Election gamble & Lionel Shriver on Europe's baby bust - The Week in 60 Minutes | SpectatorTV

Rishi Sunak has announced that a snap general election will be held on July 4. Political Editor Katy Balls joins this week’s host, Freddy Gray, to discuss Rishi Sunak’s decision to head to the polls, and what the next six weeks might have in store.
Also on the show, Freddy takes a look at whether the PM’s gamble might pay off with Sam Rosbottom, Betfair spokesperson; columnist Lionel Shriver and demographer Paul Morland discuss what Europe might look like in the future; and Rory Sutherland gives his view on what’s happened to the electric car revolution.
00:00 Welcome from Freddy Gray
02:33 Why has Rishi Sunak called a snap election? With Katy Balls
14:40 Will the PM’s gamble pay off? With Sam Rosbottom
23:15 What happened to the electric car revolution? With Rory Sutherland
40:26 What will Europe look like in the future? With Lionel Shriver and Paul Morland
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[@triggerhappy3034]

Lionel speaking absolute common sense and being considered ‘dangerous’ says a lot about the state of free speech

[@MrXaphus]

Sadly its become way too easy for people to casually dismiss serious information that will directly affect them, under the pretense that they "don't want to be told what to do"

[@sansacro007]

She is so smart.

[@tom5216]

The magnificent Lionel Shriver. Lionel always hits the nail on the head. She is a great sideways thinker and isn't afraid to voice inconvenient truths. Pity she's not PM.

[@michaelwebb3979]

As ever, Lionel Shriver is spot - but we may not discuss it because we are too afraid of the woke backlash. Enough already. We need to stop being bullied by this nasty minority.

[@ajs41]

A political party that is 100% woke is about to win a big majority in the UK. That's not a nice thought.

[@martinkidd2588]

That no one from Number 10 could be bothered to come out to shield Sunak from the rain with an umbrella speaks volumes

[@ashleywilson2072]

He wanted to look super human, impervious to the elements (he didn't want to look wet / he didn't want to look like a big drip)

[@VillaParasol]

He could always have worn a bowler hat.

[@rupatiwari5923]

They were rattled that he dissolved parliament and they lose their power...

[@robertcook2572]

I don't care when Katy Balls first found out there was going to be an election

[@sarahbasemera4375]

100%

[@Ralstro]

Can one have an election without balls - or am I thinking of something else?

[@SuperBlinding]

Oh Balls ! !

[@overlordddrp]

I do; Any excuse to hear from that lovely little filly

[@karlernstbuddenbrock371]

Thanks Freddie! Great journalism.

[@monsieurgrigny]

Best current affairs programme of the week. Head and shoulders above the rest. Rory Sutherland and Paul Morland, Lionel, Sam Rosbottom, Katy and, of course, Feddie. What more do you need?

[@AchtungEnglander]

The reason why couples have fewer kids is mainly because of child care costs. Having kids now is a one way ticket to going semi-broke.

[@Cotictimmy]

I think the EV push has been insane. People are mainly rational when it comes to a large purchase in a cost of living crisis with secure jobs no longer available to the majority. On top of that, convenience, reliability, maintaining residual value, & minimizing overall risk are what must people prioritise. I bought a 'new' used car last week. It was a 2013 low mileage diesel costing £5000. I would see buying a brand new (or even used) battery EV as extremely reckless act. Rory is a wealthy member of the ruling class so he can afford EV and the financial big risks involved.

[@iliyakuryakin4671]

Rory Sutherland has all the technical understanding of EVs that you'd expect from a marketing man. The problem with EVs is that battery powered devices only work for small low power devices, like his electric toothbrush. Even for something like a hedge trimmer, a petrol or mains powered electric one is much better than a battery powered one. And no one wants a second hand EV, which makes the ownership costs of them that much greater than ICE cars.

[@NorthernSeaShore]

Many women will not have children unless they can stay home and look after them while young. This is socially taboo and financially difficult.

[@allangriffiths9555]

Re Rory on EVs: I'm one of those mad people that, several times a year, likes to go camping. For me, that means putting a roof box on the car and using all of the available stowage space to the maximum, then travelling several hundred miles to live in a field for a week. There isn't an EV on the market that will allow me to do that, so I'm never going to buy one. I might consider some type of hybrid, but the government is intent on phasing those out as well. Is the Spectator ever going to explore the moral and ethical issues raised by the use of slaves and child labour around the world to mine the materials needed to manufacture EVs? I'm not holding my breath!

