The Critic Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Critic
This week on The Critic Show, Tom is joined by our online editor, Ben Sixsmith and classics scholar and Antigone editor, David Butterfield, to discuss why ancient Greece and Rome are enjoying a remarkable revival. They examine how classical education became wrongly associated with elitism, and why classical literature is having a renaissance within a culture which is, seemingly, addicted to phones.
The conversation explores the modern appeal of Stoicism, its popularity among young men and the danger of reducing ancient philosophy to simplistic lifestyle advice. David explains what figures such as Plato, Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius and Plutarch can teach us about human nature, politics and virtue, before considering whether today’s renewed interest in the classics will become a lasting cultural revival.
David ends his personal recommendation for your classical reading fix, which is the poet and philosopher Lucretius.
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This week on The Critic Show, Henry and Tom are joined by Seb Milbank to discuss the Home Office’s Research, Information and Communications Unit, otherwise known as RICU, and the growing suspicion that the British state has tried to shape public narratives after acts of violence involving immigrant communities.
Seb gives listeners an insider explanation on explains how the unit operates, and the intricacies of the counter-terrorism and national security, why Freedom of Information requests so often hit a wall.
The podcast explores how, increasingly, journalists, PR agencies and government departments can end up working together to manage political fall out by bending the truths we live by.
The conversation ranges from the 2014 Sun front page on Islamic State to family statements after recent killings, the response to Manchester Arena, Martin’s Law, social media regulation, and the wider collapse of trust in British institutions. They also discuss why big, archaic institutions in Britain are now failing so visibly that the old social contract is breaking down.
What happens when people no longer believe in a state that can protect them?
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This week on The Critic Show, Chris Bayliss and Henry Hill are joined by Emma Schubert of the Henry Jackson Society to ask whether Britain is becoming a sectarian country. Emma discusses her research into the rise of Muslim sectarian politics in English local elections, explaining how she has created a model to help identify some of the predictors of sectarian candidates’ success.
The panel explores Labour’s long miscalculation over communal voting, and whether Britain risks importing the kind of entrenched bloc politics seen in Northern Ireland. They also discuss what this fragmentation could mean for the next general election, and what is being done to prevent further corruption.
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This month Critic wine columnist Henry Jeffreys talks to Daniel Grigg from Museum Wines in Salisbury about The Critic Wine Club’s latest South African selection.
Henry and Daniel discuss why South African wine has changed so dramatically in recent years, from the dull pub reds and insipid whites of old to some of the most exciting bottles now being made anywhere in the world. They explore the country’s new generation of winemakers, the rise of serious Chenin Blanc and Cinsault, and why South Africa offers such remarkable value compared with Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne.
Together they taste three wines: a textured Sauvignon Blanc from Hazendal, a fuller, food-friendly Pinot Noir rosé, and a sensational old-vine Cinsault from Darling. Expect sharp opinions, good stories, and plenty of enthusiasm for a country whose wines are firmly on the up.
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In the first episode of Starling on Sport, Boris is joined by Jack Davey to look ahead to this year’s Tour de France and ask whether anyone can realistically stop Tadej Pogačar. They discuss Pogačar’s astonishing season, and the threat posed by Jonas Vingegaard, as well as turning an eye onto the emergence of French prodigy Paul Seixas.
Boris and Jack also explore the tactics, team dynamics and brutal mountain stages that could decide the race, as well as the Tour’s changing identity — from its French roots to its increasingly global, corporate future.
Their is also an inevitable question that still hangs over the sport as performance becomes more and more enhanced: can fans trust what they are watching?
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This week on The Critic Show, Lord David Frost joins Tom and Graham Stewart to mark ten years since Brexit and ask what really went wrong, and ask what might be on the cards next.
Frost challenges the familiar claim that voters were misled in 2016, arguing instead that Brexit was always about Britain’s right to govern itself from Westminster rather than Brussels.
Frost warns that unless the Right makes the case for national independence again, Britain risks becoming a rule-taker without ever formally rejoining. Plus, Graham gives a preview of the July issue of The Critic, from the Home Office’s secretive messaging machine to politics, culture, music and more.
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This week on The Critic Show, Henry and Chris are joined by James Crouch, Head of Public Affairs at Opinium, to discuss Britain’s strange new economic settlement: not quite capitalism, not quite socialism, but a system increasingly built around caps, freezes and government guarantees. Drawing on Opinium’s research into public attitudes, they explore why voters now instinctively reach for price controls on energy, council tax, groceries and rent, and why such policies are politically easy to introduce but almost impossible to remove.
They ask whether Britain has become a zero-sum economy, why younger voters no longer feel capitalism is delivering for them, and whether any political party has a credible way out.
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This week, Critic wine writer Henry Jeffreys talks to Olivia Manet from Corney & Barrow about the latest Critic Wine Club selection: three summer wines chosen for freshness, value and drinkability. Olivia explains how she got into the wine trade, Corney & Barrow’s long history, and why great wine does not always have to mean grand cru prices.
Henry and Olivia taste a mountain-fresh Pinot Grigio from Friuli, a pale but flavour-packed Provence rosé, and a joyful Fleurie from Beaujolais, all ideal for summer drinking, barbecues, light lunches and long evenings.
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In this episode of The Critic Show, Tom Jones is joined by Sam Butler, vice chairman of the Future of Hunting campaign, to discuss Labour’s proposed ban on trail hunting and what Butler sees as a wider assault on the countryside. They look back at the 2004 Hunting Act, the creation of trail hunting, and the argument that a new ban would do little for animal welfare while threatening thousands of hounds, rural jobs and the social fabric built around hunts, point-to-points, pubs, farriers, vets and farming communities.
The conversation then widens into the politics of rural Britain: family farm tax, land use, net zero, shooting, fishing, housing, private property and the failure of successive governments to take the countryside seriously. Butler argues that rural communities are tired of being treated as a political football, while Tom asks whether the battle over hunting has become part of a deeper fight over civil liberties, land ownership and the future of the political right.
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https://www.outpoststudios.net/p/the-great-trail-debate
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This week on The Critic Show, Tom Jones and Chris Bayliss are joined by Charles Cornish-Dale to discuss modern masculinity, the rise of the “alpha male”, and the cultural influence of Andrew Tate. Are declining testosterone levels something to be concerned about? What does this mean for our politics?
In our medicated society, the contraceptive pill and SSRIs are ever more common — but what are their effects on mental health, relationships, libido and fertility, as well as their possible role in wider demographic trends and declining birth rates?
Our alpha males also touch on the political Left, asking why countercultural politics continue to attract people seeking meaning, identity and a sense of excitement in an increasingly fragmented society.
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This week on The Critic Show, Chris Bayliss and Tom Jones are joined by William Clouston, leader of the SDP, to discuss his paper From an Entitlement State to an Investment State.
Britain has moved from a state that invests in its future to one increasingly dominated by pensions, welfare and benefits. Since the 1970s, public spending has shifted dramatically: investment in infrastructure has fallen, while entitlement spending has soared. The result, he says, has been collapsing productivity, stagnation and a country less able to build, grow or renew itself.
Are Britain’s present problems are downstream of decades of poor statecraft, weak leadership and bad policy decisions? Watch to find out.
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This week on The Critic Show, Tom Jones and Chris Bayliss are joined by historian and columnist Dominic Green to discuss his latest piece for The Critic, exploring the conflict between empire and republic.
Dominic argues that it is better to see the United States not as a settled European-style nation state, but as a perpetually evolving republic whose moments of upheaval, from Andrew Jackson to Donald Trump, are a continuation of the dynamism it has always possessed, rather than a sign of impending collapse.
On British foreign policy, as tensions in the Gulf continue to alternate between uneasy hostility and all-out war, Britain must reconcile its increasingly uncertain position between Washington and Brussels. Does Britain risk sinking its alliance with the United States in pursuit of a stagnant European project?
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This week, Chris and Tom are joined by Dr Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri, the historian of political ideas, political conflict and the decline of the Royal Navy.
Comparing the Navy of decades past with the Navy we have today, one must ask: how did civil servants, bureaucrats and government bring about its decline? This inevitably leads to the question of the efficacy of the civil service, whether we have too many bureaucrats in the modern world despite huge technological advances, and how people were paid then compared with how the system works now.
What did statesmen of the past understand about power, defence and Britain’s place in the world that politicians today do not?
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Tom and Henry are joined this week by pollster and strategist Scarlett Maguire, who explains the Wild West of British political polling.
Like the soothsayers of old, politicians use polling in all sorts of mysterious ways, making claims that may not always stack up with reality. This is how they can claim momentum even when their parties remain unpopular. In unrelated matters, they also discuss Kemi Badenoch and the wider challenges facing the Conservatives.
What are the limits of polling? In particular, what happens when policies that sound popular in theory crash into reality when put into practice?
In an ever more politically volatile world, we also now have increasingly idiosyncratic voters, whose views often cut across party lines. They might back Reform on some issues while favouring the Greens on others. What does that mean for modern British politics?
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May marks the beginning of summer, and this month Tom, Henry and Graham are here to talk you through May’s edition of The Critic, leading with the question of whether Britain has any vision left.
After months of headlines and mistakes, it is hard to understand where the Government might go next, or what it actually wants. Does it want to rejoin the EU, or is this simply a visionless pitch from a Prime Minister who is running out of steam? When did Britain lose its direction, and will we ever win the World Cup again?
Political editor Henry Hill discusses what could actually generate growth, why Britain has entered a period of cultural and economic decline, and how we have been living in a simulacrum in which people spend more than they have, while the Government appears unable to fix the broken system we now live under.
Finally, the hosts take a trip to Dubai, where Fred Sculthorp has been experiencing the world of influencers amid the blitz. Despite being a city full of self-employed entrepreneurs, Dubai also highlights the uncomfortable reality that, even during wartime, it offers more opportunities for young professionals than Britain currently does.
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This week on The Critic Show, Henry Hill and Chris Bayliss are joined by the Reverend Marcus Walker to discuss the erosion of intergenerational responsibility. From defence and infrastructure to fiscal policy, the Government just keeps getting it wrong, repeatedly prioritising electoral gain over the health and wealth of the country. The question is whether this trend is a recent development or a post-Cold War shift, and how political incentives, married with fragmented modern ideologies, contribute to a culture that struggles to implement any kind of constructive plan.
They also look at Keir Starmer’s leadership style, questioning whether his approach actually reflects strategic calculation, or whether he is so focused on populism that his reign has become a simple lack of coherent thinking.
With this week’s guest, it’s only natural to touch on ecclesiastical politics as well. Does the Church of England have similar dynamics to the civil service bureaucracy, where risk aversion, procedural expansion, and “barnacle-like” administrative growth can undermine core missions?
What would it really take to rebuild a political culture that genuinely values the judgment of future generations as much as the approval of today’s voters?
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This week on The Critic Show, Chris Bayliss and Henry Hill are joined by the Anglican priest, historian and ethicist Nigel Biggar.
They discuss the debate around the Church of England’s push towards reparations, and how initiatives like Project Spire and the historical link to Queen Anne’s Bounty have played a role in where we have ended up today.
Many of the assumptions behind reparations, such as Britain’s wealth being built on slavery, are historically dubious. Crucially, if we started handing out reparations now, would the calls for them ever end? While forgiveness is at the heart of Christian values, is there really a moral case for reparations in the 21st century?
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This week on The Critic Show, Chris Bayliss and Tom Jones are joined by David Spencer as they examine the state of DEI in British policing. The story goes back to the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the subsequent Macpherson Report and, while serious failures were exposed, nothing was actually done to change anything. Later reforms, particularly since 2010, accelerated the drive toward diversity targets over standards. Recruitment has changed, physical fitness requirements have declined, and a broader “professionalisation” suited to third-sector organisations has taken over policing.Whilst there are valiant figures like Mark Rowley and Stephen Watson, their attempts at change in a world dominated by fear of activists are unlikely to be adopted by forces nationwide.For the full, uncensored version, go to: https://www.outpoststudios.net/s/the-critic-showAnd don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!
