Oh God, What Now?

We got knocked down but we’ll get up again. Join the panel of REMAINIACS for our last live show of 2019 and our last full podcast of the decade – recorded onstage in London’s Leicester Square Theatre on Tuesday 17 December.

It’s election post-mortem time but there’s no room for misery. How did the Remain parties blow it so spectacularly? Was it really all down to Corbyn’s massive turn-off factor? Where should Remain’s tattered but unbowed legions put their energies now? And what awaits in the 2020s?

Plus our panel play one final round of popular party game Leave Or Remain? And there’s a special treat for listeners with the live debut of disco troupe ARTICLE 54, creators of The Hustle: A Brexit Disco Symphony – now streaming near you. 

That’s it for 2019 but we WILL be back in 2020, come hell, WAB or high water. Maybe we can’t stop Brexit any more but we can shine a light on what’s happening in a way the opposition parties seem constitutionally incapable of. As ever, your support is what keeps us going. We wish every listener and Patreon backer a happy Christmas and a hopeful new year. 

Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Ian Dunt, Ros Taylor and Alex Andreou. Post-production by Alex Rees. Many thanks to Jess and the whole Leicester Square Theatre team, and to Article 54: Rhodri Marsden, Susannah Henry, Sharron Fortnam, Mira Manga and Helene Bradley. Top photo: Emma Quinn. Remainiacs is a Podmasters production.

Get every new episode of Remainiacs a whole day early when you back us on the Patreon crowdfunding platform. You’ll also get our monthly Ask Remainiacs special episode plus smart merchandise, an exclusive weekly column by our panel, and discounts on #RemainiacsLive tickets too. #OwnTheRemoan

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Yes, we got a kicking. Remain parties might have edged the popular vote but it didn’t stop Boris Johnson winning the majority he always craved. So what now? Is Remain dead? Where do we put our energies from now on? Are lies and contempt for basic scrutiny the new normal for political campaigns? Will Labour face its culpability for the hard right’s greatest success since Thatcherism? And exactly how much sleep did our panel get?

Incredible though it seems, we’ve done the easy stuff. Now it’s a hard road ahead. “We are the opposition now.”

Produced and presented by Andrew Harrison with Ian Dunt, Naomi Smith and Alex Andreou. Audio production by Alex Rees. Remainiacs is a Podmasters production.

Get every new episode of Remainiacs a whole day early when you back us on the Patreon crowdfunding platform. You’ll also get our monthly Ask Remainiacs special episode plus smart merchandise, an exclusive weekly column by our panel, and discounts on #RemainiacsLive tickets too. #OwnTheRemoan

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“GET IN THE FRIDGE!” As the polls tighten on the eve of the vote, we tell you exactly where to vote tactically, how to persuade waverers, and why a Johnson majority might prove to be a curse... on Boris Johnson. 

Plus: Will the PMs’ foul attitude to a sick kid in a Leeds A&E finally, finally move the needle among his supporters? Ian’s tips on how to stay awake for the full horror of Election Night. Where will the anger go if Brexit ever DOES “get done”? Boris Johnson reveals himself to be a thin-skinned autocrat. And why we need to gear up for the mightiest pro-immigration campaign that Britain has ever seen. 

We’ve come this far. We’re not giving in. See you on Friday for a post-election wrap-up… 

“We are going to be fighting many many battles over the next year, all at once.”

Presented by Ros Taylor with Ian Dunt, Naomi Smith and Alex Andreou. Audio production and script by Alex Rees. Produced by Andrew Harrison Remainiacs is a Podmasters production.

Get every new episode of Remainiacs a whole day early when you back us on the Patreon crowdfunding platform. You’ll also get our monthly Ask Remainiacs special episode plus smart merchandise, an exclusive weekly column by our panel, and discounts on #RemainiacsLive tickets too. #OwnTheRemoan

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Deck the balls with Multi-level Regression and Post-stratification polling! Our penultimate live show of the year saw a full-panel turnout for a festive evening of the latest Brexit analysis, campaign horror stories, pre-election recrimination and the hellishly difficult Have I Got Brexit For You quiz. If you were there you can relive it. If not, you can pretend you were.

