Adrian Goldberg's Talk Show

Barrister Michael Mansfield QC tells Adrian Goldberg that Boris Johnson and other senior politicians could be prosecuted for Misconduct In Public Office over their handling of the Coronavirus pandemic. Mr Mansfield was speaking as he launched the Final Report of the People's Covid Inquiry. Adrian also hears from Dr Tony O'Sullivan co-Chair of Keep Our NHS Public who commissioned the Inquiry. Funde...

The wealth and power of Britain's public schools go under the microscope in this edition of the Byline Times podcast, presented by Adrian Goldberg. We hear from Iain Overton, leader of the Byline Intelligence Team about the huge growth in assets of these elite educational establishments; and Richard Beard, author of Sad Little Men: Private Schools And The Ruin of England. Produced in Birmingham UK...

More than four years after the Grenfell Tower Tragedy in which 72 people died, victims' families are still awaiting justice. A Public Inquiry into the West London high rise fire won't issue its final report until 2022 - although the conclusions of Phase 1 were damning about the cladding materials used on the block and the failure to adhere to building regulations. In the meantime, journalist Richa...

We live in a supposedly equal society but the gender pay gap is currently 8% in favour of men; there’s plenty of evidence showing that government Austerity measures disproportionately affected women; while the debate around the murder of Sarah Everard highlighted how harassment, abuse and violence have become normalised - so do we need a Womens’ Bill Of Rights?  It’s 35 years since the UK rat...

Adrian Goldberg investigates one of the great scandals of our time – the health inequalities that mean a man living in central Blackpool can expect to die 27 years earlier than his counterpart in an affluent district of London...   That stark figure – from research by Imperial College in London – showed that, life expectancy for women fell in almost one in five communities in England in the d...

Facebook is facing tough questions from legislators on both sides of the Atlantic, following the leaking of documents by whistleblowing former employee Frances Haugen - by Kyle Taylor has spent years highlighting why the social media giant is problematic. He's Campaign Director of pressure group The REAL Facebook Oversight Board, and wrote The Little Black Book Of Data And Democracy. Presented by...

Will the UN’s climate change conference in Glasgow – Cop 26 - be a cop out? Prime Ministers and Presidents from around the world will strut their stuff and talk a good game around Net Zero, but what action do we need to really grapple with what is an existential crisis for the millions of people -often in the Global South - who face the prospect of floods, droughts, rising sea levels and increasin...

Will the UN’s climate change conference in Glasgow – Cop 26 - be a cop out? Prime Ministers and Presidents from around the world will strut their stuff and talk a good game around Net Zero, but what action do we need to really grapple with what is an existential crisis for the millions of people -often in the Global South - who face the prospect of floods, droughts, rising sea levels and increasin...

Thought provoking views on slavery and colonialism with Sir Geoff Palmer, Scotland's first black Professor, in conversation with Adrian Goldberg. After emigrating from Jamaica at the age of 15 and encountering racism in the British school system, Sir Geoff became a research scientist and discovered a method of speeding up the process of turning barley into malt – saving the brewing industry untold...

Conservative MP Andrew Mitchell discusses his relationship with Boris Johnson and the British Establishment after a career spanning the Whips Office, being Secretary of State for International Development - and a crisis that signalled the end of his ministerial career. Andrew also discusses Britain's role in Yemen and the value of a free press. His autobiography Beyond A Fringe - Confessions Of A...

Byline Times writer Nafeez Ahmed has been calculating the number of civilians who died in the War On Terror that followed the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. His conclusion is that 6 million people died, either directly or indirectly in countries as various as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. In this episode you can hear how he arrives at this starling conclusion - and what he makes...

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News was Donald Trump's favoured TV channel - not least because Fox anchors shamelessly fawned over him, both during his time as a Republican candidate, then during his Presidency. But did the line between journalism and propaganda go too far? And what role did Fox have to play in the insurrection of January 6 2021, when a mob attacked the Capitol in Washington D.C. claiming t...

