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Hello, I'm Sam Holmes and welcome to Spectator Out Loud. Every week, a few of our

favourite writers read their pieces from the latest issue.

This week, we'll hear from James Heel on Zach Goldsmith's Secret Shadow Cabinet,

Leah McCarran on COVID in Canada, and Nicholas Farrell on the March of the Italian Wolves.

First up, James Heel.

The Zach Pack, the well-connected group quietly shaping Tory policy.

Who let the dogs out? That's the subject of a Whitehall probe into the recent Afghanistan

debacle. When the Taliban took Kabul, an estimated 1,200 people who qualified for evacuation to the UK

had to be left behind. On the 28th of August, waiting Afghan families were left

helpless on the ground as 173 cats and dogs were escorted past them into the airport and

off to safety. The big question, on whose authority were animals put ahead of humans? Did

any of this have the Prime Minister's backing? As ever with Johnsonian drama, the truth is elusive, but one

minister seems closer to it than others. A parliamentary investigation, unearthed an email from

Zach Goldsmith's ministerial team within the Foreign Office, declaring that the PM had

authorised the animal evacuation. The minister continues to deny responsibility, but it fits with messages

from Trudy Harrison, the PM's then

parliamentary private secretary, offering round-the-clock advice to those deemed the animal rescue

mission. So what does Goldsmith know? And what, if anything, does this tell us about the

Johnson operation? The affair also raises questions about the role of Carrie Johnson, the Prime

Minister's wife. Her friend, Dominic Dyer,

an animal welfare campaigner, was involved in the Afghan pet rescue, and boasted at the time he had,

...