During the presidential campaign, the Democratic Party warned that American democracy was under attack from Trump. Since the start of Trump two-point-0, his administration has deported pro-Palestine student protestors. He has barred Oval Office access to journalists who have used the phrase “Gulf of Mexico” rather than “Gulf of America”. And he has called for a judge blocking his orders to be impeached. With such anti-democratic forces ensconced in the White House, have US progressives failed? H...
May 28, 2025•44 min
We are living in a time of contradictions. For the last forty years, our politics and media have been dominated by neoliberal, right-wing voices - yet pundits insist that the UK is dominated by a woke, left-wing elite. Our politicians claim to champion the voices of the forgotten working class - yet working-class people are not seeing better wages, housing or healthcare. And the majority of people in this country are being screwed by the economic system - yet for some reason we seem unable to se...
Feb 26, 2025•47 min
Half a year ago, the Labour Party swept into power with a huge parliamentary majority and Kier Starmer celebrated by saying that the country could “get its future back”. Today, Labour are dogged by low approval ratings, having upset everyone from environmentalists to pensioners, farmers to small-business owners. And just last week Reform overtook both the Conservatives and Labour in a poll of voting intentions - suggesting the public are already looking for an alternative. So, why has the public...
Feb 21, 2025•49 min
The price of your food shop rocketed because of inflation and now your mortgage is going up hundreds of pounds because the Bank of England decided to increase interest rates. You might be struggling to make ends meet and wondering why our central bank has made your life more difficult. Across the pond Donald Trump is putting pressure on the American central bank to lower its interest rates, saying he knows more about it than Federal Reserve policymakers. It might seem a tempting proposal to the ...
Feb 13, 2025•38 min
Do you work from home? Then you’re probably not doing proper work, and you’re causing the UK’s economic decline! At least that’s what the former boss of Asda and M&S said last week. Meanwhile, gig economy Deliveroo riders have launched a new campaign for greater openness around the opaque algorithms that rule their working lives. It’s clear with new technology comes new battles for workers. So what is working life like in the UK right now? After pandemic lockdowns and high inflation, have we...
Jan 31, 2025•35 min
Last week hundreds of tractors drove through Parliament Square. It was the latest protest by UK farmers against changes to inheritance tax announced by the chancellor. From farmers’ protests to the poll-tax riots in the 90s, the amount of tax we pay to the government churns up intense emotions. We want to rescue our cash-strapped public services - but most of us are reluctant to pay more tax. Do Labour’s tax plans go far enough to fix our broken economy? Is the UK really a high-tax nation? And i...
Dec 19, 2024•37 min
From housebuilding to sewage systems to the NHS, private companies are deeply intertwined with our essential public services. But is partnering with big corporations the only way of improving people’s lives? Is private investment a vital ingredient in economic renewal? Or will it just lead to price gouging for us and soaring profits for corporate execs? This week Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Daniela Gabor, professor of economics at SOAS, and Aveek Bhattacharya, research director at the Soci...
Dec 09, 2024•41 min
The International Energy Agency has said that the world cannot develop any new oil and gas fields if we are to stop climate breakdown. Keir Starmer has promised that the UK will slash its emissions faster than ever before and his government is banning new licences to drill for fossil fuels in the North Sea. Drilling in the wild waters of the North Sea has been a major Scottish industry for decades. Now, its time may be coming to an end. But what about the people who depend on the industry for th...
Nov 19, 2024•38 min
The Autumn Budget was the most significant since George Osborne implemented austerity in 2010. Rachel Reeves announced one hundred billion pounds for infrastructure, forty billion in tax rises and a whole host of policy changes, which she hopes will deliver Labour’s mission of national economic renewal. But what does an extra hundred billion pounds mean for the UK? Are we finally taxing the wealthy properly? And has the chancellor gone far enough to rescue our public services? Ayeisha Thomas Smi...
Nov 01, 2024•32 min
By the time this episode comes out, the new Labour government will have been in charge of the country for one hundred days. So what do we know about how they’ll run the economy? Can they rescue our threadbare public services while promising a tight grip on government spending? And will their focus on growth deliver real change for those who need it most? Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Aditya Chakrabortty, senior economic commentator at the Guardian, and Ailbhe Rea, associate editor at Bloombe...
