The Trouble With Politics

Welcome to the FINAL episode of the podcast. I’m your host Marverine Cole and this has been the series which has looked at politics from the POV of those who feel left out. And the election results are finally in: Sir Keir Starmer – leader of the Labour Party  - is the UK’s New PM! We hear voter reaction, a business view from the CEO of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce and analysis from editor and critic, K Biswas. It's a lively one!

SHOW NOTES

Labour's biggest majority in 25yrs: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2024/jul/05/eleven-charts-that-show-how-labour-won-by-a-landslide

LABOUR LEADER VOWS TO SERVE WHOLE TERM

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crge8g9qxj3o

Follow K Biswas: https://x.com/bizk1?lang=en 

Read his recent work: 

https://x.com/BizK1/status/1224605720836001793

https://x.com/BizK1/status/1805960664420073702

GREATER BIRMINGHAM CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE

https://x.com/GrBhamChambers/status/1809147490882470263 

Campaigners on women’s issues have highlighted that there’s scant mention of the rights for women and girls in any of the political party manifestos for 2024 General Election.  They want the public to act NOW. To vote and to push newly elected MPs to go much futher than those election pledges

This episode of TTWP we speak to Professor Helen Pankhurst CBE. As you will guessed by her surname – Helen is the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst, who were both leaders in the suffragette movement.

She has over 30yrs experience as an activist, a writer, a scholar as well as currently being CARE International's senior advisor working in the UK and Ethiopia. In 2018 Helen convened and remains the head of Centenary Action, one of the UK’s largest coalitions of women’s rights activists and organisations  - a group of 127 organisations no less. The group is campaigning on a vast range of urgent and pressing issues, affecting over half the population of the UK – the 51%

MORE READING

Centenary Action: https://centenaryaction.org.uk/? 

Professor Helen Pankhurst:https://www.mmu.ac.uk/staff/profile/professor-helen-pankhurst

#SHEVOTES24 Open Letter: https://centenaryaction.org.uk/blog/shevotes24-open-letter/ 

End Violence against women and girls SNAPSHOT report - Feb 2024: https://www.endviolenceagainstwomen.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Snapshot-4.0-160224-clean-LARGE-PRINT.pdf 

IMKAAN: https://www.imkaan.org.uk/manifesto-addressing-systemic-inequality-and-violence-against-black-and-minoritised-women-and-girls 

RATES OF FEMICIDE among Black women in London - June 2024 FOI data reported: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/london-met-police-southall-black-sisters-sadiq-khan-freedom-of-information-b2552275.html 

Racism against female MPs: https://www.qmul.ac.uk/media/news/2024/hss/the-abuse-of-diane-abbott-by-a-top-tory-donor-should-have-us-all-thinking-about-how-we-normalise-racism-against-women-mps.html 

Abuse of female MPs: https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/social-media-attacks-main-challenge-facing-female-mp-candidates

ElectHer campaign - a multi-partisan organisation working to motivate, support and equip women in all their diversity to stand for political office in Britain.

https://www.elect-her.org.uk/

This long overdue episode is laser-focused on the housing crisis in the UK. Lock in. It makes for shocking listening.

TTWP talks to three people from unique perspectives:  

Time stamp: 1'19 - 15'36

1. Giles Grover is someone who, along with hundreds of thousands of other people in Britain, is stuck living in a high-rise block covered in dangerous, life-threatening cladding, and who's being asked to stump up thousands of pounds to pay for remedial works;  

Time stamp: 15'36 - 31:14

2. Jasmine Basran is a policy manger at the national homelessness charity, Crisis  

Time stamp: 31:14  - 59'40

3. Kwajo Tweneboa who's a well-known campaigner in social housing. 

For more on these issues, here are the show notes

END CLADDING SCANDAL:

https://endourcladdingscandal.org/

https://todaysconveyancer.co.uk/organisations-demand-labour-party-make-industry-pay-cladding-crisis/

HOMELESSNESS:

https://www.crisis.org.uk/about-us/

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/campaigns-blog/can-we-expect-next-government-make-homelessness-history?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=awareness_education&utm_content=news

£10bn to end homelessness - 2018 polan by Crisis: https://www.crisis.org.uk/ending-homelessness/homelessness-knowledge-hub/international-plans-to-end-homelessness/everybody-in-how-to-end-homelessness-in-great-britain-2018/ 

https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/criminal-justice-bill-rough-sleepers-homeless-people-smell/

https://www.crisis.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/crisis-responds-to-the-conservative-manifesto-1/

https://www.crisis.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/crisis-responds-to-the-labour-party-manifesto/#:~:text=It%20includes%20a%20central%20pledge,social%20housing%20in%20a%20generation.

