Best of the Spectator

Britain’s mums are backing Nigel Farage. One in five Mumsnet users intend to vote for Reform at the next general election, the first time a party other than Labour has topped its poll. Having been more negative towards Farage and the right in the past, why are its politically engaged users changing their minds? Are they swayed by issues like single-sex spaces, or does it reflect a wider collapse of confidence in the establishment?

J...

Can Farage plot a route to Number 10, asks Tim Shipman in our cover article this week. He might be flanked by heavyweights – such as his head of policy Zia Yusuf and Conservative Party defector Danny Kruger MP – but he will need a lot more people to pull off his biggest upset for British politics yet. Where will they come from? And what’s the balance he needs to strike between being radical enough to win power but also without alie...

For the full episode, search 'Quite right!' wherever you are listening now.

This week: Michael and Maddie dissect Donald Trump’s audacious raid on Venezuela and ask what it reveals about power, national interest and the unravelling of the rules-based order. Was America acting like a rogue state – or simply doing what states do when their interests are at stake? And could Britain learn a thing or two from how they conduct their fore...

Regular listeners will remember back in May we recorded a podcast debating whether Kemi Badenoch was the right fit for Tory leader. At that point in time the Conservatives were falling in the polls and she was facing allegations of laziness and a lack of a political vision. Spool forward to the end of the year and she is in her strongest position ever. She looks more assured in PMQs, her conference speech was a hit and her media ga...

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Cosmo Landesman says life is too short to watch boring shows; Alex Diggins reports back from the Bukhara art biennial; Lucy Dunn provides her notes on BuzzBallz – which featured at the Spectator’s Christmas party; and, Richard Bratby reviews L’amour des trois oranges at the Royal Northern College of Music and Ariodante at the Royal Opera House. 

Produced and presen...

The US launched a military operation in Venezuela, targeting the regime in Caracas and detaining President Nicolás Maduro, who has been transferred to New York where he faces charges of narcoterrorism. Donald Trump has described the move as a decisive defence of American interests, but critics point point to the double standards when it come to Trump's ‘America First’ doctrine.

Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest, joins...

James Heale sits down with Sir John Curtice, the doyen of British polling, to take stock of an extraordinary year in UK politics and to look ahead to what 2026 might hold. Curtice explains why the rise of Reform UK during the spring local elections marked a historic turning point – establishing the longest period in polling history where a party outside the traditional Conservative–Labour duopoly has led nationwide and assesses Lab...

A far cry from the ‘roaring twenties' of the early 20th Century, the 2020s can be characterised as the ‘boring twenties’, argue Gus Carter and Rupert Hawksley in our new year edition of the Spectator. Record numbers of young people are out of work but even those with jobs face such a dire cost-of-living situation that they have no money left over to spend on fun. Traditional cultural outings – like going to the theat...

For the full episode, search 'Quite right!' wherever you are listening now.

This is an extract from the second of a two-part discussion with Dominic Cummings, in which he reflects on his time in government – what he got right and what he regrets – and what he believes must change for the country to thrive.

In part two, Dominic diagnoses the ‘pre-revolutionary’ mood of British politics, marked by voter rage, economic stagnation and in...

The Spectator’s senior editorial team – Michael Gove, Freddy Gray, Lara Prendergast and William Moore – sit down to reflect on 2025. From Trump’s inauguration to the calamitous year for Labour, a new Pope and a new Archbishop of Canterbury, and the ongoing wars in Gaza and Ukraine, the year has not been short of things to write about.

The team take us through their favourite political and cultural topics highlighted in the magaz...

For this special Spectator Out Loud, Sarah Perry reads her short story Slipshod, from the Spectator's Christmas issue. The story follows an academic tasked with reconstructing a disturbing incident involving two long-standing colleagues whose close friendship unravels under the weight of envy, illness – and something harder to explain. What emerges from the investigation is a chilling reflection on rivalry, resentment and how burie...

Anglican author The Rev'd Fergus Butler-Gallie, Catholic priest Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith and Evangelical commentator Fleur Meston join Damian Thompson to reflect on 2025. They discuss Pope Leo XIV's leadership so far, the choice of Dame Sarah Mullally as Archbishop of Canterbury and why Christianity has been coopted by the far right. Plus, was the 'quiet revival' of Church-going the start of a trend – or just a blip?

Produced by...

The SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, MP for Aberdeen South, joins Lucy Dunn for a special episode to assess the place of the SNP in British politics as we approach the end of 2025. The SNP were ‘decimated’ to just nine MPs at the 2024 general election – yet, if polls are to be believed, they are on course for another record win in the 2026 Holyrood elections. But can the SNP really frame this election as a ‘fresh start’?

Flyn...

Surely needing no introduction to Spectator listeners, Michael Gove has been a staple of British politics for almost two decades. As a Christmas treat, he joins Lara Prendergast to talk about his memories of food including: the 'brain food' he grew up on in Aberdeen, his favourite Oxford pubs and the dining culture of 1980s Fleet Street. He also shares his memorable moments from his time in politics from dining with Elizabeth Hurle...