Three Old Hacks

Writer and broadcaster Mihir Bose , Economics editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political commentator Nigel Dudley , aka The Three Old Hacks, discuss the week's events, including reactions to the fatal attack on Sir David Amess at his constituency Surgery. Should MPs get more protection and does this change the nature of their relationship with the public? Newcastle United and their...

Writer and broadcaster Mihir Bose, Economics editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political commentator Nigel Dudley, aka The Three Old Hacks, discuss Afghanistan in their podcast this week. “The great opinion makers and intellectuals have once again failed us” says Mihir. “When the West intervened in Afghanistan two decades ago they were all for it and made no critical examination whatsoeve...

The Three Old Hacks are old enough to remember the 1964 Olympics, the last time Tokyo hosted the Games. There were fewer events and so the people who won medals stayed in the memory longer, like long jumper Lynn Davies, whose local council paid tribute to him in a way which was to become more irritating than celebratory. Writer and broadcaster Mihir Bose , Economics Editor of the Sunday Times Davi...

Mihir Bose, David Smith and Nigel Dudley – aka the Three Old Hacks – are old enough to remember 1966 and all that. It comes as no surprise to them therefore that politicians should be falling over themselves to haul themselves aboard the football bandwagon. Football and politics, bread and circuses… Writer and broadcaster Mihir Bose, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political c...

Mihir Bose, writer and broadcaster, writes primarily on sport. In the seventies he was always the only non-white reporter in the press box and often the only non-white spectator in the whole football ground, so he is well placed to comment on the current controversy over the booing of football players who take the knee at the beginning of matches in support of Black Lives Matter. He shares with ol...

Incompetence and chaos at the heart of government is the theme of this week’s podcast from the Three Old Hacks. Dominic Cummings’ seven hour session in front of a parliamentary committee, pouring bile on the heads of both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock, has given them plenty to talk about. The Three Old Hacks, aka  writer and broadcaster Mihir Bose , Economics Edito...

Mihir Bose , former BBC Sports News Editor, sets the world to rights with journalist mates David Smith , Economics Editor of the Sunday Times, and political commentator Nigel Dudley . The cost of decorating Boris Johnson’s Downing St flat and who is paying for it is exercising them this week (£200,000 and it looks ‘like an Ottoman brothel’ according to one wag). Maybe people aren’t bothered about...

The Three Old Hacks discuss the one day wonder that was The Super League. It took from Sunday night till Tuesday morning for six top English football clubs to announce their membership and then withdraw, leaving the plan in tatters in the face of opposition from the British Government. Mihir Bose , former BBC sports news editor at the BBC, David Smith , Economics Editor of the Sunday Times and Nig...

This week the Three Old Hacks discuss a year of the pandemic and how it is that the Government is still popular in the polls. They talk about the fall out from the Meghan and Harry interview; sexual abuse in boarding schools and flags on government buildings – “ridiculous, insecure and pathetic”. Join former BBC Sports News editor Mihir Bose , Economics Editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and p...

With journalist mates, Economics editor of the Sunday Times, David Smith , and political commentator Nigel Dudley , Mihir Bose looks this week at how vaccination certificates might change our lives. Coming from India, where the bureaucracy is legend, he wonders whether we are signing up for identity papers by the back door. The Three Old Hacks look at the thorny issue of politicians doing favours...

Political leadership ain’t what it used to be. That’s the theme of this week’s Three Old Hacks, We all think the summers were warmer (demonstrably not!) and life was rosier when we were young, but the Three Old Hacks put forward a pretty strong case that politicians in Britain are not of the same calibre as those who have gone before them. Boris Johnson says we are facing the biggest challenge sin...

This week they discuss the inauguration of President Biden. Being of a certain age themselves, they take heart from the empowerment of a 78 year old man. They are but spring chickens by comparison.  Nonetheless their experience reaches down the years and they fish anecdotes and facts out of their collective memory to discuss the media and politics as it concerns America. Biden's campaign was...

Five people died in the assault on the US Capitol. Trump has been banned from Twitter for inciting his supporters. The Democratic Party is moving to impeach him for a second time. The Three Old Hacks consider the implications of this extraordinary event and how it was covered, as it happened live on TV, by the media. Adept at reporting in war zones across the globe, was the American media caught f...

Mihir Bose describes having coffee with Nelson Mandela in his Soweto house, how the great man had to see cricket sitting behind a cage during apartheid and what real loss of freedom means. Far removed from the ridiculous talk of Britain having been enslaved by the EU. He argues the problem is that this country has never got over losing the empire and asks David Smith and Nigel Dudley whether they...

A group of economists have taken issue with the BBC’s Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg’s attempt to explain the national budget deficit. She likened the country’s current financial state to that of a domestic household being in debt, which they say is not a good or helpful comparison. Instead of dropping her a quiet email, they’ve complained formally to the BBC’s Director General, thus ensuring t...

In their third podcast Mihir Bose, David Smith and Nigel Dudley discuss  American Presidential elections, the problems with scoops and how social media has changed the way journalists have to deal with abuse. Maybe they say the American Presidential elections prove that the old country can still teach their cousins  across the pond how to conduct elections properly without the loser shouting it is...

In the second episode of Three Old Hacks Mihir Bose, David Smith and Nigel Dudley discuss how professional sport is faring without a live audience - the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd - as the old joke goes. 'Better maybe' is their conclusion. More goals anyway. They look at how well or otherwise journalists have covered the pandemic. Their great friend Hugh Pym, the...

In their first episode Mihir Bose, David Smith and Nigel Dudley discuss how journalism has changed since they first became journalists in the 1980s and how the experience of the pandemic has affected all our lives.  Will the British ever go back to hugging or are we done with it after months of not touching? Have the British lost their fabled sense of humour by not coming up with a nickname for th...