From our UK edition
42 min listen
Douglas Murray joins Freddy Gray for a look back at yet another tumultuous year in American politics. They discuss the irreconcilable divide between left and right, the origins of Covid-19, the war in Afghanistan, the fallout from the 2020 election and much more, including the temptations of a bottle of Glenmorangie whiskey.
From our UK edition
90 min listen
Welcome to the special Christmas episode of The Edition! In this episode, we look at five major topics that dominated the news this year and the pages of The Spectator. First up a review of the year in politics with our resident Coffee House Shots' team James Forsyth, Katy Balls and Isabel Hardman. We discuss how Boris seemed to make such a strong start to the year through the vaccine rollout, but squandered this goodwill with several own goals. We also touch on some of the big political moments of the year: Partygate, the Owen Paterson affair and of course Matt Hancock. (00:39) Next, we go global and look at three of the major powerhouses that took headlines this year. The EU, who ends the year in a panic over Russia, extreme Covid measures, and upcoming elections.
From our UK edition
Since lockdown, the Mirror has had a good line on Tory lockdown hypocrisy scandals: Barnard Castle and the No. 10 parties. But today’s Sunday Mirror splash does not really deserve to go down in the annals of historic journalistic scoops — despite all the excited chatter this morning.Like all ‘clear breach of lockdown rules’, this turns out to be a mundane event — another feeble attempt to have fun in the middle of a depressing pandemic. It’s the Prime Minister doing a quiz on Zoom.We see a typically dreary video-call snapshot. It shows a bored Prime Minister, flanked by two aides, all looking quite miserable. The only alcohol on display is in the sanitising hand-gel dispenser in the foreground.
From our UK edition
24 min listen
The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell has gripped the world, a woman accused of truly horrendous crimes. But have we as a society thrown out the cardinal rule of innocent until proven guilty? Freddy Gray sits down with her brother Ian Maxwell who believes that her treatment pre-trial has been nothing short of torturous.
From our UK edition
The actor Jussie Smollett has been jailed for 150 days after staging a hate crime against himself. Freddy Gray wrote about the rise of hate hoaxing in December... So Jussie Smollett, the world’s most notorious hate hoaxer, has at last been found guilty of lying to the police. Smollett, you may remember, was the actor who wanted to get even more famous so badly that he hired two brothers to put on ski masks and pretend to be Trump-supporting racists who spotted him in public. They then fake attacked him with bleach and a noose that they just happened to be carrying around, as racists do. The US vice president and most media outlets breathlessly accepted Smollett’s account. But it was all rubbish — and the story fits into a bizarre new trend.
From our UK edition
There’s something telling about the alacrity with which the SW1 hive mind has seized on the leaked clip of Allegra Stratton. For our slightly depraved opinion-forming class, the sight of the Prime Minister’s press spokesperson sniggering about a party that apparently happened in No. 10 at a time when the government had ordered us all not socialise was just too delicious. Journalists, who tend to regard themselves as extraordinary people, decided en masse that here at last was a story that ordinary people — the commoners — can be excited by and angry about. The blue-checks of Twitter quickly pronounced that this bit of news had ‘cut through’ — that awful phrase which media people use to mean that non-media people might care.
From our UK edition
36 min listen
Freddy Gray speaks to New York Post journalist Miranda Devine about her new book 'Laptop from Hell', which details the bizarre story infamously suppressed on social media platforms during the 2020 presidential election.
From our UK edition
41 min listen
In this week’s episode: Is the current NHS crisis a bug or a feature? In the Spectator’s cover story this week, our economics editor Kate Andrews writes about the state of the NHS and why even though reform is so clearly needed it's nearly politically impossible to try to do so. She joins the podcast with Isabel Hardman who is currently writing a book on the history of the NHS. (00:53)Also this week: How is the nation feeling about the Omicron variant? The news of the Omicron variant has not only worried the public about what may become of their Christmas plans, but the government has also reacted by bringing in new travel restrictions and mask mandates.
