Get The Lowdown from Nick Cohen as he investigates a world that seems to get ever more crazy, with leading commentators and politicians. Each week, leading commentator Nick Cohen talks to the country's leading movers and shakers - to cut the through much of the drivel and commentary that passes for so much political discourse these days. Nick - a long-term columnist for The Observer and The Spectator - will be attempting to make sense of our ever stranger and troubling world with insightful ...
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Ep 36: A new age of authoritarianism with Anne Applebaum
41:10
41:10
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Send us a Text Message. Nick talks with Anne Applebaum, the celebrated American journalist, author and historian about her new book Autocracy Inc., The dictators who want to rule the world, published by Penguin. Putin, Xi Jinping, Jong Un, Trump, Maduro - dictators great and small - wannabe or real deal - dominate the news space these days. Democra…
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Ep: 35 Torygeddon - can the polls be right? With Tory expert Professor Tim Bale
38:31
38:31
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Send us a Text Message. Nick talks to Professor Tim Bale of the Queen Mary University of London, who is widely looked on as the UK's keenest academic observer of the Conservative Party. Poll after poll indicates a near-extinction event for the Conservative Party on July 4th. The disasters of Brexit, Johnson and Truss coupled with the Tories' tediou…
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Ep: 34: The Twighlight of the Tories with Rafael Behr
49:00
49:00
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49:00
Send us a Text Message. @NickCohen4 and Guardian political columnist @rafaelbehr discuss the potential for an extinction-level general election result for the Tories on July 4th. Time and events seem to have caught up with the Conservative Party at last as they face retribution at the hands of an exasperated electorate after 14 years of chaos and 5…
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Episode 33: Will Hutton on Labour's path ahead
25:32
25:32
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Send us a Text Message. Nick talks to celebrated author, columnist and editor Will Hutton about his new book, This Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain (Bloomsbury), described as "a brilliant book" by no less a figure than Sir Keir Starmer. If Labour wins - as currently expected - how does it pull the UK out of the doom cycle it's been put into …
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Ep 32: Will the real Keir Starmer step forward? With the Labour Leader's biographer Tom Baldwin
44:50
44:50
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44:50
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown on Sir Keir Starmer with the Labour Leader's biographer Tom Baldwin. Nick asks: WTF is Keir Starmer really? Tom - @TomBaldwin66 - spent hours with Starmer, his friends and family to investigate the supposed enigma that is the Labour Leader for his book which is just out - Keir Starmer: The Biograp…
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Ep 31: Pulling Brexit Britain out of its economic death spiral - with economist Danny Blanchflower
38:08
38:08
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38:08
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from leading economist Danny Blanchflower CBE - onetime external member of the Bank of England's interest rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee. Danny foresaw economic woes mounting up in 2007 and predicted a crash - a year or so before the start of the bank collapses that led to the Great Recess…
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Ep 30: The Tories' by-election blues and the stench of electoral death with Professor Tim Bale
29:19
29:19
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29:19
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Professor Tim Bale of the Queen Mary University of London, who is widely looked on as the UK's keenest academic observer of the Conservative Party. The Tories have been left reeling and predictably even more mutinous by their catastrophic defeats in last week's two by-elections in their hithe…
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Ep 29 How Labour wins big & stays in power with former Blair adviser John McTernan
54:32
54:32
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54:32
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from John McTernan, one-time political secretary to Tony Blair and seasoned political strategist and commentator. How does Labour not only win but replace the Tories finally as the natural party of government? 14 years of Tory misrule have brought the failed projects of Brexit and austerity and th…
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Ep 28: The Left's failure to confront the Trumpism menace with writer Matt Johnson
40:11
40:11
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40:11
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from US journalist and author Matt Johnson on the threat posed - yet again - by Donald Trump and his deranged far right MAGA cult that has captured the Republican Party. Matt - @mattjj89 - the author of How Hitchens can save the Left, explains how there is little evidence so far of a tangible cent…
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Ep 27: Breaking the Brexit Taboo with Professor Chris Grey
42:17
42:17
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42:17
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown on the UK's greatest taboo - the ever-deepening Brexit crisis - from Chris Grey, emeritus Professor @RoyalHolloway, and author of the highly-regarded and must-read blog, Brexit and beyond. Extra Brexit food checks come in from next week - threatening food price rises and shortages. Meanwhile, the …
