The Edition: Britain’s fraying social contract – and what comes after Starmer?
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 30 April 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week’s podcast, William Moore is joined by The Spectator’s economics editor Michael Simmons, assistant editor Isabel Hardman and Times columnist and Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips.
The panel unpacks Mary Wakefield’s cover story on the rise of shoplifting – and what it reveals about’ shameless Britain’. After a Morrisons manager was reportedly sacked for stopping a thief, they ask whether petty crime, fare-dodging and everyday rule-breaking are eroding the social contract.
Also on the episode: Tim Shipman’s latest piece on Labour after Starmer. With Andy Burnham, Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband said to be thinking about what comes next, they debate whether the Prime Minister has lost authority – and whether Labour can choose between what its party wants and what voters want.
And finally: after Green MP Hannah Spencer criticised Parliament’s drinking culture, the panel asks whether Westminster has a booze problem – or should we cut MPs some slack.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How do you make sense of this turbulent world? How do you stay informed, amused and entertained at a time of turbulence? |
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| 0:34.6 | Hello and welcome to the edition from The Spectator. I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor, and the latest edition of the magazine |
| 0:42.2 | has just gone to print. |
| 0:43.5 | To talk about what's in it, I'm delighted to be joined by our economics editor, Michael |
| 0:48.2 | Simmons, our assistant editor, Isabel Hardman, and the Times columnist and Sky News presenter, |
| 0:53.4 | Trevor Phillips. |
| 0:55.1 | Our cover this week is Shameless Britain, and in it Mary Wakefield looks at the rise of shoplifting in the UK |
| 1:01.9 | and what it says about our increasingly apathetic society. So Mary's piece is paid to this story |
| 1:09.9 | last week that a manager at Morrison's at Aldridge |
| 1:13.2 | has been sacked for stopping a thief from stealing alcohol. Michael, can I start with you? Did |
| 1:19.3 | you catch this story? Yes, I did. And it was fairly shocking, isn't it? Because I think |
| 1:24.4 | this shop assistant had worked there for 29 years and he lost his job. |
| 1:29.4 | We're told because they had a do not approach, do not deter shoplifters policy, which he's |
| 1:35.9 | ignored, which is presumably there for, you know, health and safety reasons and whatnot. But I think |
| 1:41.8 | this feeds into a sense that Mary gets into in her cover piece |
| 1:46.4 | about how, although we've talked before about statistics showing that violent crime is coming |
| 1:52.9 | down, things like murder are near decades lows, but these little crimes have become so ubiquitous and you don't really need the stats, |
| 2:03.2 | which do show shoplifting near enough at record highs, because everyone sort of sees it with |
... |
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