The city and the ruling establishment have finally succeeded in separating the public from the political system. The UK is run by the oligarchs who have their own interests which definitely do not include thriving public organizations.
Am I big fan of the podcast and I know you analyse the speeches from a political viewpoint, but I'd love for you to get Gary Stevenson on to talk about Economic Policies, because his view on Wealth Inequality is not anything new, but to me it is just interesting to me how he is successful, often correct and he basically says only one thing over and over - reduce wealth inequality, the economy will do better. And I'd love for you guys to ask him questions on the subject and give him the platform to spread his ideas into wider political conciousness.
They’ll never do that because Gary Stevenson’s politics are outside of the ‘sensible’, centrist window that is deemed acceptable politics to these two. Can’t give a platform for someone who advocates for any sort of tax and redistribution.
@@willrelf1377agreed. Alistair won't hear a bad word said about labour and Rory at his core is very establishment biased. It would be an interesting conversation but can't see it happening
They just cut public services so that they don't work any more and have to be privatised or shut down. Whatever happens we all still end up paying for it all. Even though we all know that proper taxation would have raised the money needed and even improved the public services, but of course their Tory-donors can't then cream off the profits from the failing services they've dragged down with them...
People did ask Liz Truss where the money was coming from, and where the money was going, and that made her the shortest serving British Prime Minister.
They’d have to have been pretty stupid not to know it would be borrowed…I don’t recall anyone demanding the Covid lock down grants and compensation paid out to businesses, employees and private and public institutions be stopped…With all that spending going out while Tax revenues were slashed, it was obvious a huge bill would follow. Then again, the UK is hardly alone in facing the same problems.
Leaving out the economic burden saddled on Haiti to ‘compensate’ their enslavers for having the temerity to free themselves as well as flattening the role of the oligarchs & comprador class in the story of Haiti is a *dramatic* oversimplification.
The flag issue was utterly ridiculous but the real issue is Labour lack of honesty to say that we really DO need to rejoin single market AT LEAST. Its the only way to gain up to 4% GDP and attract inward investment. Most people now know how costly the brexit farago has been. Labour need to grow some balls and show they WILL be different to the tory lunatics
It might be trivial to the rest of us, but ignore and rudicule those upset at the flag at your peril. These are the disenfranchised who end up voting for things like Brexit
I think you missed the nuance of the flag "hoo-haa". As far as I can make out, the thing people were getting het up about wasn't the idea of the flag being changed, it was the perception that it'd been changed as a political statement, to look like a bisexuality flag maybe, or perhaps not any particular symbol but a more nebulous nod towards other symbols and colour scheme that are chosen to express particular political concepts of "diversity". Now, whether or not this was the actual intention of Nike or not is another matter entirely! But that seems to be what was agitating folk: not the riffing on the flag, but that the form of that riffing was perceived to be a political statement. (Or course when Labour were agreeing with the outrage to try and position themselves where they felt would be advantageous in a "culture war" sense, they couldn't say that it was disgraceful if it was a politicised bisexual England flag, that'd be angering other people they don't want to anger. So they just had to go on the idea of the flag being somehow "sacred" and shouldn't be modified at all, rather than even mentioning the (perception of the) specific modification, which was actually exercising people most furiously!)
Yeah, but a quick Google search would have told those people that the change looked absolutely nothing like the bi-sexual pride flag. That kinda just proves Alistair's point about populist media riling people up.
But isn't that in a way an even worse indictment of these anti woke culture warriors? If people can get so upset by the tiniest of detail without any knowledge of if there's any intent nothing will ever placate them. Frankly in almost all cases the complaints about "inserting politics into x" and "wokness" is just disguised bigotry , bi/homophobia in this case and should be called out as such.
Thatcherism is the reason why our utility companies and oil fields are privatised plus council houses are sold off so yes we are still dealing with her policies
100% agree. It’s not something I personally care that much about but should not be so dismissive of the many people who are deeply passionate about it.
I think the silly thing is to present this as a trade off. Yes, in terms of news coverage, there's only so much space that's filled - but just because Starmer commented on the flag, doesn't mean he doesn't care about child poverty etc. The very reason why these petty little issues become such big things is because people dismiss it as being important - you're quite right.
