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Hello and welcome to Spectator Out Loud.

I'm Lyndon Kemkaren, part of the Spectator's broadcast team,

and each week we choose three of our favourite pieces from the magazine and ask our writers to read them aloud.

Coming up on the podcast this week, the Spectator's political editor, Katie Balls, on the tricky relationship between Labour and the unions.

We hear from Alenka Hamilton on why Poland is having a row with Brussels over the number of migrants and asylum seekers it thinks it should accept.

And Damien Thompson asks whether the Vatican is turning its back on tradition and beautiful art.

First up is Katie Balls.

The Labour Party is preparing for power and the unions are deciding what role they might play.

Friend or foe. Rachel Reeves,

the shadow chancellor, has already incited their ire by refusing to commit to accepting independent

pay-review body recommendations. Unite, the second largest trade union, this week debated cutting

ties with labour and starting its opposition early. The motion was,

in the end, rejected. The Labour Party has decided we want to win, insisted one party figure.

The union hit back. It insisted that Stama had been put on notice and that the union's support,

including a still powerful get-out-the-vote operation, was not to be

taken for granted. Sharon Graham, you know its general secretary, went further, arguing the pre-election

months represent the moment of maximum leverage for the union, where we can hold Labour to account.

There is growing anxiety from the left that Stama is abandoning Labour's traditions

...