Best of the Spectator

As the full picture of the local elections emerges, Labour faces a dilemma: stick with Keir Starmer, or put forward an alternative?
Calls for Starmer to resign have intensified, and we are braced for MPs to stick their heads above the parapet this weekend. The message from the Prime Minister is that he ‘will not go’ and will not set out a path for his resignation either.
So where does Labour go from here? Lord Glasman joins Tim and James to discuss the battle for the soul of the Labour party. Will they return to their traditions, or continue to ‘limp along in a state of paralysis’?

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This week: Lara Pendergast is joined by Tim Shipman, Lionel Barber and Alice Loxton, author of Eleanor: A 200-Mile Walk in Search of England’s Lost Queen.
They unpack Michael Gove’s cover piece which asks whether the local elections will push Labour further to the left. As the Greens threaten Labour in its metropolitan heartlands and Reform eats into its working-class vote, is Keir Starmer facing a battle for the soul of his party? They also consider the collapse of the political centre, the weakness of Britain’s current leadership class, and why being ‘not Keir Starmer’ may not be enough.
Also this week: King Charles’s diplomatic triumph in Washington. After his address to Congress, did the King succeed where politicians often fail – managing Donald Trump while quietly defending Nato, Ukraine and constitutional restraint?
Plus: are millennials being made ill by ultra-processed ‘health’ foods? And finally, the panel admits to their own unlikely collections – from fridge magnets to political memorabilia.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons and Oscar Edmondson.

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My guests on this week’s Book Club podcast are Amanda Golden and Karen V. Kukil, editors of the new The Poems of Sylvia Plath, a variorum collection of every poem Plath wrote. They tell me what light her juvenilia sheds on her later work, how art and music fed into her poetry, and how deep her poetic partnership with Ted Hughes ran.

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To listen to this week's podcast in full, search 'Quite right!' wherever you get your podcasts.
This week: antisemitism in Britain, the government’s response – and where Reform may have gone too far.
After the attack in Golders Green, Michael and Madeline ask whether antisemitism has become a daily reality for Britain’s Jewish community – and whether ministers are willing to confront the Islamist extremism, hard-left apologism and far-right hatred that are feeding it.

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The Conservative party was once the natural political home for those on the right. No longer. The Tories’ vote share collapsed at the 2024 general election and the party, under new leadership, has since been outflanked by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
Earlier this week, The Spectator pitted the Conservatives, represented by Nick Timothy and Claire Coutinho, against Reform UK, represented by Matt Goodwin and Danny Kruger, for the definitive debate on which party truly represents the future of the right. Listen to an excerpt of that debate here, and for more The Spectator events go to spectator.com/events

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