The Why? Curve

By Phil Dobbie

Each week Phil Dobbie and Roger Hearing get to grips with one issue that impacts our lives. It could be economic, social, technological or geopolitical. Whatever the subject, they'll talk to the exper... more

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FAQs about The Why? Curve:

How many episodes does The Why? Curve have?

The podcast currently has 166 episodes available.

The Why? Curve episodes:

November 24, 2022 Good COP, bad COP?
World leaders, journalists, climate campaigners – they all jetted in to the air conditioned hotels of Sharm El-Skeikh earlier this month for COP27, but was anything actually achieved. After 27 of these meetings to tackle climate change has anything actually been achieved? Are we all fiddling whilst the planet burns? Will politics and business interests determine our destiny rather than science, just as they did in the movie Don’t Look Up?

This week Phil and Roger talk to journalist Lucy Siegle, who writes and broadcasts regularly on environmental issues. Lucy is just back from COP27 and gives her thoughts on what’s been achieved this time around.
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42min
November 17, 2022 Goodbye To The Good Friday Accord?
Northern Ireland is facing its biggest crisis since the Good Friday Accord ended the Troubles almost 25 years ago. The protocol that came out of Brexit puts the province outside the the EU but inside the customs union, so there has to be a border somewhere. But relations between nationalists and unionists have broken down over an arrangement that puts that customs border between the province and mainland Britain, and that means the Stormont government doesn’t function. So with more elections unlikely to break the deadlock, Katy Hayward, professor of political sociology at Queen’s University Belfast, tells Phil and Roger about the risks to peace between the communities and what happens next.
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40min
November 10, 2022 Degree of Doubt
How valuable is higher education? If your degree isn’t one that’s going to help you get a good job, is it worth the huge debts you’ll be saddled with when you leave? The government wants to phase out degrees that don’t improve students’ “earning potential” - so goodbye gender studies or surf science? And what about art and literature, history and pure sciences? Chris Millward, professor of practice in education policy at Birmingham University walks Phil and Roger through what’s valuable and what isn’t in higher education.
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41min
November 03, 2022 Ready for Sunak’s Bitter Pill?
In a couple of weeks Jeremy Hunt, this month’s Chancellor, will present his Autumn Budget, heavily overseen by Rishi Sunak, our latest Prime Minister. So what can we expect? The noises from Downing Street are suggesting we have to prepare for some bad news, with difficult choices supposedly being made about how to get the budget back on track. Does that mean more austerity? Higher Taxes? Or both? And who will feel the hurt the most.

Vicky Pryce, Chief Economic Adviser at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, suggests there’s a danger that the government will go too far, whilst hurting those who feel cuts the most. For example, increasing welfare payments in line with growth in wages rather than prices will save £13 billion per year, but who is paying the price for that? Certainly not those who got rich from asset investments when interest rates were low.

So just how does the government perform the magic balancing act of reducing debt, compensating for inflation and supporting energy costs, without slowing the economy to a trickle? Join Vicky with Roger and Phil, discussing what should be in the Hunt-Sunak budget.
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41min
October 27, 2022 Breaking China
A display of raw power at the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, as Xi Jinping has his predecessor dragged off the podium. So how much should we in the West be afraid of the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao? From the clothes we wear to the phones in our pockets, to the videos we post on TikTok, China is part of how we live our lives, so should we be concerned at the push for global dominance of the 21st century's new superpower? There's a move in Washington, London and Brussels to disengage, but is that even possible now, or are we already in too deep? George Magnus, research associate at Oxford University's China Centre, and at SOAS walks Phil and Roger through the risks and possibilities.
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47min
October 20, 2022 Apocalypse Soon?
Are we facing nuclear war? It seems extraordinary but many analysts and advisers in western capitals believe there’s a good chance Vladimir Putin could use a nuclear weapon to save his regime from defeat in Ukraine. 32 years after the Cold War ended we are back to contemplating nuclear war, and wondering how to avoid it, without rewarding Russian aggression or giving in to blackmail. This week Phil and Roger walk through the scenarios with Jeremy Shapiro, formerly of the US State Department, now director of research at the European Council on Foreign Relations - and consider the chances of avoiding Armageddon
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39min
October 13, 2022 Police Emergency
The thin blue line is getting thinner and less effective. When chief constables have to assure the public they WILL turn up for reported burglaries, something has gone badly wrong. Are the police in tune with the society they protect? Did something change when they were given huge new powers during COVID? Are they racist? Are they misogynist? Are they too busy taking the knee or monitoring online offensiveness to actually police real crime? Phil and Roger hear from Dr Rick Muir, director of the Police Foundation that what’s needed is more resources and a recognition that officers can only be a sticking-plaster on society’s deeper problems
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44min
October 05, 2022 What's the prescription for the NHS?
We’re a sick nation - and the prognosis for the NHS is not good. It’s showing all of its 75 years, as patients wait in ambulances outside A&E or struggle to speak to - much less see - their own GP. So what’s the remedy? Just more - more money, doctors, nurses, hospitals? Or better systems of provision? And how should we pay for it - could some of us pay when we see our doctor? Tim Gardner, senior policy fellow at the Health Foundation, tells Phil and Roger there need to be tough decisions about how much we value and are willing to pay for our health.
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39min
September 28, 2022 Fiscal event or economic suicide?
Last week Kwasi Kwarteng delivered his ‘fiscal event’, unsupported by any analysis from the Office for Budget Responsibility. He said we wouldn’t apologise for focusing on economic growth. He’s also refused to apologise for the market response, which has seen the pound sink to a record low and the Bank of England forced to step in and buy-up bonds to stop the collapse of many pension funds, suffering from rapidly rising longer-end gilt yields.

Even if the approach was to work, is there any sense going for growth at a time when the central bank is trying to slow the economy down to subdue the rate of inflation? It’s a question Phil and Roger put to the FT’s Chief Economics Correspondent Martin Wolf.

As you’ll hear in this week’s Why Curve, it’s clear he has a great many concerns about Kwarteng’s approach to managing the economy, not least his disregard to public debt. Growth, he says, won’t be resolved by cutting taxes. And investors focus on economies that are stable; we haven’t seen any of that the last few days.
Burt what of those who say markets and commentators have over-reacted to Kwarteng’s budget. The Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says all this conjecture is the “pathological catastrophism of the pro-Brussels commentariat.” Could he be talking about Martin?
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47min
September 22, 2022 Hard Labour
A weak Tory prime minister, a dire economic crisis, a government seemingly set on making the rich richer while an election looms - an open goal for Labour surely? What could possibly go wrong? But the mood among the party faithful as they meet in conference in Liverpool is anything but confident. Corbynism may be buried, but Keir Starmer lacks charisma, his team are not exactly household names, and can YOU name a single Labour policy? Phil and Roger talk to David Kogan, Labour historian and adviser, about whether, after 12 years in opposition, the party can revive and be fit enough to aim once again for government.
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41min

FAQs about The Why? Curve:

How many episodes does The Why? Curve have?

The podcast currently has 166 episodes available.

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