@@astalavista_84 A lot of the people who are "deeply passionate about it" don't even know what it is they're upset at. I saw a bunch of people upset because they thought the change made to the cross was to insert the bi-sexual pride flag. A quick Google search would have told them that it wasn't the bi-sexual pride flag. Alistair is right, rubbish like that needs to be dismissed as the utter nonsense that it is.
Well the bisexual pride flag has similar colours and layout so it’s not surprising that’s been brought up. You are right that it isn’t the change that was made. People are obviously going to be passionate about it. It’s the national flag of England, it’s not a logo to be rebranded or improved. It was a weird decision and worst still the design is just ugly. Simply put it’s some easy political points to come out against the flag, it costs you nothing and is unlikely to offend anyone since I doubt the Nike flag has any massive fans.
I suspect he'll be criticising them himself because Keir Starmer is taking the Labour party in a very wrong direction. He's no better than the current government and I consider them far right. Blair wasn't as far right as Starmer.
The problem with Conservatives is that think “investment” means hoping the Private Sector will become philanthropists with their massive profits. Investment actually means making decisions that signal to business and the markets that any borrowing or spending will produce a clear ROI. Public finances are strengthened by money in the hands of the public - this is called pump priming. The markets don’t mind this - the markets immediately saw through Truss’ random tax cuts - Bind traders sniffed incompetence…in an instant.
Across the political spectrum people can’t engage in rigorous debate without having their feelings hurt. People have forgotten how to disagree with someone on almost everything and yet still find a way to compromise and cooperate. Democracy suffers.
Because the issues of our time are not ones where you can compromise. The right (including the labour right) are time and time again proven to be charlatans, incompetent, or both. We can't take half measures on climate change. We can't take half measures on nationalisation of public services. We can't take half measures on health. The past 6 months have shown that half measures on genocide have catastrophic results. The facts are that the right are consistently wrong and the public reliably duped. The failings of The left are on image and messaging, and we are disadvantaged financially, where corporate interests keep the charade of the right propped up.
One important omission in the historical summary of Haiti is that it was required to pay "reparations" to France for the economic losses that French citizens suffered as a result of the revolution (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti_Independence_Debt). It took Haiti from 1825 to 1947 (122 years!) to pay off the reparations, severely hampering its economic development. Few other former colonies had to overcome such a drag on their economy.
Oh dear. Haitian underdevelopment is not a symptom of poor government and internal racial hierarchies, which are endemic to the region; but rather a result of punitive post-independence fines extorted by colluding Western powers for over a century. Millions and millions of francs were hoovered out of Port-au-Prince into the French treasury, while other nations tried to underwrite their basic infrastructure needs. It's *the* salient fact in understanding the Haitian economy relative to the wider region. I appreciate Rory's strengths lie in the East, but that's a glaring omission that a friend might kindly nudge him on before any further coverage.
I couldn’t agree with you both more about the flag shagging nonsense. Kids are starving in the UK and being blown up in Gaza. We need a healthier media and your podcast/videos are a part of that. Thank you.
For those who criticise Labour, and especially Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, for not being sufficiently radical or economically adventurous, it’s important to consider what they’ll be inheriting from the Conservative government. Sure, the speech by Reeves was perhaps a missed opportunity, but there will be so little fiscal wiggle room to pursue the policies they’d like to. I don’t personally consider Labour these days to be Tory Lite. Like it or not, they must be careful not to cause too many waves in the City - we saw what happened after Truss and Kwarteng’s bonkers budget in 2022 and we’re still paying for that now. I hope Labour will be radical, but I’m prepared to be patient.
