The Bunker – News without the nonsense

The airline and travel industries are suffering the most serious crisis in their history: worse than 9/11, the 2008 financial slump and the Icelandic volcano combined. Can air travel survive COVID? And given its carbon footprint, do we even want it to? Aviation writer JOHN WALTON tells Andrew Harrison how airlines will have to change, why the industry can’t operate on a financial knife edge any longer… and if it’s right for bearded billionaires with private islands to get the begging bowl out.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

Britain’s tax system was already a mess before the COVID-19 emergency sent the public finances into a crisis of wartime proportions. Is this a moment to radically re-engineer government revenue? Are we taxing the right things, activities… or people? Will those who got off lightly in 2008 have to pony up rather more this time around? And in the post-Corona world, does even a Tory government have any choice about moving us to a European-style high tax economy? GILES WILKES of the Institute for Government explains all to baffled layman Andrew Harrison.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

While the rest of Europe locked down, Sweden took a different and much looser path on dealing with COVID. Is their controversial approach working? Is Sweden right to measure itself against a longer-term tally of suffering caused by the virus’s economic consequences, and not just the immediate death toll? Andrew Brown, author of Fishing in Utopia: Sweden and the Future that Disappeared talks to Ros Taylor about the biggest COVID gamble in Europe.  “There’s a view that everyone is pursuing the Swedish strategy, whether they know it or not.” “This is a fairly brutal way of doing it. But Sweden’s view is that the facts are brutal.”  “Swedish opinion is like a shoal of herring. They all head in the same direction together – but that direction can change suddenly.” “The Swedish government can be extremely bossy – but part of the technique of social control was to deny that it existed.” 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

After the Sunday Times exposé of Johnson’s indolent initial response to the COVID crisis, is the Government’s infantile “rebuttal” an attempt to rewrite the facts of what happened? Hard Lockdown vs Soft Open: economics writer Frances Coppola joins us to scope out the far future of post-plague Coronanomics. Gove-building and Hancock-smashing. And it’s high times for conspiracy theorists. What are we going to do about Bill Gates’s 5G weaponised virus bats? “Who’s giving up on market-led economics right now? The markets themselves.” – Frances Coppola“Eamonn Holmes might think he’s ‘just asking questions’. But they’re asking the wrong questions.” – Nina Schick“With Johnson indisposed they’re terrified of creating a rival. What if Rishi Sunak becomes the face of Government?” – Alex AndreouPresented by Dorian Lynskey with Nina Schick and Alex Andreou. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Script and assistant production by Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickenson. Logo and artwork 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

After years of rubbishing expertise, politicians are now turning to science in humble desperation. Buzzfeed and Telegraph science writer TOM CHIVERS, author of The AI Does Not Hate You, talks to Ian Dunt about the uneasy alliance between science and politics… why immunity passports are probably a non-starter… and why we should have a sliver of sympathy for Matt Hancock and even Boris Johnson. “The hardest thing in writing about science? Explaining uncertainty.”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’ve all heard about the “wet markets” in Wuhan. How connected are COVID-19 and dangers of future pandemics to the world meat trade? JULIET GELLATLEY of vegan charity Viva! explains how indiscriminate mixing of species and neglect of hygiene in meat markets creates the perfect breeding ground for another viral emergency. Is giving up meat – or eating less of it – no longer a matter of personal choice but world public health?“More and more diseases are emerging from animals and crossing over to human beings… Three in four new diseases come from animals.”Presented by Naomi Smith. 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

Music makes life worth living for some of us, and live shows are the only way many artists make a living. As Corona puts the music industry in an induced coma, TOM GRAY of Gomez talks to Dorian Lynskey about the monumental challenges that music faces. Will we see the return of concerts in 2020? Will we even want to get together in large numbers? If streaming your favourite band all night is not the answer, what is? And should we nationalise Ed Sheeran? “There are people who are not going to be able to survive this. Their income is going to be annihilated.” “Recorded music went away in the Noughties. Touring was the lifeblood, and now it’s gone.”  “There will people in the couple of months who’ll be wondering what they’re going to do with the rest of their lives.” 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

How did China really perform in the biggest global health disaster in 100 years? Chatham House China and diplomacy expert DR YU JIE gives Alex Andreou the inside story on the PRC’s response to Corona. What was behind the infamous silencing of warnings about the virus from local doctors? Will the Crisis threaten the Party’s rule? What it’s like to live with China’s stringent, ultra-personal monitoring programme? And how do things feel different for a Chinese person in the West now? “China needs to let the scientific evidence speak for itself, rather than orchestrating a propaganda campaign to tell its narrative.” “Chinese social media is not particularly kind about Chinese people returning home. They say ‘Why are you bringing the virus home to us?”  “The 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party comes in 2021. China will need an economic success story to tell its population.” 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

The Labour antisemitism leak: what does it mean and is anyone going to jail for a data breach? Plus, how long can lockdown continue? Why herd immunity isn’t a scare phrase but in fact the only way we’ll beat COVID. The magical, corporeally-fixated incantations of the Johnson fan-press. And how Corona is changing technology. Who’ll win out if the emergency forces the battle of the streaming titans to a grand season finale?Ian Dunt, Helen Lewis and special guest Stuart Dredge, tech writer for The Guardian, convene to sort it all out. “At no point did [the Labour Left] confront the idea that people didn’t like their candidate or their policies… If it’s always someone else’s fault, what are you going to change next time?” – Helen Lewis“People talk about how good Hong Kong’s response was. But in Hong Kong, if you test positive they take you away and put you in Covid Butlins.” – Helen LewisPresented and produced by Andrew Harrison. Script and assistant production by Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickenson. Logo and artwork 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

Who knew that poetry would join videoconferencing and sourdough-making as one of the key ways we got through the COVID lockdown? SARAH CROWN, Director of Literature at the Arts Council and senior reviewer for the Guardian and the TLS, talks to Ros Taylor about why poetry’s stillness and conciseness is perfect for pressured times. Plus, how to find the right poetry for your lockdown experience. And do poets cope better with solitude – or does solitude turn you into a poet?“Poetry isn’t about escape. It’s about recognition, and achieving meaning in your life.”“In a pandemic we don’t look for happiness. We look for meaning. And poetry really delivers on that.” The poem that Sarah reads on this episode is Spring by Edna St. Vincent MillayPresented 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