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Writers and columnists Nick Cohen and Rafael Behr discuss the events that have shaped our world and dominated their personal and professional lives. Rafel discusses his new book - Politics - A Survivor's Guide. Rafel discusses how the impact of #Brexit and the wave of nationalist fervour in its wake has shaped his attitude to politics and the UK.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
Get The Lowdown from Nick Cohen with veteran reporter and author John Sweeney on Putin and Russia's illegal war against Ukraine. John, the author of a recent book on Putin called "Killer in the Kremlin", discusses with Nick the possibilities for a Ukrainian victory as well as what defeat would mean for Putin's regime. Will Putin fall if Ukraine wins further key battles and eventually takes Crimea? Who or what will replace Russia's dictator and what would that mean for all of us?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
28 May 2023
Ep 3: Britain's growing food crisis with Liz Webster
Nick Cohen speaks in depth about Britain's growing Brexit food crisis with Liz Webster from the campaigns, Save British Farming and Save British Food.
#Brexit has already smashed food supply lines and jeopardised Britain's food security. Now new Brexit checks on EU imports scheduled for October look certain to lead to even more empty supermarket shelves and further fuel food inflation.
Liz Webster explains how Brexit threatens to worsen even further Britain's already chronic food shortages, a crisis already exacerbated by climate change and Putin's illegal aggression against Ukraine.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
04 Jun 2023
Ep 4: The English and the end of the United Kingdom
Nick Cohen speaks to historian and author James Hawes about the crisis of Englishness and the consequences this crisis is having on the rest of the United Kingdom. James, the author of internationally acclaimed The Shortest History of England , reveals how this crisis has deep historical and geographical roots that have dictated the turbulent history of our islands and could bring an end to the United Kingdom itself. This crisis is being brought to a head by the English nationalists, who now dominate the modern Tory Party, and their Brexit crusade that has shattered the bonds of Union, and much else besides.
James sees the Tories becoming more extreme following their expected defeat at the next election, an inevitable consequence of a two-party system that forces a vanquished political party to tack ever more to its ideological core. This will further strengthen the hands of other nationalists in Scotland and elsewhere.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
11 Jun 2023
Ep 5: Polly Toynbee on class and her family history of radicals
Nick Cohen talks to Polly Toynbee, celebrated columnist, broadcaster and author about Britain's stubborn class system and the growing gap between the rich and poor under successive Tory governments.
Atlantic Books has just published Polly's latest book, An Uneasy Inheritance, My family and other radicals, which has receivedrave reviews, not least from Nick himself in a recent Substack column.
Polly explains how - over the years - she has taken a series of blue collar jobs to better understand the lives of working people. She laments how the class system continues to dominate British society and is now a bigger determinate in people's futures than factors such as ethnicity. Polly also discusses the extraordinary radicals from her family history, including her father, the journalist Philip Toynbee, her grandfather, the historian Arnold J. Toynbee.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
18 Jun 2023
Ep 6: Ex-Conservative minister Dr Phillip Lee on how Brexit wrecked the Tories
In 2018 , Conservative MP and Europhile Dr Phillip Lee resigned as a minister from Theresa May's stricken government over what he saw as the troubling direction of Brexit. The following year, he dramatically crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join the Liberal Democrats - during a speech by the disgraced former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
Now back working as a GP in Berkshire, Phillip Lee gives a fascinating insight into the Tories' descent into nationalism, Euro-phobia and hard Brexit - a journey dictated by the Party's dwindling, rapidly ageing and largely reactionary constituency association members.
Nick asks Philip about his reasons for joining the Conservative Party. They discuss his initial interest in joining the Tories and how he initially saw them as a natural home for him. Phillip immediately foresaw disaster when David Cameron insisted on going ahead with a referendum on EU membership in June 2016. From that moment on, he thought the Tories were "toast."
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
26 Jun 2023
EP 7: Race in the UK and the US - with Tomiwa Owolade
The Lowdown from Nick Cohen this week examines the issue of race and diversity in the UK with the freelance writer and author Tom Owolade.
