The Critic Podcast

America is still counting the votes, but as things stand, Joe Biden is on course to be the next president of the United States. Donald Trump's chances of victory are slim, and getting slimmer, while his legal team look set to lodge complaints and demand recounts in several crucial states.   But 48 hours after election day, a couple of things are clear: the polls were a long way off and Democr...

The Critic's political sketch-writer, Rob Hutton, previously spent 16 years reporting on Westminster's comings and goings from the very different vantages of The Mirror and Bloomberg. How have politicians as well as journalists adapted to the 24 hour news cycle and is the expectation of instant commentary debasing serious journalism? In this podcast, Rob Hutton talks to The Critic's poli...

In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to the author of The Elephant in the Room, the entrepreneur John Mills, chairman of the consumer goods company JML and the Labour Party's largest individual donor, about how the UK's manufacturing base could be revived through policies designed to sustain a more competitive exchange rate. -- Don’t forget to subscribe t...

The second–and final–US presidential debate of the 2020 election campaign ended as many viewers and commentators say they hoped it would begin: with something approaching an actual debate. But who won? With 47 million Americans already having voted, and the vast majority of those who haven't saying that they have already made their decision, will this last debate have changed anything? To discuss...

Azerbaijan has attacked Armenian-backed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia has guaranteed Armenia's territory whilst Turkey, a NATO member, is backing Azerbaijan. How much worse can this conflict in the Caucasus get and will neighbouring countries, Europe and the United States be drawn in? In this podcast, Kapil Komireddi assesses the messages from his interview with Armenia's president, Armen Sar...

With Azerbaijan attacking Armenian-backed positions in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh, the president of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian, spoke to Kapil Komireddi for The Critic on the conflict in the Caucuses, the role of Turkey and what he expects from Russia and western countries. __ Photo: Armenia's president, Armen Sarkissian, 2018. (Photographer: Nazik Armenakyan/Bloomberg via Getty I...

In this week's podcast, David Scullion speaks to Ben Woodfinden, a political theorist at McGill University, Montreal about whether conservatives are fighting a "war on woke", how they're responding to the charge that our statues need pulling down, and whether Donald Trump can truly be called a conservative. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensur...

In the second of three podcasts to mark the coming presidential election, the first of which can be found here, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Fighting for America and Altered States, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about how the power of the US president was exercised during the Civil War and its aftermath. -- Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast...

With less than four weeks to go before American voters elect their next president, how has executive authority developed since George Washington was sworn in as the federal republic's first president in 1789?   In this first of three podcasts to mark the coming presidential election, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Fighting for America and Altered States, talks to The Cr...

It has been an extraordinary few weeks in US presidential politics – not least with President Trump's illness. Meanwhile, it was the understudies who were in the hot seat for the vice presidential debate. To discuss the vice presidential debate and what it means for the presidential race, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, joins US editor Oliver Wiseman and editor of the jour...

As conference season went online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the experience proved vastly different for those who usually attend the annual party conferences. In this week's podcast, The Critic's David Scullion, Politeia Director Jonathan Isaby and former Conservative Party councillor Caroline ffiske discuss whether it's still worth political parties meeting in person, and if f...

In a week when backbench MPs and the government clashed over the right to debate Coronavirus regulations before they become law, how does the role of the modern MP compare with that of an eighteenth century honourable member? Were MPs a check upon - or a rubber-stamp for - successive Whig governments and how diligently did they perform their duties?   In this week's Black's History...

Last night, Donald Trump and Joe Biden faced off in the first of three presidential debates. It was a bad-tempered affair, with a lot of squabbling and not much substantive policy discussion. But who came out of the messy encounter on top? And are there any undecided voters who would have changed their minds by the end of the 90 minutes? In this podcast, The Critic's US editor, Oliv...

Tuesday night is debate night - the first of three US presidential debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, and US editor, Oliver Wiseman, talk about what to expect from the debates in a time of Covid-19. __ Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an epis...

Has scientific development become so specialised and academic roles so minutely research-focused that there is no longer a role for the inter-disciplinary polymath who prioritises breadth of knowledge and making connections between different subjects? In this week's Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about the idea of...

With the opinion polls suggesting the SNP is heading for a clear majority in next May's Scottish parliamentary elections, fuelling their demands for a second referendum on independence - is it beyond the ability of Scotland's Conservative, LibDem and Labour parties to save the union? Former Labour and Respect MP, George Galloway, has founded the Alliance for Unity as a bipartisan party seeking to...

Welcome to the first episode of Black’s History Week: the latest podcast series from us here at The Critic. The former prime ministers, John Major, Tony Blair and Theresa May have all criticised Boris Johnson's handling of the Internal Market Bill and the Withdrawal Agreement. But how common is it for ex-prime ministers to continue to play a prominent part in British politics after they have left...

Why is the UK a world leader in tech sector R&D, yet has not a single high growth software business listed on the FTSE 100? Does leaving the EU threaten the UK’s tech sector or does Brexit provide Britain with opportunities? And if so, how and where? Dr Mike Lynch OBE has been variously described as: Britain’s answer to Bill Gates; Britain’s most successful technology entrepreneur; and, in the...

As Beijing has become more bellicose since the Coronavirus pandemic and British attitudes have hardened, how should Britain react? In a recent paper, Dr Radomir Tylecote the Director of the Good Governance Project and Research Director of the Free Speech Union, argues that Britain is still being naive in its dealings with China and suggests ways to be more resilient to Chi...

In this week's podcast, The Critic's Deputy Political Editor, David Scullion, spoke to Harry Miller, an ex-police officer who last year was visited at work by police officers who wanted to "check his thinking" on trans issues after they read some of his tweets. Last year the High Court found that the police probe was unlawful, but in a new report into the politicised nature of polic...

From fake news and propaganda to covert funding, bribery and everyday espionage, allegations of foreign interference in British politics and society is as old as the belief that Britain equally seeks to interfere in the internal affairs of its overseas competitors. In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Professor Jeremy Black, author of A History of...

When Richard Leonard became leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2017, he inherited Scotland's third largest party. It still is. And with opinion polls suggesting that popular support for the once dominant power in Scotland is now down to around 15 to 17 percent, the prospects for Labour in the Scottish Parliament election in May next year look dire. In this podcast, The Critic's political...

What might Meghan and Harry have learnt from Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson? In this podcast, The Critic’s political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Alexander Larman, author of The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication, about how Edward VIII was manoeuvred off the throne, whether Wallis really was as bad as she has been painted, and how the House of Windsor adapts and endure...

From consumerism and urban growth to becoming the first industrialising nation and permitting a level of free speech and press that would be envied elsewhere in Europe, Hanoverian Britain set trends that others would later follow. Why so? In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart talks about what made Georgian Britain a trendsetter with Professor Jeremy Black, whose books...

In the twenty years after the end of the Second World War, the Holocaust was recalled as part of the horror of Hitler's Reich but in the popular commemoration rarely singled out as the single greatest manifestation of its moral depravity. How and when did this begin to change and with what shifting emphasis do different countries remember the crime? In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author...