Well, can you believe it, we've made it to Episode 10 and to celebrate the occasion, we've come up with a really good podcast (to be fair, they've all been pretty good haven't they). 

It was such a pleasure meeting and talking with John McDonnell, one of the elders of Left wing politics in the UK. So much knowledge, so much perspective, so much honesty and integrity, but beyond all that, such a genuinely nice person.

We covered a lot of ground, including a stunning description of life as a constituency MP, John's optimistic future for the Left, and most importantly, how his lessons on the trombone are coming along. All good stuff!

Thanks again to Hurricane for the production work, and also for the added excellent special intro music for our guest. You are really appreciated Huzza, by both me and Thelma, and also by our listeners.

If you enjoy listening to this podcast please subscribe, share, and tell your friends. Thank you.

Thank you for checking out our podcast. 

In Episode 9 we are joined by Kate Hudson, the general secretary of CND. I'm going to say it, I was pretty worried about how we could make this episode 'not too heavy'. In fact, we have managed to record a really good discussion. Kate is  so knowledgeable on this subject, and so reasonable and balanced in the way that she presents her case. It's a genuine 'must listen'.

Thanks again to Hurricane for sorting out the tech stuff, and playing the music. Really appreciated - without that work this podcast could not happen.

Thank you to our guest, Kate, and thank you to my co-host, Thelma, for helping make this podcast - it's a good one!.

Solidarity! 

Here it is at last. Nightmare edit because of time lag between me and Thelma at the beginning of the record. All good now (I hope).

Really great conversation with our special guest, Ash Sarkar, including discussion about the Northern Independence Party, the prospects for the Left in and outside of the Labour Party, a chat about the Left media, Ash's musical tastes, and what it is like living in a country where the government tells us everything is just fine.

As always, thanks to Hurricane for the edit and the music - your efforts are really appreciated.

And a big thank you to our guest, Ash Sarkar, and to my co-host, Thelma Walker.

I really enjoyed being part of this podcast. I hope you enjoy listening to it too. 

If you would like to contact us we are at [email protected]. 

In this episode we are joined by our special guest, Clive Lewis. 

Among other things we discuss the Northern Independence Party, music, democracy, and the prospects for the Left in the UK.

A big thank you to Clive for sharing his forthright views with us. The discussion about the state of our democracy, and what needs to happen was excellent (or maybe I just mean, I agreed with almost everything he said).

As always a big thank you to Hurricane for production and the music - check out Hurricane's Deep House, Man!

And a big shout out for my mate Dave for episode 4 of Socialist Hour (on Soundcloud), which includes a great interview with Chris Williamson.

Thank you all for listening - Solidarity! 

In this episode we welcome our special guest Melissa Benn. 

We discuss so much it's hard to list it all, but topics include, education, music, the Labour Party, Melissa's childhood, and much more.

It was a privilege to be involved in the making of this podcast. A big thank you from me to both Thelma and Melissa.

As usual my thanks to Hurricane for the production and the music.

If you enjoy listening to our podcast please remember to subscribe - the numbers really help get us out there in to the big wide world.

Solidarity. 

Here we are - Episode three! It's quite a job getting a podcast episode up and running.  Big thanks to my co host, Thelma Walker, and to this week's very special guest, the wonderful Dawn Butler. 

Subjects covered include, dealing with the media, life as an MP, and hopes for the future, plus much more. I'm going to say it - this is a great episode!

Thanks to Hurricane Rodriguez for the tech help and the music - you are much appreciated.

Please remember to subscribe - I'm told it really helps with building up the numbers - how, I have no idea.

Thank you for listening. 

Kind regards 

Tom Widdicombe

Episode Two - More chat from Thelma and Tom about political events, mainly but not totally on the Left of the political spectrum. 

Plus our first ever guest, Rebecca Long Bailey, who it turns out has pretty forthright views on almost all topics, including among other things, lockdown, the environment, and the Socialist Campaign Group.

A special thank you to Rebecca for agreeing to come on to our podcast as our first ever guest - we hope you will come back again very soon.

And another special thank you to our producer and resident musician, Hurricane Rodriguez. I'll be honest here, we did have a few issues with the recording - so utterly relieved to say Huzza has saved the day.

If you enjoy listening to our podcast, please help us to reach a bigger audience by remembering to review, share and subscribe.

You can contact us on [email protected]  

And finally, a big shout out for my friend Dave Middleton, and his great podcast, Socialist Hour, on Mixcloud. Give it a listen - it's very good. 

In our first episode we discuss the implications for the Left of the continued march to the right of the British Labour Party.

We also have an interesting chat about our respective views on life and politics.

Next week we are thrilled to announce that we have as our guest Rebecca Long-Bailey.

If you have any questions for Thelma, Rebecca or myself, please contact us at [email protected]

I would also like to thank our resident musician and producer, Hurricane Rodriguez, for all his help.

If you have enjoyed listening to our podcast please don't forget to like, review and subscribe.

Thank you.