Reeves is pushing trickle down, which has been proven to be a failure again and again. We need targeted investment, which yes requires borrowing. The idea of money running out for a government with a sovereign currency is economic nonsense and Reeves is only saying it to pull the wool over the eyes of the uneducated public. We borrow to invest, the economy recovers and were able to pay off that borrowing. We continue austerity and the average person ends up destitute and the high street dies, the economy goes stagnant. Atlee's government built the welfare state and NHS after world war 2. The Tories aren't quite as devastating as the literal Nazis were.
we criticise labour for nothing more than being utterly dishonest and having no morals mainly .the fact they will follow the tory's financial plans is secondary to that . they aren't tory lite they are powerfor powers sake ,they have no wish to improve the life of the poor or anybody else apart from themselfs
Please do an interview with Alice Roberts. We saw her at Harrogate Theatre earlier this week talking about her new book ‘Crypt’, which was itself fascinating. However, what was equally delightful was the quiet politics in her telling of the stories covered in the book, woven with her highly intelligent insights into the long view of the pervading issues affecting humans across the millennia, that have their modern expression in our current politics. A three-way discussion between you all would be brilliant.
I have enjoyed listening/watching the podcast over recent months, trying to educate myself a little, gain a broader perspective. That said, I am growing increasingly tired/bored/frustrated by AC's blatant bias
I'm afraid I agree with Rory about Rachel Reeves' speaking style being not very exciting. However, we've had "exciting" before and it wiped £30 Billion off the value of the economy. Although it's faint praise, statistically Reeves cannot be worse than the current lot
I think she'll mirror them pretty much. Thatcher fan and no sign of throwing out horrific Tory policies. SNP for me i'm afraid. Only competent choice I have.
Alistair is such a partisan he is not worth listning to. Taxes are coming up but just to pay for consumption. Only radical planning reform can help us and she is going to have as little luck with that as the Tories. NIMBYISM is a cross party position.
I’ll take Reeves (an Economist) ahead of Sunak and Hunt any day of the week - both have no basis to pretend to be financially literate or knowledgable…
If you take her at her word, she'll be exactly lime George Osborne. Is that what you're wanting? Labour cannot get a majority. We must force them into coalition for electoral reform and a rejection of thatcherism.
Yep. RS flies off to America every few weeks to lecture 1 class. He dwarfs probably everyone who comments for the next 3 days' carbon footprints combined.
Those bursting blood vessels over a redesigned flag of St George are also those who routinely sport the very same flag defaced by advertising for a certain brand of lager.
It's kind of funny: Here in Germany, the tabloids currently also have a big "debate"/shouting fit about the jersey of the national football team. In this case it is about the color of the away shirts being pink...
@@jimb9063it’s obviously meant to represent the flag. It might be a non story, and might not be worth talking about. But it’s obviously meant to represent the flag. Your statement is just disingenuous
@@Alex-yv4vr If you showed a picture of the item on it's own, how many people would call it a flag, and how many would call it a cross? There's no rectangular background, like you have when flags have been put on kits previously.
@@willrelf1377 I'm just thinking there might be a chance since Rory said one of his most anticipated books of 2024 was The Trading Game ~ fingers crossed 😄
Anyone who thinks Reeves and Starmer will implement a new economic policy, or represent in any way a change, is going to be very disappointed indeed. The Emeperor's new clothes...there's nothing there, just more of the same.
As it is pretty difficult to see any “clear blue water” between the Labour and Conservative parties, it is hard to believe there will be any significant change in the general drift of economic and social policy. It may be more competent, the people implementing it more honest, but still the same broad neo-liberal economics and ultra-liberal social agenda.
Blah blah blah. The Conservative Government have no strategy or plan to manage the Economy other than ensure that EVERY Policy is designed to redistribute wealth upwards. It’s a system that does exist anywhere else in the world… Of course it’s going to change…
Labour will have very little room to be radical. There’ll be inheriting a disastrous economic state. I’d love them to be radical, but I’d prefer the softly softly approach initially.
The biggest difference is over constitutional reform, which Labour has tended to favour more and is doing so once again, leading on further House of Lords reform.
If Lee Anderson hadn't mouthed off about the stupid flag nobody would give a shit, and if Lee Anderson's political career wasn't tied to him being a human vuvuzela he wouldn't have mouthed off about it.
