Steve is back, but as a guest, and joined by Ian Dunt to reflect on what makes a liberal, how to win the culture war, and whether we remember anything from our undergraduate days. Swearing.
Buy Ian Dunt's new book, How To Be A Liberal, from Canbury Press.
Audio clips from Patrick Tull's reading of Treason's Harbour by Patrick O'Brian
Special Guests: Ian Dunt and Steve Bullock.
Chris and Garvan Walshe catch up on how they handled lockdown, what to expect next, and what has changed since they last recorded the podcast together, in November 2018. Just as it did two years ago, the Northern Ireland backstop features heavily in Lie of the Week. Also, will the Conservative Party have the good sense to ditch its current leader?
Special Guest: Garvan Walshe.
Alviina Alametsä is a Green Party MEP from Finland. She took up her seat only in February 2020, after it was vacated by a departing UK MEP. Cakewatch likes to think that she took one previously occupied by a Faragist. Alviina's particular policy interests are public mental health and conflict resolution, so who better to talk about tackling the Brexit aftermath? Alviina draws on her own experience as a survivor of a school shooting to inform her campaigning work to improve access to mental healthcare for young people in particular. In a world facing climate emergency and coronavirus, not to mention Brexit and populism, we look at how policy generally fails to factor in the mental health impact, and what can be done at EU level to address this.
Mind, the mental health charity, offering help and advice to you if you are suffering from depression or if you are looking for advice on how to help someone who you think might be depressed.
Special Guest: Alviina Alametsä.
Trade expert David Henig joins the podcast again for our first survey of the post B-day wreckage. With the EU and the UK apparently offering different visions of their future relationship, which one is the more realistic? Hahaha no seriously, which?
Special Guest: David Henig.
For our final podcast before Brexit, we're joined again by Tanja Bueltmann to talk about coping strategies, Steve's album of ambient prozac, and the ongoing work to support EU citizens in the UK as they face mounting hostility and an unforgiving bureaucracy.
You can get Steve's album here, and become an EU Citizens' Champion.
We're dedicating this episode to the memory of our friend and colleague Andy Barnard.
The aftermath. Rather than wallow in despair we look back on a fight well fought, and the friends that have joined us on the podcast. We also reflect a little bit on what the future will bring. It's not pretty, so we need to find strategies to help us through the dark times ahead.
Thank you to all our guests who have helped us out on the podcast over the last 67 episodes:
Alyn Smith
Andy of Remainer Now
Axel Antoni
David Henig
Dmitry Grozoubinski
Garvan Walshe
Ian Bond
Jason Knoll
Jim Cornelius
Jon Worth
Julie Girling
Katie Low
Laura Shields
Molly Scott Cato
Nick Crosby
Nicky James
Peter Wilding
Seb Dance
Steve Analyst
Tanja Bueltmann
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
Download Steve's new album One Thousand Days and please give generously to EU Citizens Champion!
We cut to the chase. Nothing is more important than this. On Thursday, vote for the candidate most likely to beat Boris Johnson. Because if you don't, if he wins, our country will become unrecognisable. This will be the defining battle of our culture war.
Brexit flowchart hero and EU Twitter legend Jon Worth joins Chris this week to take a deeper dive into tactical voting in the UK's general election - where is a tactical vote needed, how to work out where a tactical vote should go, and what might happen? All in the service of depriving Boris Johnson of a working majority and so keeping our hopes of remaining in the EU alive. Jon and Chris also reflect on their experiences of living and working in the EU and observing the way other EU countries do politics differently, and ask how the UK might do things better, why its EU membership seems to have had so little impact, and yes the 'f' word crops up. Federalism, that is.
If you want to take Jon up on his offer of a personalised tactical voting recommendation, please get in touch with him via his blog jonworth.eu or on Twitter where he is @jonworth.
Jon's tactical voting guide can be found here.
Special Guest: Jon Worth.
Steve studied moral philosophy. (So did Chris but he doesn't get a word in edgeways.) We look at the ethics of tactical voting in the 2019 general election, and why you should hold your nose and vote for a candidate from a party you might not endorse as a party of government. Not just because you want to Remain in the EU, but also because you want to avert a catastrophic Johnson majority and engineer a situation where your first and second order goals might, just might, see the light of day.
Network Vote want your help to get the "unheard third" of the vote out.
Today we launch our website https://t.co/MghOAJAWaE - a tool to help our communtities across the UK boost voter turnout.
— network.vote (@NetworkVote) November 10, 2019
Ours is a simple, unique idea: we don't want you to sign up to a mailing list or get your details. The materials are free, open-source and for everybody /1
Jon Worth's blog is your one-stop-shop to help you decide how to use your precious vote. You can find out where you are voting, whether you should vote tactically, and what the key tactical voting sites are recommending you should do with your vote.