[@RichardEnglander]

I go camping all the time, fishing and shooting too. No way an EV would work for me.

[@steadfastandyx4947]

Mr Sutherland makes a good point regarding hybrids. It's the vehicle I would choose. I still will not swallow the argument that electric propulsion is carbon emission free. 85% of our electricity comes from fossil fuels so not carbon free but outsourced to the power station. I disagree with his support of EVs. They are heavy, expensive and too risky, especially second hand, for a normal buyer. They depreciate like a rock of Beachy head. Who can afford it other than companies and their tax friendly system.

[@in6087]

When you have a society that you wouldn’t want to bring a child into… there’s your problem

[@RichardEnglander]

I would feel sick if they came home from school confused about their gender or coming back vegan or against bacon because...

[@BobSmith-fx9sz]

23:16 The car market will slowly electrify, but it'll take many, many decades with hybrids bridging that transition and that's fine. The issue with the E-market is heavy-handed government involvement that tried to speed up the process for political points.

[@lakedistrict9450]

What % of car buyers have drives that allow for EV home charging? That is the limit of the market?

[@liaminwales]

Electric cars are good but electric scooters are only legal if part of a rental program, the echo push is still punishing to working class with subsidies to people who can spend 20K on heat pumps or 40K on a electric car. There's a gran near me who uses an electric scooter to go to the corner shop, I cant understand why her scooter is not legal. Environmentally a electric scooter or electric pedal bike are superior and priced at a point normal people can afford, it looks like it's not about echo transport but a hidden tax cut to people with good jobs. A true echo car is a modern take on the Sinclair C5, something small light and cheep.

[@sisiphas]

You are correct. The frivolous arrogant and self-interested behaviour of the ‘beneficiaries’ of climate change scammers underlies skepticism

[@harmonybarry6182]

It’s hard to imagine used EV dealerships doing well, until there’s a way to accurately measure battery life. The fast-charge feature diminishes the battery life substantially. Consumers want to know what’s inside before forking over a heap of cash. It’s fair that the price reflects battery life. Even if there was sufficient charging station infrastructure to meet targets, we wouldn’t have enough power on the grid to support the needs of the EVs on the road. As Rory says, governments should be more flexible when setting targets. But it’s easy for a politician to tout the measures they introduce, since they may not even be in government in a few year’s time. Hybrids seem a better segway to transition to cleaner energy, however they are not without their problems, for example they catch on fire more often than ICE and EV vehicles. And an electric car battery on fire is difficult to extinguish. EV cars also weigh a lot more, requiring more energy to power, and causing more damage to the roads and infrastructure. There was a parking garage in NYC that collapsed a few years ago. It was suspected that poor maintenance-along with the weight of so many EVs-was to blame.

[@RichardEnglander]

They can measure battery health, really. They don't want to tell us

[@mytinplaterailway]

I am genuinely surprised Rory didn't look at himself, and acknowledge he's a gadget freak, an early adopter, and wealthy. He seems to have done so now. I'd like to hear how electric cars can be made smaller than petrol cars when the batteries are so large and heavy? Car manufacturers are withdrawing their small cars from the market. There also seems to be a train of thought that people can/should have different vehicles for different journeys - a micro car for trips to the supermarket - where most (90%) of people expect their car to do all types of journeys. Hybrids to a degree help with this, but their range is often very small - 30 miles - and you are simply adding the weight of a motor and battery which will reduce your mpg. And by the way (!) where is all the electric coming from? WHEN do we get the answer to that?

[@theoutsider6191]

People have also started to realise that having kids is a massive anchor in life, and can be really difficult if your relationship breaks down etc. So many people now have had a kid or two and got divorced, and the complication that puts into your life is well known now. Everyone knows someone in that boat, and it is no wonder many people think balls to that in favour of keeping their life free and easy - relatively speeking.

[@Benboy1980]

I was born in 1980, and the conversation that Lionel Shriver is having is the sort of thing I grew up with. Simply pointing out facts and the knock on effects. I feel that for the greater good, we should select people from within the electorate (that are obviously bright and qualified) to run the country. Not because they want to, but because we NEED them to. It should be akin to jury service. We have allowed career politicians and activists to run our institutions and government, it’s completely insane and will negatively effect all of us

[@philiphaynes4791]

Would not want myself or my kids crashing in a A Citroen AMI into a tree, truck or a Range Rover thank very much Rory!