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Ep 26: The Post Office scandal & the curse of British managerialism with economist Chris Dillow
32:32
32:32
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32:32
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Chris Dillow, the economist, and author of the Stumbling and Mumbling blog. Chris - @CJFDillow - is a keen commentator on British managerialism - the curse of incompetence and privileged entitlement that led to the Post Office scandal and blights much of modern Britain today. Chris explains h…
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Ep 25: Crimes against humanity, lies & misinformation in the Gaza conflict with Daniella Peled
30:21
30:21
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30:21
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Daniella Peled, Managing Editor of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, on the terrible conflict in Gaza . At a time when South Africa is bringing its genocide case against israel before the International Court of Justice, Daniella discusses with Nick the allegations of Israel's war cri…
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Ep 24: How the Radical Right of Reform could destroy the Tories - with Rob Ford
51:29
51:29
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51:29
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Professor Rob Ford of Manchester University on the epic civil war looming in a 2024 general election on the radical right of British politics between the Tories and Nigel Farage's latest vehicle for fantasy politics - Reform. Brexit, Liz Truss, crippling interest rate rises, a flat-lining eco…
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Ep 23: Praying for Tory wipe-out in 2024 with author & historian James Hawes
43:22
43:22
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43:22
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets the end of the year Lowdown from author, historian and novelist James Hawes as both contemplate the prospects of a general election in 2024. The last 13-14 years of Tory misrule has brought the successive disasters of austerity, Brexit, Boris Johnson, the Great Covid Bungle, Lettuce Truss , the so called Cost…
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Ep 22: Another fine Tory mess - The great Rwanda farce with immigration lawyer Colin Yeo
38:32
38:32
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38:32
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from barrister and writer Colin Yeo on the Tories' never ending Rwanda farce and the dog's breakfast they have made of the UK's asylum & immigration regime. When the UK flounced out of the European Union, it also walked away from a returns policy that meant asylum seekers could be returned to the …
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Ep 21: The Tories' perfect storm - how hard will it blow? with Professor Rob Ford
47:00
47:00
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47:00
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown from Professor Rob Ford of Manchester University, professor of political science, co-author of the award-winning book Revolt on the Right, and political commentator and pundit extraordinaire about the perfect storm of woe descending on the Tories. The disasters of Brexit, cost of living, the bungl…
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Ep 20: A Hitch in time? What would Christopher Hitchens have made of today's insanity? With author Matt Johnson
36:19
36:19
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Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Matt Johnson, author of How Hitchens can save the Left [Pitchstone Books] a celebrated study of the writer and polemicist Christopher Hitchens who sadly died 12 years ago aged just 62. Hitchens lived in the US and was a controversial and vivid commentator on the US and its various foreign pol…
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Ep: The strange death of the Left in the West & in Israel with Professor Shlomo Sand
31:31
31:31
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31:31
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Professor Shlomo Sand, author and historian about his new book A Brief Global History of the Left (Polity). What is happening to the Left? It seems to be dying a slow death in the West and certainly in Israel.. While many commentators have predicted its demise, the Left has always defied thes…
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Ep 18: Boris Johnson's poisoned legacy with historian Robert Saunders
34:40
34:40
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34:40
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown from Dr Robert Saunders, the historian and author, who is based at Queen Mary University of London where he specialises in modern British history, from the early 19th century to the present. Nick and Robert discuss the poisoned legacy of Boris Johnson and why so many people voted for him in Decemb…
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Ep 16: War and peace in the Middle East with journalist Daniella Peled of Institute for War & Peace Reporting
30:13
30:13
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30:13
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown on the brutal conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza from Daniella Peled, Managing Editor of the of Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR). Daniella puts into context the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas. Approximately 1,400 Israelis were killed by Hamas on October 7th. Since then, …
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Ep17: SLAPP BACK! How the rich abuse British courts with lawyer & author David Hooper
31:37
31:37
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31:37
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown from celebrated lawyer and author David Hooper whose latest book, Buying Silence, How oligarchs, corporations and plutocrats use the law to gag their critics (Biteback) exposes how the rich and powerful use vexatious so-called SLAPP legal actions - Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation -…
