The chancellor has told us how he’s going to slice the national cake this year, but there are those who say he has done nothing to push back against the growing gap in British society - that those who have are getting more, and those who don’t are getting less. The wealth gap, one of the worst in Europe, has increased over the last 20 years, and many see the consequent divide in attitude, social values and politics, with a surge in extremist views, growing as well. Are we, then, increasingly, TW...
Mar 16, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 41
In the 1930’s John Maynard Keynes predicted that, with automation and new ways of working, we’d all be working a 15 hour week. Many of us grew up being told that there would be more time for leisure. Yet, here we are, working as hard as ever. Except those who saw the pandemic as an opportunity to leave the workforce altogether. For many, we might be working harder, but spending more time working from home, without the drudgery of the daily commute. So, are we finding a new, more balanced way of ...
Mar 09, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 40
Hong Kong is re-emerging from almost two years of COVID isolation, but can it resume its place an Asia’s leading financial hub? Or has Beijing’s imposition of strict security laws made it little different from China’s other economic dynamos like Shanghai or Shenzhen? It’s taken a massive hit over the last year- GDP down by 3.5% - and suffered a brain-drain as some of its brightest and best have left for freer environments in the UK or Taiwan. Dr Yan-ho Lai of the Dickson Poon School of Law at Ki...
Mar 02, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 39
The earthquakes that rocked southern Turkey and northern Syria seemed to come from nowhere - an instant of catastrophic destruction that killed around 50,000 people, demolished hundreds of thousands of homes and left a legacy of loss and poverty that will last for generations. But could it have been avoided? Could we, at least, have known it was coming and been prepared? Or do we just have to shrug and accept the risks of living in quake-prone areas? Mark Allen, Professor of Earth Sciences at th...
Feb 23, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 38
Is it a good idea for big areas of Britain to be returned to nature? The idea of re-wilding is spreading fast - that allowing some land to go back to its wild state is good for the environment, and works economically, too, in a country that has lost so much of its biodiversity and woodland. The case seems to be gaining support in government. But what about the need for food-production and housing? And do we really want to return to some kind of primeval Britain with wolves and lynxes roaming hug...
Feb 16, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 37
Is it over? It’s just three years since the global pandemic began to take hold, and now we’re back to a sort-of normal - few wear masks any more, and most have had vaccines and boosters. But people are still being infected and some are dying, while a few have long-term conditions that mean they have to keep isolated. And then there is long COVID, affecting millions with life-changing debilitation. So what’s the current status of this disease, and is it with us forever? Professor Paul Hunter of t...
Feb 09, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 36
Spring is coming to Ukraine along with the prospect of new offensives in the war that began almost a year ago. Kyiv is getting new weapons from the West, and Russia has hundreds of thousands of freshly-trained mobilised reservists as well as a new commander. But will the stalemate end? Will Ukraine be able to push Russia back nearer to its borders, or will Russia regain the initiative and march on Kyiv once more? Will Ukraine’s long night of horror and death come to an end anytime soon? Not very...
Feb 02, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 35
This week we learnt that the government racked up its highest December budget deficit on record. In fact, there have only been a few months which were higher, and all during the throws of the COVID pandemic. So, does the government need to cut back on spending and give the country another dose of austerity? Or can it keep spending. Modern Monetary Theorists say a government with its own sovereign currency can keep spending so long as there are resources that can be put to productive use. Are the...
Jan 26, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 34
Picket lines, placards and disruption - strikes have returned to British life and almost-forgotten trade unions are back in the headlines in a way they haven’t been since the 1970s. Membership is up - though still nothing like the levels when union leaders were regular visitors for beer and sandwiches in Number 10. But is the cost of living crisis empowering the unions again, to fight for those, especially in the public sector, who can barely afford the basics? Gregor Gall, Professor of Industri...
Jan 19, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 33
Is the party over? After 13 years in power, are the Conservatives looking at more than just electoral failure sometime between now and 2025? Has something fundamental shifted in UK politics post-Brexit and post-COVID? Are the Tories looking at an existential crisis as their support base shrinks or dies off? Paul Whiteley, Emeritus Professor at Essex University’s Department of Government has been crunching 70 years of polling data and he shares it with Phil and Roger. It won’t be happy listening ...
