Best of the Spectator

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Wolfgang Munchau on the political situation in Germany. (00:49)

Next, Andrew Watts on his year long battle against a parking ticket. (11:01)

And finally, Hannah Tomes on her love of Baileys. (15:33)

Produced and presented by Sam Holmes

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Bridget Phillipson is the shadow education secretary and MP for Houghton and Sunderland South. On this episode, recorded just before Labour's last reshuffle where Bridget was promoted, she talks to Katy about what it was like to go to Oxford from a humble upbringing, how Labour can win the next election, and why she didn't take career advice from school telling her to be a fence-builder.

In this week’s episode: Is the current NHS crisis a bug or a feature?

In the Spectator’s cover story this week, our economics editor Kate Andrews writes about the state of the NHS and why even though reform is so clearly needed it's nearly politically impossible to try to do so. She joins the podcast with Isabel Hardman who is currently writing a book on the history of the NHS. (00:53)

Also this week: How is the nation feeling about the Omicron variant?

The news of the Omicron variant has not only worried the public about what may become of their Christmas plans, but the government has also reacted by bringing in new travel restrictions and mask mandates. Two of our columnists Lionel Shriver and Rod Liddle have both given their views on the latest pandemic precautions in week’s magazine and on the podcast they continue those conversations. (16:25)

  

And finally: Now it’s December can we open the Baileys?

Now it’s December, Christmas celebrations can begin. Our own Hannah Tomes has written about one of her favourite festive delights. Baileys. She joins the podcast along with another Irish cream connoisseur, Lara Prendergast, and the Spectator’s Deputy Editor Freddy Gray who heard we were drinking Baileys and couldn’t resist.  (33:02)

Hosted by Lara Prendergast

Produced by Sam Holmes

Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:

www.spectator.co.uk/voucher 

Listen to Isabel's podcast on the NHS post Covid, Aftershock:

https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/The-NHS-edition

Money is not generally discussed at the dinner table, and inheritance even less so. So, do parents do enough to pass down responsible personal finance habits to the next generation? And if not, how can those conversations be had? On this live recording of The Spectator’s Women With Balls podcast, deputy political editor Katy Balls will be joined by Charlotte Ransom and Dame Helena Morrissey to discuss breaking the taboo around money and offering practical tips on investing across the generations. 

Sponsored by Netwealth.

This year Faber and Faber started the project of republishing the late Nobel Laureate William Golding's back catalogue -- starting with Pincher Martin, The Inheritors and The Spire. Sam is joined by his daughter Judy Golding -- author of The Children of Lovers: A Memoir of William Golding By His Daughter-- to talk about Golding the writer and Golding the man. What were the deep fears that drove his work and were eased by drink? How did the war change his worldview? And what was the nature of the religious sensibility that underpinned his visionary allegories of folly and evil?

Sun Yat-sen was the founding father of China's first republic, when the Qing dynasty was overthrown. Here he sits, with his successor Chiang Kai-Shek standing behind. They were two among many intellectuals and politicians whose agitations helped contribute to modern Chinese national identity. In his book, The Invention of China, journalist Bill Hayton argues that this is where 'China' and the key parts that contribute to a modern Chinese identity - territorial claims, ethnicities, history and so on - were moulded into an 'imagined' nationalism.

Cindy Yu interviews Bill in this episode, and they discuss everything from the contribution of foreign aggressors (especially Japan) to China's modern identity, to the ferocious intellectual debate about which ethnicities are 'Chinese' - just Han? Or Mongols, Manchurians, Tibetans and Uyghurs too? Plus - is any national identity around the world not constructed?

Katy Balls speaks to broadcaster Jeremy Vine; Oxford ethics professor Dominic Wilkinson; former Liberal Democrats leader Vince Cable; Penguin books editor Henry Eliot; and Spectator journalists Cindy Yu, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Sam Leith.

We discuss Boris's CBI speech, whether a lockdown of the unvaccinated is morally justifiable, and what makes a classic book.

Click here to watch the full episode.

On this week's episode, we’ll hear from Douglas Murray who says that the case of Kyle Rittenhouse shows nothing in America matters more than your identity. (00:55)

Next, Henry Eliot wonders, what makes a book a classic? (08:30)

And finally, Sam Holmes tells us about his time as a Hamleys Christmas elf. (16:31)

Produced and presented by Max Jeffery

Subscribe to The Spectator today and we'll send you a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label worth £30

www.spectator.co.uk/voucher 

In this week’s episode: Just who is protesting new Covid rules in Europe? 

In The Spectator this week we have three articles that cover the riots and protests all over Europe about new covid policies. Two of them report the scene on the ground in different countries. Lionel Barber and Nick Farrell write respectively about the situations in Holland and Italy and talk on the podcast about why this is happening now and how much more it could escalate. (00:45)

Also this week: Is China having its own hand and the #MeToo moment?

A spotlight has been shined on China in recent days, due to the troubling series of events surrounding the Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai. Who after making claims of being pressured into a sexual relationship with a CCP official, disappeared for days, as all mentions of her claims were wiped from social media. Cindy Yu writes about this story in this week’s Spectator and talks on the podcast about the history of China’s mistress culture. (14:17)

  

And finally: What does it take to be a Hamleys elf? 

Christmas is coming and if there are children in your life begging for this season's hottest toy, you might find yourself at Hamleys, the world’s oldest toys store, and as you enter you may well be greeted by a festive elf. But what’s it like being one of these red and green-clad friends of Father Christmas? Our podcast producer Sam Holmes writes in The Spectator this week about his experience as an elf when he was 19. Sam is joined on the podcast by Mark Campbell, the current Lego man at Hamleys and Sam’s old boss from his elf days. (21:00)

Hosted by Lara Prendergast

Produced by Sam Holmes

Subscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:

www.spectator.co.uk/voucher 

Listen to Lara’s food-based interview show, Table Talk:

https://www.spectator.co.uk/tabletalk 

Freddy Grays talks to Mark P Mills, the energy and tech expert at the Manhattan Institute think tank about his new book 'The Cloud Revolution'.