Madeline Grant is The Spectator’s assistant editor and parliamentary sketch writer.
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‘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
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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
From our UK edition
30 min listen
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:
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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
From our UK edition
42 min listen
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:
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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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30 min listen
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
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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
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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
From our UK edition
42 min listen
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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35 min listen
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
From our UK edition
50 min listen
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
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‘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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40 min listen
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
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‘Mr Speaker, this government has the right economic plan for this country.’ It’s never a good sign for a sombre economic statement when your opening line gets a hearty laugh. Rachel Reeves stood up to give a Spring Statement on the economy which might just as well have been a hostage video. The Chancellor’s delivery
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Politics students of the future – if there are any who can see the full length of study without recourse to industrial amounts of anti-depressants – will study the Gorton and Denton by election, which saw the Greens’ Hannah Spencer beat not only Labour but also Matt Goodwin of Reform. So they all appeared in
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In the film Goodbye Lenin, a German family has to convince a fussy, old woman who is also a committed socialist that everything going on outside her window is fine and dandy when, in fact, the Iron Curtain has fallen, the entire lie on which her life was built has crumbled and that this is
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Sunday marks what would have been the 100th birthday of Kenneth Williams. It’s tempting to try to imagine what he would have been like had he lived longer, though the absurdity of our age might have been beyond even his acid observation. That’s perhaps the most interesting aspect of Williams: he can’t be imagined in
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53 min listen
This week, Michael and Maddie consider Reform UK’s succession plan. With Nigel Farage unveiling his new shadow cabinet, attention shifts to the bigger question: who comes after him? Is Reform preparing for life beyond its founder – and if so, who stands ready to inherit the crown? Also this week, they examine the fallout from