The Bunker
Your daily Need To Know on news and politics. Every morning The Bunker cuts through the noise to make sense of what’s really going on, with smart explainers, interviews, fresh perspectives and under-reported stories to rescue you from everyday Punch and Judy news coverage. It’s the only way to start the day. From the producers of Oh God, What Now?
Our regulars include: Alex Andreou • Gavin Esler • Hannah Fearn • Andrew Harrison • Jacob Jarvis • Marie le Conte • Jude Rogers • Yasmeen Serhan • Ahir Shah • Siân Pattenden • Ros Taylor.
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The Bunker is a Podmasters production.
1176
Revolting Developments: Why the Govt’s plans wo...
The Government’s new planning ideas hand a huge advantage to developers, with no-question greenlights for permissions in new “growth” and “renewal” areas. Is this a real fix for the housing crisis or just another free market free-for-all? STEVE COLE of...
31 min
1177
Daily: RORY BREMNER at the Speed of Thought
What makes comedy happen? Our most celebrated impressionist RORY BREMNER talks to Alex Andreou about how his ADHD drives his own work – plus tracking and tracing Boris Johnson’s offspring, how hard it is to pin down a take on today’s political...
34 min
1178
Jobless Britain? Fighting the return of mass un...
Job losses are surging, but the next wave of mass unemployment won’t be like the ones in the 80s, the 90s or the financial crisis of 2008. The Institute for Government’s GILES WILKES – economist and past special advisor to Vince Cable and Theresa May –...
24 min
1179
Belarus: Rebelling against a “democratic” dicta...
Belarus is convulsed by pro-democracy demonstrations, the opposition leader has fled in fear and the EU is threatening to reimpose sanctions. Yet pig-farmer turned strongman Alexander Lukashenko shows no sign of relinquishing his 26-year grip on power....
16 min
1180
DIRTY CASH: How to stop dark money destroying o...
Since before the Referendum, rivers of untraceable money have flowed through our politics, washing away accountability and benefiting secretive and powerful people. Peter Geoghegan of openDemocracy joins us to discuss the revelations of his new book De...
53 min
1181
Going Underground: Paranoia, prepping and the w...
There’s a world going on underground. Ethnographer, archaeologist and author of the eerily prescient Bunker: Building For The End Times BRADLEY GARRETT is fascinated by tunnels, chambers and hidden realms – and what drives people to populate them. He t...
30 min
1182
IMMIGRATION: Reasons to be cheerful? Ian Dunt t...
Priti Patel might be trying to stoke fears with her ludicrous ‘Clandestine Channel Threat Commander’ but as the Brexit madness recedes, is the environment for immigrants moving in an inexorably more liberal direction? Professor Jonathan Portes of KCL t...
25 min
1183
Creasy’s the word: STELLA CREASY MP on making m...
Some good stuff DID get done during the chaotic COVID Parliament that’s just ended. Walthamstow MP STELLA CREASY tells Ayesha Hazarika about her fight to get misogyny reclassified as a hate crime as part of the Domestic Abuse Bill, why women have been ...
24 min
1184
Daily: What we owe to JOHN HUME, with Claire Ha...
When JOHN HUME died earlier this week, presidents and political leaders across the spectrum eulogised him as nothing less than the father of peace in Northern Ireland. How did this quiet, determined man find a way to bring about the impossible, and sid...
26 min
1185
For Services To Brexit, I Mean Cricket… plus gu...
With the Grand Reopening leading inevitably to the Great Re-Locking, is No.10’s rule-by-snappy-slogan no longer fit for purpose? Has Boris Johnson’s back-scratching Dissolution Honours finally made Lords Reform inevitable – and should we fear ...
56 min
1186
“The Banksy of money”: Is CRYPTOCURRENCY out of...
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin were supposed to overturn the tyranny of the banks and give consumers new power over their money. This financial Wild West is still plagued with fraud, scams, pyramid schemes and doomed start-ups. But as entrepreneur, inve...
26 min
1187
How Not To Waste The Next Four Years: MIATTA FA...