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This month’s Wine Club finds Henry Jeffreys joined by Tom Innes of Fingal Rock, a Burgundy specialist and a merchant with a gift for finding serious yet affordable wines. Before the bottles are opened, Tom talks Henry through his unusual route into wine, from an abandoned legal career to a shop in Monmouth, and from there to decades of legwork among small Burgundian growers.
This month, there’s a bright, lively white Coteaux Bourguignons, Le P’tit Bonheur, that punches far above its station, an opulent and characterful Bourgogne Épineuil Léger with a wonderful backstory, and a richer, more structured Domaine Gachot-Monot Côte de Nuits-Villages that delivers proper red Burgundy depth for a remarkably modest sum. There is, though, a slight note of melancholy hanging over the tasting. After severe flooding at his Monmouth shop and with retirement looming, Tom is no longer shipping new stock, which means that once these bottles are gone, they are gone. A rare chance, then, to buy from one of Burgundy’s great independent romantics while there is still wine left in the cellar.
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This week on The Critic Show, Chris and Tom are joined by Jack Davey as they turn to the politics of Spain, exploring the rise of Pedro Sánchez and what his success could mean for centre-left leaders like Keir Starmer. With separatist movements, particularly the Catalans, decisively occupying the middle ground, they examine how Sánchez built a governing strategy based on consolidating anti-right support, enabling him to hold power without commanding a majority of the electorate.
The flip side, of course, is the Spanish right, the growth of Vox, and the wider forces driving political radicalisation. Right-wing parties are gaining ground in Spain, yet, as is his strategy, this polarisation may be good news for Sanchez.
As Spain still struggles with the legacy of Franco, how do its shifting class and regional divides shape voting behaviour, and what does that mean for a fragmenting political system, both in Spain and beyond?
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As another Easter draws near, so does a new issue of The Critic. Tom, Chris and Graham take listeners through some of their favourite picks from the April edition.
Chris unpacks his latest article on green energy, asking why electricity remains expensive if renewables are meant to be cheap. There is widespread misunderstanding of how the national grid actually functions and, as a result, serious discussion is all but impossible.
This month, Tom spoke to Neil O’Brien, the Conservative Party’s policy brain, about how data can inform lawmaking. While he is a dedicated, intelligent and practical figure, is well-argued policy enough to define the broader Conservative philosophy? Or is the party still stuck in the politics of bans?
As is so often the case, any discussion of Tory policy inevitably speaks to the Conservatives’ struggle to regain public trust, with lingering damage from the Brexit era and the missed opportunities of Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak. While the party is not finished, the path back to power is steep.
The team also touch on land use and farming policy, and a new essay by Dominic Green, which traces the arc of Western civilisation and explores how different political traditions, particularly on the American right, compete to define what “civilisation” really means.
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This week on The Critic Show, Chris and Tom discuss the article “The Left Is Intellectually Exhausted”, which argues that so-called progressives have failed to keep up with the times. At a moment when Britain is widely described as broken, the left should be politically ascendant. Instead, they argue, it has struggled to offer any serious analysis of how government and the state have drifted into stagnation.
Chris and Tom suggest the deeper problem is that the modern left struggles to face political realities. Moral questions are often treated as substitutes for practical ones, leaving basic policy problems unanswered. By focusing on signalling the right values rather than addressing difficult trade-offs, the left often ends up asking the wrong questions altogether. They also look ahead and predict how the left may eventually have to choose where it stands within an increasingly fragmentary right-wing political structure.
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This week on The Critic Show, Tom and Chris discuss the numbers behind Britain’s welfare state. Around 53 per cent of adults are net recipients of the state, yet most people who fall into that category would never describe themselves as being on benefits. Universal Credit, tax credits, disability payments, housing support: the money adds up, yet who is actually on benefits, and how much it all costs, is rather difficult to say.
Without its people explicitly voting for it, Britain has drifted into a high-tax, high-transfer system, with little to show in terms of infrastructure or service quality. Once a “temporary” tax is introduced, it is rarely retired.
As Tom points out, a welfare system designed around personal benefit and vote-winning is politically unsustainable. Chris traces the rot to the managerial politics of the mid-1990s, where presentation overtook reform. As the state dominates ever more in the lives of its citizens, personal responsibility becomes an ever more alien idea. The statistics may be imperfect, but the trend is worrying. Britain needs serious structural reform.
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This week, Tom and Chris explore the rise of sectarianism in British politics, specifically, the role of Biraderi networks and the extended family structures that shape political behaviour of immigrant populations in Britain today. In urban constituencies where traditional civic associations are weak, Britain’s individualistic political culture offers little institutional counterweight, and, as a result, Britain’s political culture becomes ever more transactional.
As theLabour coalition of immigrants and the working class, which it has depended upon for decades, fragments and new parties seek to mobilise voters along cultural and demographic lines, politics risks drifting toward an informal “ethnic headcount”, where identity can matter as much as, if not more than, policy.
Is modern mainland British politics becoming more like that of Northern Ireland, or even reminiscent of Balkans and the Middle East? And, when established, are such dynamics self-reinforcing? If in-group preference becomes a normal organising principle, can liberal, cross-community politics can be sustained? What do we really need to prevent permanent political fragmentation?
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Next week: Chris and Tom turn their attention to the British Welfare State.
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This week, Tom is joined by Poppy Coburn to look at the Conservative Party’s identity crisis and ask whether this is more than another bad election cycle. Whilst the top of the party is seemingly happy under the Badenoch regime, the grassroots have been hollowed out. The councillors, donors and activists, the footsoldiers of any election campaign are drifting away. As local associations wither and the coffee mornings and action days are ever more sparsely attended, the party has to ask itself, what does it stand for now?
Voters themselves, fed up with years of betrayal are turning to Reform, while the Conservatives lash out at their populist challengers. Fiscal discipline is still invoked, but many doubt the party can follow through on its promises. The gap between Westminster and provincial Britain is widening, especially on touchstone issues like immigration and crime.
Brexit once channelled a rebellious mood; that energy has moved on. If the Conservatives no longer set the terms of the right, are they still a leader, or just another fringe player, trading on the legacy of the past?
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Chris Bayliss speaks to Fleur Meston about the slow break-up of the British left, and the end of the Labour party’s gauche-domination from Bloomsbury to Sedgefield. In the 21st century, this challenge mostly comes from the socialist ecologists of the Green Party. The Greens have evolved from their 1970s roots as a niche protest vehicle into something more electorally serious, drawing in voters uneasy with Labour in government and making electoral headway from Bristol to Brighton. What was once fringe now serves as a political home for a largely middle-class, self-described radical bloc, energised by Zack Polanski and his five MPs, not much different, in terms of parliamentary seats, from Reform UK.
But who benefits from this fragmentation? Can the Greens turn local strength into real gains, or will they remain influential but limited? If Reform consolidates its insurgent vote, tactical voting could reshape key seats. With Labour under strain in parts of its base and smaller parties sensing opportunity, Chris and Fleur ask whether Britain is moving into a genuinely multi-party era, and what that means as the protest vote becomes a means of tangible political power.
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In this Critic Show special, Adam Wren discusses the Open Justice Project, which works with survivors who want their stories told, and the public inquiry into one of the most serious institutional failures in modern Britain: the grooming gangs scandal. The conversation centres on a system that too often appears underfunded, diffused and structurally incapable of taking responsibility. It’s a story of the failure of multicultural Britain, and the legacy of the Blairite optimism that assumed institutions would simply function due the inherent competence of the British state.
They also discuss the personal cost of working so closely with trauma, as well as the practical barriers Open Justice has faced, much the same as those that allowed abuse to happen in the first place, from the secrecy afforded to offenders to the way exploitation of the infrastructure of the small towns that make up England’s former industrial heartlands
Yet, in spite of the horrific legacy of these crimes, the pressure created by survivor-led initiatives is beginning to force institutions to listen, raising the central question of the inquiry: how Britain’s institutions, which failed to protect vulnerable young women, can be forced to do better.
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This week, Tom and Chris look at foreign policy, and the widening gulf between Britain’s ambitions and its means. Defence spending is constantly under strain, artillery stockpiles are dangerously low, and Europe still relies heavily on Washington for its security. What happens if America’s defence commitments start to get transactional, particularly under Donald Trump? If a major war broke out tomorrow, does Britain have the industrial muscle or economic stamina to see it through?
Is the US returning to realism, or simply making ad hoc deals as it goes, whether with China and the Indo-Pacific or Greenland, or Ukraine? As Europe looks static, Washington looks unpredictable.
Britain under Keir Starmer is running up against the limits of soft power, the only weapon it seems to want to wield, hamstrung by the Chagos question, and its habit of outsourcing strategic judgment to international courts. What leverage does the UK actually retain, and can it rediscover hard-edged pragmatism of the past? Or is it doomed to decline, stooped in self-loathing nostalgia?
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This month’s Wine Club has Henry Jeffreys in notably good company, Tom Harrow, better known as the WineChap, in town for Burgundy Week and armed with a trio of Italians that cheerfully make the case for looking south rather than east.
While the merchants of St James’s are earnestly pouring tiny glasses of rain-thinned Pinot Noir and murmuring about yields, here we are with bottles that feel gloriously, unapologetically alive. Tom’s also takes us along on his journey into wine, via schoolboy tastings at Millfield, a spell in the army, Lee & Sandeman, and eventually Honest Grapes. The sort of anecdotes that make you wish wine education were still considered an acceptable extracurricular for fourteen-year-olds. As he puts it, learning to smell properly is a life skill criminally underrated.
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This week, Chris and Tom are joined by Critic associate editor, Patrick Porter, to talk Cricket. Fresh from another disappointing Ashes series, England seem lacking and out of ideas - except for one, the high-velocity aggressive style known as “Bazball”. The only problem being its not actually bringing England much success on the field.
The failure the net Test wins is compounded, Patrick argues, by the corporatised, Year Zero philosophy of a team which thinks it has nothing to learn from the past. This arrogance, rejecting outright the notion they have anything to learn from the great England cricketers of the past, and obsession with Moneyball-esque sporting fads, will only lead to more failure.
Patrick also brings to the show his specialism in International Relations, asking if the shock of Trump’s threatening behaviour focuses European minds on longer term strategic realities, then he’ll be the president Europe needs and whether they are about to embark on a costly rediscovery of why great power competition existed in the first place.
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In this episode of The Critic Show, Tom and Chris discuss Samuel Rubinstein’s review of Sir Lenny Henry’s new book The Big Payback, which calls for Britain to pay £18.62 trillion in reparations in penance for its colonial legacy.
Whilst economically absurd, and historically myopic, ideas like these are rapidly gaining credibility in the western world, and within the British Labour party in particular, in thrall to the politics of celebrity.
With the Chagos handover baked in, are proposals like this, though economically ruinous, inevitable?
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For decades, Nigel Farage was the ultimate political outsider, yet, after a year of topping the polls by some margin, it is slowly dawning on Westminster that, for the first time in a century, he might break the two-party system.
How has he been able to do this? And why are the political currents of the mid-twenty twenties so different from the waters that UKIP swam in a decade before?
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Has western policy-making been broken by AI? Andrew Orlowski thinks so. The writer and journalist believes that our governing elites have become obsessed by artificial intelligence and Large Language Models in particular, yet, he argues, these technologies have singularly failed to live up to their promise.
Orlowski explains how the techno-utilitarian impulse behind this obsession also has much deeper roots, and many its advocates are entwined in a modern day cult of twisted morality.
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The creaking edifice of British politics, without urgent intervention, is about to come crashing down. But enough about the Labour party, the Palace of Westminster is in a state of disrepair, and the cost of restoration is projected in the multiple billions. Why? And why can’t we seem to get architecture right in this country anymore?
To answer this, and so much more, Tom is joined this week by Nicholas Boys Smith, founder of Create Streets, the design practice, town-builder and think tank, campaigning to bring beauty and liveability back to our built environment.
