Raf Behr talks to journalist, author and broadcaster David Aaronovitch about his recent visit to the National Conservatives conference, and what it taught him about state of the Tory party.

They discuss:

Was there really a re-alignment in British politics post-Brexit?

What do the Nat Cons have to offer us Brits apart from hardline anti-immigration vibes?

Why do some parts of the commentariat spend so much time talking about 'culture wars' when there are so many other issues to cover?

If, as expected, the next government is Labour and inherits an economic mess, will it be possible for them to make all the necessary hard decisions about taxation and spending, and stay in power?

About David Aaaronvitch

More to follow, but in the meantime the most important bit you need to know about his work is this excellent substack updated regularly: https://davidaaronovitch.substack.com

Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as both one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts and Political Science Podcasts on the web.

https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts

https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rafael Behr talks to Rob Hutton, parliamentary sketch writer at the Critic, about the uneasy relationship between Westminster lobby journalists and MPs.

Often political journalists cultivate close relationships with politicians to find out what's really happening in the corridors of power.

But does a journalist's 'insider status' cloud their judgement when working out how to write about political stories or policy ssues, or whether to cover them at all?

Does it inevitably become a trade-off between, a steady stream of 'exclusives', and a fair and objective approach to reporting?

If so, what does this mean for democracy?

Rob Hutton is an author and freelance journalist. He spent 16 years covering the British government for Bloomberg, taking in five prime ministers, as many elections, and the odd referendum. Before that, he worked for the Mirror and the Financial Times. He now has a regular spot as sketchwriter for The Critic. His career has been a mix of seriousness and satire. While he was a reporter for Bloomberg, unquestionably The Global News Organisation Least Likely To Tell A Joke, he wrote Romps, Tots & Boffins, a satirical book about the words only journalists use. He followed that up with Would They Lie to You?, about the way politicians got around reality without actually uttering untruths (it was a more innocent age). According to Rob, his most recent book, Agent Jack, doesn’t have quite so many laughs, although he says there’s an incident with a jar of marmalade and a blueprint for a Vickers tank. 'Oh, and there’s a naked German in a wardrobe.' 

Here's a link to his Podcast - A Pod Too Far

Rafael Behr's first book was released in May, 2023

**'Politics, A Survivor’s Guide,'** is all about the infuriating toxicity of politics, how it got that way and how to resist the slide into cynicism and pessimism that are so corrosive of democracy. It’s about the challenge of staying engaged without getting enraged; the need to empathise with people whose views we cannot share and how that is different to appeasement of politics we believe to be dangerous.

Available from Waterstones:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/politics-a-survivors-guide/rafael-behr/9781838955045

Or, for those who are interested in signed copies, from City Books in Hove:

https://www.city-books.co.uk

Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as both one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts and Political Science Podcasts on the web.

https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts

https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this edition Rafael Behr talks to Professor Ben Ansell about his new book Why Politics Fails: The Five Traps of the Modern World & How to Escape Them

Ben Ansell is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. He was made Fellow of the British Academy in 2018, among the youngest fellows at that time. His work has been widely covered in the media, including in the World Bank's World Development Report, The New York Times, The Economist, The Times and on BBC Radio 4's 'Start the Week'. He was the Principal Investigator of the multi-million-pound ERC project 'The Politics of Wealth Inequality', is co-editor of the most-cited journal in comparative politics, and has written three award-winning academic books. Why Politics Fail is his latest book and his first for a wider audience.

Link to buy Ben's new book

https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/284663/ben-ansell

Link to Ben's substack

https://benansell.substack.com

Rafael Behr's first book was released Thursday 4 May, 2023

**'Politics, A Survivor’s Guide,'** is all about the infuriating toxicity of politics, how it got that way and how to resist the slide into cynicism and pessimism that are so corrosive of democracy. It’s about the challenge of staying engaged without getting enraged; the need to empathise with people whose views we cannot share and how that is different to appeasement of politics we believe to be dangerous.

Available from Waterstones:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/politics-a-survivors-guide/rafael-behr/9781838955045

Or, for those who are interested in signed copies, from City Books in Hove:

https://www.city-books.co.uk

Politics on the Couch has been chosen by Feedspot as both one of the Top 25 UK Psychology Podcasts, and Top 25 Political Science Podcasts on the web.

https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_psychology_podcasts

https://blog.feedspot.com/political_science_podcasts

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.