[@user-dw3hl4sh2w]

Stephen King the Chief Economist at HSBC published a book on the threats of globalisation in 2017. He identified African immigration as a major threat to the UK and Europe. The population of Nigeria could be 900 million by 2100 according to UN forecasts. Many of those people could be headed to Britain because many have a working knowledge of English. It is not a problem that Britain's clueless political media class has wanted to think about.

[@arthur9924]

Thank you Lionel and Paul.

[@pmichael73]

The perception of his speech varies whether people heard him or saw him. On the radio, it was a pretty good speech; less so on television.

[@valparker1426]

Can I just say that Britain I s known for the weather never come to Britain without an umbrella, you would thought number 10 would have come out with one 😒😢🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🌹🇬🇧

[@barbaralucas2375]

Lionel and Paul did not talk about the low fertility rate being partly responsible by the LGBTQIA community.

[@michaelgibson7466]

No such community. The combination of the names of disparate groups of everything but the norm to make believe there are a lot of them and they somehow live in a "community".

[@unnamed3932]

Kara Swisher half-jokingly remarked a while back that the only ones having kids are lesbians and evangelicals.

[@Lord_Saruman]

that makes next to zero difference - got loads of straight friends who have been partnered for years with zero kids. They are now approaching 50, out of time. Those are the ones pulling the numbers way down. If anything, having married lesbian couples may increase the numbers a little.

[@FraserBailey-jm5yz]

I got drunk with the LG&T community the other night. Had a great time.

[@irenelancaster3242]

My community here in Manchester has average 9 children per family and Israel across the board has around four. Why does this anomaly never get a mention?. Judaism is into children and Christianity definitely not. And Israel is an incredibly feminist society. So all your generalizations don’t make sense! And most Israeli women work, again across the board!

[@dgfox474]

Lionel Shriver and Paul Morland: Intelligent people talking about events and problems in a coherent manner, having thought through their opinions. What a bleeding miracle!

[@doyle6000]

Great stuff!

[@notlimey]

maybe electric cars can work in a geographically small country such as the UK - but not in North America were drives of 100+ miles are common. And you need more nuclear to provide the energy... and the cost of charging your car at home? My electricity is expensive now.

[@NorfolkSceptic]

The UK isn't that small! You can drive much more than 100 miles, straight, and still not fall into the sea.

[@DS9TREK]

If the UK joined the USA, it would be the 11th largest state by land area, and biggest by population. We're not small.

[@RichardEnglander]

They are ok in cities if you have a driveway

[@johnmiller7755]

The Tories are toast. This call is about what is best for Mr & Mrs Sunak. There is no other logical reason. Farage not standing will make only a minuscule difference. Independence Day in the US might have as much relevance.

[@deal2live]

The electric car will have a second hand electric car market!!

[@jacksonmiked]

Interesting section on electric cars. To the question of why the market is stalling, I’d add that the designs of electric cars are mostly pretty awful with too many bland, identikit, soulless, gun metal grey MPVs and boring plastic interiors dominated by a touchscreen.

[@Ralstro]

Paul Morland's book title "No one left" could be about the Rwanda debacle. If it was about the establishment it would be called "Every one's left"

[@JamesTaylor-je6es]

On 4 July? I daren't say surprised.

[@AlistairClark99]

Katy "did a much better job than whoever wrote Rishi Sunak's speech". Was that a dig at James Forsyth, Sunak's Political Adviser and former Spectator journalist?

[@GeorgeBrown-zo5qg]

Nice

[@philiphaynes4791]

Rory Sutherland has got nearly everything wrong he is right however on Compact flourescent light bulbs. EV cars save no CO2 compared to keeping your old car, are far heavier due to the huge battery, wear out roads and tyres much faster, have limited range, need off street parking…why bother? As to plug in hybrids each time you bother to plug it in it might save you circa 50p on fuel (so is it worth the bother) but also note it will devalue the battery by about the same 50p and that 50p is just due to lower taxes not a real saving for the country. But then hybrids are heavier, more complex, more tyre wear, more depreciation and cost more to buy and to maintain. So why bother Rory? Go and study a bit of physics or engineering perhaps?