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Whilst the high culture of classical art and music has often been associated with conservatism, there has, nevertheless, been a slow decline of culture on the right. Nearly every single great cultural institution is effectively owned and operated by the left, and rightist attempts to create art and institutions of their own have been somewhat underwhelm…
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Fleur Meston and Poppy Coburn talk about how much the Overton Window has shifted in the last year, and how the continuing political rhetorical war around immigration proves the radical right are anything but.
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This week, Chris Bayliss and Poppy Coburn discuss Britain’s new command economy, and why the free market is anything but.
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Chris Bayliss and Tom Jones if Britain’s punishment system is really that broken, and if our authorities are giving up on crime and punishment
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It’s the season of goodwill, and in the first of our new Critic Show Graham Stewart joins Tom Jones to discuss the editorial themes of the Critic’s double bumper festive issue, as well as the New Critic essay and the debut piece on the decline and fall of the British Army.
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Hello, and welcome to The Critic Show.
Let’s not bother burying the lede. Britain’s best in-print periodical and online comment engine is re-launching our podcast — and this time you’ll be able to see us, as well as listen.
Today we’ve released the first 4 episodes, which you can watch here. In these first episodes, regular Critics Chris Bayliss, Poppy Coburn, Fleur Meston and I discuss anarcho-tyranny, how the Overton window has shifted on immigration in the last year and whether Britain’s economy is fake. There’s also an episode with Critic editor Graham Stewart and I, where we discuss the Christmas double issue, the new Critic Essay and the debut piece by Ben Barry, on the decline and fall of the British Army. After that you’ll be able to join us every Monday. You can find it here on Outpost - and for full access to the exclusive bonus episodes, subscribe now.
Does the world need another podcast? I get it. It must feel like every magazine has a podcast. It must feel like every 25-75 year-old man with a passing interest in culture and politics — and a lingering sense of frustration in life — has a podcast.
Well, forget all that. It’s like watching St Paul’s being built and asking Christopher Wren if London hasn’t got enough churches. It’s like watching Shakespeare draft Hamlet and asking if the world really needs another play about moody teenagers. It’s like hearing Beethoven preparing his Ninth and asking if he doesn’t think there are already enough symphonies.
Produced in partnership with Outpost Studios, this won’t be another chummy centrist political podcast — the kind Ben Sixsmith hates — that regurgitates the week’s news. Britain’s podcast market is saturated with the offerings of centrist hacks endlessly rehashing whatever has come up in Westminster that week, with no attempt to get under the skin of any story.
Rather than chase the news cycle, we’re going to do what The Critic does best — leading sacred cows to slaughter. We’ll have satire rather than sanctimoniousness, punchy commentary rather than ponderous blather and, crucially, The Critic Show won’t be hosted by a man who made the case for invading Iraq or Lewis Goodall.
Instead it will be hosted by me, Tom Jones, frequent contributor to these most august pages and owner of both the best hair and the best Donald Trump impression in journalism. I hope you’ll join me, as well as all the other varied and talented Critic contributors who will appear on the podcast, as we dig the scalpel of our analysis into the flesh of world events.
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When the first Christians began proclaiming Christ crucified and risen, they landed a missile in the foundations of ancient paganism. Something had occurred which rendered the belief systems of that world utterly obsolete.
Three very sleepy men discuss the election result. In an heroic bit of Critic broadcasting, Richard Johnson, a senior lecturer in politics at Queen Mary University and Sam Bidwell, a Parliamentary researcher and freelance writer join executive editor Sebastian Milbank to talk Reform, sectarian voting, first past the post, and Labour's constitutional plans.
As Britain goes to the polls, we look at one of the election's untold stories — the emergence of a revived SDP (Social Democratic Party), carrying forwards an Owenite, socially conservative and economically left wing message to British voters. The SDP's leader, William Clouston, joined Executive Editor Sebastian Milbank to explain the party's vision.
In our latest Critic podcast, we peer over the pond to the American elections. Last night saw the first (and perhaps last) debate between Trump and Biden. Executive Editor Sebastian Milbank was joined by Will Upton, a former US Treasury official and an editor of the National Pulse, to talk about the sorry sight of a man far too frail to run for office.
The publication of the Cass Review validated many of the concerns that “gender-critical” commentators and activists had expressed about transgenderism and transitioning. In this series, Jo Bartosch will explore how we got here — interviewing some of the people who helped to make it happen.
In this episode, Jo speaks with Lord Moonie, a man of the left and a self-described “awkward sod” who resisted the rise of gender ideology and the medicalisation of children.
On the latest Critic election podcast, we're talking Tories. Sebastian Milbank is joined by Henry Hill, Deputy Editor of Conservative Home, and Fred de Fossard, Director of Parliamentary Affairs for the Legatum institute, to discuss Conservatism past, present and future.
On the agenda are the credibility of the party manifestos, the possible collapse of the Conservative ground game, the likely result of a post-defeat leadership election, and the possible future role of Reform as Tory nemesis.
As populists make gains in the EU elections, and Reform rises in the polls in Britain, we ask if Europe's future, on both sides of the channel, is with the dissident right?
In our latest Critic election special, Sebastian Milbank is joined by Harrison Pitt, a Senior Editor at The European Conservative, and Political Commentator at the New Culture Forum, and by Sam Bidwell, a Parliamentary Researcher and freelance writer, to discuss the EU elections, Friday's TV debate, and whether populism can make the shift from insurgent movement to governing project.
According to a recent report, 40 per cent of Labour voters can be descried as "blue values voters" — economic and social conservatives who want greater state investment in public services, but also law and order, migration restrictions and a patriotism from their political leaders.
In our first Critic election special, Executive Editor Sebastian Milbank is joined by Professor Adrian Pabst, a writer, academic and Deputy Director of the NIESR (National Institute of Economic and Social Research), and Liam Stokes, an experienced environmentalist and countryside campaigner, to ask if Starmer can take these voters with him, or if he's likely to leave them behind.
The publication of the Cass Review validated many of the concerns that “gender-critical” commentators and activists had expressed about transgenderism and transitioning. In this series, Jo Bartosch will explore how we got here — interviewing some of the people who helped to make it happen.
In this episode, Jo speaks to Keira Bell, who took the Tavistock’s Gender Identity Service to the High Court, and Paul Conrathe, a human rights solicitor who represented Bell.
The publication of the Cass Review validated many of the concerns that “gender-critical” commentators and activists had expressed about transgenderism and transitioning. In this series, Jo Bartosch will explore how we got here — interviewing some of the people who helped to make it happen.
In this episode, Jo interviews the whistleblowing psychotherapy duo Marcus and Sue Evans about the scandals of the Tavistock Centre, the Gender Identity Development Service, and the problem of ideology in medicine.
The publication of the Cass Review validated many of the concerns that “gender-critical” commentators and activists had expressed about transgenderism and transitioning. In this series, Jo Bartosch will explore how we got here — interviewing some of the people who helped to make it happen.
In this episode, Jo speaks to Stephanie Davies-Arai about children, safeguarding and her pioneering work founding Transgender Trend.
The publication of the Cass Review validated many of the concerns that “gender-critical” commentators and activists had expressed about transgenderism and transitioning. In this series, Jo Bartosch will explore how we got here — interviewing some of the people who helped to make it happen.
In this episode, Jo interviews Dr Michael Biggs, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St Cross College, about his early research into young people and gender medicine.
Josephine Bartosch is joined by Charlotte Gill to discuss silly academic research, the right to debate the apportioning of taxpayers’ money and our decadent intellectual culture.
An all star panel of Critic editors and contributors, chaired by deputy editor Graham Stewart, addressed the theme of the crisis in the universities. James Orr spoke about the narrowing of speech in the university, and the centralisation of increasingly politicised research at Oxford and Cambridge. Sebastian Milbank discussed the medieval origins of the university, and its contemporary crisis of purpose. Charlie Bentley-Astor led us into the subterranean world of the modern conservative student, forced to live out their shameful beliefs in secret. And David Butterfield called for a return of the humanistic heart of academia.
Our next event will be a discussion of transgenderism held in a central London venue. You can sign up to our mailing list here, to stay informed.
Emma B from Children of Transitioners joins Jo Bartosch to discuss growing up with a trans father and the material and psychological challenges that it can cause.
Lisa Townsend, Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner, joins Jo Bartosch to discuss attempts to have her removed from her position for opposing the principle of “self-ID”, and to talk about how ideology can damage institutions
Curator and critic Pierre d’Alancaisez joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss the delusions of the art world and the opportunities for independent creativity.
Former Braverman special advisor David Scullion joins Sebastian Milbank to discuss the Home Secretary's departure, what a SpAd is, and the ongoing battle between elected ministers and civil servants.
Writer and researcher Ellen Pasternack joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss telling people off on the tube and the fluctuating nature of social cohesion.
Barry Norris joins Graham Stewart to discuss his new Critic cover story “Britain, goner with the wind” and the fallacies behind the growth of wind power.
Jo Bartosch interviews comedy writer and author Graham Linehan about his new book Tough Crowd and what led him to write it.
Writer and commentator Rod Dreher in conversation with Critic executive editor Sebastian Milbank, to talk about Israel-Palestine, Viktor Orbán, and the dangers of romanticising victimhood.
Writer and researcher Christopher Snowdon joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss smoking, vapes, obesity and all kinds of prohibitionism.
The writer Samuel Rubinstein joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss historical controversies, political controversies and where the two meet.
Dr David Butterfield, Literary Editor of The Critic, joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss his new article on Glastonbury, the different identities of the festival, and the decline of live music.
Ben Sixsmith is joined by the writer Patrick Galbraith to talk about hunting, endangered ways of life and what opinion columnists can learn from gamekeepers.
Writer Charlie Bentley-Astor joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss Cambridge cancel culture, declining birth rates, decolonisation and the diminished prospects of the young.
Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart discuss the evolution of railways in the mid-to-late 20th Century, and their influence on the evolution of the age, considering labour disputes, nationalisation and the Cold War.
Opinion columnists are experts at picking through ashes, and here Nick Timothy joins Ben Sixsmith to do it in a more literal sense as they discuss the ongoing Ashes series, their favourite Ashes moments and the recent report on equity in cricket.
Writer and researcher James McSweeney joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss a future of energy shortages, institutional dysfunction, and why the beliefs, not the tactics, of Just Stop Oil are the real problem.
Jo Bartosch interviews India's most provocative feminist filmmaker, Vaishnavi Sundar, on her work on gender issues and the ensuing controversy
Graham Stewart and Dr Radomir Tylecote debate and discuss the extent to which the civil service has been politicised and obstructs democratic processes in Britain.
Deputy director of the NIESR (National Institute of Economic and Social Research) Professor Adrian Pabst joints executive editor Sebastian Milbank to discuss the impact of the National Conservative conference, and the place of the nation in the modern world.
Jo Bartosch joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss the trials and triumphs of freelance writing, the state of the gender wars and the even darker side of pornography.
Tom Jones joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss the impoverished prospects for British youth, Conservative self-harm and the need for major national reform.
The author and commentator Ed West joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss the right-wing media, the pathologies of progressivism and the greying of British life.
Kittie Helmick joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss equality in education and the dangers of treating inclusion as an end in itself.
Journalist Charlotte Gill joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss London under Sadiq Khan, the classism of environmental regulations, and the politicisation of everything.
Journalist Poppy Coburn joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss the charity sector, Conservative failings and her problems with the concept of post-liberalism.
Victoria Smith joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss her new book "Hags", the intersection of ageism and misogyny, and why J.K. Rowling makes people lose their marbles.
Ben Sixsmith and Sebastian Milbank discuss the 20th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the ongoing consequences of the war, and why Alastair Campbell has a place in public life.
Lola Salem joins Ben Sixsmith to discuss gender politics, parenthood and the workplace, and the right-wing critique of art.
Online Editor Ben Sixsmith takes a wry look at the week's events with Online Editor Ben Sixsmith
Online Editor Ben Sixsmith speaks to Fred Skulthorp about his new print piece "The keyboard secret army", online disinformation, the journalists who have been so obsessed with it and how to reverse declining trust in media and politics.
