The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews.

Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12 week subscription in print and online,

along with a free £20, John Lewis or Waitrose Voucher.

Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.

Hello. forward slash voucher. Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud.

Each week we choose some of our favourite pieces from the magazine and ask their writers to read them out loud.

I'm Patrick Gibbons and on the podcast this week, will Sadiq Khan lose London?

James Heel suggests that despite the opinion polls, rising discontent with the Labour mayor,

could make May's election closer than we think.

Madeline Tehan argues that babies with Down syndrome have a right to be born.

Reporting from Jerusalem, Tanja Gold updates on life in the city as Israel's war enters its seventh month.

And William Moore reveals what he has in common with Kim Jong-un. Up first, James Heel.

With Labour 20 points ahead in the national polls, a lot of Tories have already written off

next month's Merrill contest in the capital. London, they maintain, is a Labour city that

occasionally votes conservative. The supporters of Sadiq Khan and his Tory challenger, Susan Hall,

agree it's going to be closer than many think. Three factors are held by both camps to be at play.

The first is the incumbency factor versus time for a change. Khan's re-election team has consulted

other campaigns, which won three in a row, all agreed this was the hardest contest to win.

Hattrick alluded to Ken Livingston, who lost in 2008, despite nearly a decade of prosperity for the

city. Khan boasts a less impressive record. Half the capital's residents say in polls that he

has performed badly or very

badly on knife crime, gangs and homelessness since 2016. One pollster tips him to underperform

...