Madeline Grant is The Spectator’s assistant editor and parliamentary sketch writer.
British history is littered with elections and Elections. The first type, common or garden elections, are fought with prosaic issues at their core. Readers might remember the 2001 general election, which saw such pressing topics as the fate of Kidderminster hospital pushed to the fore. The 1865 general election was also considered uneventful by contemporaries.
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To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, visit spectator.com/quiteright. In this week’s Q&A: do the Conservatives need an even bigger kicking? After their worst defeat in generations, they debate whether the party has really changed – or whether voters still see a gap between what it says and what it does. Also this
PMQs last week was embarrassing: not a single answer to a single question. The bar then was low – yet still today was, if not just as bad, still incredibly unimpressive. Mrs Badenoch began by asking a very simple question about new drilling in the North Sea. Sir Keir claimed that this was not his
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This week: the row over political Islam and a bigger question beneath it. After Nick Timothy’s comments on public prayer in Trafalgar Square caused a political firestorm, Michael and Madeline ask whether Britain can still have an honest debate about faith, free speech and the public square. Where is the line between coexistence and an
Rachel Reeves was in the House today, responding to the war in the Middle East. That as a statement alone has an air of innate tragicomic potential to it: like Igglepiggle responding to Spanish Flu. Despite the gravity of the situation, it was more of what we’ve come to expect from Reeves. She did her
‘I don’t want to raise levels of public anxiety.’ Believe it or not, these words came out of the mouth of Sir Keir Starmer. If they were true, one would expect him to announce he was off to live as a hermit in the Hebrides, rather than continue to chair meetings of Cobra. Yes, in
Last week, the body of an 18-day old baby girl was found in Westminster, in desperately sad circumstances. The baby’s mother has since been charged with her murder and stands accused of throwing her daughter out of a third-floor window. Five days later, and a few streets away, the House of Lords voted to approve
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To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, visit spectator.com/quiteright. In this week’s Q&A: the Green party and the rise of new MP Hannah Spencer. Does a softer, more appealing political style mask something more radical beneath the surface – and is that precisely the secret of the party’s growing success? Also this week:
When a fully greased Sir Keir Starmer is finally bundled, squealing, out of Downing Street, one wonders what he might turn his hand to by way of work to keep a roof over his head? I suspect his time as a lawyer doesn’t bear repetition and he’s hardly going to be asked to do after-dinner
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This week: the stark question of Keir Starmer’s leadership. After a bruising week in Westminster – from fresh revelations about the Mandelson appointment to renewed scrutiny of the Prime Minister’s governing style – they debate whether Starmer’s cautious, process-driven approach is becoming a political liability. Will Labour move to replace him? Also on the podcast:
Downing Street’s briefing room increasingly looks like a municipal crematorium. It is a depressing feast of cheap teak and black edges. Other countries announce major foreign policy decisions in front of reminders of their glorious past or signs of their present strength. President Macron recently gave a speech in front of a nuclear submarine. Sir
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To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, visit spectator.com/quiteright. In this week’s Q&A, Michael and Maddie discuss whether Keir Starmer faces a deeper political dilemma: should the Labour party tack left to shore up its base, or move to the centre to win over voters uneasy about the party’s economic direction? Also this
In the last 48 hours the government of Sir Keir Starmer has ended a link between the House of Lords and the Anglo-Saxon Witan by booting out the hereditary peers and beginning the process of removing the right to trial by jury which goes back to Magna Carta. He probably, genuinely, believes this to have
Beamish, the living history museum in County Durham, invites visitors to ‘step into the past’. It shows how people lived in the early 20th century and attracts plenty who want to see what life was like in a simpler and – in some ways – better time. On Tuesday evening, we had a Beamish moment
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This week: Michael and Maddie discuss the escalating crisis in the Middle East and ask a bigger question about Britain’s place in the world – is the UK still a great power, or has the conflict exposed just how limited our influence has become? They debate whether Britain has any real choice but to follow
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To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, visit spectator.com/quiteright. In this week’s Q&A, Michael and Maddie ask whether Britain is driving its young and ambitious abroad. As more professionals head to places like Dubai in search of opportunity, they debate whether the real problem lies not with those who leave, but with the
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As the conflict in the Middle East escalates, what is Trump’s game plan? The Spectator’s cover piece this week, by Geoffrey Cain, argues that Trump’s ultimate target in this war is China; every dictator gone, weakens the Chinese regime. As Freddy Gray explains further on the podcast, Trump’s worldview is shaped by the events he grew up
‘I’d like to remind members of the need for good temper and moderation in the language they use in this chamber.’ Sir Lindsay Hoyle began PMQs with this rather pathetic appeal to respectful debate. Given the current relationship between the Prime Minister and the leader of the opposition, it was a bit like a sincere
‘Did you ever think that maybe there’s more to life than being really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking?’ So asks Derek Zoolander, before pulling his trademark pout, exhibiting cheekbones that look like they were engineered by Brunel. Zoolander came out a quarter-century ago, but now looks prophetic. Ben Stiller’s gullible, self-obsessed moron would fit right in
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This week: Michael and Maddie debate the escalating crisis in Iran and ask whether Donald Trump truly has a strategy – and whether Keir Starmer has one at all. They examine what Trump’s strikes are meant to achieve, whether regime change in Tehran is the real objective and why parts of the American right are