The Edition: Farage's plan, the ethics of euthanasia & Xi's football failure

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The Spectator

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week: Nigel’s next target. What’s Reform UK’s plan to take on Labour? Reform UK surpassed expectations at the general election to win 5 MPs. This includes James McMurdock, who Katy interviews for the magazine this week, who only decided to stand at the last moment. How much threat could Reform pose and why has Farage done so well? Katy joins the podcast to discuss, alongside Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, who fought Nigel Farage as the Labour candidate for Clacton (1:02).

Next: who determines the morality of euthanasia? Matthew Hall recounts the experience of his aunt opting for the procedure in Canada, saying it ‘horrified’ him but ‘was also chillingly seductive’. Does Canada provide the model for the rest of the world? Or should we all be worried of where this could lead? Matthew joined the podcast, alongside commentator Richard Hanania. Hanania is president of the Centre for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology and has hailed the Canadian model as ‘moral progress’ (19:52).

And finally: why isn’t China a football superpower? Ian Williams joins the podcast to discuss his article exploring the failure of President Xi to realise his ambitions for Chinese football. Despite spending billions of yuan, why hasn’t China been more successful? Cameron Wilson, founding editor of Wild East Football, the world’s leading English-language news source on soccer in China joins too (35:44).

Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Patrick Gibbons.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Subscribe to The Spectator in September and get three months of website and app access absolutely free.
0:06.0	Follow the Tory leadership campaign, Labor's inaugural budget and the US elections with Britain's best informed journalists.
0:12.0	And get your first three months free, only in September.
0:15.2	Go to www.spictator.com.com.com.com.uk forward slash sale 24.
0:33.0	Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator, where each week we shared a little light on the thought process behind putting the world's oldest weekly magazine to bed.
0:38.5	I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor.
0:41.1	And I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's Executive Editor.
0:44.4	This week, we'll be looking at how reform plans to take on labour.
0:49.4	We'll be talking about the chilling reality of euthanasia,
0:52.3	and we'll be looking at the failed plan to make
0:54.9	China a football superpower.
1:00.5	McMurdoch James reformed UK 12,178.
1:10.0	Yay! 12,178.
1:21.5	That was the surprise moment in July's general election when James McMurdoch was announced as Reform UK's fifth MP winning in South Basildon and East Thurrock. The 38-year-old former banker from Essex, who was originally nominated as a paper candidate,
1:31.8	managed to overturn a 20,000 Tory seat majority without any serious funding or publicity.
1:38.8	Well, Katie Balls interviews him for the magazine this week, which she uses as a way into her cover piece,
1:44.8	which is Nigel's next target, Reform's Plan for Labor. A lot has been said and written about
1:51.4	how reform are causing problems for the Tories, but Katie's cover piece focus on why Labor should
1:57.2	be worried too. Katie joined us earlier to talk about her piece, along with Jovan Ousu Nepal,
2:03.3	who ran as the Labour candidate in Clacton against Nigel Farage.
2:08.1	I started by asking Katie to explain the story of how James McMurdock triumphed in the election.
2:14.3	Yes, so I think the funny thing about his story is, it's a story in itself,
	...

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