The Bunker – News without the nonsense
News without the nonsense, every weekday morning. In episodes that fit your commute*, The Bunker cuts through the noise to make sense of what’s really going on in news, current affairs, politics, economics and culture. We bring you smart explainers, interviews, fresh perspectives and under-reported stories to as a refreshing alternative to repetitive 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 • Alex von Tunzelmann • Andrew Harrison • Zing Tsjeng • Jacob Jarvis • Emma Kennedy • Rafael Behr • Seth Thévoz.
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(* Even if it’s just from the kitchen to the front room. )
The Bunker is a Podmasters production.
1551
Just Walk Away, Renege? DAVID ALLEN GREEN on Br...
As the Government tears up its own promises on Northern Ireland with its Internal Markets Bill, the don of legal experts David Allen Green explains the enormity of this breach of international law, why the Government has provoked constitutional crisis ...
17 min
1552
Fall backwards: Johnson's tricky autumn
After a summer filled with u-turns and policy failures galore, and with the road to 2021 looking incredibly treacherous, will Boris survive the Autumn? Plus, did Extinction Rebellion undermine their cause by blocking everyone’s Saturday papers being de...
50 min
1553
Shot in the arm: Professor HEIDI LARSON on the ...
A vaccine is seen as the primary route out of the COVID19 crisis, but only half of Brits surveyed by Kings College London say they would be likely to get one. Professor HEIDI LARSON, director of The Vaccine Confidence Project, tells Ros Taylor the reas...
21 min
1554
Make Votes Matter: Inside the campaign for prop...
Britain’s woeful electoral system wastes millions of votes and consistently enables minority rule. KLINA JORDAN, joint CEO of the ‘Make Votes Matter’ campaign, tells Naomi Smith why Labour should make implementing proportional representation their firs...
23 min
1555
Pandemic Stations: DR DOMINIC PIMENTA talks lif...
Coronavirus has changed life as we know it, especially for those who work in our health service. Dr Dominic Pimenta resigned from the NHS over Dominic Cummings’ lockdown trip to Durham, and his new book ‘Duty of Care’, describes the brutal experience o...
30 min
1556
Can’t see the wood OR the trees: Prof SIMON LEW...
Last week the Government introduced legislation aiming to curb the ruinous practice of deforestation, but how will this fit in with Brexit trade policy? What more should the Government be doing on environmental matters? And how damaging have populists ...
24 min
1557
Donald’s Trump Card: Could the President secure...
With the polls seemingly stacked against him, what dirty tactics will Donald Trump need to deploy if he’s to triumph in November’s election? And what will his victory, or demise, mean for the Western world? UCL Politics Professor Dr Julie Norman joins ...
50 min
1558
Johnson on the couch: RAFAEL BEHR talks politic...
What is an obsession with politics doing to our psychology – and vice versa? Which weird psychology drives the Johnson Government’s mix of belligerence and incompetence? The Guardian’s Rafael Behr talks to Ian Dunt about the deep, unconscious ...
29 min
1559
Scrambled Breggxit: DANIEL ZEICHNER MP on the t...
On top of COVID, a No Deal Brexit could push Britain’s already dire food poverty situation into crisis. And if we fall onto a Global Tariff for foodstuffs it will mean drastically limited kitchen staples and increased prices all round. The Shadow Food,...
26 min
1560
Blue-Sky Drinking: The future of BEER with PETE...
We were living in a golden age of craft beer… and then COVID hit. Will the pandemic tally wound Britain’s independent beer makers? Or are government ignorance and Big Brewing more of a threat to this life-enhancing industry? Britain’s leading beer writ...
23 min
1561
Fear and Trumping in North Carolina – Make Amer...
As Republicans gather (virtually) to anoint the Great Helmsman, how will Trump’s warnings of an American apocalypse play outside his radicalised base? UCL Global Politics professor Brian Klaas and The Atlantic’s Yasmeen Serhan join us to decide who’s t...
53 min
1562
The Great Health Data Grab: How COVID privatise...
The COVID pandemic has given unscrupulous data traffickers the opportunity they needed to hoover up vast quantities of private patient data, with Government connivance – and often with Government funding. Investigative journalist Nafeez Ahmed ...
27 min
1563
“Parliament is a breeding ground for bullying”:...
Bullying and sexual harassment are a blight on Parliament – and Westminster has been slow to deal with it. Cofounder of Women in Westminster and campaigner on the winning Starmer and Sadiq Khan campaigns Tara Jane O’Reilly talks to Ian Dunt about the m...
20 min
1564
War On The Bullsh*t: How to spot when DATA is l...
Why do we believe lies just because there’s a graph attached? How can we develop a sixth sense to detect statistical disinformation? Data scientist and University of Washington professor Jevin D West, co-author of Calling Bullsh*t: The Art Of Scepticis...
29 min
1565
Superpower vs Futurepower: The coming CHINA-IND...
What should we watch out for in the impending confrontation between India and China, the world’s largest democracy and the world’s largest autocratic superpower? And how does Pakistan fit in? Prof GUY BURTON of Vesalius College in Brussels joins Arthur...
21 min
1566
I Spit On Your Grades, or: Get Gavin Gone
A-Levelling down: can the Government just style out a total betrayal of hardworking strivers? And will Gavin Williamson stay unsacked before you finish this paragraph? Former MEP Caroline Voaden joins us to channel the rage of parents and teenagers eve...
48 min
1567
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
1568
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
1569
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
1570
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
1571
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
1572
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
1573
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
1574
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
1575
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