[@christopherbrookfield4785]

Rishi Sunak had no need for an umbrella, sowester or raincoat. He was probably insulated with vindoloo.❤

[@janorquay]

What is vindoloo?

[@stevehomer3676]

Being locked into the dealership network for service and repair is currently an additional cost. For those considering EVs outside of warranty the independent market is not affordable or well developed

[@TJ_USA]

I think Sutherland's argument is wrong. There is no natural course of development for the engine. The fact is electric cars are expensive and inefficient and are not likely to get better. People used to say that nuclear power would produce energy too cheap to meter.

[@RichardEnglander]

NP would and should be cheaper but there are complex reasons why it isn't. But it doesn't have to be that way. Modular reactors and cloning designs will massively reduce costs.

[@mickbanner]

Why the hell is the second segment about the election a promo for a betting company? Pretty gross.

[@georgemeadows3683]

Used electric car sales have increased massively and all new car sales have decreased in the uk. It’s a load of rubbish

[@angeljames1539]

I will vote for the party announcing legal cannabis

[@turquoiseowl]

The demographer thinks that supporting women in the workplace means more babies. Where we are at.

[@thomasbentele2468]

Home charging doesn't solve the problem. First, when everybody tries to charge at home over night, when solar panels deliver nothing, you need big energy plants that produces CO2, so there is for climate-religious people no difference to combustion engines. Second and really hard, if all cars go electric, we need a much more expensive energy grid. And it will collapse, if most people heat with electric heat pumps. OK, he speaks of the actual situation. A few electric cars can be charged over night. For the quality aspect, its to early to say much about it, when it comes to durability. Combustion cars can be sold, even if they are 8, 12, 15 years old. The question, who has to pay for recycling is open too. Fire insurance for Home and car? So a wealthy sportscar lover can come to other decisions than average Joe.

[@philippawesterman8843]

And are the foxes eating the brake linings?

[@VaucluseVanguard]

Dar-key Ville is coming to town.

[@tangerinestorm]

I don't understand what is the problem is when we need more children and Africa is having more children? What is the real difference between the these children. The hospitals are full of African doctors and nurses and some of the best lecturers at my former university was African. So what's the problem? Also isn't Tunisia in Africa?

[@Benboy1980]

It depends on what you want the world to look like by 2100. If you want it to be almost entirely African in appearance then keep sipping your tea and carry on

[@tangerinestorm]

@@Benboy1980 but it won't be there are lots of Asians and they look different to Africans and there will be mixing. And so what if the world looks African, if Europeans don't want to breed then that is how it will go. I appreciate that there is a racist argument but given we are all part of the human race I think colour is hardly a problem

[@Benboy1980]

@@tangerinestormI think you missed what Shriver said. The Asian population is even worse in terms of decline. And for the record I’m not bothered about what people ‘look like’ in the long term. it’s more the cultural knock on effects. We are already seeing this in the UK, we have so many people coming from the Middle East that it is changing our cities and villages. And that is something I don’t want. I don’t want my daughters growing up in an eventual Muslim majority country, for obvious reasons

[@tangerinestorm]

@@Benboy1980 India's population is still increasing. Birth rates are going down everywhere. There are hundreds of millions of people in Africa that are Christian and regular church goers. More and more Anglican vicars are from Africa today. So I ask why not get lots of good fearing practicing Christians from Africa to make up for the short fall in the UK? They can keep those village churches going and maybe even the English people might get dressed up and start to attend like they used to.

[@Benboy1980]

@@tangerinestorm no arguments from me if that’s the case. But without sounding unkind we have imported a lot of people that are very poor and have been a net drain on the economy , services and infrastructure. In the long run it won’t help. We need a mixture of high skill immigration and incentives to help the native population increase

[@justintcb5189]

I use a 125cc commuter motorcycle for going about town - it's superior in almost every way to an EV car or electric scooter. It's cheap to buy and run. It gets 50mpg with a greater range than an EV. It doesn't cause much pollution. It's faster and certainly safer than an electric scooter and I would argue probably less environmentally damaging in the manufacturing process. (no lithium mining). We don't need to be dogmatic about environmental choices or policy just because it has the word 'electric' or 'green' in the name.