Jan 12, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 32
Whatever happened to cyber-wars? Wasn’t the future of fighting supposed to be keyboard warriors and hacks of government systems? Yet, in Europe’s first major war since 1945, we’re back to trenches and tanks, missiles and mines. So was all the talk of online offensives overblown? Is it still hardware and flying metal that rules the battlefield? Ciaran Martin was the first CEO of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, now professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of government - he guide...
Jan 05, 2023•38 min•Season 1Ep. 31
In a special New Year episode, Phil and Roger quiz Martin Raymond, co-founder of The Future Laboratory, about what 2023 holds for the UK and the world. The most likely tech developments, the next health emergency, what businesses will succeed or fail .....and will it, at least, be an improvement on 2022? The hopes and the fears, the risks and the rewards of the next 12 months, all laid out for your pleasure. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Dec 29, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 30
So this is Christmas, and what have we done…… with the faith that is supposed to be the reason for all the presents and crackers and turkey? Fewer than half of us actually believe in Jesus and would call ourselves Christian. More than a third don’t adhere to any religion at all. So is the UK now “post-Christian”? And how should we adapt in a country that still, nominally, has a state church? Phil and Roger explore the issues with Abby Day, Professor of Race, Faith and Culture at Goldsmiths, Univ...
Dec 22, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 29
The UK has a productivity problem. When it comes to how much output we each produce the UK is well behind our northern European counterparts, and its going from bad to worse. COVIDA hasn’t helped. According to the Office of National Statistics, public service productivity is 6.5% below the pre-coronavirus pandemic level. Professor Philip McCann, Chair of Urban and Regional Economics at Alliance Manchester Business School at The University of Manchester, reckons productivity is a huge problem for...
Dec 15, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Freedom of expression is supposed to be one of the most fundamental human rights, but don’t there have to be SOME limits? Especially on social media where unmediated, violent, threatening words or damaging lies can and do create real-world harm? Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has thrust all this into a big debate about what is censorship and who should be the censor. Rita Mota, Professor of Society, Politics and Sustainability at ESADE University Barcelona, tells Phil and Roger why she has co-a...
Dec 08, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Unwilling colony or vital part of the union? Scotland now knows it can't hold a new referendum unless the UK government says it can - the path to independence is blocked for the foreseeable future. So what happens next? Will the SNP be able to press for a new vote by getting majority backing at the next election? Will the verdict of London judges provoke greater support for breaking away? Could a new Labour administration in Westminster be forced to cut a deal with the SNP? Or is the whole issue...
Dec 01, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 26
World leaders, journalists, climate campaigners – they all jetted in to the air conditioned hotels of Sharm El-Skeikh earlier this month for COP27, but was anything actually achieved. After 27 of these meetings to tackle climate change has anything actually been achieved? Are we all fiddling whilst the planet burns? Will politics and business interests determine our destiny rather than science, just as they did in the movie Don’t Look Up? This week Phil and Roger talk to journalist Lucy Siegle, ...
Nov 24, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Northern Ireland is facing its biggest crisis since the Good Friday Accord ended the Troubles almost 25 years ago. The protocol that came out of Brexit puts the province outside the the EU but inside the customs union, so there has to be a border somewhere. But relations between nationalists and unionists have broken down over an arrangement that puts that customs border between the province and mainland Britain, and that means the Stormont government doesn’t function. So with more elections unl...
Nov 17, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 24
How valuable is higher education? If your degree isn’t one that’s going to help you get a good job, is it worth the huge debts you’ll be saddled with when you leave? The government wants to phase out degrees that don’t improve students’ “earning potential” - so goodbye gender studies or surf science? And what about art and literature, history and pure sciences? Chris Millward, professor of practice in education policy at Birmingham University walks Phil and Roger through what’s valuable and what...
Nov 10, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 23
In a couple of weeks Jeremy Hunt, this month’s Chancellor, will present his Autumn Budget, heavily overseen by Rishi Sunak, our latest Prime Minister. So what can we expect? The noises from Downing Street are suggesting we have to prepare for some bad news, with difficult choices supposedly being made about how to get the budget back on track. Does that mean more austerity? Higher Taxes? Or both? And who will feel the hurt the most. Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser at the Centre for Economics...
