Oh God, What Now?

Fast analysis of the Clacton by-election with Steve Richards and Andrew Harrison. Two and half cheers for plucky underdog Nigel Farage who defeated the “establishment” candidate Count Binface in a by-election of his own making. And in the end, he didn’t even bother to show up to claim his victory… Now the stunt is over, the parliamentary standards watchdog is back investigating Farage’s £5m “gift” from a crypto billionaire. So was this entire exercise completely futile? Could Farage’s own gambit come back to bite him? And with his – and Reform’s – polling slipping, has the tide finally turned?

• Buy tickets for Steve’s 14-day Rock & Roll Politics run at the Edinburgh Fringe

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison with Steve Richards. Produced by James Liddell. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Barring a bin-shaped asteroid strike on the Essex Coast, Nigel Farage will win the Clacton by-election – but his problems won’t be over. What will Reform’s slippery leader face in the months to come? And can, should, would his party strike a deal with either Restore or the Conservatives? Plus our special guest, journalist Rachel Wearmouth, has the date of the next General Election, for real! And we answer a wealth of YOUR questions in a But Your Emails special. 

• Get up to £350 off the Eight Sleep Pod 5 here with the code OGWN. 

• Don’t miss the Clacton By-Election Emergencycast on Friday 14 August. 

• Order the unofficial Count Binface comic here

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Rachel has been watching the Disney+ crime thriller Furious  

• Seth has been re-watching classic psychedelic ’60s spy show The Prisoner. 

• Jason played Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians with Paraorchestra and Charles Hazlewood and you can hear it on BBC Sounds  

• Andrew has been listening to the Richard Norris remixes collection Re-Make: Re-Model

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow 

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Seth Thévoz and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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No drinking pints standing up in London’s nightlife hotspot? No new reservoirs until 2040? Welcome to Veto Britain – where infrastructure, housing and even a round at the bar are all subject to the mercy of endless local objection. So how did we become a country that seems incapable of building, changing or enjoying itself anymore? Plus, racist disorder erupts in Norfolk, scrutiny of Andy Burnham’s early prisoner release plan intensifies and the PM’s crackdown on “subscription traps” gives cancel culture a whole new meaning. 

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Jonn finally watched Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine’s documentary Last Chance to See, based on Carwardine and Douglas Adams’ book and radio series of the same name

• Rachel has been reading Virgil’s epic The Aeneid – “the Roman response to Homer,” she says.

• Raf saw a production of Molière’s Tartuffe while in France which is coming to the Marylebone Theatre next month. 

• Zoë zoomed through Jem Calder’s I Want You to Be Happy

Image: Cartoon depicting Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 2nd Baronet of Brayton (1829-1906), an English temperance campaigner and radical, anti-imperialist Liberal Party politician. Dated 19th Century. No idea who the bloke on the right is. (Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Zoë Grünewald, with Rachel Cunliffe, Jonn Elledge and Rafael Behr. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production: Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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The earth is burning, Britain is parched brown and rain is a distant memory. Yet the Tories are purging the last of their Net Zero advocates, the Greens seem to have lost interest in green policies, and Burnham’s Labour are teetering on the edge of reopening oil and gas in the North Sea. Saving the planet is just so expensive! What will it take to get British politicians to take the climate emergency seriously?  

Plus, will the real Kemi Badenoch please sit down? The current and quite possibly final leader of the Conservative Party stood by convicted neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine as a local council candidate (he withdraws right in the middle of this recording). So how come the commentariat is convinced of the “Keminaissance”? 

ESCAPE ROUTES:

• Zoë has been reading Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth. 

• Seth has been to Bayreuth for the Festival (hurry, it’s still on).

• Ros got a preview copy of Deep Into The Sixties: Britain 1965–66 by David Kynaston

• Rachel has been reading Pagans by James Alistair Henry.

Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. 

• Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN 

• Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/OGWN  

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Ros Taylor with Zoë Grünewald, Rachel Cunliffe and Seth Thévoz. Audio Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Fifteen days in… Is Burnham’s government actually shaping up to be quite good? Impossible to say for certain, but the PM’s policy blitz seems to be landing pretty well, buoyed by Labour’s Greater Manchester mayoral win. Is the Age of Andy working out as well as it seems – and can the momentum last? Plus, following the astonishing scenes of migrants breaking into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta over the weekend, how is Europe’s far-right weaponising it? And Gianni Infantino face open revolt from his own top brass and football associations worldwide after trying to sell off the World Cup. Can he cling on? 

• Read Martyn Ziegler’s brilliant expose of Gianni Infantino’s machinations before and during the World Cup. 

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Raf went to watch Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds supported by Flaming Lips and English Teacher at Brighton’s Preston Park. 

• Marie decided to rewatch Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves  

• James has been rewatching noughties legal political drama The Good Wife

• Andrew saw downtempo duo The Thievery Corporation live at Camden’s Roundhouse.

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Group Editor Andrew Harrison with James Ball, Marie Le Conte and Rafael Behr. Producer: James Liddell. Audio production: Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune: Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Andy Burnham is promising to spend “whatever political capital” he has to fix the crumbling social care system after decades of political failure. As the right-wing press dusts off its “Death Tax” headlines, can he actually do it?

