As Parliament sits for Easter Recess, Nish and Coco dive into the PSUK mailbag to answer your burning questions. There’s the serious political questions - who are the real progressive party? How can we fight Reform? Should we all just leave the UK?? But there’s some curveballs, too - like what’s up with Bob Dylan’s instagram posting? Boxers or briefs? And most importantly… Has Nish Kumar ever eaten a pot noodle in the bath? CHECK OUT THESE DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS SHOPIFY: https://www.shopify.co....
Apr 17, 2025•45 min•Ep. 102
UPDATE: 10/04/25: President Trump has planned to pause extended tariffs on most countries for 90 days, while pushing ahead on plans to implement a 104% tariff on Chinese goods. A flat 10% tariff remains in place. Trump’s tariffs continue to cause chaos in the stock markets and the threat of a recession looms. As Rachel Reeves put it in her Spring Statement - the world is changing before our eyes - but is it enough to see her back down on her precious fiscal rules? Co-host Zoë Grünewald joins Nis...
Apr 10, 2025•51 min
Warning: this episode contains descriptions of sexually explicit and sexist song lyrics. While we wait to see if Trump’s tariff juggernaut is going to squash our fragile economy, Nish and Coco count the cost of the “bill-mageddon” we already face. It’s a perfect storm of steep rises in household bills and a bonkers global trade war. While we’re staring economic apocalypse in the face, we seem to be losing our rights to protest. If the Quakers get raided, who’s safe from heavy handed policing and...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr
First the good news: we might just manage to build a lot of new houses. And the bad news? Millions of people will be worse off and about fifty thousand children will be pushed into poverty by welfare reform. Nish and Coco unpack Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement with the help of economist James Meadway, former advisor to John McDonnell. It was pretty bleak stuff from Reeves: the world is scary, growth is low, and cuts are coming. All with a strong whiff of austerity 2.0. The Chancellor says her fi...
Mar 27, 2025•54 min
After weeks of speculation, Liz Kendall has confirmed what benefits are to be axed in order to save £5 billion from the welfare bill - but at what cost for sick and disabled people? Keir Starmer says the rising benefit bill is “devastating for public finances” and has “wreaked a terrible human cost”. But many of his own Labour MPs have accused him of selling cuts as compassion and in the words of Clive Lewis “causing pain for millions”. Zoë Grünewald steps in for Nish to survey the fallout with ...
Mar 20, 2025•48 min
Today we're excited to bring you the first episode of Shadow Kingdom: God's Banker. In the summer of 1982, the Vatican’s top money man was found dead. Roberto Calvi was at the center of a prolific money laundering scheme that put him in the crosshairs of the Sicilian mafia, a secret far-right chapter of the Freemasons, and the Catholic Church. Forty years after his death was ruled a suicide, Shadow Kingdom host Nicolo Majnoni got a tip that there was more to the story. So who killed God’s banker...
Mar 17, 2025•29 min
We’ll start with the good news - Reform UK appears to be imploding. Nigel Farage has had a wildly public fallout with (now former) Reform MP Rupert Lowe, who was stripped of his whip and investigated by the police over alleged workplace bullying and “verbal threats” against the party chairman. As Reform flounders, the Government is busy making itself even more unpopular - if that’s possible - by trailing a series of public sector cuts ahead of the Spring Budget. There are plans to cut half of th...
Mar 13, 2025•53 min
A shouting match in the Oval Office probably should have been on everyone’s Trump 25 bingo card - but the extraordinary breakdown in relations between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy shocked the world. Keir Starmer rolled up his sleeves and spent the weekend in full-blown diplomacy mode - leading to Politico calling him the “unlikely leader of the free world”. But with Trump pulling the plug on military aid to Ukraine, leaving the UK and Europe scrambling to increase defence spending - will...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 1 min
War - what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. But this week we found out that defending the UK from it is going to cost us a lot of money. And the losers will be the world's poorest people - the money for Britain's boosted defence budget will come from foreign aid. Sir Ed Davey - leader of the Lib Dems - tells Coco he has an alternative: bigger taxes on big tech (and some other ideas). And Coco goes a bit Yoko Ono, wondering how we give peace a chance. Zoe Grunewald steps in for Nish as the pod...
Feb 27, 2025•52 min
As Europe looks on in disbelief, Donald Trump has been throwing his geopolitical weight around. A monumental meeting with Russia to discuss ending the war in Ukraine was held without Ukraine or Europe.Trump then branded Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and accused Ukraine of starting the conflict. Keir Starmer has said he is “ready and willing” to put UK troops on the ground in Ukraine. But is this the answer? And as shares in major arms manufacturers soar, who’s profiting? Nish...
