Pod Save the UK

The US President put the season of goodwill behind him with a New Year Venezuelan coup and the threat of further action across Central America and the Caribbean. Then there’s the little matter of his promise to seize control of Greenland. Nish and Coco try to make sense of the senseless - and to assess the possibility that Donald Trump could end up destroying NATO - with Tommy Vietor from our sist...

You asked, Nish and Coco answered! What are their most conservative opinions? Why do both the left and right hate NATO so much? Should we ditch GDP? Why doesn’t the UK have compulsory voting and why do some many progressives stay true to Labour when the party is failing to measure up? All that plus the latest on Coco’s love-hate relationship with AI and a quickfire round to make sure no question i...

Warning: this episode contains a use of a racial slur. From the rollback of human rights and Trump’s BBC lawsuit to AI slop in politics - what the %@£! was that? Nish and Coco are joined by comedian Shappi Khorsandi and political commentator Jovan Owusu-Nepaul to make sense of the wild year that was.  Labour’s first full year in office was marked by u-turns and an inability to use the word ‘genoci...

Donald Trump has taken another swipe at Europe’s “weak” leaders over Ukraine and immigration including a special mention for - surprise surprise - Sadiq Khan, who got a shout out for being a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”. Honestly, why is he SO obsessed?!  But a Labour government trying to convince European allies to water down human rights law to deport people faster seems perfectly in li...

“Dead and rotting seagulls within the roof insulation” and “maggots literally raining down on to the lobby” - this quote from a court in South Tyneside sums up the state of our creaking judicial system. So what are we going to do about it? Cut jury trials. Deputy PM and Justice Secretary David Lammy is hoping to clear the court backlog by scrapping jury trials for crimes with sentences of less tha...

Coco and Nish listened to Rachel Reeves' budget so you don't have to. But hang on, we could all have skipped the speech and read it online. Someone screwed up big time, pressing a button and releasing the budget before Reeves even stood up. That cock up was possibly the most exciting thing about Labour's second budget.  A bit vanilla for you? Too much tax for ordinary workers? Too little for the w...

Warning: this episode contains strong language and a term of racist abuse.  Just when we thought the disasters of the government couldn’t get any worse… New Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has made it her “moral mission” to raise Nish and Coco’s blood pressure. Cruel new plans to end the permanent status of refugees and curb housing and support for asylum seekers do perhaps justify the government’s...

Are knives being sharpened by disgruntled MPs planning a coup against the PM? As Keir Starmer’s team dig in against a supposed threat to the Prime Minister from Health Secretary Wes Streeting - has the Tory-brand of Westminster psychodrama come back for a new series?  Meanwhile the BBC is under fire from the left, the right, the centre and the US president. Nish and Coco dig into an existential cr...

Nish and Coco celebrate the win of Progressive New York Democratic Mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani - and ponder what British lefties can learn from his social-media friendly campaign.  And is Chancellor Rachel Reeves about to rip up Labour’s manifesto promise not to introduce any new taxes on “working people”? She certainly seems to be laying the groundwork for it, after an unusual pre-budget sp...

It’s been a painful week for the government, with a migrant sex offender accidentally released from prison and a damning report on the spiralling costs of the asylum system. But is a plan to house asylum seekers on military sites really the answer?  Political journalist Zoë Grünewald - standing in for Coco as Nish’s co-host this week - dives into how this re-hashed Conservative plan has managed to...

Enough is enough! Nish stages an intervention with Coco about her troubling relationship with Chat GPT. Or as Coco puts it: her mate “Chatty G”.  But Coco’s not the only one embracing generative AI - it’s creeping into politics. From MPs using it in their daily work to the Swedish prime minister turning to it for a second opinion on running the country. Is AI a useful and harmless political tool o...

It’s been an emotional week after the arrival of a Hamas-Israel ceasefire. This is good news - but issues of humanitarian aid, human rights, and accountability are all still up in the air. The struggle for a lasting peace continues...  Closer to home - Nish and Coco check in with Plaid Cymru's leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, to talk about seeing off Reform, what a new co-operative era in Welsh politics m...

“Shocking... but not surprising” - the words of Stephen Bush, Associate Editor at the Financial Times and Chair of the Commission on Racial Inclusivity in the Jewish Community  for the Board of Deputies of British Jews in 2020. Stephen joins Nish and Coco to discuss the fallout from the shocking attack on a synagogue in Manchester last week.  The trio discuss solidarity and protest, and why the go...

It’s conference season, and at the Labour conference in Liverpool - flagshagging, snake-oil merchants and leadership jockeying - is it Keir Starmer’s final chance for a reset? Nish and Coco are joined by political journalist Zoë Grünewald. And later - as Trump reveals his plans for peace in Gaza, including a bizarre role for former PM Tony Blair - is the UK doing enough for Gaza? Nish speaks to La...

Oh dear lefties… We just can’t stop tearing each other apart, huh? One short month into the evolution of the new political party experiment undertaken by independent MPs Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn - and the whole thing has descended into acrimony. After a weekend of legal threats, “your” party is suddenly seeming to be a house of cards built amidst a hurricane.   Meanwhile, Nigel Farage has s...

It’s been a hellish week for our Disunited Kingdom. First Tommy Robinson mobilised ten of thousands in his ‘Unite the Kingdom’ march. Before we could recover from that toxic side show,  the headline act arrived: President Trump.  He was kept behind a ring of steel in Windsor where he enjoyed British brown nosing at its best from flatterers-in-chief, the Royal Family. What a state we’re in.  Coco a...

Chaos, what chaos? Rayner's out. The cabinet's reshuffled. The lurch to the right hasn't stopped. But in the words of Homer Simpson, could Keir Starmer's shit show be a "crisitunity" for the left?  To tell us how we can seize this moment, Nish and Coco are joined by leftwing royalty - Zarah Sultana MP and Bimini Bon-Boulash - live at the London Podcast Festival.  Zarah shares why she feels liberat...

Pod Save the UK teamed up with Amnesty International UK for a powerful live recording to raise awareness and support to end the genocide in Gaza. Nish and Coco are joined by Palestinian journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh, Gaza Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera, who shares first-hand experiences of reporting under unimaginable circumstances in Gaza and the deadly toll on journalists. Comedians and activists Jen B...

PSUK is taking a week off - so we’re bringing you a podcast from some of our friends - Sara and Cariad’s Weirdos Book Club!  In this first episode - PSUK’s very own Nish Kumar turns up to discuss the internet, vegetables, wet boyfriends and so much more! USEFUL LINKS  Stop the Genocide Special W/ Amnesty International- Tuesday 2nd  https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/words/pod-save-the-uk-x-amne...

High streets across the UK are being overwhelmed by betting shops. They gobble up £4.6 billion from punters every year - and local councils have almost no powers to block them.  Labour MP Dawn Butler’s constituency, Brent East in North-West London, has 81 licensed enterprises alone. Jumping into “Betsy”, Dawn’s prized old-banger, Coco is taken out and about in Willesden to see first hand how betti...

Three thousand riot police were put on standby after Friday was dubbed “anti-asylum day” by far-right organisers, with 14 protests scheduled nationwide outside of suspected asylum hotels.  Tensions are high but with Keir Starmer constantly boasting about cracking down on “illegal” migrants - is the Government simply fanning the flames of unrest? The New Statesman’s Britain Editor Anoosh Chakelian...

This week - we’re talking about the internet, Coco’s proclivities toward the disembodied voice of Pedro Pascal and Nish’s struggles to find any time to work on himself. Strap in - it’s a juicy one.  Nish and Coco are joined by technology journalist Chris Stokel-Walker to make sense of the UK’s new online safety laws - which restrict access to harmful and inappropriate content for young people - wh...

PSUK is back - and this week Keir Starmer has swung open the door to recognising Palestinian Statehood - with caveats. Nish and Coco discuss the massive change in the UK’s foreign policy stance.  Later, they’re joined by suspended Labour MP Brian Leishman (and his Dachshund Hugo) who voted against the government’s welfare cuts, to discuss the direction of Labour and Zarah Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn...

The co-Leadership bid of Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay represents continuity for the Greens - they sit in Parliament and have proven they can win seats, but is their friendly language enough to cut through to the British public? Rival Zack Polanski says his alternative “eco-populist” vision can bring the fight to Reform and win.  Ellie and Zack sit down with Nish and Coco to make the case for the...

This week’s episode of Pod Save the UK comes live from Sheffield’s Crossed Wires Festival. Nish and Coco sit down with two special guests: former trader and economics commentator Gary Stevenson and South Yorkshire’s Mayor Oliver Coppard. Cracking open cans of Nish, provided by local brewery Triple Point, Nish and Coco discuss the recent vote on labelling certain protest groups as terrorist organis...