Tom's brilliant and ground-breaking book This is not America - published by Atlantic - argues that too much of the debate about race in Britain has been viewed through the prism of American experiences and history. This prism fails to reflect the challenges – and achievements – of an increasingly diverse black British population and distorts how many people view the issue of race in the UK.
Tom tells Nick that too few Brits understand the ethnic changes that are taking place in the UK or even the wide diversity of black British communities themselves, especially given the arrival of people from west and east Africa in recent years. Tom also believes class is a hugely important additional factor in the UK.
Tom and Nick explore the significant differences in the history and experiences of black Brits and Black Americans. You can read Nick's assessment of Tom's important debut book in his Substack column, Writing from London
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
02 Jul 2023
Ep 8: From Russia with hate - the hang-up of history with Jade McGlynn
Russia expert and author Dr Jade McGlynn joins Nick Cohen from Kyiv to talk about Ukraine's tragedy - a Russia that has been badly run by bad men - with a couple of rare exceptions here and there. And how this also happens to be Russia's tragedy.
Jade explains how the recent "Mad March on Moscow" by Wagner militia mafioso Yevgeny Prigozhin is a symptom of Vladamir Putin's dysfunction and despotism, and how hatred flows now flows between Ukraine and Russia like drones and missiles.
Jade McGlynn - widely acknowledged as a brilliant and insightful author and Russian observer - is the author of two recent landmark books relating to the tragedy now playing out in Ukraine - Russia's War, published by Pushkin House, and Memory Makers, just published by Bloomsbury.
Memory Makers, The Politics of the past in Putin's Russia, is based on Jade's analysis since 2014 of the start of Russia's illegal incursions into Ukraine. The book examines how Russia's repeated misadventures into its neighbour's territories are driven by the obsessive lies and myths it's gaslit into believing by Putin, and too many of his predecessors.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
24 Jul 2023
Ep. 9: Wither and whither the Tories? With author & Conservative Party expert - Professor Tim Bale
Professor Tim Bale of the Queen Mary University of London is widely looked on as the UK's keenest academic observer of the Conservative Party.
Tim's latest book The Conservative Party after Brexit (published by Polity) charts the Party's dizzying descent into populist and radical hard right Brexit populism. Have the Tories truly transmogrified into to the far right europhobic party they appear to be or are they merely aping one to appeal to the ageing reactionaries controlling local Tory constituencies, and, against the odds, cling onto power whatever the cost to the country?
Tim Bale argues the Tories are almost certainly on the way out of power- and thatb Rushi Sunak doesn't appear to have what it takes to save them.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
06 Sep 2023
Ep 10: Breaking the Brexit Omerta with Peter Foster of the Financial Times
This week, GetThe Lowdown from Nick Cohen with Peter Foster, Public Policy Editor of the Financial Times and expert on all things Brexit. @PMDFoster
This month, Cannongate publishes Peter's much-anticipated new book What went wrong with Brexit, and what we can do about it.
Probably, not every much for the moment seems to be the answer posed by the book title.
Brexit has crashed and burned - taking the country with it. But no one wants to talk about it - despite the rolling catastrophe of this failed populist experiment. That goes for the usual Tory-Kipper B.S merchants who mis-sold Brexit, and Labour which looks set to inherit the mess after the next election.
Peter Foster explains that Brexit isn't just a one-off disaster like the 2007/'08 Financial Crash - it just keeps on taking, and tanking.
He says Brexit is a "chronic condition - a permanent structural disadvantage" . The country's incompetent Tory government has managed to pull off a "reverse trade deal" with its biggest and most important trade bloc.
Peter and Nick discuss the strange political Omerta that has descended on Brexit and the sullen response of the brexiteers who are witnessing the failure of their pet project in real time and insist we must all live with it and put up with it.
Can the country ever have a sensible discussion about relations with the EU or is it doomed for ever to have the millstone of #brexit around its neck? Will the EU ever take seriously any UK attempt for closer relations or has it written off the country as unreliable and terminally euro-phobic?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
13 Sep 2023
Ep 11: The Stagnation nation - is the UK's decline unstoppable? with Profesor Jonathan Portes
This week, Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Jonathan Portes , Professor of Economics and Public Policy at King's College London, ex- Chief Economist at the Cabinet Office. Jonathan is also a Senior Fellow of the Economic and Social Research Council's UK in a Changing Europe initiative, which examines the UK's now troubled relatIonship with the EU.