From our UK edition
Éric Zemmour looks down at a copy of The Spectator and cocks his eyebrows at the unflattering cartoon of him on the cover. He decides he doesn’t care. ‘It takes a lot to offend me, you know,’ he says. He then leafs through the magazine making polite and appreciative noises. ‘Ah, Doooglas Murray!’ he exclaims. ‘I like Doooglas Murray very much. We’ve exchanged ideas.’ Zemmour is in London as part of his still undeclared campaign to be the next president of France — to curry favour with and raise money from the many French voters who live in the capital. But the British Establishment has given him a cold reception. Mayor Sadiq Khan said he wasn’t welcome. The Royal Institution cancelled his event.
From our UK edition
30 min listen
Freddy Grays talks to Mark P Mills, the energy and tech expert at the Manhattan Institute think tank about his new book 'The Cloud Revolution'.
From our UK edition
17 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Pano Kanelos, the president of the newly announced University of Austin, about what his project is hoping to achieve.
From our UK edition
37 min listen
In this week’s episode: Are migrants the new munitions? In our cover story this week, our political editor James Forsyth looks at the growing troubles in Eastern Europe and how this small part of the world stage could end up splintering the scaffolding of global peace. He is joined on the podcast by Mary Dejevsky, a columnist for the Independent. (00:42) Also this week: Will the monarchy survive past Elizabeth II? The royal family is not in a good way, with the Queen missing multiple appearances due to ill health, a prince under investigation, and the continuing cold war between William and Harry, will the monarchy survive past Elizabeth II? That’s the question Freddy Gray asks in this week’s Spectator.
From our UK edition
What will become of the British monarchy after Elizabeth II? It’s a question that many would prefer not to ask. But the Queen is 95, her husband died earlier this year and she’s pulling out of engagements she’s rarely missed in 69 years on the throne. More honest royal sources confirm the obvious: she’s had to take another significant step away from public life. From now on she will conduct more duties over video calls. She’ll save her energies for key events such as the Christmas broadcast. Which leads us to the thorny matter of her succession. Queen Elizabeth has managed to sustain the prestige and influence of the crown in an obsessively democratic age. Will her heir, Prince Charles, and his sons be able to replicate that remarkable achievement?
From our UK edition
On the night of 25 August 2020, Richie McGinniss, a somewhat gonzo video journalist, interviewed Kyle Rittenhouse for the right-wing Daily Caller website. Rittenhouse wore his cap backwards, had rubbery purple medical gloves on and an assault rifle dangling between his legs. He had decided for some reason that he, a 17-year-old boy, had to help the forces of law and order during the Black Lives Matter riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin. ‘People are getting injured,’ he said. ‘If there’s somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle because I need to protect myself, obviously. I also have my med kit.
From our UK edition
16 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Iain Dale about his new book 'The Presidents', which takes a look at every holder of the office from George Washington to Joe Biden.
From our UK edition
22 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Michael Wolff about his latest book 'Too Famous', and looks back at how the quest for fame has affected politics over the last two decades.
From our UK edition
20 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Amber Athey and Matt McDonald about the results of the race for the governorship of Virginia and more.
From our UK edition
41 min listen
In this week’s episode: Has the Biden Presidency stalled or crashed?In our cover story this week, Freddy Gray assesses the state of the Biden presidency. With steadily lowering approval ratings, a disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, and this week’s failure of the Democrats to hold on to the Virginia Governorship, how much trouble is the US’s oldest inaugurated president in? Freddy talks to Lara along with Emily Tamkin, the US editor of the New Statesman and co-host of the World Review Podcast. (00:49)Also this week: Should we welcome or fear the Metaverse?Kit Wilson writes in The Spectator this week about Facebook’s new venture into the Metaverse, a concept that most of us probably hadn’t heard of until last week.
From our UK edition
Who can blame President Biden for nodding off at the COP26 summit on Monday? It was an astronomically boring session — opening statement after opening statement, pompous speaker after pompous speaker, insisting that the time for words on climate change is over. Now is the time for… zzzzzzzzzzzz. It’s a miracle the jet-lagged, 78-year-old leader kept his eyes open for as long as he did. Poor Joe. He has a lot on his addled mind. He’s been in office for less than a year and his presidency is already a catalogue of crises. On Tuesday, as the President stood on the COP stage in Glasgow, impotently lecturing China and Russia about their absence, another disaster was happening back home.
From our UK edition
24 min listen
Freddy Gray talks to Ben Schreckinger, political correspondent at Politico, about his new book, The Bidens: Inside the First Family's Fifty-Year Rise to Power.
