Quiet Riot

Political psychodrama heaped on top of political drama. Well, sort of. The psychodrama of the Labour leadership battle is real, whether we want another short-term PM or not. Naomi, Alex and Kenny pretend to hate the drama and then get sucked into the socialist-ish soap opera that's captivating Westminster. And then there's the King's Speech, which is legislatively significant but ... well, wouldn'...

***SIGN UP FOR OUR ASK-US-ANYTHING ELECTION SPECIAL LIVE ZOOM ON TUESDAY 12 MAY 2026, 1PM, AT ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠*** Naomi Smith and Alex Andreou discuss the results of this week's round of elections and find that, underneath the single narrative of Nigel Farage's inevitability as Britain's...

In the iconic words from A Streetcar Named Desire "we've had this date with each other from the beginning!" For nearly half of Labour’s 20 months in power, it has been said that this set of local elections would mark Starmer’s last throw of the dice. With results still coming in, it is difficult to analyse precise voter movements, but patterns are certainly beginning to emerge. To discuss the resu...

Have £5million guv. It's a present, tax free, no strings attached. Yet again, questions arise over Farage's finances, this time after yet another huge wad makes its way from a crypto billionaire into Nigel's orbit – actually straight into his wallet, according to Farage himself. Naomi Smith and Kenny Campbell ask wtf is going on with right wing political funding in particular, and the rules around...

This week's Golders Green attack resurfaced some deeply disturbing prejudices and raised the political temperature too. Alex and Kenny look at the facts as they stand and analyse the political reaction to a tinderbox issue. And, with temperatures rising literally as well as metaphorically, they turn their attention to the looming El Niño impact, and ask if hotter summers make for violent protests....

The stakes are too high to allow even a hint of complacency to creep into our thinking about the upcoming US 2026 midterm elections. This is one of the most powerful and malicious administrations in US history - the same lot who tried to overrun the Capitol in order to overturn the 2020 result. To treat them as an inert substance that will not fight tooth and claw is naive and dangerous. The chaos...

The King and Ay, ay, ay... One (the royal One) flew over the cuckoo's nest ... Windsors and losers ... too many ways to describe what happened in Washington this week when genuine royalty met wannabe royalty. Join Naomi, Alex and Kenny for a diplomatic murder mystery carried out in the full glare of media lights to find out who got murdered and who... dunnit. PLUS those pesky local/regional/nation...

When illness makes life unbearable, should we be permitted – and helped – to end our time in this place on our own terms? Last year on this podcast, we spoke to Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK, about the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. On Friday the 24th of April, the bill officially ran out of parliamentary time. Undone not by elected MPs, a vote against it, or lack of pu...

Food, fuel, political parties ... it can feel like we've never had so much choice. But how much choice do we REALLY have? Naomi and Kenny ask whether the modern world gives us choice on one level ... only to utterly deny it on other levels. And, talking of choice, they look at Ed Miliband's big policy speech on green energy, ask what it all means and wonder if it's time to stop calling it 'green'...

Keeping up with the Starmer-Mandelson-Robbins scandal is like juggling spaghetti, soggy spaghetti at that, but we're here for the challenge. Naomi, Alex and Kenny pick apart this week's remarkable developments in a saga that has cost two of the main players their jobs ... and may well consign the third player to an early bath too. What happened, what happens next and who's to blame? And what do sh...

Naomi Smith and Alex Andreou discuss the UK's back to full EU membership, after a new Report by Best for Britain found it is the smart option for the government in every way - economic, security, or political. Also, why is the BBC channeling energy and resources to undercover investigation of the asylum system, when it is anything but under-covered? Finally, as sequels, prequels, franchises, remak...

Who's blockading the Strait of Hormuz today? Iran? Donny From The Block? The Fake News Media? Naomi, Alex and Kenny look at the winners (yes, there appear to be some) and losers (everybody else) from Trump's ongoing Middle-East distraction. And they are joined by Andrew Ryder – a British political scientist who has made Hungary his home and teaches politics at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budap...

The May elections are now mere weeks away and, in Scotland, there's a fascinating battle developing for second place. Not that the SNP can take a majority for granted, but the real action is between Labour, Reform ... and possibly the Greens. Kenny Campbel is Joined by the Telegraph's man in Scotland, Jacob Freedland, to roor around behind the scenes of Scotland's politics. As well as at least one...

