The Bunker
Your daily need to know on news and politics. Every weekday 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: Gavin Esler • Ros Taylor.• Hannah Fearn • Andrew Harrison • Jacob Jarvis • Emma Kennedy • Rafael Behr • Seth Thévoz.
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The Bunker is a Podmasters production.
1226
On Her Majesty’s Sidelined Service Sector – wit...
Britain’s £80bn trade sector was left out of Johnson’s vaunted Brexit deal. Why, and what does that mean? With Lockdown III (or is it IV, V or VI?) about to be launched, has No.10 definitively lost control of the Pandemic? And what should we keep an ey...
52 min
1227
Start Your Year: What’s coming in 2021 with Art...
Joe Biden’s in-tray is packed but will the 46th President’s energies be consumed by repairing the damage of Trumpism instead of his own agenda? What lies in store in flashpoints around the world from Taiwan to Turkey to the Western Sahara? And will the...
20 min
1228
Halfway Between The Sex Shop And The Crematoriu...
From Barnard Castle to bleach injections to ward off COVID, from Matt Hancock trying to cry on TV to “will you just shut up, man?” it’s been a year of ignominy and idiocy – as well as twelve months of pain, failure and tragedy. But what were t...
57 min
1229
2020 Hindsight: The Tories’ year of living dang...
How it started, how it’s going… This was a year that blew up Boris Johnson’s plans for post-Brexit Britain and forced the Conservatives into uncharacteristic economic intervention. What has 2020 done to a newly-purified party of true believers? Former ...
18 min
1230
2020 Hindsight: LABOUR’s Report Card with NICK ...
The Labour Party has just endured its most self-torturing year since, well, last year. Is Keir Starmer beginning to turn the party’s fortunes around? Is the Left’s guerrilla war against the Leadership all noise or is Labour truly in a civil war? Does C...
23 min
1231
2020 Hindsight: Inside BLACK LIVES MATTER with ...
How did it feel to be at the centre of protests for racial justice that shook Britain and the world? Imarn Ayton, an actor and drama teacher from Peckham, found herself on front covers and news bulletins across the world after she was given a megaphone...
26 min
1232
2020 Hindsight: How LOCKDOWN SCEPTICS went to w...
Angry, irrational rejection of key public health measures like lockdowns and masks was one of the ugliest aspects of 2020. How did lockdown deniers give scepticism such a bad name? Did the Brexiters’ war on experts make it harder to fight COVID? And de...
39 min
1233
RORY STEWART on why “Politics is bad for you”
What psychodrama is driving No Deal? Can the Tory Party be rescued from its embrace of nationalist unreason? And what is Boris Johnson like to work for? Former Cabinet Minister and power-walker Rory Stewart joins us Ayesha Hazarika, Arthur Snell and An...
55 min
1234
Start Your Week: Johnson’s Dithering Heights – ...
It’s the final, final week where everything definitely goes down to the wire… again. As Boris Johnson ends Brexit as he began it, choosing between two alternatives he doesn’t really believe in or care about, Ros Taylor sets out the week ahead....
21 min
1235
Daily: Crossing swords with GEOFF NORCOTT, cons...
Never let it be said we don’t mix it up… We lure Geoff Norcott, famously the only* right of centre comedian out there, into The Bunker and attempt a civilised conversation. How does a working class son of a trade unionist end up on the politic...
27 min
1236
Daily: Driving home for COVID? A risky Christmas…
Our 200th edition. Everyone wants to go home and visit their folks for Christmas, right? And the Government is fine with it… right? Christina Pagel of Independent SAGE and UCL’s Clinical Operational Research Unit tells Ian Dunt why packing you...
17 min
1237
Daily: Is there LIFE AFTER POWER? Tales of the ...
One day you’re one of the world’s most powerful people, the next you’re out of work. So what do ex-leaders get up to when they leave office? And are they ever any good at it? BBC Radio producer and author of The Ex-Men: How Our Former Presidents and Pr...
