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Nick Cohen talks to Yascha Mounk, the political scientist and author, about his new book about the astonishing rise of "Woke ideology" - The Identity Trap: A  story of ideas and power in our time.

According to the Washington Post,  "whatever you call it — identity politics, political correctness, wokeness or cancel culture — some new power seems to be at work in our culture and institutions."

Yascha tells Nick that advocates of this "Woke" ideology fixate on identity to the exclusion of all else, and that many reject “universal values and neutral rules like free speech and equal opportunity as mere distractions.”  He argues that this ideology has grown ever more embedded in society - influencing many institutions.

Right wing extremist supporters of Donald Trump are already manipulating fears over "The Great Awokening""  for the 2024 presidential elections in the hope that voters will see this revolutionary strain of identity politics as a threat to American values.

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Nick Cohen talks to Dr Mike Martin, ex-soldier, military strategist and author about what victory looks like for Ukraine and how it can be achieved.

Mike,  a senior visiting research fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College , London,  explain to Nick how the West initially miscalculated Ukraine's chances against a belligerent Russia by looking at the spreadsheet showing the relative military strengths of each country in terms of material and troop numbers.  Western leaders failed to take into account other elements such as strategy, quality of leadership and that crucial of all military essences, the will to fight.

Ukraine's initial tactical priority is the eviction of Russia's forces from along the shore of the Black Sea and in particular Crimea, the loss of which should prove one defeat too many for Vladamir Putin's chances of survival.

But is strategic victory for Ukraine possible before the 2024 US Presidential election and can Europe step up to the plate in the likelihood of a second Trump victory?

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Nick Cohen talks to James Hawes, Renaissance man, historian, writer and novelist about the Tories' southern English tribe and the threat it poses to the rest of the UK.

James, the author of The Shortest History of England,  predicts the Tories will become ever more extreme and nationalist in electoral defeat and that the eventual break up of the UK looks unavoidable. The UK's curse - its first-past-the -post electoral system has guaranteed virtual Tory hegemony for long periods of contemporary history, and the chronic decline of the country.

James Hawes thinks PR could help transform the UK's political map, and its fortunes.  But without it,  the Tories will inevitably reassume power and continue their damaging revolt against Europe and the whole of the UK, leading inevitably to the eventual collapse of a 220 year old union.

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This week, Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Jonathan Portes , Professor of Economics and Public Policy at King's College London, ex- Chief Economist at the Cabinet Office.  Jonathan is also  a Senior Fellow of the Economic and Social Research Council's UK in a Changing Europe initiative, which examines the UK's now troubled relatIonship with the EU.

Can anything be done to prevent the UK's growing economic crisis? Is decline inevitable? Jonathan reveals how the UK's growth rate shrank by three-quarters following the 2008 crash. Now the country's annual growth rate is an anaemic half a percent with the economy projected to double every 120-140 years instead of the pre-2008 35-year period. Inevitably, Brexit's not helping as it  hits trade and tax revenues. But there are other systemic failures.

Jonathan says there's plenty of things a new Labour government could do - despite the calamity of Brexit - to try and run things around:  build homes, reform social ansd tax policy plus up-date our dysfunctional and decrpit voting system

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This week,  GetThe Lowdown from Nick Cohen with Peter Foster, Public Policy Editor of the Financial Times and expert on all things Brexit. @PMDFoster

This month, Cannongate publishes Peter's much-anticipated new book What went wrong with Brexit, and what we can do about it.

Probably, not every much for the moment seems to be the answer posed by the book title.

Brexit has crashed and burned - taking the country with it. But no one wants to talk about it - despite the rolling catastrophe of this failed populist experiment. That goes for the usual Tory-Kipper B.S merchants who mis-sold Brexit,  and Labour which looks set to inherit the mess after the next election.

Peter Foster explains that Brexit isn't just a one-off disaster like the 2007/'08 Financial Crash  - it just keeps on taking, and tanking.

 He says Brexit is a  "chronic condition - a permanent structural disadvantage" .  The country's incompetent Tory government has managed to pull off a "reverse trade deal" with its biggest and most important trade bloc.

Peter and Nick discuss the strange political Omerta that has descended on Brexit and  the sullen response of the brexiteers who are witnessing the failure of their pet project in real time and insist we must all live with it and put up with it.