Hold tight for Naomi Smith, Dorian Lynskey, Ian Dunt, Ros Taylor, Nina Schick, Ingrid Oliver, Alex Andreou and Andrew Harrison in a special two-part live show of top quality discussion, poor quality jokes and audience questions at the end. We look at the election campaign and how the parties have fared, plus the state of populism and – as the political decade ends in farce and deception – a few Big Ideas that might make the 2020s more optimistic and tolerable than the 2010s. Gather the family!

Special thanks to Leicester Square Theatre for sound recording. Post-production by Alex Rees. Remainiacs is a Podmasters production.

Get every new episode of Remainiacs a whole day early when you back us on the Patreon crowdfunding platform. You’ll also get our monthly Ask Remainiacs special episode plus smart merchandise, an exclusive weekly column by our panel, and discounts on #RemainiacsLive tickets too. #OwnTheRemoan

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With less than two weeks to go, how is this simultaneously the most terrifying and consequential – yet somehow boring – General Election in history? Even with the Conservatives looking to stack every aspect of the constitution permanently in government’s favour?

Plus: what the party leaders’ stock reactions to the London Bridge terror attack reveal about how they see the electorate. Did Labour’s leaks about NHS privatisation come from Russian hackers? WTF is an Australian points-based immigration system anyway and where does performative nastiness figure in the mass psychology of politics? 

Not long to go now, Britain. It’ll all be over soon. And then it’ll start up again. 

Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison with Ian Dunt, Ingrid Oliver and Dorian Lynskey. Audio production and script by Alex Rees. Remainiacs is a Podmasters production.

Get every new episode of Remainiacs a whole day early when you back us on the Patreon crowdfunding platform. You’ll also get our monthly Ask Remainiacs special episode plus smart merchandise, an exclusive weekly column by our panel, and discounts on #RemainiacsLive tickets too. #OwnTheRemoan

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Get your free download of our theme tune ‘Demon Is A Monster’ by Cornershop. 

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It’s halfway through the election campaign…

Producer Andrew is away for Thanksgiving this week, so our regulars are off the leash and the metaphors get a little… colourful.

In the wake of updated tactical voting data, we discuss the possibilities that lie ahead on polling day and try to bring some cheer to proceedings while keeping references to “flesh piñatas” to a minimum. 

Campaign speed bumps abound for the main parties, as Jeremy Corbyn is grilled by Andrew Neil in an interview Boris Johnson hasn’t turned up for himself, while we assess presentational issues for Jo Swinson as leader of the Lib Dems. 

"I think it’s too late for the Lib Dems to recoil from the Revoke policy,” says Naomi. “What you’ve got to do now is bed in and do it passionately, and if you’re going to do it, stick to it, and speak from the heart about why stopping Brexit is the best thing for this country."

We’re also discussing the lack of reckoning over the sins of Empire that has in part led to the strain of British exceptionalism inherent in the Brexit campaign. Nice bit of lightness before the most important election of our lives, then. 

Plus, a second round of questions in our ASK REMAINIACS election special.

Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Ian Dunt. Audio production and scripting by Alex Rees. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Remainiacs is a Podmasters production.

Get every new episode of Remainiacs a whole day early when you back us on the Patreon crowdfunding platform. You’ll also get our monthly Ask Remainiacs special episode plus smart merchandise, an exclusive weekly column by our panel, and discounts on #RemainiacsLive tickets too. #OwnTheRemoan

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The first episode of Remainiacs to be verified by "Fact Check UK” as “proper good, five stars on iTunes from us…”

Who won the first debate of the campaign between Johnson, Corbyn and Corbyn’s enormous specs? 

We discuss manifestos, polls and potential landmines for the main parties, and how wave after wave of scandals like CCHQ's @factcheckUK con, dubbed Actually Orwellian by our Orwell expert Dorian Lynskey, have dulled our reaction to them. 

“If I step on a turd and walk into this studio, all of you will smell something iffy. If I step on a turd and we record a sewer, none of you would notice.”