[@sisiphas]

True! It is of course tricky to move the increasing numbers of children we need around on a bike - i managed two with great difficulty ;)

[@brianfitzell1664]

That’s why they’ll be banned even earlier than the cars. Those who ‘know better’ don’t want your independence or anything near self-reliance. These talking head scribes are only disseminators, as sadly are many politicians, who switch off their analytical faculties when told what to do for upfront rewards. The more extreme of their kind such as Ardern, Varadkar and Yousaf bow out when no longer useful. Trudeau hangs on, Biden old guard type is trapped within a White House brigade of similar types to those named above.

[@englishrogue2649]

Can we have an entire episode with Rory please?

[@RichardEnglander]

12:50 Nigel said today he was planning to stand and setting up to, but doesnt have time to do so now.

[@FraserBailey-jm5yz]

The is nothing 'green' about EVs. If you want to be 'green', don't have a bloody car. It's as simple as that.

[@Devorre]

Modern families should look at expanding on the work from home trend. Being able to work from home while being at home with children can benefit the whole family. Possibly both parents can work from home or a hybrid thereof.

[@thomasbentele2468]

Yes, Mr. Sutherland is right, mixed technologies, a free market and nothing could go wrong.

[@adamgrimsley2900]

This is an ad for Bet fair!

[@bangkokchowkwanyun4953]

It’s a no brainer: every mother should get a good salary which increases with every child: motherhood is a huge job which deserves the right level of pay. Problem: how do you differentiate good and bad mothers?

[@SamSamSamSamSam]

Lol did Freddy bring his bookie on to pay off a debt or something

[@kieran4949]

Why no the week in 60 minutes for 2 weeks

[@thetoynbeeconvector]

4 weeks now. Why?

[@peterforsythe3643]

What do you respond to people who say “well, it’s good that there will be fewer people in the world” ?

[@harrymc523]

Ask them to volunteer themselves to the reduction...

[@ulrikaferell4493]

Högtidsstund när 3 kloka personer pokulerar högt och lågt. 🙏

[@philipanthony9596]

Do electric vehicles even have a future? I recently saw a vid about Toyota’s efforts to produce an engine that runs on either methane or hydrogen. Maybe that’s the future?

[@WEMAKINITOUT1]

“Electric cars run on crude oil” lmao 🤣

[@michaelgibson7466]

I think Sunak has just had a bellyfull of everything.

[@woodrow60]

Goodbye cruel electorate.

[@vivwindsor4055]

I fed up with the media on both sides saying neither Starmer or Sunak are very exciting, I'm happy with my politcians being boring. The UK voted for supposed charisma amd personality in Boris Johnson last election, and look where that got the country. I'll take steady competence anytime in my Primeminster, and seek my entertainment elsewhere, outside of politics. We are not voting for characters on Love Island.

[@richardyates7280]

Apres moi, le deluge....continue (Rishi Sunak, or possibly Louis XV)

[@MrFpjohn]

But the Spectator remains the home of Addison and Steele level prose ?

[@keithwesley2471]

I understand that many primary schools here in the UK are closing due to lack of numbers enrolling. Falling birthrate is encouraging immigration.

[@RichardEnglander]

That doesn't follow. Fertility rates are low because housing is so expensive and working parents don't think they can afford two or three or more bedrooms for more kids. Childcare is also expensive but mum's can't afford to stay at home because now we need two incomes to pay for housing. Mass immigration has caused wage and productivity stagnation whilst exacerbating the housing EMERGENCY, meanwhile we have opened up our domestic housing market to international corporations and foreign individuals and investors. Immigration is not the cure, it is the disease. Successive governments have through their policies made us dependent upon it, the policies can change and the solution to a drug addiction isn't more drugs. Mass immigration is a Ponzi Scheme, immigrants get old too. We have impending AI Robotic Revolution and there will be many people struggling to work, the last thing we need is a few million disaffected foreigners with no great love for this country who are resentful towards us because the streets aren't paved with gold. Remember, the two major drivers of civil war are unstable governments and racially/religiously diverse populations. Fact

[@timharbour2668]

I’m sorry but the argument that the movement towards EV’s was naturally going to come about does not hold water. My tax dollars go to pay for early adopters to go buy a luxury car. In California we have them tax breaks, rebates, and access to HOV lanes. This inevitably hit a ceiling because you can’t do that for everyone. We are also introducing legislation all over the world to try to force the hand of the market. As far as the complexity of internal combustion engines they are at least widely understood and easily repaired when they do go wrong. Electric toothbrushes and the like are electric because 1) You’re using it inside 2) Because it’s cheap 3) because there’s no practical reason to use anything else. No one arguing to allow the market to decide on EV’s has made the inverse of the logical jump that was made here to say that using an electric toothbrush means you should get an electric car. Interfering with the car market the way that governments have been and still do is an ineffective means of getting where you want to go. Build a better product and people will buy it. Remember when David Letterman was making fun of the iPad and using it as a coffee mug warm coaster? Now tablets are in almost every business and most college students have or at least want one. Apple didn’t need to stop people from buying old style computers, they just had to let the market work.

[@mpersad]

Sam Rosbottom from Betfair was fascinating! Please bring him back again during the campaign, and also for the US Presidential campaign!

[@mickbanner]

Do you work for Betfair?

[@anainasen]

Feminists scream from the top of their lungs at women who prioritise raising children over carrier. Our politicians are silent about prioritising family, and cultural elites look down on women who dedicate themselves to life at home. In Denmark the predominate view is that women that stay at home and raise their children are losers or selfish, because they get a "free ride" and don't contribute to society. There is almost a hostile attitude towards women that prioritise motherhood. The age for getting children is also very high here, people wait until they are almost too old. So, my point is, there are not so many cultural incentives to get children, our culture values independence, work and fun, and feminist are pushing these values hard.

[@DS9TREK]

Working class families with only one working parent are more likely to fall below the poverty line and the kids do worse at school. That's why both parents working is encouraged.

[@billturner6564]

Boy what an obnoxious Evangelist you had on .. 1 it is not the same when a ritch fool loses 50% of his cash on a flash car in 3 years as when a working class guy in Liverpool pays his taxes to subsidise a ritch foop in Chelsea to buy a cheap government subsidised Tesla ... is it ? It is not abnormal 2 want to drive your car more than 190 miles in 1 go is it ? It is perfectly normal to but your new car after it is 3 years old and it is even more normal for the every day man in the street to buy his car when it is 8 or 12 years old ... and as even a mear 3 year old EV is almost usles because of crippling electrical problems software problems and battery degradation .... just what good is it ? My 2005 audi is giving me economic reliable transport at 19 years and 275.000 milee of age It still can travel the same 750 miles between charges as it did when new ...... And it does not cost 11.000£ to insurer for a year and just what EV is going to keep on working longer than 2 years ?? Any of you have a 3 uear old phone?? How many times a day are you recharging it ? EVs are for ritch people not normal people and its not fair for normal people to subsidise ritch people and there new Rolls Royce

[@martinkennedy5675]

Large families occur in countries with no welfare provision. People need children to provide care when they are old.

[@anibrown5374]

Human worker replacement levels for ever has depended on importing an 'epsilon' (Brave New World) permanent worker class to do the jobs the home-grown population either won't or aren't cut out for. You cannot square this model with social mobility.

[@RichardEnglander]

43:45 yes Lionel, the Age of Immigration is only just getting going, i have warned about this for 20 years - i have somewhat of an education in demographics - and things are going tp get much worse. I mever imagined that we would also have policies which encouraged it, that Merkel would call for them in 2015. We need Revolution and Reconquista to create Fortress Europe. We International Nationalists must work together to preserve our lovely diverse civilised Western cultures.

[@Arctic_Fox_NFFC]

Missed the point again. If you want a society that encourages and supports marriage and children, then we need to de-risk it once again FOR MEN. The whole discussion seems to be about women and their choices: you are missing half the picture here and thus perpetuating the problem.

[@phwbooth]

Will the picture of PM Sunak soaked to the skin hang around for a long time?

[@RichardEnglander]

Longer than the cabbage

[@georgesdelatour]

If a government implemented the following income tax adjustment, the birth rate would rise sharply: Number of Kids Income Tax Adjustment, effective from age 30: Zero Kids +50% One Kid +0% Two Kids -25% Three Kids -50%

[@marieparker3822]

I saw a schoolteacher in Lagos, Nigeria on TV (Michael Palin's travel programme) saying that he was one of eighteen. His father had eighteen children by his first wife, and seventeen children by his second wife. I think he was a Muslim, so perhaps his father had another two wives. The World cannot sustain eight billion people as it is - not at the level at which it would like to live. There are no secrets in the modern World. No-one wants to live at subsistence level, and why should they? The population of the World has tripled in my lifetime. It is not possible to keep on reproducing as we have up to now and have people have the possibility of having a decent life without irrevocably destroying our habitat - the only one we have, *or will ever have*. On a World scale, the problem is sexism and machismo - in some cultures the more little replicas of himself who are strutting around a man can point to, the greater status he has.

