The Edition: Starmer at sea, Iran on the brink & the importance of shame

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

Starmer’s war zone: the Prime Minister’s perilous position

This week, our new political editor Tim Shipman takes the helm and, in his cover piece, examines how Keir Starmer can no longer find political refuge in foreign affairs. After a period of globe-trotting in which the Prime Minister was dubbed ‘never-here Keir’, Starmer’s handling of international matters had largely been seen as a strength. But as tensions escalate in the Iran–Israel conflict, global events are beginning to create serious challenges. They threaten not only to derail the government’s economic plans but also to deepen divisions within the Labour party, particularly between the leadership and much of the parliamentary party. Tim joined the podcast alongside The Spectator US editor Freddy Gray. (02:08)

Next: is it a mistake to try and topple Iran’s Supreme Leader?

Justin Marozzi asks if we are seeing ‘an ominous mission creep in Israel’s blistering attack on Iran’. Donald Trump has been calling for the ‘UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER’ of Iran, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been directly addressing the Iranian people. The regime may be unpopular, but how realistic is the expectation of regime change? Marozzi joined the podcast alongside Michael Stephens, a Middle East expert at the defence and security thinktank Rusi. (19:07)

And finally: should we embrace feeling shame?

Stuart Jeffries reviews a new book by the French philosopher Frédéric Gros in the books section of the magazine this week. A Philosophy of Shame: A Revolutionary Emotion argues that shame should be embraced, rather than avoided. So, in an era of ‘cancel culture’ and public shaming – not to mention some of the shamelessness exhibited by social media influencers – can ‘shame’ be a good thing? Stuart joined the podcast to discuss. (34:31)

Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Patrick Gibbons.

Transcript

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0:43.7	Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator, where each week we shed a little
0:52.3	light on the thought process behind putting the world's
0:55.0	oldest weekly magazine to bed. I'm William Moore, the Spectator's features editor.
0:59.7	And I'm Laura Prendergast, the Spectator's executive editor. On this week's podcast, we ask,
1:05.4	how perilous could Starmer's position on foreign affairs become? Is regime change a realistic goal in Iran?
1:12.6	And is their grace in feeling shame?
1:24.5	First up, in his cover piece for the magazine this week, the Spectator's new political editor, Tim Shipman, writes about the perilous position that the Prime Minister could fight himself in when it comes to foreign affairs.
1:37.9	Tim writes that while Kyristama has often found refuge in foreign affairs with the Iran crisis that could be about to change.
1:45.8	And there are already signs of splits emerging in labour on how to deal with the crisis.
1:50.9	Tim joined us earlier to discuss, along with the magazine's deputy editor and the host of the
1:55.6	Americano podcast, Freddie Gray, who also writes at The Spectator this week that, like Stama, Trump is facing splits in his own base over Iran.
2:07.9	Tim, welcome to The Spectator as our new political editor.
2:11.5	Thank you very much.
2:12.6	I think you've obviously hit the ground running in your first week because you have your first of many
2:18.1	great cover pieces for us this week in which you write about Keir Stalmer's handling of foreign
2:23.6	affairs and how that is changing for him. And you say in your piece that in the past, the way
	...

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