The Edition: Unopposed
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2021
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
With the Spectator's political editor James Forsyth; broadcaster and former Labour adviser Ayesha Hazarika; writer Fiona Mountford; the Spectator's arts editor Igor Toronyi-Lalic; novelist Philip Hensher; and the Spectator's associate editor Douglas Murray.
Presented by Lara Prendergast.
Produced by Max Jeffery, Sam Russell and Arsalan Mohammad.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Spectator magazine combines incisive political analysis with books and arts reviews of unrivaled authority. Absolutely free. Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher. |
| 0:24.8 | Hello and welcome to the edition. Each week we look at some of the most important and intriguing issues in the week's magazine with the writers behind them. I'm Laura Prendergast. |
| 0:36.3 | This week is Kea Stama becoming irrelevant? |
| 0:40.1 | Plus, do the Oscars really celebrate the best that film has to offer? |
| 0:44.1 | And finally, Jordan Peterson is back with his new book, Beyond Order, but is it beyond readable? |
| 0:51.6 | First up, Labour will almost certainly back the government in extending emergency lockdown powers next week. |
| 0:58.4 | But why is Kirstama giving Boris Johnson such an easy ride? |
| 1:02.6 | James Forsyth writes our cover story and he joins me now together with the broadcaster and former Labour advisor Aisha Hazareka. |
| 1:09.7 | James, in your cover piece this week, you write that Kirstama risks becoming an irrelevant. |
| 1:14.7 | What do you think he's doing wrong? |
| 1:16.3 | I think Kirstama is in a very difficult position because he is the leader of the opposition. |
| 1:22.5 | People want to see the government succeed. |
| 1:25.1 | The country needs the government to succeed. |
| 1:27.1 | And so he don't want to see political point scoring. But I think the government to succeed, and so he don't want |
| 1:27.6 | to see political point scoring. But I think the danger in his approach is that he's perhaps |
| 1:32.0 | given the government too much of a kind of blank check on COVID-pass. For example, the government |
| 1:36.2 | are going to come next week to seek the renewal of a lockdown restrictions for another three months, |
| 1:41.0 | take you beyond June 21st, and the coronavirus act for another six months |
| 1:44.9 | and Labour will then back that and that takes Labour out of the national conversation I mean this is |
| 1:51.2 | the challenge of me if you look at the polls the Tories are now going to consistently ahead I think |
| 1:55.4 | more worryingly for summer his own ratings which were really high in the summer, are now falling backwards. And I mean, |
| 2:01.4 | that is the danger for him is that it just doesn't seem to be that relevant right now. |
... |
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