<p>Schools are back. Will the decision not to vaccinate 12-15 year olds turn classes into superspreader factories – or do we actually want school-age kids to catch COVID and build up immunity? Plus, why the Government won’t provide the catch-up funds that education needs. What the Pen Farthing episode tells us about sentimental Britain. And the shame of Afghanistan is just beginning. <strong>Ros Taylor</strong> starts your week. &nbsp;</p><p><br></p><ul><li><em>“It’s simple – the Government is pursuing </em><strong><em>de facto herd immunity</em></strong><em> by not vaccinating children.”</em></li><li><em>“The problem with education goes beyond our woeful Education Secretary… We have a </em><strong><em>perfect storm</em></strong><em> of public spending”</em></li><li><em>“It’s hard not conclude that some of the British public </em><strong><em>care more about a dog</em></strong><em> than they care about a brown person.”</em></li></ul><p><br></p><p><em>Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. </em><strong><em>THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production</em></strong></p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for privacy and opt-out information.</p>

For many he’s the great leader that Labour should have had. Now that he’s left frontline politics, Alan Johnson is trying his hand at writing fiction with his debut thriller The Late Train to Gipsy Hill out now.

British-Turkish novelist and academic Elif Shafak is an international feminist icon followed by legions of passionate readers. She tells Dorian Lynskey about her latest novel The Island of Missing Trees, a story of identity, belonging and love that takes place between Cyprus and London

Does the year we were born really shape us people? Are Gen X Snowflakes really battling Baby Boomers in an intergenerational war?

If we stopped trying to do everything, would we finally get chance to do what counts? Do to-do lists create anything but meaningless pressure?

What sort of psychological shock with the fall of Afghanistan cause to the British establishment’s self-image? Will the country again became an incubator of terrorism?

Recriminations worsen over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the UK’s indolent response to the refugee crisis. Can Dominic Raab survive as Foreign Secretary – and what does the debacle mean for Joe Biden’s presidency?

Journalist, filmmaker and author Sarfraz Manzoor grew up in two worlds, a son of working-class Pakistani immigrants who told him he’d never be accepted by the white English – yet he immersed himself in Western pop culture and built a life in it.

What is the situation really like on the ground in Afghanistan, after the Taliban’s astonishingly swift takeover? Our panelist Arthur Snell talks to one of his contacts, presently in hiding in Kabul. We have chosen not identify them for their own safet...

World War II seemed to mark the end of American conservatism, and a new liberal age. Then Reagan came along – and we’re still living with the consequences.

The fall of Kabul to the Taliban has placed thousands of people in mortal danger and traumatised the entire Western security establishment. How did we get it so wrong, and what happens next?

The Afghan Government’s sudden collapse and the return of Taliban rule have both shocked the international community. What happens next?

Will it take a satirist to fix Britain’s busted politics? Armando Iannucci – writer of The Thick Of It, The Day Today and Veep – is looking for emergency fixes in the new podcast series Westminster Reimagined.

Aegean neighbours Greece and Turkey have been rivals for centuries – and both countries are prone to forgetting the “unfortunate episodes” in their relations with the other. Can they ever get past their infamous regional enmity?

For many of us, the warm light of the fridge was one of the few consolations of lockdown. But now we’re living in a harsh new reality of intermittently empty supermarket shelves and farms that are struggling to adapt to Brexit, COVID, and climate chang...

As pandemic politics start to ebb away, Johnson’s ratings are down among the Tory faithful and his MPs are growing restive. Is this a time to pick a fight with Rishi Sunak?

This week’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report could signal our last chance to stop the global climate running out of control. Will the world take it? Plus: vaccine passports continue to go round in circles.

Recorded at 11pm on Saturday night and already our GB medals toll is out of date; At the end of the most controversial Olympics in almost a century, Financial Times Sports Editor MURAD AHMED calls us from Tokyo to lift the curtain on what it a...

From Modi’s India to Bolsonaro’s Brazil and Erdogan’s Turkey, the far right is on the rise around the world. Are we really on the brink of resurgent fascism? And if so, how do we fight it?

Cameron and Osborne’s “Golden Era” of cosying up to China turned out to be a golden error, as Beijing dug deep into British life, politics, and technology.

Now that the pandemic may be abating, the Government decides that the best people to pay the bill are…&nbsp;those pesky, hard-up young people. Climate change and student activist Phoebe Hanson joins us to explain what it’s like to be mis-sold the s...