Oh God, What Now?

Rupert Lowe of Restore UK claims that street violence is not just inevitable but necessary “if we are to save our home”. Elsewhere, the far-right pals up with street thugs – and its leaders walk right up to the line of endorsing extra-legal direct action because democracy has supposedly failed. Is the rising tide of violent rhetoric spilling over into actual physical attacks? We talk about why pol...

• This edition recorded before Trump cancelled livestreaming the execution of the Fort Hood killer.  Televised executions, machine-gunning illegal migrants in the Channel, renaming technology and water features as a loyalty/sycophancy test… why are the populists’ big ideas so dumb, performatively cruel and only made to wind up the liberals? We ask whether the era of Trolliticians wi...

Andy Burnham has finally said what we’ve all been thinking: Russia meddled in Brexit. Is this brave honesty – or the first step on the long road back to Brussels? Plus, the Greens are still in turmoil with Zack Polanski’s leadership now in doubt. What does it mean for everyone else on the left? Is a progressive alliance just a pipe dream now? Are the Tories back from the dead – and has anyone chec...

Labour wins the Holborn & St Pancras handily – but the Greens had staked a lot on Zack Polanski winning and he failed. Is Polanski’s nightmare week over the Zionism vote a symptom of deeper weaknesses in his leadership? Is far-left entryism destroying the Greens? And why Labour’s victorious candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali symbolises the best of Britain. Steve Richards of Rock & Roll Politics joins...

Has Burnham really broken Britain’s bizarre, self-enforced silence around the disaster that is Brexit? What would a real pro-EU membership stance from Labour mean for British politics? And would killing off Brexit inadvertently give a flagging Farage his mojo back? Plus, in the week that Jeffrey Archer died we discuss why establishment Britain will give a pass to any charlatan, bullshitter and per...

Kemi Badenoch has promised to revitalise the Tory party at the Conservatives' conference – but can she drag it out of the doldrums? Plus, the Green Party conference descended into acrimony after members voted to declare that “Zionism is racism” – can leader Zack Polanski withstand the fallout? And… Andy Burnham faces heavy scrutiny over historic ties to Manchester City’s owners, after the club was...

Andy Burnham’s powerful and emotional speech at the Labour Conference left the Party full of righteous energy and its enemies scrabbling for attack lines. Has he succeeded in setting out a new direction for the Government? The OGWN Conference Away Team of Jonn Elledge and Hannah Fearn talk it over with Andrew Harrison and special guest Paul Richards – veteran Labour commentator, candidate and...

BONUS EDITION: Well, we weren’t expecting THAT… Andy Burnham stuns and rouses Labour’s Liverpool conference with a bold, emotionally powerful speech that amounted to the promise of a new era. Will Britain respond to his open-hearted scally dad message of unity? Was there detail among the vibes? Have we just heard the ‘Wonderwall’ of political speeches? James Ball of The New World was there an...

Andy Burnham's first Labour conference as PM is underway. So… will he and his government make a good impression on the party and voters? First the PM proposed an NHS-style social care system; a day later his chancellor John Healey promised a Budget that injects hope into Britain’s beleaguered economy. Ros Taylor, Rachel Cunliffe and James Ball discuss everything we know so far and what it all mean...

Actual blackshirts are blockading ports, doxxing lifeboat volunteers and intimidating people across the South Coast, and the most senior political figure to come out against them is… Rishi Sunak? We ask why Andy Burnham won’t make a full-throated condemnation of the new wave of far-right street thugs – and whether his new National Centre for Information Defence will work. Plus: With £72m...

Bonus episode with James Ball and Jacob Jarvis… Andy Burnham finally meets Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly in New York. The pair hit it off, as Trump hails the PM as a “natural businessman” and claims he “gets it”. So what did we learn from the meeting? How long can Burnham keep the good vibes going? And can he avoid both bending the knee and picking a fight with the quick-tempered US pres...

Andy Burnham promised politics with a “sense of optimism” – now the PM is warning that “difficult decisions” lie ahead. So can he keep up the smiles as next month’s budget looms and the reality of government sets in? Plus, the Liberal Democrats gather in Brighton where Ed Davey is promising “insurgent liberalism”. What does it mean? And why are some Lib Dems unhappy with their leader?  •&nbsp...

