Alex and Naomi talk to a pantheon of special guests to dissect the week's news. Arthur Snell on the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas Market and a new breed of self-radicalised individual who fits no profile. Ian Dunt on the latest peers elevated to the Lords. Zoe Williams on the backlash over gov't denying compensation to WASPI women. Peter Geoghegan on the first cracks appearing in the Trump/Musk bromance and dark money. A special episode to end the year.

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Arthur: “A classic example of self-radicalisation. People in a very isolated way online can be drawn into a very personal version of a dangerous ideology. You can end up with people with very bizarre uniquely generated private views.”

Arthur: “Whilst it’s a slightly bewildering case, it’s a fairly neat illustration of the way that radicalisation has become a profound danger and that you don’t have to have pale skin and ‘Aryan’ looks to be radicalised into far-right ideology.”

Peter: “Labour’s failure [to proactively regulate money in politics] has put them in this position and they still don’t have a strategy. When the Musk story broke, they briefed that they might cap donations, now that they may do something by 2026, or that they may limit the amount a company can give. This is very piecemeal, very reactive and not being led from the front.”

Peter: “We have seen time and again how unlimited donations, dirty money and dark money in British politics, has warped the political agenda. Musk unintentionally is illuminating this, shining a great big light onto it. And the public care about this. That’s the most compelling reason to act, rather than party political ramifications.”

Zoe: “A lot of these plans, like the winter fuel payment withdrawal, are not well formulated. I’m not sure that a blanket ‘no’ to the WASPI women is the right thing to do. At the same time, this government is being treated atrociously by the commentariat. Conservative gov’ts, and the coalition before them, introduced waves of extreme hardship and barely a peep was made about it.”

Zoe: “I don’t think anything [Labour] do would be enough to restore trust in democracy…  We went from austerity, which was often just performative cruelty, into the fecklessness of Brexit, and then into a pandemic that was defined by corruption. I worry that that did taint the reputation of politics so profoundly, I don’t see how you turn it around.”

Ian: “We cannot have PM after PM just come in and just cram the place with their cronies… and see the numbers just expand and expand. Even for those of us who are defenders of the Lords, it makes our job impossible, because you cannot support this stuff, you cannot defend the way they are behaving.”

Ian: “Starmer is the most consistently underestimated politician in my lifetime. People cannot stop looking at him and going ‘he’s so boring’, ‘he’s got no ideas’, ‘he’s bad at politics’, ‘he’s got no connection to the public’. There’s loads to criticise him on, but some of the stuff he’s doing is huge. When you look at planning, labour practices, local gov't, net zero, criminal justice - in 15 years, we will look back on this period as engine room policy change.”

Ian: “Having a surging Farage - which will be the story of next year, because that is what the press wants the story to be - is poison for the national conversation and will pull us further to the right. But electorally, the basic boring answer is still the correct one: a surging Reform just divides the right.”

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With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global.

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