By Jonny Ball
Veterans In Politics is a set of interviews that sets out to explore how the military community can help make our politics a better place. We sit down with individuals from across the world of poli
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Hailing from the West of Ireland, Rich’s vibrant childhood was filled with sports and weekend fun with his grandparents. After an ankle injury and subsequent loss of his left leg due to sepsis, Rich found a new path in athletics and indoor rowing. His resilience shone at the 2023 Invictus Games, where he claimed gold in the 100m, silver in table tennis, and bronze in the relay. And this is where our host Jonny Ball met him, on the same team for the UK.
In their side bar conversations over Invictus, they soon learnt that they had politics in common too, so it's a delight to be able to share this side of his story. Moreover, it's a chance to talk about Rich's next challenge: The Limbitless Expedition: Conquering the Full Snowman Trek! He is doing this alongside another one of our team mates, Rich 'Dickie' Davies.
To support their exped in support of amazing military charities go to their page here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/rich-potter-1707920143406
And please share with a friend! Good luck boys!
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We return this week during Season 10 of the podcast to the Conservative Leadership race with former Secretary of State, Rt Hon James Cleverly MP.
Our host Jonny Ball first met James back in the Noughties when they were both active in London Party Politics. Since then, James has gone on to great things, but in this episode, Jonny recalls an early moment from a Party Conference in 2008, to demonstrate perhaps that James hasn't really changed that much!
Alongside a busy political career, James has also served as an Army Reservist in the Royal Artillery.
James Cleverly was Secretary of State for the Home Department between 13 November 2023 and 5 July 2024.
He was previously Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs between 6 September 2022 and 13 November 2023.
He was Secretary of State for Education from July 2022 to September 2022.
Before that, James was Minister of State for Europe and North America in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) from February to July 2022. He was also Minister for Middle East, North Africa and North America from September 2020 to February 2022. James was first appointed as a joint Minister of State for Middle East and North Africa in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development on 13 February 2020.
James was Minister without Portfolio from July 2019 to February 2020, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union from April 2019 to July 2019. He was first elected as the Conservative MP for Braintree in May 2015.
To follow James's journey, see here: Homepage | Rt Hon James Cleverly (cleverly4braintree.com)
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We kick off season 10 of the Veterans In Politics Podcast with Conservative Leadership hopeful, Tom Tugendhat! This is a fantastic start to the season, and you wont be surprised to learn that our host Jonny and Tom (whom share the same cap badge from their time in the army) talk about leadership... a lot!
Tom was Minister of State (Minister for Security) between 6 September 2022 and 5 July 2024 and attended cabinet. He previously served as the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee from 2017 to 2022 and was first elected the MP for Tonbridge and Malling in 2015.
Before being elected as an MP, Tom served on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also worked for the Foreign Office, helping to set up the National Security Council of Afghanistan and the government in Helmand Province. On returning to the UK, Tom served as the military assistant and principal adviser to the Chief of the Defence Staff to the British Army, Lord Richards, and we talk about how he has inspired his leadership style in politics.
Tom studied Theology at the University of Bristol, followed by a Master’s degree in Islamic studies at Cambridge University, which included learning Arabic in Yemen.
After graduating, Tom worked in Beirut as a journalist, and soon after established one of Lebanon’s first public relations companies. On his return to the UK, Tom joined the Territorial Army. When the Iraq War broke out in 2003, he was mobilised as an Arabic-speaking intelligence officer to serve with the Royal Marines.
In 2005, Tom was asked by the Foreign Office to travel to Afghanistan to establish the National Security Council. After two years in Afghanistan and a brief return to the UK, Tom was mobilised and served operationally for a further two years with the Royal Marines, for which he received an MBE, coming off his last patrol in July 2009.
Tom went on to work on the Army Strategy Team helping to prepare for the Strategic Defence and Security Review. He later served as the Chief of the Defence Staff’s military assistant and principal adviser. He remains an Army Reserve officer.
For more on Tom, see here: https://www.tomtugendhat.org/aboutom
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Support the show
✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today...💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!
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Jim was first elected to Ards Borough Council in 1985 and served as Mayor in 1991/92.
He was elected as a member of the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue in 1996 until it completed its work in 1998. He was then subsequently elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly representing Strangford.
Within the NI Assembly Jim served on both the Public Accounts Committee and Agriculture Committee. He was re-elected in both 2003 and 2007, stepping down from the NI Assembly in 2010.
Jim was elected to Parliament at the General Election of 2010 where he received nearly 15,000 votes, with the next closest unionist receiving just over 9,000. He was again re-elected in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
Jim is currently the DUP spokesperson on Health and Human Rights. He is also a member of the Ecclesiastical (Joint) Committee.