Plus, ASK REMAINIACS returns. We’re doing another part next week, so get your questions in below or at [email protected].

Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Ingrid Oliver, Alex Andreou and guest panelist Helen Lewis. Audio production by Sophie Black, with scripting by Alex Rees. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Remainiacs is a Podmasters production.

Get every new episode of Remainiacs a whole day early when you back us on the Patreon crowdfunding platform. You’ll also get our monthly Ask Remainiacs special episode plus smart merchandise, an exclusive weekly column by our panel, and discounts on #RemainiacsLive tickets too. #OwnTheRemoan

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A first for Remainiacs as we welcome a guest from the Telegraph! But don’t worry, it’s their eminently sensible Europe Editor PETER FOSTER with a tour d’horizon of the frosty future that Britain faces if Johnson gets the Brexit he says he wants. 

Plus! Why can’t we read this Russia report, then? As Nigel Farage pulls a wheeze too far, the Jacobin Rebellion finally comes home in the Brexit Party. Why Tom Watson’s face is like an HBO box set. Is there really more Remain stuff in the Telegraph than there is Leave stuff in the Guardian? And word of the week: epistocracy. 

“The idea that Boris Johnson is running round the country saying Get Brexit Done? Brexit is just beginning.” 

Presented by Naomi Smith with Ros Taylor and Ian Dunt. Audio production by Alex Rees. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Remainiacs is a Podmasters production.

Get every new episode of Remainiacs a whole day early when you back us on the Patreon crowdfunding platform. You’ll also get our monthly Ask Remainiacs special episode plus smart merchandise, an exclusive weekly column by our panel, and discounts on #RemainiacsLive tickets too. #OwnTheRemoan

remainiacs.com

Get your free download of our theme tune ‘Demon Is A Monster’ by Cornershop. 

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In a special mini-episode, Alex Andreou puts his mellifluous voice to a Twitter thread he did with Best for Britain earlier this week, about the need to start saying “No” to the so-called strongmen who don’t understand the meaning of the word… 

The column is dedicated to Ruth, on her birthday. 

Follow Alex @sturdyAlex on Twitter, and B4B @BestForBritain.

Get every new episode of Remainiacs a whole day early when you back us on the Patreon crowdfunding platform. You’ll also get our monthly Ask Remainiacs special episode plus smart merchandise, an exclusive weekly column by our panel, and discounts on #RemainiacsLive tickets too. #OwnTheRemoan

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Our first live show in Manchester YES OK SALFORD on Sat 2 November was a smash hit. Dorian, Ros and Ian joined special guest Rob Ford of the University of Manchester onstage at The Lowry theatre to deal with the state of play in those far-off days of the weekend we were supposed to leave the EU but, erm, didn’t.

This special bonus podcast went out to our Patreon backers early last week, so if you want to be first with extra Remainiacs content, why not sign up as a supporter now?

On the agenda: Can the Bojo Mojo withstand the rigours of a General Election? How can we survive the Age of Rage once Brexit is (somehow) “done”? Rob explains the hidden factors behind Brexit, complete with research. And the panel play a few rounds of ‘Leave or Remain?’ Who will get the comic book characters and who will get heroes of Manchester music?

If you enjoyed this show, don’t forget our last Remainiacs Live of 2019 at the Leicester Square Theatre on Mon 2 Dec. Tickets are going fast and Patreon backers get a discount with the code “extension”. 

Your panel is Dorian Lynskey, Ros Taylor and Ian Dunt with special guest Rob Ford. Audio production by Alex Rees. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Special thanks to all at The Lowry for making us so welcome. We’ll be back. Remainiacs is a Podmasters production.

Get every new episode of Remainiacs a whole day early when you back us on the Patreon crowdfunding platform. You’ll also get our monthly Ask Remainiacs special episode plus smart merchandise, an exclusive weekly column by our panel, and discounts on #RemainiacsLive tickets too. #OwnTheRemoan

remainiacs.com

Get your free download of our theme tune ‘Demon Is A Monster’ by Cornershop. 

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