Nov 03, 2022•40 min•Season 1Ep. 22
A display of raw power at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, as Xi Jinping has his predecessor dragged off the podium. So how much should we in the West be afraid of the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao? From the clothes we wear to the phones in our pockets, to the videos we post on TikTok, China is part of how we live our lives, so should we be concerned at the push for global dominance of the 21st century's new superpower? There's a move in Washington, London and ...
Oct 27, 2022•47 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Are we facing nuclear war? It seems extraordinary but many analysts and advisers in western capitals believe there’s a good chance Vladimir Putin could use a nuclear weapon to save his regime from defeat in Ukraine. 32 years after the Cold War ended we are back to contemplating nuclear war, and wondering how to avoid it, without rewarding Russian aggression or giving in to blackmail. This week Phil and Roger walk through the scenarios with Jeremy Shapiro, formerly of the US State Department, now...
Oct 20, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 20
The thin blue line is getting thinner and less effective. When chief constables have to assure the public they WILL turn up for reported burglaries, something has gone badly wrong. Are the police in tune with the society they protect? Did something change when they were given huge new powers during COVID? Are they racist? Are they misogynist? Are they too busy taking the knee or monitoring online offensiveness to actually police real crime? Phil and Roger hear from Dr Rick Muir, director of the ...
Oct 13, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 19
We’re a sick nation - and the prognosis for the NHS is not good. It’s showing all of its 75 years, as patients wait in ambulances outside A&E or struggle to speak to - much less see - their own GP. So what’s the remedy? Just more - more money, doctors, nurses, hospitals? Or better systems of provision? And how should we pay for it - could some of us pay when we see our doctor? Tim Gardner, senior policy fellow at the Health Foundation, tells Phil and Roger there need to be tough decisions ab...
Oct 05, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Last week Kwasi Kwarteng delivered his ‘fiscal event’, unsupported by any analysis from the Office for Budget Responsibility. He said we wouldn’t apologise for focusing on economic growth. He’s also refused to apologise for the market response, which has seen the pound sink to a record low and the Bank of England forced to step in and buy-up bonds to stop the collapse of many pension funds, suffering from rapidly rising longer-end gilt yields. Even if the approach was to work, is there any sense...
Sep 28, 2022•47 min•Season 1Ep. 17
A weak Tory prime minister, a dire economic crisis, a government seemingly set on making the rich richer while an election looms - an open goal for Labour surely? What could possibly go wrong? But the mood among the party faithful as they meet in conference in Liverpool is anything but confident. Corbynism may be buried, but Keir Starmer lacks charisma, his team are not exactly household names, and can YOU name a single Labour policy? Phil and Roger talk to David Kogan, Labour historian and advi...
Sep 22, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 16
The Cold War was supposed to be over twenty years ago, but are China and Russia now a new bloc of autocracy, posed against western democracies in competition for global dominance? And do they have a point - are states where electors don’t have to be appeased every four or five years, better able to plan and make difficult decisions? Do Brexit and the presidency of Donald Trump show up the weak points of liberal democracy? On this week’s episode Phil and Roger raise all this with Dr Natasha Kuhrt...
Sep 15, 2022•33 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Is our democracy broken? We have a new prime minister - but who elected her? When a few Conservative party members have the choice of who holds the top job in the country, has something gone wrong with the system? When the last holder of that job (also chosen by the Tory membership) leaves with the appointment of his choice of his friends and supporters to the House of Lords, does it smell a bit of cronyism? This week Phil and Roger ask Robert Hazell, professor of government and the constitution...
Sep 08, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Is the national broadcaster moving towards some kind of closedown? With the likely next prime minister challenging the BBC’s accuracy, and one of its most prominent former presenters questioning its impartiality, while the frozen licence fee and inflation mean it can do less and less, is there a better model of public service broadcasting? A century after its foundation, should the corporation cede the field to the newcomers - Netflix and Disney? Patrick Barwise, emeritus professor of management...
Sep 01, 2022•42 min•Season 1Ep. 13
The world knows we’ve got to break our addiction to fossil fuels, and we need to move to a future where we no long pollute our atmosphere. But how quickly can we reach this utopian future? How far are current worries about being able to afford to heat our homes going to delay Net Zero? Can we still enjoy the benefits of a growing economy without destroying the planet? Can we reach it quickly enough? Will we ever reach it? Phil Dobbie and Roger Hearing put all that to Professor Richard Black from...
Aug 25, 2022•41 min•Season 1Ep. 12