Can anything be done to prevent the UK's growing economic crisis? Is decline inevitable? Jonathan reveals how the UK's growth rate shrank by three-quarters following the 2008 crash. Now the country's annual growth rate is an anaemic half a percent with the economy projected to double every 120-140 years instead of the pre-2008 35-year period. Inevitably, Brexit's not helping as it hits trade and tax revenues. But there are other systemic failures.
Jonathan says there's plenty of things a new Labour government could do - despite the calamity of Brexit - to try and run things around: build homes, reform social ansd tax policy plus up-date our dysfunctional and decrpit voting system
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
23 Sep 2023
Ep 12: The Tory South & its revolt against the UK with James Hawes
Nick Cohen talks to James Hawes, Renaissance man, historian, writer and novelist about the Tories' southern English tribe and the threat it poses to the rest of the UK.
James, the author of The Shortest History of England, predicts the Tories will become ever more extreme and nationalist in electoral defeat and that the eventual break up of the UK looks unavoidable. The UK's curse - its first-past-the -post electoral system has guaranteed virtual Tory hegemony for long periods of contemporary history, and the chronic decline of the country.
James Hawes thinks PR could help transform the UK's political map, and its fortunes. But without it, the Tories will inevitably reassume power and continue their damaging revolt against Europe and the whole of the UK, leading inevitably to the eventual collapse of a 220 year old union.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
27 Sep 2023
Ep 13: Ukraine's path to victory with military strategist Dr Mike Martin
Nick Cohen talks to Dr Mike Martin, ex-soldier, military strategist and author about what victory looks like for Ukraine and how it can be achieved.
Mike, a senior visiting research fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College , London, explain to Nick how the West initially miscalculated Ukraine's chances against a belligerent Russia by looking at the spreadsheet showing the relative military strengths of each country in terms of material and troop numbers. Western leaders failed to take into account other elements such as strategy, quality of leadership and that crucial of all military essences, the will to fight.
Ukraine's initial tactical priority is the eviction of Russia's forces from along the shore of the Black Sea and in particular Crimea, the loss of which should prove one defeat too many for Vladamir Putin's chances of survival.
But is strategic victory for Ukraine possible before the 2024 US Presidential election and can Europe step up to the plate in the likelihood of a second Trump victory?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
Nick Cohen talks to Yascha Mounk, the political scientist and author, about his new book about the astonishing rise of "Woke ideology" - The Identity Trap: A story of ideas and power in our time.
According to the Washington Post, "whatever you call it — identity politics, political correctness, wokeness or cancel culture — some new power seems to be at work in our culture and institutions."
Yascha tells Nick that advocates of this "Woke" ideology fixate on identity to the exclusion of all else, and that many reject “universal values and neutral rules like free speech and equal opportunity as mere distractions.” He argues that this ideology has grown ever more embedded in society - influencing many institutions.
Right wing extremist supporters of Donald Trump are already manipulating fears over "The Great Awokening"" for the 2024 presidential elections in the hope that voters will see this revolutionary strain of identity politics as a threat to American values.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
12 Oct 2023
Ep 15: Israel, Hamas and the threat to Britain's Jews with antisemitism expert Dave Rich
This week, Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown from Dr Dave Rich, Head of Policy for the Community Security Trust (CST) - an organisation that provides security for Jewish communities and institutions. Dave is also an expert in left wing anti-semitism and the author of the book Everyday Hate: How antisemitism is built into our world – and how you can change it (Biteback.)
Jews in the UK often suffer instances of antisemitism when there is conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Dave reports that such incidents have increased four-fold in the wake of the tragic and horrific Hamas attacks on Israel and the retaliatory strikes on Gaza by the Israeli military.
But it seems only Jews suffer from this phenomenon. For example, Russians in the UK seemingly experience no such back-lash despite Putin's illegal attack and genocide against Ukraine. Why is antisemitism alive and kicking in the UK, both on the left and on the right, and what can be done to counter it?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
21 Oct 2023
Ep17: SLAPP BACK! How the rich abuse British courts with lawyer & author David Hooper
Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown from celebrated lawyer and author David Hooper whose latest book, Buying Silence, How oligarchs, corporations and plutocrats use the law to gag their critics (Biteback) exposes how the rich and powerful use vexatious so-called SLAPP legal actions - Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation - to silence and destroy whiste-blowers, journalists and campaigners.