Feb 20, 2025•54 min
The government has spent the week trying to out-Reform Reform by stirring up yet another moral panic about immigration. The Home Office has been boasting about its crackdown on “foreign criminals and illegal immigrants” and filming immigration raids and deportations. At the same time, it has toughened up rules to make it almost impossible for refugees who arrive in the UK via illegal routes to become British citizens. Contributing editor of Novara Media Ash Sarkar joins Nish and Coco to discuss ...
Feb 13, 2025•51 min
Donald Trump has left the world reeling with a plan to turn Gaza into *checks notes* “the Riviera of the Middle East”. He vowed that the US will “take over” and “own” the Gaza strip, effectively endorsing the ethnic cleansing of 1.8 million Palestinians who would have “no alternative” but to leave. With rumours circling that his inner-circle are calling him an “HR manager” rather than a leader, in classic style, Keir Starmer has pushed back but avoided directly criticising Trump. News Agents co-...
Feb 06, 2025•49 min
Warning: this episode contains strong language and a term of racist abuse. Nish and Coco dig into some scary data about Gen Z. A poll of 13-27 year olds this week suggested nearly half of them favour authoritarian government. And nearly half of young men think women have been given too many rights. Youtuber JimmyTheGiant joins the pod to tell us about this mindset and how he disappeared into the right wing wormhole, and came out the other side. And newts v planes: Nish and Coco check out Rachel ...
Jan 30, 2025•50 min
A trigger warning for progressives: this episode contains explicit Trump content. Nish and Coco’s nightmare begins with inauguration Trump meme coins, grinning tech bros and disputed Nazi salutes. Then comes the blizzard of executive orders targeting migrants and freeing rioters. But this is not just a bad dream for our liberal hosts. This is the reality of Trump world. The groundwork of MAGA 2.0 has been laid. How should Britain react? The UK’s very own “basket of deplorables” including Farage,...
Jan 23, 2025•53 min
Artificial intelligence will be “mainlined into the veins” of the nation, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has declared, with a multibillion-pound investment and huge public rollout. Amid bond market chaos and a falling pound, the Government is pinning its hopes for growth on the AI revolution - what could possibly go wrong? To unpick the technogobledigook with Nish and Coco is technology journalist Chris Stokel-Walker. They drill into the Government's AI action plan and the potential pitfalls of thi...
Jan 16, 2025•56 min
Happy New Year - is 2025 going to be the year of disinformation? Elon Musk started in attack mode with a flood of vitriolic and false tweets about UK grooming gangs. In Musk’s crosshairs: Keir Starmer and safeguarding minister Jess Phillips. He accused them both of cover ups. Can Nish and Coco survive a year of Musk madness - the man who already makes Nish want to “eat his own anus”? We’re joined by political journalist Zoë Grünewald to discuss how to fight the disinformation invasion and what e...
Jan 09, 2025•51 min
What a year! While Rishi Sunak held true to his January commitment to hold the election in the second half of the year - the spectacle that followed couldn't have been predicted as 2024 dawned. Nish and Coco are joined by Sky News’ political correspondent Liz Bates and comedian Desiree Burch to chew over the gristle of the year that was. From racist Tory donors, to milkshaked MPs, creative political stunts and Rishi Sunak’s D-Day disaster - the first half of the year had plenty to keep us entert...
Dec 19, 2024•56 min
In the same week FIFA decided an appalling human rights record is no obstacle to Saudi Arabia hosting the 2034 World Cup, Keir Starmer was schmoozing the kingdom's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. What lengths will our former human rights lawyer PM go to in his pursuit of growth? Joey Shea from Human Rights Watch takes us through what went down during the visit. Back home, the government is talking up its plans to build 1.5 million new homes. Housing journalist Vicky Spratt joins Nish and Coco ...
Dec 12, 2024•55 min
As Masterchef’s Gregg Wallace faces a stream of allegations about inappropriate behaviour at work, Nish and Coco take on the entertainment industry’s toxic culture. Nish gives an insider’s view of why change is long overdue in an industry that enables massive egos, bad behaviour, even abuse. And Coco argues that to take women’s safety seriously we need to start with zero tolerance on bullying banter. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer’s reset this week promises to focus on working people’s priorities but i...
Dec 05, 2024•57 min
This Friday, MPs are challenged with an enormous question of conscience - should we allow people with six months left to live the right to die at a time of their choosing? Joining Nish and Coco is Rosena Allin-Khan, Labour MP for Tooting and A&E Doctor, to help us understand the strong feelings on both sides of the debate, the difficult decision that MPs are grappling with and how she decided which way she will vote. As the UK reels in the wake of Storm Bert, climate change lawyer Tessa Khan cel...
