Rule Britannia

Between the 12th March and the 16th March, the government advice to the public about Coronavirus changed swiftly and dramatically.

What happened during those 4 days to prompt that change?

This week, Tom speaks to Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of war studies at Kings College London, who has been looking at the minutes of the government advisory groups during those crucial days.

You can read his article in the New Statesman here

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/04/real-reason-uk-government-pursued-herd-immunity-and-why-it-was-abandoned

The divide in responses to and the extent of the damage wrought by covid 19 is becoming much starker.

As we know, direct country to country comparisons do not take into account demography, geography or the original scale of the outbreak.

One thing though that is clear is that it is the nation state, not many global multilateral fora that are deciding responses.

Arguably, coronavirus hastens the challenge already posed to those institutions, like the UN. Challenges of democratic consent and of efficacy.

The United Nations hasn’t yet been able to even declare coronavirus a threat to global peace and security.

This week, Tom talks to Samantha Power, who served as US ambassador to the UN and led the global response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Can the UK find solutions by looking abroad? Was Britain too slow compared to how others responded to the developing Coronavirus crisis?

Much of the world is now looking at one small island, Taiwan, with a population of 24 million, they have only had 427 cases so far, and 6 deaths due to Covid-19. They acted very early to the developing crisis.

This week, Tom speaks to Taiwan's representative in the UK, David Yung-Lo Lin.

If the facts around coronavirus and the way it’s affecting all of us were bad enough... wait to you hear the conspiracy theory nonsense.

Over the past few weeks, misinformation and conspiracy has gained traction in the mainstream, with real-world consequences.

This week, Tom speaks to Professor Karen Douglas, Professor of social psychology at the university of Kent who studies the psychology of conspiracy theories, and Josh Rogin, columnist for the Washington Post who has investigated the truth behind the conspiracy that Covid-19 didn't originate in the wet markets but escaped out of the Wuhan institute of Virology...

Rule Britannia discovers Britains place in a fast changing world.

Listen and subscribe now to Rule Britannia on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/tom-swarbrick/

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Polling shows attitudes towards China are hardening, the Japanese are shifting production out of China, and the US are flirting with cutting funding to the World Health Organisation. Equipment sent from China for testing has been sent back as faulty. Is the relationship between nations breaking down?

Was Britain prepared? Were we prepared in the right way? How do we make ourselves more resilient in the future?

This week, Tom speaks to Elizabeth Braw, Head of modern deterrence at the Royal United Services institute.

Rule Britannia discovers Britains place in a fast changing world.

Listen and subscribe now to Rule Britannia on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/tom-swarbrick/

Twitter

@TomSwarbrick1

The Foreign Office launches the biggest repatriation of Brits in peacetime.

3/4s of a million stranded and told to get home.

What’s it like trying to coordinate an effort like that inside Govenrment and is the foreign office, the longest arm of the British state, up to the job?

Joining Tom this week is Alistair Burt, former foreign office minister responsible for the Middle East when the Arab spring broke out.

Rule Britannia discovers Britains place in a fast changing world.

Listen and subscribe now to Rule Britannia on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/tom-swarbrick/

Twitter

@TomSwarbrick1

We are living through a generation-defining event - a moment of national emergency.

How Britain responds to the coronavirus is critical to its future: economic, political, social, well-being.

But this outbreak isn’t the first pandemic, and won’t be the last.

What seems clear from the history of pandemics, is that nowhere is the same again after one of these. Economies, societies, reel from the shock and then change forever afterwards.

What can the history of pandemics tell us about how Britain should react and how it’s going to change?

How might our society, economy, politics, priorities, values, change?

How alive was the U.K. to the probability of a catastrophic event like this? How ready, or not, were we?

And how will Briton’s relationship and understanding of the role of the State change too?

Joining Tom this week; Dr Liam Fox, former Defence Secretary, International Trade Secretary and GP who is writing a book on the history of pandemics.

Rule Britannia discovers Britains place in a fast changing world.

Listen and subscribe now to Rule Britannia on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/tom-swarbrick/

Twitter

@TomSwarbrick1

Join LBC's Tom Swarbrick as he interviews leading experts, politicians and industry influencers to gather a weekly round up of the most important world news and hidden topics that you won't have heard about.

Find out just what goes on behind closed doors and how today's decisions will affect Britain's future.

Subscribe on Global player or wherever you get your podcasts, now!

As tens of thousands of displaced people make their way to the Greek border, is Europe experiencing the beginnings of the “Migrant Crisis” 2.0? Erdogan and Putin meet in an attempt to resolve the seemingly intractable problems in Syria which have resulted in the mass movement of at least a million people from Idlib Province. Tom also discusses the Afghanistan Peace deal which looks like it’s over before it started and the British troop deployment in Mali. This week, Tom is joined by the chief foreign affairs commentator at the Financial Times, Gideon Rachman.

Tom is also joined by the UN World Food Programme’s Chief Economist Dr Arif Hussein who shows not only that chronic hunger across the world is rising but that food insecurity is driving population movements and contributing to conflicts across the world. What should the world, and Britain, be doing to reach the UN goal of eliminating hunger by 2030?

Rule Britannia discovers Britains place in a fast changing world.

Listen and subscribe now to Rule Britannia on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/tom-swarbrick/

Twitter

@TomSwarbrick1