Quite right!: Why Danny Kruger's defection changes everything & could Boris Johnson be next?

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

This week Michael and Madeline unpick the shock defection of Danny Kruger to Reform UK’s ‘pirate ship’ – as described by Michael – and ask whether this coup could mark the beginning of the end for the Conservative party.

They also dive into Westminster’s most charged moral debates: the assisted dying bill in the Lords and the quiet decriminalisation of abortion up to birth. What do these changes say about parliament’s ‘intoxicated liberal hubris’ – and the protections given to the vulnerable?

Also, Donald Trump lands in Britain this week – but why is it that the Prime Minister acts ‘like Carson the butler’ in his presence, and who exactly is the ‘diplomatic secret weapon’ that the Palace deploys to manage ‘the Donald’?

Finally, Michael and Madeleine (re)turn to Oxford, where the Union has been engulfed in controversy over free speech and political violence. Has one of Britain’s oldest debating societies become a cautionary tale for our universities? Is there such a thing as ‘right-wing cancel culture’?

Produced by Oscar Edmondson, Oscar Bicket and Matt Miszczak.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Amazon brings the UEFA Champions League.
0:03.0	Unbelievable.
0:05.0	With Tuesday's unmissable match.
0:08.0	Enchantingly wonderful.
0:10.0	World-class players.
0:14.0	Zeller!
0:16.0	What a strike!
0:18.0	Incredible drama.
0:19.0	And Harlan!
0:23.0	History in the making.
0:24.6	Rice would take two!
0:27.2	The UEFA Champions League.
0:29.7	It's on Prime.
0:42.8	Hello and welcome to Quite Right, the Spectator's new podcast that searches for common sense and sanity in a world that feels increasingly devoid of both.
0:46.9	I'm Madeleine Grant, assistant editor at The Spectator.
0:49.6	And I'm Michael Gove, editor of The Spectator.
0:52.0	This week, there's been another defection to reform, but qualitatively different from any that we've seen before.
0:59.2	We'll be exploring what Danny Kruger's departure from the Conservatives and his accession to Nigel Farage's teal team actually means for the right of British politics and for our constitution itself.
1:12.9	Assisted dying is back in the Lords and in the headlines after the bill returned to the
1:17.7	Upper House last Friday. We'll be asking what next for the passage of that bill.
1:21.8	And we'll also be reflecting on Donald Trump's state visit and who is the diplomatic secret weapon that Kirst Arma and the King are ready to deploy?
1:32.0	And finally, in the wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination, we'll be asking, is there such a thing as right-wing council culture?
	...

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