Nov 28, 2024•54 min
Russia’s war with Ukraine is escalating dramatically - as we record reports have begun to emerge about Ukraine firing British long-range “Storm Shadow” missiles into Russia. Nish and Coco are joined on the couch by Stephen Bush, associate editor at the Financial Times, to discuss the chance of...World War Three? Meanwhile - closer to home - we find out why farmers are descending on Westminster. How big a blow is the Government’s budget for farmers and will Labour face a wipe out of rural support...
Nov 21, 2024•1 hr
President-elect Donald Trump has a strong stance on many issues, from isolationism to border control, not to mention he’s an open climate change denier. Is his political platform already shaping UK party politics? Nish and Coco chat to Sky News Political Editor and host of Electoral Dysfunction Beth Rigby about what his looming second-term means for the UK. And with changes to university tuition fees in England for the first time in eight years - we dissect the crisis in higher education with Pr...
Nov 14, 2024•55 min
It’s a dark, dark day for the world. Donald Trump - a convicted criminal no less - has been elected 47th US president in a shocking political resurrection. Nish and Coco are joined by the Spectator’s political editor Katy Balls to discuss just how ready the UK Government is for Trump’s comeback and Kemi Badenoch’s leadership win. Later, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP and chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Afrikan Reparations, calls in to discuss her dismay at the US news and to Foreign...
Nov 07, 2024•57 min
Double, Double, toil and trouble…the Government’s first budget has been unveiled on the eve of Halloween, and Nish and Coco are peering into chancellor Rachel Reeve’s cauldron. It’s a spooky episode, so buckle up, we find out if the Halloween budget is the horror show it’s been predicted to be. A seance with economic and political journalist Grace Blakeley helps us break down the raft of tax rises, loosened borrowing restrictions, and investment in public services. But what about the skeletons i...
Oct 31, 2024•52 min
The Government’s rallying cry to the nation to help fix the NHS via a public consultation has not disappointed. In what is fast becoming the National Health Service’s very own Boaty McBoatface moment, Nish and Coco dissect the wild and weird policy suggestions flooding the website. Then Jeremy Corbyn, former Labour Party leader and Independent MP for Islington North, joins to tell us how the left can make their voices heard in Parliament and whether a new leftwing political party could be on the...
Oct 24, 2024•51 min
With just two weeks to go until the Autumn budget, the Labour government is preparing to make some huge reforms. But just how ruthless is Keir Starmer willing to be in reshaping the UK? Coco and Nish dig into it with Anushka Asthana, ITV’s political editor and author of “Taken as Red: How Labour won big and the Tories crashed the party”. Later, in the wake of the Tories latest round of madness, Liberal Democrat MP Josh Babarinde calls in from parliament to discuss how the Government can be held ...
Oct 17, 2024•58 min
The Tory party have once again chosen violence against themselves, as Keir Starmer’s Labour party are languishing in the polls after 90-something days of a lack of action. Nish and Coco burst the bubble on the news that Starmer’s Chief of Staff has been replaced by his election guru, joined by political journalist Ian Dunt to find out just how big a deal this backroom reshuffle is for the machinations of government. Ian also unravels the ideology of centrism - explaining why it was a huge part o...
Oct 10, 2024•1 hr 3 min
The new Labour government has promised bold action to fix Britain’s benefit system. Last week, Keir Starmer announced a crackdown on benefit fraud and said people on long-term sickness benefits should look for work. But is this the answer? To chew over the Government’s plans, Coco and Nish are joined by Caroline Selman, senior research fellow at the Public Law Project, and John Pring, the founder and editor of Disability News Service and author of “The Department: How a Violent Government Bureau...
Oct 03, 2024•54 min
Exclusive INCOGNI Deal ➼ go to https://incogni.com/podsavetheuk to get 60% off your annual plan! Keir Starmer gave his first Labour Conference speech as Prime Minister this week - but his message of “national renewal” was slightly spoiled by a backdrop of poor polling, infighting and their never ending “garm drama”. Journalist Zoë Grünewald joins Nish and Coco on the couch to search for the “light at the end of the tunnel” promised by the new government. Later, Simon Kuper, Financial Times journ...
Sep 26, 2024•59 min
Exclusive INCOGNI Deal ➼ go to https://incogni.com/podsavetheuk to get 60% off your annual plan! Keir Starmer promised a Labour government would “turn the page” on scandal - but he’s already under fire after a late declaration of thousands of pounds of gifts. As the Tories clamour for an investigation, Nish and Coco take to the PSUK couch to weigh in on the row. Later, they’re joined by independent researcher on migration policy Zoe Gardner to discuss why Starmer is seeking immigration lessons f...
Sep 19, 2024•57 min
