Best of the Spectator

Latest Episodes:

Reality Check: Rory Sutherland: Britain isn’t working – here’s how to fix it Nov 18, 2025

Show notes

Advertising legend and Spectator columnist Rory Sutherland joins Michael Simmons to explain why he thinks Britain’s economic problem isn’t income, tax rates or even inequality — it’s property, rent extraction, and a national belief that housing is the safest and smartest place to store wealth.

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Quite right!: Who could replace Keir Starmer? – Q&A Nov 17, 2025

Show notes

To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, go to: spectator.co.uk/quiteright

This week on Quite right! Q&A: Could Britain see a snap election before 2029? Michael and Maddie unpack the constitutional mechanics – and explain why, despite the chaos, an early vote remains unlikely. They also turn to Labour’s troubles: growing pressure on Keir Starmer, restive backbenchers, and whether Angela Rayner’s sacking has boosted her chances as his successor.

Plus: should the Scottish Parliament be abolished? And on a lighter note, if you won a free holiday but had to take one Labour MP, who would you choose?

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Americano: Alan Dershowitz on Epstein & the client list Nov 16, 2025

Show notes

Lawyer Alan Dershowitz joins Freddy Gray to react to the 20,000 newly released Epstein emails — and why he believes far more remains hidden. He discusses Trump’s appearance in the documents, the contradictions in Virginia Giuffre’s testimony, the FBI’s real “client list”, and why judges are still sealing major depositions.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Coffee House Shots: H.M. Chief Inspector of Prisons on accidental prison release Nov 15, 2025

Show notes

Britain’s prisons are a legislative problem that has beset successive governments. New revelations show 91 accidental early releases in just six months, the latest in a growing pattern of administrative chaos across the criminal justice system. Between drones delivering drugs, crumbling Victorian buildings, exhausted staff and an ever more convoluted sentencing regime, what is the cause of so many blunders? And what will Labour’s promised reforms actually fix – and are more crises inevitable?

James Heale speaks to Charlie Taylor, H.M. Chief Inspector of Prisons.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Megan McElroy.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Edition: BBC in crisis, the Wes Streeting plot & why 'flakes' are the worst Nov 14, 2025

Show notes

Can the BBC be fixed? After revelations of bias from a leaked dossier, subsequent resignations and threats of legal action from the US President, the future of the corporation is the subject of this week’s cover piece.

Host William Moore is joined by The Spectator’s commissioning editor, Lara Brown, arts editor, Igor Toronyi-Lalic, and regular contributor, Melanie McDonagh.

They also discuss the drama of this week’s Westminster coup plot, and Melanie’s new book about why Catholicism attracted unlikely converts throughout the twentieth century.

Plus: what’s the most bizarre excuse a friend has used to back out of a social engagement?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Book Club: Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia Nov 13, 2025

Show notes

Sam Leith’s guest this week is Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia and author of The Seven Rules of Trust. They discuss why trust is such an important value for public debate, and how it can address polarisation in society. Jimmy addresses the challenge Elon Musk has posed to Wikipedia after the entrepreneur branded the site as ‘woke’, despite the pair having a personal relationship. Sam also asks whether the internet is getting worse – and if it can be fixed.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quite right!: BBC bias & Bridget ‘Philistine’s’ war on education Nov 12, 2025

Show notes

Listeners on the Best of Spectator playlist can enjoy a section of the latest episode of Quite right! but for the full thing please seek out the Quite right! channel. Just search ‘Quite right!’ wherever you are listening now.

This week: a crisis at the BBC – and a crisis of standards in our schools.

Following the shock resignations of Tim Davie and Deborah Turness, Michael and Maddie ask whether the corporation has finally been undone by its own bias, and discuss how it can correct the leftward lurch in its editorial line.

Then: Labour’s new education reforms come under the microscope. As Ofsted scraps single-word judgements in favour of ‘report cards’, could this ‘definitive backward step’ result in a ‘dumbing down’ that will rob the next generation of rigour and ambition? And will ‘Bridget Philistine’s’ war on education undo the positive legacy of the Conservatives on education?

And finally, in Hollywood, actress Sydney Sweeney refuses to apologise for comments made in an interview last week – she now finds herself a heroine of the anti-woke age. Are we finally past peak woke?

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, go to: spectator.co.uk/quiteright

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reality Check: Britain's stats have become dangerously unreliable Nov 11, 2025

Show notes

Britain is facing a quiet crisis — its data is breaking down, and the government’s numbers are increasingly unreliable.

In this episode of Reality Check, economics editor Michael Simmons asks what happens when the state can’t count properly. How can the Bank of England set interest rates or the Treasury balance the books when the data they rely on is wrong? And why are so many “official” statistics now being stripped of their trusted status?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quite right!: Boris, Cameron or May? – Q&A Nov 10, 2025

Show notes

To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, go to: spectator.co.uk/quiteright

This week on the first ever Quite right! Q&A: What’s your most left-wing belief? Michael & Maddie confess their guilty liberal secrets on the Elgin Marbles, prison reform and private equity – or ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’.

Also this week: who would you trust to save your life on a desert island – Boris Johnson, Theresa May or David Cameron? And finally, a literary turn: from John Donne to Thomas Hardy, Michael and Maddie share their favourite poems, and make the case for learning verse by heart.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Holy Smoke: have the culture wars gone spiritual? Nov 09, 2025

Show notes

Why are Silicon Valley billionaires obsessing over Heaven & Hell, and what does it tell us about American society today? Spectator World's Arts Editor Luke Lyman joins Damian Thompson on this episode of Holy Smoke to talk about how a fascination with the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist and a techno-utopia – or techno-apocalypse – has gripped the 'tech bros'.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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