daily reality for Britain’s Jewish community – and whether ministers are willing to confront the Islamist...

The Conservative party was once the natural political home for those on the right. No longer. The Tories’ vote share collapsed at the 2024 general election and the party, under new leadership, has since been outflanked by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Earlier this week, The Spectator pitted the Conservatives, represented by Nick Timothy and Claire Coutinho, against Reform UK, represented by Matt Goodw...

This week: Martin Vander Weyer on British steel and his chat with Andy Haldane, Freddy Gray has been stateside & Arabella Byrne on why she's no fan of the social climbing dog – whippets. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain has recorded the highest drug deaths in Europe. Green Party leader Zack Polanski has declared that this means the so called 'war on drugs' is not working, and favours a more liberal approach of legalisation. Michael Simmons is joined by John Power to look at the numbers and show why Polanski would likely make drug deaths rise under his policy. This episode is brought to you by Artemis Fund...

King Charles and his wife Camilla have been on a state visit to the White House meeting Donald Trump and the First Lady. At a state banquet in the evening, both King Charles and Trump gave speeches celebrating the special relationship. The event marked 250 years of American independence. Freddy Gray spoke to the author Michael Auslin who wrote the book The Declaration of Independence: History, Mea...

In this week’s podcast, William Moore is joined by The Spectator ’s economics editor Michael Simmons, assistant editor Isabel Hardman and Times columnist and Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips.  The panel unpacks Mary Wakefield’s cover story on the rise of shoplifting – and what it reveals about’ shameless Britain’. After a Morrisons manager was reportedly sacked for stopping a thief, they as...

My guest on this week’s Book Club podcast is Sophia Smith-Galer, talking about her new book How to Kill a Language: Power, Resistance, and the Race to Save Our Words . Sophia tells me why languages are vanishing faster than ever before, why it matters, how we can resist it and what her Italian-born nonna gave her. Visit  fleetstreetquarter.co.uk  to book your tickets. Hosted on Acast. Se...