I used to enjoy this podcast, and occasionally you have an excellent episode presented by Lewis Goodall, but lately the output has been strong on opinions (they’re very keen on welfare spending cuts, for example) and very weak on news and facts.

As ever, such a superficial take from centrism central. Yes, charisma and energy played a role, but Mamdani won because he articulated a vision and proposals which resonated with most New Yorkers. Don’t minimise the role of ideas and policies simply because you don’t like them.

I’m old enough to remember the his highly partisan broadcasts about French politics when he was the BBC Paris correspondent. The mantra ‘too many strikes and labour rights’ was repeated ad nauseum but he was never able to explain France’s high productivity.

Jon Sopel is a waste of space: the combination of arrogance, ignorance, conservatism and excited lecturing tone is such a turn-off.