JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft

WE NEED YOUR (FINANCIAL) SUPPORT TO KEEP GOING!

****

Babe wake up, new PM just dropped!

Since we launched this podcast, politics has been lurching from crisis to crisis. Yet again, Britain has a new leader. Our 5th in 4 years, our 7th in a decade. It can’t go on like this, surely?!

This week we have a special episode with Paul Nowak, the General Secretary of the Trade Union Congress, the national umbrella organisation for trade unions in England and Wales, representing nearly 6 million workers.

Founded in the 19th century, The TUC has a storied history. Agitating for greater rights and protections for workers, Trade Unions have guaranteed the weekend, sick pay and holidays.

As the relation between capital and labour is rewritten by new tech, we forget our Union heritage at our own peril. Collective bargaining has been at the core of progressive change. Without it, we are at the mercy of vested interests.

For many historians, Margaret Thatcher won a decisive victory over agitating Unions. Union memberships drop from over 50% to 22% today.

But now, memberships are rising again as workers realise the threat ahead. Oligarchy has returned. Tech is taking jobs. And democracy itself appears to be on the line.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:00 Union Members For Farage

06:05 Burnham’s Change Agenda

11:01 Getting Britain Building Again

17:36 Can Burnham Take On Vested Interests?

23:42 Employment Rights vs. Farage’s Crypto Interests

29:05 Populist Right Hypocrisy

36:30 Ending Neoliberalism

42:03 Fixing the Unproductive State

48:52 Can the Union Movement be Reactionary?

53:37 Left-Wing Talent Pipeline

59:54 Trades vs. Universities

1:05:34 Reindustrialising Britain

1:13:16 Lifelong Educational Reform

1:20:20 Can The State Afford Radicalism?

1:25:10 Youth Unemployment and Mental Health

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft

Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews

Ask our Guests Questions

LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie

WL Book Club + Community Discussion

Articles + Exclusive Content

****

Are we more American than European? Has the UK's future been fatalistically forged? New Statesmen Editor and Brexit Historian Tom McTague offers an account of the real trade offs faced by the British establishment.

Too often, politics resorts to a conclusion of managed decline. A despondent shrug. Are we suffering from learned helplessness? A belief that it’s now too hard to create the change our society is yearning for?

History does not work like that. A radical contingency of events might present as inevitability. But in McTague’s chronicle of Britain’s topsy-turvy relationship with the Europe and its Union, one thing stands out: it is never over.

So perhaps the Pro-European Left needs to channel their inner Declan Rice (“It’s not done!”). Maybe it isn’t - maybe the dream of Britain as an integral player in the EU need not be abandoned.

But if that is to be the unwritten Post-Brexit story, the #FBPE brigade need to get real. Why did Britain choose to leave?

One answer is to lament the brainwashing of the right-wing press, the outsized influence of Cambridge Analytica and the weather on the day (it was raining for both teams, Ty!).

But another answer, one that cuts deeper, would argue that this is a profound civilisational question. One that must arrest the hard realities of geopolitical competition, like a British moth to an American flame.

In the end, it is about money and it is about power. How much hard power should Britain give up to be able to choose its own destiny? Is it even possible to decouple from the American empire? What control is really open for us to wrest back, after all?

Some of these questions we attempt to answer. But the diagnosis is clear: if we want to keep the welfare state, things are going to have to change.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:11 Is Farage Closer to Power or Failure?

08:37 Unpredictability of the Next Election

14:28 Where’s the Left’s Dominic Cummings?

18:18 Why the Starmer’s Project Failed

23:32 Reindustrialisation and the AI Revolution

28:42 Tech Regulation and British Sovereignty

35:05 The Populist Right’s Civilisational Project

40:01 Restoring the Left’s Radical Tradition

44:35 A Federal Europe or an Imperial America?

51:32 Can Middle Powers Create an Alliance?

58:82 Britain’s Post-Brexit Ambitions

1:03:19 A Left-Mythology on English Identity

1:10:58 Enoch Powell’s Impact on The Modern Right

1:14:00 A Future For European Integration?

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content ****

Another heatwave just dropped so we’re here with our first in-depth convo on the climate crisis, joined by one of the world’s biggest eco-influencers, Michael Mezz.

After studying economics at Stanford, Michael decided to hold onto his soul and become an activist to prevent ecological collapse. Remember folks, the magic circle law firm / big 3 consultancy isn't the only way.

In this episode we explore the major shift in green politics: away from classic environmentalism and towards a social media friendly left-populist economics. In particular, we discuss the decline in the ‘green growth’ agenda and the rise of the ‘degrowth’ or ‘post-growth’ political economy, pushed by thinkers like Jason Hickel (who has featured on Michael's podcast).

What would reality look like if we exited the perennial treadmill of infinite growth? If such a future is possible how can it happen?

Our objections to degrowth models centre on the global top-down application of such economic theories. Is a wholesale rewiring of the global economy a fantasy untethered from the hard realities of geopolitical competition?

We also examine challenges around the Jevons Paradox (that energy efficiency creates greater throughput rather than reducing emissions), whether China is making a moral or expedient green transition and why green economists can’t escape the attraction of modern monetary theory.

