The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Recorded before No.10 imposed a solution on Manchester. With Manchester refusing to accept Government terms to enter Tier 3, and Wales heading for a ‘circuit-breaker’, what does rebellion in the regions mean for the Government’s lockdown strategy? Have Senate Republicans left it too late to stop themselves going down with the Donald? And our panelists travel back in time to discuss their formative...

Are progressives right to get so excited about Jacinda Ardern ? She’s won admiration for her handling of the COVID crisis and the massacre in a Christchurch mosque – and for crushing New Zealand’s equivalent of Ukip. Toby Manhire , editor of The Spin-Off in NZ and former Guardian comment editor, joins us from Auckland to explain what New Zealand has got right and wrong – and what Britain can learn...

As Boris Johnson falls out with everyone – Manchester, Brussels, scientists, his own Northern MPs – what can we expect for the biggest crisis week since last week. Alex Andreou tells us what to expect from the EU talks-that-aren’t talks, Westminster’s stand-off with the North, and Donald Trump’s last stand.  Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Ken...

A poisonous online culture of misogyny is radicalising young men to hate women – producing terrifying consequences from routine rape and death threats against female politicians to actual violence and murder. Author of Men Who Hate Women and founder of the Everyday Sexism project Laura Bates posed as a young boy to infiltrate these online worlds and discover how they groom kids as young as 11 into...

More bikes and fewer cars on the road has turned out to be one of the unexpected dividends of COVID. But can Britain ever get to an Amsterdam-style paradise of bikes? And will Britons ever stop raging about cyclists? Coventry’s Cycling Mayor Adam Tranter – he’s all bike chain, no gold chain – tells Justin Quirk what’s needed to get Britain into the saddle. “Most people don’t know this but Coventry...

Has the Government’s emergency tier strategy broken the short-lived compact between the Conservatives and the North? Is new government spokesperson Allegra Stratton more than just a human shield for former communications genius Boris Johnson? And does the Government really want us all to retrain as boxers, cake decorators and DJs? Special guest Oli Dugmore , Head of News and Politics at joe.co.uk...

If we’re living in an era of strongmen, why are so many (male) leaders failing us all over the world? How do our ideas of leadership need to change? Dr Pippa Malmgren , co-author with Chris Lewis of The Infinite Leader and former economic advisor to President George W Bush, tells Alex Andreou why leaders need to lead differently – why we have to stop rewarding psychopaths – and what we can all lea...

Does the Government’s latest, three-tier COVID system make sense – and is the North of England out of patience with Westminster? Will the Agriculture Bill put hormone beef on your plate? And will we finally, finally see an end to the EU Trade Talks saga? Naomi Smith sets up the week ahead.  Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audi...

Junior barrister Alexandra Wilson made the news when she revealed how she’d repeatedly been mistaken for a defendant in court simply because she is black. She tells Dorian Lynskey about life as a black barrister in an overwhelmingly white system, what the courts need to do about criminalising people of colour, and what drove her new book In Black and White : A Young Barrister's Story Of Race And C...

If there’s one symbol of the COVID fight it’s the face mask – but do we understand the consequences of a masked society? Professor Graham Martin , Director of Research at the Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute, tells Ros Taylor why the issue of masks isn’t as clear-cut as we think, why the social dynamic of masks is so important, and how we can improve the quality of debate surrounding COVID...

Don’t mask, don’t tell. Will Trump’s bizarre bout with COVID make, break or fatally contaminate the US presidential race? The directors of a shocking new documentary People You May Know join us to explain how US churches used Cambridge Analytica-related data targeting to reach and radicalise vulnerable people – and they reveal the people who want to use this tech to literally rewrite the US consti...

 How did evidence-based science end up playing second fiddle to demagoguery and populism? And what can we do about it? Prof Luke O’Neill, professor of biochemistry and COVID immunologist at Trinity College Dublin, has written a book with the admirably direct title Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Science . He tells Justin Quirk why we need to fight a rearguard action for science’s primacy in po...

As promised, here's our new thing! What’s coming up this week? IAN DUNT tells us what to watch out for as Conservative Conference ends in a welter of COVID incompetency news, Priti Patel gets nastier, and Matt Hancock prepares to face the music in Parliament.  Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE...

