Breaking Britain: A Podcast about the Politics of a Disunited Kingdom

The past decade has witnessed growing controversy surrounding the erosion of the rule of law in and outside the European Union. In Hungary, Serbia, Turkey and other European states the concentration of power in the hands of the executive at the expense of the autonomy of legislatures and judiciaries has triggered popular protests over a drift to authoritarianism. More recently, attempts by the Polish government to exert direct control over Poland's Constitutional Court have led to a confrontation with EU institutions concerned over the impact of these measures on the rule of law in Poland. In the wake of these clashes between Poland's governing party and the  EU, concerns have grown that these tensions could lead to the kind of deterioration of relations that unfolded between the EU and parts of the UK's political system before the Brexit referendum of 2016.

This week we have been joined by Jan Grzymski, whose research on the politics of migration at the Center for Migration Research of the University of Warsaw can help us explore some of the key factors shaping  tensions between Poland and the EU. His work on populism and the the impact of migration debate on Poland's relations with its neighbours can also provide fascinating comparative perspectives with the dilemmas faced by the UK and other European states experiencing  fraught debates over the politics of migration and the rule of law.

The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.

A year after the UK withdrew from the structures of the European Single Market, the effects of Brexit are beginning to be felt. While the COVID19 pandemic and debates about the future of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland continue to overshadow political life within the UK, the reconfiguration of the UK's relationship with the EU has also had a profound effect on relations between the UK and each of the EU's member states.  For some EU member states such as Czechia, that had developed a strong working relationship with the UK over security and trade issues, the deterioration of relations between the EU and UK has been a source of frustration. Exploring the particular perspectives of an EU state like Czechia can help provide insights into how Brexit and the internal tensions within the UK Union are perceived in the rest of Europe.

To help examine how Czech society has responded to the changing relationship between the EU and the UK, in this week's episode we have been joined by  Monika Brusenbauch Meislová. As Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies at Masaryk University,  she has developed fascinating research on how interactions between populism, technocracy and security have affected the politics of Czechia, the UK and other European states. This detailed analysis means Monika Brusenbauch Meislová is ideally placed to set out how Czechia and other EU states are responding to Brexit and wider challenges facing the UK.

 The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.    

In the wake of its departure from the EU and its growing internal tensions, the UK's relationship with the wider world is undergoing a process of transformation. Still coming to terms with longstanding legacies of the British Empire as well as a recent merger of the Department for International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the UK faces rapidly changing geopolitical challenges that will affect its relationship with the wider world.

With her fascinating research on  geopolitical hierarchies between the Global North and South, as Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Stirling, Toni Haastrup has provided fresh insights into how racial and gender power structures affect relations between states. In her book, Charting Transformation through Security: Contemporary-EU Africa Relations, in a wide range of other publications as well as in her position as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Common Market Studies, Toni Haastrup has played a crucial role in developing innovative perspectives on these dynamics of global power. In this week's podcast she will help us explore what this changing geopolitical landscape means for the UK's role in global politics.

The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.    

After months of campaigning, voters in Scotland, Wales and parts of England went to the polls on 6 May 2021. While local elections and a byelection signalled that the Conservative Party is still dominant in England, strong results for the Scottish National Party in Scotland and the Labour Party in Wales indicate a very different picture for two other member nations of the United Kingdom. In Scotland, initial analysis in the Scottish Election Study set out how the outcomes of elections to the Scottish Parliament reflect the culmination of a widespread shift in party loyalties that has been opening up since the beginning of devolution in the late 1990s.

This week we have been joined once again by David Leask to examine what these election results can tell us about the state of the UK Union. Through a long career in Scottish journalism as Chief Reporter at the Herald and now as a columnist for a wide range of other publications including the Herald and the Times, he has covered the remarkable transformation of Scottish political culture over the past two decades. David is ideally placed to reflect on how these trends are changing Scotland's relations with the rest of the UK and the wider world. 

The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.   

For the past half decade, British political parties and state institutions have struggled to formulate a new geopolitical role for the United Kingdom.  Faced with the twin challenges of departure from the European Union and internal pressure on the unity of the British state, the UK government has recently set out an integrated review of foreign and defence policy. In this week's episode with Matthew Ford, we will explore how these shifts in British military culture have shaped debates about the United Kingdom's unity and identity.

Through his extensive work as a researcher in military affairs,  Matthew Ford has  provided innovative perspectives on how shifts in military culture and technology have shaped the development of states in Europe and the wider world. In his ground-breaking book, Weapon of Choice: Small Arms and the Culture of Military Innovation, as well as articles in journals such as International History Review and the Journal of Strategic Studies, Matthew has delved into social and technological changes that have affected the British military in ways that are having a profound impact on the unity of the United Kingdom.

The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.  

In March 2021, the UK government released an integrated review of foreign and defence policy outlining the strategic foundations for its interactions with the wider world. In this week's episode with Bleddyn Bowen, we will discuss how the UK's geopolitical position on the global stage is being affected by pressures on the unity of the British state. At a time at which questions over Scottish independence, Northern Ireland's borders and Welsh autonomy have become fraught, the interaction between tensions over the future of the UK Union and uncertainty over the UK's global role in the wake of Brexit will shape the British state's relationship with Europe and the wider world.

