The Bunker – News without the nonsense

If democracy is so great why does it keep producing such terrible results? Nick Cohen of The Observer talks to Georgetown University political philosopher Jason Brennan , author of Against Democracy , about what it means when sweeping democratic mandates arise from underinformed voters. Do people really vote on the basis of policy or simply to be part of the gang? Should you have to pass a test be...

Technology will displace 47% of all jobs, said Dr Carl Benedikt Frey in a study he co-wrote called The Future Of Employment – a paper so influential that it’s at the centre of jobs policy for governments across the world. But what will replace those jobs? Will anything replace them? In his new book The Technology Trap Dr Frey describes how the same job destruction and extremes of poverty and great...

Britain’s vaccination programme is undoubtedly working. Do we have to grit out teeth and admit our political opponents have done at least one thing right? Healthcare commentator Roy Lilley tells us the mood among NHS workers. Plus: small business goes under the political bus, the murky world of doses for data, will we ever travel for fun again – and what the hell is happening in Italy? Ros Taylor...

Vaccination steps up, Trump’s legal shenanigans, Paul Dacre to OFCOM, Myanmar, Navalny and the fallout from the EU’s terrible decision on vaccine exports. Yasmeen Serhan of The Atlantic tells Andrew Harrison what to watch out for in the coming week. “ Myanmar will reveal whether the US is going to be the country that stands up for democracy again.”  “ The emerging COVID variants are a warning that...

What can the Spanish Flu of 1918 tell us about coping with Coronavirus – and maybe the next pandemic too? Nick Cohen of The Observer talks to Laura Spinney , author of Pale Rider : The Spanish Flu Of 1918 And How It Changed The World , about the lessons from possibly the greatest public health disaster in history. Did populations weakened by the First World War provide a fertile breeding ground fo...

How does a band make widescreen, forward-thinking communal rock music when they’re suddenly locked down miles away from one another? And when your keyboard player has moved to Australia? Paul Smith of Newcastle postpunk adventurers Maxïmo Park tells Dorian Lynskey about finding inspiration in strange places, recording an album on WhatsApp and jerky FaceTime calls, writing about Brexit and Grenfell...

How does it feel to work in the thick of the pandemic and spend time with patients you know will die? Rachel Clarke is a doctor in Oxfordshire who works in palliative care and her new book is Breathtaking: Inside The NHS In A Time Of Pandemic . She talks to Ros Taylor about the incredible personal stress of frontline medicine in the pandemic, the price Britain has paid for Boris Johnson’s “unforgi...

The Government’s shoddy EU Deal means the live music business will have to cope with mountains of red tape it thought was in the past. Singer FISH , ex- of prog rock legends Marillion and now a successful solo touring artist, set out the details of this nightmare in a blistering social media post at the weekend. Now he talks to Andrew Harrison about how the strangling complexity of permits and vis...

Is the UK’s vaccination effort finally an actual British success story… for the NHS, not the Government? Exactly how are the vaccines different and how do they work? Special guest Sathnam Sanghera joins us to talk about his new book Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain , how the British Empire still haunts our present, and the unsurpassable joys of blanking Julia Hartley-Brewer. P...

As Britain approaches the horrific landmark of 100,000 COVID deaths, will lockdown hawks force the Government to reopen the economy too soon – again? Plus the worsening mess in customs, import and export. Best for Britain launches a campaign to get COVID support to the 3m workers that Sunak forgot. And it’s bad news for hedgehogs as Chris Grayling takes up their case. Naomi Smith sets out the week...

What does Englishness even mean in a land so splintered by class, geography, language and even post-colonial neuroses that it barely understands itself? And how far back would you draw the North-South divide? To 1066? Or maybe to the Jurassic period? James Hawes , novelist and author of the riotously readable Shortest History Of England , talks to The Observer’s Nick Cohen about England’s murky pa...

America’s new President faces four overlapping crises – the COVID pandemic, the teetering economy, festering racial inequality and looming climate change. Does Joe Biden have the political resources to turn them around? And what about the fifth crisis, the poisoning of American democracy under Trump? The FT’s Associate Editor Edward Luce – Author of The Retreat of Western Liberalism – tells Andrew...