Look, we're STILL trying to work out what Melania's plan was with that WTF speech this week. Plan, did we say? Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell give miserable Mel's bizarre intervention their best shot and, for the adults in the audience, try to make sense of that other Trumpian mystery of the week, the cease fire that no one in the White House seems to have read before agreeing to it. Back in Blig...

One minute, it's Armageddon and profanity; the next, it's back to the clown show and Trump's biggest TACO yet. Naomi, Alex and Kenny are joined by QR favourite Arthur Snell to rake through the ashes of Trump's Iranian dumpster fire, and try to make sense of a blisteringly bleak week in the annals of US foreign policy. The yellow streak that runs though Trump hasn't stopped him declaring victory, o...

Brace for betrayal, resurrection and chocolate in our Easter special! Naomi Smith and Kenny Campbell examine the Judas Factor in politics, and then dive into that other great seasonal topic: the soaring price of Easter eggs. All that plus the Wokeydokey we had to hold over from our midweek shows with Baroness Ayesha Hazarika, because there was too much other stuff to talk about. Happy Easter y'all...

Welcome to the second part of our fabulous bank holiday two-parter with Baroness Ayesha Hazarika. What does becoming a peer actually feel like? How should we reform the upper chamber? And will our friendly Baroness give us any juicy insights from behind those woolsacks? If you missed the first part of this two-parter, why not pause this one and go back to hear Ayesha's views on Trump's latest Iran...

Our fabulous bank holiday two-parter with Baroness Ayesha Hazarika kicks off with (of course) Trump's latest Iranian-adjacent madness. And we utter a modest hurrah as Labour starts to move publically towards Europe – and ask what the party can do to prepare us all for some expected hard times ahead. Also, we answer the question that our subscriber Sarah was midway through when our latest Ask Us An...

Alex Andreou and Naomi Smith discuss a parliamentary report on disinformation, in the light of news that the BBC has chosen a former Google executive as its new boss. And - as promised - they bring you our research into party membership in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, to supplement QR's midweek deep dive. Finally, can you tell Prank from Frank? Alex and Naomi test each other with far fet...

How would you feel about a medical examination that was designed to make you faint? What about having to instal soundproof doors and blinds, because noise and light can bring on seizures? Welcome to the world of the Long Covid patient – and there are millions of them. Six years since the first Covid lockdown, humans have become relatively blasé about the disease. But it has cast a crippling shadow...

As the US keeps 'negotiating with itself' (Iran's words...) we ask tentatively what impact the ongoing conflict will have on our wallets, purses and digital wealth stores. Plus, a look at new research revealing perhaps too much about the sort of people who are actual *members* of a political party. Spoiier alert: they're outnumbered handsomely by the number of criminals out there, not that there's...

For this bonus episode, award winning journalist, writer and podcaster Will Hayward joins Naomi Smith to break down all you need to know about the forthcoming Senedd elections, as well as his brilliant new book, "Who Cares About Wales?" As well as discussing the current fortunes of Plaid, Reform, Labour, Conservatives, Greens and Lib Dems, you’ll also find out Farage’s thoughts on the “foreign” We...

War? What war? As missiles continue to whizz around the Middle East and the global economy continues to sweat as a result, Trump looks to be planning his exit from that Iranian adventure. Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell look at the latest, and wonder if US plans to de-escalate the conflict will be as well thought through as its plans to escalate were in the first place. And, away from the madness...

As the UK and Europe push back on Trump's overseas adventures, Naomi Smith and Alex Andreou are joined by MP for Oxford East, Dame Anneliese Dodds, to look at the Iran latest, the Ukraine defence partnership, and the government's pivot towards the EU. Starmer is, for once, in tune with the public mood. Can foreign policy repair his domestic reputation? Plus, we talk overseas aid (or the lack of it...

Brace yourselves for an episode with a particularly adult feel... fret not, it's still Quiet Riot. Naomi Smith and Kenny Campbell start with the latest on Mandelson, and the never-ending political fallout from his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Then they turn their gaze to the Government's muddle over pornography – specifically, the row over whether content representing incest por...