If we’re stuck with a hard right government for the next four years, how should progressives best use this time? Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation MIATTA FAHNBULLEH talks to Alex Andreou about the opportunities amid the chaos, how it’s im...
29 min
1188
Probing the Pandemic: LAYLA MORAN on MPs’ indep...
Britain can’t wait for the Government’s Public Inquiry into COVID. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus is seizing the initiative and examining every aspect of the crisis. Its chair, Lib Dem MP and leadership candidate LAYLA MORAN, explains...
25 min
1189
Private Investigations: BELLINGCAT and open sou...
From unmasking suspects in the Salisbury poisoning to exposing money laundering and Russian involvement in the shooting down of flight MH-17, investigative collective Bellingcat is at the forefront of a new kind of investigative journalism. Founder ELI...
28 min
1190
Oh My Darling, Quarantine
Is the summer tourist season already a write-off for Europe – and will the traditional foreign holiday become history? Are you ready to start paying more tax from the age of 40 to fund your own social care? And as COVID continues to hollow out city cen...
52 min
1191
“The Golden Age of Incompetence”: Ian Dunt meet...
“We’ve been kettled with our own thoughts.” Comedy writer and friend of the podcast JASON HAZELEY – Screenwipe writer and co-creator of everything from the grown-up Ladybird books to Philomena Cunk – talks to Ian Dunt about what the p...
28 min
1192
The Great Deceleration is coming, says DANNY DO...
We’re conditioned to think that economic development will get faster and faster. But it turns out that many key indicators from population growth to GDP expansion are slowing down. DANNY DORLING, social geographer and author of Slowdown: The End Of The...
33 min
1193
Daily: JARVIS COCKER is born again
A pop career is for life. Art explorer, national treasure and former Pulp frontman JARVIS COCKER talks to Andrew Harrison about his return to the music fray with new band Jarv Is… and new album Beyond The Pale. On the agenda: the musical concerns of th...
22 min
1194
Building back better with MOLLY SCOTT CATO of t...
Can Europe really build back better after the pandemic? How does the EU’s response to COVID look when you’re one of Britain’s former MEPs? Molly Scott Cato, former Green Party MEP and the party’s current Brexit and Finance spokesperson, joins Alex Andr...
25 min
1195
Russia Report: It’s A Vladi Disgrace
“In Moscow, inquiry closes YOU.” As the Russia Report confirms the Conservatives’ wilful blind eye to Putin’s interference in UK elections, where do we go from here? If we rage about the Russians supposedly tipping the Referendum or the General Electio...
54 min
1196
Why Corona is a feminist issue
Coronavirus has put women out of work more frequently than men, led to a spike in domestic violence, pushed women’s healthcare down the list of priorities, and set the scene for a mental health crisis for women. Yet politicians appear blind to the pand...
30 min
1197
Oh, Those Russians: IAN DUNT on Russia Report Week
The Intelligence report into Russian interference in British elections and the Referendum is finally published this week – but what will it mean? Why are Brexiters so keen to discredit it? And are Tory backbenchers finally growing a spine? Ian...
23 min
1198
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Troll: LUKE HARDING on...
Hold the front podcast page! The infamous Russia Report could well come out next week. What will it reveal? The Guardian’s Russia correspondent LUKE HARDING, author of Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem And Russia’s Remaking Of The West and first Br...
31 min
1199
Dirty deals with demagogues: ANNE APPLEBAUM on ...
Why do former democrats and intellectuals so often make the squalid journey from liberalism to hardline nationalism? Historian ANNE APPLEBAUM’s new book Twilight Of Democracy: The Failure Of Politics And The Parting Of Friends describes why once-libera...
30 min
1200
“A Season Of Insanity”: Republicans against Trump
As America faces the dire prospect of a Trump second term, the hardest-hitting, most brutal and effective anti-Trump ads come from the rebel Republicans of Super PAC the Lincoln Project. Former George W Bush and John McCain strategist Steve Schmidt of ...
49 min