The Edition: left-wing Ultras, Reform intellectuals & capitalist sex robots
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 24 October 2025
⏱️ 30 minutes
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Summary
‘The Ultras’ are the subject of The Spectator’s cover story this week – this is the new Islamo-socialist alliance that has appeared on the left of British politics. Several independent MPs, elected amidst outrage over the war in Gaza, have gone on to back the new party created by former Labour MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana. The grouping has got off to a rocky start but – as Angus Colwell and Max Jeffery write – there are expectations that they could pick up dozens of seats across the country. Can the hard-left coalition hold?
Host Lara Prendergast is joined by the Spectator’s deputy political editor James Heale, commissioning editor Lara Brown and Angus Colwell – who also writes the Spectator’s new morning newsletter Spectator Daily.
As well as the cover, they discuss: the intellectual forces behind Reform UK; whether Piers Morgan is right that ‘woke is dead’; why the American ‘Wasp’ aesthetic was once so appealing; and are sex robots a fun consequence of capitalism – or a symptom of a lonely society.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
The Spectator is trialling new formats for this podcast, and we would very much welcome feedback via this email address: [email protected]
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Subscribe to The Spectator and get 12 weeks of Britain's most incisive politics coverage, |
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| 0:20.6 | including quite right, the new podcast with |
| 0:22.9 | me, Michael Gove, and our assistant editor, Madeline Grant. Go to www.combe.combe. Terms apply. |
| 0:46.7 | Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator, |
| 0:50.1 | where each week we shed a little light on the thought process behind putting the world's oldest weekly magazine to bed. |
| 0:53.6 | I'm Laura Prendergast, |
| 0:54.9 | the spectator's executive editor. And on this week's podcast, we look at the new Islamo-socialist |
| 1:00.0 | alliance. We look at who's influencing Nigel Farage. We talk about sex dolls, 90s, and we finish |
| 1:06.1 | on ready meals. |
| 1:16.1 | First up, is Britain's new hard left coalition here to stay? |
| 1:21.7 | The spectator's cover story this week examines the new alliance appearing on the left of British politics. |
| 1:26.6 | Several independent MPs were elected across the country at last year's general election of the back of outrage |
| 1:28.3 | at the war in Gaza. And these MPs have gone on to form an alliance with former Labour MPs, |
| 1:33.7 | Jeremy Corbin and Zara Sultanah. It's expected they could pick up dozens of seats across the |
| 1:38.4 | country and Angus Colwell and Max Jeffrey look at why and whether the coalition can hold. |
| 1:44.3 | To discuss further alongside other topics from this week's issue, |
| 1:47.7 | I was joined by our deputy political editor, James Hill, |
| 1:51.2 | our commissioning editor, Lara Brown, and Angus Colwell, |
| 1:54.3 | who also writes the spectator's brilliant new morning newsletter, Spectator Daily. |
... |
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