Can the country ever have a sensible discussion about relations with the EU or is it doomed for ever to have the millstone of #brexit around its neck? Will the EU ever take seriously any UK attempt for closer relations or has it written off the country as unreliable and terminally euro-phobic?

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Professor Tim Bale of the Queen Mary University of London is widely looked on as the UK's keenest academic observer of the Conservative Party. 

Tim's latest book The Conservative Party after Brexit  (published by Polity) charts the Party's dizzying descent into populist and radical hard right Brexit populism. Have the Tories truly transmogrified into to the far right europhobic party they appear to be  or are they merely aping one to appeal to the ageing reactionaries controlling local Tory constituencies, and, against the odds, cling onto power whatever the cost to the country?

Tim Bale argues the Tories are almost certainly on the way out  of power- and thatb Rushi Sunak doesn't appear to have what it takes to save them.

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Russia expert and author Dr Jade McGlynn joins Nick Cohen from Kyiv to talk about Ukraine's tragedy - a Russia that has been badly run by bad men - with a couple of rare exceptions here and there. And how this also happens to be Russia's tragedy. 

Jade explains how the recent "Mad March on Moscow" by Wagner militia mafioso Yevgeny Prigozhin is a symptom of Vladamir Putin's dysfunction and despotism, and how hatred flows now flows between Ukraine and Russia like drones and missiles.

Jade McGlynn - widely acknowledged as a brilliant and insightful author and Russian observer - is the author of two recent landmark books relating to the tragedy now playing out in Ukraine - Russia's  War,  published by Pushkin House, and Memory Makers, just published by Bloomsbury. 

Memory Makers, The Politics of the past in Putin's Russia,  is based on Jade's analysis since 2014 of the start of Russia's illegal incursions into Ukraine. The book examines how Russia's repeated misadventures into its neighbour's territories are driven by the obsessive lies and myths it's gaslit into believing by Putin, and too many of his predecessors.

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The Lowdown from Nick Cohen this week examines the issue of race and diversity in the UK with the freelance writer and author Tom Owolade.

Tom's brilliant and ground-breaking book This is not America - published by Atlantic  - argues that too much of the debate about race in Britain has been viewed through the prism of American experiences and history.  This prism fails to reflect the  challenges – and achievements – of an increasingly diverse black British population and distorts how many people view the issue of race in the UK.

Tom tells Nick that too few  Brits understand the ethnic changes that are taking place in the UK or even the wide diversity of black British communities themselves, especially given the arrival of people from west and east Africa in recent years. Tom also believes class is a hugely important additional factor in the UK.

Tom and Nick  explore the significant differences in the history and experiences of black Brits and Black Americans.  You can read Nick's assessment of Tom's important debut book in his Substack column,  Writing from London

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In 2018 , Conservative MP and Europhile Dr Phillip Lee resigned as a minister from Theresa May's stricken government over what he saw as the troubling direction of Brexit. The following year, he dramatically crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join the Liberal Democrats - during a speech by the disgraced former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Now back working as a GP in Berkshire, Phillip Lee gives a fascinating insight into the Tories' descent into nationalism, Euro-phobia and hard Brexit - a journey dictated by the Party's dwindling, rapidly ageing and largely reactionary constituency association members.

Nick asks Philip about his reasons for joining the Conservative Party. They discuss his initial interest in joining the Tories and how he initially saw them as a natural home for him. Phillip immediately foresaw disaster when David Cameron insisted on going ahead with a referendum on EU membership in June 2016. From that moment on, he thought the Tories were "toast."

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Nick Cohen talks to Polly Toynbee, celebrated columnist, broadcaster and author about Britain's stubborn class system and the growing gap between the rich and poor under successive Tory governments.

Atlantic Books has just published Polly's latest book,  An Uneasy Inheritance, My family and other radicals, which has received rave reviews, not least from Nick himself in a  recent Substack column.

Polly explains how - over the years - she has taken a series of blue collar jobs to better understand the lives of working people. She laments how the class system continues to dominate British society and is now a bigger determinate in people's futures than factors such as ethnicity. Polly also discusses the extraordinary radicals from her family history, including her father, the journalist Philip Toynbee,  her grandfather, the historian Arnold J. Toynbee.

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Listen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4