Podcast

Coffee House Shots

Instant political analysis from The Spectator’s top team of writers, including Michael Gove, Isabel Hardman, James Heale, Lucy Dunn and many others.

Instant political analysis from The Spectator’s top team of writers, including Michael Gove, Isabel Hardman, James Heale, Lucy Dunn and many others.

Coffee House Shots

Westminster sex scandals: why do we care?

Cindy Yu talks to Fraser Nelson and Guido Fawkes blogger Paul Staines about the Matt Hancock revelations and how reporting on sex scandals has changed over the years.

Play 24 mins

Coffee House Shots

Is Hancock’s position under threat?

The Sun broke the news this morning that Health Secretary Matt Hancock has seemingly been up to some extra-marital exploits with his aide Gina Coladangelo, possibly breaking many of the Covid restrictions that he himself put in place. What will be the consequences of his hypocrisy? ‘This simply demonstrates that we’ve been through a period where

Play 14 mins

Coffee House Shots

Will Brits be welcomed abroad this summer?

Daily new cases are just under 17,000 today, and Angela Merkel has advised other EU leaders to make British tourists quarantine upon entry to the bloc. So even if the British government allows a more liberal green list, would British tourists be welcomed abroad? Cindy Yu talks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls. Katy points

Play 10 mins

Coffee House Shots

Five years later will we ever truly move on from Brexit?

It’s the five year anniversary of when the UK decided to leave the European Union and while the opposition are looking to try and put the referendum behind them, the government still seems keen to put any UK success squarely on the shoulders of Brexit. ‘There is an asymmetry in British politics now between about

Play 13 mins

Coffee House Shots

Who’s being hurt by ‘white privilege’?

While Labour are shuffling people round yet again.. ‘There needs to be a change in messaging from the leader’s office, because otherwise it just looks like he’s rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic.’ – Isabel Hardman And the DUP are getting ready to welcome in their third leader in less than a month… ‘Donaldson is actually in

Play 14 mins

Coffee House Shots

What’s the plan for planning reform?

With the Conservatives still taking stock after their loss in the recent by-election, it seems the governments ambitions for planning reform are now firmly under the microscope. ‘When you speak to these MPs… they are absolutely convinced that planning reform is dead’ – Katy Balls  And on what would have been ‘freedom day’, there are

Play 13 mins

Coffee House Shots

Will Boris Johnson face more southern rebels?

The surprise result of Friday’s Chesham and Amersham by-election has led to questions over why the Conservative lost just so badly – and why no one saw it coming. On today’s Coffee House Shots, Conservative Home’s Paul Goodman warns against over-reading the situation: ‘When it comes to by-elections, the golden rule should be, why not presume that

Play 18 mins

Coffee House Shots

How do you explain the Lib Dems’ stunning victory?

In a political upset the Liberal Democrats have won the by-election in Chesham and Amersham in a massive poll swing from the Tories.  ‘What they’ve done is overturned a majority of 16,000 and then they’ve had quite a few votes to boot!’ – Katy Balls And in other political the new DUP leader Edwin Poots

Play 11 mins

Coffee House Shots

How much trouble is the DUP in?

New DUP leader Edwin Poots faces his first challenge today as he tries to push through a controversial candidate for First Minister. There are now rumours that the party may launch a vote of no-confidence in him, only a month after he became leader. How much trouble is the party in? Katy Balls points out that

Play 13 mins

Coffee House Shots

Is Matt Hancock hopeless?

Another day, another Dom bomb. In Cummings’s latest release, a number of WhatsApp messages reveal communications between himself and the Prime Minister, with the latter describing the health secretary Matt Hancock’s performance as effing ‘hopeless’.  Is this damaging to Hancock? Or is this the sentiment that you can expect from senior people who work at close

Play 13 mins

Coffee House Shots

Will the Australia trade deal really make a difference?

The government has agreed its first post-Brexit bespoke trade deal. But the agreement with Australia has already caused consternation among Conservative MPs about the potential competition from Australian farmers. Are these fears overstated? James Forsyth argues yes: ‘Both its proponents and its critics exaggerate its importance. Meat prices in Asia are roughly twice what they

Play 17 mins

Coffee House Shots

How long will political and public patience last?

It seems Freedom Day is no longer June 21st. The writing was clearly on the wall this morning, but now the Prime Minister has officially told the public, it is likely to be another four weeks of restrictions. ‘Conservative MPs are getting really agitated by this moving of the goal posts‘ – Isabel Hardman But after

Play 11 mins

Coffee House Shots

How can Boris justify delay?

Boris Johnson is expected to announce a delay to reopening later today. How will the Prime Minister make his case, and will his backbenchers support him? Cindy Yu speaks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth. On the podcast, Katy says uneasy Conservatives may give him the benefit of the doubt this time: ‘There are some Tory

Play 18 mins

Coffee House Shots

Should we delay 21 June?

On Monday, the Prime Minister will announce whether the 21 June unlocking is to go ahead. Because of the increased transmissibility of the Delta Covid variant, cases in the UK are continuing to rise. Does it make sense to wait for data to confirm that the link between cases, hospitalisations and deaths has been broken,

Play 29 mins

Coffee House Shots

Can the G7 beat Russia and China’s vaccine diplomacy?