Dodgy chancers from notorious warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin to the corrupt Robert Maxwell have found London courts law firms willing to abuse libel, data and privacy laws to ruin their critics and to deploy any tactics, including the use of private detectives and PR agencies.
David Hooper explains that it is the crippling costs of defending such actions that pose such a threat to press freedom, freedom of speech and to the rule of Law in the UK.
What can be done to counter this threat and why are solicitors and barristers being allowed to get away with such flagrant abuses of behalf of their often dubious clients, that have included sanction Russian oligarchs and even controversial former US presidents?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
21 Oct 2023
Ep 16: War and peace in the Middle East with journalist Daniella Peled of Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown on the brutal conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza from Daniella Peled, Managing Editor of the of Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR).
Daniella puts into context the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas. Approximately 1,400 Israelis were killed by Hamas on October 7th. Since then, the Israeli assault on Gaza has killed at least 4,000 civilians, and is leading to a humanitarian crisis.
Daniella compares this latest violence with other conflicts that she has studied around the world.
She and Nick try to make sense of the latest conflict between Israel and Palestinians, the prospect of peace between the 2 sides and examine the turbulent political situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories leading up to the lethal Hamas attack on Israel from October 7th.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
11 Nov 2023
Ep 18: Boris Johnson's poisoned legacy with historian Robert Saunders
Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown from Dr Robert Saunders, the historian and author, who is based at Queen Mary University of London where he specialises in modern British history, from the early 19th century to the present.
Nick and Robert discuss the poisoned legacy of Boris Johnson and why so many people voted for him in December 2019 and continue to support, despite the obvious failure of Brexit and his cataclysmic bungling of the pandemic as is being revealed in the Covid Inquiry.
Robert is one of the best observers of the modern political scene and is currently researching a new history of democracy in Britain. His recent book Yes to Europe! examined the Britain of the 70's and the 1975 referendum to join what was then called the European Economic Community (EEC) - a fore-runner of the European Union.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
19 Nov 2023
Ep: The strange death of the Left in the West & in Israel with Professor Shlomo Sand
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Professor Shlomo Sand, author and historian about his new book A Brief Global History of the Left (Polity).
What is happening to the Left? It seems to be dying a slow death in the West and certainly in Israel.. While many commentators have predicted its demise, the Left has always defied these bleak prognoses and risen from the ashes in the most unexpected ways. Nevertheless, we are witnessing today a global decline in organised movements on the Left, and while social struggles continue to challenge dominant political regimes, these efforts do not translate into support for traditional left parties or into the creation of dynamic movements on the Left.
Bestselling historian Shlomo Sand tells Nick that the global decline of the Left is linked to the waning of the idea of equality that has united citizens in the past and inspired them to engage in collective action. Professor Sand and Nick also discuss the current crisis in Israel and Gaza.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
02 Dec 2023
Ep 20: A Hitch in time? What would Christopher Hitchens have made of today's insanity? With author Matt Johnson
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Matt Johnson, author of How Hitchens can save the Left [Pitchstone Books] a celebrated study of the writer and polemicist Christopher Hitchens who sadly died 12 years ago aged just 62.
Hitchens lived in the US and was a controversial and vivid commentator on the US and its various foreign policy adventures following the 9/11 terror atrocities in the US. He started adult life as a Marxist but later espoused causes that were labelled "neo-con" at the time.
But what would "Hitch" have made of a topsy-turvy politics which has seen dangerous buffoons like Donald Trump and Boris Johnson come to power and the rise of an authoritarian right that Matt Johnson identifies as the posing the greatest current threat to Mankind? Nick and Matt discuss this endlessly fascinating and brilliant writer and wonder what on earth he would have made of it all.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
09 Dec 2023
Ep 21: The Tories' perfect storm - how hard will it blow? with Professor Rob Ford
Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown from Professor Rob Ford of Manchester University, professor of political science, co-author of the award-winning book Revolt on the Right, and political commentator and pundit extraordinaire about the perfect storm of woe descending on the Tories.
