slow newscast
Octopus: The allegations against Crispin Odey
Paul Caruana Galizia investigates the sexual assault allegations against one of Britain’s richest and most powerful men.
new podcast
The News Meeting
In this new podcast, we’re throwing open the doors of our newsroom and inviting you in. Each week three journalists compete for their story to lead the news.
net zero sensemaker
Oil and gas is going private
As pressure grows on publicly listed energy companies, private equity firms have been snapping up assets from Alaska to the North Sea.
tech states sensemaker
Percentage-based punishment
The fines big tech companies are forced to pay are like a drop in the bucket to them. Could percentage-based penalties force them to shape up?
new podcast series
The Tavistock: Inside the gender clinic
Is it right to prescribe puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria? Listen to the first four episodes of our new podcast now.
sensemaker our daily roundup of the news that matters
Mute mandarins
8 december 2022
- Dina Boluarte was sworn in as Peru’s first female president after her predecessor was impeached for a failed coup.
- Michael Gove approved the UK’s first new coal mine in 30 years.
- Iran carried out the first execution over recent anti-government protests.
Why is the UK parliament’s privileges committee taking so long to decide whether Boris Johnson misled the House of Commons during the post-Covid panic known as partygate? Here’s what MPs are saying: senior civil servants won’t talk for fear of being named.
World Cup 2022 updates
Morocco marches towards the quarter-finals as the Arab world’s envoy
by Paul Hayward
Tortoise’s Sports Editor Paul Hayward is providing a daily update on the 2022 World Cup. Today, he unpacks Morocco’s defeat of Spain, the masters of possession football, in a penalty shootout.
Could Ronaldo be the new face of Saudi soft power?
England vs. Wales is a distraction from a real-life rivalry
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Multi-part podcast series
Limited series
Who chooses the prime minister?
Liz Truss was elected prime minister by a handful of the population – Conservative party members. Her successor was almost chosen this way as well. But nobody knows exactly who these people are – or how secure the process is. So we’ve asked the Conservative Party to tell us.
On 10 October 2022, Tortoise submitted an application for Judicial Review of the Conservative party’s refusal to disclose information about the way it chose Britain’s new prime minister.
Our latest podcast episodes
Royal race row
Lady Susan Hussey has caused a race row after asking a Black charity boss where she was “really” from during a reception at Buckingham Palace.
Who is Ngozi Fulani and why does this come at such a bad time for the royal family?
Dry World Cup stadiums
With just days to go before kick-off, Qatar banned beer from its World Cup stadiums. What happens to all the beer?
Slavery reparations
A wealthy Conservative MP whose family made its fortune from the slave trade is facing claims for reparations. The government of Barbados wants him to hand over his plantation on the island.
The Alzheimer’s drug
An experimental Alzheimer’s drug called lecanemab has been hailed as an historic breakthrough. But what does it actually mean for people living with the disease?
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Matthew d’Ancona
Every Monday, Tortoise editor and award-winning commentator Matthew d’Ancona picks apart the political stories that matter with wit, flair and insider knowledge in his weekly column.
Sunak’s “small boats” fixation is an unsettling echo of Trump’s Wall
“Taking back control” of the UK’s borders means recognising that control is not a trophy but a responsibility. It also means speaking unwelcome truths to the British public
Hancock’s lesson for Sunak
The former health secretary’s surprisingly successful performance in the jungle is a warning that purely technocratic politics is no longer enough
Don’t walk into the Brexit elephant trap, Mr Starmer
Last week’s autumn statement was meant to hem in Labour on fiscal policy. Now, Rishi Sunak is trying to tempt the Opposition leader onto lethal ground of a different sort.
Everyone can join
By offering sponsored membership to those who otherwise could not join Tortoise, we are truly an open and inclusive newsroom.
We’re not cutting emissions fast enough.
Which is why we launched the Accelerating Net Zero Coalition last year: a group of partners determined to make progress towards net zero. With the help of these businesses we’re hosting solution-focused discussions on how to get there together.
The Slow Newscast
Our biggest stories given voice
Octopus
The allegations against Crispin Odey
5 December 2022
51 minutes
One of Britain’s richest and most powerful men was cleared of sexual assault last year. Four more women have come forward with similar allegations that Crispin Odey, a major donor to the Conservative party, sexually assaulted them. Other women allege that he sexually harassed them at the offices of his Mayfair hedge fund company.
Inside Unite: the union, Liverpool and the ÂŁ100m hotel
One of Britain’s biggest trade unions has built a hotel in Birmingham at vast cost. Following the threads which explain why it became so wildly expensive leads inevitably to a surprising place: to Liverpool. And to questions which could hurt the Labour party.
The Alzheimer’s casino: Big money and bad science
What happens when science and medical research meet Wall Street?
Egypt’s bad cop
The story of one man, fighting to his last breath, to reveal the darkness that lies behind this year’s UN Climate Change Conference
Mutiny: The undoing of Liz Truss
The inside story of how the shortest premiership in British history came to an end
Watch
In conversation with Alastair Campbell
One-on-one with Tortoise editor-in-chief James Harding, Alastair will unpick how Westminster’s class of 2022 speaks to the electorate, and the world. Where are they going wrong, what are they getting right, and what should we watch out for in future Government communications
Warrior queens and quiet revolutionaries
A joyous storytelling odyssey about trailblazing women; the unsung heroes of the past that we tend to forget but need celebrating.
Nostalgia and lies: how much of British history is actually true?
How to we identify what parts of our collective history are truths or lies, and how those stories we tell ourselves shape our lives today.
A history of the British Isles in Just a Minute
Join us for a romp through British history with a series of 60-second stories.
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The Review
Join us at our fortnightly breakfast event that helps Tortoise members and friends make sense of what’s going on in the world, from breaking news and the latest scoops, to the slow burn stories we should be keeping an eye on.
David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) Exhibition
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