The Bunker – Your daily news Deep Dive

Birmingham plays a key role in the Tory imagination – something that might shock some of its 1.1 million inhabitants. So what is the relationship between the Conservatives and Britain’s Second City? Marie Le Conte is joined by Richard Vinen, professor of history at King’s College London and author of Second City: Birmingham and the Forging of Modern Britain, to unpack the myth and memory behind this Tory spiritual home. 

• “You don’t have to like it to recognise how important Birmingham is.” 
• “Birmingham grew the most under Tony Blair – it’s a very New Labour city.”
• “The Tories have far less of a relationship with Birmingham than they think.” 

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Written and presented by Marie Le Conte. Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Lead producer: Jacob Jarvis. Bunker music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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Keir Starmer is staying on the attack while Sunak faces more strike conundrums with junior doctors staging a mass walkout. Is the Government going to resolve these issues – or just try to distract? Plus, we discuss the latest from Ukraine, protests in Georgia and Xi’s posturing over Taiwan. Jacob Jarvis is joined by Alex Andreou to tee up the week ahead. 

• “If [the right] can character assassinate you online, why should you have to play nice?” – Alex Andreou
• “Junior doctors came out of the pandemic and the government said ‘sorry, applause is all you get’” – Alex Andreou 
• “I can’t see Steve Barclay being the person qualified to fix this” – Jacob Jarvis
• “Leaked documents of any kind tend to be glorified as the definitive position, and they are often not” - Alex Andreou 

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Presented by Jacob Jarvis with Alex Andreou. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production: Jade Bailey. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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This Bank Holiday, enjoy a Bunker from the archives… We all want control over our lives. But as we make more decisions digitally, the impact of algorithms on our choices grows. They help to sort the information presented to us and limit the options we see – shaping the products we buy, films we watch and even the partners we end up with. Andrew Harrison discusses the future of such technology with Kartik Hosanagar, author of A Human's Guide to Machine Intelligence: How Algorithms Are Shaping Our Lives and How We Can Stay in Control. 

• “Many people believe that algorithms are just providing us information and we comb through that and make our own choices… research shows otherwise.” – Kartik Hosanagar
• “They are not just helping us make the decisions that we would have anyway made… they are also influencing the decisions themselves.” – Kartik Hosanagar
• “These algorithms could be making choices in more personal and more important aspects of our lives, and also they could be making them autonomously.” – Kartik Hosanagar
• “Let’s make sure that for high stakes decisions, they are made by human beings.” – Kartik Hosanagar
• “Individually, it’s hard for us to stop this algorithmic tsunami.” – Kartik Hosanagar

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Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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Britain has hundreds of abandoned villages. How did they fall victim to history? And how are the communities that once called these places home remembered? With more than 4000 villages at risk of flooding over the coming decades, these question feels more pertinent than ever. Hannah Fearn is joined by historian Matthew Green, author of Shadowlands: A journey through lost Britain, to dig up the ruins of our gone but not (quite) forgotten lands.   

Matthew’s book is out in paperback from Faber and can be bought here: https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571338030-shadowlands/ 

• “The black death led to over 3000 disappeared villages.” 
• “It’s hard not to see an uncanny foreshadowing of our destruction from climate change.”
• “When we remember and tell the stories of our lost lands we never lose them.”
• “The more you meditate on ruins, the less of a ruin you become yourself.”

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Written and presented by Hannah Fearn. Audio production by Alex Rees. Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Lead producer: Jacob Jarvis. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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Manchester’s music scene is famous the world over – but did Joy Division, the Haçienda and Factory Records really lead to a real estate boom that transformed the city? Journalist and adopted Mancunian Andy Spinoza tells Andrew Harrison how Tony Wilson’s empire triggered a boom that transformed the city’s skyline and more – as charted in his book Manchester Unspun: Pop, Property And Power In The Original Modern City. 