KWAJO TWENEBOA

Channel 4 UNTOLD Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVhFmTCp8ho&list=PLiC_gpE7y052N7fKqqI--hgoqi375K614&index=25

Follow Kwajo on X:

https://twitter.com/Kwajotweneboa?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Follow Kwajo on Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/kwajotweneboa/?hl=en

Kwajo's new book comes out this month - Our Country in Crisis: Britain's Housing Emergency and How We Rebuild

Pre order it here: https://geni.us/OurCountryInCrisis

This episode is POWER-PACKED with a compelling range of voices about WHY Black British voters are saying they will Not give Labour their vote on the 4th July Polling day for the General Election. 

You’ll hear from a range of Black British voters, and a former aspiring Labour parliamentary candidate who was blocked from standing in 2019 for apparently being ‘far left’) – all of whom are disgusted with the few weeks’ events. 

Also I went on the road to a Black Voter registration event and spoke to a co-founder of Operation Black Vote, and the chairman of the Windrush National Organisation.

Black British voters usually vote Labour in their droves, right? Well NOT for this Election it might seem. How does TTWP know that? Because the treatment of Diane Abbott has caused many to turn their back on the party. Leading Black authors, celebrities and influencers wrote a letter to the party calling her treatment 'disgraceful'). The impact of the way Sir Keir Starmer and the party on Black voters' allegiances has warranted little or no investigation by many mainstream news outlets.  

So we decided to do the work for them. HUGE THANKS TO ALL THE VOTERS WHO SENT IN VOICE NOTES WHICH ARE INCLUDED IN THIS EPISODE

TTWP POD APPRECIATES YOU!

FURTHER READING

Operation Black Vote: https://www.obv.org.uk/

Black Equity Organisation : https://blackequityorg.com/

Windrush National Organisation:  https://windrushnationalorganisation.com/

Bishop Des Jadoo: https://www.desjaddoo.org.uk/

Open letter to Labour signed by 100 Black : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/30/leading-black-figures-criticise-labour-diane-abbott  

Maurice McLeod's November 2022 comment piece in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/01/blocked-standing-labour-mp-party-candidates-left

Who is Al Carns, Labour candidate for Birmingham Selly Oak constituency: https://www.forces.net/politics/former-royal-marines-colonel-quits-military-stand-labour-candidate-general-election

ELECTORAL COMMISSION DATA ON ETHNIC MINORITY VOTE in 2019 GENERAL ELECTION

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/ge2019-how-did-demographics-affect-the-result/

DIANE ABBOTT

https://twitter.com/HackneyAbbott

FAIZA SHAHEEN

https://twitter.com/faizashaheen 

REGISTER TO VOTE

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

Do your research on all the party manifestos which are being released soon

https://www.conservatives.com/

https://labour.org.uk/

https://www.libdems.org.uk/

https://greenparty.org.uk/

https://workerspartybritain.org/ 

https://www.reformparty.uk/

https://www.trueandfairparty.uk/

LOWER INCOME VOTE:

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/about-us/news-and-media/latest-news/who-do-the-working-classes-vote-for

Lower income voters

https://www.johnsmithcentre.com/research/briefing-low-income-voters-the-2019-general-election-and-the-future-of-british-politics/

This episode featured special Guest:  https://twitter.com/esherukwaku

Donate to the TTWP Crowdfunder!!!!!!  

REGISTER TO VOTE

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

Do your research and watch out for the party manifestos

https://www.conservatives.com/

https://labour.org.uk/

https://www.libdems.org.uk/

https://greenparty.org.uk/

https://workerspartybritain.org/

https://www.reformparty.uk/

https://www.trueandfairparty.uk/

WHAT IS TACTICAL VOTING?

Listen to Episode 4 with Josh Russell  which Esheru mentioned

SPOTIFY

https://open.spotify.com/episode/729mvZA1jrghl4N0WfRSeR?go=1&sp_cid=689c3d2a840004132d079a54e303d93c&utm_source=embed_player_p&utm_medium=desktop&nd=1&dlsi=064cd6d7627e4487

APPLE

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/4-tactical-voting-whats-it-all-about/id1736397883?i=1000654153609

ETHNICITY GAP CAMPAIGN

https://ethnicitypaygapcampaign.com/  

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

https://www.fmb.org.uk/resource/financial-struggles-projected-by-almost-half-of-construction-firms-warns-fmb-uk.html  

https://constructioncoach.co.uk/  

Josh Russell, from FORWARD DEMOCRACY which spearheads the MOVEMENT FORWARD campaign is a massive advocate of tactical voting. In another exclusive episode of The Trouble With Politics, he and I discuss using your vote to try and ensure that the change, which seem to be indicated in the polls, becomes reality for the General Elections. AND he’s got an interesting take on how it could work for the forthcoming local elections. But also, I quiz Josh on what happens next if voters decide they do want to vote tactically? Then what? Tune in

Further reading:

LOCAL ELECTIONS Thursday 2 May 2024: WHO AM I VOTING FOR? Check here: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter/your-election-information 

