25 min listen
On this week’s episode, Jeff Fynn-Paul argues that land taken over by European colonialists in North America wasn’t ‘stolen’; Christopher Snowdon says the economic scars of coronavirus will define the decade; and Jo Deacon explains the drink being hailed as a Covid cure by Madagascar’s president.
15 min listen
Historian Jeff Fynn-Paul joins Freddy on this episode to discuss whether or not America was really ‘stolen’ from the Native Americans. Fynn-Paul writes about the issue in this week’s Spectator.
The first thing I heard when I switched on the French radio this morning was a Green activist berating the world for its lack of urgency in tackling climate change. That’s why, he explained, Youth for Climate France is organising a series of demonstrations this weekend, including one on Saturday in which Extinction Rebellion will be present. Another protest took place in France today, this one in Marseille where hundreds of angry residents vented their anger at the government’s announcement on Wednesday that as of tomorrow the city’s bars and restaurants must close for two weeks. It was only a few weeks ago that president Macron was playing it cool
39 min listen
Another Conservative civil war threatens to bubble over, so will the government start taking its backbenchers seriously? (00:55) Plus, the contentious fight over the next Supreme Court nominee (15:25) and what is it like to be in Madagascar during the pandemic? (29:05) With Political Editor James Forsyth; Chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers Sir Graham Brady; Professor Charles Lipson from the University of Chicago; USA Editor Freddy Gray; and writer Jo Deacon. Presented by Cindy Yu. Produced by Cindy Yu and Max Jeffery.
Last month, in the middle of the Covid panic, a group of first-year university students at the University of Connecticut were welcomed to their campus via a series of online ‘events’. At one event, students were directed to download an app for their phones. The app allowed students to input their home address, and it would piously inform them from which group of Native Americans their home had been ‘stolen’. We all know the interpretation of history on which this app is based. The United States was founded by a monumental act of genocide, accompanied by larceny on the grandest scale. Animated by racism and a sense of civilisational superiority,
Hard though it is to remember now, 2020 began with a very different dark cloud on the horizon. For a week or so it looked as if the West’s cold war with Iran would burst into full-scale conflict. The assassination by US forces of Iran’s revolutionary guard leader Qassem Soleimani on 3 January sent oil prices soaring and raised fears that President Trump’s reputation as a war-monger was finally to be deserved. As we now know, the crisis fizzled into nothing. In retaliation, Iran halfheartedlyfired missiles at a couple of air bases in Iraq where US forces were stationed, killing no one. Donald Trump announced ‘all is well’ and, as
Earlier this month, in his weekly address to the nation, our President, the former DJ and coup leader Andry Rajoelina, announced that Madagascar would shortly produce an injectable treatment for Covid, ‘a medicinal cure not just for Madagascar but for the world’. This was no great surprise to the people of Madagascar. After all, way back in April, when Covid had barely hit our beautifully remote island, President Andry launched Covid Organics, a miracle drink that serves as both a prophylactic and a cure to the virus sweeping the world. Covid Organics, also known as CVO, is based on a herbal remedy for malaria, artemisia annua, along with extracts from
26 min listen
A new poll from Harvard suggests that Joe Biden could win the votes of 60 per cent of under-30s in November’s election. But does the Democratic candidate really energise young people, or are they simply repelled by Donald Trump? Freddy Gray speaks to Marcus Roberts, director of international projects at YouGov, about the numbers dictating the race.
Sweden didn’t ‘refuse’ to lockdown. Nor does it have a herd immunity strategy, although it was recognised that some level of immunity in the population could be a side effect of its approach. The false premise of that rumour is that Sweden stayed open in order to allow the virus to spread, thus promoting herd immunity. In reality, Swedish law does not allow for many types of lockdown measures. Even something as simple as closing a beach is tricky because, in general, beach access is covered by the Right of Public Access which, in turn, is enshrined in the Swedish constitution. The limitations of Swedish law partly explain why the parliament passed
Ruth the Moabite is the only Biblical figure to merit the description ‘eshet chayil’ – ‘a woman of valour’. One rabbinical exegesis sees Proverbs 31’s womanly virtues as a reference to Ruth: ‘Many women have done well, but you surpass them all.’ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died aged 87 on Erev Rosh Hashanah, surpassed the expectations and limitations placed on women who came before her. But she did more than that: the Brooklyn-born lawyer fundamentally transformed the role of women in law and changed the law on women’s roles. Only the second woman appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States, she authored the majority opinion in cases such
The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a terrible blow to Democrats, but there is an important point to be considered – the principled arguments Democrats made in 2016 after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia prevail. Democrats insisted that the Scalia vacancy should be filled swiftly by President Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, but the Republican-controlled Senate refused to hold hearings. Their pleas were not in vain, however, and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has now been persuaded by the logic and compassion of the Democrats’ case – and this time the president’s nominee will, probably, get a speedy hearing. It took four years, but Democrats will get the
17 min listen
On this week’s episode, Swedish journalist Paulina Neuding talks about Sweden’s crime surge; Toby Young on why he has given up on Boris; and Lloyd Evans on going to the theatre in the age of Covid.
