In this, the second part of our two part documentary The Forgotten Troubles, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper explore the contemporary politics of Northern Ireland and the extent to which the Good Friday Agreement makes it difficult to break out of sectarian division. They meet the Alliance Party on the campaign trail in the traditionally unionist area of Lagan Valley and ask whether it is possible or desirable to go 'beyond Orange and Green'. They explore the possible futures of the island of...
Nov 30, 2019•39 min•Ep 42•Transcript available on Metacast Northern Ireland occupies a strange position within the Brexit debate. It is at once at the centre and at the periphery of the constitutional uncertainty and political crisis Brexit has created. Poorly understood in Britain even amongst the most well informed, the political future of those living on the island of Ireland has been thrown into huge doubt by the 2016 referendum. Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper went to Northern Ireland to understand how its troubled history shapes the present day...
Nov 20, 2019•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hilary Wainwright and Mary Kaldor ... It seems almost everyone accepts there is a democratic crisis in Britain and Europe. But there is very little agreement what to do about it. For Brexiters satisfying the demand of the referendum in 2016 to leave the EU whatever the cost has become the catch-all solution to the country's democratic woes. Too many remainers, in contrast, deny there is even a problem with citizens participation today. In our latest podcast - recorded at a recent live audience e...
Nov 04, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kojo Koram and Ana Oppenheim ... As Britain lurches into an unknown political moment we review the deeper issues and wider context. Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Kojo Koram, a lecturer at Birkbeck who has written widely on the colonial fantasies animating the Brexit project, and Ana Oppenheim, a staff member of Another Europe Is Possible and, when she's not busy with that, a Polish anti-fascist. They discuss the moment of huge danger and opportunity we find ourselves in. The p...
Oct 30, 2019•30 min•Ep 39•Transcript available on Metacast The best thing that ever happened for organised crime was financial globalisation. If you've stolen a massive wad of money there is an entire - largely legal - global infrastructure for you to pump it through. And if you've ever wondered why dark money loves the new far right, there's a simple reason: anyone who hates international cooperation is a friend of those moving dark money across borders. In the latest episode of our Saving Europe From Itself, Oliver Bullough has a big idea for Europe: ...
Oct 11, 2019•35 min•Ep 38•Transcript available on Metacast In the latest episode of our Saving Europe From Itself series, we were joined by Cambridge scholar, Priyamvada Gopal. Her idea for saving Europe? Decolonise our politics and our entire way of thinking about global politics. This, she argues, can be the basis for a unifying narrative, that binds working class Europeans and the peoples oppressed by European empires together in a common, entangled history of democratic resistance. She draws out how the very essence of the contemporary EU is its sta...
Oct 07, 2019•37 min•Ep 37•Transcript available on Metacast Niccolo Milanese and Ruth Wodak ... What does it mean to say Europe is in a democracy crisis? And what exactly is the idea of illiberal democracy mobilised by the new far right? As the Austrian elections saw a drop in support for the far right did the centre-right just steal their clothes? Luke Cooper went to Vienna to talk to Ruth Wodak and Niccolo Milanese to find some answers.
Oct 02, 2019•43 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast Expressing international solidarity is easy. But taking steps to build transformative change on a European and international level is much harder. At the World Transformed Festival, Another Europe's Zoe Williams hosted a discussion bringing together perspectives from two countries with quite different experiences of the EU: Portugal has been on the frontline of austerity and successfully stood up to a neoliberal Europe with its leftist government now riding high in the polls; Germany has been on...
Sep 27, 2019•55 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast Jolyon Maugham QC ... Was the prorogation of Parliament illegal? And is the Supreme Court set to find against the Boris Johnson administration? As the British executive faces off against the two other pillars of the liberal democratic system - Parliament and the Courts - hosts Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams talk to one of the barristers at the centre of the case. Quite sensationally he says the government has failed to offer a defence in Court that its motives for prorogation were sound. He names ...
Sep 21, 2019•33 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast The Boris Johnson regime is moving from one crisis to another. And they are lashing out. This increasingly authoritarian government has even labelled the opposition traitors. As strategic debates break out on the left over how to defeat the most right wing government in Britain's post-war history, hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to the economist James Meadway, the Labour MP Lloyd Russell Moyle as well as Ana Oppenheim and Michael Chessum from the Another Europe Is Possible team....