Few writers’ words and ideas are abused daily on the Internet as much as George Orwell’s – and now most of his work is out of copyright. On the anniversary of Eric Blair’s death, we present a champion Orwell-off. Dorian Lynskey, author of The Ministry Of Truth , talks to DJ Taylor , author of Orwell: The Life , about Blair’s underrated works and over-cited quotes, David Bowie’s 1984: The Musical ,...

On the last day of Donald Trump’s warped presidency, his niece Mary Trump – psychologist and author of Too Much And Never Enough : How My Family Created The World’s Most Dangerous Man – reflects on the making of a man who impressed his psychopathologies on a nation. How does a person get like this? What is it like when a family member places the entire world in peril? And could a defeated Trump re...

As the Trump Presidency finally, finally ends, will the Republican Party be forced to choose between American democracy and the madness of the Trump-enraged base? Can Biden convince the world that America’s holiday from reason is over? Plus COVID spikes in Ireland, Singapore uses virus tracking to erode human rights, and Wikipedia is turns 20 [citation needed]. Ayesha Hazarika , Brian Klaas and Ah...

As America prepares to inaugurate Joe Biden as President, can his predecessor squeeze any more crookedness into his remaining days in power? And will the feared violence in American state capitols materialise? Plus as lockdown reacts its first mandatory review, the Government tries to cut benefits and working people’s rights. Alex Andreou sets up the week ahead. “ Trump isn ’ t unusual. He ’ s eve...

In a special extra edition we ask, what will our politics be like after COVID (eventually) lifts? Will we find, like in 1945, that suddenly everything has changed? John Curtice , politics professor at Strathclyde University and senior fellow at think tank UK in a Changing Europe , tells Naomi Smith about the new economic consensus that could emerge from the post-Corona wreckage; how Labour should...

“Rarely have people sacrificed so much for so little.” The great uprisings across the Arab world in 2010-12 began in hope and ended in bitter disappointment, with hardline rule strengthened in many Arab countries. On the tenth anniversary of the event that began the Arab Spring, the overthrow of the Tunisian government, we talk to two experts – journalist for the BBC, Vice and LA Times Zahra Hanki...

Before right wing populists set about ruining the world, it was Latin America’s left wing populists – the likes of Chávez, Ortega and Castro – who rattled the West and threw their own countries into tumult. Why is the strongman’s hold on his country’s politics so unyielding? Will Grant , BBC Latin America correspondent and author of Populista! , joins us from Mexico City to explain how the people’...

From the Iranian Revolution to the invasion of Afghanistan, events in 1979 turned the tides on decades of liberalisation across the Middle East. Kim Ghattas , journalist and author of Black Wave : Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East tells Alex Andreou about our misconceptions of the Middle East and her journey as...

Can the Democrats win the race to impeach Donald Trump before he wreaks irreparable damage on American democracy? Will Trump’s expulsion from social media neuter him or drive his base even crazier? And did that rioter REALLY taser himself to death, in the balls? Plus: Britain thinks MUSIC IS GREAT but not great enough to support. How the travel industry will resurrect itself. And why Joe Biden has...

Can Democrats impeach Trump fast enough to prevent more damage to American democracy – or would that enrage his base further? And what will his ejection from social media mean? Plus, Government failures to plan on COVID and freight exposed, and Keir Starmer wobbles on the EU. Ros Taylor sets up the week’s coming events.  “ Never mind long-term… the Government lacks even medium-term planning on Cov...

It took a global pandemic to revolutionise Britain’s outdated abortion provision but the changes need to be made permanent. Quality-controlled termination “pills by post” have been made available during the pandemic– but under current law, GPs still can’t provide abortion medication without clinical advice too. Katherine O’Brien , Associate Director at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, tells...

In scarcely believable scenes, a mob goaded by Donald Trump invades America’s Capitol building, trashing Congress offices, shooting into the debating chamber and forcing senators and staff to flee. Four people die. What does this unprecedented assault on democracy mean for Joe Biden’s presidency and for America’s future? UCL Politics Professor and host of the Power Corrupts podcast Brian Klaas exp...

Why does Hitler still cast a shadow on our politics? How do you re-examine the Nazis’ record without inadvertently fuelling Holocaust denial? Historian Prof. Frank McDonough , author of new book The Hitler Years: Disaster 1940-1945 , explains why we still don’t understand the enormity of the Third Reich’s crimes, why the unstoppable German Blitzkrieg was a myth generated for home consumption, and...