25 min
1238
A Fish Called Blunder – plus guest MAGID MAGID
Fishing, level playing fields… as the scales tip the EU Trade Deal, will an arrogant Boris Johnson choose No Deal for the hell of it? The COVID vaccine is here but do we need to brace ourselves for “vaccine nationalism”? Special guest Magid Ma...
49 min
1239
Start Your Week: One Minute to Midnight with Na...
Audio issues now fixed. “The Deal’s not oven ready – and Johnson isn’t govern ready.” Will the No Deal Doomsday Clock finally tick down to zero before Thursday’s EU summit? Plus, why we need to worry about the mysterious Taxation (Post Transit...
22 min
1240
Daily: How Putin picks his poisons
The Salisbury poisonings were an infamous example of Russian interference in British security. But were they really the first time Novichok was used on British soil? Former US Army chemical warfare specialist and author of Toxic: A History of Nerve Age...
22 min
1241
Daily: Social Media Satire with ROSIE HOLT
With comedy venues closed by COVID, comedians are turning to social media to carry out the essential public service of mocking politicians and politics. One person taking the twittersphere by storm during lockdown is award-winning actor and stand-up Ro...
16 min
1242
Daily: FUTURE IRELANDS – Northern Ireland speci...
Will Brexit really lead to Ireland reunifying and leaving the Union, in a final irony for English nationalism? In a special edition on the future of the island of Ireland we talk to Neale Richmond (Fine Gael TD for Dublin Rathdown), Ulster Uni...
27 min
1243
Daily: Will LYING LEADERS destroy liberalism?
In the age of “reactionary populism”, larger-than-life characters trump competence. Can liberal democracies survive the age of the performative strongman? Political economist and author of This is Not Normal: The Collapse of Liberal Britain William Dav...
25 min
1244
Have Yourselves A Mini Little Christmas
Patreon people get the podcast early… As Boris Johnson unlocks Britain for the tiniest Christmas ever, is he just admitting that the public no longer listens to government? What will hacking back the overseas development budget mean for ‘Globa...
53 min
1245
Start Your Week: SUBSTANTIAL MEALS, INSUBSTANTI...
Are we in for the first parliamentary crisis of the pandemic? Will Boris Johnson have to rely on Labour votes to get his post-lockdown tiers-based restrictions past rebellious Tory MPs? Is the EU deal really going to fall apart over fish, a mere 0.1% o...
21 min
1246
Daily: Can a TRILLION TREES save Earth’s biodiv...
The climate emergency brings a nightmare threat to biodiversity, with disastrous knock-on effects to human economies as well as the natural world. Are governments doing enough to protect and restore threatened ecosystems? Ecologist and chief scientific...
21 min
1247
Daily: Can Biden remake Trump’s Middle East?
From Israel to Iran, Donald Trump thought he could reset the Middle East. His fixation on the region defined the last four years of US foreign policy. But what will Biden’s presidency mean for America and the Middle East? Senior policy fellow at the Fo...
23 min
1248
Daily: FAREED ZAKARIA on Trump’s twilight and t...
CNN’s Fareed Zakaria is one of the best-known journalists on the planet, reaching 200m people weekly with Fareed Zakaria’s GPS. He talks to Ros Taylor about the aftermath of Trumpism, Biden’s prospects for changing the West’s trajectory on climate chan...
27 min
1249
Along Came A Pfizer
The Labour grief-fest won’t abate. What do the Labour Left actually want? Victory, or just to burn the party down? Now that we’re moving into the pick-up-the-pieces phase of COVID, what have we learned and what should we do with it? Special guest Chris...
49 min
1250
Start Your Week: Winter Blunderland with IAN DUNT
With lockdown about to give way to “it’s not lockdown, it’s tiers,” is it worth another superspreader event to “save” Christmas? Will Rishi Sunak’s spending review be the free-spending Chancellor’s last hurrah? Will this Brexit deal ever be decided? Ia...
25 min