The disasters of Brexit, cost of living, the bungling of Covid, Partygate, the catastrophic and chaotic reigns of Boris Johnson and Liz "The Lettuce" Truss have been followed by the Rishi Sunak sh1tsh0w.
Exhausted and divided , and appealing only to headbangers in their own party, the Tories stagger on from one disaster to the next, desperately trying to limit the scale of the tsunami of voter retribution heading their way. How big will the defeat be or will they manage somehow to salvage enough of a base to threaten a come-back in the not-too-distance future?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
17 Dec 2023
Ep 22: Another fine Tory mess - The great Rwanda farce with immigration lawyer Colin Yeo
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from barrister and writer Colin Yeo on the Tories' never ending Rwanda farce and the dog's breakfast they have made of the UK's asylum & immigration regime.
When the UK flounced out of the European Union, it also walked away from a returns policy that meant asylum seekers could be returned to the first safe EU country they arrived in.
Now the Tories are stuck with the preposterous and performatively cruel policy of exporting refugees to Rwanda which they desperately hope will deter future asylum seekers. However, they have been thwarted by the courts so far. Now, they squabble among themselves about how to get their madcap scheme off the ground and dream of getting just one refugee on the plane to Kigali!
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
25 Dec 2023
Ep 23: Praying for Tory wipe-out in 2024 with author & historian James Hawes
Nick Cohen gets the end of the year Lowdown from author, historian and novelist James Hawes as both contemplate the prospects of a general election in 2024.
The last 13-14 years of Tory misrule has brought the successive disasters of austerity, Brexit, Boris Johnson, the Great Covid Bungle, Lettuce Truss , the so called Cost of Living Crisis, a crisis hugely exacerbated by Brexit. The list goes on and on - but Nick and James hope that won't apply to the Tories.
Nick is more hopeful of the electoral wipe-out the Tories richly deserve but James is more cautious, believing that somehow the tribal English Tory vote will rally to the clarion lies of The Daily Mail - despite the obvious weirdness of Rishi Sunak and the cataclysmic mis-governance .of the last 13 and a half years
Both agree the defeat of the Tories - now little more than an English nationalist party - isimperative if the UK is to rescued from its dizzying descent to poverty and irrelevance or even saved in its current form.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
07 Jan 2024
Ep 24: How the Radical Right of Reform could destroy the Tories - with Rob Ford
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Professor Rob Ford of Manchester University on the epic civil war looming in a 2024 general election on the radical right of British politics between the Tories and Nigel Farage's latest vehicle for fantasy politics - Reform.
Brexit, Liz Truss, crippling interest rate rises, a flat-lining economy with booming immigration, and the cost of living crisis are just a few of the disasters visited on the UK by the radical right since the 2016 EU referendum.
Rob explains the differences between the far right right and the radical right. Rob, a leading academic and author of Revolt on the Right, explains how the Tories are caught on the horns of a dilemma.
Do the Tories continue apeing Faragist politics and continue to alienate traditional middle class Tory voters in the key battlegrounds of the Home Counties? Or do they try to tack to the centre and upset the ageing crackpots in their constituency parties and their Red Wall working class one-time Brexit supporters? Are they in danger of alienating both groups and everyone else in between?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
14 Jan 2024
Ep 25: Crimes against humanity, lies & misinformation in the Gaza conflict with Daniella Peled
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Daniella Peled, Managing Editor of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, on the terrible conflict in Gaza .
At a time when South Africa is bringing its genocide case against israel before the International Court of Justice, Daniella discusses with Nick the allegations of Israel's war crimes as well as the crimes committed by Hamas on October 7th.
Daniella talks about the extreme political voices in Israel today and the impact these are having on the current conflict in Gaza and on the region. Truth is often said to be the first casualty of war. So, what roles are misinformation and lies playing in the current conflict?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
21 Jan 2024
Ep 26: The Post Office scandal & the curse of British managerialism with economist Chris Dillow
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Chris Dillow, the economist, and author of the Stumbling and Mumbling blog.
