The Edition

For this week’s Edition, Lara Prendergast is joined by The Spectator’s political editor Tim Shipman, deputy editor of the US edition Gus Carter and the Mail on Sunday’s restaurant critic Tom Parker Bowles. This week: Nigel Farage’s greatest gamble. After resigning as MP for Clacton to trigger a by-election, Farage has tried to turn questions over his finances into a referendum on the establishment...

For this week’s  Edition , Lara Prendergast is joined by the  Spectator ’s deputy editor Freddy Gray, assistant content editor John Power and former Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt. This week: Labour’s lame duck period drags on, with Keir Starmer searching for a legacy before he leaves office. This week he has announced more money for Defence, though with several caveats, t...

For this week’s  Edition , William Moore is joined by the  Spectator ’s political editor Tim Shipman, the drinks writer Henry Jeffreys and the founder and chair of  iNHouse Communications  – and former director of communications for Theresa May – Katie Perrior. This week: another year, another prime ministerial resignation – it’s all becoming a little too common in British...

For this week’s  Edition , William Moore is joined by the  Spectator ’s assistant editor Isabel Hardman and the editor of  The New Statesman  Tom McTague. Plus, in a special episode this week, the  Spectator ’s economics editor Michael Simmons joins for the first half of the episode, before political editor Tim Shipman jumps in later on. This week: was Brexit worth it...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

In this week’s podcast, the panel unpacks Tim Shipman’s explosive cover story, including a leaked message suggesting just how closely Starmer backed Mandelson’s appointment from the start – and why the Prime Minister is now struggling to shift responsibility as the fallout grows. Host Lara Prendergast is joined by William Moore, historian Peter Frankopan and Prue Leith to assess whether this is a...

The Pope is 'WEAK on crime and terrible on foreign policy' – this was the verdict of the President of the United States this week, as he appeared to deepen his row with the leader of the Catholic Church. In the magazine this week, Damian Thompson reports on why the President appears to have engaged in his own Holy War with the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics around the world. For this week's...

Has Britain become a freeloader’s paradise, asks the Spectator ’s economics editor Michael Simmons in our cover piece this week. Michael analyses ‘the benefits of benefits’, at a time when Britain’s welfare bill is burgeoning and most households are struggling with cost of living. For example, while a family of four can expect to pay £111 to visit the Tower of London, that is just £4 total on Univ...

Is British politics becoming more religious? Madeline Grant certainly thinks so, arguing – in the  Spectator ’s cover article – that the next election could be the most religious for decades. Issues like immigration and Islam, assisted dying – and even the establishment of the Church of England are likely to play a role. The current Labour government's ‘most telling divide’, Madeline wri...

It is undoubtable that – under the leadership of Zack Polanski – the Green Party have soared to new heights. Having won their first parliamentary by-election in February, polls consistently show them as a force to be reckoned with on the left of British politics. Much of their success has come at the detriment of Labour, with disgruntled further-left progressive voices opting to vote Green. This,...

Nigel Farage is a shark – hell bent on devouring Britain's political class, as illustrated with the Spectator 's cover story this week, co-authored by James Heale and Tim Shipman. Yet, from rows over the pension triple lock to stagnation in the polls, it isn't clear that Farage has a strategy for power. Reform may win the battle of the Right, but does its leader really want to be Prime Minister? F...

As oil prices rise, the Spectator ’s cover story this week – written by deputy editor Freddy Gray – wonders if Trump’s gamble has backfired, and Operation  Epic Fury  could end up more like Operation  Epic Fail . What does it mean to describe Trump’s plan as ‘failing’? And can we judge him by the same metrics that we have judged other presidents?  For this week’s  Edition...

As the conflict in the Middle East escalates, what is Trump’s game plan? The  Spectator ’s cover piece this week, by Geoffrey Cain, argues that Trump’s ultimate target in this war is China; every dictator gone, weakens the Chinese regime. As Freddy Gray explains further on the podcast, Trump’s worldview is shaped by the events he grew up with – including then President Nixon’s visit to C...

Britain’s banks have a hold over Rachel Reeves, declares Michael Simmons in the Spectator’s cover piece this week. Almost two decades on from the 2008 financial crash, the UK has failed to reform the system and – as ordinary people face a cost-of-living crisis – Labour is in hock to big business. Is the Chancellor too close to the City? For this week’s  Edition , host Lara Prenderga...

Britain is defenceless, declares the Spectator's cover piece this week. From the size of the armed forces to protection against cyber warfare, the government is not spending fast enough to meet the UK's security challenges. But is the public ready to choose warfare over welfare? And can we blame the young people who don't want to fight for their country? For this week's Edition, host William Moore...

‘Authority is like virginity. Once it’s gone, it’s gone’ – that's just one of the damning quotes about Keir Starmer that Tim Shipman has extracted from sources inside the Labour government. Much of Starmer's bad luck this week is arguably of his own making, so why is he seemingly so bad at being the Prime Minister? For this week's Edition, host Lara Prendergast is joined by political editor Tim Sh...

Is Britain ready for Artificial Intelligence? Well, bluntly, 'no'; that's the verdict if you read several pieces in this week's Spectator – from Tim Shipman, Ross Clark and Palantir UK boss Louis Mosley – focused on how Britain is uniquely ill-placed to take advantage of the next industrial revolution. Tim Shipman's cover piece focuses on how the Labour government is approaching AI – there are som...

Who really runs Britain: the government, foreign courts or international lawyers? This question is at the heart of Michael Gove’s cover piece for the Spectator this week, analysing the role of those at the centre of Labour’s foreign policy. Attorney general Lord Hermer, national security adviser Jonathan Powell and internationally renowned barrister Philippe Sands may seek to uphold international...

Another week, another foreign policy crisis – this time over Greenland. America's European allies watched as Trump increased the tension over the Arctic territory, only to announce he 'won't use force' in a set-piece speech in Davos. For the Spectator 's cover this week, Paul Wood examines the strategic role of the Arctic, both against Russia and China and from nuclear energy to the space race. Wi...