Sep 07, 2019•44 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast In this podcast Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams head to Parliament Square to join protests on the day that Boris Johnson announced his intention to shut down Parliament. We take in the atmosphere and discuss the constitutional crisis in Britain. Featuring a range of speeches and insights including from Nick Dearden, Amelia Womack, Owen Jones, Eloise Todd and Laura Parker.
Aug 31, 2019•25 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast Saving Europe From Itself is a new series from the Another Europe team. Each episode we’ll take one big idea, from one big thinker – and put it through its paces. In this show campaigner and broadcast journalist, Shaista Aziz argues that Europe needs to get serious about intersectional feminism. A former aid worker, who once described the culture in the sector as "patriarchy on speed", she picks apart how the idea of feminism has been used in international development and foreign policy across E...
Aug 19, 2019•31 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast When Syriza won the 2015 elections they were the first government of the radical left seen in Europe since the 1930s. Leading the people into a historic clash with the European Union they were left bruised and defeated when they were forced to accept a new round of austerity six months later. Today they have lost power to a new right wing government. In this special edition of the Another Europe podcast, we sent Luke Cooper to Athens to learn about the Greek crisis four years on. What are the le...
Jul 28, 2019•39 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast Nick Dearden ... As Boris Johnson enters number 10 the spectre of a post-Brexit trade deal looms large. Luke Cooper and Zoe Williams spoke to Nick Dearden, a long time champion of trade justice, about the horror of a trade deal with Donald Trump and how trade affects every aspect of our lives. We also pick his brains on Brexit, globalisation and the rise of authoritarian nationalism.
Jul 25, 2019•36 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast Stephen Bush ... Following the Byzantine process for how the European Union selects its leadership is tough even for seasoned observers. Worry not. We have everything you need to know. Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Stephen Bush from the New Statesman to get their heads around the European corridors of power.
Jul 11, 2019•27 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast Timothy Snyder ... The EU has a big historical narrative about itself. Once upon a time waring nation-states decided to finally put aside their differences. A project for peace and reconciliation was born. But what if the story is wrong? What if it's a myth? Luke Cooper caught up with Yale historian Timothy Snyder to get the alternative story on origins of Europe. He suggests Europeans keen to forget their imperial histories have lost sight of the real lesson and importance of today's EU. It's a...
Jun 26, 2019•28 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast Saving Europe From Itself is a new series from the Another Europe team. Each episode we'll take one big idea, from one big thinker - and put it through its paces. In our inaugural show Oxford professor and author of numerous books, Danny Dorling, tears up the brief and argues that, with some of the most equal societies in the world, Europe could actually tell us a thing or two about how Britain could be saved from itself.
Jun 11, 2019•33 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast Laura Parker and Amelia Womack ... What do the European elections mean for the European left in all its variety? Co-host Luke Cooper surveys the electoral scene across Europe and takes in the atmosphere at the Another Europe results night party. He spoke to Laura Parker, the national coordinator of Momentum, as she failed to win a seat in the European Parliament. She talks candidly about the problems facing the Labour Party after the elections. He also talked to Amelia Womack from the Greens aft...
May 29, 2019•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Peter Oborne … Hosts Zoe Williams and Jamie Coward are joined on the show by Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne. In recent years Oborne has gained a reputation as the idiosyncratic representative of British conservatism. First he shocked polite opinion by having warm words for Jeremy Corbyn. Now he's expressed deep regret over Brexit, and the role he played as a columnist promoting it back in 2016. On the show he muses over whether the whole thing should be called off and observes the radical tra...
May 16, 2019•33 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast Clive Lewis ... Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Labour MP Clive Lewis, who has been heavily involved in developing the ideas and campaigning initiatives we need to save the planet. We chat Extinction Rebellion and how to connect the goals of a climate revolution to social justice, asking whether there are opportunities as well as sacrifices ahead. We also link these huge global challenges to the upcoming European elections - what better place to promote these policies, you might...
May 01, 2019•29 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast Ruth Wodak .... Has Britain exhausted the reserves of patience in Europe? As the extension is granted, but with no end in sight to the parliamentary deadlock, the Another Europe podcast heads to Vienna to find out. Co-host Luke Cooper is joined by Ruth Wodak, distinguished emeritus professor at the University of Vienna and expert on the European far right, to take stock of what it all means for the future of Europe and the left.
Apr 12, 2019•33 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast Owen Jones, Brian Carty, Elena Crasta, Alena Ivanova, Helmut Scholz, Luke Cooper ... As Britain stares down a "no deal" Brexit abyss, we head to Brussels to talk to groups across the European left. In the latest in our series of international live audience events, we place Brexit in the context of the upcoming European elections and ask whether there is a way out of this terrible mess.
Mar 22, 2019•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Tarry ... Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper talk to Sam Tarry, national political officer from the TSSA union who has spent much of his time of late in Parliament convincing MPs to do the right thing on Brexit. After another extraordinary week in UK politics we talk to him about the next steps and whether hard Remainers are on the cusp of victory or defeat.
Mar 16, 2019•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alena Ivanova ... There is a new centrist party in Britain as the Brexit crisis rumbles on. The electoral coalition to deliver a radical political agenda suddenly looks in peril. So this hasn’t been an easy week for left radical Remainers – with the forces of the status quo centre suddenly looking stronger. How do we beat the centrists, deliver the socialist programme that Britain urgently needs and stop Brexit in its tracks? Hosts Zoe Williams and Luke Coopear are joined by Alena Ivanova from t...
Feb 25, 2019•34 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast Ruth Wodak and Rafal Pankowski … Europe is facing an explosion of far right movements not seen since the Second World War. This new fascism is well financed, increasingly transnational, and intent on turning the clock back decades on democracy, human rights, gender politics and the freedoms of minorities. What is it that’s tantalising millions of Europeans into this hallucination of the past? And how can civil society and progressive activists respond? These are the questions we’re discussing on...
Feb 12, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Fintan O’Toole ... Brexit is the long agony of English nationalism: a nationality in a multinational state that has struggled to find a place in the world after the end of empire. But a short boat ride away, an often neglected part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland, has had its own struggles with monolithic national identity. What can a divided Britain learn from the Northern Irish experience? And could Brexit tear it all apart? These are the questions we’re asking in this special edition ...
Jan 22, 2019•44 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Tim Bale ... How divided is Britain? A case of when two tribes go to war? Or is it time to give peace a chance? In Parliament, the Tories and Labour look incredibly divided on where to go next - with splits crossing traditional party lines. But this isn’t the case with their voters, let alone their members. Tories are more pro Leave than ever, while for Labour voters the opposite holds true. When it comes to party members the trend is even starker. Our guest in this podcast is political scientis...
Jan 13, 2019•41 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Lloyd Russell Moyle MP ... Britain is in the middle of a constitutional crisis. With Theresa May facing a huge defeat on her Brexit deal she pulled the vote. Parliament was denied its say even though MPs had already debated the bill for several days. And our guest on this podcast wasn’t having any of it. In an act of defiance Labour MP Lloyd Russell Moyle grabbed the mace - a symbol of royal authority in Parliament that Oliver Cromwell referred to as a "fools' bauble". Now May is facing a no con...
Dec 13, 2018•40 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast Asad Rehman ... Tommy Robinson has called a 'Brexit Betrayal' march in London. Backed by North American money - and with nearly a million followers on Facebook alone - Robinson has become an icon of this dangerous far right insurgency. How do we analyse this new movement? What lessons should we draw from the past? And how does Brexit fit in? These are some of the questions we discuss on the podcast with Asad Rehman, who works in the NGO sector but is speaking in a personal capacity. He's been ve...
Nov 30, 2018•56 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast with Eloise Todd ... On what must be the most momentous day since the referendum result, with cabinet ministers resigning every hour, listen NOW while we're at the peak of our relevance and freshness. Zoe Williams and Luke Cooper are joined by Eloise Todd from Best for Britain, who is a leading campaigner against Brexit and is well-equipped to explain what might happen next.
Nov 15, 2018•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast