As the two main parties reel from their local election performances today, are we at the beginning of a golden age for smaller parties? James Forsyth evaluates the chances of the Brexit party – Nigel Farage’s new electoral outfit – in this week’s cover piece. The conclusion isn’t pretty for the Conservative party: the Brexit party is slicker than Ukip ever was, and two out of five Tory councillors are considering voting for them in the upcoming European elections. The party has also managed to perform better than Change UK, who seemed to have peaked at their launch a few months ago, demonstrating – James argues – the sheer anger that is out there in the constituencies with the way Brexit is going. On the podcast, Katy Balls talks to James and Matthew Goodwin, an expert on polling and Ukip.
This week’s episode also features a fiery exchange between lawyer Chris Daw QC, who argues for the legalisation of drugs, and Peter Hitchens, who does not… Given the sheer amount of resources that go into policing drug laws, not to mention the costs to drug users of an illegal market (consuming substances with unclear chemical makeup, turning up to unsafe drug deals, having little information for safe consumption), Chris argues
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