The question the left has to answer in the face of radical global uncertainty and multipolar competition over energy, security and tech, is who benefits from our system?

A world of automation beckons under a canopy of ecological collapse and mass suffering. The old world has certainly died and a new world struggling to be born. Let's hope it's not on Mars.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

04:14 Polanski and Eco-Populism

11:20 Zarah Sultana Hypocrisy

12:11 Internationalism vs. Nationalism

17:42 Has ‘Green Growth’ Failed?

26:02 Why Eco-Socialists Want ‘De-Growth’

30:55 Does De-Growth Make Sense?

40:44 China’s Electrodollar vs. US Petrodollar

49:50 The Challenge of Declining Living Standards

57:20 Global Anti-Imperialism

1:00:54 Debating Modern Monetary Theory

1:05:22 Wealth Taxes and Democratic Capitalism

1:17:45 Is Populism De Facto Bad?

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content ****

Green Industrialist and Labour Party mega-donor Dale Vince is beefing with Energy secretary Ed Miliband, as speculation around Andy Burnham's Chancellor nomination reaches fever pitch.

Vince, in typically bombastic style, intervened in the Times to argue that Labour should 'scrap Net Zero'. Yep, you read that right.

Is Britain's most divisive 'Eco Tycoon' reneging on his lifetime commitment to environmentalism?

Of course not.

Vince is arguing that a number of policies within 'Net Zero' amount to a waste of public money, zeroing in on carbon capture and heat pump subsidies. He says that Reform UK's attack line against Net Zero is cutting through as families face stubbornly high energy costs, which look set to rise after Trump's reckless war against Iran.

Conveniently for Vince, this intervention coincided with Burnham's first major speech outlining his policy direction if he becomes Prime Minister.

Centring on increasing devolution, Burnham has committed to reindustrialising Britain - which could run into conflict with Labour's highly ambitious green transition to a net zero energy grid by 2030.

Subsequently, Miliband has been the subject of unprecedented Union endorsements and denouncements as Burnham weighs up his choice for Chancellor. Not only is Miliband too ideological for the right-wing press, it appears he's no longer the man for Dale Vince either.

Their beef hinges on Miliband's failure to fully commit to Vince's flagship policy of 'breaking the link', decoupling expensive gas pricing from all other energy pricing... Let us know what you think in the comments.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

03:25 Dale's Beef With Ed Miliband

05:23 'Breaking the Link' between Gas Prices and Electricity

09:05 Carbon Capture Racket

12:30 Dale vs. Nuclear Energy

16:19 In Defence of Nuclear Buildout

20:15 Why Isn't Britain's Grid Working?

24:19 Is Dale Protecting His Business Interests?

28:56 Air Conditioning Rollout vs. Climate Activists

31:21 Does Burnham Have a Mandate for Change?

33:20 Will Vince Remain a Donor if Burnham Reindustrialises?

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content

***********

Emily Lawford's viral New Statesman cover story 'Meet the Angry Young Women' created huge waves of online discourse, undulating from the radical TikTok Left to the extreme Right on Elon Musks's brainwashing algorithm.

Polling from Merlin Strategies found that Gen-Z women were feeling extremely pessimistic,about their future, young men and our politics. Why?

We thought there was no one better to ask than our own resident (self-annointed) angry young woman and friend of the show, Tilly Middlehurst (a.k.a. BlondePraxis).

Is the anger justified or misplaced? Is the pessimism motivating or paralysing? Do these two young women agree on the causes... and the solutions?

Apologies for issues with the sound/video quality, one of our cameras overheated :( Appreciate your patience with us as we improve over time x

Chapters

00:00 Emily's Viral 'Angry Young Women' Article

04:59 Tilly’s Response

10:02 Is the ‘Femosphere’ as Dangerous as the ‘Manosphere’?

16:36 Is Gen-Z Feminist Pessimism Justified?

20:27 Do Young Women Misperceive Injustice?

27:04 Which Gender is More Negative About the Other?

36:42 Biological Essentialism and Reactionary Feminism

44:30 Politicising the Fertility Crisis

51:40 Anti-Feminist Global Conspiracy?

55:26 Gym Influencers vs. Manosphere

1:03:43 Has Social Media Catalysed Polarisation?

1:13:47 Identity, Community and Free Speech

1:21:57 Tommy Robinson’s Unite The Kingdom Rally

1:26:30 Migrant Violence Against Women and Girls

1:36:10 Reaction to Emily’s New Statesman Article

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft

Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews

Ask our Guests Questions

LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie

WL Book Club + Community Discussion

Articles + Exclusive Content

**********************************************

Can the Left forgive the Centre? Can the Centre forgive the Left?

This week we are joined by the UK's second biggest politics podcaster on where the Left is going wrong and how it must unite to win. Keeping out Reform will not be enough to fix the country. A consensus must be built around a political economy that works for the majority, rather than a privileged few.

So how do we get there? What can be done? Who can tell the right story?

Centrist Dads will be delighted to know that we haven't figured it out just yet, and can keep on equivocating in the meantime...

