The Edition: Boris in a spin
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2020
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A coronavirus vaccine seems to be the only way out of continued lockdowns, so should everyone be forced to have the jab? (13:49) The Spectator's literary editor, Sam Leith, joins the podcast with Professor Mona Siddiqui, who sits on the Nuffield Council on Bioethics.
And finally, should we start referring to people by their surnames again? (25:30) Historian Guy Walters thinks so, and he's joined by the Spectator's etiquette expert, Mary Killen.
Presented by Lara Prendergast.
Produced by Cindy Yu and Matt Taylor.
Transcript
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| 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. |
| 0:24.7 | Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator. |
| 0:29.1 | Every week we take a look at some of the most important and intriguing stories from the issue with the writers behind them. |
| 0:35.8 | I'm Lara Prendergast. |
| 0:44.3 | This week, the Prime Minister says he wants to reset number 10, but will he succeed? Two vaccines are now on the horizon, but should they be made mandatory? |
| 0:50.3 | And finally, is there a problem with addressing strangers by their first name? |
| 0:55.0 | First up, with the departure of Dominic Cummings and Lee Kane, Boris Johnson says he wants to reset number 10. |
| 1:05.0 | But what does this actually mean and will he succeed? |
| 1:08.0 | Our deputy political editor Katie Balls takes a look in her cover piece this week, |
| 1:12.5 | and she joins me now, together with Craig Oliver, |
| 1:15.1 | who was number 10 communications director under David Cameron. |
| 1:19.4 | Katie, you say in your piece this week that all the Tory MPs that you meet at the moment have a spring in their step. |
| 1:25.0 | What exactly is causing that? |
| 1:27.2 | What it is, is not even the very good |
| 1:29.9 | vaccine news, which is definitely boosted morale. It's not, you know, the huge sums of money |
| 1:35.0 | being spent by the Treasury, but it's the departure of Dominic Cummings and Lee Kane. And I think |
| 1:40.1 | it's hard to understate how well that has been received in the parliamentary party. |
| 1:45.9 | Those vote leave alumni who had really tight grip in Downing Street were not universally |
| 1:50.9 | light. They didn't have a very big fan club amongst Tory MPs. |
| 1:54.2 | But what struck me is the fact that now when you pick up the phone to a Tory MP or a minister, |
| 1:59.9 | they all seem to think |
| 2:01.0 | this is great news, not only in terms of party management, but for their own agenda, they think |
... |
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