What's Left? With Jovan + Freddie

When Britain is shattered who do you need to win the next UK election?

Latest What's Left episode with pollster Luke Tryl drops amongst the “OMG this poll has Reform predicted to win 400 seats” hysteria. Chillllll, Winston, we’re still a few years out.

Of course, any given poll should be taken with a pinch of salt and a shot of tequila + lime. Politicos are taught not to read polls in isolation - but to look at the average across the polls for a sober analysis. Even then, you only have a limited snapshot and political parties and No 10 have their own operations with more accurate data.

But if we’re being fully real rn, to quote Castillo, the average of the public-facing polls is “not looking good brev [sic]”. So what explains Labour’s drop off and the dramatic rise of Reform in the polls since the election? Who better to ask than one of the UK’s leading pollsters, Luke Tryl.

Luke is the Executive Director of More in Common, widely rated as one of the best polling companies in SW1. He’s long had his finger on Westminster’s pulse, having served as a Special Advisor in the Department for Education during the Theresa May premiership following years on the think tank circuit. His analysis is deeply respected across the major parties, as shown by his frequent guest appearances on The News Agents’ podcast.

In this discussion we delved into More in Common’s latest report, ‘Shattered Britain’, and its segmentation of the electorate which identified 7 types of voter. In particular, we zoomed in on the growing anti-system sentiment across the UK and Labour’s challenge in being seen as defenders of a rotten orthodoxy.

Luke also made some adroit observations around the prospect of widespread social disorder, that has been whipped up by Farage and co over the past few weeks. No one wants to see the ugly and violent scenes we saw last year. Cool heads are needed to avoid talking ourselves into a febrile atmosphere. And Reform themselves would be wise to heed Luke's advice on how the public views such self-fulfilling prophecies...

So how can Labour win the next election? The government needs to be seen to deliver for normal people - it’s about returning control to the electorate around a politics of respect. A renewed social contract, where you give in and understand that you also get out. Now more than ever, we need to rebuke the Thatcherism that 'there is no such thing as society' and create an integrative common culture. Otherwise, the UK will capitulate to the f@r-r1ght. It really is that deep, I’m afraid.

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:35 Britain is Shattered

11:23 Pro-System vs. Anti-System

21:23 What’s Causing Social Fragmentation?

30:30 Splitting the Left Vote

37:10 Better Political Comms

42:33 Impending Civil Unrest?

46:30 Immigration and Social Integration

53:10 Can our Electoral System Cope?

59:50 How to Win the Next Election

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Follow Luke on Tw*tter: @LukeTryl

Follow us on IG/TT: @wtf_is.left

Be safe be lucky people yh!

Wealth taxes are all the rage as we approach an Autumn budget where money affi make for the Treasury.

75% of the British public want a wealth tax (2% tax on assets over £10 million) according to YouGov polling. Gary Stevenson, Dale Vince and the Patriotic Millionaires crew say it will raise £24 billion - so why doesn't the government just do it...

Dan Neidle is the UK's foremost tax expert - head of the Tax Policy Associates and formerly Clifford Chance's Head of Tax for 20 years. His tax vigilanteism led to the sacking of senior Tory minister Nadhim Zahawi. His organisation 'Tax Policy Associates' continues to go after dodgy tax schemes, creating more scuffles with some of the most rich and powerful in the UK.

We call him Professor (ta)X, some call him tax Batman.

In this episode we discuss a wide range of ideas - not just wealth taxes - but wealth inequality, populist comms and radical pro-growth reform of the UK's antiquated tax system.

P.S. for our leftist audience, we're not giving up on an internationally co-ordinated wealth tax.

We also hone in on a land value tax, supported by every tax policy wonk across the political spectrum but a big fat 0 politicians. Maybe the govt's mission really should be a housing-theory-of-quite-a-lot, moving with far more urgency and doing whatever necessary to upend the UK's supply problem.

