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unpacking the numbers behind some of the most pertinent questions of our time.

Hello and welcome to The Edition, the Spectator's weekly podcast where we discuss some of the most important and interesting issues within our pages each week with the writers behind them. I'm Narra Prendergast. This week, as the Tories continue to lead in the polls, I speak to Alistair Campbell about what Remainers can do to turn things around.

Plus, Venice is holding an independence referendum, but will that help with the city's problems?

And finally, is Instagram the future of poetry?

First up, if Boris Johnson wins the December election, Brexit will almost certainly be a done deal. Yet despite the high stakes, James

Forsyth writes in the cover piece this week that Remainers still haven't been able to unite themselves

and are risking splitting the vote come polling day. So, what's going on? James joins me now,

together with Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former communications chief and a member of the People's

Vote campaign. He writes in this week's issue about the meltdown going on in the People's

Vote campaign over the last month. So James, what exactly seems to be going wrong for Remainers right

now? I think the fundamental problem for the Remain side in this election is that no one party

is getting more than 50% support from

Remain voters, while as the Tory is now up to 71% support from Leave voters and that number

is rising. And I think this is the problem for the Remain side in this election is, that the

Leave side is becoming increasingly unified under Boris Johnson. I mean, he has

succeeded essentially in his strategic objective, which was to turn the Tories into a sufficiently

Brexit party to push, to squeeze down Nigel Farage's vote, and then to try and win a general

election on that basis. Right now, if the election was held tomorrow, he would succeed in that aim. Now, there are still three weeks to go and there's many a slip,

Twixclough and Lip. But I think the fundamental problem for the Remain side is, A, the competition

between the different parties on that side of the political spectrum, and Jeremy Corbyn himself.

...