As the G7 rolls on and the world leaders learn where their peers stand on certain issues post Covid…  ‘There’s still a chance the Northern Ireland protocol could come up at the G7 and cause some problems…’ – Katy Balls …the wealthy western nations need to decide how best to help vaccinate the world’s poorer

Play 8 mins

Coffee House Shots

Could Brexit scupper the G7?

The long-anticipated G7 meeting in Cornwall has got off to a rocky start today, as it transpired that the US had lodged a ‘demarché’ – a diplomatic ultimatum – with David Frost, earlier in the week, over the UK’s position on the Northern Ireland Protocol. Could tensions spill over? James Forsyth points out that the

Play 14 mins

Coffee House Shots

Are Brexit talks back to the bad old days?

Today, talks between David Frost and the EU’s negotiator Maroš Šefčovič ended with little agreement about how to move forward on the Northern Ireland Protocol. As James Forsyth says on the podcast: ‘it didn’t end with either man walking out of the meeting, but you probably can’t say much more for it than that.’ This is partly

Play 10 mins

Coffee House Shots

Is the foreign aid row a sign of things to come?

Though the amendment on foreign aid was not selected by the Speaker yesterday, the row over the budget cut is not over yet. Today MPs will have an emergency debate about the policy, and Lindsey Hoyle has advised that the government should bring the matter in front of the House in the future. This is

Play 13 mins

Coffee House Shots

How much trouble is the government in over foreign aid?

After the government cut the UK’s foreign aid budget a group of rebellious tory MPs bound together to try and reverse the decision, will it come to a head this week?‘This cut has caused some resentment amongst other nations’ – Isabel Hardman And has the culture war spread to cricket after the suspension of Ollie

Play 13 mins

Coffee House Shots

What can the west do about China?

As China changes its two child policy to a three child policy over fears of population decline, the west is also having to regularly change its approach towards the world’s next superpower. John Connolly talks to James Forsyth and Cindy Yu about our precarious relationship with China.

Play 14 mins

Coffee House Shots

Can Rishi Sunak get the G7 on side?

With the G7 looming the range of subjects on the agenda is vast. One of the first items up is the proposal of a global corporate tax rate which President Joe Biden has already endorsed. The potential issue with this that James pointed out on the pod was: “For this to work, this global corporate

Play 13 mins

Coffee House Shots

Could travel this summer be stricter than last?

It’s been a stressful day for those who’ve booked foreign holidays, as the government updated the latest countries on its various coloured travel lists. No new countries were added to the green list, but some were moved to amber. On the podcast, James Forsyth explains how this decision is down to a desire to prioritise

Play 10 mins

Coffee House Shots

Is £1.4 billion enough for schools?

The government’s education tsar Kevan Collins resigned this afternoon, saying that the £1.4 billion pledged by the government for schools is only a tenth of what is needed. Cindy Yu speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls about who will take the flack. On the podcast, James says Collins’s resignation is ’embarrassing for the government’. The

Play 13 mins

Coffee House Shots

What difference does a wedding make?

Now officially in June, the significance of the 21st seems even greater for the country, but with the Indian variant still on the rise how safe is the date? Katy Balls says that for the government: ‘The plan is to offer all over fifties two doses before June 21st.’ And a glorious weekend of weather for

Play 12 mins

Coffee House Shots

Will the DUP lose ground under Edwin Poots?

This week Edwin Poots was formally endorsed as the DUP’s new leader, in a meeting which Arlene Foster, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (Poots’s rival in the leadership campaign) and other senior DUP politicians walked out of before Poots gave a speech. What does the future hold for the divided political party that held so much sway

Play 11 mins

Coffee House Shots

Will Hancock cling on?

Matt Hancock defended his position at a Downing Street press conference yesterday. He told journalists that, by his ‘recollection of events’, he told the Prime Minister that hospital patients would be tested before being sent to care homes ‘when we could do it’. Dominic Cummings says the Health Secretary promised all patients would receive a

Play 14 mins

Coffee House Shots

Will Hancock hit back?

After the hanger full of Dom bombs that were dropped in yesterday’s epic seven hour hearing, health secretary Matt Hancock got a sizeable chunk of Cummings wrath. Isabel Hardman talks to Katy Balls and James Forsyth about how Hancock has been handling himself since the allegations were levelled at him.  James points out on the podcast that Hancock was never going to have

Play 11 mins

Coffee House Shots

What we learnt from the Cummings evidence

From accusing Matt Hancock of criminal incompetence, to lifting the lid on the true nature of his relationship with Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings’s evidence was nothing short of explosive. Katy Balls talks to Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth about the highlights and what we learnt. There were few who escaped Cummings’s censure. But in some

Play 17 mins

Coffee House Shots

How damaging is the Tory Islamophobia report?

Islamophobia ‘remains a problem’ in the Conservative party, a report has found. Professor Swaran Singh, who analysed more than a thousand complaints of misconduct for his investigation, said that some Tories needed a ‘completely new mindset’. Boris Johnson himself gave evidence to the inquiry, and when asked about his column saying a group of black

Play 11 mins

Coffee House Shots

What will Dominic Cummings say?

When Dominic Cummings appears in front of a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, the former aide is expected to attack Whitehall’s institutional structure, a lack of government transparency in the pandemic, and the Prime Minister himself. In a still growing Twitter thread, the former aide has laid out his critique of how the government handled Covid-19.

Play 10 mins