Best of the Spectator

For over forty years, tens of thousands of girls and young women have been abused, raped and some brutally murdered across Britain by grooming gangs. It is a scandal that should shame the nation, yet it is an issue that gets brushed aside by authorities, clouded out in the media by disputes over racist reporting, and largely ignored by politicians. All at the cost of justice for those young girls. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last week announced policy to – finally – attempt to deal with this horrific issue. To discuss the policy and the deeper story of the grooming gangs is journalist and documentary filmmaker Charlie Peters.

My guest in this week's Book Club podcast is the poet and artist Frieda Hughes, whose new book George: A Magpie Memoir tells the story of what caring for a foundling baby magpie taught her about life. She tells me about chaos, head-bouncing, magpie-poop, and how she managed to write about corvids without imagining her father Ted Hughes looking over her shoulder.   

Jonathan Ray is The Spectator’s drinks editor and formerly wine critic for the Telegraph. He has also written several books on the subject of wine and how to buy it. On the podcast Lara, Liv and Jonny share a glass of wine and discuss Jonathan’s earliest memories of food, his go-to hangover cure and his desert island meal. 

Megyn Kelly joins Freddy Gray to take a look at the wider picture following Donald Trump's arrest. The presidential candidates' ratings have surged in the polls – has this rejuvenated Trump's campaign? Also on the show, Dan Hitchens and Andrew Doyle discuss the divisions in the Church of England; Charles Moore remembers former Chancellor and editor of The Spectator, Nigel Lawson; and Stuart Jeffries joins Lady Unchained to talk about the therapeutic nature of prison art.

On this week's Spectator Out Loud, Svitlana Morenets talks about how the lines between patriotism and profiteering are being blurred in Ukraine; Owen Matthews interviews Leonid Volkov, Alexei Navalny's chief of staff; and Ysenda Maxtone Graham calls for help from a 15-minute city.Produced by Oscar Edmondson and Cindy Yu.

Galen Druke, host of the FiveThirtyEight podcast, joins Freddy Gray on this episode to talk about what to take away from Chicago's election this week, how well the Biden team is handling the progressive wing of the Democratic party, and whether the Democrats would prefer to face up against Ron or Don as the Republican nominee.Produced by Natasha Feroze, Saby Kulkarni and Cindy Yu.

On the podcast this week:In his cover piece for the magazine, journalist Dan Hitchens examines whether Archbishop Justin Welby and Pope Francis can heal the divisions threatening to tear apart the Church of England and the Catholic Church. He is joined by Telegraph columnist Tim Stanley to ask whether these two men – once heralded as great unifiers by their respective Churches – can keep their flocks in order. (01:05) Also this week: In his column, The Spectator’s associate editor Douglas Murray questions whether the English countryside can be considered exclusionary, after the news that the green and pleasant land will be studied by ‘hate crime’ experts. He is joined by the explorer and broadcaster Dwayne Fields to ask is the countryside racist? (13:44)And finally: Journalist Ysenda Maxtone Graham writes for The Spectator about the madness – in her view – of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. She is joined by Jason Torrance, CEO of UK100 which works closely with local governments and is in favour of the scheme. (32:28)Presented by William Moore. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

In this week's Book Club podcast, my guest is the historian Katja Hoyer, whose new book Beyond The Wall: East Germany 1949-1990 tells the story of four decades which are vital to understand modern Germany, but which tend to be quietly relegated to a footnote in history. Born in the GDR herself, Katja tells me how much more there is to the East German state than the Berlin Wall, the Stasi, and the grey totalitarian dystopia of popular imagination. She tells me about Erich Honecker's wild side, about the importance of coffee to East German morale, and about how inevitable or otherwise were the historical forces that saw Germany first divided, and then reunited.    

Posie Parker, aka Kellie-Jay Keen, is back from her Let Women Speak tour of Australia and New Zealand, where she was mobbed and hounded by radical trans activists. She tells me what happened, why she went in the first place, the state of the gender wars down under and her plans to run against Keir Starmer at the next election. We also look back into her own history and how it is she became the lightning rod of the feminist movement today.

Until a few years ago, Hollywood dominated Chinese cinemas. In the People’s Republic, Marvel’s superhero romps were the people’s favourite, with Avengers: Endgame taking in over £510 million at Chinese box offices.Hollywood is desperate to crack the Chinese market – after all, it’s a country with a fifth of the world’s population and a growing middle class. But there’s just one problem – the small issue of the Chinese Communist Party, which tightly controls the films people can see.Since the success of Avengers: Endgame, Marvel films had effectively been blacklisted until earlier this year, with other Hollywood blockbusters failing to break through either. This episode is about the complicated love affair between Beijing and LA.Cindy Yu is joined by Wall Street Journal journalist Erich Schwartzel, author of Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy; and Chris Berry, Professor of Film Studies at Kings College London – you might remember him from a previous episode discussing the golden age of Chinese films.