The Three Old Hacks are old enough to remember the 1964 Olympics, the last time Tokyo hosted the Games. There were fewer events and so the people who won medals stayed in the memory longer, like long jumper Lynn Davies, whose local council paid tribute to him in a way which was to become more irritating than celebratory.

Writer and broadcaster Mihir Bose, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political commentator Nigel Dudley have known each other since they first started in journalism and have much to compare and contrast. They all agree that the BBC’s coverage of this year’s Games has become nationalistic in a way it never has been before and they regret the the narrow focus on sports in which British competitors are likely to win medals at the expense of ‘proper’ coverage of the whole event.

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Mihir Bose, David Smith and Nigel Dudley – aka the Three Old Hacks – are old enough to remember 1966 and all that. It comes as no surprise to them therefore that politicians should be falling over themselves to haul themselves aboard the football bandwagon. Football and politics, bread and circuses…

Writer and broadcaster Mihir Bose, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political commentator Nigel Dudley add their particular brand of wit and wisdom to the debate.

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Mihir Bose, writer and broadcaster, writes primarily on sport. In the seventies he was always the only non-white reporter in the press box and often the only non-white spectator in the whole football ground, so he is well placed to comment on the current controversy over the booing of football players who take the knee at the beginning of matches in support of Black Lives Matter.

He shares with old friends David Smith, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times and political commentator Nigel Dudley, how he was abused by football hooligans on a train and decided he would drive everywhere for his own safety.

The Three Old Hacks discuss taking the knee and whether it’s now becoming an empty gesture, and the disastrous launch of GB News in this week’s Three Old Hacks podcast.

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Incompetence and chaos at the heart of government is the theme of this week’s podcast from the Three Old Hacks.

Dominic Cummings’ seven hour session in front of a parliamentary committee, pouring bile on the heads of both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Health Secretary Matt Hancock, has given them plenty to talk about.

The Three Old Hacks, aka  writer and broadcaster Mihir Bose, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political commentator Nigel Dudley have worked with both politicians in their long careers as journalists, and for them the Cummings testimony has the distinct ring of truth.

Meanwhile Nigel’s dog Alfie is getting jealous of all the attention Britain’s first dog Dilyn has been attracting.

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Mihir Bose, former BBC Sports News Editor, sets the world to rights with journalist mates David Smith, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times, and political commentator Nigel Dudley.

The cost of decorating Boris Johnson’s Downing St flat and who is paying for it is exercising them this week (£200,000 and it looks ‘like an Ottoman brothel’ according to one wag).

Maybe people aren’t bothered about who paid for it, but will Carrie Symonds’ comment that she couldn’t live with Theresa May’s “John Lewis nightmare” lose them the votes of Middle England?

Also the scandal of the sub post office managers whose lives have been ruined by the disastrous failure of a computer system. After some have served time in prison and others have been vilified in their communities, for financial losses that were not their fault, the Three Old Hacks demand to know who is responsible.

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The Three Old Hacks discuss the one day wonder that was The Super League. It took from Sunday night till Tuesday morning for six top English football clubs to announce their membership and then withdraw, leaving the plan in tatters in the face of opposition from the British Government.

Mihir Bose, former BBC sports news editor at the BBC, David Smith, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times and Nigel Dudley, political commentator, examine the debacle, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new found interest in the game, in the middle of a local and regional election campaign, and decry the state of affairs where the dominance of global TV interests means the fans who actually turn up to the matches no longer matter.

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This week the Three Old Hacks discuss a year of the pandemic and how it is that the Government is still popular in the polls.

They talk about the fall out from the Meghan and Harry interview; sexual abuse in boarding schools and flags on government buildings – “ridiculous, insecure and pathetic”.

Join former BBC Sports News editor Mihir Bose, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political commentator Nigel Dudley for this week’s podcast.

Get in contact with the podcast by emailing [email protected], we’d love to hear from you!

With journalist mates, Economics editor of the Sunday Times, David Smith, and political commentator Nigel Dudley, Mihir Bose looks this week at how vaccination certificates might change our lives.

Coming from India, where the bureaucracy is legend, he wonders whether we are signing up for identity papers by the back door.

The Three Old Hacks look at the thorny issue of politicians doing favours for friends and whether the big social media companies will have to pay for news content, following the Australian government’s ruling that Facebook must pay.

Then they talk about cricket and the ill fated test match. Somehow, it always comes back to cricket.

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Political leadership ain’t what it used to be. That’s the theme of this week’s Three Old Hacks,

We all think the summers were warmer (demonstrably not!) and life was rosier when we were young, but the Three Old Hacks put forward a pretty strong case that politicians in Britain are not of the same calibre as those who have gone before them.

Boris Johnson says we are facing the biggest challenge since the Second World War with the pandemic, but where is the Recovery Plan to get us out of the hole it has dumped us in? Where’s the Beveridge report and the Bretton Woods of the 2020s?

Sports journalist Mihir Bose, Economics editor of the Sunday Times David Smith and political commentator Nigel Dudley also miss the characters of their early days learning their craft together as professional journalists.

Remember George Brown, who served as Foreign Secretary in the Labour Government of the 1960s? And the exchange with the Bishop of Lima? ‘No I won’t dance with you. This is not a waltz but the Peruvian national anthem and you sir are drunk!’ or words to that effect.

Listen to this week’s podcast from the Three Old Hacks.

Get in contact with the podcast by emailing [email protected], we’d love to hear from you!

This week they discuss the inauguration of President Biden. Being of a certain age themselves, they take heart from the empowerment of a 78 year old man. They are but spring chickens by comparison. 

Nonetheless their experience reaches down the years and they fish anecdotes and facts out of their collective memory to discuss the media and politics as it concerns America.

Biden's campaign was 'pitch perfect' says David and he is sure he is already thinking about the Mid-Terms, being a shrewd political operator with fifty years' experience. He knows he needs to court Trump supporters if he is to have any change of a meaningful and effective presidency.

His presidency has to be capable of being summed up in a short soundbite containing no more than two clear thoughts, says Nigel. "The country was broken and I fixed it" maybe.

Is it true either in the US or in Britain that one party always leaves the economy in a mess while the other always puts it back in good shape before being voted out of power? asks Mihir.

And what was the speech that Biden nicked from Neil Kinnock? Nigel sat through many a Labour Party Conference speech by "the Welsh windbag" and remembers being surprised to hear a purple passage being recycled by an American senator.

The power of political editors ... giving a byline to some young hopeful when you don't want your name on a story ... it's all in this week's podcast by the Three Old Hacks. 

Get in contact with the podcast by emailing [email protected], we’d love to hear from you!