Fiona Unwin

Thursday

Fiona Unwin

China’s baby bust

36 min listen

In this week’s episode:Is China heading for a demographic disaster?Rana Mitter and Cindy Yu discuss China’s declining birth rate and what this could do to the economy. (0.52)Also this week:What would foreign policy look like under a Liz Truss government?The Spectator's deputy political editor, Katy Balls is joined by Rishi Sunak supporter, Dr Liam Fox who is the MP for North Somerset, Former Defence and Trade Secretary. (13.40)And finally: As Rishi comes face-to-face with the Tory members, can he win them over?Fiona Unwin, who is the vice president of the West Suffolk Conservative association writes that to wow the grassroots, all Rishi Sunak has to do is meet them. But not all the members were persuaded.

Fiona Unwin

How Rishi Sunak won over the Tories of West Suffolk

‘I’ve cancelled my exercise class for this! I hope he’s worth it,’ said Selina in the hotel lobby. Rishi Sunak was coming to West Suffolk to meet members of our Conservative Association. Would he be worth a listen? Clearly our members thought so. More than 90 of us rocked up at one day’s notice to meet Rishi (or Sushi, as one of our older members kept calling him). Rishi wanted to pitch for our votes. His strategy is to introduce himself to as many members as possible. Last weekend, he met 2,000 activists in constituencies where 10,000 Tory members are based. He needs every single one of our votes if he is to overtake Liz Truss, and currently the odds are against him. One doubtful member told me at the beginning: ‘He can’t beat Truss.

Thursday

Fiona Unwin

Pret a danger

Each year, about ten people in Britain die from allergic reactions to food. The case of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse, who died after eating a sandwich from Pret a Manger, was a nasty reminder of how allergies can claim young lives at any moment. But it also raises a difficult question: to what extent are businesses that serve food culpable? Why do so many people, after this case, want to blame Pret and only Pret? It’s territory with which I am familiar, as a mother of two children with severe allergies. When Alastair, my son, was eight years old we attended one of the first allergy clinics at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. They inserted small slivers of chicken, turkey and pheasant into cuts in his arms and measured the allergic reaction. Diagnosis: instantaneous. Treatment? None.