Chris - @CJFDillow - is a keen commentator on British managerialism - the curse of incompetence and privileged entitlement that led to the Post Office scandal and blights much of modern Britain today.
Chris explains how modern Britain seems to reject competent management - opting instead for psychopaths and incompetents - often a combination of the two - who practise "managerialism" rather than efficient management that prioritises the good over bad.
All too often, today's hirers prize over-confidence - preferably relayed with private school tones - over quietly stated and competent management.
The result is a UK - beset by management scandals - where nothing seems to work.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
28 Jan 2024
Ep 27: Breaking the Brexit Taboo with Professor Chris Grey
Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown on the UK's greatest taboo - the ever-deepening Brexit crisis - from Chris Grey, emeritus Professor @RoyalHolloway, and author of the highly-regarded and must-read blog, Brexit and beyond.
Extra Brexit food checks come in from next week - threatening food price rises and shortages. Meanwhile, the Tories fail to get one of its promised "Canada-style free trade agreements" with Canada!
Every week, @chrisgreybrexit - also author of the book Brexit Unfolded - exposes the many absurdities, lies and disasters of the Brexit Britain clown show and explains how the Brexiteers' preposterous promises were never remotely deliverable and were always likely to cause huge damage to the UK's economy and standing in the world. For example, we should now be seeing the Silicon Valley of the East End's Hoxton - as promised by @DanielJHannan. Er...where is it?
Both Chris and Nick lament the chronic failure of the BBC and other MSM to hold to account the charlatans like Hannan , Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage who mis-sold Brexit.
But how can Labour handle the Brexit mess they are set to inherit when so many people who voted for it refuse to accept the mayhem they were conned into inflicting on all of us?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
04 Feb 2024
Ep 28: The Left's failure to confront the Trumpism menace with writer Matt Johnson
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from US journalist and author Matt Johnson on the threat posed - yet again - by Donald Trump and his deranged far right MAGA cult that has captured the Republican Party.
Matt - @mattjj89 - the author of How Hitchens can save the Left, explains how there is little evidence so far of a tangible centre-left coalition to confront Trump - who is a dead cert to be the Republicans' nomination to run for the presidency in 2024, despite facing 91 felony charges..
Incredibly, despite trying to overturn the result of the 2020 general election and provoking the January 6th insurrection, Trump is running against the incumbent Joe Biden who is 80 now and will be 86 were he to survive a second stint in the White House.
Trump himself is 78 but exudes a certain demonic energy in comparison with Biden whose age and unpopular running mate, Vice-President Harris Kamala Harris, could prove to be telling factors counting against a successful re-run.
Nick asks Matt what can be done to save the US and the world from the undoubted calamity of a second Trump presidency?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
11 Feb 2024
Ep 29 How Labour wins big & stays in power with former Blair adviser John McTernan
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from John McTernan, one-time political secretary to Tony Blair and seasoned political strategist and commentator.
How does Labour not only win but replace the Tories finally as the natural party of government?
14 years of Tory misrule have brought the failed projects of Brexit and austerity and the Boris Johnson and Liz Truss shitshows. Now Rishi Sunak and his divided rabble fester low down in the polls, waging their culture wars, while the country falls apart around them.
John argues that people are crying out for real change and Labour has an opportunity to win big and stay in power. Will Keir Starmer grasp the opportunity and give people the change they want and that the UK desperately needs?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
18 Feb 2024
Ep 30: The Tories' by-election blues and the stench of electoral death with Professor Tim Bale
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Professor Tim Bale of the Queen Mary University of London, who is widely looked on as the UK's keenest academic observer of the Conservative Party.
The Tories have been left reeling and predictably even more mutinous by their catastrophic defeats in last week's two by-elections in their hitherto safe seats of Kingswood in south Gloucestershire and Wellingborough in north Northamptonshire.
Not only did they lose Kingswood with a 16.4 % swing, where Labour only needed a relatively modest 11-point swing. They also lost Wellingborough, where the swing was 28.5% - the second highest swing from Conservative to Labour in any post-war by-election.
