Antisemitism, Chinese spies & GB's economic fragility
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's been a rough week for the government: the row over the collapsed Chinese spy trial has rolled on, all while the Chancellor has been trying to lay the groundwork ahead of next month's budget. Then, overnight, another issue has emerged as fans of the Maccabi Tel Aviv football team have been banned from attending a football game against Aston Villa next month, leading to accusations of antisemitism.
Tim Shipman and Michael Simmons join James Heale to discuss the day's developments. Tim reveals how the Chinese spy row has been picked up by American legislators, threatening to undermine the Five Eyes security alliance. Meanwhile Michael points out that the news that the IMF has upgraded UK growth forecasts – to the second fastest growing of the G7 – might not be all it seems.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:41.2 | Hello. to claim this offer now. Terms apply. Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm James Heel and I'm joined today by Tim |
| 0:44.3 | Schittman and Michael Simmons. Now Tim, there's been a row that's broken overnight which is |
| 0:48.0 | about a Maccabee Tel Aviv are due to come to Villa Park to play a match year shortly and |
| 0:53.3 | the local council has banned |
| 0:54.6 | their fans from coming. This is developed into a major route, of course, because the implications |
| 0:58.0 | for anti-Semitism, I want it mean to the Jewish community. Talk us through it. Yeah, I mean, |
| 1:03.0 | say up front, the fans of Maccabee-Telaviv have a bit of a reputation, and they caused quite a bit |
| 1:09.3 | of disruption in Amsterdam recently. But I think pretty well |
| 1:14.1 | every major figure in the British political class outside of the independent MPs who got elected |
| 1:20.1 | on a Gaza prospectus and the hard left of the Labour Party are pretty horrified by what has happened. |
| 1:26.3 | There's a sort of independent quango panel that decided |
| 1:29.6 | that they should be banned from this game. West Midlands police seem to have said that they |
| 1:36.7 | accept that and agree with it, more to the point. And then as of last night, we saw Keir Stama, |
| 1:43.8 | Ed Davy, Kemi Badenock, latterly the Labor Police |
| 1:48.2 | and Crime Commissioner for the area, all saying this is a serious mistake. Robert Jenrick |
... |
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