No Sacred Cows

By The Political Power Works

Join as we dive head-first into a long overdue debate about the future of mainstream politics on both sides of the Atlantic - no holding back, no pulling punches.

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FAQs about No Sacred Cows:

How many episodes does No Sacred Cows have?

The podcast currently has 54 episodes available.

No Sacred Cows episodes:

June 05, 2026 Time for nation building?
This week, we ask whether Westminster is still fighting yesterday’s battles while the world moves on. Public First’s Jeegar Kakkad joins us to examine why defence and national security remain peripheral to political debate, despite growing global instability, as well as consider what a serious programme of national resilience might look like, and whether a new politics of nation building could offer an answer to both international insecurity and domestic stagnation.
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47min
May 15, 2026 19th Century institutions, 21st Century problems
Is Britain’s political system is capable of responding to the economic, technological and cultural challenges reshaping not just the country, but the world? That’s the question Stella Creasy and Damian Hinds have been exploring together - and the one they join Ed, Anna, Mark and Ben to examine on this week’s episode of the pod - returning for our second season, at a huge time for Britain’s mainstream politics.
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56min
March 23, 2026 Reshaping the state needs a real plan
Political analyst, writer and former government adviser Sam Freedman steps into the cow shed this week to look at how Labour in the UK needs to continue to realise that competence and good intentions will be enough to change the state. He lays out how some criticisms from the political right about state inefficiency are valid and need engaging with and how the government must move on from naivety towards a real plan on reshaping the state, if it wants to deliver. Sam talks about decentralisation away from Westminster as a potential remedy the government should pick up - as well as boosting the Prime Minister’s office and creating stronger ministerial offices. We also hear from Sam, and reader Katy, about our last episode on progressive education, which got the comments section livened up.
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46min
March 08, 2026 Let's not go backwards on education
‘Progressive Education’ - the idea that education must be authentic, child-led, and discovery-oriented - actually leads to regressive outcomes for children and society. To secure progressive outcomes for kids and the future of our country’s, Kristopher Boulton and Daisy Christodoulou join the herd and lay out how the left is going to have to let go of some of its fallacies about the classroom and, most importantly, not allow ideas of the past take us backwards going into the future. Join us now for this special listener-submitted episode of No Sacred Cows - looking at the politics of and future of education, alongside a collection of tales from the classroom and lessons we can all learn about making schools work for kids and our society.
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39min
February 07, 2026 Dump Trump
It’s time Keir Starmer dumps Trump - for the interests of the UK as well as his own and the Labour Party’s political skin.
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40min
January 23, 2026 Oh baby
The populist right is railing loudly against the decline in birthrates in the US and the UK - not always out of sincerity, and often with overtly racist reasoning. As a result the left has buried its head in the sand and refused to go near the issue. But there is no reason, Anna McShane from the New Britain Project argues, to do so.
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43min
January 09, 2026 Why Europe
Keir Starmer biographer Tom Baldwin lays out why it's time for the centre-left to get over its timidity Brexit
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48min
December 19, 2025 It is time to choose
A year into the Labour Party in power in the UK and the loss of the Democrats to Donald Trump in the US, we round out 2025 with the crew giving a damning verdict on where the center left is at the end of this year, and give a tour de force of what what must be ahead if we are to win back trust, credibility and deliver change in 2026.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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47min
December 05, 2025 Stop pretending you're talking to young people
Co-author of the recent report ‘Inside the mind of a 16 year old’ for UK think-tank Demos together with Peter Hyman, Shaub details the journey of speaking with 700 young people across the country about their thoughts on politics - and why centre-left politicians need to get their house in order when it comes to talking to young people themselves.

Now is not the time for timid grids of the past - it’s well past the moment for something new and different; politicians happy to go where voters are; unafraid of being authentic. It’s not just what young people demand - but what our politics, and democracy, needs.

It’s time to slay the sacred cow that the centre-left is talking to young people - it’s not.
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42min
November 20, 2025 The Enemy is The State
Centre-left governments are often few and far between. So when they lose their way - the renewal has to be done swiftly, and at times bloodily.

Trapped in process and unable to communicate, McTernan says the left loses its way when it believes the state has became our friend, just because we are running it. Bureaucratic, talking about ‘delivery’, and using management speak, we forget who the enemy is and what the purpose of a centre-left government is all about. What is required, instead, is to junk the sacred cow that the state is the answer and offer a clear moral purpose as a progressive government - aligning ourselves with the people.

Join as we dive head-first into a long overdue debate about the future of mainstream politics on both sides of the Atlantic - no holding back, no pulling punches.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
...more
39min

FAQs about No Sacred Cows:

How many episodes does No Sacred Cows have?

The podcast currently has 54 episodes available.

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