The Critic Podcast

From fake news and propaganda to covert funding, bribery and everyday espionage, allegations of foreign interference in British politics and society is as old as the belief that Britain equally seeks to interfere in the internal affairs of its overseas competitors.

In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Professor Jeremy Black, author of A History of Diplomacy, about the forms that foreign interference have taken and asks whether it is any worse now than in the past.

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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

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When Richard Leonard became leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2017, he inherited Scotland's third largest party. It still is. And with opinion polls suggesting that popular support for the once dominant power in Scotland is now down to around 15 to 17 percent, the prospects for Labour in the Scottish Parliament election in May next year look dire.

In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to John McTernan, the political strategist and former political secretary to Tony Blair, whether anything or anyone can save Scottish Labour?

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Photo: by Robert Perry/Getty Images

Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

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What might Meghan and Harry have learnt from Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson?

In this podcast, The Critic’s political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to Alexander Larman, author of The Crown in Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication, about how Edward VIII was manoeuvred off the throne, whether Wallis really was as bad as she has been painted, and how the House of Windsor adapts and endures.

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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

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From consumerism and urban growth to becoming the first industrialising nation and permitting a level of free speech and press that would be envied elsewhere in Europe, Hanoverian Britain set trends that others would later follow. Why so?

In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart talks about what made Georgian Britain a trendsetter with Professor Jeremy Black, whose books on the eighteenth century include Walpole in Power, George II: puppet of the politicians?, Pitt the Elder and George III: Madness and Majesty. 

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Image: George III, King of Great Britain, c1760 (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

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In the twenty years after the end of the Second World War, the Holocaust was recalled as part of the horror of Hitler's Reich but in the popular commemoration rarely singled out as the single greatest manifestation of its moral depravity.

How and when did this begin to change and with what shifting emphasis do different countries remember the crime?

In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of The Holocaust: History and Memory, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about how eastern as well as western Europe has slowly come to terms with the murder of six million Jews.

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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

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In this podcast,The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to the investor and statistician, Alistair Haimes, about whether the data really stacks-up for a resurgence of Covid-19

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Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

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A country on the Atlantic coast of Europe that looks outwards and establishes a global empire stretching from the Americas to Africa and Asia - Portugal has much in common with its oldest ally, Britain.

In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Portugal talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about how the country managed its place in the world.

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Image: Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images

Music: “Modern Jazz Samba” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

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Does Spain wrestle with its imperial legacies in a similar way to Britain? How important has monarchy been to Spanish unity and is the narrative of a long decline a myth?

In this podcast, Professor Jeremy Black, author of A Brief History of Spain, talks to The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, about the grandeur, instability, and endurance of the Spanish nation.

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Music: "Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

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The Scottish Government is planning to criminalise the 'stirring up of hatred', a proposal which has been criticised by police officers, lawyers, the Roman Catholic Church and now Blackadder Actor Rowan Atkinson.

But what are the proposals and why are they so controversial? In this podcast David Scullion, The Critic's Deputy Political Editor discusses the new legislation with long-time political campaigner Brian Monteith and Jamie Gillies of the Free to Disagree Campaign.

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Image: (Andrea Diodato/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Music: "Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

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The wait is over: Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden has chosen Kamala Harris as his running mate. It has been described as the safe choice, but is it the wise choice?

Do vice-presidential running choices even make much difference to who Americans want to elect to the White House?

In this podcast, The Critic's political editor, Graham Stewart, talks to The Critic’s US editor, Oliver Wiseman, about what Kamala Harris has to bring to the U.S. presidential elections.

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Image: Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Music: "Modern Jazz Samba" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

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