Episodios

  • Is the jury system overrated?
    Dec 2 2025

    In the sane world of the commons, the Shadow Justice Secretary was only two minutes into his speech before he called the justice secretary a “Lammy Dodger“ and accused him of going back on his previous position on jury trial. Today’s question is this does ending most jury trials speed up a sclerotic system? Or is it the wrong solution for the right diagnosis?

    Later, is public sympathy with the striking junior doctors? And do they really expect to win more pay?

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    35 m
  • What was The Chancellor's biggest budget crime?
    Dec 1 2025

    Rachel Reeves is accused of misleading the public, lying and “possible market abuse” by the opposition. They’ve called for her resignation. The Prime Minister, however, is standing by her and told us today the budget was a thing of “personal pride” for him.

    Meanwhile the OBR - the body that accidentally leaked the Chancellors budget an hour before it was given - have admitted this evening it was the worst failure in its fifteen year history. The run up to the entire budget was a fiasco. But was it a lie? And which bits do the public really understand or care about?

    Later, why is Trump about to declare war on Venezuela? Is it about regime change, or oil, or Epstein or all three?

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    32 m
  • Salman Rushdie on political violence, free speech and BBC "cowardice"
    Nov 28 2025

    Salman Rushdie has spent half of his life under the threat of death, but it is only in his latest novel - The Eleventh Hour - that he has devoted a whole book to the themes of mortality. It is his first return to fiction since an attempt on his life on 2022.

    This Friday, Rushdie joins Lewis and Jon in the studio to discuss his new book, political violence, and the "cowardice" of the BBC.

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    34 m
  • Weekend Edition: Q&A - Which rules should football steal from other sports? - The Sports Agents
    Nov 28 2025

    Can other sports teach football a thing or two? On today's show Gabby and Mark take your suggestions on how to fix football, using your passion for a massive range of sports.

    Plus, we look back at The Sports Agents this week: a huge interview with McLaren CEO Zak Brown as Lando Norris could win them the world title this weekend; and we talk about the elephant in the room at struggling Liverpool - grief.

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    Executive Producer: Adonis Pratsides

    Producer: Sophie Penney

    Video Producer: Sam Trudgill

    Social Media Editor: Calum Scotland

    Tom Hughes is Editor for The News Agents podcast network

    Vicky Etchells is the Commissioning Editor for Global

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    16 m
  • Does Labour need to own its move to the Left?
    Nov 27 2025

    Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been out defending their Budget - denying that the tax-raising measures contained within it break the Labour manifesto's promises around taxes on working people. Instead they have been trying to focus on the additional money for the NHS, lifting children out of poverty, and raises to the minimum wage.

    Yesterday's package of measures amounts to a fundamental shift in both the size of the State and the size of its tax take. It looks set to draw the political divide and define the political debate into the next election. So does Labour need to start making a better case about why it has moved the country in that direction?

    Jon and Lewis speak exclusively to Labour's deputy leader Lucy Powell. She broke ranks before the Budget to warn against the idea of raising income tax - how does she feel now?

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    44 m
  • Budget 2025: Has Reeves saved her job?
    Nov 26 2025

    This time last year, Rachel Reeves pledged that her tax raising Budget “wiped the slate clean” and would mean no more need for future tax raids. Today demonstrably proved what a hostage to fortune those comments were. As a result of the Chancellor’s statement today - shambolically accidentally leaked by the OBR before she had got to her feet - the tax burden is due to reach an all time high by the end of the decade. Due to her tax threshold freezes, one in four workers will pay the higher rate of income tax by 2030. There were unmistakably Labour themes in this Budget too - a mansion tax, the end of the two child benefit cap, betting firms also hit with further taxes. But is her calculation the right one? Will the voters stomach tax rises to pay for public services a ballooning welfare state? Or was this about securing her position in the party - if not the country? And what has happened to the Government’s mission for growth?

    Jon and Lewis speak to Torsten Bell, the Treasury minister and so-called ‘mastermind’ behind this Budget.

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    40 m
  • Are Trump's lawyers now controlling the BBC?
    Nov 25 2025

    Just a day after BBC bosses were in front of MPs to address impartiality concerns, and there's a fresh impartiality headache for the beleaguered broadcaster. Dutch historian Rutger Bergman, who'd been asked to give the prestigious Reith Lecture, today revealed that the BBC had removed a “key line” from his address. Bergman's claim that President Trump is “the most openly corrupt president in American history” was removed from the Radio 4 broadcast of his lecture. He's said today that he was informed that the decision to remove the accusation was taken at the “highest levels within the BBC”. The BBC has insisted the decision was taken on legal advice. So why was the line pulled? And is the threat of Donald Trump's legal action now influencing the editorial decisions of the BBC?

    Later, with Nigel Farage on the back foot over the allegations he made racist remarks as a schoolboy - does the Reform UK leader have a glass jaw?

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    37 m
  • Was Trump's latest 'peace plan' written by the Kremlin?
    Nov 24 2025

    The leak of a 28 point peace plan over the weekend - reportedly agreed between Washington and Moscow - sent shivers down the spine of European leaders and Ukraine's soldiers.

    The proposals would force Ukraine to hand over swathes of territory to Vladimir Putin, limit the size of its army, and rule out any future membership of NATO.

    The package was seen as so favourable to the Kremlin that many questioned whether Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be able to stay on if he accepted the terms. And computer analysis of the text suggested that the plan may have indeed been written in Russian before being translated into English.

    Donald Trump then floated a Thanksgiving deadline for a deal. So what's behind America's fresh urgency for an end to the conflict in Ukraine? Is Russia determining the terms of any deal? And does anyone in the White House care?

    Later - Mamdani's masterclass in how to handle an Oval Office summit, and why Donald Trump may have seen something of himself in the New York mayor-elect.

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    36 m