Is Donald Trump taking the Democrats’ line on Brexit and the Irish border? We might think so from the Financial Times. On Friday, the FT quoted Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland, saying that the Trump administration, the State Department and the US Congress ‘would all be aligned in the desire to see the Good Friday Agreement preserved to see the lack of a border maintained’, and that no one wants ‘a border by accident’. Does this mean that the Trump administration agrees with Joe Biden? No, it doesn’t. Biden, along with House of Representatives leader Nancy Pelosi and a gaggle of Democratic committee leaders, is siding with
I meet Liam Fox at a tavern on St Martins Lane. It’s spitting with rain outside the pub, covered in wood panelling floor-to-ceiling and eclectic memorabilia on every wall. We’re amongst just a handful of patrons, surrounded by empty tables spread out in accordance with social distancing guidelines. ‘People will say in my own constituency that they’re operating at about 40 per cent capacity’, Fox mentions when we’re talking about the prospects of a V-shaped recovery. He’s not optimistic: ‘It’s really hard to say… maybe is the answer’. It’s a Sunday afternoon, but it’s clear the Rt Hon MP for North Somerset isn’t distinguishing between weekdays and weekends right now:
German politicians have been understandably fired up about Boris Johnson’s plan to breach the Brexit treaty. While the relationship between the two countries already suffered during the Brexit negotiations, allies of chancellor Angela Merkel are astonished by Johnson’s recent actions. They believe that the UK will become an unreliable partner if the treaty will be broken. However, one lawmaker from Merkel’s Christian Democrats went a step too far in condemning Britain. Backbencher Detlef Seif has made some waves in recent times with his statements on Brexit and EU politics. But nothing is likely to surpass his comment this week as to what is unfolding across the North Sea. Seif, who is the
Some things are right even if Donald Trump believes them. The President’s Constitution Day speech was a doughty defence of America from the slanders of its enemies domestic, but it was also an uncanny, if wholly inadvertent, defence of liberalism. Uncanny because liberals have waited a long time to hear a senior liberal politician demur from the ascendant anti-liberalism, let alone challenge its ideology head-on, and yet the dissent is being led by an anti-liberal of a different stripe. Mainstream Democrats quibble here and there with one aspect or another of the new regime — whether the giddy apologias for violence; conspiracy theories about routine, homicidal police racism; or contempt
37 min listen
From Covid to Brexit to even the culture wars, Boris’s performance seems to have been lacklustre. Where is the effervescent leader he was promised to be? (00:45) Sweden’s violent crime is spiking – and are politicians afraid to say why? (16:45) And on the other side of the world, why are the Japanese so much happier to wear masks? (27:55) With Spectator Editor Fraser Nelson; Director of Political Insight Stewart Jackson; journalist Paulina Neuding; the FT’s Nordic Bureau Chief Richard Milne; Professor Jordan Sand; and Spectator Assistant Editor Lara Prendergast. Presented by Cindy Yu.
Readers may recall a column last month that laid out powerful evidence for the proposition that the ethnic and racial disparities for dire Covid outcomes are overwhelmingly due to obesity. While I also read the piece aloud for posting online, fewer of you will have listened to the audio rendition. That’s because YouTube took it down. The explanation was pro forma: the column violated the site’s opaque ‘community guidelines’. An appeal produced the further explanation: ‘YouTube does not allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts the World Health Organisation or local health authorities’ medical information about Covid-19, including on methods to prevent, treat, or diagnose Covid-19 and means of
On any given street in Tokyo today, almost everyone will be wearing a mask. The Covid-19 death toll in Japan is around 1,500 in a country of 126 million people. This is dramatically less than the UK’s, yet everyone still covers up, and there are hardly any anti-mask movements of the sort that have become popular in Europe and America. Why are the Japanese so happy to wear masks, when it makes some people from other nationalities so cross? The first reason is the most obvious: to avoid spreading germs. Not catching germs, mind — spreading germs. It is considered bad manners in Japan to have a cold or a
Stockholm ‘We have an obvious problem,’ admitted the Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven recently. He was referring not to the Covid pandemic, but to a summer of crime that has left even jaded Swedes reeling in disbelief. There are regular bombings, hand grenade attacks and shootings. Young men are killing each other at a horrific rate — ten times that of Germany. The feeling is growing that the government has completely lost control. Yet, while Löfven has finally acknowledged the existence of the problem, he still seems in denial about its true nature. Last month in Botkyrka, south of Stockholm, a 12-year-old girl walking her dog was killed by a
