Hugo Rifkind unpacks the the politics of the day - and the stuff that's even more important - with the brightest brains from the Times and Sunday Times.
You can listen to Hugo on DAB, smart speaker or app 10am-1pm Monday to Friday. If you like what you hear, then read more at http://www.thetimes.com/
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In a Westminster special, Matt Chorley is joined by Stewart McDonald MP, former Labour Party advisor Ayesha Hazarika and political sketch-writer and diarist for The Times, Patrick Kidd. The panel answer questions from the public about working and living in Westminster. Plus additional contributions from Deputy Politics Editor Sam Coates and Business writer Callum Jones. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matt Chorley is joined by Times Deputy Editor Emma Tucker, Chief Leader writer Giles Whittell and columnist Phil Collins. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matt Chorley is joined by columnist David Aaronovitch, Business reporter Callum Jones and Red Box writer Hannah McGrath.David Aaronovitch:The BMA say the strike is the government's fault and the government says it's the BMA's. As in the bad old days the sides - an particularly the doctors - have become polarised beyond the reach of reason. From having been a question of how to staff hospitals properly at weekends the dispute is now being framed as an existential one about the very future of the ...
Host Matt Chorley is joined by ex-Blair spin doctor John McTernan, former Home Office advisor Fiona Hill and Red Box columnist Matt Smith. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matt Chorley is joined by Times columnist Jenni Russell who thinks we've missed the point on the Panama Papers, deputy political editor Sam Coates who warns we don't understand how Westminster works and Times political editor Francis Elliott who explains why Number 10 is banking on Jeremy Corbyn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matt Chorley is joined by a "denial" of Spin Doctors. Ayesha Hazarika - who had the unenviable task of trying to make Ed Miliband and Harriet Harman sound funny. Katie Perrior - whose PR magic helped get Boris Johnson into City Hall. Sean Kemp - who knows more about Nick Clegg and the inner workings of the Lib Dems than is healthy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matt Chorley is joined by columnist Rachel Sylvester on the fall out from Iain Duncan Smith's resignation, politics professor Matthew Goodwin on the EU referendum and columnist Hugo Rifkind on the boat on everyone's lips, 'Boaty McBoatface'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matt Chorley is joined by Senior Political Correspondent Lucy Fisher, European Football Writer (and fellow Times podcast presenter) Gabriele Marcotti, plus Property Editor and Assistant Editor of The Times Anne Ashworth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matt Chorley is joined by Deputy Editor of The Times, Emma Tucker, who examines the latest attempt to deal with the migrant crisis, columnist Daniel Finkelstein who says Junior Doctors must face realities and columnist Matthew Parris on the legacy of the recently deceased Nancy Reagan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Matt Chorley is joined by Political sketch-writer and diarist Patrick Kidd, columnist Jenni Russell and Assistant Editor of The Spectator, Isabel Hardman. Patrick Kidd:Marco Rubio is a big-eared sweaty robot with a water addiction, while Donald Trump is a stubby-fingered orange-faced pants-wetter with a dodgy hairdo. Meanwhile David Cameron makes "yer mum" jokes at Jeremy Corbyn, while Labour MPs still make piggy noises at the Prime Minister. Do playground insults demean politics or are they wha...
Debating the UK's position in the EU: Matt Chorley is joined by Brussels Correspondent Bruno Waterfield, Columnist Melanie Phillips and the Times' Chief Political Correspondent Michael Savage. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Philip Aldrick:Global markets have been in meltdown but one man who may be smiling is the chancellor. Government borrowing costs have fallen to an all-time low, which make servicing the nation’s £1.5 trillion of debt cheaper. Over the next five years, Capital Economics estimates lower market interest rates and lower inflation will hand George Osborne a £20 billion windfall. He’s struggling to make the books balance through tax and spending policy. Instead, he’s getting a helping hand from the mo...
The Opinion podcast is now the Red Box Podcast from The Times. Columnist Robert Crampton, Media Editor Elizabeth Rigby and Deputy Political Editor Sam Coates joins host Matt Chorley.Robert Crampton:The Labour Party cannot achieve a coherent position on Trident while Jeremy Corbyn is leader. The moment he said he would never use the nuclear deterrent as a future PM was the moment Labour lost the next election. Party pragmatists should focus on toppling Corbyn, not cobbling together a futile compr...
Host Matt Chorley is joined by Chief Leader writer Giles Whittell and columnists Jenni Russell and Phil Collins. Giles Whittell:Hillary Clinton is going to be the next president of the United States. Of course a lot of people are going to spend a lot of time analysing this [Tuesday] morning's Iowa caucus results, but the facts are these: Trump and Cruz are unelectable in a national race. Only one mainstream Republican has a chance of squeezing past them. That is Marco Rubio. He has already torpe...
Matt Chorley is joined by Assistant Editor Anne Ashworth and columnists Giles Coren and David Aaronovitch. Anne Ashworth:Pension tax reliefs for the higher-paid have already been reduced and more cuts are coming. The justification for this reform is fairness: the higher-paid have had it too good. But if you make company pension scheme membership less attractive to executives, this make it less likely that they will support these schemes - which will hurt the less well-off. This is just another T...
On this week's panel we have columnist Rachel Sylvester on the rise of Russia (in Labour), political reporter Callum Jones on Labour’s obsession with Twitter and columnist Matthew Parris on why an Oxford college might be right to tear down a statue of Cecil Rhodes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
The Opinion podcast is back with a brand new host. Red Box editor Matt Chorley is joined by panelists Hugo Rifkind, Oliver Kamm and Lucy Fisher. Hugo Rifkind:The Tories are sleepwalking into disaster on the EU. For David Cameron, with ministers freely campaigning on both sides, if he loses, he loses, and if he wins, he still loses. Cameron has asked his government to remain civil on Europe, which is a thing no Conservative ever has been before. And what happens after the vote, to those on the lo...
