The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Is the summer tourist season already a write-off for Europe – and will the traditional foreign holiday become history? Are you ready to start paying more tax from the age of 40 to fund your own social care? And as COVID continues to hollow out city centres, is urban living on the way out? Ros Taylor, Ahir Shah and special guest Yasmeen Serhan of The Atlantic join Andrew Harrison for this week’s full-length Bunker. Listen closely for live interventions from Andrew’s cat.  “The summer months are the lungs of Europe.” – Yasmeen Serhan “When the people who make decisions about health and social care can opt out with private insurance, they don’t experience the consequences of their own decisions.” – Ros Taylor Produced by Andrew Harrison. Script and assistant production by Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickenson. Logo and branding by Mark Taylor. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“We’ve been kettled with our own thoughts.” Comedy writer and friend of the podcast JASON HAZELEY – Screenwipe writer and co-creator of everything from the grown-up Ladybird books to Philomena Cunk – talks to Ian Dunt about what the pandemic has done to TV, the live sitcom that is Great Britain, and the dismal poverty of Boris Johnson’s terrible, feeble jokes.  “Have I Got News For You in lockdown just looks like a series of hostage videos.” “The last thing the world needs right now is a golden age of monologue.” “Boris Johnson is an ambassador of the trivial and inconsequential… but your Prime Minister should not be a figure of fun.” Presented by Ian Dunt. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re conditioned to think that economic development will get faster and faster. But it turns out that many key indicators from population growth to GDP expansion are slowing down. DANNY DORLING, social geographer and author of Slowdown: The End Of The Great Acceleration and Inequality And The 1%, talks to Ros Taylor about the coming Great Deceleration – why inequality is clearly the strongest indicator of mental wellbeing – why most of we hear about the Brexit-hungry “left behinds” is nonsense – and why our slow future was already taking shape before the COVID lockdown.  “Important indicators like population are rising – but not as fast we think they are.”  “Acceleration was so lauded in the past because we were improving living standards… but we’ve gone way past that. Simply consuming more won’t make us happier.”  “Half of the British population is on the edge of being financially insecure and in fact destitute in the near future.”  “If your told since birth that you’re the best in the world, then seeing your kids incapable of supporting or housing themselves is hard to accept.”  “We’re living under a misconception that this is an age of acceleration. Compared to our grandparents’ time, it’s an age of slowdown.” Presented by Ros Taylor. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A pop career is for life. Art explorer, national treasure and former Pulp frontman JARVIS COCKER talks to Andrew Harrison about his return to the music fray with new band Jarv Is… and new album Beyond The Pale. On the agenda: the musical concerns of the mature gentleman, what celebrity does to the unwary mind, the legacy of ‘Common People’, and how pop is a way of asking yourself the questions you really ought to answer.  “Celebrity is like pornography. It takes something great, like sex, and grosses it out.” “The post-war dream was a classless society… and now that seems to have totally disappeared.”  Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Can Europe really build back better after the pandemic? How does the EU’s response to COVID look when you’re one of Britain’s former MEPs? Molly Scott Cato, former Green Party MEP and the party’s current Brexit and Finance spokesperson, joins Alex Andreou to talk over plus the Russia Report, the financial conduits that make corruption possible, and what we do now that Vote Leave runs the country  “These people drove the Brexit boat and are now in government, and we don’t really know where their loyalties lie.” “In British society we hide our dirty laundry – but the laundry is still dirty.”  “The main problem of the Eurozone is that some countries can tell others how to spend their money.”  Presented by Alex Andreou. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“In Moscow, inquiry closes YOU.” As the Russia Report confirms the Conservatives’ wilful blind eye to Putin’s interference in UK elections, where do we go from here? If we rage about the Russians supposedly tipping the Referendum or the General Election, are we looking at the wrong things? Plus, why the left needs to stop gloating over The Guardian’s money woes… and hands off Bill Gates. Can’t a guy just be a munificent billionaire without everyone getting on his case?Naomi Smith subpoenas Helen Lewis, Ian Dunt and Alex Andreou to give evidence on this week’s full-length Bunker. Also – sirens!  “We can’t have another election with half of the country believing they’re going to be cheated” – Alex Andreou “Russia is trying to encourage wedge issues and the Vote Leave government is exacerbating that.” – Ian Dunt “The same backbenchers who are losing their shit about a Chinese wire in their phone are completely relaxed about Russia running electoral interference.” – Alex Andreou “Russian influence has become so embedded in the UK that the intelligence community can only shrug.” – Alex Andreou “The new elitism is packing the Lords with your mates.” – Ian Dunt Produced by Andrew Harrison. Script and assistant production by Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickenson. Logo and branding by Mark Taylor. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coronavirus has put women out of work more frequently than men, led to a spike in domestic violence, pushed women’s healthcare down the list of priorities, and set the scene for a mental health crisis for women. Yet politicians appear blind to the pandemic’s gendered consequences. Dr Clare Wenham, Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at the LSE, talks to Helen Lewis about how the pandemic has hit women hardest, and what we will need to learn from it.  “We’re seeing exactly what happened with Zika and Ebola – but on a global scale.” “Female-dominated industries are the ones hardest hit by pandemics. What it means is, women lose their jobs.” “British exceptionalism means we haven’t learned from what happened during pandemics in the rest of the world.” Presented by Helen Lewis. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Intelligence report into Russian interference in British elections and the Referendum is finally published this week – but what will it mean? Why are Brexiters so keen to discredit it? And are Tory backbenchers finally growing a spine? Ian Dunt sets the scene for what looks like a momentous week in British politics.  “Eskimos supposedly have a thousand words for snow – and the Russian government has a thousand words for lie.” “The Russians are banking on domestic tribalism to prevent any serious response to their interference.” “The Tories are up to their necks in Russian donations.” “The Raab leak shows how inept and cynical the Government’s response to Russian interference has been.” Presented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hold the front podcast page! The infamous Russia Report could well come out next week. What will it reveal? The Guardian’s Russia correspondent LUKE HARDING, author of Shadow State: Murder, Mayhem And Russia’s Remaking Of The West and first British journalist to be expelled from Russia since the end of the Cold War, joins Dorian Lynskey to look at what Putin really wants. How did Russia influence Brexit? Why did Robert Mueller’s investigation into Trump’s Russian collusion flop so badly? Whatever happened to the classy, erudite KGB of old? Oh, and the Secret Plot against Chris Grayling. “You have to ask, why have Johnson and Cummings burnt so much political capital on suppressing this report?” “Donald Trump is seen in Moscow as the greatest success in Russian espionage history.” “The message of Salisbury was, You may forget about us but we will never forget about you.”  “Robert Mueller was like a boy scout going into Trump’s gambling den.” “Russian interference in Brexit definitely happened – whether you believe it was determinant or not.” Presented by Dorian Lynskey. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why do former democrats and intellectuals so often make the squalid journey from liberalism to hardline nationalism? Historian ANNE APPLEBAUM’s new book Twilight Of Democracy: The Failure Of Politics And The Parting Of Friends describes why once-liberal people make deals with devils of demagoguery. She talks to Nina Schick about the revenge of the second-raters, the lure of performative rage, how toxic nostalgia feeds authoritarianism and worse… and what we can do about it.  “If you despair that your society is coming to an end, you will embrace desperate measures.” “When Trump tweets ‘LAW AND ORDER’ what he’s saying is, I can shut these people up.” “Brexit was a coup carried out by one part of the elite against another part of the elite.” “The defeat of Donald Trump is absolutely the most important thing that needs to happen for the world to move forward.” Presented by Nina Schick. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producer Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices