Oh God, What Now?

After possibly the most aggressive speech on immigration ever made by a British Prime Minister, we attempt the adult conversation on the topic that politicians won’t have. Why can’t Britain accept the benefits of immigration? Who’s going to bail out the care system when it collapses? And what the hell is Labour playing at anyway? Plus: Politicians think artificial intelligence will fix everything....

Keir Starmer’s statement on immigration may well have repelled many Labour voters towards the Lib Dems and the Greens. How wrong has the Prime Minister got this strategy to defeat Reform? And are his party’s plans even workable? Plus, the UK has signed trade deals with the US and India – what’s in them, how important are they, and are we getting too close to Trump? Trade expert Dmitry Grozoubinski...

As Labour panic and freak out over Runcorn and the Locals, is Starmer drawing the wrong conclusions from the votes? Is “Reform are right, don’t vote for them” the best they can do? Or should they pick more fights with the Right? Plus, what if this newfangled populism isn’t so new after all? We talk to Quinn Slobodian, author of Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right, about wh...

Nigel Farage is going to be Prime Minister! Reform are going to eat the Tory Party alive! A plague of bats will devour Kate Middleton! As the locals and Runcorn/Helsby fallout settles we look at Starmer’s panic over Reform, ask whether Badenoch can survive, and stare into the dark heart of Farage Derangement Syndrome. Plus: Was the 2015 General Election – ten years ago this week if you’re planning...

We’re on a highway to Helsby… As Reform take Runcorn, rack up council seats and take Staffordshire and Lincolnshire county councils, Rafael Behr joins Andrew Harrison to explain what it all means. Is it really Farage’s night? Who’s more damaged, Badenoch or Starmer? Is this definitive proof that Labour can’t beat the enemy by becoming the enemy? And… Andrea Jenkyns. Sheeeeesh.  • Back us on Patreo...

The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second presidential term have been overwhelming. He’s signed a record 142 executive orders and cultivated historic unpopularity. What have we learned so far and CAN IT GET ANY WORSE? Host of the Home Front podcast Reed Galen joins us from across the pond. Plus, the media has spent so much time deliberating young men’s hard turn to the right of politics, but wha...

Try a bite-sized sample of our brand new podcast Crime Scene. Every week ex-Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe and former Mirror editor Alison Phillips lift the lid on how criminal investigations really work. In our debut episode: The horrific shooting of an innocent nine-year-old girl in Dalston in 2024 laid bare bitter rivalries between London’s armed gangs. Are police they fighting a lo...

The local elections AND the Runcorn and Helsby by-election stampede towards zero hour. Will Labour do as badly, and Reform as well, as predicted? And what will it all mean? Plus, we’re joined by the hosts of our new companion podcast CRIME SCENE. Ex-Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe and former editor of the Mirror Alison Phillips tell us how they’ll bring the truth about true crime from t...

We all know the Conservatives got just about everything they could wrong when they were in government. But can we pinpoint where it all started to go wrong? And has the party learned its lessons? Tim Bale is a professor of politics at Queen Mary University London and his newly updated book: The Conservatives After Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation is best placed to answer those questions. Plus, i...

“Nice liberal democracy you got there, shame if something wuz to happen to it…” Trump behaves like a mob boss, complete with extortion and protection scams against universities, businesses and governments. But is he a real Godfather or just cosplaying as one? John Dickie, Professor of Italian Studies at UCL and expert on the Mafia, joins us to dismantle La MAGA Nostra. Plus – the IMF think we shou...

Crossover edition with hit pod The Two Matts. What the hell is ‘Hard Labour’? Is it Blue Labour in disguise, Old Labour on steroids, or Starmerism’s inevitable final form? The New European’s Matt Kelly and Matt D’Ancona join Zöe Grünewald and Dorian Lynskey to look at Labour’s identity crisis. Plus: Fortress Europe vs Trump 2.0, The Beatles vs Andrew Tate in the battle for young men’s minds in the...

Trump 2.0 is a different animal compared to his first term. His administration has already made massive cuts to the federal government and conducted a war on woke – all with terrifying ferocity. Is Trump ruling America by fear? Special guest and host of the Fast Politics podcast, Molly Jong-Fast, joins the panel. Plus, is there a future in British Steel? As Labour nationalises a key strategic indu...

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has made a name for himself performing crazy stunts to win the hearts of voters. But maybe, just maybe, it’s working? Could the Lib Dems become the second biggest political party in the UK and what kind of people are they attracting to their cause? Enjoy Part Two of this week’s specially-split epic-length edition…  We’re on YouTube!: https://www.youtube.com/@ohgodw...