Host Philip Webster is joined by Robbie Millen, Philip Aldrick and Patrick Kidd in this 2016 preview special.Robbie Millen:In or Out? Leave or Remain? I have all sorts of firm views about relatively trivial issues yet on the greatest issue facing Britain I flip flop around in the no-man’s land of the undecided voter. I don’t want to be a “don’t know” that’s why I’m looking forward to the EU referendum and the debate it ought to provoke. Philip Aldrick:Interest rates will finally go up - but we w...
Host Philip Webster is joined by Ann Treneman, Stewart Wood and Daniel Finkelstein in this end-of-year special as each panelists picks a topic to debate from the past year.Ann Treneman:It's been a terrible year for getting it wrong. The Westminster Bubble called the election wrong, the Labour leadership wrong and it still can't quite believe what's happened in Scotland. But, just say, that Jeremy Corbyn is right and that he will increase Labour's vote, as happened in Oldham. Is Britain heading t...
Host Philip Webster is joined by Rachel Sylvester, Libby Purves and Hugo Rifkind. Rachel Sylvester:David Cameron once said his Party had to stop banging on about Europe but now the rest of premiership is going to be defined by a referendum on Britain's relationship with the EU. The polls are narrowing and ministers who wants to stay in are increasingly worried that people will vote to leave. The essay crisis prime minister got the grades he needed in the referendums on AV and Scotland, and the g...
Opinion podcast with David Aaronovitch, Lucy Fisher and Phil Collins. --Phil Collins:The anonymous man who said, to the attacker at Leytonstone tube station, “you ain’t no Muslim, bruv” has been hailed as speaking for moderate people of all faiths and none. Quite right too. Yet the statement is, alas, not quite true. We cannot attribute murder to faith but we cannot pretend faith is entirely irrelevant either.David Aaronovitch:Oh what a great brouhaha that Syria vote was. 'Momentous' said the BB...
Philip Webster is joined by Fay Schlesinger, Giles Whittell and Anne Ashworth. Fay Schlesinger:After Jeremy Corbyn was elected, he promised a “kinder politics”. Fast forward two months and his allies are vowing revenge on shadow cabinet ministers at odds with him over Syrian airstrikes. Even the most attractive of Corbyn’s traits are turning sour. He must drop the Mr Nice Guy act or compromise over his ideals. He can't keep up the charade of both.Giles Whittell:There is an air of unreality about...
Philip Webster is joined by Stewart Wood and Daniel Finkelstein.Stewart Wood:The Syrian crisis looks set to dominate British politics for the foreseeable future. Issues around the response to terrorism in Europe, dealing with unprecedented migration flows & UK involvement in bringing the Syrian conflict to an end should be the overwhelming priorities for our Government. Given the seriousness and complexity of these issues, David Cameron should seek all-party support for postponing the EU ref...
Philip Webster is joined by Alice Thomson, Roger Boyes and John McTernan. Alice Thomson:Looking at the rows of victims in Paris, they all have glossy hair, white smiles and youth. It used to be the police, establishment, businesses and commuters who were the most vulnerable to terrorism. This is the first time the Facebook generation has been targeted, on a Friday night when they're relaxing at cafes, concerts and matches, how will they respond?Roger Boyes:Our efforts to " contain and degrade" I...
Philip Webster is joined by Oliver Kamm, Lucy Fisher and Michael Savage. Oliver Kamm:Jeremy Corbyn has accused the chief of defence staff, Sir Nicholas Houghton, of political bias for intervening on the question of Britain's nuclear deterrent. The claim is absurd - a measure of the frivolity of Corbyn's own stance rather than any extra-constitutional manoeuvring by the armed forces. Every postwar government has supported Britain's nuclear deterrent and our participation in Nato. That is the poli...
Philip Webster is joined by Rachel Sylvester, Emma Tucker and Philip Collins.Rachel Sylvester:George Osborne is the most intriguing politician of our age. He’s morphed from a short termist partisan tactician to a political strategist with a long term plan. But, as the tax credit fiasco shows, his biggest flaw is that he still lacks empathy - the ability to win people over by persuading them he understands how they feel. If he wants to become Conservative leader and Prime Minister he's got to pro...
Philip Webster is joined by Sam Coates, Hugo Rifkind and Patrick Kidd.Sam Coates:George Osborne got the strategy wrong, the tactics wrong, the politics wrong, the communications wrong and the people-handling wrong - all the things the Chancellor is meant to be good at. MPs think his reputation has taken a hit. After riding high over the summer, the Chancellor's reputation was probably due a correction to the mean, but Boris would be unwise to think things have swung that much in his favour. Anyw...
In his final Opinion podcast, host Tim Montgomerie is joined by Rachel Sylvester, Mathew Parris and Ann Treneman. Matthew Parris:Now that we're having to take seriously the possibility (though not, I think, the likelihood) that Britain may vote to leave the EU, we need to look beyond that possible Leave vote. What happens then? The government will have to begin a lengthy negotiation about the terms of our departure, with (of course) no negotiating cards to play at all. Much - a huge amount - wil...
Tim Montgomerie presents the Opinion podcast direct from Manchester at The Conservative Party conference:- Daniel Finkelstein and Jenni Russell: The Times- Paul Goodman: Conservativehome.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Tim Montgomerie presents the Opinion podcast direct from Brighton at The Labour Party conference:- Andy Burnham: Shadow Home Secretary - Matthew Parris, Lucy Fisher and Marcus Roberts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
