This week:

-  The row about Nato and its future sees Merkel throw diplomatic shade at Macron, day’s ahead of the summit in London.
 
-  China’s dark secret...the persecution of more than a million ethnic minority’s in detention camps...
    
-  And the growing row about cuts to the U.K. armed forces...is Britain leaving itself exposed?


Join LBC's Tom Swarbrick for this episode of Rule Britannia, an in depth exploration of week's events and the news that didn't make the headlines.

Tom interviews  Lucy Fisher, defence editor for The Times, to find out answers to these questions and more.

Plus Tom interviews the former National Security Advisor Sir Mark Lyall Grant about briefing the PM, and being in the UK’s equivalent of the situation room when terror came to Britain...How did the decision to bomb Syria affect Britain and the future of the World? 

Rule Britannia discovers Britains place in a fast changing world.

Listen and subscribe now on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.


https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/tom-swarbrick/

Twitter
@TomSwarbrick1

When terror came to Britain, how the UK fought terrorism and what can be done.

Join LBC's Tom Swarbrick as he interviews leading experts, politicians and industry influencers to gather a weekly round up of the most important world news and hidden topics that you won't have heard about.

Find out just what goes on behind closed doors and how today's decisions will affect Britain's future.

Subscribe on Global player or wherever you get your podcasts, now!

News

Government

Between the 12th March and the 16th March, the government advice to the public about Coronavirus changed swiftly and dramatically. 
What happened during those 4 days to prompt that change?

This week, Tom speaks to Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of war studies at Kings College London, who has been looking at the minutes of the government advisory groups during those crucial days.


You can read his article in the New Statesman here
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2020/04/real-reason-uk-government-pursued-herd-immunity-and-why-it-was-abandoned

The 4 Days That Changed Britain

The divide in responses to and the extent of the damage wrought by covid 19 is becoming much starker.
As we know, direct country to country comparisons do not take into account demography, geography or the original scale of the outbreak.
One thing though that is clear is that it is the nation state, not many global multilateral fora that are deciding responses.

Arguably, coronavirus hastens the challenge already posed to those institutions, like the UN. Challenges of democratic consent and of efficacy.
The United Nations hasn’t yet been able to even declare coronavirus a threat to global peace and security.

This week, Tom talks to Samantha Power, who served as US ambassador to the UN and led the global response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

What is the United Nations responsibility during the Coronavirus crisis?

Can the UK find solutions by looking abroad?  Was Britain too slow compared to how others responded to the developing Coronavirus crisis?

Much of the world is now looking at one small island, Taiwan, with a population of 24 million, they have only had 427 cases so far, and 6 deaths due to Covid-19.  They acted very early to the developing crisis.

This week, Tom speaks to Taiwan's representative in the UK, David Yung-Lo Lin.

How did Taiwan get their Covid-19 response so right?

If the facts around coronavirus and the way it’s affecting all of us were bad enough... wait to you hear the conspiracy theory nonsense.
Over the past few weeks, misinformation and conspiracy has gained traction in the mainstream, with real-world consequences.

This week, Tom speaks to Professor Karen Douglas, Professor of social psychology at the university of Kent who studies the psychology of conspiracy theories, and Josh Rogin, columnist for the Washington Post who has investigated the truth behind the conspiracy that Covid-19 didn't originate in the wet markets but escaped out of the Wuhan institute of Virology...


Rule Britannia discovers Britains place in a fast changing world.

Listen and subscribe now to Rule Britannia on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/tom-swarbrick/

Twitter
@TomSwarbrick1

The conspiracy theory gaining momentum

Polling shows attitudes towards China are hardening, the Japanese are shifting production out of China, and the US are flirting with cutting funding to the World Health Organisation.  Equipment sent from China for testing has been sent back as faulty. Is the relationship between nations breaking down?

Was Britain prepared?  Were we prepared in the right way?  How do we make ourselves more resilient in the future?

This week, Tom speaks to Elizabeth Braw, Head of modern deterrence at the Royal United Services institute.

Rule Britannia discovers Britains place in a fast changing world.

Listen and subscribe now to Rule Britannia on Global Player or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/tom-swarbrick/

Twitter
@TomSwarbrick1

When terror came to Britain, how the UK fought terrorism and what can be done.

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