With his groundbreaking work on strategic theory and space warfare, Bleddyn Bowen has developed fascinating insights into the strategic challenges facing states in the 21st century. As Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Leicester, Bleddyn has played an active role in debates over geopolitical strategy in such work as his book,  War in Space: Strategy, Spacepower, Geopolitics, as well as through engagement with institutions such as the Royal United Services Institute, Royal College of Defence Studies, The Guardian and Le Monde to name a few.  With such a wide-ranging perspective on a rapidly changing strategic landscape, Bleddyn is an ideal position to help us explore Britain's shifting position on the global stage.

The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.    

This week the Breaking Britain Podcast looks at how Unionism as a political identity and Britishness as a cultural identity have been affected by the growing pressures on the unity of the United Kingdom. Though independence movements have grown in Wales as well as Scotland and debates over Irish unification have gained momentum, political Unionism along with wider forms of British cultural identity still command the loyalty of substantial parts of the UK population across the political spectrum. The extent to which Britishness is a resilient political and cultural identity will determine how far the political system of the United Kingdom will be able to renew itself.

In this episode we've been joined by Alex Massie to help us analyse how political Britishness has evolved in response to the geopolitical dilemmas that Britain now faces. Alex Massie is currently Scotland Editor of The Spectator and a columnist for the Scottish edition of The Times. He has also worked as Washington correspondent for The Scotsman and Assistant Editor of Scotland on Sunday and also written for The Washington Post, Politico, The Daily Telegraph, The New Republic, Foreign Policy and many other global media outlets. With his extensive experience of the constantly changing landscape of Scottish and global politics, Alex Massie can help provide in depth insights into the factors shaping the future of Unionism in the United Kingdom.

This week, the Breaking Britain Podcast will explore the often fraught relationship between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Over the past century interactions between both states have suffered from tensions over issues of territorial integrity and national sovereignty. With the legacy of decades of violence in Northern Ireland as a constant source of tension between both societies, the internal faultlines that risk pulling the UK Union apart have inevitably had an impact on politics and everyday life in Ireland.

To help us explore how worsening polarisation within the UK has affected its relationship with Ireland, this week we've been joined by Naomi O’Leary. As Europe Correspondent for the Irish Times and creator of The Irish Passport Podcast with Tim Mc Inerney, Naomi O'Leary has provided fascinating insights into how political and cultural change in Ireland has evolved over the last century.  Her award-winning 2016 documentary “Granite and Chalk” explored hidden aspects of Ireland's early twentieth century history, while her work as a former correspondent of POLITICO Europe, Reuters in Rome, and Agence France-Presse in London, focused on key issues shaping the future of the European Union. With such wide-ranging experience, Naomi O'Leary is ideally placed to provide a wider perspective on how the UK's own troubles are affecting its relationship with Ireland and its European partners.

The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.    

In this episode, recorded on 8 February 2021, we explore how tensions over the unity of the British state have affected debates over power and identity in Welsh society. With its own legislature, language and party landscape, Wales has evolved a unique political culture whose internal evolution has become increasingly affected by debates over independence and the role of the EU in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England.

To explore the transformation of Welsh politics, we've been joined by Professor Roger Awan-Scully. Through his work as Professor of Political Science at Cardiff University and Chair of the Political Studies Association, Professor Awan-Scully has developed fascinating insights into the power dynamics around the politics of devolution and identity in Wales as well as the United Kingdom as a whole. In ground-breaking studies such as  Representing Europe’s Citizens? Electoral Institutions and the Failure of Parliamentary Representation in Europe, Wales Says Yes: Devolution and the 2011 Welsh Referendum and more recently 'For Wales, do not see England: An analysis of the 2017 General Election', he has explored the pressures on the UK Union in fascinating ways that can help place accelerating political change in Wales in a wider historical and global context.

The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.   

 As part of the Europe's Borderlands research group at the King's College London European Studies Department, this podcast series will take a deeper look at how the United Kingdom's crisis of unity will affect the nations on the islands of Britain and Ireland. In this episode, recorded on 28 January 2021, we examine how debates over Scottish independence interact with wider geopolitical pressures. How do international tensions over security and great power competition affect Scottish politics? What would the foreign and defence policy of an independent Scotland look like? In what way will transnational ideological trends affect Scotland whether as an independent actor or still within the UK Union state?

To help us explore these themes, this week we have been joined by David Leask. Through a long career in Scottish journalism, first as Chief Reporter at the Herald and now at a wide range of publications including the Times, he has frequently covered how Scottish politics and society have interacted with and been affected by wider geopolitical pressures. With his impressive work examining Scotland's role on the global stage, David Leask provides us with fascinating insights into the changing nature of the geopolitics of Scotland.

 The background music is by Brother Monsplaisir, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.