Oh God, What Now?

Just how precarious is Tory support for the Government’s disavowal of international law via the Internal Market Bill? Up-and-coming young author Ian Dunt joins us to discuss his new book How To Be A Liberal, the airport thriller of reason-based political thought. And are we allowed to throw a party as long as all guests bring guns?  Listeners can get 10% off How To Be A Liberal using this link. Ju...

As Johnson scrapes his Oven-Ready Deal into the bin, we ask why would any other country ever trust Britain’s word ever again? We explore the new Internal Market Bill’s staggering contempt for international law. And the authors of Left Out: The Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn – Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire – join us to explain what really went on during Jeremy’s Wild Years.  “The governm...

As MPs prepare to return to work, what should we look out for in the new parliamentary session? And after a summer of u-turns galore, what policy reversal will the Tories whip out next? Plus, political columnist STEVE RICHARDS joins us to discuss his book ‘The Prime Ministers’ and to give his take on the best and worst leaders from Wilson to Johnson. “When you’ve won a landslide election, that giv...

Recorded before Germany pulled Brexit from next week’s summit AND before “mutant algorithm”. This week, after his feeble response to the Summer of Messes, is governing just too hard for our work-averse Scarlet Pimpernel of a Prime Minister? Minnie Rahman of the JCWI joins us to look at who’s weaponising the Channel refugees issue, and what the Dublin Regulation really means. Plus: the brain-destro...

As Belarus fights its way towards true democracy, we speak to a protestor who’s on the ground in Minsk about what’s really happening and what we can do to help. Plus: Can Kamala Harris thread her way past hard right lies, sexism, racism and a left that can’t be satisfied? Plus ‘Leftwaffe’, ‘Starmtroopers’ and our least favourite political neologisms. Special guest Marie Le Conte joins us to discus...

Who’s got the Ben & Jerry’s? In our gala 200th edition, our original core team of Dorian Lynskey, Ros Taylor, Ian Dunt, Naomi Smith and Alex Andreou gather not to pore over the past but to look at the future. What are the big issues that will shape our world in the post-COVID, post-Brexit, post-employment future? Plus a few of our favourite bits from the past 200 shows. Altogether now: “Don’t! Sta...

Attention, bots, trolls and rogue A.I.s! This week our own Nina Schick publishes her new book Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse: What You Urgently Need To Know – and its revelations about how high technology can create terrifyingly plausible fake humans in video or audio, for political ends, will scare the hell out of you. What can we do to stop bad actors from Russia, China and elsewhere from bringi...

Continuity Corbynism picks a fight with the Starmer Leadership in the aftermath of the antisemitism court settlement. Will anything ever end the party’s Left-Right Infinity War? Plus: Brace yourself for a “low quality, low profile” face-saving Deal with the EU. And special guest John Crace, the Guardian’s demob-happy parliamentary sketch writer, takes us through the highs (subs pls check) and lows...

“Приветствую! Welcome to podcast where panel talk about how great nation of Russia did not interfere with British elections, no way. Is Russophobia only. Честно! Also, do not read Russia Report, is also Russophobic. Спасибо!” Meanwhile: Is now a good time to pick a fight with China, however badly China might be acting? Why have MPs who demanded control of our trade deals just voted away their powe...

It’s a Russian Report special on today’s edition of our little sibling podcast The Bunker, with Ian Dunt, Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Helen Lewis talking about the sheer cynicism of the Government’s do-nothing approach to Putin’s interference with our democracy. Here’s a taster – get the whole thing here or wherever you get your podcasts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information...

The Government launches yet another, definitely final campaign to sell the “benefits” of No Deal. What do we think of Britain’s bold New Start into £13bn of 1970s-style red tape and towering tariffs on food basics? Plus, concreting over the Garden of England: there is some corner of a Kent field that will forever be a giant lorry park. The return of Ian Dunt. And Monarchy In The UK: With the Queen...

Oh Rishi you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow our minds… Or will he? Will Sunak’s £10 off Groupon Meal Deal save the British economy? Do the Government’s free-spending interventions amount to the death of Old School Conservatism? Plus we welcome veteran Brexit blogger Chris Grey to look at the Ghosts of Brexit Past and Brexit Yet To Come. Produced and presented by Andrew Harrison with Naomi Smi...

“The matter is closed!” Special guest Nick Cohen of The Observer joins us to look at the fall-out from Cummings taking down the country’s most senior civil servant, the reeking corruption of the Robert Jenrick/Richard Desmond affair, and the Starmer-Long-Bailey face-off. Plus: how on earth did shady contrarian factory Spiked elbow its way into the spotlight of politics, and are they really as infl...