Uncovering the personal stories of people who died from COVID-19, Sirin Kale ’s Guardian series Lost To The Virus has become one of the most moving reporting feats of the year. She tells Dorian Lynskey about the truth behind the biggest human story of our generation, the special challenges of reporting at a distance, why the “carnage” in our care homes still isn’t understood, and why so many COVID...

Arbitrary Coronavirus regulations and the Government’s brinkmanship over international law are putting the justice system under unprecedented strain. Criminal barrister JOANNA HARDY tells Nina Schick about the impact of COVID on our justice system, the future of the judiciary in a post-pandemic world, and what breaking international law would mean for Britain’s standing on the global stage. “It’s...

As The New York Times exposes Donald Trump’s microscopic tax returns, will the revelations have any impact on November’s election? With barmy conspiracy theory QAnon making inroads into the UK, will Britain have to get used to a future of totally irrational politics? And if University has been reduced to a distance learning battery farm, will 2020 warp the very notion of youth itself out of shape?...

Although it’s over 50 years since most colonies achieved their independence from Britain, on these shores we still seem to living in the shadows of the Empire. Dr SAMIR PURI, author of ’The Great Imperial Hangover: How Empires Have Shaped the World ’ talks to Arthur Snell about why Britain is so obsessed with its imperial past, what the ‘Anglosphere’ is, and whether the EU is the modern day empire...

Britain might enjoy a (worsening) love-hate relationship with Germany but the UK still can’t understand why they’re so much better than us in industry, political debate and social cohesion. Former BBC, FT and Telegraph reporter JOHN KAMPFNER ’s new book is entitled Why The Germans Do It Better: Notes From A Grown-Up Country . He talks to Andrew Harrison about the German political miracle, life aft...

Whatever else they argue about, most politicians agree on one thing: competition just makes everything better. But does it? In her new book Competition is Killing Us: How Big Business is Harming Our Society and Planet , Michelle Meagher describes why she quit a job as a market regulator – literally promoting competition – to argue that companies should be made to stop offloading their costs on soc...

Could there be cause for optimism on climate change? Do individuals have power over our planet’s future? Paul Behrens , author of new book The Best Of Times The Worst Of Times , tells Ros Taylor about the best and worst climate scenarios, why women’s rights are the key to a manageable future, meat, flying, renewables… and how to avoid falling into impotent despair about tomorrow. “We might have be...

As COVID cases are back on the rise another lockdown looks likely, but has the Government blown its pandemic response? And how will Britain react to an autumn trapped indoors? Plus, following a scathing report by the Public Accounts Committee, is the Home Office ever going to change its nasty ways? And after Priti Patel called on the nation to dob-in their neighbours for breaking lockdown rules, w...

COVID has developed from a short-term emergency into a public health crisis that could define the next half century. As Lockdown II looms, Conservative MP Daniel Poulter , former junior Health Minister and chair of the the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health, explains the long-term outlook to Naomi Smith – his own experience of fatigue from COVID – and what Brexit might mean for our bat...

Rage Against The Machine’s TOM MORELLO is one of the most charismatic and energising figures in rock’n’roll and politics. He tells Dorian Lynskey about the role of radicalism in rock, protofascism, AOC, Trump, the Presidential Election, cancel culture, and his political journey from a super-progressive childhood – via arguing with teenage Trotskyists at Harvard and working for a US Senator – to sp...

Can we really guide and control human activity by constructing networks of carrots, sticks and semi-invisible hints? Behavioural science AKA “nudge” is key to the UK Government’s COVID response yet, as tech journalist and sceptic Andrew Orlowski says, its roots are questionable and its efficacy debatable. He tells Andrew Harrison why we humans stubbornly refuse to behave like herd animals… … and w...

There’s an unseen epidemic of people dying while homeless, and journalist MAEVE McLENAGHAN tells their stories in No Fixed Abode: Life and Death Among the UK's Forgotten Homeles s, out this week. She tells Dorian Lynskey what she learned, how there was more to the 2010s explosion in rough sleeping than just austerity… and a radical solution to homelessness: give people places to live. “From attend...