Ben Sixsmith talks to Charlie Peters about his new “GB News Investigates” documentary Grooming Gangs: Britain’s Shame and the multi-layered scandal of grooming gangs.
Ben Sixsmith speaks to Henry Jeffreys, the author of Empire of Booze, The Home Bar and the forthcoming Vines in a Cold Climate, about alcohol and all its implications.
Sebastian Milbank and Ben Sixsmith join forces once again to discuss Americanisation, commercialisation, the real roots of Christmas and the ideal present for the whole family.
Ben Sixsmith and Sebastian Milbank discuss social media, Elon Musk, the corruption of online spaces and their least favourite Twitter accounts.
Ben Sixsmith and Sebastian Milbank discuss the American midterms, their implications for the rest of the world, and why the hell Britons are so obsessed with the USA in the first place.
Online Editor Sebastian Milbank joins Contributing Editor Ben Sixsmith to discuss the prospects of the new Tory government, the media's Suella obsession, and why Sunak may be our first Californian Prime Minister.
In this podcast, The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, talks to the magazine's parliamentary sketchwriter, Rob Hutton, about covering the Prime Minister's downfall.
Picture: Boris Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street, on 7 July 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
The Tribes of Westminster is a new monthly podcast co-produced by the Critic and the New Social Covenant Unit, seeking to unearth the intellectual roots of Westminster. This month Steve Baker MP speaks to Danny Kruger MP, online editor of the Critic Sebastian Milbank, and Imogen Sinclair, director of the NSCU, about his Christian libertarianism.
In the June 2022 issue of The Critic, Nick Timothy wrote that football needed to “search its conscience”, regarding the growing trend of clubs selling their own “fan tokens” — a sort of club-labelled crypto product, which can be bought and sold at prices that rise and fall according to demand.
In this podcast, The Critic's literary editor, Paul Lay, talks to The Critic's Sporting Life correspondent, Nick Timothy, about the wider issue of morality — and immorality — in football.
Olivia Hartley and Laura Dodsworth discuss Laura's article for the May 2022 issue of The Critic, "The false euphoria of dysphoria", the kickback she received against her piece, and the state of feminism today.
Most ex-Prime Ministers struggle with life after Downing Street. But would Boris bounce back and, if so, in what role? In this podcast, his former Telegraph colleague, James Kirkup — along with Rob Hutton and Christopher Montgomery — discuss with Graham Stewart whether there is life after power for Boris Johnson.
Historian of the Labour movement Anthony Broxton talks to Critic online editor Sebastian Milbank to mark 25 years since the 1997 election that saw Tony Blair sweep to power. They ask what lessons the modern left can draw from his example.
Three years ago the UK had been due to leave the EU. But on the same day, 28 MPs voted against Theresa May's EU Withdrawal deal and hoped for a clean break. They became known as the Spartans and played a pivotal role in ousting Theresa May and securing a much greater break with the EU. David Scullion speaks to three with veteran lobby journalist Robert Hutton.
Journalist, author and Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens joins Professor Adrian Pabst, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research to discuss the role of Western foreign policy in bringing about war in Ukraine.
Sir Richard Shepherd, for 35 years an independently minded Conservative MP, died last month. How should he be remembered? As a Eurosceptic and a natural rebel, certainly, and also as the founder of Partridges - one of London's most loved food shops. But was he, at heart, a libertarian or a traditional Tory or an old school Liberal?
Joining The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, to discuss Richard Shepherd's life in politics in this podcast are his former parliamentary colleagues, Barry Legg and Sir Bill Cash.
Online Editor Sebastian Milbank hosts a special Critic Podcast special reacting to Russian's invasion of the Ukraine. He's joined by Patrick Porter, Professor of International Security and Strategy of the University of Birmingham, and Sam Ashworth-Hayes, Director of Studies at the Henry Jackson Society to discuss the conflict and its implications for the West.
On this episode of The Critic Podcast Professor Adrian Pabst, Alys Denby and Imogen Sinclair discuss whether the government's levelling up agenda is enough to reverse decades of regional inequality, and whether the right prescription is state intervention, civil society or the free market.
Raquel Rosario Sanchez is going to court to fight a trial against the University of Bristol for failing to protect her from bullying and harassment by trans activists. The case begins on the 7th February, and you can support Raquel here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/bullying-and-harassment-enable-bristol-university/. Julie Bindel asks her about her story, and how she has coped.
On this episode of The Critic podcast, Deputy Editor Graham Stewart is joined by Professor Phillips O'Brien and The Critic's sketch-writer Robert Hutton to discuss whether the wartime myth of the “plucky Brit“ is an accurate way of viewing Britain in the 1940s.
Welcome back to The Critic Narrated, where we bring you a selection of articles from our print issues, read aloud by their authors.
In this episode, Robert Thicknesse narrates his Man About Town column from the December/January double issue, Welcome to Londongrad; Alexander Larman laments the myth of the Victorian Christmas for this issue's sacred cow, and, in his architecture column, Charles Saumarez Smith says that Jonathan Ruffer’s daring philanthropic experiment with Auckland Castle hopes to bring a different kind of regeneration to the north-east
A vast global market in stolen and forged art and artefacts has only grown in the context of the pandemic, but technology and international policing may be catching up
Mary Beard emerges with a portrait of the emperors’ afterlives as vivid as the busts themselves
Woefully out of touch and with falling congregations, the Church of England faces a crisis of leadership and theology
Welcome back to The Critic Narrated, where we bring you a selection of articles from our print issues, read aloud by their authors.
In this episode, Sarah Ditum reveals the joy of letting unexpected, accidental music in as she narrates her column from the December/January issue of The Critic: “Strange Brew”, while David Scullion says the Church of England are woefully out of touch and with falling congregations, now faces a crisis of leadership and theology, as he reads his feature: “Remotely wishing you a Merry Christmas”.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this episode of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about why Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire found themselves fighting together against Russia in the Crimea.
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Image: Battle of Inkerman, 5 November 1854. Wars. (Photo by Culture Club/Getty Images) Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
A narration of David Starkey's column, 'Welcome back to reality, feminists', from the November issue of The Critic.
In this episode, David Starkey says Feminists like Stock have made a belated rediscovery of biological reality in his column ‘Welcome back to reality, feminists’, while Boris Starling outlines the latest rivalry in F1 in ‘Top Guns of the Track’ and Claudia Savage-Gore drags woke Will back to therapy.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, whose books on the period include Waterloo and the forthcoming The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars - Strategies for a World War, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about why and how Europe was engulfed in wars with France between 1792 and 1815.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Image: Waterloo by Charles Auguste Guillaume Steuben (circa 19th century). Vintage etching circa 19th century.
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Hello and welcome back to The Critic Narrated, where we bring you a selection of articles from our print issues, read aloud by their authors.
In this episode, Lisa Hilton reads her piece ‘How Britiain really eats’, where she relays how she enjoys a Thai feast that shows that fiery and exotic has now become mainstream. Henry Hill says a new breed of “muscular unionists” is seeking to reverse the damage done by devolution, as he narrates his feature: ‘Putting muscle behind the Union’ and our Secret Author says we need heavyweights to separate good from back, in this month’s column: 'Bring back the panjandrums'.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
A narration of the feature, 'Putting Muscle Behind the Union' by Henry Hill from the November issue of The Critic.
As President Macron climbs down on his deadline to punish Britain over fishing licences, David Scullion asks Patrick O'Flynn whether Britain is getting the better of the French, or if the post-Brexit deal has left UK fishermen high and dry.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
-- Image: The Scottish scallop trawler "Cornelis-Gert Jan" leaves the northern French port of Le Havre after being granted permission by French port authorities on November 3, 2021, after being held for days amid a post-Brexit dispute over fishing rights between France and Great Britain. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP) (Photo by SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images)
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Welcome back to The Critic Narrated, where we bring you a selection of articles from our print issues, read aloud by their authors.
In this episode, Robert Hutton reads the secret diary of Boris and Carrie Johnson's dog, Dilyn, as he attends Glasgow COP26, Josephine Bartosch, author and campaigner for women’s rights narrates her feature, 'Turning victims into folk devils' and Robert Thicknesse reads his November Opera column, ‘Hot Valks Live!’.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Were warfare and the state's role in military affairs transformed between 1500 and 1800? In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Short History of War explores and debunks some generalisations about war in early modern Europe.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Image: Battle of Lepanto, October 1571. The fleets of Spain, Venice and the Pope, under the command of Don Juan of Austria, defeated the Turks in the last great sea battle involving galleys. From the National Maritime Museum, London. (Photo by Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this episode of The Critic Narrated, Revd. Marcus Walker, Rector of Great St Bart’s in the City of London, reads his piece ‘Resurrect Forgiveness’, Hannah Betts narrates her column: ‘Time for Coco’ and Patrick Galbraith reads his piece from Country Notes, this week entitled ‘Do the Right Thing’. These articles are taken from the October issue of The Critic.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, whose books include A Short History of War, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the feudal system, differing weaponry and firepower and the size of armies shaped medieval warfare.
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Image: Henry V of England, attacked by the Duke of Alencon, at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Artist James William Edmund Doyle, 1864. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, whose books include A Short History of War, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the feudal system, differing weaponry and firepower and the size of armies shaped medieval warfare.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Image: Henry V of England, attacked by the Duke of Alencon, at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. Artist James William Edmund Doyle, 1864. (Photo by The Print Collector/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Welcome back to The Critic Podcast, and welcome to our new series: The Critic Narrated!
Each week, we will be bringing you a selection articles from our print issues, read aloud by their authors for you to listen to on your commute, around the house or alongside reading the written piece. Don’t forget you can visit our website to subscribe to the print issue, and to read a plethora of articles on politics, current affairs, society, culture and beyond.
In this episode, architectural historian Matthew Lloyd Roberts reads his article ‘The Critic’s New Home’, Anna Price, podcast producer here at The Critic, narrates Claudia Savage Gore’s October Hot House column, 'Eat, Pray, Hate', and Jonathan Aitken, Christ Church alumnus, former Conservative cabinet member and current Prison Chaplain, reads his feature ‘Low Panic at the High Table’. All articles taken from The Critic’s October issue.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Siege warfare was the most common form of warfare in medieval Europe. In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Forts and Fortifications and Siegecraft, talks about defending and capturing walled cities and castles with The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart.
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Image: The siege of Jerusalem (Photo by: Leemage/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Short History of War, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the nature of warfare in Ancient Greece and Rome.
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Image: Statue of Leonidas on the monument celebrating the Battle of Thermopylae which took place during the Greco-Persian War of 480 BC. (Photo by: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
After the US withdrawal from Afghanistan ignited a bitter briefing war between the President and members of the British Cabinet, it seemed that Britain's relationship with the US was on ice. But then, out of the blue, a secret trilateral agreement between the US, UK and Australia was struck, gifting Australia nuclear propulsion technology for use in their submarines, much to the chagrin of France. Are we witnessing the usual ups and downs in the anglosphere relationship or do countries really only act in self interest?
In this podcast, David Scullion discusses this, the Afghanistan withdrawal, and the Special relationship with Patrick Porter, Professor of International Security at Birmingham University and Sebastian Milbank, a PhD Candidate in the Cambridge Faculty of Divinity and a journalist based at the Tablet.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this week's Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the centuries’ old military rivalry between China and Japan.
Image by Getty.
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this episode of The Critic's podcast, publisher Olivia Hartley speaks to Chris Elston — A.K.A Billboard Chris — about the progression of gender ideology in Canada as well as the use of puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria.
Chris has travelled the length and breadth of Canada raising awareness of these issues and has amassed an online following of over 35,000. In this podcast, Olivia asks him why he does what he does and what he would say to the activists who question his authority to speak on these polarising topics.
In this week's Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the centuries’ old military rivalry between China and Japan.
Australia's military capacity to check Chinese influence is being boosted by a new Anglo-American submarine contract and the establishment of the AUKUS defence pact. But how have Australia's interests been defended until now in the south-west Pacific and what difference will AUKUS make? In this week's Black's History Week podcast, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the past and present of Australia's role in the western alliance.