It’s the most important by-election ever since the last by-election! The candidates are finalised for the fight for Keir Starmer’s old St. Pancras and Holborn seat. It’s a test for Burnham’s Labour and for Green leader Zack Polanski. Who’s most likely to win? And what would victory and defeat mean for each figurehead? Plus, Mark Carney is having a moment – if Canada can be an “associate member” of...

Reform has been bolstered with £72 million from crypto billionaires – is it enough for Nigel Farage to buy his way to power? What will the money be spent on? And what rules could change in the wake of this? Plus, Ed Miliband is reshaping Britain’s foreign policy, what is motivating him and what are his goals? Ros Taylor is joined by Marie Le Conte, Rafael Behr and Seth Thévoz to discuss.  Esc...

Another of our weekend bonus editions… When author Jon Ronson’s son texted him from a supposed party in a medieval castle (?) and said it was getting “very weird”, Jon had no idea that it would open the door into some of the strangest reaches of the manosphere. In the resulting book The Castle, he meets a fantasist who thinks he’s the new Hugh Hefner; a man who cranks out far-right rage video...

Andy Burnham wants to change who holds the power in Britain, taking the levers of government out of Whitehall’s hands. Plenty of his predecessors have tried – and failed – to make their vision stick. So, can the PM’s model survive contact with reality? Veteran journalist Phil Tinline joins us to weigh in.  Plus: poor old Tommy Robinson is apparently skint, de-banked and has “nothing to hide”....

Nigel Farage’s family has even urged him to “pack it in” and “walk away” amid recent scandals. Can he and his party survive the latest scrutiny? The beleaguered Reform leader tried to appear unruffled at his party conference after a bombshell Channel 4 documentary raised fresh questions about foreign donations. What will come next? Plus: masked anti-migrant protestors took to the streets of Dover...

Weekend bonus episode… Britain still mired in Brexit, Europe divided, economic stagnation in the West and Donald Trump’s disastrous culture wars and actual wars. Are they all just a blip in human history or does the West’s decline mark the beginning of a new world order? What if that future belongs to rising powers of the East – China and India? That’s the premise of Sir Vince Cable’s new book, Ec...

Fast reaction with News Statesman’s associate political editor Rachel Cunliffe and Jacob Jarvis. Nigel Farage and Reform are facing another crisis after two – now former – senior officials were filmed in an undercover sting appearing to plot how to circumvent electoral law to bag a £500,000 foreign donation… Reform says it’s all a “hoax”, predictably… Can Reform weather the storm? Is Farage totall...

Facebook owners Meta hit the headlines with an $18bn settlement in the US over accusations that its products had harmed kids. But was the bill really so onerous, or just the price of keeping Zuckerberg out of the witness box? Special guest Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE – activist, digital rights champion and former film director – talks us through the reality of the fight to protect kids online; whet...

Andy Burnham is feeling a sudden wave of the back-to-school blues. Not only did Keir Starmer tactlessly decide to quit Parliament just before his first Commons speech, but a long list of challenges is also piling up in the PM’s in-tray. So, what’s causing Burnham the biggest headaches? Is the Burnham bounce finally over? And what happens next? Plus: Badenoch reshuffles her shadow cabinet, Iceland...

The first of our occasional weekend bonus episodes… Bewildered by the tangled stories of Putin’s war on Ukraine, Trump’s incomprehensible loyalty to the Russian tyrant, and Russia’s interference in British politics? The Guardian’s foreign correspondent Luke Harding ties all the threads together in his riveting new book Betrayed: Trump, Putin And The New Age Of&nb...

Good news for newsrooms: Harry and Meghan are back in Britain and editors are beside themselves. We might say we don’t care about “Reverse Megxit” but why does the clickrate say otherwise? Plus: Giftgate was only two years ago, but MPs are still accepting freebies. They’ve taken almost £400,000 of hospitality this year alone – including tickets to Harry Styles and the F1. But is that necessarily s...

Is communism having a mini revival? Marxist critiques and socialist ideas are becoming the in thing with Gen Z, while Donald Trump is harking back to the Red Scare of his youth to attack the Democrats. Is it anything more than a resurrected bogeyman for the right? Man of the left, veteran journalist and friend of the pod Paul Mason joins the panel to discuss Reds: A Global History of Communism, hi...

The climate crisis got horribly real this summer – but is it really true that ordinary people can’t do anything about it? The National Emergency Briefing is a growing movement around a stunning documentary film that makes clear the reality of the crisis and what we CAN do about it. Green economist Angela Francis joins us to explain where the fight for a liveable climate is heading; how to bea...