This is Spectator Radio, the Spectator's curated podcast collection.

Hello and welcome to The Spectator podcast. I'm Isabel Hardman.

Boris Johnson's grip on the Conservative leadership race looks increasingly secure and his path to number 10 more and more certain.

So we talk about who Boris really is and what

kind of prime minister he might make. Plus, we discuss what might happen to the ISIS Beatles and ask,

does the Lord's Prayer really need a rewrite? So first up, who is Boris Johnson? The man who looks almost certain to be our next Prime Minister

seems to divide opinion like no one else in recent memory.

Is he a charismatic man of the people or a phony demagogue?

A progressive Liberal Tory or a Brexit extremist covering for the far right?

In this week's magazine Toby Young argues that Boris's

opponents are so blinded by their dislike for him that they've completely lost sight of who he

actually is. He joins me to discuss along with Stephen Bush, the political editor of the new

statesman. So Stephen Toby accuses a number of people on the left of suffering from Boris derangement

syndrome. Have you recognised that in your contacts?

Yeah, I think it definitely does exist and not just I would say on my contacts on the left.

I mean, during his leadership campaign, Rory Stewart said that he did not think Boris Johnson

could be trusted with the nuclear codes. Two problems with that. The first, of course, is that it's not how our deterrent works. The second is, I think, even as I say this

someone who does not think he acquitted himself at all well as foreign secretary, the charge of

what he actually wrong is what he failed to do, not than he was someone who would somehow blunder

into nuclear fire through activity.

And I think that is definitely something than people have.

I think the open question, of course, is, is Boris derangement syndrome something which afflicts

...