But of course, the cost of that is votes - votes that virtually every party has deemed necessary not to challenge, leaving us with council tax home valuations from the 90s... It really is such a mess.

Enough of the doomerism. Hopefully this episode will leave you, like us, feeling a bit more informed about the shape of British tax policy and how we should be influencing the national conversation.

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Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:23 Will a Wealth Tax Work?

08:02 Are Millionaires Leaving the UK?

14:00 Wealth Tax vs. Economic Growth

21:12 International Wealth Taxes

26:53 Fixing the UK’s Boomer Tax Problem

31:58 Land Value Tax = A Real ‘Wealth Tax’

38:00 Farmer’s Inheritance Tax Solution

41:06 Why Politicians are Failing on Tax

52:55 Eradicating Tax Havens

59:00 Fighting Fraud and Tax Avoidance

1:04:51 Private Sector vs. Public Sector

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Watch on YouTube: Youtube.com/@wtfisleft

Follow Dan on X: @DanNeidle

Follow us on IG + TikTok: @wtf_is.left

Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/vmF3SjKu

New left-wing commentator unlocked!!

Tilly Middlehurst a.k.a. BlondePraxis shot to TikTok fame after her debate with Charlie Kirk at the Cambridge Union went viral.

Charlie Kirk made a name for himself by turning up on US college campuses to troll leftie students.

When he came up against Tilly, a competitive British debater currently in her 2nd year at uni, the chronically online US political scene went ballistic. Kirk had certainly met his match.

With over 300k followers on TikTok, Tilly has done what Robbie Williams failed to do – broken America. Her content focuses on the state of American democracy, insurgent populism in the UK and abroad and what that means for left wing politics.

In this podcast, we chatted about Cambridge, meritocracy and got the inside scoop on the pushback she had post the Kirk debate. There’s also an in-depth discussion about the new Left party in the UK and its wider political implications.

It’s always a pleasure to see the emergence of a new voice on the scene!!! And a privilege to host Tilly’s first of very many podcast appearances on our channel.

00:00 Intro

01:23 Charlie Kirk Debate

09:45 Working Class in Cambridge

16:52 Meritocracy, Identity and Code Switching

25:15 Controversy post-Kirk Debate

31:00 Is Gen-Z Polarisation Real?

38:00 What are Tilly’s political views?

45:20 Do you support the Labour Party?

53:46 Corbyn-Sultana's New Left Party

Worried about the Manosphere? We got you w a DLC.

We've got two of the world's leading authorities on what is really going on inside the world of the pay-to-play male paranoia.

James Bloodworth is a journalist and author, who has recently published 'Lost Boys: A Personal Journey Through the Manosphere'. Matt Shea is a former VICE journalist, best known for his series of documentaries on 'you know who', which were aired on the BBC.

Hopefully this 90+ min discussion can help explain the deeper complexities that tie the manosphere, the conspiracy right and male loneliness together - and offer some thought-provoking ideas on how we move forward.

Chapters

00:00 The reality of the manosphere

12:00 The male anxiety marketing industry

22:50 Lessons from leaving the manosphere

31:15 ‘Feminism has gone too far’

46:16 Why are the left losing with men?

55:00 Social Media has changed our relationships

1:09:13 C0rn, doomscrolling and dopamine addiction

1:24:19 Conspiracy theories shifting the Overton window

1:28:50 - Positive masculinity and role models

Don't forget to drop us a follow @wtf_is.left on IG/TikTok. Stay blessed people.

Labour welfare rebel Henry Tufnell is the first MP in the hot seat at WLHQ… 

There’s been no breaks to the psychodrama of UK politics since 2016. We can’t be the only ones who are feeling completely exhausted.

This week the government had to climb down from its proposal for welfare reform which targeted the UC + PIP bill (benefits) which has ballooned since COVID and is projected to double over the course of this parliament.

Critics of the bill said it would target the most vulnerable. Many economists said it was absolutely necessary.

