Best of the Spectator

The UK's vaccine programme was hailed by the government as a success story for Global Britain. It became an example of how Britain could speed up regulation, reduce bureaucracy and become a worldwide home for tech and innovation in life sciences. The government recently published a Life Sciences Vision, but how much vision was there? This podcast will look at the importance of the industry, the hurdles that it faces and its contribution to the government's Global Britain agenda. Fraser Nelson, the editor of The Spectator is joined by Anthony Browne, Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire; Zoe Martin, a policy manager at Cancer Research and Samin Saeed who is the medical director & chief scientific officer for Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd. This podcast is kindly sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Connolly, The Spectator's news editor, is joined by Mark Galeotti, director of Mayak Intelligence; Freddy Gray, The Spectator's deputy editor; Cindy Yu, The Spectator's broadcast editor; Jade McGlynn, a Russia expert from the University of Oxford; James Forsyth, The Spectator's political editor; Katy Balls, The Spectator's deputy political editor; Isabel Hardman, The Spectator's assistant editor; and Spectator contributor Jonathan Miller.This episode:(01:35) Can Boris Johnson keep going? With Katy Balls, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman(16:17) Why are Russians supporting the Ukraine war? With Mark Galeotti and Jade McGlynn(34:32) – Shanghai lockdown: when will it end? With Cindy Yu?(48:53) – Marcon vs Le Pen: who won the TV debate? With Freddy Gray and Jonathan Miller Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this week's episode, Jonathan Miller says that whoever wins France's election on Sunday, the country is going to the dogs. (01:00) After, Cindy Yu says that China's online censors are struggling to suppress critics of the Shanghai lockdown. (07:47) And, to finish, Laura Freeman reviews a Walt Disney exhibition at the Wallace Collection. (12:06)Entries for this year's Innovator Awards, sponsored by Investec, are now open. To apply, go to: www.spectator.co.uk/innovator Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The cost of living is rising, as is the cost of renting. Zoopla estimates that rents are rising at the fastest rate in 14 years, which means that the average rent in the UK is now over £1000 a month.This is partly a pandemic effect, especially in London as people return to offices. But Covid has also shaken people’s financial security - the Citizens Advice Bureau found that more than one in three renters felt insecure about their ability to stay in their tenancy during the pandemic. And women were disproportionately impacted - during the pandemic, mothers were more likely to be put on furlough or even lose their jobs.Rising prices are not the only problem with the UK’s private rentals market - slow or unethical landlords, unsafe properties or short term tenancies are all problems faced by renters. What more can be done for the almost five million private renters in the UK? Katy Balls, The Spectator's deputy political editor is joined by Nickie Aiken, the Conservative MP for Cities of London and Westminster; Karen Buck, the Labour MP for Westminster North, who is also the vice-chair for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the private rental sector; and Esther Dijkstra, managing director of Intermediaries at Lloyds Banking Group, who are kindly sponsoring this podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode: Is Boris going to limp on?In her cover piece this week, Katy Balls writes that although Boris Johnson believes he can survive the partygate scandal, he has some way to go until he is safe, while in his column, James Forsyth writes about why the Tories have a summer of discontent ahead of them. They both join the podcast to speculate on the Prime Minister’s future. (00:44)Also this week: Why is the Rwandan government taking our asylum seekers?We have heard the arguments behind the Home Office’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda. But why is Rwanda up for this arrangement? Michela Wrong, the author of Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad, explores this question in this week’s Spectator and she joins the podcast along with MP Andrew Mitchell. (14:50)And finally: Can AI take on the art world?Sean Thomas writes in this week’s magazine about how some AI programs appear to have become rather good at painting. But what does this mean for the future of art? He joins the podcast along with Lukas Noehrer the organiser of The Alan Turing Institute’s AI & Arts group and Professor Stefano Ermon of Stanford whose research has made much of this technology possible. (28:16)Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William MooreProduced by Sam HolmesSubscribe to The Spectator today and get a £20 Amazon gift voucher:www.spectator.co.uk/voucherListen to Lara's food podcast Table Talk: https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcasts/table-talk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam's guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the FT’s foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman. In his new book The Age of the Strongman, he takes a global look at the rise of personality-cult autocrats. He tells Sam what they have in common, what’s new about this generation of strongman leaders - and why his book places Boris Johnson in a cast including Putin, Orban, Bolsonaro and Duterte. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Marshall Matters Winston speaks with Seth Dillon, CEO and owner of American political satire site The Babylon Bee. The Babylon Bee are currently locked out of their Twitter account for a joke that has been deemed “hate speech” by the social media site. But the Bee are refusing to accept this. Seth and Winston discussed comedy through the American cultural divide, the legal issues behind free speech on social media, Elon Musk and more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

‘One Shanghai courier uses own 70,000 yuan to buy necessities for people’, one Weibo hashtag trended last week. Instead of being seen as a damning indictment on what the state’s strict lockdown has induced people to do, the courier was lauded as a community hero and the story promoted by the censored platform. These kuaidi xiaoge (‘delivery bros’) are most likely gig economy workers. The industry was already an integral part to the Chinese urbanite’s life before the pandemic, but Covid has consolidated that role, as low-paid and hardworking gig economy drivers literally became critical to the survival of millions.The Chinese gig economy is in many ways more advanced. The services are more extensive (grocery shopping and even designated drivers – a stranger to drive your car home on drinking nights – have been the norm for years) and the algorithms are more ruthless (closely monitoring and continuously shaving off delivery times. ‘The pandemic really brought the plight of these workers into the mainstream consciousness for the first time’, Viola Rothschild, my guest on this episode, tells me.She is a PhD candidate at Duke University, and one of the few people – academics and journalists alike – who have looked into the Chinese gig economy. I’ve known Viola for years – we first met when we read for a masters in contemporary Chinese studies together.On the episode, we discuss what working conditions are like (she recommends this article), the interactions between the state and the private sector (the largest players in the field are Alibaba and Didi Chuxing, both companies that have been penalised by the Chinese government in recent years), and what the pandemic – and particularly the Shanghai lockdown – has done to workers. We discuss the government’s efforts to improve working environments, but Viola tells me:‘What workers get through unionisation is really about what the state wants to give them, if their goals align with the state’s at any given time in terms of pressuring these companies. This is especially thrown into clear relief when we see how the state treats workers who try to organise outside of this apparatus’By that, Viola is referring to the kuaidi xiaoge who’ve been arrested for organising their own unions – it’s still deeply ironic that the most successful purportedly Marxist state in the world today is deeply suspicious of workers creating their own unions.But fundamentally, as I push back at Viola, the problem is not only the private companies or the communist state, but also the consumers who demand faster and cheaper services. In that, ‘I think that the Chinese gig economy has a tonne in common with its American and British, and worldwide, counterparts’, Viola says. I totally agree.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode: Mark Drew explains how Putin weaponised the Russian Orthodox church (00:49); Luke Coppen says the war in Ukraine has revitalised Poland’s Catholic church (08:17); and Edward Behrens reads his notes on violets. (17:27) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Freddy Gray speaks to Kat Rosenfield, the author and UnHerd columnist, about Elon Musk's proposal to buy a controlling stake in the social media giant. Rosenfield's latest book, No One Will Miss Her, is published by HarperCollins and is available to buy now.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.