Episodes

  • Is China an enemy?

    Is China an enemy?
    Oct 23 2025
    How do you deal with the world's second largest economy when it seem to be intent on spying in the UK, persecuting dissidents here, and hacking into our computer systems? Is the priority national security, or keeping on good terms with our third-largest trading partner at a time when we are in desperate need of economic growth? The challenges of the collapsed spy trial, and whether to give the go-ahead to a new Chinese embassy in London, have brought all these questions to the fore. So Phil and Roger got the view of George Magnus, an associate at the China Centre at Oxford University, a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and former chief economist of UBS.

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    38 mins
  • Papers Please!

    Papers Please!
    Oct 16 2025
    Will we all soon be required to show our ID cards? The government says it wants a digital and universal ID system in place to counter illegal working and benefit fraud. It’s been tried before, and many of its opponents say it will fail again. But what is the case for ID cards? Will they solve any problems? Or are they an affront to liberty and a waste of money? Phil and Roger ask Dr Tim Holmes, lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Bangor University.

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    36 mins
  • Are The Tories Toast

    Are The Tories Toast
    Oct 9 2025
    The most successful political party in Europe is contemplating oblivion. The Conservatives, soundly rejected last year by voters, have a leader no-one likes, the fewest MPs in their history, and an existential threat from Reform UK’s rise. Is there a way back, as there was after 1997? Or is this the moment the Tories run out of ideas and time? Phil and Roger ask Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, and author of “The Conservative Party After Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation”

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    40 mins
  • Is Pseudoscience Taking Over?

    Is Pseudoscience Taking Over?
    Oct 2 2025
    The US president says paracetamol use can cause autism, and climate change is a giant con. A British GP tells the Reform party Covid vaccinations led to cancer in the royal family. Surveys show faith in conventional science is declining. So are fringe theories and fake medicines becoming mainstream? Is there a risk to our health and the planet as people and politicians are drawn to ideas that aren’t subject to peer review or normal standards of evidence? Phil and Roger hear from Dr Santosh Vijaykumar, associate professor of psychology at the University of Northumbria.

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    38 mins
  • The Trump Whisperer?

    The Trump Whisperer?
    Sep 25 2025
    Keir Starmer has made a point of cosying-up to President Trump - even bringing him to the UK for an unprecedented second state visit - but does it actually make any difference to relations between London and Washington? Is the UK a useful ally? A client state? Or a quaint irrelevance in a world dominated by China, Russia and India? And is the rush of tech investment any more than a way of cementing the power of US tech giants in Britain? David Hastings Dunn, Professor of International Politics at the University of Birmingham, tells Phil and Roger it’s going to be hard for the UK to stay friends with a volatile leader like Donald Trump.

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    36 mins
  • Anyone Seen The LibDems?

    Anyone Seen The LibDems?
    Sep 17 2025
    Whatever happened to the LibDems? The largest number of MPs for almost a century. The country’s right wing in chaos. The government in meltdown. Surely the one confident, united party should break through? But the LibDems seem to be absent. Phil and Roger speak about this to Paul Whiteley, Professor of Government at the University of Essex.

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    40 mins
  • Labour’s Money Problems

    Labour’s Money Problems
    Sep 11 2025
    The chancellor has ten weeks to find a way to balance the books. But is she going to raise taxes - and risk harming economic growth? Or does she cut the welfare budget - and bring misery to many of those who voted her government into power? Has Keir Starmer now taken control of the process from Rachel Reeves - and these dilemmas? Kallum Pickering, Chief Economist at Peel Hunt, takes Phil and Roger through the options for November’s budget and the likely choices.

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    42 mins
  • Put Out More Flags

    Put Out More Flags
    Sep 4 2025
    Flags are everywhere - Union Jacks and the Cross of St George going up on lamp posts, walls, street-corners and even roundabouts. Is it an attempt an intimidation by the far-right, or just a sign of patriotic spirit? Is a society that doesn’t usually wear its national identity on its sleeve, beginning to want to run it up the flagpole? And which flag? Does it depend if you feel English or British? And is all this a form of exclusion for those who don’t see themselves as either? Phil and Roger ask Michael Kenny, Professor of Public Policy at Cambridge University, and author of The Politics of English Nationhood

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    36 mins