Quite right!: where does Islamism come from?
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2025
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Gove and Madeline Grant confront the horror of the Bondi Beach massacre and ask why anti-Semitic violence now provokes despair rather than shock. As Jewish communities are once again targeted on holy days, they examine the roots of Islamist ideology and the failure of political leaders to name it. Why has anti-Semitism metastasised across the radical left, the Islamist world, and the far right – and why does the West seem so reluctant to grapple with its causes?
Then, on the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, Michael and Maddie ask why Austen is endlessly repurposed, politicised and rewritten by modern adaptors? Was she an abolitionist, a moralist, or something far subtler – and why do her novels continue to resist ideological shoehorning two centuries on?
And finally: what makes the perfect whodunit? From Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers to Midsomer Murders and modern television crime, the pair explore puzzles, red herrings, atmosphere – and why readers feel cheated when justice doesn’t quite add up.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
To submit your urgent questions to Michael and Maddie, visit spectator.co.uk/quiteright.
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Transcript
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| 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. |
| 0:33.3 | Hello and welcome to Quiet Right. |
| 0:35.4 | I'm Michael Gove, editor of The Spectator. |
| 0:37.4 | And I'm Madeleine Grant, assistant editor and parliamentary sketchwriter of The Spectator. |
| 0:41.2 | And this week we'll be looking at the tragedy of the Bondi Beach massacre. |
| 0:46.1 | What does it tell us about the ideology behind this horrific assault and society's response to it? |
| 0:52.2 | And in the week of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen's birth, we'll be looking at this |
| 0:57.1 | most beloved of British authors, the cultural resonance of her work and the way in which |
| 1:01.0 | it is often being butchered by modern adapters. |
| 1:03.7 | And, to continue the literary theme, we'll be asking what makes the perfect whodunit? |
| 1:16.0 | Thank you. asking what makes the perfect who done it? Over the weekend, we witnessed a horrific mass shooting in Australia, |
| 1:20.6 | which targeted the country's Jewish community during their Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach. |
| 1:26.6 | The attack left 15 people dead and another 42 |
| 1:29.3 | hospitalized. Chillingly, the attackers turned out to be a father and son, Sadid and Navid Akram. |
... |
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