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Image: Royal Australian Navy submarine HMAS Rankin is seen during AUSINDEX 21, a biennial maritime exercise between the Royal Australian Navy and the Indian Navy on September 5, 2021.(Photo by POIS Yuri Ramsey/Australian Defence Force via Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Is there anything a 21st century military strategist can usefully learn from the tactics of Hannibal or the age of pike, sword and musket? In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black offers The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, a crash course in the history of war.
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-- Image: A painting depicting The British Army overpowering the Colonialist position during the Battle of Bunker Hill at the beginning of the Revolutionary War on June 17, 1775 outside Boston, Massachusetts. (Illustration by Ed Vebell/Getty Images) Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Concluding the Black's History Week series on the deployments of the British armed forces between Waterloo and the fall of Kabul, in this podcast Professor Jeremy Black talks The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the themes, breaks, and continuities that have shaped the British military over the last two hundred years.
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Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this edition of Black's History Week, the author of Military Strategy: A Global History, Professor Jeremy Black, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the strategic options for American defence policy in the aftermath of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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Image: US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III holds a press briefing about the US military drawdown in Afghanistan, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC September 1, 2021. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Continuing the series of Black's History Week podcasts on British military deployments, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the future role of Britain's armed forces and whether the departure from Kabul marks the end of foreign nation-building operations.
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Image: UK military personnel board a A400M aircraft departing from Kabul on August 28, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Jonathan Gifford/MoD Crown Copyright via Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
By his own admission, Vivek Ramaswamy is a traitor to his class. A self-made man who founded a successful bio-tech firm in his 20s, Ramaswamy’s story has the telltale signs of membership of America’s corporate elite. But in his new book, Woke, Inc, he takes aim at fellow business leaders for what he calls “the defining scam of our time”.
According to Ramaswamy, big business’s enthusiastic embrace of woke identity politics isn’t just hypocritical but undemocratic. He argues that it’s dividing his country, and undermining the values on which America has thrived in the past. Ramaswamy spoke to Oliver Wiseman, the Critic’s US Editor, about why ruthless captains of industry have gone woke, why it matters, and what should be done about it.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
A campaign is underway to elect members to the General Synod of the Church of England under a “Save the Parish” banner. The campaign leader Marcus Walker, the Rector of St Bartholomew’s, described it as “the last chance to save the system that has defined Christianity in this country for 1000 years”. Campaigners say the Church of England hierarchy already squeezes parish churches and is planning to use vital funds to open new churches in places like cafes and cinemas rather than prioritising the existing parish structure. But critics say the movement fails to recognise the dire reality of church attendance, and are afraid of embracing new radical ideas that could reverse the fortunes of the established church.
David Scullion speaks to Alison Milbank, Professor of Theology and Literature at the University of Nottingham, and the founder of the campaign Marcus Walker.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The dramatic events in Afghanistan in recent days mark many things. The end of America’s longest war, the end of the post-9/11 era and the return of the Taliban.
They also constitute the first and perhaps defining foreign policy crisis for US President Joe Biden.
To try to make sense of the US side of the momentous Afghanistan story, the Critic’s US Editor, Oliver Wiseman spoke to Jacob Heilbrunn, Editor of The National Interest, a foreign policy journal, and Luke Thompson, a Republican strategist and advisor.
They debate what Biden has got right, what he has got wrong, how the American people will react and where US foreign policy goes next.
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the performance of British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Image: A British Army soldier from the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment secures the helicopter landing strip (HLS) during operation Southern Beast on August 6, 2008 in Maywand District in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. (Photo by Marco Di Lauro/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
With the abrupt end of the Cold War, how successfully did Britain's armed forces adapt to new challenges - from the sands of Kuwait to the disintegration of Yugoslavia - in the 1990s? The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Professor Jeremy Black, author of War in the Modern World.
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Image: The Gulf War 1990 - 1991, Two British soldiers in NBC [Nuclear Biological and Chemical] equipment, pose with their SA80 rifles during a training exercise in Saudi Arabia before the start of operations in Kuwait, circa 1991. (Photo by Roger Ryan/ Crown Copyright. Imperial War Museums via Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Continuing the Black's History Week podcasts on British military strategy and deployments, in this episode, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the role Britain's nuclear deterrent and conventional forces played in facing the Warsaw Pact from Brezhnev to Gorbachev.
Continuing the series on British military deployments over the last two hundred years, in this episode of Black's History Week Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how the British Task Force liberated the Falkland Islands from Argentinian occupation in 1982.
Continuing Black History Week's series on the British armed forces, in this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the British army's thirty year deployment in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.
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Image: Troops of the 3rd Battalion, Light Infantry of the British Army in Belfast, circa 1968. (Photo by Michael Brennan/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this episode, The Critic's publisher, Olivia Hartley, speaks to Dr Jon Pike, co-convener of the newly established Open University Gender Critical Research Network and a philosopher of sport and ethics, about setting up the UK’s new network for gender-critical academics and the inclusion of transwomen in women’s sport.
Jon tells Olivia that, far from being a gender-critical activist group, the network "isn't a political campaign; it's a research network with a focus on sexed bodies".
Continuing our series on Britain's armed forces over the last two hundred years, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency: a global history, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how Britain's armed forces handled nationalist protests and uprisings from the Mediterranean and Middle East to Africa and Southeast Asia during the 1950s and 60s.
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Image: A group of Egyptians crowd around a British tank during the Suez Crisis of 1956. (Photo by © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Continuing the series on Britain's armed forces, in this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how British defence priorities adapted from the end of the Second World War to the first years of the Cold War.
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Image: Departure Of British Roops For Singapore In London Waterloo Station On January 17Th 1952 (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images).
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this episode of The Critic Podcast, Jo Bartosch is joined by Helen Joyce, the Britain editor of The Economist, to talk about her new book: Trans. Bartosch and Joyce discuss the ideology of the Trans movement, the influences behind this new book and how the direction the Trans movement is taking is damaging to young homosexuals.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this third Black's History Week podcast on the role of the British armed forces in the Second World War, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the British contribution to the Allied victory.
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Image:
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this Critic podcast, the writer Alexander Larman tells The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, why he thinks studying English literature at university is becoming such a deadening experience.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Image: A general view of the Duke Humphrey’s Library at the Bodleian Libraries (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images).
Continuing our series on the performance of the British armed forces in the Second World War, Professor Jeremy Black discusses with The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, morale, naval firepower, the RAF's bombing offensive and the campaigns in Greece, Italy and Normandy.
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Image: 14th February 1940: A crew member of HMS Exeter, which bore the brunt of a battle with the German battleship 'Admiral Graf Spee' in the South Atlantic, giving the thumb's up on the ship's arrival in Plymouth, England. (Photo by Harrison /Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this podcast, The Critic's publisher, Olivia Hartley, talks to journalist and feminist campaigner Julie Bindel about her July feature, "When is a rape not a rape?", which covers LGBT charity Stonewall and its campaign to change the UK’s sex-by-deception clause.
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Introducing The Critic's new column, "This Sporting Life", Graham Stewart talks to the sports writer and Critic columnist, Boris Starling, about the enduring appeal of a British Lions tour — and the players who regard it to be more memorable than winning the Rugby World Cup.
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In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about how Britain's armed forces adapted to the challenges of fighting the Second World War.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Image: Gloster Meteor. British jet fighter which first flew in 1943. (Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
On this week's Critic podcast, our Online editor David Scullion speaks to Christopher Howarth about the plot to remove Theresa May from office. In a real-life political thriller, the senior parliamentary researcher spills the beans for the first time about how his visit to a dying man in hospital secured a vital piece of information which led to the Prime Minister's downfall. Christopher's article is in the July issue of The Critic which will be available in shops from Thursday.
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Avoiding Armageddon: From the Great War to the Fall of France 1918-40, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about the state and preparedness of Britain's armed forces in the lead-up to the Second World War.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Image: Recruits at an Army school for advanced tank training are instructed on how to use the Webley Mk VI service revolver at their depot in 1939 at the Bovington Camp, Dorset, United Kingdom. (Photo by A.J. O'Brien/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Why are the membership numbers of the national trust falling? Are they placing themselves in socio-political conversations where they don’t belong? What is the purpose of the Trust in modern society?
In this episode, Editorial Assistant at The Critic, Anna Price, speaks to Constance Watson, Assistant Editor of the Catholic Herald and author of the piece: Burned by political expedience in the June issue of The Critic about how the National Trust’s priorities are potentially in the wrong place.
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this episode of The Critic Podcast, Josephine Bartosch, journalist and regular contributor toThe Critic, speaks with Maya Forstater about her recent victory at the Employment Appeals Tribunal.
Forstater had lost her job after posting tweets on gender recognition, following which she lost her original case at a tribunal in 2019. However, last week a High Court judge ruled that her "gender-critical" beliefs fell under the Equalities Act.
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this edition of Black's History Week, what sort of war was Britain's armed forces equipped to fight in 1914 and how successfully did they adapt to the reality of the first world war? Professor Jeremy Black, whose books include The World at War 1914-1945 and The Great War and the Making of the Modern World, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Image: First World War British soldiers in a trench 1914. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
All major parties agree that the UK needs to cut carbon emissions but is the goal of "Net Zero" achievable or will it leave us, in the words of Steve Baker MP, "quivering under duvets in the dark on windless winter nights"? On this podcast the former Brexit rebel explains his scepticism with The Critic's Online Editor David Scullion.
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Should heritage be preserved at all costs or can defunct and forgotten buildings make space for better use? On this week's Critic Podcast, our Online editor David Scullion discusses with Brice Stratford about the restoration of parliament and the heel-dragging by MPs over what should be done. Stratford argues that there are parallels between today and the conditions in 1834 just before the palace was destroyed by fire.
Stratford has written about the issue here, and also about the closure of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry here.
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, whose books include Naval Warfare: A Global History since 1860 and Combined Operations, talks toThe Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the reach and organisation of Britain's armed forces in protecting and expanding the British empire and expeditionary campaigns around the world in the Victorian era.
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Image: HMS Terrible in a battle scene against men-of-war. At the time of construction, this 20-gun paddle frigate was one of the most powerful steam war vessels in the world. During the Crimean War she took part in operations around Sebastapol. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
As the literary would comes out of its Covid-induced hibernation, The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, discusses with the writer and journalist Alexander Larman, the merits of celebrity authors and literary book prizes. __ Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Waterloo and France: A Short History, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the shifting reputation of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Image: Equestrian portrait of Napoleon I, 1810, by Joseph Chabord (1786-1848), oil on canvas. Napoleonic era, France, 19th century. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Are progressive leaders more moral than their conservative rivals or are they just better at doing politics? In this podcast The Critic's Online editor David Scullion discusses with Patrick Hess whether the likes of Jacinda Ardern and Justin Trudeau are more machiavellian than Donald Trump.
__ Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A History of the British Isles, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the role of the queen, and the queen consort, in British and European history.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Image: Queen Elizebeth, via Getty Images
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Matthew Roberts, the Minister of Trinity Church York and Jo Bartosch, a writer and reporter for Lesbian and Gay news, share their concerns with The Critic's David Scullion about the proposed legislation to outlaw "gay cure".
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Right now we’re offering 5 issues for just £10. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details.
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the centrality of religion to the status and mission of monarchy in Britain and Europe.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Image: Queen Elizebeth II attends Easter Sunday service at St George's Chapel on April 21, 2019 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Samir Hussein/WireImage) Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
This week marked the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte on the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena.
In this podcast, The Critic's publisher, Olivia Hartley, talks to Dr Arabella Byrne, a freelance journalist and writer with a doctorate in French Studies, about why, 200 years after his death, Bonaparte remains such a polarising figure in France and beyond. __
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Right now we’re offering 5 issues for just £10. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. __
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
This week marked the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon Bonaparte on the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena.
In this podcast, The Critic's publisher, Olivia Hartley, talks to Dr Arabella Byrne, a freelance journalist and writer with a doctorate in French Studies, about why, 200 years after his death, Bonaparte remains such a polarising figure in France and beyond. __
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Right now we’re offering 5 issues for just £10. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. __
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about military monarchs and the relationship between crowned heads and brass hats.
-- Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about military monarchs and the relationship between crowned heads and brass hats.
-- Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
From fighting gender inequality with power poses to defeating racism with unconscious bias tests, psychologists are not shy when it comes to the claims they make about their field's ability to solve some of society's thorniest problems. In his new book, Quick Fix, the American journalist Jesse Singal exposes much of these claims as bunk that doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.
In this podcast, the Critic's US Editor Oliver Wiseman spoke to Jesse about his new book, how bad ideas spread so easily and why the psychological cures to our social ills should be taken with a spoonful of salt.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Right now we’re offering 5 issues for just £10. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. __
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this week's edition of Black's History Week, The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, asks Professor Jeremy Black about similarities and differences between British and European conceptions of monarchy.
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Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this week's edition of Black's History Week, The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, asks Professor Jeremy Black about similarities and differences between British and European conceptions of monarchy.
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Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
In this week's edition of Black's History Week, The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, asks Professor Jeremy Black about similarities and differences between British and European conceptions of monarchy.
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Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Where has "modernising the royal family" taken Britain's monarchy and where can it go next? If the age of chivalry is dead, what can the crown put in its place?
In this podcast, the historian of monarchs and monarchy, David Starkey, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Crown's delicate balance between reform, revolution, and sustaining a useful role.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Right now we’re offering 5 issues for just £10. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. __
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Where has "modernising the royal family" taken Britain's monarchy and where can it go next? If the age of chivalry is dead, what can the crown put in its place?
In this podcast, the historian of monarchs and monarchy, David Starkey, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Crown's delicate balance between reform, revolution, and sustaining a useful role.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Right now we’re offering 5 issues for just £10. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. __
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Where has "modernising the royal family" taken Britain's monarchy and where can it go next? If the age of chivalry is dead, what can the crown put in its place?
In this podcast, the historian of monarchs and monarchy, David Starkey, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about the Crown's delicate balance between reform, revolution, and sustaining a useful role.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Right now we’re offering 5 issues for just £10. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. __
Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of England in the Age of Austen, talks to The Critic's deputy editor, Graham Stewart, about Jane Austen and the social and political world she inhabited.
Image: Jane Austen (1775 - 1817). (Photo by Stock Montage/Stock Montage/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
The Chairman of the Northern Ireland Select Committee Simon Hoare and David Hoey, businessman and producer of the PoliticalOD podcast debate the merits of the Northern Ireland Protocol with The Critic's Deputy Political Editor David Scullion.
In this week's edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about how the role of prime minister has evolved from the tenure of William Ewart Gladstone to Boris Johnson. _ Image: William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898), Engraving c1895. (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
It is 300 years ago this month that Robert Walpole became prime minister of Great Britain. In this edition of Black's History Week, Walpole's biographer, Professor Jeremy Black, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about how the role of prime minister evolved in its first one-and-a-half centuries. _ Image: Portrait of Sir Robert Walpole. The first Prime Minister of Great Britain.(Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Is Beijing's growing assertiveness towards its neighbours and especially with Britain and the United States a reflection of Chinese self-confidence and an alternative world view that requires careful management? Or is it evidence of a determined hostility that requires a clear-headed strategy to address? And if the latter, what should that response involve?
In this podcast, the former leader of the Conservative party, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, against who Beijing has imposed sanctions in retaliation for his criticism, gives his assessment to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Alex Salmond is encouraging Scottish nationalists to 'game' Holyrood's electoral system by voting for their SNP constituency candidate but on the regional ballot list voting for Salmond's Alba Party. Would the same tactical voting work for Scottish unionists? In this podcast, All For Unity's leader, Jamie Blackett makes the case for voting for George Galloway's pro-union alliance to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart.
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In this edition of Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Clio's Battles: Historiography in Practice and Contesting History talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about archival research and whether the enthusiasm for reinterpreting the past as a means of influencing current controversies encourages historians to stray too far away from the available source material.
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Is Sinn Fein's current popularity on both sides of the Irish border the fruition of decades of its left-wing campaigning paying off, or a conscious break from the past terrorist activities of Sinn Fein's armed wing, the IRA? How has Ireland's media responded and what part does Brexit play in renewed Irish Anglophobia?
For over 40 years, Kevin Myers has been one of the most fearless and outspoken journalists in Ireland - but in 2017 he found himself effectively cancelled following a controversial article he wrote for the Sunday Times. In this podcast, Kevin talks about Sinn Fein's success and the narrowing spectrum of the Irish commentariat, in conversation with The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, and Simon Kingston, founder of the West Cork History Festival.
The Critic's David Scullion talks to Nick Buckley about the reasons why he is standing for Mayor of Manchester.
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(Photo by Rahman Hassani/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
In this episode of The Critic's podcast, the theme is the dangers of our addiction to digital information, social media, and the algorithms that direct us to what to view next.
The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, is joined by former olympic rower and broker Alex Story, who has recently written about "How Gen Z became Gen Me", and Robert Wigley, the chairman of UK Finance whose book Born Digital: The Story of a Distracted Generation has just been published. __
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In this episode of The Critic's podcast, the theme is the dangers of our addiction to digital information, social media, and the algorithms that direct us to what to view next.
The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, is joined by former olympic rower and broker Alex Story, who has recently written about "How Gen Z became Gen Me", and Robert Wigley, the chairman of UK Finance whose book Born Digital: The Story of a Distracted Generation has just been published. __
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In this podcast, writer, photographer, and face of the March edition of The Critic, Laura Dodsworth talks about her cover piece, Faith Masks, which focusses on the ideological significance of mask-wearing and the quasi-religious narrative surrounding lockdown.
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There is no reliable data on the number of people who regret their decision to undergo transgender surgery. James Caspian, a trained psychotherapist who worked for a decade with people who wanted to change their gender decided to find out more but was blocked by Bath Spa University for trying to research a non "politically correct" topic. He's now trying to take his university to court.
Laura Dodsworth is a writer and photographer who documented detransitioners for the Sunday Times through photographs of their bodies and she has written a longer piece on interviews with detransitioners here. Both join David Scullion on the podcast this week.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this Critic magazine podcast, Graham Stewart and David Scullion talk to Radomir Tylecote about his research into how academics at British universities are cooperating with organisations linked to the Chinese military on technological projects that may have useful defence applications for Beijing. __ Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
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The entrepreneur Jim Mellon has a track record in investing in some of the technologies and innovations that shape our future. The one that is preoccupying him at the moment is the cultured meat market, sometimes called "cell meat". He has also written an investor's guide to the new agrarian revolution entitled Moo's Law.
In this podcast The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Jim about the development of cultured meat and when we can expect to see it on our supermarket shelves. __
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this week's Critic Podcast, David Scullion speaks to the DUP leader in Westminster about an aspect of the Brexit deal under so much attention recently, the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have said freight levels to Ulster are at usual levels for this time of year and that any issues with the Protocol, which came into force at the start of the year, are teething problems. But the DUP say the Protocol undermines the Good Friday Agreement and needs to be scrapped as soon as possible, or it will do severe damage to the Northern Ireland economy.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Only a year ago, Rishi Sunak was a name known only to close followers of Westminster politics. Now the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the most important figure in the government after the prime minister and the man talked about as the most likely future leader of the country, or at least the Conservative party.
But who is he? Has he risen so quickly that his views are not fully formed and how broad are his interests and his appeal? In the podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Michael Ashcroft, whose new book Going for Broke: the rise of Rishi Sunak is the first biography to be written about the British government's coming man.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
After Michael Gove unexpectedly struck an agreement with EU Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič on Northern Ireland, the the UK agreed to remove controversial clauses in its Brexit legislation. But does this mean we're about to strike a trade deal or the opposite? Graham Stewart speaks to David Scullion on a fast moving day in politics.
The River Thames has been the site of constant human activity for at least two millennia... is it any surprise that so much evidence of this history washes up on the foreshore every single day? Mudlarkers are those who search for such treasure, and they have a fascinating history of their own.
In this podcast, Olivia Hartley speaks to Lara Maiklem, author of The Sunday Times bestseller Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames, about what how mudlarking on the Thames foreshore has changed her relationship with the city, how she felt during lockdown when she was unable to visit the river, and some of her favourite historical finds from over the years (including an incredibly preserved child's shoe dating back to the Tudor period). __
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The Critic's political team discuss whether the parliamentary arithmetic means Boris Johnson should be worried about the next vote to impose restrictions.
In this week's podcast David Scullion talks to British businessman and longtime Brexit campaigner John Longworth about his role in achieving a vote to leave the EU and why he dramatically broke away from his longtime ally Nigel Farage. During the 2019 General Election campaign he publically called on the Brexit Party leader to stand down candidates in Conservative seats and asked people to vote Tory at the General Election instead of his own party, leading to a rift with the former UKIP leader that hasn't been healed.
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Image: John Longworth (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images) Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In the latest issue of The Critic Magazine, Julie Bindel reveals how abused women are being let down by domestic violence perpetrator programmes, while Louise Perry shows how the political labels of ‘left’ and ‘right’ are irrelevant for feminists.
In this podcast, David Scullion talks to both Louise and Julie about their articles, and the future of feminism in the West.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
America is still counting the votes, but as things stand, Joe Biden is on course to be the next president of the United States. Donald Trump's chances of victory are slim, and getting slimmer, while his legal team look set to lodge complaints and demand recounts in several crucial states. But 48 hours after election day, a couple of things are clear: the polls were a long way off and Democrats have badly underperformed expectations. It also seems likely that Republicans retain control of the Senate and that Joe Biden will be president in a divided government. To make sense of these results, Graham Stewart, The Critic's political editor, spoke to US Editor Oliver Wiseman, Republican strategist Luke Thompson and conservative journalist and AEI fellow Matthew Continetti. __ Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
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Photo credit: (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The Critic's political sketch-writer, Rob Hutton, previously spent 16 years reporting on Westminster's comings and goings from the very different vantages of The Mirror and Bloomberg. How have politicians as well as journalists adapted to the 24 hour news cycle and is the expectation of instant commentary debasing serious journalism?
In this podcast, Rob Hutton talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about how politics and the media have changed and reveals his journalistic inspirations. __
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Photo credit: (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images) Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to the author of The Elephant in the Room, the entrepreneur John Mills, chairman of the consumer goods company JML and the Labour Party's largest individual donor, about how the UK's manufacturing base could be revived through policies designed to sustain a more competitive exchange rate.
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The second–and final–US presidential debate of the 2020 election campaign ended as many viewers and commentators say they hoped it would begin: with something approaching an actual debate. But who won?
With 47 million Americans already having voted, and the vast majority of those who haven't saying that they have already made their decision, will this last debate have changed anything?
To discuss the outcome of the final presidential debate and what it means for the race, The Critic‘s political editor, Graham Stewart, joins US editor Oliver Wiseman and editor of the journal American Greatness, Chris Buskirk. __ Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
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Photo: (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Azerbaijan has attacked Armenian-backed forces in Nagorno-Karabakh, Russia has guaranteed Armenia's territory whilst Turkey, a NATO member, is backing Azerbaijan.
How much worse can this conflict in the Caucasus get and will neighbouring countries, Europe and the United States be drawn in?
In this podcast, Kapil Komireddi assesses the messages from his interview with Armenia's president, Armen Sarkissian, and explains to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, what is at stake. __
Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode. Right now we’re offering 3 months for just £5. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. __ Photo:View from a broken window of a building near the Shushi cathedral, Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, after Azerbaijan shelling that destroyed part of roof in a double attack on October 11, 2020. (Photo by Celestino Arce/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
With Azerbaijan attacking Armenian-backed positions in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh, the president of Armenia, Armen Sarkissian, spoke to Kapil Komireddi for The Critic on the conflict in the Caucuses, the role of Turkey and what he expects from Russia and western countries.
__ Photo: Armenia's president, Armen Sarkissian, 2018. (Photographer: Nazik Armenakyan/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this week's podcast, David Scullion speaks to Ben Woodfinden, a political theorist at McGill University, Montreal about whether conservatives are fighting a "war on woke", how they're responding to the charge that our statues need pulling down, and whether Donald Trump can truly be called a conservative.
