Nick Ferrari (Global) | lbc.co.uk
News Agent (Global) | globalplayer.com
The rest is politics (Goal Hunger Podcast) | apple.com
Oh God, what’s next? (Podmaster) | apple.com
Election dysfunction (Sky News) | podcasts.apple.com
GK Barry’s turnout (Bauer Media) | open.spotify.com
With just under two weeks to go until the general election, I’ve been watching a few political shows this week to get myself in the mood, decide who to vote for, and shout “I can’t take it anymore!” on Tuesday on LBC’s veteran morning show, Nick Ferrari Keir Starmer was in the studio to answer questions from listeners via phone, as was Rishi Sunak on Wednesday. These phone-ins are a staple of Ferrari’s show and have been a regular feature in the past. Call Craig and Ask Boris the listener questions slot, and more recently Call KielA monthly program featuring the leader of the opposition party.
Starmer has done this before, so you would expect him to answer listeners’ questions with aplomb. And if you interpret “with aplomb” to mean not suddenly bursting into a “rip-off the rich!” rant, he did well. He answered some tough questions candidly, including what would happen if Labour imposed VAT on parents of children with special educational needs in private schools, whether Corbyn would be a minister if he were prime minister, and how he would balance women’s rights with trans rights. He explained on multiple occasions that Labour had made some tough decisions (not to remove the cap on second-child benefit, for example) to ensure that all their proposals were funded. His tone was headmaster-serious, if not stern, yet the right-wing press continued to trawl through the interview for anti-Labour clickbait.
Their choice comes after Ferrari asked Starmer to define “workers,” since Labour has promised not to raise taxes on workers. Pressed by Ferrari, he defined them as: “people who make a living, who rely on public services, and who don’t really have the ability to write a cheque when they need it.” That might seem completely uncontroversial, but within minutes, that was slipped to mean that Labour would definitely tax people with savings. Yikes.
On Wednesday, Mr Sunak was allowed to make his case before the callers arrived. The gist of it was that the Conservatives would “cut taxes at every stage of people’s lives”. He was then met with some sweet talk, like that of a 17-year-old girl who asked about National Service and said she quite liked the idea. But then things got ugly. Some callers took offence, such as a man who has been living with HIV for years, who called Mr Sunak “Farage in the dollar store”. And a young woman who said she was all insecure about her future responded to Mr Sunak’s nonsense about housing by saying, “Frankly, I think you’re completely lying”.
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LBC has a strong line-up of political presenters both on radio (James O’Brien, Ian Dale) and on podcasts. News Agent is always a pretty good show, especially when it goes out of its way to do some decent reporting. But Maitlis, Sopel and Goodall all have way too much energy as main characters, and the three of them together can be intimidating. They take everything a bit too far, and repeat themselves too many times. The recent show about Bristol and the Greens’ challenge to Labour was very good, but could have been 20 minutes shorter and had the same impact.
Outside of LBC, The rest is politics is a big hit, but again, it would have needed stronger production skills for another reason: Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart are too casual and comfortable with each other ( News Agent(“Always exaggerates.”) And Stewart’s vagueness gets in the way of whatever they decide to discuss, and I just couldn’t get along with him. Political currencyEd Balls and George Osborne are on the same page because I don’t think Osborne is a nice guy. If we want to have a more intelligent debate with less ego, Oh God, what’s next? The crew is easy to live with (and in the interest of transparency, I host a podcast produced by the same company), and the panel is made up of left-leaning journalists, so it’s a lot of fun. “The politician said what?” Unraveling the nonsense. Even with such delightful company as Marie Le Conte, Rafael Behr and Ava Santina, an hour is too long for me.
My favorite politically-driven podcasts are: Election dysfunctionis usually hosted by Sky News Political Editor Beth Rigby, Conservative peer Ruth Davidson and Labour’s Jess Phillips, but as Phillips is campaigning, a replacement is nominated each week. The hilarious and insightful Margaret Hodge took over a few days ago, for an episode recorded just after Rigby had grilled Starmer and Sunak live on Sky. She explained the thinking behind the interviews, how hard she and her team worked, including the long hours of preparation and daily practice interviews for a week before the actual show. To top it off, she lost a filling in her tooth just before it went on air!
The BBC’s Sounds app appears to have a new station of sorts. 2024 ElectionIt is located between 5 Live Sports Extra and 6 Music. It is actually the BBC’s political editorial office, i.e. Radio 4’s today It will be broadcast live from 6am to 9am before switching over to 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell phone-in show, with an audio feed at lunchtime. Politics Livea television show. Other series include Any questions?, Any answers?, afternoon And that The 6 o’clock newsIn between there’s “Reports from BBC News” which can be hit or miss – for the real political buffs.
My favorite new discovery is quite different from all of these. The arrival of GK Barry “I Can’t Vote” is a new and very entertaining show in which the 24-year-old social media star tries to encourage people his age to vote. In the first episode, Barry meets with several young people who don’t vote, who say they feel confused and underinformed about politics. To help, Barry also interviews politicians such as Nish Kumar and Alastair Campbell. Cheeky and witty, Barry left them a bit overwhelmed with a comment or a little joke after each long speech. “I know what you’re doing,” Campbell said, but Barry put them at ease so even he couldn’t stay pompous for long. Brilliant.
