How generous is Rishi’s furlough extension?
12 min listen
Today the Chancellor announced that the furlough scheme will be extended until October. Along with a raft of other tweaks, just how generous is this extension?
Cindy Yu
Cindy Yu is an assistant editor of The Spectator and presenter of our Chinese Whispers podcast. She was brought up in Nanjing. She tweets at @CindyXiaodanYu
Tuesday
Monday
Keir Starmer’s canny coronavirus critique
13 min listen
Following 24 hours of confusion over the government’s advice on the next phase of lockdown, Keir Starmer is making his debut as Labour leader with a statement to be broadcast on the BBC. On the podcast, Katy Balls and James Forsyth analyse his approach of constructive criticism.
Thursday
Who can tame the virus?
32 min listen
The government is looking at easing the lockdown, but how much remains unknown about the coronavirus (00:40)? In the meantime, Joe Biden is batting off sexual assault allegations (10:15), and we take a look at the upside of lockdown for new parents (21:30). With science writer Matt Ridley, virologist Elisabetta Groppelli, Spectator USA editor Freddy
Why is the ‘R’ number going back up?
11 min listen
In his evidence given to MPs today, Professor John Edmonds, one of the government’s scientists on Sage, said he thought that the ‘R’ number had gone up in recent days. So why has this happened, despite the last three weeks of lockdown?
Wednesday
Why Neil Ferguson’s position was untenable
16 min listen
The leading epidemiologist from Imperial College London, who has been influential in the government’s decision to impose a lockdown, has resigned. The Telegraph broke the story on Tuesday evening that Neil Ferguson had been visited at least twice by his lover. On the podcast, Cindy Yu discusses with James Forsyth and Katy Balls whether he
Tuesday
Is a second wave unavoidable?
51 min listen
In this week’s episode, the Coronomics panel discuss the confusions of Italy’s lockdown easing; Hong Kong’s large-scale repatriation of residents from South Asia; the potential watershed moment of American news outlets accepting federal funds; and whether China is looking down the barrel of a second wave.
Friday
How Matt Hancock hit his target
17 min listen
Thursday
How the ‘R’ number dictates Boris’s exit strategy
11 min listen
In the Prime Minister’s first press conference since coming back to work, it was all about the ‘R’ number. On the podcast, Cindy, James, and Katy discuss just what this number means for our way out of the lockdown.
The way out: what is the Prime Minister’s exit strategy?
37 min listen
James Forsyth writes in this week’s cover piece that the government ‘is going to go South Korean on the virus’. In other words, test, track, and trace. But as James points out, this raises the obvious question of why we weren’t doing this already. On the podcast, Cindy Yu talks to James and the Economist‘s Adrian
Tuesday
Will coronavirus make politicians fix social care?
14 min listen
Social care has always been a difficult issue for incumbent governments in recent years. The coronavirus pandemic brings this to the fore. As ONS figures show that more than 5,000 deaths have happened in UK care homes in April, Cindy, James, and Katy discuss what this means for future social care policy on the podcast.
Monday
Is Harbin China’s new Wuhan?
Only three New Yorkers had died when Han, a 22-year-old masters student at NYU, caught a plane back to China. It was mid-March, and the WHO had just declared a global pandemic. Han spent an uneventful fortnight quarantined at home in Harbin, the northeastern Chinese city where her parents lived. She passed a series of
Friday
Can Boris unite the Cabinet?
15 min listen
The Telegraph reports this morning that Boris Johnson is planning to be back at work by Monday next week. He couldn’t come back sooner – with the Prime Minister laid up, the Cabinet has split over the question of easing the lockdown (as James Forsyth writes this week). So can Boris unite his team behind
Thursday
The 10,000th
40 min listen
This week, the Spectator commemorates its 10,000th edition. On the podcast, Cindy Yu speaks to David Butterfield and Fraser Nelson about the magazine’s two centuries of history, finding out about how the publication started, discussing whether it is still the same now as it was originally intended, and hearing about what David calls its ‘industrial
What’s Nicola Sturgeon’s exit strategy?
15 min listen
The Scottish government’s document ‘Looking Beyond Lockdown’ tries to do what it says on the tin. But it comes at an inconvenient time for the government in Downing Street, just as it is facing accusations that it hasn’t been clear enough with the public about what is needed to end the lockdown. On the podcast,
Tuesday
Is Matt Hancock the government’s ‘fall guy’?
14 min listen
Is Matt Hancock the government’s ‘fall guy’? As Katy Balls details on Coffee House, the Health Secretary’s 100,000 target has rubbed up some in government in the wrong way, with the Daily Telegraph’s front page today reporting that an insider close to No 10 has dubbed it ‘irrational’ and ‘arbitrary’. So what’s going on behind
Friday
Why isn’t the UK testing at full capacity?
14 min listen
The government revealed today that its testing capacity is at 38,000 a day. So why, then, are less than 16,000 tests being taken each day so far? Cindy, James, and Katy also discuss the new vaccines task force, the extension of the furlough scheme, and what the latest numbers out of China mean.
Thursday
The five tests for easing the lockdown
15 min listen
As expected, Dominic Raab announced an extension to the lockdown today, with no clear end date set. But he did offer insight into the criteria that the government is using to judge when that time might come. Katy Balls writes about it here and she discusses them on the latest episode with James and Cindy. The
Corona wars: will either Trump or Xi win?
44 min listen
Historian Niall Ferguson writes in this week’s cover piece that, even before coronavirus, the Cold War between America and China was already getting underway. With the current pandemic, animosity between the two superpowers has only increased. So when it comes to the geopolitics of the ‘corona wars’, who will win? Niall tells Cindy on the podcast
Tuesday
How much will coronavirus cripple the British economy?
10 min listen
Today the Office for Budget Responsibility has released a new analysis of the impact of coronavirus on the British economy. Kate Andrews writes about exactly what it says here, and joins the podcast with Katy Balls and Cindy Yu to discuss its implications.
Monday
As lockdown continues, will this be the toughest week yet?
13 min listen
In today’s press conference, Patrick Vallance said that the daily death toll is likely to be even higher this week, before it starts to go down. With the government facing increasing criticism and pressure over PPE and testing, will this be the toughest week yet?