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In the second of three podcasts to mark the coming presidential election, the first of which can be found here, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Fighting for America and Altered States, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about how the power of the US president was exercised during the Civil War and its aftermath.
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Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
With less than four weeks to go before American voters elect their next president, how has executive authority developed since George Washington was sworn in as the federal republic's first president in 1789? In this first of three podcasts to mark the coming presidential election, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Fighting for America and Altered States, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about where power lay in the period between the United States achieving independence and the outbreak of Civil War in 1861. __ Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on Spotify and iTunes to ensure you never you never miss an episode.
Right now we’re offering 3 months for just £5. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. __ Image: George Washington on horseback in front of a map of the United States, by James Montgomery Flagg, c. 1935. Screen print. (Illustration by GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
It has been an extraordinary few weeks in US presidential politics – not least with President Trump's illness.
Meanwhile, it was the understudies who were in the hot seat for the vice presidential debate.
To discuss the vice presidential debate and what it means for the presidential race, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, joins US editor Oliver Wiseman and editor of the journal American Greatness, Chris Buskirk.
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Photo: (Photo by Morry Gash-Pool/Getty Images) Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
As conference season went online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the experience proved vastly different for those who usually attend the annual party conferences.
In this week's podcast, The Critic's David Scullion, Politeia Director Jonathan Isaby and former Conservative Party councillor Caroline ffiske discuss whether it's still worth political parties meeting in person, and if for the Tories it's now more about attracting corporate sponsors than letting party members have their say.
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In a week when backbench MPs and the government clashed over the right to debate Coronavirus regulations before they become law, how does the role of the modern MP compare with that of an eighteenth century honourable member? Were MPs a check upon - or a rubber-stamp for - successive Whig governments and how diligently did they perform their duties? In this week's Black's History Week podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Walpole in Power and Parliament and Foreign Policy in the Eighteenth Century, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about the nature of parliamentary government in Georgian Britain. -- Image: Sir Robert Walpole in the House of Commons, circa 1700s Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Last night, Donald Trump and Joe Biden faced off in the first of three presidential debates.
It was a bad-tempered affair, with a lot of squabbling and not much substantive policy discussion. But who came out of the messy encounter on top? And are there any undecided voters who would have changed their minds by the end of the 90 minutes?
In this podcast, The Critic's US editor, Oliver Wiseman, spoke to the publisher and editor of American Greatness, Chris Buskirk, about what we learned last night, as well as the state of the presidential race more generally.
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Photo: Photo by JIM WATSON, SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Tuesday night is debate night - the first of three US presidential debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, and US editor, Oliver Wiseman, talk about what to expect from the debates in a time of Covid-19. __
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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Has scientific development become so specialised and academic roles so minutely research-focused that there is no longer a role for the inter-disciplinary polymath who prioritises breadth of knowledge and making connections between different subjects?
In this week's Black's History Week, Professor Jeremy Black talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about the idea of the Renaissance Man and how he personally developed such breadth in his own wide-ranging career as a historian.
Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
With the opinion polls suggesting the SNP is heading for a clear majority in next May's Scottish parliamentary elections, fuelling their demands for a second referendum on independence - is it beyond the ability of Scotland's Conservative, LibDem and Labour parties to save the union?
Former Labour and Respect MP, George Galloway, has founded the Alliance for Unity as a bipartisan party seeking to ensure that only one pro-union candidate stands in each region against the SNP in May. But will it work, how will it be funded and will the Westminster parties cooperate? If not, will the Alliance for Unity succeed only in further splitting the pro-union vote?
In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to George Galloway and the Scottish farmer, writer and Alliance for Unity candidate, Jamie Blackett about their game plan to keep Scotland in the UK.
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Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Welcome to the first episode of Black’s History Week: the latest podcast series from us here at The Critic.
The former prime ministers, John Major, Tony Blair and Theresa May have all criticised Boris Johnson's handling of the Internal Market Bill and the Withdrawal Agreement. But how common is it for ex-prime ministers to continue to play a prominent part in British politics after they have left Downing Street? And do American presidents mostly find it easier to resist the urge to influence political debate after their White House tenure expires?
In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, biographer of Robert Walpole and Pitt the Elder, talks to The Critic's editor, Graham Stewart, about the ruling passion and which of the pastmasters have successfully influenced politics after their time in office elapsed.
Image: William Pitt the Elder, (Image from Studio of William Hoare, held at the National Portrait Gallery, image obtained via Wikipedia) Music: Radetzky March by Human Symphony Orchestra (premiumbeat.com)
Why is the UK a world leader in tech sector R&D, yet has not a single high growth software business listed on the FTSE 100? Does leaving the EU threaten the UK’s tech sector or does Brexit provide Britain with opportunities? And if so, how and where?
Dr Mike Lynch OBE has been variously described as: Britain’s answer to Bill Gates; Britain’s most successful technology entrepreneur; and, in the Financial Times, as “the doyen of European software.” He co-founded Autonomy Corporation (which was later sold to Hewlett-Packard in a deal that remains the subject of litigation), and his Invoke Capital Fund is a major investor in Britain’s burgeoning AI sector.
In this podcast, Mike Lynch talks to The Critic’s political editor, Graham Stewart, about what policies need to change if the UK’s tech sector is going to thrive in the future.
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Photo: Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
As Beijing has become more bellicose since the Coronavirus pandemic and British attitudes have hardened, how should Britain react? In a recent paper, Dr Radomir Tylecote the Director of the Good Governance Project and Research Director of the Free Speech Union, argues that Britain is still being naive in its dealings with China and suggests ways to be more resilient to China's "Long March through the (global) Institutions".
The Critic's Deputy Political Editor David Scullion met Dr. Tylecote earlier this week to get his thoughts. __
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Photo: Beijing CBD via Getty Images Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
In this week's podcast, The Critic's Deputy Political Editor, David Scullion, spoke to Harry Miller, an ex-police officer who last year was visited at work by police officers who wanted to "check his thinking" on trans issues after they read some of his tweets.
Last year the High Court found that the police probe was unlawful, but in a new report into the politicised nature of policing, Fair Cop, the organisation Miller founded, says the police are still routinely enforcing things that are not actually the law but are just on Stonewall's wishlist.
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Photo: Photo by Andres Pantoja/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
From fake news and propaganda to covert funding, bribery and everyday espionage, allegations of foreign interference in British politics and society is as old as the belief that Britain equally seeks to interfere in the internal affairs of its overseas competitors.
In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Professor Jeremy Black, author of A History of Diplomacy, about the forms that foreign interference have taken and asks whether it is any worse now than in the past.
Right now we’re offering 3 months for just £5. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. — Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
When Richard Leonard became leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2017, he inherited Scotland's third largest party. It still is. And with opinion polls suggesting that popular support for the once dominant power in Scotland is now down to around 15 to 17 percent, the prospects for Labour in the Scottish Parliament election in May next year look dire.
In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to John McTernan, the political strategist and former political secretary to Tony Blair, whether anything or anyone can save Scottish Labour?
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What might Meghan and Harry have learnt from Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson?
In this podcast, The Critic’s political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Alexander Larman, author of The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication, about how Edward VIII was manoeuvred off the throne, whether Wallis really was as bad as she has been painted, and how the House of Windsor adapts and endures.
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From consumerism and urban growth to becoming the first industrialising nation and permitting a level of free speech and press that would be envied elsewhere in Europe, Hanoverian Britain set trends that others would later follow. Why so?
In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart talks about what made Georgian Britain a trendsetter with Professor Jeremy Black, whose books on the eighteenth century include Walpole in Power, George II: puppet of the politicians?, Pitt the Elder and George III: Madness and Majesty.
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In the twenty years after the end of the Second World War, the Holocaust was recalled as part of the horror of Hitler's Reich but in the popular commemoration rarely singled out as the single greatest manifestation of its moral depravity.
How and when did this begin to change and with what shifting emphasis do different countries remember the crime?
In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of The Holocaust: History and Memory, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about how eastern as well as western Europe has slowly come to terms with the murder of six million Jews.
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In this podcast,The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to the investor and statistician, Alistair Haimes, about whether the data really stacks-up for a resurgence of Covid-19
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A country on the Atlantic coast of Europe that looks outwards and establishes a global empire stretching from the Americas to Africa and Asia - Portugal has much in common with its oldest ally, Britain.
In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Portugal talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about how the country managed its place in the world.
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Does Spain wrestle with its imperial legacies in a similar way to Britain? How important has monarchy been to Spanish unity and is the narrative of a long decline a myth?
In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Spain, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about the grandeur, instability, and endurance of the Spanish nation.
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The Scottish Government is planning to criminalise the 'stirring up of hatred', a proposal which has been criticised by police officers, lawyers, the Roman Catholic Church and now Blackadder Actor Rowan Atkinson.
But what are the proposals and why are they so controversial? In this podcast David Scullion, The Critic's Deputy Political Editor discusses the new legislation with long-time political campaigner Brian Monteith and Jamie Gillies of the Free to Disagree Campaign.
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The wait is over: Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden has chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate. It has been described as the safe choice, but is it the wise choice?
Do vice-presidential running choices even make much difference to who Americans want to elect to the White House?
In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to The Critic’s US editor, Oliver Wiseman, about what Kamala Harris has to bring to the U.S. presidential elections.
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What is the Dolan case and should the government be worried?
To combat the spread of Covid-19, the British government has restricted personal, social and economic behaviour on a scale unheard of in peacetime conditions. But has the basis upon which it has done so been legal?
To discuss the entrepreneur Simon Dolan's legal challenge to the government's actions, John Jolliffe, a barrister specialising in government and public law, talks in this podcast to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about what is at stake and the chances of Dolan's challenge succeeding.
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Why did it take 1,400 years after the end of the Roman Empire for Italy to unite as one country? And how strong is Italian national unity now?
In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Italy, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about Italian identity, regionalism and state-building.
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Where does the Labour Party stand on trans rights? Is fear of being branded "transphobic" now putting the party of Barbara Castle and Jennie Lee at odds with mainstream feminism?
In this podcast, the feminist campaigner, writer, and former Labour party member, Jo Bartosch, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about how the gender battle is shaking-up British party politics.
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Does the Mediterranean have a common culture that transcends its national, political and religious differences and did its modern tourist industry develop naturally or as part of government planning and incentives?
In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of ‘A Brief History of the Mediterranean’, talks to The Critic’s political editor, Graham Stewart, about the trading, colonial and strategic forces that have shaped Mediterranean history in war and peace.
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As Parliament heads into recess, politics isn't stopping.
Graham Stewart and David Scullion discuss what we can expect in the coming weeks: from Brexit talks and the renewal of Coronavirus legislation, to the Lib Dem leadership election and who's likely to be fired in a coming reshuffle.
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In 1950, over 20 million newspapers were bought every weekday in Britain, equivalent to one-and-a-half newspapers for every household per day. By 2010, they were buying 10 million a day, or 0.4 newspapers per household. Now it's closer to five million. or 0.2 per household.
In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of The English Press: A History, talks to The Critic's political editor and official historian of The Times newspaper, Graham Stewart. about what drove the growth of Britain's newspaper industry and whether it is destined to die or can better harness modern alternative media to thrive in different forms.
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As social and political movements, such as Black Lives Matter, continue to gain traction nationwide, cancel culture is becoming an increasingly worrying trend. People who privately question or disagree with parts of such organisations are being publicly vilified with their jobs on the line.
In this podcast, David Scullion talks to physicist Mike Mcculloch, ex-charity boss Nick Buckley and Free Speech Union founder Toby Young, on what it’s like to be cancelled and how we can move forward.
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For the first time in half a century, Britain is planning a major permanent Royal Navy deployment in the seas of Southeast and East Asia, led by the new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth. But how important was the Royal Navy in Asia-Pacific between the 1830s and 1960s?
In this podcast The Critic’s political editor, Graham Stewart, discusses with Professor Jeremy Black, author of Geopolitics and the Quest for Dominance, whether returning the White Ensign to the Pacific is a welcome sign of Global Britain or a misguided exercise in post-imperial overstretch.
