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for more information. Hello and welcome to the edition podcast, where each week we look at three pieces from the magazine

with the writers behind them. I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's Executive Editor. And I'm

William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor. On this week's episode, we assess the bumpy road ahead for Liz Truss,

ask whether help to buy has been a success or a failure, and look at the growing popularity of

metal detecting. First up, for the cover of the magazine this week, as the Liz Truss era begins,

James Forsyth has written about the political gambols she is taking from the

outset. He joins us now, along with X number 10 advisor and co-author of the 2019 Conservative

Manifesto, Rachel Wolfe. James, let's start with the energy crisis, which you say is the chief

issue facing the new government, what can we expect

them to do on this front? So I think you're going to see this big bazooka package, and it is

going to be very expensive. It's an intervention on the same kind of scale as furlough. However long

they say it is going to run for, if energy prices remain this elevated, I find it hard

to imagine a government allowing customers to end up picking up the bill for that before the

election in 2024. So it could potentially be very expensive, especially if energy prices,

stay high. And I think the political logic behind it is this, which is we're going to do something really big,

so we don't have to come back with another series of measures and to give us time and space to get on with the rest of our agenda.

And I think they're thinking is essentially without this, you would have a very deep recession and this crisis could consume the government.

So they are prepared to do something that is not very free market. You've got a minister literally setting the price of energy and very expensive to try and

give themselves political time and space. Rachel, as James says, this policy has a huge

price tag to it. And we're also expecting a fiscal event from the Treasury later this month.

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