What should politicians do about allegations of poor treatment for workers at Shein’s factories in China? Will Keir Starmer back the chancellor amid the UK’s economic woes? And is allowing supervised drug use the solution to Scotland’s drug death crisis?

Giles Whittell is joined by Tortoise’s Cat Neilan, Patricia Clarke and Stephen Armstrong as they battle it out to see who can pitch the top story of the day.

**Get tickets for our next News Meeting live on Wednesday 29th January here: https://www.tortoisemedia.com/our-events/the-news-meeting-live/book 

To read Laura Bicker’s BBC investigation into Shein click here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrylgvr77jo 

To vote for Cat Neilan’s episode of the Slow Newcast Frank Hester: Tory Northern Diamond has been shortlisted for Scoop of the Year at the inaugural iNHouse Communication’s Political Podcast Awards 2025 

https://politicalpodcastawards.co.uk/the-peoples-choice-award/ 

Guests:

• Patricia Clarke, reporter at Tortoise
• Cat Neilan, political editor at Tortoise
• Stephen Armstrong, reporter at Tortoise

Host: Giles Whittell, deputy editor at Tortoise

Email: newsmeeting@tortoisemedia.com

Producer: Casey Magloire

Executive producer: Rebecca Moore 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.