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The Edition
Putin’s trap, the decline of shame & holiday rental hell
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First: Putin has set a trap for Europe and Ukraine
‘Though you wouldn’t know from the smiles in the White House this week… a trap has been set by Vladimir Putin to split the United States from its European allies,’ warns Owen Matthews. The Russian President wants to make a deal with Donald Trump, but he ‘wants to make it on his own terms’. ‘Putin would like nothing more than for Europe to encourage Ukraine to fight on… and lose even more of their land’. But, as Owen writes, those who count themselves among the country’s friends must ask ‘whether it’s time to choose an unjust peace over a just but never-ending war’.
Have European leaders walked into Putin’s trap? Owen joins the podcast alongside Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times.
Next: Lionel Shriver, Toby Young & Igor Toronyi-Lalic on the decline of shame in society
A rise in brazen shoplifting, attempts to police public spaces and moralising over ‘Art’ – these are all topics touched on by columnists Lionel Shriver and Toby Young and Arts editor Igor Toronyi-Lalic in the magazine this week. Are these individual problems in their own right, or could they be symptomatic of wider failings in British society?
Lionel, Toby and Igor joined the podcast to try to make sense of why guilt and shame seem to have disappeared in modern Britain.
And finally: the hell of owning a holiday rental
William Cash writes in the magazine this week about the trials and tribulations of running a holiday let. He complains that the lines between hotels and holiday lets have become blurred, and people of all ages are now becoming guests from hell. He writes: ‘it has become increasingly evident that middle class families have no idea how to behave on holiday… basic guest decorum seems to belong to a different summer holiday age’.
So how did things get so bad? William joined the podcast alongside Spectator columnist Melissa Kite – who runs her own B&B in Ireland.
Plus: ahead of the long weekend, Mark Mason reveals who we can thank for bank holidays.
Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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AI will bring down Keir Starmer – if Peter Mandelson doesn’t first
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‘No-one voted for them’ – Douglas Murray on the men actually running Britain
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Iran’s useful idiots, Gordon Brown’s second term & the Right’s race obsession
42:59|As the world watches events in Iran, and wonders whether the US will intervene, the Spectator’s cover this week examines 'British complicity in Tehran’s terror’. When thinking about what could happen next in the crisis, there is a false dichotomy presented between regime survival and revolution; the reality is more complicated, though there is no doubt that this is the biggest threat to the theocratic regime in decades. For this week’s Edition, host Lara Prendergast is joined by political editor Tim Shipman, columnist Rachel Johnson and features editor – and Edition co-host – William Moore. They commend the bravery of Iran’s protestors but criticise the ‘inept, naive and wrong’ response of the Foreign Office. Are some Brits proving to be Iran’s ‘useful idiots’? As well as the crisis in the Middle East, they discuss: whether the Starmer administration should be considered Gordon Brown’s second term; the growing obsession with race in Britain – particularly by the right; Rachel’s reflections on her travels to the US – from transatlantic cruise liners to partying with our former colleague Katy Balls; why some men lament the loss of their libido; and finally, the controversy over Elon Musk’s AI tool ‘Grok’. Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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