Oct 14, 2024•41 min
A few weeks ago, far-right rioters gathered outside a hotel hosting asylum seekers in Rotherham and tried to set it on fire. Across the country this horrific act of violence was replicated, as mosques, libraries and people driving home from work came under attack. But in the face of this racist and Islamophobic violence, people gathered to protest the presence of the far right in their communities and to rebuild after the attacks. It was people showing solidarity with their neighbours which ulti...
Aug 23, 2024•44 min
In the recent European elections, the far right won unprecedented gains. From the success of the AfD in Germany, to Le Pen’s National Rally in France, the elections saw nationalist and eurosceptic parties sweep up nearly a quarter of the seats in the European parliament. In the UK, the next general election is just days away. Voters will be heading to the polls against a backdrop of decades of economic failure, crumbling public services and a cost of living crisis that has left more than four in...
Jul 02, 2024•43 min
We live under an invisible ideology. It tells us that we are not citizens but consumers. That intervening in the free market compromises our freedom. That we are all millionaires-in-waiting - and if we are struggling to make ends meet, then we only have ourselves to blame. This is capitalism on steroids. But few of us can even identify the doctrine we live under. It’s called “neoliberalism”, and it’s been the dominant economic ideology for the past four decades. So what does this ideology have t...
Jun 11, 2024•55 min
In February, the prime minister warned that “mob rule is replacing democratic rule” in the UK. He encouraged police to take action on pro-Palestine protests which, he said, had descended into “intimidation, threats, and planned acts of violence”. Over 50 organisations responded by accusing this government of placing draconian restrictions on the right to protest. A UN expert has claimed that before the 1930s, it was almost unheard of for peaceful protesters to be imprisoned in the UK. But last y...
May 22, 2024•40 min
Three years’ ago, the Conservative Party celebrated their best local elections performance since 2008. But after last week’s local elections in England and Wales, the Telegraph called the results a “dire day” for the Conservatives. Now that the dust has settled, we’re taking a closer look. Local elections aren’t just about Count Binface and potholes. With the next general election creeping ever closer, journalists and political wonks were watching these elections like hawks. So who were the big ...
May 10, 2024•31 min
Almost three million people in the UK are unemployed and unable to work because they are ill or disabled. According to the right-wing media, these people aren’t nearly as unwell as they claim. Meanwhile a UN committee warned that disabled people in the UK are subjected to a “traumatising” benefits system. We have a social security system that’s been stripped to the bone and millions of people are struggling to afford the essentials as a result, yet both of the main political parties are desperat...
Apr 23, 2024•43 min
Britain’s favourite broadcaster David Attenborough once said: “Anyone who thinks you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman - or an economist.” But our political leaders don’t seem to agree. Both our major political parties have made growing the economy a key metric for their success in government. So what is economic growth? How did it become so central to our understanding of the economy? And should we really be striving for infinite growth on a finite planet? Ayei...
Apr 10, 2024•53 min
We’re waiting longer than ever for hospital appointments, our kids’ schools are literally crumbling, and homelessness has sky-rocketed in the past year. This week’s spring budget was a vital chance for chancellor Jeremy Hunt to respond to the huge problems our country is facing. But instead of trying to fix any of our problems, the chancellor announced a cut to national insurance that will benefit the richest households twelve times more than the poorest. So what do Jeremy Hunt’s announcements m...
Mar 08, 2024•31 min
Worried about your carbon emissions? Don’t stress! You can pump out as much as you want - as long as you buy some offsets to balance it out. Scared of the collapse of wildlife? No problem! We can figure out how much money our ecosystems are worth, and let the market do the rest! Welcome to the logic of green capitalism. Fossil fuel giants claim to celebrate sustainability while pumping out toxic emissions. Governments are relying on carbon offsets to make their climate promises add up. And we’re...
Feb 29, 2024•46 min
It’s 2024 and in Westminster an election is at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Step back a little further and across the UK millions of us are more concerned with how we’ll afford to pay their sky-high rent or energy bills. Zoom out further again and we see a world where billions of people are reckoning with the threat of the climate crisis. For the first episode in a new series of the New Economics podcast, Ayeisha is joined by the new chief executive of the New Economics Foundation, Danny S...
