As another Easter draws near, so does a new issue of The Critic. Tom, Chris and Graham take listeners through some of their favourite picks from the April edition.

Chris unpacks his latest article on green energy, asking why electricity remains expensive if renewables are meant to be cheap. There is widespread misunderstanding of how the national grid actually functions and, as a result, serious discussion is all but impossible.

This month, Tom spoke to Neil O’Brien, the Conservative Party’s policy brain, about how data can inform lawmaking. While he is a dedicated, intelligent and practical figure, is well-argued policy enough to define the broader Conservative philosophy? Or is the party still stuck in the politics of bans?

As is so often the case, any discussion of Tory policy inevitably speaks to the Conservatives’ struggle to regain public trust, with lingering damage from the Brexit era and the missed opportunities of Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak. While the party is not finished, the path back to power is steep.

The team also touch on land use and farming policy, and a new essay by Dominic Green, which traces the arc of Western civilisation and explores how different political traditions, particularly on the American right, compete to define what “civilisation” really means.

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