This week, the government looks close to the finishing line – now all Boris wants for Christmas is an early general election, James Forsyth and Katy Balls write in this week’s cover. But will Corbyn let it happen? On the podcast, Katy and James talk to James Mills, former advisor to John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn. Rather hair-raisingly, James Mills tells us that if it were up to him, he wouldn’t allow the government to call an election until the spring. Cripes.
And as months of grenade attacks blight Swedish neighbourhoods, we get to the bottom of why Sweden doesn’t want to talk about its rise in violent crime. In this week’s issue, Quillette’s Paulina Neuding writes about how those who want to talk about it are seen as bigots, as these attacks generally happen in immigrant neighbourhoods. So what’s going on? Lara Prendergast talks to Paulina and Amir Rostami, criminologist and superintendent of the Swedish police.
Last, Mark Mason, author of The Importance of Being Trivial, has noticed more and more people saying ‘and I’, when they really mean ‘and me’. It’s all out of a fear of getting things wrong, Mark suggests – the solution is to realise that rules about language are more like guidelines. So is he right that there’s no wrong way to speak English? Mark’s on the podcast together with Sam Leith, our literary editor.
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