In relation to government spending, the key thing to realise is that throwing money at problems is often *not* the primary solution, since it's often just as important - or in some cases more important - to look at *what* the money is spent on. This is especially the case concerning the NHS (the single biggest area of expenditure), where it is entirely possible to get a better service without it costing more. To take just one example out of many here, there is a lot of unnecessary medical tests that occur. As James Le Fanu has written in The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine: “The real ‘science’ in medicine is the thorough understanding of the nature of a medical problem that comes from talking at length to the patient, and performing a physical examination to elicit the relevant signs of disease. From this old-fashioned … style of medicine it is usually possible to infer precisely what is wrong in 90% of cases. By contrast, the technological gizmos and arcane tests that pass for the ‘science’ of medicine can frequently be quite misleading. … ‘The comforting, if spurious, precision of laboratory results is the same appeal as a lifebelt to the weak swimmer’, an editorial in the Lancet noted in 1981, before going on to enumerate the several reasons why doctors performed so many unnecessary tests: there was the ‘just-in-case’ test requested by junior doctors ‘just in case’ the consultant might ask for the result, and the ‘routine test’ whose results hardly ever contributed to the diagnosis, and the ‘ah-ha test’ whose results were known to be abnormal in certain conditions and which were ordered to advertise the cleverness of the clinician."
I didn't see my transmission of the speech but I have read Rachel Reeves text and I thought it was very good. I'm looking forward to the decisions she makes on investment for long-term improvement of public services, green energy transition and growth. I really don't expect her to be entertaining. Instability has been a key factor in the way Conservative politicians have driven the UK - starting with the Brexit referendum and lasting through a series of governments until today. Foreign investment will flow back into the UK if there is a closer relationship with Europe and some long-term plans (which Sunak talks about but is not sincere about and has failed to deliver). I think Rory is setting his expectations too high before an election that has the potential to reshape the country 😀
they have already said that they won't put extra investment into public services .they have canceled the mony they pledged to green energy transition.and in most of the rest have said they will keep to tory spending plans .so saddly you and most of the rest of us are going to be sorely dissapointed
I do wish Rory would spend some time analysing the Tories' economic policies, rather than having a go at Reeve's perceived grammar failures. He seemingly attacks Labour for the things he lets his party off the hook for.
Rory and Alistair should interview Nick Bano, the author of ‘Against Landlords’. So many of the current difficulties we face arise from landlordism - people making passive income from owning multiple residential properties, driving up rent and house prices and effectively hoovering up state-held funds that could be going to infrastructure and services (e.g. housing benefit being massively inflated to account for enormous rents). Capitalists and socialists alike should be appalled by the consequences of money that might be invested productively instead being locked into housing stock and the real poverty and misery that is caused by high rents and mortgages.
After Liv Truss the Labour government needs to be financially credible to markets, until they have looked over the books of an extremely mendacious government, expecting exciting radical announcements to excite the chattering class is unrealistic. The fact is the economy was promising and had a budget surplus pre-Blair, while Brown was claiming prudence and caution. Rory is forgetting the corrosive effect of uncertainty on investment, the Brexit Tories played brinkmanship and undermined the economy and investment. Labour cannot promise outcomes with EU negotiation, the EU countries are comfortable with the deal and their problems are caused by geo-political challenges not Brexit. International news sees clearly the example as mad self harm, but the London Brexit press and Westminster bubble ignores the data and misdirects voters with trivia and side issues in an attempt to shore up the Tories, who look more and more deluded.
Rory talking about Haiti is such a fucking trigger. Basically blaming its backwardness and failures to organize on the people and calling the slave revolt a genocide. Completely leaves out the history of its Black population before the revolution and the history of complete international blacklisting after it, along with the fact that Haiti was made to PAY FRANCE for its independence in a debt it still has. Saying it’s less developed than the rest of the Caribbean and implying it’s some failure of the government is incredibly ignorant and very “arm chair theorist” which (again) is triggering coming from the dialect and geography of the exporters of colonialism.
We need political reform. The two tier party system is exploitable and doesn't represent most people's views. It's leading to a lack of political participation.
Give ME an underpowered and DULL ANY day! JUST to Get ON with THINGS with NO psycho-DRAMA Compared to the Utter Incompetence, RUINING of Our Public Services and CORRUPTION that HAS been wreaked on this Country By SO- CALLED "Charismatic " Leaders!!
