Anthony Browne

The UK's vaccine programme was hailed by the government as a success story for Global Britain. It became an example of how Britain could speed up regulation, reduce bureaucracy and become a worldwide home for tech and innovation in life sciences.  The government recently published a Life Sciences Vision, but how much vision was there? This podcast will look at the importance of the industry, the hurdles that it faces and its contribution to the government's Global Britain agenda.  Fraser Nelson, the editor of The Spectator is joined by Anthony Browne, Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire; Zoe Martin, a policy manager at Cancer Research and Samin Saeed who is the medical director & chief scientific officer for Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd.

On this week’s podcast, we start with Charles Moore’s cover story on the failings of the National Trust. Why is the Trust getting involved in culture wars, and can it be fixed? Lara speaks to Charles, a Spectator columnist and former editor of the magazine, and Simon Jenkins, who was chair of the Trust between 2008 and 2014. Simon says that it’s ‘very odd’ for the organisation to become embroiled in controversy over Britain’s colonial past and contested history. ‘The National Trust’s relationship with the British Empire, let alone with slavery, is pretty tenuous. I don’t take this accusation against the Trust terribly seriously. This is just currently what I regard as a sort of cult’, he adds.