Throughout Chinese history, as seen by poems and novels, drinking has been seen as a source for literary inspiration; or a form of manly competition; or, as ever, a status symbol. After a century of political turmoil in which the way people lived was radically disrupted, drinking culture is now coming back with China's growing wealth. As well as the traditional rice and sorghum spirits, grape wine is starting to dominate the Chinese palate.

On this episode, Cindy Yu's guest Janet Z Wang, author of The Chinese Wine Renaissance, tells her all about the then and the now of Chinese drinking. They chat poetry and wine, noughties extravagance (including a Bordeaux sold for $234,000) and the peculiarities of Chinese drinking culture.

Our Midlands regional final took place on Zoom — a blast from the regional past, you might say — but was no less enjoyable and stimulating for that, all four regional entrants giving an excellent account of themselves. 

They were Blutick, which is taking maths teaching online to a new level; Petalite, which offers powerful solutions for electric vehicle recharging; Regionally, which connects private investors to high-growth companies seeking capital across the UK regions; and Zipbout, an app to make travelling across transport networks easier and more efficient. 

We were delighted to be joined as guest judges by Deloitte partner Claire Evans, Charles Stanley Wealth Managers’ HR Director Kate Griffiths-Lambert and an old friend of the Awards, Clive Bawden, COO of former winner Warwick Music.

Our venue for the Yorkshire & North East regional final was the former Leeds Club — where the entrepreneurs of the region’s textile and other manufacturing industries would once have congregated. 

We welcomed back guest judges Caroline Theobald, a leading promoter of entrepreneurship in Newcastle and the North East, and Gordon Black, a venture capitalist and former manufacturer from West Yorkshire — plus a trio of Charles Stanley’s Leeds representatives. 

Our four finalists were all in cutting-edge technologies: Honcho in online vehicle insurance; Testcard in easy-access patient testing for healthcare; Element 2 in hydrogen power for truck and bus fleets; and Micropore in pharm manufacturing. 

Again, a near-impossible choice but a terrific conversation — and a range of entries from a geographical spread that tells us entrepreneurship is alive and well in the UK provinces.

Kate Andrews is joined by writer and political activist Paul Embery; journalist Ayesha Hazarika; Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith; security expert Elisabeth Braw, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; Spectator contributor Matthew Lynn; and a team of Spectator journalists.

We discuss Labour's weekend in Brighton and whether Keir Starmer is taking the party in the right direction, how Britain can be better prepared for crises and why Ursula von der Leyen was the real winner of the recent German elections.

All the way south and west to sunny Exeter to meet three more finalists: Bower Collective, a subscription-based provider of a range of household and personal care products with reusable packaging; CCM Technologies, which creates ‘green’ fertiliser from sources such as wastewater and farmyard slurry; and Psychiatry-UK, which has taken psychiatric consulting online. 

Our guest judges were Richard Cobb, senior partner of solicitors Michelmores, and Nicholas Hardie, a former FTSE100 corporate treasurer with interests ranging from housing to NHS trust board work, plus Chris Harris-Deans of sponsor Charles Stanley.

On this week's episode, Douglas Murray examines the left's tactics of victimhood in the wake of the Labour conference. (00:48)

Then James Walton gives us his review of the new Bond film, No Time to Die. (08:34)

And finally, Katy Balls talks about how the CO2 shortage could lead to a lack of her beloved Irn Bru. (11:30)

Freddy Gray speaks to The Spectator's economics editor Kate Andrews about President Biden's Infrastructure Bill and the US debt ceiling. 

As the UK faces a rising energy crisis with gas supplies in short supply, questions are arising of not just how we mitigate the problem in the short term but how we hedge against it in the long term? What role might nuclear energy play? What’s slowing down its development? Is it the technology? The funding? Or public attitudes towards nuclear energy. Can hearts and minds be swayed in its favour?

Kate Andrews is joined by Mark Jenkinson MP, vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Nuclear Energy and formerly a self-employed contractor in the nuclear supply chain; Wade Allison is emeritus professor at the University of Oxford; and Julia Pyke is the nuclear development director at EDF.

This podcast is kindly sponsored by EDF.

We were very nearly in Edinburgh Castle to meet our Scottish and Northern Ireland finalists: in the Contini restaurant next door to the Castle forecourt at the top of the tourist-filled Royal Mile. 

Veteran judges Ian Ritchie — a prominent Scottish tech investor – and former Award winner Irene McAleese of See.Sense in Northern Ireland joined John Porteous of Charles Stanley to meet four finalists. 

These were, in relatively low-tech consumer sectors, two very attractive ventures, Highland Soap and Scottish Bee, which markets Heather Honey; in the energy sector, Renewable Parts, which provides recycled components for wind turbines; and in the highest of high-tech healthcare, Sonrai Analytics from Belfast, an AI-driven ‘digital pathology’ spin-out from Queens University. 

All very persuasive presentations. Onwards to the final judging…

In this week’s episode: is Boris Johnson running on empty or is a weak opposition giving him the momentum he needs? Kate Andrews asks in her cover story this week if Boris Johnson’s government has run out of ideas – as well as petrol. Katy Balls also writes in the magazine that the opposition seems unable to take advantage of the government’s failures. Katy and Kate join William on the podcast to give their takes on the state of both parties. (00:51)
Also this week: what is behind China’s latest crackdown on cryptocurrency? Ian Williams writes in this week’s Spectator that the CCP’s latest move to criminalise anyone dealing in cryptocurrency is to clear the decks for China’s new, state-sanctioned digital currency. He along with George Magnus, author of Red Flags, Why Xi’s China is in jeopardy speak on the podcast about Beijing’s crypto future. (14:15)
And finally: are the Marvel movies – good? Love them or hate them, these superhero blockbusters have dominated the box office for more than a decade and have redefined pop culture. They may not have received particularly positive reviews in the Spectator over the years, but Rosie Millard has jumped to their defence in the magazine’s lead arts feature this week. She guests on the podcast to try and convince William to give Marvel a chance. (26:18)
 Hosted by William Moore
 Produced by Sam Holmes