Tim - @ProfTimBale - discusses the shatteringly few options now left open to an incompetent populist governing party that is becoming more and more loathed by voters. Seemingly, all they have left to clutch are the meagre straws of their deranged Rwanda policy and the tattered flag of a failed Brexit project. So, will delaying Rishi Sunak's inevitable day of judgement only make a terrible situation even worse?
Tim's latest bookThe Conservative Party after Brexit (published by Polity) charts the Party's dizzying descent into populist and radical hard right Brexit populism.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
25 Feb 2024
Ep 31: Pulling Brexit Britain out of its economic death spiral - with economist Danny Blanchflower
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from leading economist Danny Blanchflower CBE - onetime external member of the Bank of England's interest rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee.
Danny foresaw economic woes mounting up in 2007 and predicted a crash - a year or so before the start of the bank collapses that led to the Great Recession.
Since then, the Tories have visited on the country one failed economic project after another - austerity, Brexit, Trussanomics. Now the average Brit is forced to pay what's been called the "Moron Premium" for their chronic incompetence - higher food prices, extortionate energy bills and more expensive mortgages, while a failing economy stagnates in recession.
The Tories have predictably descended into in-fighting and sinister culture wars as they await their inevitable rout at the next election. But what can Labour do to pull the UK economy out of its current death spiral?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
02 Mar 2024
Ep 32: Will the real Keir Starmer step forward? With the Labour Leader's biographer Tom Baldwin
Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown on Sir Keir Starmer with the Labour Leader's biographer Tom Baldwin.
Nick asks: WTF is Keir Starmer really?
Tom - @TomBaldwin66 - spent hours with Starmer, his friends and family to investigate the supposed enigma that is the Labour Leader for his book which is just out - Keir Starmer: The Biography, published by William Collins.
Tom, a journalist and former Labour spin doctor, discovered a far more interesting and enigmatic character than the "boring" stiff caricature the Tories and their Fleet Street henchmen are desperate to paint.
Starmer is probably the most working class Labour leader since Harold Wilson and yet the only one to take up the Labour mantel with a knighthood, gifted to him for his stint as Director of Public Prosecutions. Tom finds a man forged by family history and values, decent and kind but utterly ruthless when needs be, and determined to sweep the failed, toxic Tories from office.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
Nick talks to celebrated author, columnist and editor Will Hutton about his new book, This Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain (Bloomsbury), described as "a brilliant book" by no less a figure than Sir Keir Starmer.
If Labour wins - as currently expected - how does it pull the UK out of the doom cycle it's been put into by the Tories? Will explains how much work has to be done by Starmer and his team to put the country back on its feet after the Tory-inflicted disasters of austerity, Brexit, Boris Johnson and last, but not least, Liz Truss and her notorious mortgage-doubling "mini budget".
How do you re-boot an economy growing when Brexit alone is forecast to eventually knock a ruinous 10 per cent off GDP and when wages have stagnated during 14 years of Tory misrule?
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
16 Jun 2024
Ep: 34: The Twighlight of the Tories with Rafael Behr
@NickCohen4 and Guardian political columnist @rafaelbehr discuss the potential for an extinction-level general election result for the Tories on July 4th.
Time and events seem to have caught up with the Conservative Party at last as they face retribution at the hands of an exasperated electorate after 14 years of chaos and 5 prime ministers, plus policy disaster after policy disaster including Brexit, Austerity, the bungling of Covid, the Tufton Street insanity of "Trussonomics", turds in rivers and seas and the endless Rwanda/immigration fiasco. And then there is the serial buffoonery and malfeasance of Boris Johnson.
Rafael and Nick discuss how the Conservatives find themselves beached on political territory between the rabid right they tried and failed to appease and the centre ground where people have become increasingly repelled by Tory incompetence and hard right, populist antics. E.g. Tories may boast of "getting brexit done" but scarcely of brexit itself.
Rafael is one of the Guardian's leading columnists and observers of the political scene. Rafael's book - "Politics - A Survivor's Guide" is published by Atlantic.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
23 Jun 2024
Ep: 35 Torygeddon - can the polls be right? With Tory expert Professor Tim Bale
Nick talks to Professor Tim Bale of the Queen Mary University of London, who is widely looked on as the UK's keenest academic observer of the Conservative Party.
Poll after poll indicates a near-extinction event for the Conservative Party on July 4th. The disasters of Brexit, Johnson and Truss coupled with the Tories' tedious and interminable culture wars have long exposed the supposed go-to party of government as more of an electoral suicide cult than anything else.
Tim and Nick discuss the potential scale of defeat for the Tories and whether or not -post-election - they will try to recapture the vote-rich heartlands of the political centre ground or cling to its Farageist-Brexity wet blanket, a strategy that looks guaranteed to condemn them to the fringes of British politics for years to come, and possibly leave them exposed to a Reform Party reverse take-over.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
03 Aug 2024
Ep 36: A new age of authoritarianism with Anne Applebaum
Putin, Xi Jinping, Jong Un, Trump, Maduro - dictators great and small - wannabe or real deal - dominate the news space these days. Democracy hasn't been under so much pressure since the 30's and 40's. Anne talks about the forces driving this new age of autocracy and the men with the often little iron fists who want to rule their part of the world. Meanwhile, some are doing their patriotic duty to themselves by enriching themselves at the cost of their country. "L'etat - c'est a moi!"
After seventeen years as a columnist at The Washington Post, Anne became a staff writer at The Atlantic in January 2020. She is the author of five critically acclaimed and award-winning books: Twilight of Democracy, Red Famine, Iron Curtain, Between East and West, and Gulag, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. She divides her time between Poland, where her husband Radoslaw Sikorski is foreign minister, and Washington, D.C.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
07 Sep 2024
Ep 37: The rise of the Far Right in Germany with Annette Dittert
Nick Cohen chats withAnnette Dittert, London Correspondent and bureau chief for ARD, Germany's first and celebrated post-war public broadcaster - also known as "Das Erste" (The First).
The Far Right AfD (Alternative for German) made stunning gains in recent state elections in eastern German in Thuringia and Saxony, throwing mainstream parties into a funk and causing shockwaves across Europe. What does this mean for Germany 80 less than 80 years after the defeat of the Nazis?
Annette, @annettedittert also a filmmaker, columnist and author, talks about the huge widespread disillusionment Germans share about the current coalition government led by the Social Democrat chancellor Olaf Scholz. There is also growing popular dismay over the state of Germany itself where nothing, as with spades in the UK, seems to work any more.
What can be done to counter the threat of the AfD which is profoundly anti-EU, and anti-immigrant and is seen to be a cheerleader for Vladimir Putin and opponent of aid to Ukraine?
Anglophile Annette also talks about her depression over the state of the UK under the 3 year Boris Johnson shit show and how Brexit has helped destroy the UK's reputation and and power in Germany and elsewhere, to the point where few Germans now appear interested in what happens there.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
14 Sep 2024
Ep 38: Labour's chance to salvage the UK with Rafael Behr
Nick talks to Lowdown regular, author and Guardian columnist Rafael Behr about what Labour does now in government after 14 years in opposition on the sidelines of terrible Tory governments delivering austerity, brexit, a bungled pandemic response, five failed prime ministers, economic decline and collapsing councils and public services.
Will the UK inherited from the Tories prove to be a poisoned chalice for PM Sir Keir Starmer and co or can Labour rescue and rejuvenate a country battered by years of Tory misrule?
Rafael concludes Labour may have the policies and the right people to carry them out but wonders whether Sir Keir and his chancellor Rachel Reeves have the political vim to sell their vision and plans to the electorate. Already, the BBC has declared Labour's blink-and-you'd've-missed-it political honeymoon to be "over."
Rafael @rafaelbehr concedes Labour has its work cut out - as latest opinion polls suggest - and a rocky passage lies ahead. But the Conservatives have not even begun to examine the reasons for their crushing defeat in July.
Most media attention has been focussed on the split on the Tories' far right, and with Nigel Farage\s latest vehicle, Reform, while steadfastly ignoring the hemorrhaging of one-time rock solid Conservative seats to the Liberal Democrats, including the Witney and Maidenhead constituencies of former prime ministers Lord Cameron and Theresa May. Rafael contends that the famous "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" - which the Tories also lost to the Lib Dems - remain particularly disgusted by brexit and its abject and predictable failure.
Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4
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