Jon Worth's practical guide to tactical voting
Laura's kitchen table is once again the scene of a cosy chat about our favourite things: Brexit, Boris Johnson, his so-called new deal, and the wholesale attack on citizens' rights. For light relief we join four Remainers Now standing in the rain outside the European Commission's headquarters and hear from them why they've made the journey to Brussels and what they want to achieve here. This podcast was brought to you by a large gin and tonic.
Jamie Susskind, author of Future Politics
On The House podcast with guest Alastair Campbell
Special Guest: Laura Shields.
Chris is back from Tashkent with a head full of musings. How badly does the EU want the UK to leave? Quite badly, he thinks. Steve sort of agrees. But this week's unicorn chaser is the imminent collapse of the Bannonite populist project on both sides of the Atlantic. Steve sort of disagrees.
Johnson says he has a deal that might fly but he won't show it to anyone yet, because it's too soon isn't it? [turns head, stares at camera]
Is the EU losing patience? Xavier Bettel looks as if he has. What are the implications for Remainers?
Plus we have a half-hearted go at a making verbal Jon Worth flowchart on the fly - what are the scenarios from here on out? And - we can dream - what happens the morning after revocation?
Don't forget the Rally 4 Our Rights on 12 October!
After a long absence, Steve is back co-hosting the podcast and here we all are again: parliament versus executive. Does Cummings have a grand strategy? Or is Johnson flying by the seat of his pants and about to crash? After a long evening watching Parliament TV, we catch up with each other and wonder where this shaggy dog story will go next.
Our rights are under immediate and serious threat from Brexit and Boris Johnson: join us on 12 October and Rally 4 Our Rights! Also, please consider donating to cover costs.
Chris is joined by Jason Knoll who teaches high school students in Verona, Wisconsin. His particular interest is the European Union, and he brings his particular point of view to the podcast in a discussion about Trump, Johnson, populism, and grassroots politics.
Cakewatch will be back in September.
Special Guest: Jason Knoll.
Former Tory Party insider Peter Wilding is back on an historic day for his old party and for the UK. We reflect on the realisation of Boris Johnson's ambition and how he'll handle his poisoned chalice; the Jacobins are now in charge and the next hundred days will be... eventful. Plus a few reflections on the European election and on the EU top jobs.
Special Guest: Peter Wilding.
Chris and Steve Analyst discuss 'montagegate', in which Steve documents selective editing of news footage by the BBC to give the false impression that Leavers and Remainers alike said ahead of the referendum that voting to leave the EU would mean voting to leave the Single Market. This is not true.
Ancient historian Katie Low joins Chris to talk about why ancient history has so much to teach us about modern Brexit. Will Brexit be the UK's Sicilian Expedition? (Yes.) Is Boris Johnson the modern Alcibiades? (Sort of.) Is Jacob Rees Mogg a modern Cicero? (No.) Is Jeremy Corbyn the modern Julius Caesar? (No but Seumas Milne might be.) With a side order of griping at British educational elitism.
Katie's guest post on Chris' blog
Timothy Snyder's speech for Europe Day 2019 - "we are more than our myths"
Special Guest: Katie Low.
Chris, Tanja, and Axel Antoni offer a first take on last week's European election and its aftermath before examining in a bit more detail what led to the disenfranchisement of many EU citizens who were denied their vote, and what can be done about it.
Now updated with new and improved sound thanks to post-production by heroic listener Charlie Elwess!
Join The 3 Million's case against the government by sharing your story.
You can also support The 3 Million! (Please!) And if you haven't done so yet (or even if you have), please also consider becoming an EU Citizens' Champion.
Here is our episode on mental health issues. Mind, the mental health charity, offer help and advice to you if you are suffering from depression or if you are looking for advice on how to help someone who you think might be depressed.
Special Guest: Axel Antoni.
Andy voted Remain but was not particularly engaged in politics. But something prompted him to become an activist and launch a huge and growing grassroots campaign providing a platform for people who voted Leave, but regret it, to challenge the Westminster orthodoxy that "the people have spoken". It's OK to change your mind, and Andy wants to make sure that regretful Leavers understand that. We talk to Andy about his activism, and we also continue where we left off last week on party politics, party loyalties, and the European elections. Plus Chris finally does his homework on the Spitzenkandidat procedure.
Special Guest: Andy of Remainer Now.
Now the parties have published their manifestos, how should Remainers plan to use their votes in the European election on 23 May? We talk about the tribal nature of party politics and why good people stay loyal to bad parties.
Intro music this week by Ludwig van Beethoven arranged & performed by Mr Steve Bullock.
