Don't miss tonight's live Zoom event, exclusive for Patreon subscribers! Join Steve for an exclusive chat, live on Zoom and FREE to all Patreons. Steve will be covering hot topics from the current political news and answering your questions.

For access to this event, plus all the other benefits like bonus podcasts and the main podcast a day early and ad free, subscribe on Patreon here.

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

Not for the first time, a US military intervention triggers greater instability and many questions about what follows. It’s time for the co-operative to delve deep into the context and consequences!

To join our exclusive live Patreon event on Thursday, and also get bonus podcasts and the main podcasts a day early and ad free, subscribe to Patreon here.

Rock & Roll Politics - The End of the Political Year Special is live at Kings Place on July 17th. Tickets here.

Written and presented by Steve Richards.

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

Rachel Reeves’ spending review was a mixed bag, with some impossibly tight spending settlements combined with significant investment. But will voters make the connections between decisions at Westminster and their own lives, especially when conveyed through a hostile media?

• Rock & Roll Politics - The End of the Political Year Special is live at Kings Place on July 17th. Tickets here.

Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events.

Written and presented by Steve Richards.

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

Sarah Vine, the journalist and former wife of Michael Gove, has written a book that partly chronicles their lives in the court of David Cameron and the Notting Hill Conservatives. In doing so she is the latest insider chronicler to shine light on the shallowness of the Cameron project, with dark consequences for the Conservative party and the country.

Rachel Reeves has a chance this week to reframe the government’s confused narrative. Will she take it? Plus brilliant questions and latest news of Rock & Roll Politics live at the Edinburgh Festival.

Rock & Roll Politics - The End of the Political Year Special is live at Kings Place on July 17th. Tickets here.

Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events.

Written and presented by Steve Richards.

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

Keir Starmer is an evasive leader but on one point he is clear: he is a pragmatist, has no time for ideology and there will be no ‘Starmerism’. But without strong ideological convictions can a leader flourish? Plus, brilliant questions from the Rock & Roll Politics co-operative.

Rock & Roll Politics is live in the main concert hall at Kings Place on July 17th.. The End of the Political Year Special. Tickets here.

Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events.

Written and presented by Steve Richards.

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

While researching the 1929 Labour government for a new book I found myself thinking repeatedly “this reminds me of now”. The yearning to follow economic orthodoxies of the past, the desire to be agents of ‘change’ while being fearful of change etc… and then I came across a Tony Blair interview from the 2001 election. This week, we look at the many lessons for now from a distant and another more recent Labour government.

Rock & Roll Politics is live in the main concert hall at Kings Place on July 17th... The End of the Political Year Special. Tickets here.

Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events.

Written and presented by Steve Richards.

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

I spoke to Michael Heseltine at the Cambridge Literary Festival about his remarkable career, how he would have changed the Tory party’s approach to Europe had he won the leadership contest in 1990, his reflections on Thatcher, his radical ideas if he were prime minister now… and much more.

The Cambridge Winter Festival is held on the 22nd and 23rd of November.

Rock & Roll Politics is live in the main concert hall at Kings Place on July 17th. Tickets here.

Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events.

Written and presented by Steve Richards.

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

The Labour government has signed a deal with the EU that brings significant improvements to the agreement negotiated by Johnson and Lord Frosty Frost… their deal being a reminder of the many calamitous developments in the wild fourteen years of misrule. Can the Tory  Party recover from such a record or is it doomed to be replaced by Reform?

Rock & Roll Politics is live in the main concert hall at Kings Place on July 17th. Tickets here.

Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events.

Written and presented by Steve Richards.

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

Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper have played their migration cards, but will they be enough to counter Farage’s populist policies? Will they work in practical terms? And if they do, what will be the impact on growth and any hope for the urgently needed National Care Service? So many questions erupt when moving on to this thorny terrain…

Subscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts, the main podcast a day early and ad free… plus special exclusive live events.

Written and presented by Steve Richards.

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

Labour was elected to deliver ‘change’ but Starmer, Reeves and Morgan McSweeney have been cautious and vague about their ambition to move on from the recent past. Instead Labour communications use the term ‘reform’ as if it were a policy in itself.

Now Labour faces the Reform Party, the Greens, the SNP and Lib Dems, all pitching bolder versions of change. Yet in government Labour is trapped by fiscal rules, the power of the Office for Budget Responsibility and a lack of clarity and coherence at the top. Can Starmer become a clear-sighted political teacher?

• Rock’n’Roll Politics is live at Kings Place this Thursday, May 8th. Tickets available here.

• Subscribe to Patreon for live events, bonus podcasts and to get the regular podcast a day early and ad free. 

Written and presented by Steve Richards.

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