Starmer was asked about the flag thing at 8 am and just said it was a shame… The Tories started bleating about it later that day. It’s funny that he took the wind out of their sails…
Have to agree with Rory on his review of Reeves' speech, I get the feeling Alistair is making excuses for her when, if she were a Tory, he would be ripping it to shreds for having no substance, passion or vision. I'll be voting Labour, but nothing to do with the (lack of) charisma of its leaders...
Re: Haiti - did we mention the strangle hold of the debts the French imposed on Haiti for a century? French lost money because slaves liberated themselves in the 19th centrury, and now Haiti, you need to compensate France? Sacre bleu
Loving the Etonian debating club analysis Rory offers... Oh you don't have a good first line and you don't have a charismatic presence on stage so most of what you say can't be taken seriously as an election winning/ country running approach. Boris had both of those things: a tagline of 'Get Brexit Done', a cheeky chappy confidence and about nothing else to offer. So did Osborne, so does Sunak. We all saw where the Oxford debating society approach has got this country, and I think Rory yet again shows he cannot move past his outdated, hollow background. I am more than ready for somebody who evaluates history in their approach and adds some analysis to every decision they make to take the reigns, over empty headed politicking. I feel like the country agrees with me too.
Don’t agree on the flag, I think you’re missing the underlying frustration it represents in not really ever respecting an english identity, and the whole (often left) often over emphasis on being mindful of minorities whilst what seems to be at the expense of the majority culture.
I can see why a sportswear manufacturer unilaterally redesigning a nation's flag might be considered disrespectful. These corporations might consider themselves more important than countries or governments...
@@clarecrawford9677 Clare, I’m a unionist, that doesn’t stop me from supporting England when they play Scotland. Alistair would definitely support Scotland. Rory doesn’t care about football so he doesn’t care. No other country would accept such a change in their national flag. The Germans are currently in uproar about the fact that Nike will be making the German national teams football shirts over adidas. If you or anyone else doesn’t care about it, that’s ok, I respect your view but don’t mock and laugh at people who do, which is what Alistair is doing.
rory nitpicking about reeves's style, which happens not to suit him. She is a proper grown up politician from an ordinary background, and had serious things to say about the economy. We have head enough showmanship, especially from the right.
Not all growth *has* to come from extractive processes. We're obsessed with growth being about how many cars are sold, and not enough with things like social care, the arts, services. Growth through, for example, green conversion would be welcome.
You both talk indignantly about child poverty but, as with all liberal analysis, you skirt away from identifying the structural and economic reasons for it. You both also denigrate the only politician who was willing to actually do something about it. Ultimately, you and your class don’t really want to do anything about poverty, don’t really want to fundamentally change the economic system that it exists in. And next week you’ll be talking about populism and why people are drawn to populists, when the reason is that centrist politician won’t (and can’t) offer the real solutions for it.
This. The fact that the centre is not a stable political view but rather mere support for the status quo is completely lost on these two. This is why Keir Starmer is as he is, why he will do nothing of substance to change anything in this country. And all those calling fo Gary Stevenson to be interviewed by these two, do you really think they are interested in how to bring about real change? All they talk about is who they knew, what and when, all the while trying to keep a door of some form open for themselves in their preferred version of the respective parties they support. If you want to hear real analysis of what's going on in this country, watch Novara Media. It ain't gonna come from these two elitist out of touch has-beens that did NO commentary on the child poverty story at all while going on about the flag issue and complaining about others doing the same.
Guys, talk to Gary Stephenson please!!!!!!!!!!!! He'll give an economics perspective that you won't hear from arm chair 'macro economists' you're referring to...
The big plan for growth has to be investment for a productivity revolution in the UK. That's where the Money will come from. Labour's role is to break the back of the Thatcherite lie that the public domain has no role to play in this. The market led approach has failed as badly as public led approach did in the previous era.
Also please have a discussion on healthy food! It’s very important. There shouldn’t be all this choice. Cnildren shd eat what they are given, like we were.
