The Political Cycle

A week is a long time in politics, or so they say. And this has been one looooong week. But at the end of it, The Tricyclists are united by a sense of welcome surprise, with Narendra Modi and the BJP humbled in the Indian elections, with their majority slashed and coalition required. Meanwhile in New York a court has found former President, and current candidate, Donald Trump guilty on 34 counts d...

Shortly after we recorded last week, on a drizzly Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the long-awaited UK General Election would take place in July. So, this week Emily Tamkin is quizzing Tom Hamilton – a former strategist for the Labour party, who are heading for a huge victory – about what's going on over in the UK, and whether the electoral calculus is really as simple as it lo...

With Rohan away and Tom – *cough* – busy (until the Premium section), Emily is joined by Karishma Mehrotra, south Asia correspondent for the Washington Post. They'll be discussing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pitch to women voters, demographic difference between Indian and American electorates, and the way that Indian-American voters lean in the US. You can now subscribe to the PREMIUM version o...

The shape of an economy is inevitably a big vote-mover in an election, and 2024 is no different. In India, the stock market has slumped during the election period, while, in the UK, the country's has formally left recession territory. But do these facts impact elections? And how has the economic revival under Joe Biden been perceived by American voters? Are people plugged into the minutiae of econ...

Rohan Venkat and Emily Tamkin are joined by Manisha Pande – standing in for Tom – to discuss the relationship between the media and the elections in India, which have begun in earnest. Is mainstream TV news still dominating the political cycle? Or are alternatives emerging, as the population becomes more digitally engaged? You can now subscribe to the PREMIUM version of Election Trike on Hubwave:...

On this week's episode of The Election Tricycle , we're looking at the wave of student protests – from New York to LA – which are sweeping America. Is this something that will come into play once election season begins in earnest? Are universities also hubs of revolutionary thought in India? Meanwhile, in the UK, Scotland's First Minister, Humza Yousef, has imploded, sending the country into crisi...

As voting begins in India, we're looking at the question of whether the favourites, in our three races, are confident or complacent. With all the polls indicated a big win for Labour in the UK and Modi's BJP in India, does complacency sneak in? And with the race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden still on a knife edge, does the dynamic of the election shift compared with the other wheels on our tr...

This week, the Tricycleers are joined by Matthew McGregor, CEO or 38 Degrees and veteran of digital campaigns in the UK and the US. How has digital campaigning evolved over the years? Are the right better at using these tools than the left? How impactful is cash on digital results, or can organic results be produced with even the tightest of budgets? As ever, Tom, Emily and Rohan are your guides t...

This week on The Election Tricycle , Emily returns from vacation and updates us on that Slovakian election (spoiler alert: it didn't go well). Then the gang gather to compare their elections and look at the question of 'change'. Is Rishi Sunak a change Prime Minister or a continuity Prime Minister? How does Donald Trump keep running as an outsider? And how do the BJP stop things getting stale afte...

On this week's episode of The Election Tricycle, with Emily on holiday (or "vacation", as she calls it), we're looking at the interaction of elections and technology. To discuss this, we're joined by Yashraj Sharma, an India-based reporter who has written about YouTube, social media and AI, especially in the context of the upcoming elections in India. Rohan Venkat and Tom Hamilton pick his brain a...

With only a few weeks remaining before India goes to the polls, we thought it was a good moment to get Tom and Emily to interrogate Rohan about how the elections actually work in India. What is the structure of the voting? How does such a large, unwieldy electorate go to the polls and maintain the integrity of the vote? How long will it take for a result to reveal itself? And what parallels are th...

The Slovakian election is just round the corner, so we decided to dial up Dalibor Roháč, a Washington-based Slovak to talk about the elections and the return of former Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini. Then the gang look at the parallels between what's happening in central Europe and their own elections. Oh, and we now have a date for the Indian elections! So, Rohan talks us through that announceme...

With news emerging this week that a 2019 citizenship law in India, intended to exclude Muslims from the naturalisation process, is shortly to come into action, the Tricycle gang gather to discuss how rhetoric about immigration is shaping these elections. With Trump confirmed as the Republican nominee, will we see a repeat of the anti-immigration rhetoric that typified the election in 2016? Meanwhi...

This week's episode of The Election Tricycle comes in the wake of Super Tuesday. But that's not something we'll dwell on for too long, given that it only really confirmed what we already knew. Instead, we're talking about money in politics. Are the BJP still the anti-corruption party they once ran as? Is British politics stifled by its funding rules? And is there a growing trend towards smaller do...

The conflict raging in Gaza between Israeli forces and Hamas militants is having repercussions around the globe. On this week's edition of The Election Tricycle , Emily Tamkin talks listeners through the Michigan primaries, where Joe Biden faced significant dissent over his support for Israel, while Tom Hamilton discusses how the questions of both antisemitism and Islamophobia have, once again, re...

On this week's episode of The Election Tricycle, Rohan, Emily and Tom are discussing the impact that Russia is having on global elections, in a week which saw the death of opposition hero Alexei Navalny. Is there sufficient support domestically in the United States for Joe Biden's continued financial backing of President Zelensky's war effort? And how does India, at a geographic crossroads, fit in...

This week Emily, Rohan and Tom are looking at age. A new report has cleared President Biden over the handling of classified documents but offered a damning series of judgments over his fitness for high office. Is he simply too old to be President? And is this the week that he lost the election? And how does he compared to Narendra Modi, in his 70s, and Keir Starmer (61)? We also find out what happ...

The Election Tricycle is back, and this week Rohan is discussing the accusations of corruption Prime Minister Modi is levelling at opposition leaders in India. How do these compare to the rhetoric being waged by President Trump in the US? Well, Emily is on hand to elucidate that point. Meanwhile, in the UK, money is also on the menu: namely Rishi Sunak's enormous wealth and how that plays in a pol...

On this week's episode of The Election Tricycle, Rohan discusses the latest U-turn from Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar, who has switched his support to Narendra Modi's BJP. Then Tom discusses why so many British politicians are falling over themselves to gas up Donald Trump ahead of his likely return to the White House, and Emily takes on a visit to the Texan border, where Governor Greg Abb...

Welcome to The Election Tricycle. This week we're looking at Ron DeSantis's departure from the race to be the GOP's Presidential candidate, and the humiliation of his volte face with regards to backing Donald Trump. Then we're off to Ayodhya, where Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has consecrated a new Hindu temple on the site of a razed mosque. Is this likely to further inflame religious tensi...