In this episode we talk about his faith, his principles, his love of Leicester City FC and his service in the Armed Forces.
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✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today...💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!
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This week we are back with our 'Behind the Politics' segment, speaking to those behind the scenes, turning our attention to the world of journalism. Our guest is from The University of Northampton, Kate Ironside.
Kate is a former political journalist, with 26 years experience in industry. She worked for the Reading Evening Post, Central Press, the Daily Express, Western Morning News and BBC Westminster. She spent two years reporting local government, 13 years at Westminster and 17 years writing an award-winning column on the European Union. Today she combines teaching, with regular contributions to the BBC, commentating on national politics. Kate sits on the executive board of the Broadcast Journalism Training Council, which accredits our journalism courses, and organised the nationwide reporting of the general election results by BJTC students across the UK in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
Kate teaches public affairs, law, media regulation and practical reporting. She has won awards for her university teaching. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Kate’s research centres on public affairs and media regulation. She is the author of Reporting Power, the official textbook on public affairs of the Broadcast Journalism Training Council, now on its third edition.
We refer to the amazing work Kate does with students running election counts coverage. You can view the work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzttiNQSq4s&feature=youtu.be
And to follow Kate on X, find her @IronsideKate
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Tom Blenkinsop was born in Middlesbrough, brought-up in Marton and graduated from Teesside University with a BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and the University of Warwick with an MA in Continental philosophy.
Tom joined the Army Reserve in 2017 in the Royal Military Police in which he still serves today, and was an MP whilst training to be an RMP, something we explore in this episode.
Tom worked as a constituency researcher for Ashok Kumar, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, from 2002 to 2008. He became a campaign manager for the Community Trade Union in 2008 and continued in the role until his election to Parliament in 2010.
Tom was selected as the Labour candidate for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland in April 2010, following Ashok Kumar's unexpected death the previous month. He was elected at the May 2010 general election. In his first Parliamentary term, he was a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee from 2010 to 2012, the Standards and Privileges Committee from 2010 to 2011 and the Treasury Select Committee in 2011. He joined the opposition front bench under the leadership of Ed Miliband, serving as a whip from 2011 to 2015.
He was re-elected at the 2015 general election. During his second Parliamentary term, he was a member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee from 2015 to 2016, the Privileges Committee from 2015 to 2017, the Standards Committee from 2015 to 2017, and the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee from 2016 to 2017.
After the calling of the 2017 general election, Blenkinsop announced that we would not seek re-election as an MP as he could not campaign for Labour whilst Corbyn served as party leader. Again, this is something we discuss at length in the podcast.
Blenkinsop returned to the Community union as a London-based project manager after leaving Parliament, and became a public affairs advisor for the Federation of Small Business in 2020.
We thank Tom for sharing his story with us!
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About this week's guest: Dr. Sebastian Gorka is a Talk Show Host on the Salem Radio Network Platform, and began his show AMERICA FIRST on New Years Day, 2019.
With parents who had lived as children under fascism and then escaped Communist Hungary, Sebastian was raised to love freedom. And his love of talk-radio developed early. As a child he would listen late into the night to the shows of the London Broadcasting Company with a small transistor radio under his pillow. It was with this special family background, and growing up under the influence of Margaret Thatcher, that Sebastian learned how to fight totalitarian ideologies, be they Fascism, Communism, or Global Jihadism.
He would end up serving in the British Army reserve in a Military Intelligence unit, then after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the first freely-elected Conservative administration in Hungary. The after the 9/11 attacks he became a professor on a Pentagon-funded counter-terrorism program run out of Germany.
In 2008 he moved to America with his family where he continued to work for the Defense Department and become a proud American citizen in 2012. He obtained his doctorate in Political Science from Corvinus University in Budapest and was a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In Washington, he served as Associate Dean for Congressional Affairs and Relations to the Special Operations Community at National Defense University and has also taught on the Masters program at Georgetown University.
In 2020, President Donald Trump named Gorka to the National Security Education Board. This board provides strategic consultation and was established by congressional act in 1991.
Dr. Gorka has briefed the CIA, the DIA, the US Navy Seals, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, served as an expert for the DoJ during the Boston Bombing trial, and testified before Congress on the threat of Global Jihadism. He remains a guest instructor at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, at Fort Bragg, the home of the Green Berets.
