We are living in a time of contradictions.

For the last forty years, our politics and media have been dominated by neoliberal, right-wing voices - yet pundits insist that the UK is dominated by a woke, left-wing elite.

Our politicians claim to champion the voices of the forgotten working class - yet working-class people are not seeing better wages, housing or healthcare.

And the majority of people in this country are being screwed by the economic system - yet for some reason we seem unable to secure a better future for ourselves.

So where did it all go wrong? Are we really ruled over by a censorious woke mob? Or is it all a convenient story, to distract us from the real villains?

Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Ash Sarkar, journalist and author of Minority Rule: Adventures in the Culture War.

Music by A.A Aalto (available: freemusicarchive.org), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh.

The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future

New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

Half a year ago, the Labour Party swept into power with a huge parliamentary majority and Kier Starmer celebrated by saying that the country could “get its future back”. 

Today, Labour are dogged by low approval ratings, having upset everyone from environmentalists to pensioners, farmers to small-business owners. 

And just last week Reform overtook both the Conservatives and Labour in a poll of voting intentions - suggesting the public are already looking for an alternative.

So, why has the public seemingly turned on the Labour Party? Should they be threatened by the rise of Reform? And how can the progressive movement push this government to create the world we want? 

Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Grace Blakeley, economics commentator and author of Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts and the Death of Freedom, and David Edgerton, historian and author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: a Twentieth Century History.

Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Bright_Corners/Corps_Of_Discovery/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh.

The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future

New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

The price of your food shop rocketed because of inflation and now your mortgage is going up hundreds of pounds because the Bank of England decided to increase interest rates. You might be struggling to make ends meet and wondering why our central bank has made your life more difficult.

Across the pond Donald Trump is putting pressure on the American central bank to lower its interest rates, saying he knows more about it than Federal Reserve policymakers. It might seem a tempting proposal to the average American who feels that their central bank has not provided them with the stability it is supposed to.

So what is the role of central banks in all of this? Are they under threat from right-wing populism? And what are the progressive alternatives to dealing with inflation?

This week Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Dominic Caddick, economist at NEF, and Sebastian Mang, senior policy advisor at NEF, to discuss.

Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Connections/Focus/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh.

The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future

New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

Do you work from home? Then you’re probably not doing proper work, and you’re causing the UK’s economic decline! At least that’s what the former boss of Asda and M&S said last week. Meanwhile, gig economy Deliveroo riders have launched a new campaign for greater openness around the opaque algorithms that rule their working lives. It’s clear with new technology comes new battles for workers.

So what is working life like in the UK right now? After pandemic lockdowns and high inflation, have we changed our expectations of what work provides? And are unions ready to lead the fight back against bad work?

Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Kate Bell, assistant general secretary at the Trades Union Congress.

Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Bright_Corners/Coast_Highway/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh.

The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future

New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

Last week hundreds of tractors drove through Parliament Square. It was the latest protest by UK farmers against changes to inheritance tax announced by the chancellor. From farmers’ protests to the poll-tax riots in the 90s, the amount of tax we pay to the government churns up intense emotions. We want to rescue our cash-strapped public services - but most of us are reluctant to pay more tax.

Do Labour’s tax plans go far enough to fix our broken economy? Is the UK really a high-tax nation? And if we want an economy that meets everyone’s needs, do we all just need to pay more tax?

Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Sara Hall, deputy director at Tax Justice UK, and Hannah Peaker, director of policy at NEF, to discuss.

Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Bright_Corners/Corps_Of_Discovery/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Produced by Katrina Gaffney and Margaret Welsh.

The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future

New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

From housebuilding to sewage systems to the NHS, private companies are deeply intertwined with our essential public services. But is partnering with big corporations the only way of improving people’s lives? Is private investment a vital ingredient in economic renewal? Or will it just lead to price gouging for us and soaring profits for corporate execs?

This week Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Daniela Gabor, professor of economics at SOAS, and Aveek Bhattacharya, research director at the Social Market Foundation, to discuss the role of private investment in our economy and public services.

Music by A.A Aalto (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/A_A_Aalto/Fest/Sneak), used under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and Amy Clancy.

The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future

New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

The International Energy Agency has said that the world cannot develop any new oil and gas fields if we are to stop climate breakdown. Keir Starmer has promised that the UK will slash its emissions faster than ever before and his government is banning new licences to drill for fossil fuels in the North Sea. Drilling in the wild waters of the North Sea has been a major Scottish industry for decades. Now, its time may be coming to an end.

But what about the people who depend on the industry for their livelihoods? What will happen to workers and communities in places like Aberdeen? And how do we square this with the need to kick our addiction to destructive fossil fuels?

Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Anna Carthy, senior policy researcher at Uplift, and Mika Minio-Paluello, industry and climate lead at the Trades Union Congress, to discuss.

Music: Curious by Poddington Bear (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Curious/Curious/), used under Creative Commons licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/.

Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush.

The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future

New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

The Autumn Budget was the most significant since George Osborne implemented austerity in 2010. Rachel Reeves announced one hundred billion pounds for infrastructure, forty billion in tax rises and a whole host of policy changes, which she hopes will deliver Labour’s mission of national economic renewal. But what does an extra hundred billion pounds mean for the UK? Are we finally taxing the wealthy properly? And has the chancellor gone far enough to rescue our public services?

Ayeisha Thomas Smith is joined by economist James Meadway and NEF Director of Policy Hannah Peaker to discuss.

Music: Caterpillar Tunnel by Poddington Bear (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Curious/CaterpillarTunnel/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush.

The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future

New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

By the time this episode comes out, the new Labour government will have been in charge of the country for one hundred days. So what do we know about how they’ll run the economy? Can they rescue our threadbare public services while promising a tight grip on government spending? And will their focus on growth deliver real change for those who need it most?

Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Aditya Chakrabortty, senior economic commentator at the Guardian, and Ailbhe Rea, associate editor at Bloomberg UK, for the first episode in a new series of the New Economics podcast.

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Music: Gathering by Poddington Bear (available: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear/Encouraging/Gathering/), used under Creative Commons licence: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.

Produced by Katrina Gaffney, Margaret Welsh and James Rush.

The New Economics Podcast is brought to you by the New Economics Foundation. Find out more about becoming a NEF supporter at: neweconomics.org/donate/build-a-better-future

New Economics Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales. Charity No. 1055254

A few weeks ago, far-right rioters gathered outside a hotel hosting asylum seekers in Rotherham and tried to set it on fire. Across the country this horrific act of violence was replicated, as mosques, libraries and people driving home from work came under attack.

But in the face of this racist and Islamophobic violence, people gathered to protest the presence of the far right in their communities and to rebuild after the attacks. It was people showing solidarity with their neighbours which ultimately seemed to stem the riots.

As the dust settles on the violence, how do we combat the rise of the far right? Are economic deprivation and austerity to blame for that week of violence? And can communities come together to combat racism and Islamophobia?

For a one off special episode of the podcast, Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Minnie Raham, Chief Executive of Praxis, and Abi O'Connor, researcher at NEF.

Find out more about:

Praxis: https://www.praxis.org.uk/

Green and Black Cross: https://greenandblackcross.org/

Music: What happened in the past doesn't stay there by Lee Rosevere, Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/m... used under Creative Commons licence: cre​ativecom​mons​.org/​l​i​c​e​n​s​e​s​/​b​y​-​n​c​/4.0/.