Donald Trump’s tariff masterplan is working! Well that’s just utter bulls**t, isn’t it? Trump’s decision to reverse global tariffs for 90 days caught everyone by surprise, even us! Dorian, Hannah, Matt and Marie recorded the whole pod before the announcement, but don’t fear, Andrew Harrison and The Guardian’s Rafael Behr were on-hand to add some reaction to the tariff u-turn. And don’t miss the pa...

Donald Trump’s tariffs are tanking stock markets and bankrupting penguins. How is Britain coping with Trump’s assault on free trade… and is there anything we can do to protect ourselves from protectionism? Plus, the most crucial voters are aged between 35 and 59 – and they’re also the most economically worried. Professor Jane Green is the Director of the Nuffield Politics Research Centre and co-au...

Trump is upending the world once again. We go on a whistlestop tour of tariffs, woke and the far-right in our latest show.  First up, trade policy expert Dmitry Grozoubinski joins Andrew Harrison to explain why chaos is inevitable, following the new tariffs. Then into the main bulk of the episode, dinner time’s over for the tofu-eating wokerati… apparently. Some say the dawn of the post-woke world...

Rachel Reeves’s spring not-a-budget has gone down like a cup of cold sick and many Labour supporters are asking what they’re backing the party for. Is Labour on the verge of losing popular confidence – and could it win it back? Plus, as Trump gets weirder and weirder we look at two movies that explain the trashy allure of American fascism: Paul Verhoeven’s hyperviolent sci-fi satires Robocop and S...

Rachel Reeves’ Spring not-a-budget Statement is out and it’s hard to take. What’s in it, what’s not, and are we all going to be rich now (hard no)? Plus, the return of Donald Trump has been hard to ignore – but should we wean ourselves off American politics, in favour of sorting out our own problems closer to home? And in the Extra Bit for Patreon backers: Everyone on the panel speaks a second lan...

Kemi Badenoch was supposed to reboot and re-energise the Tories. Now she’s tanking in the polls and flailing in the Commons. If she can’t beat Farage, will her leadership make it to the end of the summer? Plus, America’s slide from functioning democracy to autocracy summons up dark memories of when the same thing happened to the Ancient Roman republic. Classics lovers Rachel Cunliffe and Jonn Elle...

It’s been five years since Boris Johnson announced the UK’s first Covid-19 lockdown. How much did that strange time in our recent history change the world we live in today? What lessons have we learned? And what hasn’t gone back to how it was before Covid-19 took hold of our lives? Christina Pagel is a professor of operational research at University College London and a member of Independent SAGE...

Trump’s election win delighted Farage, the Telegraph, GB News and the Tory Right – but since then the President’s behaviour has horrified British voters. Has the British Right bet on the wrong horse? And will it pay a price for backing a man who seems intent in punishing Europe? Plus, if you like TV but haven’t seen Adolescence yet – do. The harrowing knife crime drama starring Stephen Graham take...

With defence spending rising and welfare cuts causing unease, is it finally time for Labour to bite the bullet and raise taxes? Plus, DOGE has been tearing the US government apart at breakneck speed. But are Elon Musk and his band of merry nerds doing it legally and what could the consequences be to everyday Americans? Dr. Casey Burgat, author of We Hold These “Truths”: How to Spot the Myths that...

Has Keir Starmer finally found a crisis he can excel in? Will his supposedly boring manner and measured approach steer Britain and Europe through the Trump-Ukraine horror show? And will he eventually have to stop pretending he’s best friends forever with Trump? Plus, UK universities are going through a bit of a crisis. Are they still the pathway to bring young people out of poverty that they were?...

As Trump freezes aid for Ukraine and Vance appears to call the UK or France a “random country that hasn't fought a war in 30 or 40 years" – have we reached the end of the post-war world? And will the second coming of Trump result in the death of NATO? Peter Apps is the author of Deterring Armageddon: A Biography of NATO and joins the panel. Plus, what parts of the media are covering the Trump admi...

After the callous and cowardly attack on Zelensky in the White House, will support from European leaders be enough to compensate for Trump’s contempt for Ukraine? And does Starmer have a new job as official Trump Whisperer? Plus, back home, can Labour get the growth it needs without finally delivering for the North? Matt Kelly, editor-in-chief of The New European, co-host of podcast The Two Matts...