The Bunker – Your daily news Deep Dive

Donald Tusk is telling Poles to boycott their presidential elections out of “basic human decency”. Is Poland’s ruling Law And Justice using COVID to intensify its anti-liberal direction? How are ordinary Poles coping with Corona? And could Law And Justice really get Poland expelled from the EU even though Poles are the most pro-EU people in Europe? Sociologist ROCH DUNIN-WĄSOWICZ of the LSE explains the crisis in democracy in the EU’s seventh-largest country. 

• “If the Presidential elections were to take place they would not fulfil the democratic conditions of being free, open and transparent.”
• “This amounts to the complete control of the judiciary by the executive.”
• “In Poland the UK is being showcased as Europe’s worst case of handling COVID. And that makes the Polish community in the UK worried.”
• “A lot of promises were made to Britain’s Polish community, and those promises were broken.”

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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Zoom fatigue, virtual pubs, the Baby Johnson… Standup comic and comedy writer ATHENA KUGBLENU purges all her lockdown neuroses while Ian Dunt hides behind the microphone. Is Captain Tom being politicised? Why do we have to see everything through the prism of the Second World War? And why do we still treat posh upper class white guys with such respect? 

• “A lot of stuff is going on under our noses while we’re all, y’know, juggling for the NHS.” 
• “Congratulations to Boris Johnson, babies are wonderful… but he’s a politician who’s come back to work. So he’s fair game.” 
• “I wouldn’t have put it has Boris Johnson to time this kid so he got an extended Easter break.”

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 lockdown is impacting everyone differently but it’s hitting people with pre-existing mental health issues especially hard. Demand for help with depression and anxiety are up by 30% worldwide, and the impending once-in-a-century recession is likely to make it worse. Will Higham of the charity Rethink Mental Illness talks to Naomi Smith about the post-COVID crisis in mental wellbeing – and how it affects young people especially. 

Presented by Naomi Smith. Produced 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. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters production.

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As Boris Johnson returns to work, will we see a chastened lockdown hawk or will he revert to his laissez-faire instincts? With trust in journalists plummeting, who decided that it’s the media’s job to ask “helpful questions” of government? Plus Conservative MP Robert Largan joins us to discuss whether infrastructure is the silver bullet to fix the Corona-hit economy.

“We are watching unprecedented deaths… To talk about ‘success’ right now is obscene.” – Ian Dunt

Presented by Ros Taylor with Naomi Smith and Ian Dunt. Produced 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. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters production.

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Put that sourdough starter away… Lockdown is the perfect opportunity to enrich the soul by discovering the mystery and magic of gardening. Superstar ethnobotanist JAMES WONG tells Alex Andreou how to start growing at home, and the hacks that can make it work for you. Why is being around stuff that’s growing so good for our mental wellbeing? What’s the gateway drug to horticulture? And which of the 400,000 plants on Planet Earth should you be planting right now?

• “We don’t know how or why gardening is so good for us. All we know is, it works.” 
• “We’ve got time on our hands now that we may never have again.”
• “Supergluing plants? Are you kidding me?”

Presented by Justin Quirk. 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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Bleach! 5G! Bats! Why would anyone march with a banner that reads “Sacrifice the Weak”? Is the political reaction to COVID really being influenced by conspiracy theory? And can a democracy function when many voters simply reject facts in favour of comforting delusion? Political psychologist STEPHAN LEWANDOWSKY talks to debut presenter Justin Quirk about the irrational energies driving the Corona crisis.

“Whenever people feel they’ve lost control they invariably resort to conspiracy theory.”

“People take lies from a politician as a nudge and wink that they are on their side. That’s what happens with Trump.”

Presented by Justin Quirk. 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 airline and travel industries are suffering the most serious crisis in their history: worse than 9/11, the 2008 financial slump and the Icelandic volcano combined. Can air travel survive COVID? And given its carbon footprint, do we even want it to? Aviation writer JOHN WALTON tells Andrew Harrison how airlines will have to change, why the industry can’t operate on a financial knife edge any longer… and if it’s right for bearded billionaires with private islands to get the begging bowl out.

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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Britain’s tax system was already a mess before the COVID-19 emergency sent the public finances into a crisis of wartime proportions. Is this a moment to radically re-engineer government revenue? Are we taxing the right things, activities… or people? Will those who got off lightly in 2008 have to pony up rather more this time around? And in the post-Corona world, does even a Tory government have any choice about moving us to a European-style high tax economy? GILES WILKES of the Institute for Government explains all to baffled layman Andrew Harrison.

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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While the rest of Europe locked down, Sweden took a different and much looser path on dealing with COVID. Is their controversial approach working? Is Sweden right to measure itself against a longer-term tally of suffering caused by the virus’s economic consequences, and not just the immediate death toll? Andrew Brown, author of Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future that Disappeared talks to Ros Taylor about the biggest COVID gamble in Europe. 

• “There’s a view that everyone is pursuing the Swedish strategy, whether they know it or not.”
• “This is a fairly brutal way of doing it. But Sweden’s view is that the facts are brutal.” 
• “Swedish opinion is like a shoal of herring. They all head in the same direction together – but that direction can change suddenly.”
• “The Swedish government can be extremely bossy – but part of the technique of social control was to deny that it existed.”

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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After the Sunday Times exposé of Johnson’s indolent initial response to the COVID crisis, is the Government’s infantile “rebuttal” an attempt to rewrite the facts of what happened? Hard Lockdown vs Soft Open: economics writer Frances Coppola joins us to scope out the far future of post-plague Coronanomics. Gove-building and Hancock-smashing. And it’s high times for conspiracy theorists. What are we going to do about Bill Gates’s 5G weaponised virus bats? 

“Who’s giving up on market-led economics right now? The markets themselves.” – Frances Coppola

“Eamonn Holmes might think he’s ‘just asking questions’. But they’re asking the wrong questions.” – Nina Schick

“With Johnson indisposed they’re terrified of creating a rival. What if Rishi Sunak becomes the face of Government?” – Alex Andreou

Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Nina Schick and Alex Andreou. Produced 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. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters production.

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