[@Ralstro]

I am terrified of a Labour government but equally I cannot abide the idea of another five years of Sunak. He is just so uninspiring and untrustworthy. If he truly cares about the Conservative party he should do the decent thing and step aside.

[@richardwheatley7194]

Fake news alert from Electric car evangelist.

[@amandamorton-king2112]

A very brave Jewish lecturer in Bristol asked the young men to leave and told the young women of my daughter's year NOT to put off having children despite studying to be doctors. Fortunately, back then they were surprised rather than outraged and my A&E Consultant daugher duly produced a fine son when she was 27. Meanwhile her friends are all now anxiously buying fertility tests and ovulation kits with stress probably actually reducing their chances of conception.

[@afifahhamilton8843]

Ditch the silly music! (There's a time and a place, and this ain't it.)

[@richseidner]

Lionel is mistaken in that the benefit is limited to industries like pork production. The vast majority of workers in the fields, producing the food that we all consume, is low-paid immigrants. Thus, the cost of our food is subsidized by this. This is a benefit to the entire population and cannot be ignored.

[@RichardEnglander]

Mass immigration causes wage and productivity stagnation whilst exacerbating the housing EMERGENCY. If we didn't have mass immigration then we would have mechanized more. Those immigrants you speak of don't subsidise food, they cause wage stagnation, they add to population density and create more environmental impact and pressure on services. In UK they don't earn enough to be net tax contributors, I doubt they do so in USA either

[@RichardEnglander]

I just got to that bit, you must have missed the bit when she spoke about other similar industries and then continued to use the pork industry for example, and then went to speak about hotel cleaners. Listen better.

[@richseidner]

@@RichardEnglander Thanks, but I heard that just fine. It's simply that California, just for example, is the produce basket for the world (not just America), and this i snot just a minor industry that affects only a small percentage of the population. It's a major thing, cost reduction for everyone in America. Higher cost workers would cost everyone every day.

[@RichardEnglander]

@@richseidner yes she knows that, it was just an example

[@alisonbrown1841]

Men wages aren't big enough to keep a family and cover bills. 7 out 10 women rather be in a home with their kids. Government manufactured way of less being born due needing 2 incomes

[@RDHamel]

First bit was actually reasonable, with a bit of levity on the betting stuff. The Shriver stuff was weird. It posited the stultifying of a culture by means of breeding. Peculiar on so many levels.Here are just two. 1. Your children are not you and the culture develops and changes with generations. People who have... how can I put this...um... I have to translate the dog whistles and it will be indelicate... people who are ... well... dusky, are capable of culture and civility just as much as the white people, shown here, fretting about them. They are also capable of the kind of tribal barbarity Shriver et al adopt, so even Stevens

[@JohnCorrUK]

Let the excellent value Chinese EVs into UK , Spectator repeating protectionist nonsense

[@gusmlie]

I dont think the head in sand tories realise how dispised they are. Even more than the mid 80s and late 90s.

[@RichardEnglander]

I feel sick thinking about them. The only things they conserved are the growth in the deficit, national debt, and immigration. I hate them. ZERO Votes!

[@marieparker3822]

Diminishing sperm counts: plastic in the environment.

[@sisiphas]

Ot too much onanism driven by plastic porn?

[@ExileGilby64]

Rory is Awesome.

[@williamvorkosigan5151]

If employers value their female workers they will either: Pay enough so that their employee can afford Child Care. Supply it themselves. Club together with other small businesses to supply it. It should not be the business of the tax payer to subsidise women neglecting their children to be on the work place. Rather than paying Child Benefit, there should be a tax on women who do not have 1 child by the time that they are x years & 2 children by the time they are y years. Of course this will require some nuance for women who can not have children. In all cases this should be with the signed consent of the father. Current government policy will end our culture. England will just be geography. The carrot isn't working. Time for stick.

[@vthompson947]

You sound as though only white English women should be taxed, and only women are responsible for conception.

[@VillaParasol]

Shriver just so drearily dreadful as ever. She's tell you the time as if it were an insight, direly fought for by a supreme mind.

[@XYZ-td6sn]

Lol, agree. I feel a part of my soul die when she speaks…