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:29 Is The Rest Is Politics Too Orthodox?

08:59 Short-Form Politics and Short-Termism

16:03 Who Cares About Truth?

21:37 Failure of Globalisation

26:50 Madman Theory and WW3

35:43 What New Labour Got Wrong

43:01 Class Warfare

52:21 Are Greens the Future of the Left?

1:01:30 Has Farage Hit His Ceiling?

1:06:07 Crypto Billionaires Financing Reform

1:11:47 Will The Labour Party Survive the Century?

1:17:45 Is the Left Intellectually Bankrupt?

1:23:55 Is Gen-Z Cooked?

1:28:05 Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

1:31:40 Abuse in Public Life

In our latest video essay (optimised for YouTube), Freddie breaks down why the Labour Party refuses to engage meaningfully with Gary Stevenson - and why that all might be about to change...

********************* JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content *********************

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content **********************************************

The Labour leadership crisis has gone nuclear with Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigning this afternoon, after a week of intense speculation of a coup following Labour's local elections drubbing.

We sat down with Phil Tinline, author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain and The Death of Consensus: 100 Years of British Political Nightmares, to dive deep into the chaos. Phil is an expert in both Labour history and conspiracy theories - coalescing here for a rich discussion on the polycrisis that has rendered the British state obsolete.

How can Labour make the case that they aren’t the Tories, with infighting and psychodrama returning from 2022-3? Do bond market jitters await?

Chapters

00:00 Intro

02:48 Britain's Permacrisis

12:09 Starmer's Leadership Challenge

20:53 Burnham's Manchesterism

30:57 Politics Love of Conspiracy Theories

39:04 Breakdown In Political Communication

48:45 Who is Labour for after the AI revolution?

56:35 British Cultural Identity

1:05:40 Conspiracy Theory vs. Reality

1:16:35 The Iron Mountain Conspiracy

1:23:30 Who Believes Conspiracies?

1:31:20 Reinvigorating the Social Contract

1:34:30 Reform, Donations and Accountability

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content **********************************************

Skit Comedian Tom Nestor and host of podcast All Right Idiots joins us for a chat on livestreamers, chronically online extremists and the upcoming local elections.

After calling out Freddie for his cold approach game with viral streamer Gymskin, the boys invited Tom on the podcast to discuss the best way to get non-political audiences caring about the issues of our time...

Chapters 00:00 Gymskin + Freddie

09:25 Livestreaming Gone Mad

17:47 Right-Wing Comedians

22:04 Talking To Reform Voters

33:00 Corbyn, Polanski + Tom's Politics

38:00 Cancellations and Conspiracies

45:27 UK Groypers

53:39 Feeling Sorry For Isolated Young Men?

59:55 Jovan's RW Cancellation

1:05:40 Anti-White Prejudice

1:14:30 What Makes English Identity?

1:21:15 Immigration Debate 1:25:10 Greens + Local Elections

1:33:06 In Defence of Labour

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content

Has political imagination died? Having made a name for herself as a leftist short-form content creator, Louisa Munch has quickly become Instagram’s favourite Critical Theorist. Expert in applying canonical political texts to the chaos we see unfolding today, Louisa joins us for a meandering discussion on higher education, leftist utopia and the how to challenge the insurgent populist right.

In this conversation, we explore the concept of ‘nostalgia’ and the mythological way it is deployed by the radical right, to call for a return to a harmonious and tranquil past. This idealised vision of what has come before is a seductive construction for many Brits, who have felt the grandeur and richness of the UK fade over the course of their lifetimes. Who is to blame?

Many are deeply dissatisfied with our current Labour government, who have not upended the neoliberal economic consensus, opting for foreign investment given constraints in the omnipotent bond market. But without engaging our economic imagination, it seems that Britain is fatalistically condemned to managed decline, energising populist demands on either flank. Over and over again, elections are being won and lost on which candidate most represents the change that people want to feel to our socio-economic order. Sticking with the devil you know doesn’t seem very attractive if you think you’re on the road to Hell.

If neoliberalism is indeed in its final days, then the question is what will replace it? Louisa argues that the Left needs to be thinking in the future, striving to achieve an ideal of worker empowerment that is free from neoliberal constraint. But can critical theory, the analysis of power relations and how to challenge them, tell us what that ‘utopia’ should look like and how to get there in practice?

00:00 Intro

03:45 Alienation and Economic Migration

08:17 Can the Left Use Nostalgia?

16:22 Universalism and the Boomer Class

21:45 Is Critical Theory Just Left-Wing Meta-Ideology?

28:05 Is Questioning Power Emotive or Rational?

31:55 Cross-Cultural Nostalgia

36:45 Is University Delivering What Society Needs?

44:30 Immigration and Integration

49:04 Patriarchy, Misogyny and Grooming Gangs

56:04 Pink Ladies Movement

1:00:29 White Working Class Anxiety

1:07:35 Economic Growth and Zero-Sum Thinking

1:13:05 Solving the Poverty of Ambition

1:17:20 Beware Utopian Idealists?

1:25:04 Gramsci + Cultural Change

1:30:05 Is America Still Democratic?