As Boris Johnson continues to fumble everything he touches, are the Tory Right losing patience with their flop-haired figurehead? Gove is preparing a “shock and awe” ad campaign to sell No Deal to voters. How did we get from “sunlit uplands” to deliberately inciting fear among the public? Plus, Britain thinks of itself as a magnet for foreign students. But will COVID and the Corona recession, the...

With the world gripped by the most significant anti-racist demonstrations in half a century, why are we still obsessing over Churchill? Do we overstate the power and significance of ageing Nazis in off-brand polo shirts running around Trafalgar Square? Could Britain actually shrink its police? Plus: so farewell then, DFiD. How the spread of fake data is producing a “Liar’s Dividend”. And why Marcu...

This week: Boris Johnson fights to undo the unfair deal imposed on us by treacherous pro-EU operative *checks notes* Boris Johnson. Alex Andreou explains his epic investigation into whether the Government really did follow the science on COVID (spoiler: they didn’t). Who’s batting for chlorinated chicken in our cabinet of all the talentless? And get ready to eat rollmop herrings for Britain.  “I f...

How hard will a No Deal/COVID double whammy hit the British economy? New research from Best For Britain shows it will devastate the places you don’t expect as well as Brexitland. Could Black Lives Matter and America’s revolt against institutional racism cross over to the UK? And special guest Daniel Trilling of The Guardian explains how the new immigration regulations aren’t designed to “take back...

Dom’s last stand (again): how did the supergenius who instinctively understands Britain’s heartbeat become the most hated man in the UK? SDLP MP Claire Hanna makes a welcome return to Remainiacs to explain the state of play in Northern Ireland vis-a-vis both COVID-19 and the cliffhanger Brexit trade negotiations. And Tobias Jones calls in from Parma, Italy to tell us how it felt to live through on...

As the Government went up in flames over Dominic Cummings’ flagrant breaches of his own lockdown rules, Dorian, Alex, Ros and Andrew got together for an Emergency CummingsCast for The Bunker. For our subscribers who weren’t on social media over the weekend and may have missed it, here’s a teaser. Find the whole show and subscribe to The Bunker here. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out in...

This week… Keir Starmer, a man out standing in his field, and why you don’t want to get on the wrong side of Big Donkey. Where do the hands of the EU Negotiations Doomsday Clock stand? How are COVID and the increasingly perilous EU trade negotiations looking from Germany? Rachel Stern from TheLocal.de joins us from Berlin to explain. And your Brexit news round-up, all with Dorian Lynskey, Naomi Sm...

“It’s all right, it’s OK/The press will look the other way/And we will fail to understand/Can’t Britain find a better man?” This week: Boris Johnson’s deceitful advice on unlocking. Why appealing to magical “common sense” is his ultimate get-out clause. And as Spain reopens its own society we talk to Fiona Govan of TheLocal.es about what the crisis has done to Spain’s politics.  “No-one really kno...

As Britain registers the worst COVID toll in Europe, why is blame for the failure sliding off Boris Johnson? Lovelorn Prof Neil Ferguson feels the sap rising. Operation Bookshelf Barbarossa. Why VE Day belongs to us, not the petty nationalists. Is the fish a credible war animal? And who decided that if you’re pro-Brexit you’ve got to be pro-virus too? Dorian Lynskey, Naomi Smith and Ian Dunt polic...

This week in Euro-Plague news: How is Sweden’s risky approach to the COVID crisis really working? James Savage of news network The Local joins us from Stockholm to give us the view on the ground. Plus: That weird feeling when the person demanding a proper merciless lockdown is… evil Dominic Cummings? Alan Sugar’s totalitarian boomer tweets. And why we shouldn’t trust people who say we don’t trust...

“They want power, but they don’t know why.” How this government’s obsession with rebutting bad COVID news is masking a total absence of ideas. As No.10’s story on our failure to join the EU joint purchase of medical equipment falls apart, Naomi gives a true crime fan’s guide to the timeline. Fire and brimstone among the Brexiters as a few heretics float the idea of extending transition. And is exi...

Priti Patel’s nonpologies. Former Green MEP and Brighton & Hove Mayor Alex Phillips joins us to look at how the Corona crisis could at least provide an opportunity for a green reboot of economics. Alex and Dorian read the entire leaked Labour antisemitism report so you don’t have to (they wish THEY didn’t have to). Will the EU Corona bailout actually work for European countries – and is Britain re...