If you want to know what’s really going on here, who better to ask than one of the signatories to the amendment that killed the bill?

Let’s not cap, this has been an incredibly challenging week for the Starmer-Reeves premiership. Most of the country is ever more confused about the direction of travel. And there is clearly a disconnect between number 10 and the backbenches.

So how do we solve this seemingly intractable problem?


We need to find a way to unite, a story that offers a solution to the deep rot we can sense in our communities – a new social contract, perhaps.


More questions than answers, and ever more pressing a time to help us figure out what’s left.

00:00 Intro

1:00 What is online manipulation?

7:00 Censorship and news

12:00 Left-wing politics

18:04 Southport riots

22.30 AI and fake news

26:00 How manipulation brings down governments

33:50 Gaza, traumatic content and Britain’s muslim community

42:06 Radicalisation online

47:01 Why some conflicts are more known than others

52:00 Political unity vs consensus

Disinformation is democracy’s kryptonite.

Have you seen a shocking video recently on your fyp, only to discover later that it was made with AI? I can’t be the only one.

What is this doing to our trust in media? Who is wielding this influence? Is it even possible to wrestle back control?

Every day it seems that we are uncovering a new online tool that can be used to peddle false narratives. It’s a powder keg for selfish actors, foreign interference and the destruction of our political systems.

We knew it was bad, but it’s going to get a lot worse.

Our latest guest is one of the world’s leading experts on online manipulation: Amil Khan, CEO of Valent. In this episode we delve into the chaotic world of disinformation to find out who really profits from fake news.

And it isn’t just foreign adversaries, in some ways the picture is even more sinister…

In brighter news, it’s super encouraging to see our channel already growing on socials, with over 2000 followers across Instagram and TikTok and just 20k shy from our first million views! Drop us a follow @wtf_is.left

We want to hear from you! Send us a dm and get actively involved as we figure out what’s left.

Matthew Torbitt, a former Labour advisor and now talking head across (mainly right-wing but also centrist) broadcast media is the first guest to grace the hot seat at What's Left HQ.

Matt is a rare thing in British politics: a self-proclaimed "gobshite", who has made his way from being a homeless teen with a criminal record to campaigning in Parliament as a leading political commentator on the telly.

The point of 'What's Left?' is to hear from the broad spectrum of thought leaders across our political movement - asking them what it really means to be a card-carrying member of the 'political left'.

This is the literal main reason we set up this podcast.

But because we were having such a bloomin' good time (and we currently lack the sufficient funds to hire a producer (for now)) we forgot to ask Matt. So, apologies, here's his answer:

"A politics that leads with compassion and empathy and aims to look after one another. It means standing with the powerless against the powerful. It’s about dignity for every person, public services that serve people—not profit—and a belief that society works best when we take care of each other." Matthew Torbitt, 2025.

During this unconstrained conversation, the boys cover a wide range of topics, from sliding in the dms to father-son relationships and prison reform (and everything in between). It's an honest reflection on the trade-offs of Government and the challenges rarely given a fair hearing by our right-wing press.

And while Matthew isn't one who shies away from holding the Labour Party to account (and his GB News audience creams for it), it appears that he has a lot of sympathy for some of the tough decisions our Labour Government have had to make. But obvs, they can do better!

In our first podcast episode, Jovan and Freddie sit down to discuss their first film 'Reform UK's Biggest Rally Ever'.

As we near the local elections and the by-election result in Runcorn, the question on everyone's lips is whether Nigel Farage's party has the momentum to overtake the Tories and present as the genuine opposition to Labour.

The boys give their verdict, while explaining a bit more about who we are and what we want this platform to be...

We believe in direct democracy, so let us know what you think in the comments. Leave out the abuse, or don't if you're mega mega raging and want to let us know!!!

If you want to get involved in our community. Follow us and DM!

Instagram: @wtf_is.left

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