Plus… He leads Restore Britain, an openly extreme right party committed to driving non-white people out of the country, and he’s becoming a persistent headache for his former boss Nigel Farage. But who exactly is Rupert Lowe? The panel sizes up the man behind the common-sense cosplay. And in the Extra Bit: the new Euro banknote designs are live, but what would Britain have put forward if we’d ever signed up for the single currency?

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Andrew watched the Japanese Edo-punk collective Seppuku Pistols live at North London’s New River Studios 

• Seth hasn’t been able to put down David Crichton’s The Avengers: Death in Downing Street  

• Jason watched Slice of Life: The American Dream In Former Pizza Huts, which, he says, was “f***ing brilliant” 

• Zoë went to watch The Odyssey and particularly enjoyed “evil and excellent” Robert Pattinson

• Find out if you’re owed on car finance at refundclub.co.uk/OGWN  

• Refund Club is a trading style of Sandsford Law Limited, authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA no. 8008114). Checking is free. A fee is payable only if your claim is successful. Eligibility: car finance taken out in the UK between 2007 and 2021. The average claim is around £829 per agreement; this is an average and not a guarantee of the amount you will receive. You can also claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service. refundclub.co.uk/OGWN

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Zoë Grünewald, with Andrew Harrison, Seth Thévoz and Jason Hazeley. Producer: James Liddell. Audio Production: Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune: Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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He’s a communist! He wants to drag us back to the 70s! He’s going to tax you to death! He’s weak! He’s a tyrant! He’s gone to war with the South! His jackets are too expensive! Burnham has only been PM for a week and the right-wing press are already losing their minds. Is Burnham Derangement Syndrome stalking what’s left of Fleet Street? Plus: Is letting artificial intelligence do your thinking for you leading people into “cognitive surrender”? We talk about a new survey that unveils the dire consequences of outsourcing your brain to Claude and ChatGPT. 

• Hear prison reformer Steve Gallant talking to Zoë Grünewald on The Bunker

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Marie is enjoying sci-fi show Silo on Apple TV+.

• Jonn has been reading Hinterlands: Journeys through Europe’s Unfinished Frontiers by Hannah Lucinda Smith. Buy it through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund the podcast by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.

• Raf has been watching Ride Or Die with Hannah Waddingham on Amazon Prime.

• Matt went to see The Divine Comedy at the Royal Festival Hall and Daniel Kitson’s new show Thrum. 

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Matt Green with Marie le Conte, John Elledge and Rafael Behr. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

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Burnham arrives promising a “cost of living” government but can he make it happen? And does his mix of ideas and promises add up? TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak returns to the pod to talk about Burnham’s first steps, go to bat for unions in an age of A.I. tumult, make the case for reindustrialisation, and wind up Andrew about Jeff Bezos possibly buying Liverpool FC (Paul’s an Evertonian. So is Andy Burnham. It’s a conspiracy). And in the Extra Bit: What are the little luxuries that our panel and guests spend a bit too much on? 

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Hannah has been reading Women’s Prize for Fiction winner The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. 

• James recommends the original anime version of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

• Paul recommends science fiction epic Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruochhio

• Andrew is enjoying domestic robot comedy Ann Droid with Diane Morgan and Sue Johnston on the BBC. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Hannah Fearn and James Ball. Audio Production by Tom Taylor. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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As ever, politics waited until we finished recording before dropping the big stuff… But worry not! Steve Richards of the Rock & Roll Politics podcast steps up to analyse the surprises, genius moves, curveballs and missing pieces in Andy Burnham’s first cabinet with Andrew Harrison. Should Ed Miliband have been chancellor instead of John Healey? Is this really a purge of Starmerites and a “Night of the Long Eyelashes” as The Mail claims? Are Burnham’s cost-of-living measures actually costed? And does it all fit together?

• Catch even more of Steve’s analysis on Rock & Roll Politics

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Steve Richards. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

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Brand new PM Andy Burnham is not hanging about. On day one he set about purging Starmer loyalists from the Cabinet and setting out his policy agenda, including fresh cost-of-living measures. Is this the fresh start Labour needs? Listen up for live in-pod sackings!

Plus: Are we facing the end of reading? Scrolling through WhatsApp messages, Netflix subtitles and Instagram captions mean we're arguably reading more words than ever – yet book reading has nosedived in recent years. Has the “post-literate” society already arrived?

• Questions for But Your Emails? Thoughts? Comments? Email us at [email protected]. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Marie went to watch Christopher Nolan’s latest epic, The Odyssey

• Rachel also delved into Greek mythology and has been bingeing Netflix’s Kaos

• Jonn is watching spy thriller The Agency on Paramount+

• Seth has been reading Hostel, House and Chambers: Accommodating the Victorian and Edwardian Working Woman

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Seth Thévoz, with Rachel Cunliffe, Jonn Elledge and Marie Le Cont. Produced by James Liddell. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Tom Taylor and Simon Williams. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices