The Edition

For this week’s Edition, Lara Prendergast is joined by The Spectator’s editor Michael Gove, deputy editor Freddy Gray, and associate editor Toby Young.

This week the episode and magazine is dedicated to our beloved Rod Liddle, who died aged 66. The Spectator journalists reflect on some of their favourite memories of Rod, what his legacy will be and how is writing, wit and intelligence will be irreplaceable.
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For this week’s Edition, Lara Prendergast is joined by The Spectator’s columnist Rory Sutherland, political editor Tim Shipman and drinks editor Jonathan Ray.

This week: What has been the damage of Labour’s punitive war on private education? Rory questions whether the sector had helped itself in the years prior, but did the policy itself ever represent more than ‘class warfare?’ Tim explores the vigour to which the (now former) Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson embraced that label, whilst Jonathan reflects on ‘canny approaches’ to game the system.

Also: Election? What election? The panel discuss rumours that the PM may call an early general election in the wake of the ‘Burnham bounce’ in the polls giving Labour a narrow lead over Reform. If not, how does he escape the straitjacket of the 2024 manifesto? Rory further explains how government has been transformed from a ‘policeman to a traffic warden,’ and gives Burnham his top tips for an easy re-election.

Plus: The death doulas movement. To what extent does this growing trend – of which figures such as Caroline Lucas, Davina McCall and Nicole Kidman are now subscribers – represent a broader point of death positivity, or in the end, is it all just ‘mumbo jumbo?’
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This week: has Andy Burnham really brought change to Downing Street – or merely repackaged Labour’s old guard? Has Ed Miliband been sidelined by being sent to the Foreign Office, a ‘non-job’ in which he can do little harm? The panel also asks whether Burnham is prepared to make the difficult decisions required of a prime minister – and why the Conservatives have been so reluctant to demand a general election.
Also: is America’s socialist left taking over the Democratic party? Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America are gaining ground, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may be underestimated as a future presidential nominee and parts of the radical left are beginning to embrace gun ownership. Could Bernie Sanders have beaten Donald Trump in 2016 – had the Democrats not chosen ‘the only person who could conceivably lose’ to him?
Plus: who really blew up the Nord Stream pipeline? The accepted account holds that a small band of Ukrainians carried out one of the most sophisticated acts of sabotage in recent history. But does the evidence look less like a professional intelligence operation than ‘somebody establishing an alibi’?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons, Oscar Edmondson and Gareth Roy.
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For this week’s Edition, William Moore is joined by The Spectator’s political editor, Tim Shipman, commissioning editor and writer at large Tali Fraser, and the historian Antony Beevor.
This week: what will Andy Burnham actually do in Downing Street? Tim reveals what to expect from the incoming prime minister’s first ten days, from a blitz of policies and a ‘Number 10 North’ to higher borrowing and wealth taxes.
Also: has Britain expanded the definition of disability too far? The panel discusses Michael Simmons’s argument that compassion should not mean turning every difficulty into a disorder – and asks how the government can encourage resilience and work while protecting those who genuinely need support.
Plus: Tali investigates the Welsh government’s plan to make Wales ‘anti-racist’ by 2030. From hate-crime training for landlords to decolonising museums – and even Welsh cakes – has the Welsh government gone mad?
Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.
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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. Tim explains why the move may already have backfired, with the main parties refusing to stand against him and leaving him to spend the summer ‘arguing with a bin’. But he also argues that Farage is returning to what he does best: insurgency, grievance and campaigning against the political class. Has he reclaimed the narrative – or retreated from the idea of becoming prime minister?
Also: can Andy Burnham export the Manchester model to the rest of Britain? As the incoming prime minister prepares for Downing Street, Gus looks at the property developers behind Manchester’s rise.
Plus: Tom Parker Bowles on the crisis in British hospitality, why pubs matter and what the government keeps getting wrong about restaurants.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.
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