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Best of the Spectator

The Edition: Britain’s bureaucratic bloat, debating surrogacy & is smoking ‘sexy’?

Best of the Spectator

The Spectator

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Society & Culture

4.4785 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week: The Spectator launches SPAFF

The civil service does one thing right, writes The Spectator’s data editor Michael Simmons: spaffing money away. The advent of Elon Musk’s DOGE in the US has inspired The Spectator to launch our own war on wasteful spending – the Spectator Project Against Frivolous Funding, or SPAFF. Examples of waste range from the comic to the tragic. The Department for Work and Pensions, Michael writes, ‘bought one Universal Credit claimant a £1,500 e-bike after he persuaded his MP it would help him find self-employment’. There’s money for a group trying to ‘decolonise’ pole dancing; for a ‘socially engaged’ practitioner to make a film about someone else getting an MBE; and for subscriptions to LinkedIn. Lord Agnew, who used to hold the ‘Pythonesque’ title of ‘minister of state for efficiency and transformation’, backs The Spectator’s new SPAFF campaign and says total reform is the only option. Michael and Theo joined the podcast to discuss. (1:04)

Next: is surrogacy a blessing or a sham?

Debates about surrogacy have raged again following the announcement that the actress Lily Collins has had a baby via surrogate. Mary Wakefield says that there is a ‘sadness’ behind surrogacy, and that babies could be affected by being separated from their birth mother. Surrogacy is illegal in many countries, such as Spain and Italy, and Mary worries about potential legal changes that would make it easier to pursue here in the UK. So, is surrogacy a lifeline for many couples looking to conceive, or is it a practice that we should be more concerned about? Mary joined the podcast to discuss alongside Sunshine Hanson. Sunshine is the president and co-founder of the US-based surrogacy agency Surrogacy Is, and has also been a gestational surrogate three times. (16:26)

And finally: is smoking sexy again?

Flora Watkins revels at the news that Generation Z are shedding their vapes and taking up ‘real’ smoking, saying that everyone looks ‘hotter with a fag in their mouth’. Disregarding familial disapproval, Flora says that smoking makes her feel cool, young and attractive. Does this mean that smoking is sexy again? And why is smoking proving more popular with younger generations? It appears that the proposed smoking ban, proposed by both the Conservatives and now Labour, is having the opposite effect. Flora joined the podcast - with a cigarette in hand - to discuss, alongside the writer Zak Asgard. (29:35) 

Presented by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.

Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews.

0:06.2

Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12-week subscription in print and online,

0:11.5

along with a free £20 £10,000 or waitrose voucher.

0:15.0

Go to spectator.com.uk forward slash voucher.

0:31.8

Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator, where each week we shed a little light from the thought process behind putting the world's oldest weekly magazine to bed.

0:37.0

I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor.

0:39.4

And I'm Lara Prendergars, the Spectator's Executive Editor.

0:43.3

In this week's episode, we launched the Spectator Project Against Frivolous Funding, or Spaff.

0:49.7

We debate whether surrogacy is a lifeline or a sham, and we ask whether smoking is sexy again.

1:03.8

First up, British taxpayers' money is flung at a myriad of inane and insane initiatives.

1:13.1

Well, so declares Michael Simmons in his cover piece for The Spectator this week. Michael is the Spectator's data editor, and he

1:18.1

uncovers the most absurd and egregious examples of Britain's bureaucratic bloat. So, taking

1:24.5

inspiration from Elon Musk's Doge, or Department of Government Efficiency in the States,

1:30.3

Michael argues that we should have our very own version.

1:33.8

And so, the Spectator is launching Spaff, or The Spectator Project Against Frivolous Funding.

1:41.5

Accompanying Michael's piece is Theo Agnew, who was the government minister for efficiency

1:46.0

and transformation, a title which he himself describes as Pythonesque, from 2020 to 2022. In his piece,

1:53.9

Theo explains why his mission was always an impossible task. Theo and Michael joined us to discuss.

1:59.8

I started by asking Michael where the inspiration

2:02.1

for Spaff came from. For anyone who's been following anything that's happened since the US election,

2:07.8

it's Elon Musk's Doge, or Department of Government Efficiency. And Elon Musk, for those who don't know,

2:14.2

has basically been unleashed by Donald Trump to just go around

...

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