Charles Moore

How did faith shape Margaret Thatcher’s politics? To mark the centenary month of Margaret Thatcher’s birth, Damian Thompson introduces a conversation between the Spectator’s Natasha Feroze, Thatcher’s biographer Lord Moore and Bishop Chartres who delivered the eulogy at her funeral. They discuss her relationship with faith, how both her family background and her training as a scientist influenced her beliefs and her understanding of the relationship between wealth and society based on Jesus’s parables. Plus – what would Thatcher have made of the much talked about ‘Christian revival’ in the West? Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Natasha Feroze.

To mark the centenary of Thatcher’s birth, Michael Gove is joined by Charles Moore, her biographer, and Peggy Noonan, speechwriter to Ronald Reagan, to reflect on the chemistry that bound the two conservative leaders. Both outsiders turned reformers, they shared not only ideology but temperament – ‘They were partners in crime,’ says Peggy. Yet it wasn’t all harmony. As Charles notes, the pair weathered serious rifts – over nuclear weapons, Grenada and the Falklands. Even in disagreement, they ‘wanted the same thing … to defeat the Soviet Union without fighting’. How did they navigate their differences? And what lessons can we learn from their special relationship? Produced by Natasha Feroze and Oscar Edmondson.

This week: Peerless – the purge of the hereditary peers For this week’s cover, Charles Moore declares that the hereditary principle in Parliament is dead. Even though he lacks ‘a New Model Army’ to enforce the chamber’s full abolition, Keir Starmer is removing the hereditary peers. In doing so, he creates more room, reduces the Conservatives’ numerical advantage, and improves ‘the sex and ethnic balance’. But 86 hard-working and dutiful peers ‘lacking worldly ambition or partisan passions’ will be lost. Also in the magazine, Sophia Falkner, researcher at The Spectator, sets out exactly what we stand to lose by profiling some of the most capable hereditary peers in the House. She warns that Labour’s purge is ripping the heart out of the Lords.

Welcome to this festive episode of the Edition podcast, where we will be taking you through the pages of The Spectator’s special Christmas triple issue.  Up first: What a year in politics it has been. 2023 has seen scandals, sackings, arrests and the return of some familiar faces. It’s easy to forget that at the start of the year Nicola Sturgeon was still leader of the SNP! To make sense of it all is editor of The Spectator, Fraser Nelson, The Spectator’s political editor Katy Balls, and Quentin Letts, sketch writer for the Daily Mail. (01:06) Next: The story that has dominated the pages of The Spectator in the latter half of this year is of course the conflict in Gaza.

Freddy Gray, The Spectator's deputy editor, is joined by our former editor Charles Moore, and our political editor James Forsyth, to discuss the Queen's death. What was her coronation like? Should unionists be concerned? How important was the Queen's faith to her? What do we miss about the Queen?

As this week marks the Queen's platinum jubilee, we take a look back at her greatest political achievements in her role as head of state. How important was the relationship between the monarch and the Prime Minister?'I think there's been this restraining act on the behaviour of Prime Ministers, that they will have to explain themselves to the Queen at some point - James Forsyth.Since her reign, she has served 14 Prime Ministers, one of whom was Margaret Thatcher. What was her relationship like with the Iron Lady? Lord Charles Moore, former editor of The Spectator who also wrote a biography on Mrs Thatcher spoke of the mutual respect the Queen and Margaret Thatcher had for one another.

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.

Charles Moore recently published Herself Alone, the final volume of an authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher. When writing, he realised that the story is half-tragedy, half-Whodunnit. Many of those involved in her fall had a motive. This podcast is a narrative of the events leading up to Mrs Thatcher's fall, voiced by Charles Moore and Kate Ehrman, who assisted with all three volumes of the biography.