The Edition: the truth about grooming gangs, 'why I'm voting for the AfD' & exploring YouTube rabbit holes
Best of the Spectator
The Spectator
4.4 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 9 January 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
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Summary
In the cover piece for the magazine, Douglas Murray writes about the conspiracy of silence on the grooming gangs and offers his view on what justice should look like for the perpetrators. He also encourages the government to take a step back and consider its own failings. He writes: ‘If any government or political party wants to do something about the scandal, they will need to stop reviewing and start acting. Where to begin? One good starting point would be to work out why Pakistani rapists in Britain seem to have more rights than their victims.’ To unpack his piece in a little more detail, we were joined by journalist Julie Bindel, who has been reporting on the grooming gangs for almost 20 years. (03:20)
Next: ‘Why I’m voting for the AfD’
In the magazine, Elisabeth Dampier explains why she will be voting for Germany’s AfD party – Alternative for Deutschland. Support for the hard-right AfD party grew dramatically in 2024 and is often used as an example of a broader trend of support for right-wing politics in the West. But is the key to their success as simple as an unpopular incumbent government and the salience of immigration? And how do they deal with constant comparisons to National Socialism? To discuss, we were joined by Elisabeth and German historian and journalist Katja Hoyer. (17:09)
And finally: Help! I’m addicted to videos of plane crashes
Damian Thompson writes an excellent guest Life column this week on his latest obsession: binge-watching aeroplane crash videos on YouTube. Now, this does sound a little bit morbid but – as he explains – it’s actually very educational, especially when you are being talked through the intricacies of air accidents by Petter Hörnfeldt, who runs the Mentour Pilot YouTube channel. We thought it would be fun to get Damian in conversation with his new hero, Petter. (29:46)
Hosted by Lara Prendergast and William Moore.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Spectator magazine is home to wonderful writing, insightful analysis and unrivaled books and arts reviews. |
| 0:05.1 | Subscribe today for just £12 and receive a 12 week subscription in print and online, along with a free £20 £10,000 or Waitrose Voucher. |
| 0:11.8 | Go to spectator.com. UK forward slash voucher. |
| 0:19.4 | Hello and welcome to the edition podcast from The Spectator, where each week we shed a little light on the thought process behind putting the world's oldest weekly magazine to bed. |
| 0:32.3 | I'm Laura Prendergars, the Spectator's Executive Editor. And I'm William Moore, the Spectator's Features Editor. |
| 0:38.2 | This week, Julie Bindall on what justice would look like for the victims of the grooming gangs. |
| 0:43.4 | Elizabeth Dampia explains why she's voting for Germany's AFD. |
| 0:48.0 | And Damien Thompson takes us down a peculiar YouTube rabbit hole. |
| 0:59.6 | Thank you. a peculiar YouTube rabbit hole. First up, in his cover piece for the magazine this week, |
| 1:03.0 | Douglas Murray writes about the conspiracy of silence around the grooming gangs, |
| 1:07.3 | and he offers his view on what justice would look like for the perpetrators. |
| 1:12.0 | He also encourages the government to take a step back and consider its own failings and he writes |
| 1:16.7 | that if any government or political party wants to do something about the scandal, they will need |
| 1:21.7 | to stop reviewing and start acting. Where to begin? One good starting point would be to work out |
| 1:27.0 | why Pakistani rapists in Britain |
| 1:28.8 | seem to have more rights than their victims. And here's an extract from Douglas explaining more |
| 1:34.1 | on the spectator TV. It's almost 25 years since various people, in particular in towns |
| 1:41.5 | in the north of England, places like Rotherham, Rochdale, |
| 1:45.7 | parents of girls started saying that their girls were being groomed by men who were soon after |
| 1:52.1 | euphemistically described as Asians whenever they were described in the British press. But it wasn't |
| 1:57.8 | just white working class people who seems somehow very easy to disparage and dismiss. |
| 2:04.4 | It was also Sikh and Hindu communities who said that some similar things were happening with their daughters. |
... |
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