The Bunker – Your daily news Deep Dive

Immigration is the topic most guaranteed to drive good sense out of the room. Will opinions be changed by COVID’s sobering reminder of the irreplaceable work that immigrants do? Has Black Lives Matter shown us the progress we’ve made – or the progress we haven’t? And will the Government use COVID quarantine as cover for even more repressive immigration rules? MINNIE RAHMAN of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants talks to Alex Andreou about the myth of the immigrant freeloader and the unforeseen cruelties of the Hostile Environment.

• “Let’s face it, any migrant is just one lost document away from becoming a victim of the Hostile Environment.” 
• “You can’t have a two-tier system where some people can access services and some can’t. We’re only as healthy as our neighbours.”

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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If shops and pubs can reopen, why can’t pools? Swimming saves the NHS and social care some £357m a year, yet the Government’s mishandling of community sport is a microcosm of its muddled approach across Coronavirus. How badly will this affect young swimmers? And how does COVID-19 fare in chlorinated water anyway? Swim England chief exec JANE NICKERSON explains as enthusiast swim fan Ros Taylor goes off the deep end. 

• “If we’re working on science, what makes a cinema or a pub better to open than a swimming pool?”
• “The children who are missing swimming lessons now could become a lost generation.”
• “We talk about protecting the NHS. Well keeping people fit and healthy IS protecting the NHS.” 

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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Are you wearing your facemask? If not, WHY NOT? Plus: Has Britain’s shambolic response to COVID exposed something worse than bad leadership: a deep-seated rot in the British state itself? What’s going to happen when mass unemployment hits the sharp-elbowed, politically-engaged middle classes? And most importantly, when can we finally, finally get our highlights done? 

Ros Taylor welcomes Ayesha Hazarika, Nina Schick and Alex Andreou into our specially-hardened Bunker for this week’s panel show. Stay tuned for Alex’s deep-dive on anti-COVID “moustache and beard snoods” and PPE niche porn… 

• “There are people now who’ve only heard of older people as a burden… We wheel out our veterans and then let them drown with COVID.” – Alex Andreou
• “The infamous Red Wall is a blessing and a curse for Boris Johnson.” – Ayesha Hazarika
• “Britain needs to complain more and whinge less.” – Alex Andreou

Presented by Ros Taylor. Script and assistant production by Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickenson. Logo and artwork by Mark Taylor. Audio production by Alex Rees. Produced by Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters production

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Hundreds of thousands of people should be heading to Glastonbury right now. Instead the live music industry is hanging on by its fingernails, hundreds of venues are threatened with closure, and the Government hasn’t included music in its ‘Cultural Renewal Taskforce’. Music agent JAMES WRIGHT of United Talent Agency talks to Andrew Harrison about what this multi-billion pound industry needs to survive. 

• “Music is this country’s cultural background. And it’s being taken away from people.”
• “Our business just doesn’t work with ANY social distancing in place.”

Presented and 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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As China tries to impose its authority on Hong Kong, can the former British colony retain some semblance of independence? What’s behind the creeping authoritarianism of Beijing’s Fugitive Offenders Bill? And are Britain’s moves on British National Overseas passports anything more than a gesture? Professor KERRY BROWN, Professor of Chinese Studies at King’s College London and Director of the Lau China Institute, talks to Naomi Smith about Hong Kong’s moment of truth. 

• “China’s definition of ‘what is terrorism?’ can be incredibly extensive.”

Presented by Naomi Smith. 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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In India, Narendra Modi’s populist BJP government has stripped back rights further than in almost any advanced democracy. The country’s COVID response has caused nightmarish problems for the world’s most populous country. And now we’ve seen a bizarre hand-to-hand clash with Chinese troops on the Himalayan border. Is India on the verge of historic trouble? The Guardian’s southern Asia correspondent HANNAH ELLIS-PETERSEN explains the BJP’s mix of religious fanaticism and 21st century troll politics to Dorian Lynskey. 

• “Modi’s COVID response has caused one of the worst humanitarian crises in 50 years.”
• “COVID has been branded a ‘Muslim disease’… The BJP are calling it ‘Corona Jihad’.” 
• “The BJP is accusing democracy protestors of being terrorists.”
• “Even before Coronavirus, India’s healthcare was already on the brink of collapse.”

Presented by Dorian Lynskey. 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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What will it take to translate the unprecedented debate on racism and bias into action? Battersea Labour MP and Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities MARSHA DE CORDOVA talks to Naomi Smith about a moment that could change Britain. 

• “Each of us has a responsibility to ensuring that this moment is a catalyst for change.”
• “Don’t call it Black History. It’s just history.”
• “No-one could look at that video of George Floyd and be the same again.” 
• “We don’t need any more reviews. I am reviewed out. We need action.”

Presented by Naomi Smith. 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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As Britain zealously unlocks its shops and zoos (but not its schools), are we knocking over the norms that we’ll need to deal with a second wave of COVID? What are we going to do after the pandemic when AI and automation take all the jobs? Guest Daniel Susskind, author of A World Without Work, joins us to look at what all these people are going to do all day. Plus the torrid secret life of George Eliot. “Defending” statues with the Jacamo Freikorps. And who’s really behind the purging of problematic TV comedy?

Ahir Shah and Helen Lewis join Andrew Harrison for this week’s full-length BUNKER.

• “The Government are like, Exercise your judgment… but not like THAT.” – Ahir Shah
• “History is a process. It’s about what we choose to remember. It’s not an objective science at all.” – Helen Lewis

Presented by Andrew Harrison. Script and assistant production by Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickenson. Logo and artwork by Mark Taylor. Audio production by Alex Rees. Produced by Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters production.

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Emmanuel Macron continues to suffer from France’s traditional disdain for its leader. How has the pandemic affected France’s notorious febrile politics? Why is France so unhappy with Macron? Will Black Lives Matter finally force change on the notoriously racist French police? And whatever happened to the Gilets Jaunes? JOHN LICHFIELD, former France correspondent for the Independent, explains all to Ros Taylor. 

• “In my 20 years in France, every French leader has been instantly unpopular.” 
• “It’s the fate of centrists everywhere to be hated by both sides.”
• “Everyone’s claiming to be De Gaulle without ever stopping to consider how De Gaulle would have reacted to today’s problems.”
• “There’s a visceral dislike of Macron in France that in many ways is unfair. But that’s normal French politics.”

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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The country’s hunger for football has become desperate during lockdown – but will we even recognise the game when it returns this week? What have ten weeks of isolation done to the minds and bodies of top players? And will the game’s elite finally accept that they need to support the game’s desperately-threatened grassroots? France Football’s England correspondent PHILIPPE AUCLAIR talks to strung-out Liverpool fan Andrew Harrison as we enter the riskiest and most unpredictable weeks in football’s history. 

• “If we don’t ensure that the world outside of the Premier League is taken care of, the consequences could be really dire.”
• “We don’t know how players’ bodies will react to an enforced rest of three months – which they have never, ever done.”
• “The whole fabric of English football is in danger now. The whole fabric.” 

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

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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