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Best of the Spectator

The Edition: Supercops

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News, Daily News, Society & Culture, News Commentary

4.3826 Ratings

🗓️ 3 August 2023

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this week’s cover article, The Spectator's political editor Katy Balls takes a look at the bottom-up reform that’s happening in some parts of the country, and asks whether tough policing is making a comeback. Katy joins the podcast together with Kate Green, Greater Manchester's Deputy Mayor of Crime and Policing. (00:50)

Next, the war has finally gone to Moscow. Recently, a number of drone strikes have hit targets in the Russian capital. Though Ukraine hasn’t explicitly taken responsibility, in the magazine this week, Owen Matthews writes that it’s all a part of psychological warfare. Owen is the author of Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin and Russia’s War Against Ukraine and he joins the podcast. (18:20)

And finally, is it ever right – or easy – to cut off your parents? If you look at TikTok, as our columnist Mary Wakefield has been doing, it seems that declaring your parents ‘toxic’ and excising them from your life is all the craze amongst some teenagers. Is this a sign that the fundamentals of family life have moved on from duty, or unconditional love, to a more transactional approach? Mary joins the podcast, together with Becca Bland, founder and CEO of Stand Alone, a charity which supports people estranged from their families. (28:00)

Presented by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.

Produced by Cindy Yu.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority.

0:07.6

Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12 week subscription, in print and online, plus a £20 £20,000, Amazon gift voucher.

0:16.4

Absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.

0:24.4

Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator, where each week we look at three pieces from the magazine with the writers behind them.

0:33.5

I'm Lara Prendergars, the Spectator's executive editor.

0:36.5

And I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor.

0:39.4

On this week's episode, we'll be talking about the police's renewed attempt to tackle

0:43.5

low-level crime. We'll hear about the drone strikes on Moscow, and we'll ask whether it's

0:48.9

ever right to cut off your own family.

0:51.7

First up, in her cover article for the magazine this week,

0:55.1

our political editor, Katie Balls,

0:56.9

takes a look at the bottom-up reform

0:58.6

that's happening in police forces across the country

1:02.0

and asks whether tough policing is making a comeback.

1:06.0

Katie joins me now with Kate Green,

1:08.8

greater Manchester's deputy mayor for policing and Crime and former Labour MP.

1:13.6

Katie, you write in your piece this week about, as you call them, the supercops.

1:18.8

Could you start by explaining for our listeners, who are these supercops and how are they changing

1:24.2

the nature of policing?

1:26.7

So in a few weeks' time, all police forces are going to receive instructions to investigate every crime.

1:34.1

Now, I think lots of people listening to this or think, well, weren't they doing that already?

1:39.0

It's not a particularly novel concept, but it is a change in tack.

...

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