Jam 1st

Send us some feedback here! Reform UK had just received two very large donations, meaning that since the last general election they have raised twice as much money as the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats combined over the same period. What do the billionaire donors expect in return? What does this mean for our democracy?  At what point does a party in power stop serving the people and s...

Send us some feedback here! Do you like our short format podcasts? Or would you prefer longer in-depth examinations of topics? Let us know by going to www.jam1st.co.uk and clicking on the podcast of your choice.  Garth and Robert live in Cornwall, UK.  They want you to think about protecting your democracy - in Cornwall, in UK, across the world - before it is too late. Feedback can be sent to www....

Send us some feedback here! A young woman protestor is assaulted at a populist party conference, and an MP defends the assault on TV. Groups of black-clad, black-masked men march in English south coast towns. Is there a connection with American right-wing money? Garth and Robert live in Cornwall, UK.  They want you to think about protecting your democracy - in Cornwall, in UK, across the world - b...

Send us some feedback here! Andy Burnham visited Cornwall in August. Cornwall Council is deep in debt.  How can they dig us out?  How can we reduce the vast adult social care bill?  Has the new PM any suggestions? And what happened in the Lorient Interceltic Festival? Garth and Robert live in Cornwall, UK.  They want you to think about protecting your democracy - in Cornwall, in UK, across the wor...

Send us some feedback here! MAGA is spending $millions to spread their ideas to the UK.  Are these UK-USA shared values, or an attempt to stimulate division and rewrite history? And why is the American Bar Association suing the Trump administration? Garth and Robert live in Cornwall, UK.  They want you to think about protecting your democracy - in Cornwall, in UK, across the world - before it is t...

Send us some feedback here! Garth has a few things to say in his usual trenchant style.   Robert talks about science fiction (again).   And what did Peter Thiel say about the coming of the Antichrist? Garth and Robert live in Cornwall, UK.  They want you to think about protecting your democracy - in Cornwall, in UK, across the world - before it is too late. Feedback can be sent to www.jam1st.co.uk...

Send us some feedback here! Garth and Robert discuss the last seven of the fourteen warning signs of fascism, and come up with a scorecard for where USA and UK are right now. Garth and Robert live in Cornwall, UK.  They want you to think about protecting your democracy - in Cornwall, in UK, across the world - before it is too late. Feedback can be sent to www.jam1st.co.uk .  Just click on the podc...

Send us some feedback here! UK has a new Prime Minister.  We ask: - does he control the Labour Party? - what will he do differently to Sir Keir Starmer? - can he have any meaningful effect? Garth and Robert live in Cornwall, UK.  They want you to think about protecting your democracy - in Cornwall, in UK, across the world - before it is too late. Feedback can be sent to www.jam1st.co.uk .  Just cl...

Send us some feedback here! What does racism look like on each side of the Atlantic? In part one of a two-part series Garth interviews Katherine, a White American,  about the challenges her Black daughters faces at school and the wider challenges presented to her community under the current administration of the USA. Garth and Robert live in Cornwall, UK.  They want you to think about protecting y...

Send us some feedback here! Is the centre ground dead or are the LibDems an option?

Send us some feedback here! F is for FASCISM.  Garth and Robert look at the famous poster of the Warning Signs of Fascism and discuss to what extent they are coming true in UK and USA.

Send us some feedback here! In this short episode, Garth looks back over the last fifteen or so years, summarising how a happy country has tuned angry and disheartened.

Send us some feedback here! To commemorate Sir David Attenborough's centenary, Garth and Robert have a tongue-in-cheek discussion about clothes moths and woodlice! Then they really stretch the metaphor of how these varmints relate to the May 2026 elections in the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Assembly, and the English Council elections.

Send us some feedback here! Garth and Robert discuss the Hartland Institute, a UK right-wing thinktank which appears to be following the same ideology as the Heritage Foundation and Project 25 in the USA.

Send us some feedback here! Garth interviews a senior retail manager about how supermarket shopping habits are changing as price rises take hold on most of us.

Send us some feedback here! Garth and Robert muse on the Iran War.  What is Trump's objective?  Has he got stuck in a quagmire?  What will this do the world's economy?

Send us some feedback here! A grassroots win by the Green Party against oligarch politics?  Garth and Robert discuss. We also talk about Council elections in Cornwall.  Who is winning and why?

Send us some feedback here! In this episode, Robert examines the intellectual argument for liberalism:  its tenets,  its history,  what it has done for ordinary folk,  and how it can resist the current rise of populist oligarchical authoritarianism

Send us some feedback here! Garth interviews Christine Leisner about her work to build the institutions which underpin democracy in many nations round the world.

Send us some feedback here! It's time Garth and I spoke about Reform.  Why have they done well in Cornwall Council elections?  What do they plan to to on a national level regarding migrants?  Do recent developments in American politics - with DOGE and ICE - hold a clue?

Send us some feedback here! A three-minute explainer on what populism means in our politics.  Can it affect Cornwall?

Send us some feedback here! Garth has some old mates from His Majesty's Civil Service.  Given what Musk's DOGE did to their American counterparts, we wonder if it could happen in UK too.

Send us some feedback here! Happy New Year! here is our roundup of 2025 - in macrocosm of world politics, and in microcosm how this is reflected in Cornwall's politics.

Send us some feedback here! Garth and Robert discuss what Cornwall Council owes, and how it might be paid back - and in macrocosm what the UK owes in government debt, how we came to owe it, and what can be done about that,

Send us some feedback here! The final episode from tech entrepreneur Rick, discussing what citizens of democracies can do to counter disinfo, fake news, bot swarms on social media and the distorting effect of algorithms on the information presented to us.