Gorka writes for The Hill and has written two books for Regnery Publishing. His first “Defeating Jihad,” was a national best-seller and his latest, released in October, is called “Why We Fight…Defeating America’s Enemies with No Apologies.” Before launching his SALEM show, “AMERICA FIRST with Sebastian Gorka,” he was an advisor to candidate Donald J. Trump and served on the staff of the White House in 2017 as Deputy Assistant to the President for Strategy.
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The Rt Hon Dr Andrew Murrison MP is a Minister at the MOD and we were excited to record this episode in the heart of our nation's Defence HQ at MOD Main Building.
We talk about the Invictus Games, Ukraine, his service in the Royal Navy as a doctor, both regular and reserve, his family, Defence and the various ministerial roles he has served in.
We also share a special message this Christmas time to all those from the Armed Forces serving over the break.
Big thanks to the MOD for their help in delivery this episode.
About the Minister
Dr Andrew Murrison was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence on 30 October 2022.
He was previously Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development from 9 May 2019 to 13 February 2020.
He was elected Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire in May 2010, and was first elected as the Conservative MP for Westbury in June 2001.
In November 2003 he was appointed to the Conservative front bench as a health spokesman, transferring in July 2007 to defence. In May 2010 Andrew became Parliamentary Private Secretary to Secretary of State for Health and was asked by the Prime Minister to review and make recommendations on health care for members of the services community. The principal recommendations in the subsequent reports, ‘Fighting Fit’ and ‘A Better Deal for Military Amputees’, are being rolled out by the government.
In November 2011 Prime Minister David Cameron appointed him as his special representative for the centenary commemoration of the First World War, a post he was re-appointed to by Theresa May.
Andrew previously served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defence and Minister for International Security Strategy from September 2012 until July 2014. He then served as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office from July 2014 to March 2015. He chaired the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee from July 2017 to May 2019.
Career outside politics
Andrew served for 18 years as a medical officer in the Royal Navy, leaving in October 2000 as a Surgeon Commander. In 2003 he was recalled to serve in Iraq.
In 2021 was mobilised to lead vaccination teams as part of Operation Rescript. He remains an active reservist.
Personal life
Andrew and his wife live near Warminster. They have 5 daughters, 2 of whom serve in the Armed Forces.
Useful links:
OP Courage: Mental health support for veterans, service leavers and reservists - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Combat Stress is the UK’s leading mental health charity for veterans Call them on 0800 138 1619, text them on 07537 404 719 or email [email protected].
Medical assistance for veterans in:
England: NHS 111 service or call 111 when you need medical help fast but it’s not a 999 emergency, or contact NHS
Scotland: Scotland’s Health on the Web or call 111
Wales: NHS Direct Wales or call 0845 46 47
Northern Ireland: nidirect government services - telephone contact details are available from the website
Samaritans Call 116 123 to speak to a Samaritan.
Support the show
✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today...💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!
CLICK HERE 👉https://www.buzzsprout.com/1394725/support
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This week we speak to veteran Channel 4 and BBC investigative journalist, Michael Crick as part of our 'Behind the Politics' feature where we interview experts in the field of politics, from campaign managers to pollsters to journalists like Michael... and maybe even the odd Special Advisor!
Michael is a TV legend, broadcaster, journalist and author. He was a founding member of the Channel 4 News team and remained there until joining the BBC in 1990. He started work on the BBC's Newsnight programme in 1992, serving as political editor from 2007 until his departure from the BBC in 2011. Crick then returned to Channel 4 News as political correspondent. In 2014 he was chosen as Specialist Journalist of the Year at the Royal Television Society television journalism awards. In that same year, he even doorstepped our podcast host Jonny Ball, when Jonny was working for Grant Shapps MP! Jonny and Michael talk about this rather amusing anecdote as well as Michael's current work unearthing the murky world of political selections via his Twitter/X feed @tomorrowsMPs which you must follow now!
Big thanks to Bare Arms Military Support to Film & TV for lending us their podcast studio. If you'd like to rent it, in the heart of Westminster, London, contacts Bags on:
[email protected]
Whatsapp 07410 603080
Web- https://barearms.co.uk/contact-bare-arms/
SHOW LINKS:
Join our Facebook Group community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2314725475490967/
Engage with us on LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13628154/
Insta/Twitter/Facebook: @CampaignForceUK
or email the host [email protected]
Stand Up and Serve Again!
Support the show
✅Support The Show Help Us Grow! Help us reach more veterans by donating the cost of a cup of coffee today...💳A small donation helps us pay our publishing fees & expenses and enables us to reach even more people, by creating the content you love! Every supporter will get a shout out on our show too!
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The podcast currently has 90 episodes available.
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