The Edition: Iran’s useful idiots, Gordon Brown’s second term & the Right’s race obsession
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.3 • 826 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
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Summary
As the world watches events in Iran, and wonders whether the US will intervene, the Spectator’s cover this week examines 'British complicity in Tehran’s terror’. When thinking about what could happen next in the crisis, there is a false dichotomy presented between regime survival and revolution; the reality is more complicated, though there is no doubt that this is the biggest threat to the theocratic regime in decades.
For this week’s Edition, host Lara Prendergast is joined by political editor Tim Shipman, columnist Rachel Johnson and features editor – and Edition co-host – William Moore. They commend the bravery of Iran’s protestors but criticise the ‘inept, naive and wrong’ response of the Foreign Office. Are some Brits proving to be Iran’s ‘useful idiots’?
As well as the crisis in the Middle East, they discuss: whether the Starmer administration should be considered Gordon Brown’s second term; the growing obsession with race in Britain – particularly by the right; Rachel’s reflections on her travels to the US – from transatlantic cruise liners to partying with our former colleague Katy Balls; why some men lament the loss of their libido; and finally, the controversy over Elon Musk’s AI tool ‘Grok’.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:33.7 | Hello and welcome to The edition from The Spectator. |
| 0:39.2 | I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's executive editor, and the latest issue of the magazine has just gone to press. |
| 0:45.5 | To discuss what's in it, I'm joined now by our political editor, Tim Shipman, our life columnist Rachel Johnson, and our features editor and my co-host, William Moore. |
| 1:00.3 | This week's headline is Iran's useful idiots. And in this piece, we look at the unfolding |
| 1:06.3 | events in Iran, as well as the British complicity in the events. So, Will, could you start by outlining |
| 1:12.5 | how this week's cover came about? Well, I mean, obviously the protest in Iran have now been |
| 1:16.9 | bubbling away with various decrees of intensity since the end of December. But then this week, |
| 1:24.4 | Donald Trump has, you know, has meant that it really is the kind of unavoidable news story of the moment because he's been sending out his messages on his social channels saying help is on the way to the people who are protesting against the Iranian regime. |
| 1:40.2 | What that means help is on the way is obviously open to interpretation at this moment, |
| 1:44.9 | but it means that I think protesters feel quite emboldened by the idea of American support. |
| 1:51.0 | And so these are protests, the like of which have not been seen for a very, very long time. |
| 1:58.0 | And we have several fantastic pieces in the magazine which is speaking |
| 2:01.5 | to that. The main one being by Sir John Jenkins, who's the former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, |
| 2:07.4 | who writes about how Britain is getting so much of their approach to Iran wrong, what he would |
| 2:12.8 | want to do about it. And we've also got a fantastic piece by Charlie Gamal, who himself is former foreign |
| 2:18.9 | office, about how this is sort of likely to play out. And he says there's a kind of false |
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