Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
17 min listen
Timed with the inauguration of Joe Biden, Theresa May has written an op-ed in the Daily Mail criticising her successor for his 'abandon of our global moral leadership'. Cindy Yu talks to Katy Balls and Fraser Nelson about what this former prime minister will do from the backbenches.
Vladimir Putin likes his opponents in exile: it makes them easier to portray as defectors who have turned their back on Russia. It suited him to have Alexei Navalny, the most prominent opposition leader in Russia, hiding in Germany fearing he’d be arrested (or worse) if he returned. But now, Navalny has flown back to Moscow – and was duly arrested at passport control. Every stage of his return – his flight out, his arrest, his goodbye to his wife – has been vividly documented on social media with images already making their way around Russia and the world. Navalny has made a swap: he has sacrificed his liberty to leave no doubt about his commitment to his country. And no doubt about how Putin operates.
15 min listen
A leaked Scottish government document suggested that all over-50s could be vaccinated by the end of March, and that UK has capacity to deliver 3.8 million jabs next week. Has the government been underselling its efforts? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.
The Spectator is growing - and hiring. In the last few months we have launched SpectatorTV which sits with our suite of podcasts. With 1.5m downloads and a growing audience for our videos, we're looking to expand. So far all of our videos and podcasts are produced by two people: Cindy Yu and Max Jeffery. We're looking for a third person. You will be working with The Spectator's team of about two dozen journalists in our offices in 22 Old Queen St. We're looking for someone who knows current affairs well enough to suggest interviewees and who can pick out the interesting nuances in a news story that make for good conversation. We're looking for smart, original ideas for social media promotion and other ways of growing our audience.
13 min listen
Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, said yesterday that 800 new patients are admitted to London hospitals with Covid-19 every day. Could pressure on the health service force them to delay the vaccine distribution? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.
16 min listen
Boris Johnson today said there was 'no question' that the government would announce tighter coronavirus restrictions, as case numbers continue to surge. It came after health secretary Matt Hancock said this morning that the existing tier system is 'no longer strong enough'. What will further restrictions look like? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.
16 min listen
A Brexit deal has been reached. Negotiations over fisheries continued into the early hours of Christmas Eve, and Boris Johnson finalised the agreement with Ursula von der Leyen at 1:44pm. The PM said the treaty resolves a 'question that has bedevilled politics for decades', while the EU Commission President said it was 'time to leave Brexit behind'. Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth about the details.
Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have both confirmed that we have a deal: one with zero tariffs, zero quotas. The details are not yet published, but several details are now being reported. What follows is a summary of those reports and rumours: we should soon have 2,000 pages of chapter and verse. The upshot: it’s Brexit. No single market, no free movement, no role for the European Court of Justice, no quotas, no tariffs. At least in goods: there won’t be much in the deal for the services sector (plus ça change) but more on co-operation over terrorism, security and preserving the cross-border energy market. From the looks of it, the UK has moved on fish in return for fewer EU ‘level playing field’ regulations.
13 min listen
This week Liz Truss promised to shake up the equalities brief, opting for 'facts not fashion' in the fight against inequality that looks at regions and class, not just gender and race. What can we learn about the government's future direction from this speech? Cindy Yu talks to Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls.
35 min listen
For the Christmas triple issue, there are four authors in this week's Spectator Out Loud. Fraser Nelson reads the leading article in our Christmas edition; Matt Ridley talks about how mRNA vaccines could revolutionise medicine; Ian Rankin reads his short story; and Cressida Bonas reflects on what it was like to have a lockdown wedding.
Big news in Sweden this afternoon where Stefan Löfven, the Prime Minister, has just tightened Covid-19 restrictions. Still no lockdown, but there’s now a rule of four for restaurants (it had previously been six) and an 8pm curfew on sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants (it had been 10pm). A cap is to be placed on numbers in shops, gyms and swimming pools: universities and sixth-forms will switch to remote learning until 24 January. But beyond that there are no new laws (or restrictions for private property). Löfven said he still has faith that Swedes will respond to his voluntary approach. ‘I hope and believe that everyone in Sweden understands the seriousness,’ he said.
Last week, Katy Balls and I interviewed Rishi Sunak for the Christmas issue of The Spectator (out today) and his comments on debt have caused some interest in today’s newspapers. As ever with such interviews, there’s only so much you can squeeze into two pages but I thought it worth elaborating on his position today. I suspect it will come to define the political debate next year: yes, 2020 was a year of almighty splurge. Sunak has borrowed more in ten months than Gordon Brown did in ten years: but there was a pandemic. The question is how you get that back to normal. For a surprising number of Tories, it’s a question of 'whether' you get it back to normal. Why not let debt rip? Let it go from today’s 100 per cent of GDP to 120 per cent or even 150 per cent?
21 min listen
Katy Balls, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson look back on Boris Johnson's first year of leading a majority government.
20 min listen
Brexit negotiations are continuing this week, with fisheries and the level playing field remaining key sticking points. But with the deadline for an agreement edging closer, is no-deal more likely than anticipated? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.
14 min listen
The return to the tier system will be voted on in the Commons next week, but from the grumblings in the Conservative party, it sounds like the government may need Opposition votes in order to get the legislation through. That's never a comfortable position for a government, so on the podcast, Katy Balls discusses with James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson what the government needs to do in order to appease its backbenchers.
In one of his early lockdown press conferences, the Prime Minister suggested that those who tested positive for Covid could be released from lockdown because they’d be immune. The idea of an 'immunity certificate' was then dropped, as it raised obvious questions of unfairness: would you really have a caste of immuno-privileged people exempt from the lockdown rules? But now the idea seems to be back. The Sunday press reported on an Orwellian-sounding ‘freedom pass’ that would be granted to those who complied with a government-mandated testing regime. A source told the Sunday Telegraph that such a pass would 'allow someone to wander down the streets and if someone else asks why they are not wearing a mask, they can show the card, letter or an app.
13 min listen
Oxford University's vaccine could be up to 90 per cent effective, data from phase III trials shows today. With the UK government ordering 100 million doses of the jab, could it mean a return to normality is on the horizon? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth.
32 min listen
Polls consistently show a majority of Scots are in favour of independence - do they have a case? Fraser Nelson speaks to Andrew Wilson, former MSP and founding partner of Charlotte Street Partners.
13 min listen
Sir Alex Allen, a top civil servant in charge of the report into allegations of bullying at the Home Office, has resigned, but the Home Secretary Priti Patel, who is at the centre of it all, has not. Why is the Prime Minister so keen to 'stick with Prit'? Fraser Nelson talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.
18 min listen
Boris Johnson has today announced a raft of new environmental policies, following the departure of Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain last week. Will it reset the direction of Number 10, or are more comprehensive changes needed? Cindy Yu speaks to Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Katy Balls.
