No Sacred Cows

As debate over the future direction of Labour in government gathers pace, this week we explore the growing disconnect between politics and economics, the collapse of the old social contract, and what a new political economy might look like. From devolution and housing to regulation, growth and the role of the state, this is a conversation about far more than individual policies. It’s about what ki...

Can Britain achieve net zero without sacrificing energy security, economic growth and public support? As energy prices remain stubbornly high and global instability continues to expose vulnerabilities in energy markets, the debate is no longer just about climate change. It is about jobs, national resilience, living standards and Britain's place in a rapidly changing world. Hosted on Acast. See aca...

This week, we ask whether Westminster is still fighting yesterday’s battles while the world moves on. Public First’s Jeegar Kakkad joins us to examine why defence and national security remain peripheral to political debate, despite growing global instability, as well as consider what a serious programme of national resilience might look like, and whether a new politics of nation building could off...

Is Britain’s political system is capable of responding to the economic, technological and cultural challenges reshaping not just the country, but the world? That’s the question Stella Creasy and Damian Hinds have been exploring together - and the one they join Ed, Anna, Mark and Ben to examine on this week’s episode of the pod - returning for our second season, at a huge time for Britain’s mainstr...

Political analyst, writer and former government adviser Sam Freedman steps into the cow shed this week to look at how Labour in the UK needs to continue to realise that competence and good intentions will be enough to change the state. He lays out how some criticisms from the political right about state inefficiency are valid and need engaging with and how the government must move on from naivety...

‘Progressive Education’ - the idea that education must be authentic, child-led, and discovery-oriented - actually leads to regressive outcomes for children and society.  To secure progressive outcomes for kids and the future of our country’s, Kristopher Boulton and Daisy Christodoulou join the herd and lay out how the left is going to have to let go of some of its fallacies about the classroo...

It’s time Keir Starmer dumps Trump - for the interests of the UK as well as his own and the Labour Party’s political skin.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The populist right is railing loudly against the decline in birthrates in the US and the UK - not always out of sincerity, and often with overtly racist reasoning. As a result the left has buried its head in the sand and refused to go near the issue. But there is no reason, Anna McShane from the New Britain Project argues, to do so.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform...

Keir Starmer biographer Tom Baldwin lays out why it's time for the centre-left to get over its timidity Brexit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A year into the Labour Party in power in the UK and the loss of the Democrats to Donald Trump in the US, we round out 2025 with the crew giving a damning verdict on where the center left is at the end of this year, and give a tour de force of what what must be ahead if we are to win back trust, credibility and deliver change in 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Co-author of the  recent report ‘Inside the mind of a 16 year old’  for UK think-tank Demos together with Peter Hyman, Shaub details the journey of speaking with 700 young people across the country about their thoughts on politics - and why centre-left politicians need to get their house in order when it comes to talking to young people themselves. Now is not the time for timid grids of...

Centre-left governments are often few and far between. So when they lose their way - the renewal has to be done swiftly, and at times bloodily. Trapped in process and unable to communicate, McTernan says the left loses its way when it believes the state has became our friend, just because we are running it. Bureaucratic, talking about ‘delivery’, and using management speak, we forget who the enemy...

This week the herd is joined by  Tone Langengen , Senior Policy Advisor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, who argues that the centre-left must face economic and political reality and realise that people won’t back Net Zero unless it means cheaper energy and credible growth. Has this agenda become a moral badge rather than a workable plan and can that shift without abandoning clim...

The political center and center-left needs to create new ways to protect our peace and prosperity, based on a clearer understanding of our mutual national interests, or else we risk slipping deeper into anarchy, towards World War Three - or even, armageddon. Join the herd as we dive into the future of foreign policy and where we’ve gone wrong in the last few years. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/p...

Join us in this second episode where the herd are joined by Frank Sharry, a former Kamala Harris adviser and founder of US think tank America’s Voice, to look at whether the centre-left needs to ditch its timidity and how it can talk about and win on the issue of immigration. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're starting a much needed and overdue debate about the future of mainstream politics – no holding back, no pulling punches. In this our first episode, the herd are joined by Peter Hyman, a former adviser to Tony Blair and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to look at where the center left is going wrong. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recorded live at the Centre for Progressive Policy’s Inclusive Growth Conference on 28th November, this special episode  The Power Test  looks at where we are six months into the new Labour government and what it needs to do to deliver its promise of a decade of national renewal. Following the Budget, the reelection of Donald Trump in the US, farmer protests, and a rumoured government ‘r...

Live from Labour Party conference, The Power Test returns to look at the Labour's first months in power. Ayesha Hazarika and Sam Freedman are joined by Georgia Gould , Labour MP and Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office, Helen MacNamara , former Deputy Cabinet Secretary, and Marc Stears , director of the UCL Policy Lab , who supported this special episode, to discuss how Labour can reform...

With Labour now firmly in the driver’s seat of government, Sam Freedman and Ayesha Hazarika are joined by Power Test co-founder and former Chief Executive of the Centre for Progressive Policy, Charlotte Aldritt , and Ryan Wain , the Executive Director of Politics at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, to look at where Britain goes next. How can Labour get Britain's creaky systems moving in...

July 4th, 2024 : the date that Labour returned to power. After 14 years in the political wilderness, Keir Starmer has led the party to a landslide victory. With the keys to No.10 Downing Street in his hands – and a crack team of ministers assembled – it's time to look back on how Labour has changed under the Starmer premiership, and ahead to how it, in turn, could change Britain. Ayesha Hazarika –...

Just before we head hurtling into election week, Sam Freedman and Ayesha Hazarika are on hand to take you through the reality of Labour’s pledge on energy - together with think tank Third Way’s Josh Freed who leads its Climate and Energy work and Brett Christophers, author of The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet. Labour has made reforming a troubled energy market one of its six...

As the issue drives Nigel Farage’s return and the Conservatives seek to sharpen attacks on Labour in a last ditch attempt to breakthrough in the campaign, this week Ayesha Hazarika and Sam Freedman look into Labour’s pledge on immigration. Ayesha and Sam probe further into Labour’s policies on immigration with former Home Office adviser Matt Cavanagh and LSE economics professor, and former Chair o...

On this special manifesto episode of The Power Test , Ayesha Hazarika and Sam Freedman are joined by two special guests: Nick Pearce , one of the authors of Labour's 2010 manifesto, and Claire Ainsley , who was Keir Starmer's policy guru from 2020 to 2022. Together, this quartet dissect and discuss the Labour party's 2024 manifesto (titled, simply, 'Change'). Does it live up to that name? What are...

The academic who inspired Blair’s “respect agenda" on tackling crime and anti-social behaviour urges Labour to ensure that there is effective investment in community support alongside law and policing. Talking to Ayesha Hazarika and Sam Freedman , Professor Richard Sennett , Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics, says he recognises the similarities between the approaches taken b...

Sam Freedman and Ayesha Hazarika sit down with the Chief Executives of the The King's Fund and NHS Confederation, Sarah Woolnough and Matthew Taylor , to discuss Labour's health pledge on waiting lists and what lies ahead. This week as the general election campaign hits full swing, and The Power Test is focused once again on one of the top issues for the voting public: The NHS. To find out more vi...