Talk Podcasts

Boris Johnson has been granted the Brexit extension he didn’t want, and Jeremy Corbyn turned down the chance to trigger the general election he’s been calling for all year. But come Tuesday evening, we could be in election mode! Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins try to make sense of it all, and address issues that were raised during Monday’s debate in Parliament: Should 16-year-olds be allowed t...

The Brexit 17.4 million people voted for in June 2016 has still not been delivered. On Saturday, the House of Commons put yet more obstacles in the way of the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union. Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins take stock of the situation. Have we now reached the stage where it’s ‘Parliament versus the people’? The podcast is also available on the Talk Podcasts...

At the start of what is certain to be one of the most dramatic weeks in British political history, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins take stock of the situation as it currently stands. Marcus and Greg both believe that it is likely that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union at the end of October. They argue that an extension to Article 50 will force Labour to back a general election,...

Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins discuss the future of the Royal Family. Will Britain still have a Royal Family in 20 years’ time? How has the recent behaviour of Harry and Meghan undermined the institution? And what do we make of the Queen being dragged into the Brexit process? All podcasts are also available via iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify and the TuneIn app.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament was unlawful. In this podcast, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins argue that the Supreme Court’s ruling has set a dangerous precedent that gravely undermines British Parliamentary democracy. All our podcasts are now also available on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify and the TuneIn app.

Rising numbers of children are being treated for ‘eco anxiety’ because they’re being fed terrifying propaganda by their schoolteachers on the theory of man-made climate change. Before and since the EU referendum of 2016, there were media reports of teachers indoctrinating children with pro-EU propaganda, and telling them that Brexiteers were bad, nasty people. Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins a...

Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins are committed Brexiteers, but how did their journeys begin? Marcus, 35, became a eurosceptic while at secondary school in the mid-late 1990s, partly inspired by the late Sir James Goldsmith and the Referendum Party he led into the 1997 general election. Greg, who is in his 70s, has been opposed to the entire EU project since the 1960s, when it was known as the E...

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, there were hugely controversial scenes in the House of Commons as the prorogation ceremony got underway, with Speaker John Bercow becoming the centre of attention. Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins deliver a damning verdict on Speaker Bercow's behaviour, and assess where the Brexit process goes from here.

BBC News has seen a 56% decline in viewing figures since 2014 and a 19% drop in the last year alone. Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins discuss the decline in quality and trust of traditional news outlets and look into how more and more people are getting their news from alternative sources.

This week, Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins debunk the theory of man-made climate change. Climate change in itself is undeniable, it’s been going on for as long as the earth has existed, but to say mankind is responsible is to rely on VERY wobbly science. The reality is that the green lobby and the oil giants are on the same side – this is a multi-billion dollar industry! They also discuss how...

Shayne ‘Bulldog’ Burgess is one of darts’s most colourful characters, and he’s a man with a story to tell. To mark the publication of his autobiography, ‘Everybody Gets Fifteen Quid’, Shayne, from Hastings in Sussex, gave an in-depth interview to Marcus Stead where he discussed his life on and away from the oche. Shayne, 55, was at his peak in the 1990s and early 2000s. Darts was in a very differe...

The term ‘Groupthink’ has its origins in George Orwell’s 1984, but it has gained new prominence with the advent of social media. Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins discuss ‘groupthink’ and the impact of social media. Far from encouraging healthy debate and exposing people to new ideas, social media appears to be encouraging people to engage with echo chambers, namely people who share the same vie...

Few moments in British history have been looked back on as more humiliating than when, in September 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew back from Munich having supposedly been duped by Hitler into thinking that he had secured ‘peace for our time’. Conventional wisdom has regarded Chamberlain’s act as one of foolish appeasement. But we should look again. Marcus Stead is joined by Greg Lan...

Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins address some tough issues with regards to personal responsibility and welfare dependency. Is the welfare state in its current form sustainable? Will people have to make their own provisions for old age? Are those who cover their bodies in hideous tattoos to blame for making themselves unemployable? And do we need to 'press the reset button' to redefine where the...

Boris Johnson is the UK's new Prime Minister. Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins assess the likelihood of Brexit being delivered by the October 31 deadline. Can a new deal be negotiated with the EU? Can Parliament block a 'no deal' Brexit? And how likely is a General Election before the Brexit deadline?

Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins discuss the subject of personal responsibility. At what point does it become the responsibility of the individual and the family, rather than the welfare state, to provide for our needs? The discussion then turns to the subject of gambling, both in the high street and online, which often has a devastating impact on people living in socially deprived areas. A sec...

Marcus Stead is joined by veteran campaigner and blogger Greg Lance-Watkins as they debate whether the NHS has a future. If so, what form it will take? What changes need to be made if it is to survive and provide world-class healthcare in the decades ahead?

On Wednesday 3 July 2019, Christopher Booker, one of Britain’s very best journalists, died at the age of 81. Greg Lance-Watkins knew Christopher for more than 50 years. He reflects on Christopher’s remarkable life with Marcus Stead. Christopher led an extraordinary life – he was an integral part of the satire boom of the 1960s, as part of David Frost’s team on That Was The Week That Was, and he wa...

Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins address some big, often uncomfortable questions about the future of the British economy and workplace. Does the minimum wage have a future? Do we live in a corporatist, rather than a capitalist society? The ‘elephant in the room’ – why has Britain got such a large productivity problem? Is it time to industrialise? Is the long period of uncertainty over Brexit do...

Marcus Stead and Greg Lance-Watkins discuss how workplaces will be transformed by technology in the next five to ten years. Issued raised include: Are university degrees still worth it? Are the millennial generation equipped for the workplace? Is the UK education system fit for purpose? Does manufacturing in the UK have a future? How will 5G technology transform all our lives?

Journalist Marcus Stead responds to the issues Lance Forman raised in the latest edition of Jonny Gould's Jewish State. Marcus offers broad praise for Forman, but presents a more optimistic vision for post-industrial satellite towns, and explains the economic opportunities Brexit can bring to these areas. Marcus also describes how antisemitism is by no means confined to the Labour Party, and that...

Jonny’s guest is a fourth generation smoked salmon purveyor and a wannabe European politician (but not wannabe European Union member). Lance Forman’s standing for the Brexit Party in a European election he says shouldn’t have happened in the first place. In our conversation, he accuses the political class of being fast and loose with extremist rhetoric, while being cowardly in making the big decis...

Marcus Stead returns with a Brexit Briefing special in the week the United Kingdom goes to the polls in European Parliamentary elections that weren’t supposed to happen. Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party is polling nearly twice as many votes as their nearest rival. If the polls are correct, British politics is about to experience a massive earthquake. Marcus’s guest is businessman, blogger and veter...

"Seek the peace and prosperity of the city of your exile, pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper", Jeremiah 29:7 and repeated to me by this remarkable of men, Trevor Horn. The Grammy Award, Brit Award, Ivor Novello Award winning record producer, coined "the man who invented the 80s", gave me a fantastic interview about his current projects, (touring and a new album)...

If you’ve been to Wembley or White Hart Lane, you’ll have almost certainly heard the word, “Yid” chanted in support of Tottenham. You may have even chanted it yourself as a Spurs fan. But what does it mean exactly? Do you think it still has a place on football’s terraces? Campaigner Ivor Baddiel and his brother David began a campaign seven years ago with a short film, “!The Y Word” which explained...