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What should we expect from a Hillary Clinton presidency? The Democrat frontrunner is now the firm favourite to win the White House, assuming that she can defeat her Republican rival Donald Trump. But what would her victory mean for America? In his Spectator cover piece this week, Christopher Buckley says one of Hillary’s prevailing characteristics is her ability to bore. He also argues that Clinton’s politic shapeshifting over the years may have enabled her to stand the test of time, but it’s also won her many enemies. So if we think the rise of Trump shows Americans are angry, what would it be like after four years of Hillary? Christopher Buckley speaks to Freddy Gray and Lara Prendergast. Here’s what he had to say:
‘There are a lot of things you can say about Hillary. She’s very bright, she has Maggie Thatcher levels of energy, she does her homework. Yes, the Whitehall elite would be much happier with her than this orange maniac – who wouldn’t be? But the trouble is that she is dull. We must confront the essential fact about Hillary that she is only interesting as a phenomenon.’
Labour MP Tristram Hunt also appears on this week’s podcast to discuss his article in the magazine in which he says his party needs to confront its ‘England problem’. The MP for Stoke says that Labour’s impulse to knock patriotism reflects the party’s growing distance from many of its core voters. Tristram also shares his views on Andy Burnham’s decision to run for Mayor of Manchester. Speaking to James Forsyth about the decision of big name politicians to take career paths outside of Westminster, Tristram says:
‘I think it’s totally brilliant. I think it is a sign when front-line politicians choose to leave Westminster, as Boris and Sadiq and Zac chose to do for London, and think that actually ‘I can influence my community much more and do more as a mayor, I think that shows devolution is working.’
And Douglas Murray reveals Boris Johnson is the winner of his ‘President Erdogan offensive poetry competition’. The former Mayor of London trumped thousands of entries in the competition, which was set up after a German comedian was hauled into court for writing a rude poem about the Turkish President. On the Spectator podcast, Douglas Murray explains his decision to launch the competition – and explains why Boris was picked as the winner. Here’s what he had to say:
‘I thought the vim and the vigour of the entry was one thing, the other is that in awarding this prize to Boris Johnson it is entirely anti-meritocratic. I should state that there were very many good entries which were at least as fine. But it seems to me the finest thing possible that in the United Kingdom, in 2016, you can award a prize to a political leader for insulting the despot in Ankara, whilst in Germany in 2016, a political leader tries to slam people up in prison.’
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