The Bunker – Your daily news Deep Dive

The Labour grief-fest won’t abate. What do the Labour Left actually want? Victory, or just to burn the party down? Now that we’re moving into the pick-up-the-pieces phase of COVID, what have we learned and what should we do with it? Special guest Christina Pagel of UCL and Indie SAGE has thoughts. And what should a Minister for Men look like? Long-lost regular Ahir Shah returns – with exciting dinosaur news!! – to join Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey for this week’s political crime scene reconstruction.

• “The more you look at the behaviour of the left, it shows a psychological process rather than a political one” – Ian Dunt
• “At least you can now explain that the Democrats are called the Democrats because they’re the ones who believe in democracy…” -– Dorian Lynskey
• “What would we do different? I don’t know, EVERYTHING?” – Christina Pagel”
• “I’m hesitant to get excited about vaccines until I have Pfizer in one arm, Moderna in the other, and I’m doing a line of Astra-Zeneca.” – Ahir Shah
• “The depressing thing about COVID is that the Government doesn’t seem to have learned anything from it at all.” – Christina Pagel

Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Ahir Shah and Ian Dunt. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Logo and branding by Mark Taylor. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters production

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With lockdown about to give way to “it’s not lockdown, it’s tiers,” is it worth another superspreader event to “save” Christmas? Will Rishi Sunak’s spending review be the free-spending Chancellor’s last hurrah? Will this Brexit deal ever be decided? Ian Dunt breaks down the week with Andrew Harrison. 

Presented by Ian Dunt. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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When Chancellor Rishi Sunak doled out taxpayers’ money on free Wagamamas, he failed more than 3 million people who have received no financial support from the Government whatsoever. Broadcaster turned campaigner Ellie Phillips tells Naomi Smith about the plight of PAYE freelancers who are ineligible for furlough, and the work she’s doing with campaign group Forgotten PAYE who want parity for the self employed.

• “This goes through every single profession in the country.”
• “Nearly 2.5 million have fallen through the gaps in income support.”
• “The Government talks about levelling-up, but this is the ultimate levelling-down”
• “Sunak is pushing people into poverty and punishing those who create jobs… it just makes no sense.”

Presented by Naomi Smith. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofrenijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Who’s number one in No.10? And which governmental loser is tandem inter pares? Commentator, LBC broadcaster, author and “not a fan of Boris Johnson” Iain Dale tells our own Ian Dunt what makes Prime Ministers succeed and fail – and how Boris Johnson’s Churchillian fantasies match up to reality.

• “Clement Attlee is among our greatest Prime Ministers but he wouldn’t have a hope in today’s intense environment.”
• “Boris won’t go down as the Brexit Prime Minister. He’ll go down as the COVID Prime Minister.”
• “Twitter is blogging on acid, isn’t it?”
• “Boris Johnson will enjoy being an ex-Prime Minister a lot more than being Prime Minister.”
• “Every Prime Minister wants to be a Churchill… but can you really compare coronavirus with 1940?”

Presented by Ian Dunt. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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The last four years have seen British politics turned upside down in ways unthinkable in normal times, so much so that constitutional law has become a sticking point. Joelle Grogan, lecturer at Middlesex University and creator of StickyTrickyLaw, talks to Ros Taylor about the clash between Brexit and our courts, what COVID has done to our constitution, and if Biden’s plan to pack the Supreme Court will come off.

• “We don’t have the same separation of powers as the US – here, Government and Parliament are synonymous to most people”.
• “I found it difficult myself to navigate the laws of the tiers – I even forgot their names”. 
• “Covid has exposed how health is a devolved responsibility”. 
• “We’ve seen many governments use the guise of judicial review to strengthen their power”.

Presented by Ros Taylor. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofrenijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Will the demise of Dominic Cummings clear the air in No.10? How can you stop QAnon and 5G anti-maskers from radicalising your auntie? Is the BBC really in danger from the Government’s public sector broadcasting review? And what is the true meaning of that Mary Woolstonecraft statue – sexist monstrosity, artistic vision, crowdfunding disaster or a bit of all three? Yasmeen Serhan, Alex Andreou and Naomi Smith join Andrew Harrison to sort it all out. 

• “The BBC overcompensates its liberal bias by overplatforming right-wingers” -– Alex Andreou 

Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison with Yasmeen Serhan, Alex Andreou and Naomi Smith. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Logo and branding by Mark Taylor. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters production

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Will disposing of Dom enable Johnson to reset as a kindler, gentler government? Will Deal Week turn into Deferment Week yet again? And what will the next seven days mean for the next steps on lockdown? Alex Andreou sets out your week ahead. 

• “The Government frittered away their post-election honeymoon, and set a tone of snideness and nastiness”
• “I’m willing to bet Hancock has threatened to resign multiple times over lockdown in the last few months”
• “Carrie Symonds reflects the school of Conservatives who want the old Boris back, not this joyless apparatchik.”

Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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COVID19 has caused the biggest shake-up in transport in over thirty years – with huge bailouts, U-Turns and financial crunches piling up as passenger numbers plummet. Transport writer and broadcaster Christian Wolmar spoke to Justin Quirk what state the sector will be in after the pandemic, and if we can afford the investment we used to take for granted.

• “Transport has been forced into a completely new world”
• “I can’t see the public transport network reaching 2019 heights for 20 years”
• “When you look at the detail of HS2, it’s really not worth it”
• “It is the less-sexy, smaller schemes that make the biggest difference to our transport system”
• “The idea you could let TFL go bust is fanciful, Sadiq Khan has the Government over a barrel”

Presented by Justin Quirk. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofrenijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.

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Broadcasting legend and former Question Time host DAVID DIMBLEBY dives into the undiscovered weeds of the Iraq War on his new podcast The Fault Line. He talks to Ian Dunt about the fatal relationship between Bush and Blair, how Iraq began the poisoning of western politics – plus what it’s like presenting election nights, and whether the QT audience really was biased.

• “When the facts turn against you as a politician, it’s very difficult to abandon the course you’ve set yourself.”
• “Fatally, Bush and Blair accepted the evidence of a charlatan.”
• “Social media provides the megaphone, and you have to speak up all the time…doubt, hesitation, and moderation aren’t relevant”

Presented by Ian Dunt. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill known as SpyCops is one of the most controversial pieces of legislation before Parliament – and the Labour Party is only timidly opposing it. Is a bill that permits state agents to break the law defensible? Where do we draw the line? Scottish Labour MSP Neil Findlay explains why he’s campaigning against the CHIS Bill, where Keir Starmer is falling short, and the deeper background of the Undercover Policing Inquiry into 40 years of undercover surveillance. 

• “We’ve seen appalling crimes committed against ordinary people by agents of the state… ”
• “There’s no fascist groups on the list, no extreme right groups. Everyone investigated is on the Left.”
• “In Scotland we had the police investigating the police. Surprise surprise, they found there’s nothing to see here, guv.”
• “To raise a child and then discover that the father wasn’t who you thought they were… Some of these women consider that they’d been raped by the State.” 
• “How did a union activist know their phone was being tapped? They wouldn’t pay the bill for two years and never got cut off…”

Presented by Ros Taylor. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production

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