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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. Each week we choose three pieces from the magazine and ask their writers to read them aloud.

I'm Oscar Edmondson and on the podcast this week.

Isabel Hardman asked how Ed Miliband became the power behind Kirstama's labour.

Matthew Parris says we've lost interest in our dependencies.

Graham Thompson mourns the loss of the B-side.

And Caroline Moore reads her notes on war memorials.

Up first, Isabel Hardman.

Kirstarmer's early leadership was defined by the expulsion of his predecessor.

Jeremy Corbyn is no longer a Labour MP and will not be a Labour candidate at the next election.

But now, another former party leader is quietly defining Starmes' leadership.

This week, Ed Miliband, the Shadow Climate Secretary, caused outrage by suggesting that rich countries should pay aid to nations' worst hit by climate change.

Miliband's influence extends far beyond his brief. Resentment has been brewing among Labour front benches about just how much

Stama seems to listen to him. After all, he presided over one of Labour's worst election results in 2015,

a memory that has faded only because Corbyn did even more damage four years later. He's the elephant in the

room, says one-party figure. Miliband seems to be everywhere. His ideas

crop up in many of Labour's core policy proposals and he's present in the leader's office quite often too.

He just kind of hangs around a lot, says One aide. There is a split in Stama's office between

those who like the very affable and thoughtful

Miliband and want to hear his ideas and those who like having him around but think he's

often quite wrong. In Miliband's defence, he gets access because he works for it. He will beaver

away with his team to draw up whatever is asked of him. As a result, Stama's ideas have a distinctly

...