As the UK government is forced to contemplate a fourth Covid lockdown, we return to one of the unresolved issues of the first one in back in March 2020…the question of why so many patients were discharged from hospital and released back into care homes without being tested for the virus?   Dr Cathy Gardner, whose father had dementia, died in care during the first Covid wave. She now want...

Who are the Conservative party donors? And what do they want? Iain Overton and Sian Norris share their investigation with BITE - the Byline Intelligence Team - at the Byline Times. Presented by Adrian Goldberg. Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Funded by subscriptions to Byline Times.

As the world marks the 20th anniversary of 9/1 – and the US retreats from Afghanistan which it invaded as a result - we hear from one man caught up in the War In Terror. Moazzam Begg who was held at Guantanamo Bay reflects on the lessons the West needs to learn and shares his story of detention without trial and being tortured. The Byline Times podcast is funded by subscriptions to the Byline...

After last week's episode examining why so many environmentalists oppose HS2, this time we hear from Steve Caudwell or Greens For HS2. We're also joined by Lord Tony Berkeley, who believes parliament has been misled over the cost of HS2. Presented by Adrian Goldberg. Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Funded by subscriptions to the Byline Times.

The HS2 Rail project has the official support of every mainstream political party in England and Wales bar one - The Green Party. It's also inspired a wave of non aligned environmental groups to set up protest camps along the route. That's some going for a scheme touted as part of the solution to meeting the UK government's zero net carbon commitment. So why do so many people who would broadly ide...

Adrian Goldberg interviews Anne Nelson, author of Shadow Network; Media, Money and the Secret Hub of the Radical Right, in a conversation that encompasses US politics, Brexit and the NHS. Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Funded by subscriptions to Byline Times. Anne was previously interviewed at Byline Times by Heidi Sigmund Cuda.

This week, two nations in crisis - Afghanistan and Belarus. Afghanistan is in turmoil following Joe Biden's decision to withdraw troops - we hear from Chris Alexander, a former Canadian Ambassador to the country, who lays the blame for the Talbian's resurgence at the door of neighbouring Pakistan. Plus exiled Belarusian journalist Hannah Liubokova on her country's continued repression at the hands...

Changes to the law that would put investigative journalists on a par with foreign spies? Demands for photo ID at the ballot box? Adrian Goldberg explores Britain's Authoritarian Creep in company of Byline Times editor Hardeep Matharu, Meirion Jones, Investigations Editor at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Jess Garland from the Electoral Reform Society. Listen to Authoritarian Creep Part...

Boris Johnson's mantra en route to election victory in 2019 was 'getting Brexit done'. But now that we've left the EU, is the UK getting 'done' by Brexit? Adrian Goldberg assembles a cast of hauliers, an expert in food distribution and Byline Times Chief Politics and Investigations Reporter Sam Bright. Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White.

It might seem counter intuitive at a time when millions of people can’t get a foot on the housing ladder - or afford a decent place to rent - but this week the Byline Times podcast assembles evidence to suggest that too many houses are being built in England. The government has set a target of 300,000 new homes a year which could result in the creation of ghost estates - not to mention the despoil...

This week, a climate change special.  After a “heat dome” engulfed parts of Canada and the United States, there can be little doubt that a climate crisis upon us.  We get a first hand account from Professor Kritstie Ebie, who lives in Seattle and teaches in the Center For Health and Global Environment at the University of Washington. PLUS an in depth conversation with "recovering po...

Barrister Jolyon Maugham has become the scourge of government by using the law to challenge ministers' decisions. His crowd funded Good Law Project initially raised issues around Brexit, and has since succeeded in exposing the sleaze and cronyism surrounding PPE contracts. He talks to Adrian about how his life and career have been transformed since he first came to prominence helping wealthy peopl...

Are disadvantaged white children doing poorly at school because teachers might sometimes talk about "white privilege"? According to MP's on the Education Select Committee, the answer is "yes", although Byline Times writer Sian Norris suggests a few alternative reasons - such as poverty, austerity and funding cuts. PLUS Otto English talk about his new book "Fake History - Ten Great Lies That Shaped...