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How did Huawei destroy its western competitors to achieve such dominance?
And does the government’s decision to phase Huawei out of the UK’s 5G network go far enough to address security fears? In this podcast, former leader of the Conservative Party, Iain Duncan Smith MP, talks to The Critic’s political editor, Graham Stewart, about the issues that remain to be settled concerning Huawei’s presence in the UK as well as the role Britain should play in building an international alliance to compete with China - from telecoms technology to keeping the peace in the South China Sea.
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Much of Europe is now open again for British summer holiday-makers. But how different are the aims and experience of leisure travellers to Europe now compared to the 18th century?
The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Professor Jeremy Black, author of The British Abroad, Italy and the Grand Tour, France and the Grand Tour and most recently, A Short History of the Mediterranean about what British travellers used to get up to abroad.
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Opinion polls show a majority of Scots saying they would vote 'yes' for Scottish independence in a second referendum - which may be granted if the SNP win next May's Scottish parliamentary elections.
Why has Scottish opinion shifted in favour of breaking-up the UK at a time when the UK Treasury is pumping billions into Scotland's Coronavirus response? In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Kevin Hague, Chairman of These Islands, a cross-party pressure group that seeks to play a prominent role in shaping the debate in favour of maintaining the UK in a future referendum. Is all lost, or do the Unionists have a plan?
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Half the world has seen a James Bond film, or so the estimates have it, making 007 one of the most globally recognisable British brands as well as the longest, most successful film franchise in history.
But what does Bond stand for and how has he changed since Ian Fleming created him in the 1950s? Professor Jeremy Black, author of The World of James Bond and The Politics of James Bond unpicks the life and times of 007 with The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart.
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What did the radical essayist and polemical journalist, Christopher Hitchens, and the conservative philosopher, Sir Roger Scruton, have in common?
In this podcast, Douglas Murray, the commentator and author of The Strange Death of Europe and, most recently, The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity, talks to the political editor of The Critic, Graham Stewart, about the personal debt he owes to the two men he considers his literary mentors and the wider contribution that they made to debate and critical thinking on both sides of the Atlantic.
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In the first of a new series of podcasts featuring those who shaped politics over the last fifty years, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Lord Taverne of Pimlico.
As Dick Taverne, he was a minister in Harold Wilson's government, working with Roy Jenkins on many of the economic and social reforms of the 1960s, before being forced out of the Labour Party in 1973 because of his support for membership of the European Economic Community.
How does the calibre of politicians compare between now and the 1960s? Were we better governed? And how close was Roy Jenkins to splitting the Labour Party by creating a Social Democrat Party in 1973, rather than 1981? Dick Taverne recalls politics, past and present.
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Image: Dick Taverne is lifted aloft by supporters as he arrives at the House of Commons, London, March 7th 1973. (Photo by Dennis Oulds/Central Press/Getty Images) Music: "Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
As we grow further and further away from the twentieth century, has our perceptions on its course changed? And do we consider the themes and events that shaped it - and us - differently?
The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, discusses with the historian, Professor Jeremy Black, senior fellow at Policy Exchange, whether greater distance from the twentieth century alters our perception of it.
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In the first of a new series of podcasts featuring those who shaped politics over the last fifty years, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Lord Taverne of Pimlico.
As Dick Taverne, he was a minister in Harold Wilson's government, working with Roy Jenkins on many of the economic and social reforms of the 1960s, before being forced out of the Labour Party in 1973 because of his support for membership of the European Economic Community.
How does the calibre of politicians compare between now and the 1960s? Were we better governed? And how close was Roy Jenkins to splitting the Labour Party by creating a Social Democrat Party in 1973, rather than 1981? Dick Taverne recalls politics, past and present.
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Image: Dick Taverne is lifted aloft by supporters as he arrives at the House of Commons, London, March 7th 1973. (Photo by Dennis Oulds/Central Press/Getty Images)
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The spirit of 1968 has returned. From protests, to boycotts and even riots, ‘direct action’ is back in vogue as protestors impatient with the pace of change raise consciousness about the issues they want to put centre-stage. The Critic’s political editor, Graham Stewart, asks Professor Jeremy Black, senior fellow at Policy Exchange, whether we are witnessing a new age of emancipation or the undermining of democratic institutions?
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The Cold War ended with the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. But when did it start? Shortly after the end of the Second World War is the common view. But did it really start with the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917?
And if we view it as a confrontation between the West and Soviet Union are we forgetting about the actions and influence of Communist China? Professor Jeremy Black, senior fellow at Policy Exchange, picks-over the evidence with Graham Stewart.
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Can the West live without China? Would decoupling from China inflict greater damage to the American and British economies than it would hurt China? Graham Stewart talks to Stewart Paterson, research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation and author of China, Trade and Power: Why the West's Economic Engagement Has Failed about whether disengagement is an act of self-harm or a sensible stitch in time.
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And do we still have a national story?
He won a large majority in last December's election, but with his judgment and performance increasingly questioned, is Boris Johnson the wrong man to be leading the government?
Simon Heffer, professor of modern British history at Buckingham University and a columnist for the Sunday and Daily Telegraph argues that the prime minister is unsuited to the job.
And Graham Stewart also talks to Professor Jeremy Black, senior fellow at Policy Exchange about how British history is taught at schools and universities. Is there still a national story? --Right now we're offering 3 months for just £5. Go to thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details. -- Image: Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Music: "Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
And what is the relationship between war and the state?
This week, Graham Stewart speaks to Nick Timothy, former Downing Street adviser and now Daily Telegraph columnist and author of Remaking One Nation: the Future of Conservatism, on what future there is for liberalism in British politics, as well as to Emeritus Professor of History at Exeter University, Jeremy Black, on the relationship between war and the power of the state.
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And is there a point to counter-factual history?
This week, Graham Stewart speaks to Katharine Birbalsingh, headmistress of Michaela Community School in Brent, on education and schooling during Coronavirus. Michaela Community School (https://mcsbrent.co.uk/) is a trail-blazing school achieving very high results from its pupils. Also in this podcast, Graham asks Jeremy Black, Emeritus Professor of History at Exeter University, whether there is a point to counter-factual history.
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And what is oligarch money doing to the art world?
In this week's Critic podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of Imperial Legacies: the British Empire around the world, argues that campaigns across universities to "decolonise the curriculum" are often less about broadening the range of interpretations of the past and more about promoting a radical alternative political agenda.
Graham Stewart also talks to the critic, Nicholas T. Parsons, author of Civilisation and its Malcontents on how oligarch money is turning the art world into a circus of absurdity. And the Critic's artist in residence, Miriam Elia, talks with Graham about the satisfaction of caricaturing the postures of the chattering classes.
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And how much longer can Britain's WWII commemorations endure into the future?
How much longer should the lockdown go on and is it now causing more problems than it is solving? To discuss the suppositions that got us into the lockdown and whether the government's 5 tests are valid measures to meet before relaxing it, the Critic's political editor Graham Stewart talks to the lockdown sceptic and entrepreneur, Luke Johnson, who was formally chairman of Channel 4 and who is now chairman of Risk Capital Partners and of Bread Ltd, and to Alistair Haimes, who runs a private asset managements business based in Bristol and who has written for The Critic online about what the data tells us.
And, one event that the lockdown is set to scale down is this Friday's 75th anniversary of VE Day. How much longer can Britain's commemorations of its sacrifices in two world wars endure into the future, and what did pre-20th century Britons united nationally to celebrate? Professor Jeremy Black charts our evolving history of national commemorations.
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...and is Scottish Labour still relevant for Starmer's Labour party?
In this week's Critic podcast, our political editor, Graham Stewart asks Professor Jeremy Black why Britain's armed forces are better trusted to deliver procurement than other state bodies (like the Department of Health and Public Health England) and whether Britons have always held the armed forces in such high esteem? Graham also talks to John McTernan, former special adviser to Tony Blair, on the contribution Scots have made to the Labour Party and whether that debt still exists now that Scottish Labour only has one MP?
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As working from home becomes the new norm, Natascha Engel (former Labour MP for North East Derbyshire and Deputy Speaker for the House of Commons) discusses with Graham Stewart about the shift to online parliament, and why we should be wary about making this a permanent change. Also, Professor Jeremy Black considers how online learning has effected universities, and what this means for their futures.
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In this week's podcast, Graham Stewart discusses with Kapil Komireddi and Toby Young about the origins of the Coronavirus crisis, whether we should be in a lockdown at all, and whether saving vulnerable lives is an economic price worth paying.
Kapil Komireddi is the author of internationally acclaimed ‘Malevolent Republic: A short History of the New India’, and Toby Young is the commentator and founder of Free Speech Union, and LockdownSceptics.org (https://lockdownsceptics.org/) a place for those who question official approaches and information about the coronavirus crisis.
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This week, Graham Stewart speaks to Emiritus Professor of History at Exeter University, Jeremy Black, about historical reactions to national crises, and David Scullion discusses how Europe’s response to the Coronavirus differs to that of Taiwan with Dr Radomir Tylecote. Dr Tylecote is a fellow at the IEA having studied State interventions in the Chinese Economy for his PhD which included fieldwork at Tsinghua University Beijing, having lived in China for two years.
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This week, Graham Stewart spoke to James Orr, lecturer in the philosophy of religion at Cambridge University, about the effects of Coronavirus on the church and where faith fits into our pandemic-stricken society.
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This week Graham Stewart spoke to our US editor Oliver Wiseman who reports back from a Prepper camp in West Virginia, and the Director of the European Research Group Christopher Howarth explains how MPs are carrying on in a half-empty parliament.
Oliver's dispatch from Fortitude Ranch can be found in the upcoming issue of The Critic Magazine https://thecritic.co.uk/were-all-preppers-now/
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This week author DJ Taylor reveals the many women pursued by the novelist George Orwell and TV Critic Adam LeBor discusses the Channel 4 satire 'The Windsors'. https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/march-2020/brief-encounters-and-romps-in-the-park/
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This week Richard Waghorne argues for keeping people in the dark when it comes to Coronavirus where it would improve morale, Sarah Ditum, our new Pop Critic talks about how TikTok is influencing the way music is written and Oliver Wiseman gives an update on the US election 2020
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This week Richard Waghorne argues for keeping people in the dark when it comes to Coronavirus to improve morale, Sarah Ditum, our new Pop Critic talks about how TikTok is influencing the way music is written and Oliver Wiseman gives an update on the US election 2020.
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Is Parliament's role to be a check on government (as John Bercow believed) or a means of government (as Boris Johnson expects)? In this week's Critic podcast Professor David Starkey distills 750 years of parliamentary history to challenge the notion of a constitutional separation of powers. David's latest article can be found here: https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/march-2020/a-one-sided-view-of-history-that-neuters-parliament/
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"Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (Photo by MJ Kim/Getty Images)
Steve Baker MP speaks to The Critic about his resignation from chairing the ERG, the group of eurosceptic MPs who toppled a Prime Minister
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"Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Steve Baker, the long-standing chairman of the European Research Group, has stepped down and given an exclusive interview with The Critic magazine.
The Critic’s Deputy Political Editor David Scullion has written a profile on the Brexiteer here but you can listen to our interview with him Political Editor Graham Stewart below:
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This week Graham spoke to US Editor Oliver Wiseman about Mike Bloomberg's unorthodox attempt to win the Democratic nomination and Joseph Connolly explains why he gives men a dressing down in his latest piece for The Critic. https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/february-2020/filthy-shades-of-grey/
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"Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
This week we spoke to Culture Minister John Whittingdale about the future of the BBC, Writer Alexander Larman about whether the Oscars is going to stay woke, and Graham caught up with Adam Dant for some serious research on a Westminster tavern.
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"Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
We speak to Peter Lilley about what Boris Johnson can learn from Margaret Thatcher and catch up with Critic writers Hannah Betts and Robert Thicknesse on the enduring power of wearing black.
You can read columns by Hannah Betts and Robert Thicknesse in the next issue of The Critic magazine. Right now we're offering 3 months for just £5. Go to https://thecritic.imbmsubscriptions.com/ for details.
"Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/