It's not the English flag though is it. Its a cross design on a collar of a football kit which we rarely even use to begin with. You make it sound like we've changed the flag completely to it
@@chindit6784 The English flag was removed from the shirt of the national team of the biggest sport in the country and replaced with something that has nothing to do with England. I understand that not everyone cares but can't you see it from the other side.
It’s interesting when Alastair Campbell quotes a Tory it’s Lawson /Sunak when it’s Labour it’s Tony Blair/ Gordon brown he can’t bring himself to give Tory any respect
perhaps veradker stepped down because he'd genuinely had enough . it could be one of the benefits of younger polititions getting bigger jobs they can see a future outside of politics because they are young enough for one
What I don't get about the England football shirt farrago is why there is any blue on the flag at all. The flag of England doesn't have any blue. The Union Flag does of course. Could this be a case of an ignorant corporation conflating the flag of the United Kingdom with the flag of England (in the same way lots of people don't know the difference between the two)? If so, it could tie in with what Caroline Lucas was saying in an earlier episode of Leading that Englands' lack of identity (and Parliament) is a fundamental problem which needs to be addressed if we are to fix the long-term issues England has.
Economically it feels like everyone is trying to focus on anything but the ultimate reality which is the necessity of rejoining the single market. There’s no other sane choice for the county. No other post brexit options come close to the benefits that we get from the SM. Particularly now we see that all the more nebulous arguments for sovereignty come to nothing in practice.
I don't get why these guys, who I greatly respect, don't address what I regard the biggest scandal of our age. I'm not an expert but understand that one in five kids are now 'home-schooled'. That means they are likely to be deficient in social skills in later life and, of course, few parents are so equipped as to to provide a 'comprehensive' education. Second, it is reported that one in five children are regularly absent from school. No mathematician but I make that two fifths of our kids don't go to school.
1 in 5 = 20% home schooled Therefore 80% attend of which 20% absent which equates to 16% of the school age population. So the actual calculation is 36% not in school on any given day.
National attendance this term is about 90%. There is no real way at the moment to get kids back in. Punishments have literally no impact on attendance, and parents simply do not force kids in like they used to. Low attendance is classed as sub 95%. Most children now are below that, and the 100%ers are becoming rarer and rarer.
1 in 5 kids are home-schooled?! Its more like 1 in 100 kids being home-schooled: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/elective-home-education
On the second statistic, it is 20% of pupils are persistently absent, which means they’ve missed more than 10% of lessons, not that 20% of children are not in school on a given day. The overall attendance rate is about 93%, so 7 in 100 children aren’t in school on a given day: explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools# If 40% of children weren’t in school the news wouldn’t stop going on about it.
The way Labour are going, they're gonna make very little ground in Scotland. Pandering to the far right and refusing to reverse horrific Tory policies doesn't go down well here. Possible Labour voter here.....erring on the side of the SNP at this moment. They seem to stand upfor Scotland with a bit of passion. Ever seen Ian Murray (I know....WHO?) being passionate about things? Very seldom. The SNP guy is brilliant.
Ian Murray used to be my MP when I lived in Edinburgh and he was (is) a very good local MP, which is probably why he got reelected in 2019. (I didn't vote for him then and never have, but being a decent local representative is also important...) Would much rather still have him as my MP rather than my current MP (Conservative) who is not very approachable at all. Agree that I have never seen Ian Murray be passionate about anything though.😅
I don’t support the changing of the flag colors but Campbell speaking out about child poverty while be blamed as the Iraqi war engineer is pathetic. He needs to be sent to The Hague.
Good to hear more about the historical context of Haiti however, struggled with the comparison to Martinique. Martinique remains part of France and Haiti paid a 'double debt' to France for their freedom. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable about the history of the French colonies would be able to comment or join the podcast in future to hear more EDIT seen a couple of commenters have expanded. Thanks
Im sorry. When it comes to Haiti, you cannot ignore the fact that it gained independance far earlier and as the first republic founded by former slaves, the racist powers of the time did everything they could to sabotage the young nation. Im all for slow decolonisation when it makes sense, but lets not lay all the blame on their governmental systems.
