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Best of the Spectator

The Edition: Bankrolled

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News, Daily News, Society & Culture, News Commentary

4.3826 Ratings

🗓️ 27 July 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s cover story, The Spectator’s political editor Katy Balls writes about Labour’s new paymasters – Keir Starmer’s party now receives more money from private donors than it does from trade unions. What do the new donors want, and what does Starmer want from them? Katy joins Will and Lara alongside the writer and Labour supporter Paul Mason. (01:00)

Next up, Webb Keane, from the University of Michigan, and Scott Shapiro, from Yale, write in the magazine this week about the dawn of the godbots – you can now chat online to an artificial intelligence that pretends it’s god. Might people soon start outsourcing their ethics to a chatbot? We're joined by Webb and The Spectator’s commissioning editor Mary Wakefield. (14:19)

And finally, The Spectator’s Sam McPhail writes in this week’s magazine about how the football’s biggest stars are changing the way fans enjoy the game, and the way teams play it. To explain, Sam joins alongside Spectator contributor Damian Reilly. (25:09)

Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.

Produced by Max Jeffery, Joe Bedell-Brill and Linden Kemkaran.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. Absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.

0:30.4

Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator, where each week we look at three pieces from the magazine with the writers behind them.

0:39.8

I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's executive editor.

0:43.2

And I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor.

0:46.7

On this week's episode, we'll be discussing Labor's new Paymasters.

0:51.4

We'll be looking at whether humans might one day worship AI. And finally, we'll

0:56.8

talk about whether fake fans are ruining football. First up, in the cover story in this

1:01.8

week's magazine, Katie Balls writes about Labor's new pay masters. Kirstarmes party now, for the

1:08.2

first time since records began, receives more money from private donors than it

1:12.6

does from trade unions. Who are the new donors and what do they want? Katie joins us now, along with

1:19.1

the journalist Paul Mason, to discuss. Katie, could you start by telling our listeners about the

1:25.0

types of people who are donating to the Labour Party and why they're

1:29.7

doing so now in such large sums. So I think there are a few factors at play. When Kirstama

1:36.3

took over the Labour Party, he inherited quite a difficult financial situation. Lots of money

1:41.8

in legal fees, a lot tracing back to some disputes under the Corbyn era.

1:47.0

You also had a few things such as if people remember the Labour Live Festival.

1:51.7

I was lucky enough to attend. Do you remember it?

1:56.2

I was lucky enough not to attend. I did not pay for my ticket though, which might suggest why

2:01.2

lost so much money. But a few loss-making Corbyn's stunts such as this. And then also actually

2:08.3

a problem that was compounded by Kirstama, which was Jeremy Corbyn's model for funding the Labour

2:14.9

Party when he was leader, it was actually by growing the grassroots and

2:17.9

the membership and also through the unions. Now, Kirstama, when he became leader, you saw about over

...

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