Cindy Yu

It is generally agreed that Britain is suffering from a housing crisis, with big cities such as London being particular flashpoints. This year in the capital, the number of renters exceeded the number of homeowners for the first time. In the country, home ownership rates stand at a 30-year-low. And the proportion of 25 to 34-year-olds who are renters has almost doubled in the last 10 years. At the same time, 1.8 million families with children live in rented homes with tenancies shorter than a year. Homelessness is also on the rise and house building has consistently fallen below the government’s target. But what is the policy solution to all this – and what direction should the country be taken in?

In this week’s issue, the Spectator reveals that the government is planning a significant yearly increase in the NHS’s budget. But, Lara Prendergast asks in the podcast, isn’t this the £350 million a week bus pledge? And how will the government pay for this (00:40)? We also talk about the difficulties in modern adoption with Prue Leith (15:30), and finally, we talk to Martin Tyler and Mark Palmer on whether this year’s World Cup, held in Russia, is set to be the most political ever (26:35). One of the most infamous images of the EU referendum campaign was that bus. The one which promised £350 million to the NHS each week if we were to leave. Many thought it fantasy, but is that promise now coming true?

In this week's podcast, we discuss Meghan and the monarchy – is Meghan Markle good news for the Establishment? And what are we to make of her anyway? We also discuss the potential for Tory rebellion on the customs union, and ask, does economic research back up higher government spending? As the royal baby is born earlier this week, all eyes are on the monarchy. But he’s not the only new arrival to the family in recent times – Meghan Markle will be formally joining the monarchy in less than a month’s time. So what are we to make of the new Princess? For this week’s cover, Jenny McCartney thanks God that Meghan is not a spoilt, entitled Chelsea Sloane, and Julie Burchill writes that Meghan is a modern ‘adventuress’.

In this week’s episode, we talk about the escalating situation in Syria and ask, would counter strikes actually help? We also look into ‘drill’ music, a genre of rap popular with the London youth most vulnerable to gang activity. Last, we talk Spice Girls and Beyoncé – what is modern ‘girl power’? President Trump is facing a major foreign policy test in the Middle East. Reports came in over the weekend of a brutal chemical weapons attack in Douma, Syria. The most likely suspect is President Assad, or as Trump likes to call him, ‘Animal Assad’. But, Paul Wood asks in this week’s cover, how certain can we be that it really is Assad’s doing, and what good will Western retaliation do?

On this week’s episode, we discuss how elections across the world have been taken advantage of to give more power to corrupt leaders. We also talk about the international persecution of Muslims, and ask, why don’t young Corbynites care about anti-Semitism? While the world has been reeling from news of Cambridge Analytica’s political interference, two academics have been following the trail of shady election rigging across the world that go deeper than social media. Professor Nic Cheeseman, at the University of Birmingham, and Dr Brian Klaas at the LSE, have visited developing democracies from Asia, to Africa, to Europe. In this week’s cover piece, they explain the extent of election rigging in these countries, and what we, in mature democracies, can do about it.

On this week's episode, we discuss the state of mental health in this country, and whether doctors are all too happy to prescribe medication as the miracle solution to mental illnesses. We also ask what on earth is the deal with Cambridge Analytica, and commemorate the death of the world’s last male northern white rhino. Is medication the answer to our mental health crisis? Studies show that the British are among the most depressed in the world. But, in this week’s cover, Angela Patmore writes that doctors rely on pills too much and overlook their terrible side-effects, including behaving aggressively towards oneself and others. Isabel Hardman, who presents the podcast, has written about those side-effects in her own piece for the magazine this week.

Support for leadership contenders Angela Eagle and Owen Smith are roughly evenly split within the party – though all involved agree that only one can go forward if the party is to have any chance of purging Corbyn. But in this Coffee House shots podcast, James Forsyth tells Fraser Nelson that there might not even be a point to the contest: ‘The real news this morning is this YouGov poll which suggests that Jeremy Corbyn is on course to beat either of them – and quite comfortably.’ But if the Labour party is unsuccessful in purging Corbyn, then the party faces mass deselection of MPs at best, and the death of the party at worst. Can the Tories take advantage of this weakness in the Opposition?

George Osborne has gone, Phillip Hammond is in No 11, David Davis and Liam Fox are back in the Cabinet - and Boris Johnson is the new Foreign Secretary. Theresa May’s reshuffle has made headlines around the world – and Boris' appointment in particular has been a big talking point. In this week’s Spectator podcast, Isabel Hardman talks to James Forsyth, Fraser Nelson, and Colleen Graffy, a former official in the US State Department. Here’s what she has to say about Boris: ‘He is a particularly attractive combination of being a politician who speaks both knowledgeably and eloquently, but different from any politician that’s in America.