logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2021
48m 25s

The government vs the BBC: A Hundred Yea...

POLITICO
About this episode
This week Jack picks through the long and turbulent relationship between the government and the BBC, and asks why these two great pillars of British public life can't seem to get along. Veteran BBC Radio 4 presenter and author Edward Stourton and BBC historian Professor Jean Seaton discuss the checkered history of government/BBC relations, from the 1926 Gene ... Show More
Up next
Jul 4
Can Keir Starmer survive the next 6 months?
Keir Starmer's authority is under question following a humiliating series of U-turns and a restless parliamentary Labour Party. In this Westminster Insider interview, host Anne McElvoy talks to Maurice Glasman, the Labour peer, who’s seen as the godfather of "Blue Labour" and an ... Show More
27m 17s
Jun 27
Westminster's half-term score card
Even as Keir Starmer faces the threat of all-out rebellion over his welfare bill, Westminster can feel the summer recess approaching. So six months into the year and with the anniversary of Labour's electoral victory approaching, host Sascha O'Sullivan enrols a host of experts to ... Show More
43m 53s
Jun 20
An SW1 pub crawl: What makes the perfect political pub?
This week on Westminster Insider, host Patrick Baker takes a pint-fueled tour through some of Westminster's best-known watering holes in his bid to find out what makes the best political boozer. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage explains why the Westminster Arms is his favorite pub a ... Show More
44m 53s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2023
Are the Tories running the BBC?
The BBC's mantra is that impartiality - and the perception of impartiality - must be at its core. Yet following revelations in The Sunday Times we are coming to understand the nature of the relationship between the former Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, his financial n ... Show More
31m 20s
Apr 2023
Richard Sharp resigns: The Boris loan and the BBC
Richard Sharp - the embattled, embroiled BBC Chairman has resigned after a report by The Commissioner for Public Appointments found a perceived conflict of interest and a breach of the Governance Code. But this story goes much wider than one man, one job and an £800k loan to Bori ... Show More
29m 46s
Jan 2024
Has the government really ‘captured’ the BBC?
The week started with Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary calling out the BBC for bias and a failure of impartiality. She struggled to give many examples of either. Today, Prospect magazine has done a deep dive into what it calls ‘the right-wing cabal waging war on the principles ... Show More
40m 26s
Jan 2023
The Union and Gender politics collide
Two of the big conflicts which define British politics- the culture war and the war for the Union, have fused together. The Scottish government's controversial Gender Recognition Bill, which would make it easier for people to legally change their gender and hailed by some as a gr ... Show More
31m 23s
Feb 2020
The Moral Purpose of the BBC
Her 98th year has not started well for Auntie BBC. The Government is consulting on decriminalising the licence fee; 450 jobs are being cut from BBC News to help meet a huge savings target; gender pay disputes are never far from the headlines; and audience figures reveal that the ... Show More
42m 51s
May 2023
Missing Millennials: Why Brits are No Longer More Right-Wing with Age
 Thirteen years of Conservative rule have upended one of the oldest political clichés in the book: that people become more right-wing as they mature. Director of the think tank Onward Sebastian Payne explains why, and confirms that he is standing to be Selby’s next Conservative M ... Show More
25m 57s
Apr 2023
The New Statesman political editors’ reunion: covering Westminster from Thatcher to Sunak
In this special podcast, nine political editors and writers come together to discuss working at the New Statesman, covering everything from the rise and fall of Thatcher and New Labour through to the coalition government and the recent period of Conservative hegemony. We hear fro ... Show More
45m 45s
May 2022
Double crisis: cost of living and Northern Ireland
This year’s Queen Speech was Boris Johnson’s attempt to reset his government’s policy agenda but it did little to tackle the growing cost of living crisis. We look at what the government might do, plus whether the EU and UK are about to enter a trade war over the Northern Ireland ... Show More
35m 6s
Feb 2023
Northern Ireland: Rishi Sunak’s big test
A deal to resolve the bitter dispute over post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland was due this week but the UK prime minister appears to have a fight on his hands to stop it unravelling as he faces opposition from Tory Eurosceptics and the Democratic Unionist party. Is Sunak facing ... Show More
23m 18s
Jul 2022
Boris Johnson lands back to earth
We discuss whether Boris Johnson's Global Britain ambitions were achieved during his recent overseas trip and the fallout from the resignation of deputy chief whip Chris Pincher. Plus, we explore Nicola Sturgeon's plans for a second Scottish independence referendum and whether th ... Show More
36m 5s