Within weeks of becoming Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood has announced a set of wide-ranging policies aimed at deterring illegal asylum seekers. Will they work practically and politically? Plus, has Rachel Reeves got a coherent vision for the economy? How to define the soft left? And are there too many political journalists? Rock & Roll Politics - The Christmas Special is live at Kings Place on the 8th of December, just days after the budget. Tickets are available now at the Kings Place website here. Subscribe to Patreon to take part in my exclusive live event on the 20th November, plus ad-free podcasts arriving in your feed a day early and bonus podcasts and live events.  https://www.patreon.com/RockNRollPolitics  Written and presented by Steve  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's universal consensus that the briefings from Number 10, warning of a leadership challenge from Wes Streeting and the conduct of "feral" Labour MPs, have rebounded badly on Starmer and those involved. Yet the briefings against key Labour figures are part of a pattern under Keir Starmer's leadership… even if he is the biggest victim of these operations and is now in greater danger. Plus brilliant questions on the BBC and much more. Rock & Roll Politics - The Christmas Special is live at Kings Place on the 8th of December. Tickets are available now at the Kings Place website here. Subscribe to Patreon to take part in my exclusive live event on the 20th November, plus ad-free podcasts arriving in your feed a day early and bonus podcasts and live events.  Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tim Davie, Deborah Turness and other senior BBC managers have gone out of their way to please the right, from the treatment of Gary Linker to the selection of political panels where there is often an imbalance that favours the right. Ironically and predictably the right wing newspapers have shown yet again their bullying muscularity by triggering the removal of Turness and Davie. Why has the BBC lost its way and is there any route that leads to the BBC's survival?  Rock & Roll Politics -The Xmas Special is live at Kings Place on Dec 8th, days after the budget. Get your tickets here. Subscribe to Patreon for live events, bonus podcasts and to get the regular podcast a day early and ad free.  Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Labour's so-called 'soft left' is becoming more muscular and vocal, but what binds this part of the party and how does it want this government to change? Plus, can Rachel Reeves make voters recognise the connection between higher taxes and better public services? A key rule for governments: "Make the connections".  Rock & Roll Politics - The Christmas Special is live at Kings Place on the 8th of December. Tickets are available now at the Kings Place website here. Subscribe to Patreon to take part in my exclusive live event on the 20th November, plus ad-free podcasts arriving in your feed a day early and bonus podcasts and live events.  Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nigel Farage has torn up Reform's 2024 manifesto, pledging big spending cuts and promising tax cuts. Whether on the right or left, has he framed a distinct and credible argument about the economy? Also, is the Royal Family doomed in modern Britain? Plus brilliant questions and a range of notices for the Rock & Roll Politics co-operative.  Rock & Roll Politics - The Christmas Special is live at Kings Place on the 8th of December. Tickets are available now at the Kings Place website here.  Subscribe to Patreon to take part in my exclusive live event on the 20th November, plus ad-free podcasts arriving in your feed a day early and bonus podcasts and live events.   Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Keir Starmer refused to rule out breaking pre-election tax commitments at Prime Minister's Questions, suggesting that he and Rachel Reeves are contemplating doing so. Can they get away with it? Or will it be the cause of their fall?  Rock & Roll Politics - The Christmas Special is live at Kings Place on the 8th of December. Tickets are available now at the Kings Place website here. Subscribe to Patreon to take part in my exclusive live event on the 20th November, plus ad-free podcasts arriving in your feed a day early and bonus podcasts and live events.  Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Finally, Rachel Reeves cites the Brexit deal as one reason why the economy is failing and why she will have to raise taxes in the budget. But is it too little, too late?  Rock & Roll Politics - The Christmas Special is live at Kings Place on the 8th of December. Tickets are available now at the Kings Place website here. Subscribe to Patreon to take part in my exclusive live event on the 20th November, plus ad-free podcasts arriving in your feed a day early and bonus podcasts and live events. Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the nationalisation of the railways, the need for economic growth, climate change and a focus on addressing regional inequalities, transport should be at the top of the government’s priorities. But is it? I’m joined by transport guru, author and podcaster, Christian Wolmar, to discuss why Transport is often overlooked by prime ministers and chancellors and how hopeful or gloomy he is now. Rock & Roll Politics - The Christmas Special is live at Kings Place on the 8th of December. Tickets are available now at the Kings Place website here. Subscribe to Patreon to take part in an exclusive live event on the 20th November, plus ad-free podcasts arriving in your feed a day early, bonus podcasts and live events. Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Most of the time the right-wing media scream that government should not interfere with the police. But when the police make a decision the media disapproves of, it screams the opposite. In doing so this tells us much about the blurred lines of responsibility and the confusion about the role of the state – that partly explains why 'nothing works' remains a powerful motif in British politics. Rock & Roll Politics - The Christmas Special is live at Kings Place on the 8th of December. Tickets are available now at the Kings Place website here. Subscribe to Patreon for ad free podcasts arriving in your feed a day early...plus bonus podcasts and live events. Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a recording of a recent Rock & Roll Politics live show, the audience became Rachel Reeves… and I became Emma Barnett interviewing some of them. There were many ideas for the real Chancellor in advance of next month’s budget and some mighty dilemmas explored. Here it is! Rock &Roll Politics - The Christmas Special is live at Kings Place on the 8th of December. Tickets are available now at the Kings Place website here. Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events. https://www.patreon.com/RockNRollPolitics  Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The post of deputy leader is ill-defined at best. Yet delving deep, and going back to contests in the 1970s, shows they change the course of Labour's history. The current one will also make waves when the result is declared. Plus Donald Trump.. the peacemaker.  Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events. Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Conservative Party conference gathers with the party way behind in third place and being hit by defections to Reform, a threat from the right they have never faced before. Can they survive?  Written and presented by Steve Richards. Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts including the latest on Labour's Deputy leadership contest, and to get the regular podcast a day early and ad free. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Labour Party conference is in a febrile mood – there's much talk of leadership, and also of Farage. Can Starmer bring together those horrified by a Reform government? Or is he too unpopular, not least with those on the left?  Please subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events. https://www.patreon.com/RockNRollPolitics  Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who are the Liberal Democrats? The coalition years exposed a deep split between social democrats and free market liberals. Are those divisions healed? Is Ed Davey right to party play for laughs? Is he making the correct pitch in the current multi-party mayhem?  Tickets for Thursday's epic live show in the main concert hall at Kings Place are available here. Please subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events. Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Predictably, Peter Mandelson's return to the centre of the political stage has ended in crisis. Mandelson's influence on Keir Starmer grew after Labour lost the Hartlepool by-election in the early days of Starmer's leadership. The fashionable narrative is that Starmer changed his strategy for the better after Hartlepool, but is that when the seeds were sown that have led to the current crisis around his leadership? • Rock & Roll Politics is live in the main concert hall at Kings Place on Thursday September 25th at the end of the Labour Party Conference week! Tickets available here.   • Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events. Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Keir Starmer has kept more or less the same Cabinet but given most of them new jobs. Will it work as Reform UK soars in the polls?  Rock & Roll Politics is live in the main concert hall at Kings Place on Thursday September 25th at the end of the Labour Party Conference week! Tickets available here. https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/words/steve-richards-presents-rock-n-roll-politics-6/     My biography of Tony Blair is published this Thursday and is available here. https://www.waterstones.com/book/tony-blair/steve-richards/9781800754409   Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events. A bonus podcast is coming soon! https://www.patreon.com/RockNRollPolitics  Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Labour languishing in the polls, Keir Starmer has reshuffled his top team… yet again. His leadership has been punctuated by changes in senior personnel, so does that tell us more about him or them?  My book on Tony Blair is published next Thursday. You can pre-order it here. Rock & Roll Politics is live at Kings Place on Thursday September 25th at the end of the Labour Party Conference week! Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events. Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here’s a recording of the final show at this year’s festival, where there was a different show every day. The final one looked ahead via four political figures, but many other themes and characters were explored over the fourteen shows. It was great seeing so many of the co-operative in Edinburgh! Subscribe to Patreon⁠ for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events. Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The run of Rock & Roll Politics shows is in full swing, with host Steve Richards delivering a different show each day.  Here's an update for the co-operative on the various themes and the audience predictions, plus questions on the political drama being played out in Wales, and much more.  Rock & Roll Politics is live at the Edinburgh Festival right now, with a different show every day. Tickets here.  Subscribe to Patreon for live events, bonus podcasts and to get the regular podcast a day early and ad free.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Labour government has endured a traumatic first year on many fronts, but its opponents are in different ways extremely vulnerable. If its opponents cannot win next time Labour will secure a second term, yet the mood music suggests a government in near fatal trouble...  Rock & Roll Politics is live at the Edinburgh Festival with a different show each day. Tickets available here. Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events. https://www.patreon.com/RockNRollPolitics  Written and presented by Steve Richards. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices