Quite right!: what Britain can learn from America's 'audacity' in Venezuela
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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 foreign policy, specifically with regard to the Chagos Islands?
Then, closer to home, they unpack the scandal surrounding West Midlands Police and the banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans. Who really made the call – and what does it tell us about two-tier policing and the erosion of equal justice?
And finally: are weight-loss jabs like Ozempic and Wegovy quietly reshaping society – and what will happen when the prices drop later this year?
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, visit spectator.co.uk/quiteright
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, this is Madeline Grant, host of Quite Right alongside Michael Gove. |
| 0:04.3 | If you want to hear the latest episode of Quite Right in full, then you can do so on its dedicated podcast channel. |
| 0:10.1 | Just search Quite Right wherever you are listening now. |
| 0:13.1 | Listeners on the best of Spectator playlist can enjoy a section of our discussions, |
| 0:17.0 | but for the full thing, please seek out the Quite Right channel. |
| 0:20.3 | While you're there, click the follow button to never miss an episode. |
| 0:23.4 | And why not give us a rating and review? |
| 0:25.4 | It really helps us out. |
| 0:26.9 | Happy listening. |
| 0:33.7 | Hello and welcome to Quite Right, the Spectator's Weekly podcast. My name is Michael Goode. I'm |
| 0:40.1 | editor of The Spectator. And I'm Madeline Grant, assistant editor and parliamentary sketchwriter at The Spectator. |
| 0:45.8 | This week, we'll be looking at what Donald Trump's audacious rate on Venezuela means not just for |
| 0:50.3 | that country and for the wider Americas, but for the world and for a UK that is increasingly incapable of defending itself. |
| 0:57.7 | We'll be discussing the scandal around West Midlands Police after new information emerged about the rationale behind their ban on Maccabee Tel Aviv fans. |
| 1:07.2 | And we'll be considering what the cultural and indeed evolutionary impact of Wigovie might be. |
| 1:24.6 | Michael, over the weekend we saw an extraordinary operation from America in which Nicholas Maduro was removed as president of Venezuela and extracted in a very high-tech mission without any American loss of life. |
| 1:42.5 | I mean, an astonishing mission in itself. Fundamentally, |
| 1:46.7 | what do you think is going on here? I think that Trump was seeking to achieve two or three things. |
| 1:51.6 | I think the first thing was he genuinely saw Venezuela as a car binkle that needed a boil boil that needed to be launched in the whole of the |
| 2:05.1 | American hemisphere. |
| 2:07.5 | In the American security strategy that was laid out before Christmas, which was criticized |
| 2:12.0 | for a variety of reasons, he made it clear, the American administration made it clear |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 22 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Spectator, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Spectator and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.