On Tuesday the 24th of March, our speakers will debate the motion,

this House believes we should abolish the licence fee.

Spectator Chairman Charles Moore and the telegraphs Alison Pearson

will propose the motion with Spectator editor Michael Gove

and former BBC America editor John Sopel opposing.

I'm Isabel Hardman and I'll be in the chair to maintain decorum and take your pressing questions.

Join us on Tuesday the 24th of March at 7pm and book your tickets at The Spectator.com

forward slash debate.

Hello and welcome to The Spectator's Book Club podcast. I'm Sam Leith, the literary end of The Spectator,

and this week I'm joined by the novelist and spectator columnist Lionel Schreiber to talk about her new book,

A Better Life. And Lionel, you being Lionel, it's not something that's, you know, everyone's going to blandly go along with, is it?

No.

I mean, so far this is a love or hate it book.

And it divides perfectly along political lines.

The progressives or the wokesters or whatever we're calling them.

Hate it.

And right of center writers and media often think it's wonderful so i mean i

predicted that ahead of time doesn't make it any more pleasant when the people who revile this book

hit the thesaurus for horrible. But it does give me a kind

of emotional protection. Maybe I'm lying to myself, but I think we are dealing with a certain

amount of political bias. Of course. I mean, do you mind that stuff? Because you're never one

who, as it well, worries about sailing into the wind.

...