Check you’ve got the right VOTER ID: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/voter-id

Main tactical voting website

STOP THE TORIES VOTE – ‘A tactical voting tool by The Movement Forward’ https://stopthetories.vote/

1997 TACTICAL VOTING INFO

Josh referred to how tactical voting worked in 1997, here’s a Guardian comment piece by Will Hutton in the run up to the 2019 General Election reflecting on that: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/08/tactical-voting-helped-rescue-britain-in-1997-we-can-do-it-again

Recent Politico review: https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/politico-london-influence/lets-talk-tactics-2/

DATA DROP

Josh mentioned data released by Best for Britain on 6 April, which said’13 million Brits ready to vote tactically and identifies 510 ‘tactical voting seats’ key to keeping Tories out of Number 10 for a decade’. Read the full report: https://www.bestforbritain.org/tactical_vote_mrp_spring_2024

Good Morning Britain / Survation poll revealed Monday 29 April 2024: https://x.com/GMB/status/1784815936509227045

Labour’s New Policy Forum website: https://www.policyforum.labour.org.uk/

And report on current voting system of First Past The Post https://www.labourforanewdemocracy.org.uk/news/fptp-flawed-and-damaging

MEDIA REGULATION

Media regulation is alive and kicking in the UK. 

Make any complaints you want to about newspapers and other printed publications direct to the media organisation and to the regulators, of which there are several!

IPSO https://www.ipso.co.uk/

IMPRESS https://www.impressorg.com/

OFCOM (covers broadcasting) https://www.ofcom.org.uk/

Other sites of interest

HACKED OFF: https://hackinginquiry.org/

SOCIETY OF EDITORS https://www.societyofeditors.org/

TTWP PODCAST SITE https://marverinecole.co.uk/podcast/ 

TTWP CROWDFUNDER: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-trouble-with-politics-podcast/contact#start

The twists and turns of politics are often not far behind when speaking to elected politicians. The episode was recorded last week, and yet and within hours of the edit being finalised, there was some breaking news about Mr Gething. So here’s the context which we acknowledge:

Vaughan Gething accepted over £200,000s in campaign donations from a controversial waste company, Dauson Environmental Group -  whose director was convicted of environmental offences.

Former First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford conducted an internal investigation, which in February 2024 concluded that Vaughan Gething’s actions did NOT breach the ministerial code.

However, on 22 April 2024, the leaders of Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Conservative Senedd appear to be dissatisfied with that investigation and have now called for new investigation – which should be independent.

Gething immediately ruled that out the next day, insisting that there was no conflict of interest.

For more detail, read up here

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/vaughan-gething-first-minister-welsh-welsh-conservatives-carwyn-jones-b2533390.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clm3gev0vl2o

https://www.gov.wales/first-minister-vaughan-gething-announces-new-welsh-government-cabinet

And join our Crowdfunder, if you feel you can: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/the-trouble-with-politics-podcast/contact#start

With elections for councillors and a mayor in 10 places in England on Thursday 2 May 2024, it's time for a nosey around the topic. We are used to devolution in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, so let's briefly review what the system of powers devolved to a mayor looks & feels like in the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Bristol and the borough of Lewisham. This edition looks at the crises in some of our local councils & the fallout, with an insight from the prospective candidates vying to knock the current West Midlands mayor off the top spot, and of course plenty of voices from voters!

Contributions from 

West Midlands Mayor, Andy Street

Green  party candidate for West Midlands Mayor, Siobhan Harper-Nunes

Labour candidate for West Midlands Mayor, Richard Parker

Tina Harrison OBE

Dr Thom Oliver, Senior politics lecturer at the University of West of England, Bristol 

Matty Edwards, Bristol Cable

Voters

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8v36l6d54do

The Trouble With Politics is a podcast offering new views & voices, discussing the state of British politics, exploring alternative ways of engaging with & doing politics. Hosted by journalist & broadcaster, Marverine Cole, we'll speak to voters, the elected, heck even those who are willing to stand for election, those who feel left unrepresented by politicians, and those seeking new ways to reinvigorate the UK's political system.

Keep up with all the TTWP episodes by signing up to the newsletter: https://shorturl.at/mrKX7 

And following social media. RIght now the account that is active is X (formerly known as Twitter)

X:https://twitter.com/troublepolitics 

Introducing "The Trouble with Politics" – a  dynamic podcast, hosted by journalist & broadcaster Marverine Cole, spotlighting the voices of marginalised voters and non-voters within the UK political sphere.

 Join us as we navigate the intricate landscape of British politics, shedding light on the perspectives often overlooked by mainstream discourse.  We delve deep, examining the challenges facing our nation through the lens of those on the margins. With insightful analysis, candid discussions, and expert insights, "The Trouble with Politics" offers a platform for understanding and amplifying diverse viewpoints. Tune in and be part of the conversation shaping the future of UK politics.

Edition 01 coming soon.

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