Podcast
Reality Check – the new podcast from The Spectator – cuts through the spin and explains the numbers behind the noise. In each episode, The Spectator’s economics editor Michael Simmons and in-the-know guests will make a data-driven case on a story hogging the headlines.
Reality Check – the new podcast from The Spectator – cuts through the spin and explains the numbers behind the noise. In each episode, The Spectator’s economics editor Michael Simmons and in-the-know guests will make a data-driven case on a story hogging the headlines.
Reality Check
Reform UK may be leading in the polls on a mandate to hit net zero migration – but could this come sooner than Nigel Farage may think? Michael Simmons returns to Reality Check to explain what’s really going behind Britain’s migration figures.
Play 7 mins
Reality Check
Michael Simmons reflects on some of the economic highs and lows of 2025.
Play 33 mins
Reality Check
The Spectator’s Michael Simmons in conversation with Greg Jackson, CEO & Founder of Octopus Energy and non-executive member of the Cabinet Office Board.
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Reality Check
Junior doctors, now known as resident doctors, will strike from December 17 to 22, which Wes Streeting has said will ‘wreck Christmas’. The doctors are demanding a 26 per cent salary rise over the next few years to make up for the erosion in their pay in real terms since 2008 – this is on
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Reality Check
The Chancellor laid our her plans to scrap the two-child benefit cap in the Budget last week. Previously Rachel Reeves and the Prime Minister were against lifting the cap, but pressure from Reform and the back benches meant the government u-turned. The Resolution Foundation has backed this policy, arguing that it will help lift children
Play 10 mins
Reality Check
As Budget days go, today was unprecedented. The complete list of measures announced by Rachel Reeves – along with their costings and economic impacts – was leaked by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) an hour before the Chancellor took to her feet. The OBR apologised and called it a ‘technical error’. The headline is
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Reality Check
Rachel Reeves is due to deliver her budget this Wednesday. Throughout the years, the only person permitted to drink inside the House of Commons is the Chancellor. What has been the tipple of choice for each Chancellor dating back to Benjamin Disraeli? Michael Simmons and James Heale drink their way through the ages, discuss the
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Reality Check
Entrepreneur and investor Luke Johnson joins Michael Simmons to discuss what is going wrong for Britain’s business. From soaring taxes and the Employment Rights Bill to net-zero regulation, planning failures and the rise in economic inactivity, Johnson argues the UK is becoming hostile to entrepreneurs — and warns that many are already leaving for good.
Play 28 mins
Reality Check
Advertising legend and Spectator columnist Rory Sutherland joins Michael Simmons to explain why he thinks Britain’s economic problem isn’t income, tax rates or even inequality — it’s property, rent extraction, and a national belief that housing is the safest and smartest place to store wealth.
Play 30 mins
Reality Check
Britain is facing a quiet crisis — its data is breaking down, and the government’s numbers are increasingly unreliable. In this episode of Reality Check, economics editor Michael Simmons asks what happens when the state can’t count properly. How can the Bank of England set interest rates or the Treasury balance the books when the
Play 13 mins
Reality Check
Rachel Reeves is preparing for her first major Budget – but is Brexit really to blame for Britain’s black hole? Host Michael Simmons speaks to independent economist Julian Jessop about the OBR’s productivity downgrade, Labour’s tax plans, and whether Reeves is right to point the finger at Brexit.
Play 22 mins
Reality Check
Are the rich fleeing Britain? That’s what the numbers suggest, but some activist groups have hit back saying that the data is dodgy. For the second episode of Reality Check, The Spectator’s economics editor Michael Simmons explains why the data shows that the wealthy are leaving Britain, and why this matters for everyone else.
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Reality Check
Reality Check, The Spectator’s new data-driven show hosted by economics editor Michael Simmons, kicks off with a big name: Arthur Laffer. The man who taught Reagan to cut taxes tells Michael why Britain’s economy is ‘disappearing’, why the Bank of England shouldn’t exist, and why he still believes low taxes – and a little optimism
Play 45 mins