BOOK ORDER LINK: https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Andy-Spinoza/Manchester-Unspun--Pop-Property-and-Power-in-the-Original-Modern-City/27859796 

• “Those leaders in Manchester didn’t dismiss the music as just a bunch of kids larking around. They could see this was the way economies were changing.”
• “All cities should give space to the artists to create their authentic homegrown culture and that should be away from officialdom and away from corporate interests.”

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Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Chris Jones. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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In Sweden most people have a great deal of trust in the state, but in recent years vaccine scepticism has gained ground. Ethnographer Mia-Marie Hammarlin spent time in the Swedish countryside sharing saunas and kitchen tables with women who refused the COVID vaccine. She explains how a belief in the power of nature and spirituality, bolstered by conspiracy theories found online, has convinced some Swedes to refuse jabs.

• “There are high levels of social trust in Sweden.”
• “Trust in nature and spirituality became a central belief for vaccine rejection.”
• “Vaccine sceptics furiously reject the notion they lack solidarity.”

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Written and presented by Ros Taylor. Producer: Jade Bailey. Audio production: Tomas Rojas. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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In the autumn of 1984, the Provisional IRA almost wiped out the British Cabinet. Five people were killed in the Grand Hotel bombing. As we approach the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, The Guardian’s Ireland correspondent Rory Carroll joins Gavin Esler to revisit the event that – had it been successful – would have changed British politics forever, and the way it did change history. 

Rory’s book Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown can be bought here: https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/killing-thatcher-the-ira-the-manhunt-and-the-long-war-on-the-crown-rory-carroll 

• “In Ireland, Thatcher was a figure as hated as Cromwell.”
• “No one in the IRA knew what the consequences of killing a British Prime Minister would be.” 

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Written and presented by Gavin Esler. Audio production by Alex Rees. Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Lead producer: Jacob Jarvis. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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Next to births and deaths, taxes are one of life's only certainties. But with a tax system made up of a bewildering mish-mash of rates and loopholes, who are the winners and losers? And how can the system be hacked? Siân Pattenden is joined by the top-secret Rebel Accountant, author of Taxtopia, to explore how the tax system is scamming us all. 

• “The poorest in society pay the most amount of tax – the whole system is rigged.”

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Written and presented by Siân Pattenden. Producer Kasia Tomasiewicz. Lead producer Jacob Jarvis. Group editor Andrew Harrison. Bunker music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Jade Bailey. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

Book link: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/the-rebel-accountant/taxtopia/9781800960886/ 

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We know what political failure looks like in Britain. But why does it happen? Why do governments pass bad laws and ignore looming crises? Ben Ansell, author of Why Politics Fails, tells Ros Taylor why a small number of party members can impose leaders on the rest of us, how self-interest scuppers our decision making, and what happens to a mature democracy when politics stops working. Have we turned a corner since the disastrous Truss premiership? Or are we in for more of the same?

• “We have moved to an American-style election process.”
• “More democracy in political parties has led to the many centrists in society feeling misrepresented.”
• “The breakdown of unions and church membership means now it’s just us and political parties, mediated by Twitter.”

BOOK LINK

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/444113/why-politics-fails-by-ansell-ben/9780241992760

Presented and written by Ros Taylor. Audio production by Alex Rees. Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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Donald Trump is to be arrested this week – what drama can we expect to unfold? Plus in the UK the Tories are looking at potholes, while Labour gets ‘tough on crime’ – are we completely out of new ideas? And as Suella Braverman continues to dream about Rwanda, why won’t she admit any flaws to her plans? Arthur Snell joins Jacob Jarvis to lay out what’s happening in the week ahead.

• “Trump is using his indictment to raise more funds.”

• “London-based consultants create silly caricatures like ‘Swindon Woman’, it’s embarrassing.”

• “Antisocial behaviour happens because the social realm has collapsed.”

Support us on Patreon:

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Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis with Arthur Snell. Audio production by Jade Bailey. Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Music: Kenny Dickinson. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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