Feb 13, 2024•40 min
The Metropolitan Police’s diversity and inclusion strategy claims it is determined to “eliminate racism and discrimination”. But the force was branded ‘institutionally racist’, and not for the first time, in an official report this spring. Recently, a Met firearms officer has been referred to prosecutors on a potential murder charge for shooting dead Black Londoner Chris Kaba last September. So, what does racism have to do with our 21st century economic system? How can we understand institutions...
Jun 19, 2023•39 min
This spring, swimmers in Kent were told to avoid ten beaches in the county due to sewage leaks. Public outrage at sewage pouring into our rivers and beaches has so far focused on water companies. But is someone else to blame? The pipes that carry sewage in Kent are not owned by Southern Water, or even Kent County Council. They belong to a massive Australian asset management firm that most of us have never heard of. Asset management firms are not household names, but they’ve come to own our energ...
Jun 06, 2023•48 min
The friend who has to cancel plans to look after their elderly mum. The colleague who leaves their phone on loud so they don’t miss a call about their disabled child. The neighbour you’ve barely seen since their partner’s diagnosis. We’re surrounded by people who are dealing with the challenges of caregiving, but they often go unseen. According to Carers UK, there could be over ten million people providing unpaid care in the UK. We’ll all have to care for someone or be cared for over the course ...
May 22, 2023•39 min
As the chancellor stood up in Parliament to present his spring budget in March, half a million people went on strike to demand better from their bosses. Teachers, junior doctors, Tube drivers, civil servants and more all walked out of work, in the biggest day of strike action in over a decade. As the strikes rumble on into another summer, how can workers keep up the momentum? Will new legislation make it harder to fight for better pay and working conditions? And should more of us be trying to un...
May 10, 2023•40 min
Nurses struggling without PPE, the frantic search for hospital ventilators, even the dreaded ping from NHS test-and-trace. To most of us, these memories represent some of the worst of the Covid pandemic. But for a select few companies, they were an opportunity to make millions. Consultancy firms won over seven hundred million pounds worth of government Covid contracts to do things like run the test-and-trace system and vaccine rollout. This February, ministers dropped restrictions on Whitehall s...
Apr 24, 2023•42 min
You can’t paint your walls, you can’t have a pet, you can’t guarantee you’ll have somewhere to live in six months time. Millions of us are paying sky-high rents but struggling to make a home in a housing system where safety and security takes second place to landlords’ profits. Some private tenants face mould and broken boilers but daren’t complain. According to Shelter, complaining to your landlord about conditions in your home more than doubles your chance of being evicted. How did private ren...
Apr 07, 2023•39 min
On a sunny day in January, a ghostly figure covered in green ribbons appeared on a moor in south-west England. It was a person dressed as Old Crockern, the guardian spirit of Dartmoor. He was greeted by 3000 people who had gathered to protest a court ruling that took away the right to wild camp in the area. It was the biggest countryside access protest in living memory. The ruling reignited a long-running concern over land in England: who owns it? And who is allowed to use it? The aristocracy an...
Mar 13, 2023•41 min
Last year the UK had three different prime ministers, four different chancellors and five different housing ministers. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's first minister for close to a decade, recently announced her resignation - and it’s not clear who will replace her. British politics now seems to be permanently tumultuous. And with a general election peeking over the horizon, political parties are gearing up to win over the public. What are the big ideas influencing UK politics? How much appetite doe...
Feb 27, 2023•58 min
Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in September 2022. Over the last five episodes we’ve looked at how the UK is being torn apart. Our economy is built on huge inequalities: between working people and big business, between families and fossil fuel giants, between tenants and landlords, and between marginalised groups and law enforcement. Are such massive divisions in our society inevitable? Can we share the wealth hoarded by the rich? And what do we need to do to build a better futur...
Nov 07, 2022•27 min
Note to listeners: this episode was prerecorded in September 2022. This summer, on a small road in south-east London, a crowd of people prevented immigration officers from detaining a local man. Protestors sat on the ground in front of the van he was held in for hours, shouting “Let him go!”. From Pollokshields to Peckham, over the last couple of years we’ve seen how people can come together to physically stop immigration raids in their communities and protect their neighbours. But with the gove...
Oct 28, 2022•48 min
