Coffee House Shots
Csatorna részletek
Coffee House Shots
Daily political analysis from The Spectator's top team of writers, including Michael Gove, Tim Shipman, Isabel Hardman, James Heale and many others. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Starmer vs the basics of politics
Does Keir Starmer have confidence in Rachel Reeves? Kemi Badenoch pressed the Prime Minister on his Chancellor’s future at PMQs – and he declined to a...
Morgan McSweeney faces the music
It’s a blockbuster day in parliament today. To kick things off, we had Philip Barton pleading ignorance; to close the proceedings tonight we have a vo...
Can the King handle Trump?
King Charles is about to travel to Washington to visit President Trump. The brief? Fix the strained relationship. No pressure!
Can royal diplom...
Isabel Hardman's Sunday Roundup - 26/04/2026
Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows.
President Trump survives another potential assassination attempt, as s...
'I used to be Labour. No more.' – who will win Wales?
Is Labour about to lose Wales? That’s what the polling suggests. After 27 years, Wales is seeking change. The beneficiaries look to be the outsiders,...
Is Lord Hermer fit to be Attorney General?
The long-debated assisted dying bill is expected to fail in the House of Lords today – described by the bill's leading advocate Lord Falconer as faili...
‘Worse than the worst of Boris Johnson’ – are Labour turning on Starmer?
Somewhere in the documents surrounding Peter Mandelson’s ambassadorial appointment, the Spectator's political editor Tim Shipman reveals, is a text Ke...
'When, not if' – who will move against Starmer?
It will come as no surprise that Keir Starmer appears to have heard a very different evidence session from Sir Olly Robbins to the one everyone else t...
Why Olly Robbins testimony is 'quietly devastating' for Starmer
'The most gripping testimony' since Dominic Cummings which could prove 'extraordinary and quietly devastating' for Keir Starmer. That's the verdict of...
'They expect us to believe this?' – Starmer’s Mandelson story doesn’t add up
Westminster is braced ahead of two key interventions in the Mandelson scandal. This afternoon, the prime minister will give a statement in which we un...
'When not if': why the Lib Dems are aiming for second – with Al Pinkerton MP & Mark Pack
Liberal Democrat peer Mark Pack and MP for Surrey Heath Al Pinkerton join James Heale to explain that it is a matter of 'when not if' the party become...
Danny Kruger: Reform’s plan to tear up the system
Danny Kruger joins James Heale to set out Reform’s plan to overhaul the British state – from taking on the civil service to restoring ministerial cont...
Mandelson latest: can we trust Starmer's ignorance?
The Peter Mandelson scandal just got more scandalous. Last night the story broke that Mandeslon actually failed his enhanced vetting before being made...
Inside parliament’s ‘summer of sex’ | Cindy Gallop & Cleo Watson
It is a hard time to be a Labour MP. The polls are flagging, the economy is stagnating and the Middle East remains in crisis. But facing electoral arm...
Why won't Starmer answer the question!?
PMQs is back and – predictably – Lord Robertson’s intervention on the state of the armed forces dominated proceedings. The Prime Minister gave six res...
Are the Treasury & the MOD at war?
George Robertson (pictured), a former defence secretary and former NATO secretary-general, has accused the government of 'corrosive complacency' towar...
Keir Starmer thinks he's Henry VIII
Two big stories to chew over on today’s podcast, starting with Viktor Orban’s landslide defeat in Hungary. The left have been celebrating this as a vi...
Isabel Hardman's Sunday Roundup - 12/04/2026
Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows.
No end in sight to the conflict in the Middle East, as negotiations in...
Will Labour lose Wales?
With one month to go until the local and regional elections, Megan McElroy and James Heale have hit the road with Luke Tryl and Louis O'Geran of More...
Left turn: who should Reform target?
Gawain Towler, Reform UK board member and their former director of communications, sits down with James Heale to talk about Reform's appeal ahead of t...
The 'Anglo-Gaullism' debate | Ben Judah
In the magazine this week, Ben Judah – former adviser in the Foreign Office – makes the case for ‘Anglo-Gaullism’. He says that Britain should learn t...
Antonia Romeo takes on the civil service
The new cabinet secretary, Antonia Romeo, has published a list of objectives setting out her vision for what the civil service will look like under he...
Iran deadline: is it too late for Trump to back down?
We are hours away from Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz. The President has ‘chickened out’ many times before and offere...
Hero voters: who should Labour target? with Chris Curtis MP & Deborah Mattinson
Labour won the 2024 general election in part by focusing on ‘hero voters’ – so called because they may have voted Labour in the past but felt the part...
Why is Starmer so unpopular? with Lewis Goodall
Opinion polls consistently show Keir Starmer as one of the most unpopular Prime Ministers in history. His critics point to inertia and a lack of visio...
Conservative radicalism: who should the Tories target? with Jack Rankin MP
Can the Conservatives win back voters' support through a new kind of 'conservative radicalism'?
Jack Rankin, Conservative MP for Windsor, joins...
EU déjà vu: the emergency brake is back!
Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform and Tim Shipman join James Heale to reflect on the rumours about Britain's latest set of negotiation...
Will Trump pull the US out of NATO?
Donald Trump has said he is 'strongly considering' pulling the US out of NATO, in comments made to the Telegraph – and it doesn't appear to be an Apri...
Why is Britain so exposed to rising energy prices?
The IMF has warned Britain is particularly vulnerable to another spike in energy prices, and is more exposed than many of its European neighbours. Why...
Where does Labour's centre of gravity lie?
Patrick Maguire, chief political writer at The Times, sits down with Tim Shipman for a reflection on Labour's odd year so far. From potential leadersh...
Isabel Hardman's Sunday Roundup - 29/03/2026
Isabel Hardman presents highlights from Sunday morning's political shows.
The Iran conflict has reached its second month. Figures from across th...
LIVE: Should we defund or defend the BBC? | Michael Gove & Jon Sopel v Charles Moore & Allison Pearson
Should we defund – or defend – the BBC?
Live from London, the Spectator hosted a debate on the future of this iconic British institution, comper...
Energy crisis: are we in 1973 territory?
The panic has set in around the cabinet table about this energy crisis, and fears of history repeating itself. Tim Shipman writes in the magazine abou...
The curious case of Morgan McSweeney's missing phone
Questions are being asked about Morgan McSweeney's missing phone, which he reported stolen to police last year. What might seem like a minor case of p...
To drill or not to drill, that is the question
In the final Prime Minister's Questions before Easter recess, Kemi Badenoch pushed Keir Starmer to commit to new oil & gas drilling licences. The Cons...
Should we brace for another financial shock?
Britain’s response to the conflict in Iran is dominating Westminster – but is Keir Starmer really keeping the country out of war? After a tense Liaiso...
It’s Ed Miliband’s world – and we’re living in it
Three big stories are on the agenda this morning: the war in Iran has dominated over the weekend, with Trump now failing to conceal his feelings towar...
On the road with Nigel Farage
This week James Heale and Tim Shipman share a byline to tell the story of Reform since the 2024 election, and where they are going. Nigel Farage revea...
LIVE: is it time for a Tory-Reform pact?
As Reform chips away at the Tory vote, the Conservatives face a stark choice – join forces with Nigel Farage or fight alone. James Heale, The Spectato...
Britain’s decline – and how to reverse it | with John Bew
In this special edition of Coffee House Shots, our political editor Tim Shipman is joined by historian, biographer and foreign policy adviser to four...