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Ep 15: Israel, Hamas and the threat to Britain's Jews with antisemitism expert Dave Rich
36:19
36:19
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36:19
Send us a Text Message. This week, Nick Cohen gets the Lowdown from Dr Dave Rich, Head of Policy for the Community Security Trust (CST) - an organisation that provides security for Jewish communities and institutions. Dave is also an expert in left wing anti-semitism and the author of the book Everyday Hate: How antisemitism is built into our world…
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Ep 14: The Ascent of Woke with Yascha Mounk
46:45
46:45
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46:45
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen talks to Yascha Mounk, the political scientist and author, about his new book about the astonishing rise of "Woke ideology" - The Identity Trap: A story of ideas and power in our time. According to the Washington Post, "whatever you call it — identity politics, political correctness, wokeness or cancel culture — s…
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Ep 13: Ukraine's path to victory with military strategist Dr Mike Martin
31:49
31:49
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31:49
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen talks to Dr Mike Martin, ex-soldier, military strategist and author about what victory looks like for Ukraine and how it can be achieved. Mike, a senior visiting research fellow in the Department of War Studies at King's College , London, explain to Nick how the West initially miscalculated Ukraine's chances again…
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Ep 12: The Tory South & its revolt against the UK with James Hawes
43:45
43:45
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43:45
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen talks to James Hawes, Renaissance man, historian, writer and novelist about the Tories' southern English tribe and the threat it poses to the rest of the UK. James, the author of The Shortest History of England, predicts the Tories will become ever more extreme and nationalist in electoral defeat and that the even…
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Ep 11: The Stagnation nation - is the UK's decline unstoppable? with Profesor Jonathan Portes
28:44
28:44
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28:44
Send us a Text Message. This week, Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Jonathan Portes , Professor of Economics and Public Policy at King's College London, ex- Chief Economist at the Cabinet Office. Jonathan is also a Senior Fellow of the Economic and Social Research Council's UK in a Changing Europe initiative, which examines the UK's now troubled re…
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Ep 10: Breaking the Brexit Omerta with Peter Foster of the Financial Times
29:59
29:59
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29:59
Send us a Text Message. This week, GetThe Lowdown from Nick Cohen with Peter Foster, Public Policy Editor of the Financial Times and expert on all things Brexit. @PMDFoster This month, Cannongate publishes Peter's much-anticipated new book What went wrong with Brexit, and what we can do about it. Probably, not every much for the moment seems to be …
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Ep. 9: Wither and whither the Tories? With author & Conservative Party expert - Professor Tim Bale
47:20
47:20
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47:20
Send us a Text Message. Professor Tim Bale of the Queen Mary University of London is widely looked on as the UK's keenest academic observer of the Conservative Party. Tim's latest book The Conservative Party after Brexit (published by Polity) charts the Party's dizzying descent into populist and radical hard right Brexit populism. Have the Tories t…
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Ep 8: From Russia with hate - the hang-up of history with Jade McGlynn
41:59
41:59
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41:59
Send us a Text Message. Russia expert and author Dr Jade McGlynn joins Nick Cohen from Kyiv to talk about Ukraine's tragedy - a Russia that has been badly run by bad men - with a couple of rare exceptions here and there. And how this also happens to be Russia's tragedy. Jade explains how the recent "Mad March on Moscow" by Wagner militia mafioso Ye…
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EP 7: Race in the UK and the US - with Tomiwa Owolade
39:29
39:29
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Send us a Text Message. The Lowdown from Nick Cohen this week examines the issue of race and diversity in the UK with the freelance writer and author Tom Owolade. Tom's brilliant and ground-breaking book This is not America - published by Atlantic - argues that too much of the debate about race in Britain has been viewed through the prism of Americ…
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Ep 6: Ex-Conservative minister Dr Phillip Lee on how Brexit wrecked the Tories
42:58
42:58
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42:58
Send us a Text Message. In 2018 , Conservative MP and Europhile Dr Phillip Lee resigned as a minister from Theresa May's stricken government over what he saw as the troubling direction of Brexit. The following year, he dramatically crossed the floor of the House of Commons to join the Liberal Democrats - during a speech by the disgraced former Prim…
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Ep 5: Polly Toynbee on class and her family history of radicals
41:04
41:04
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41:04
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen talks to Polly Toynbee, celebrated columnist, broadcaster and author about Britain's stubborn class system and the growing gap between the rich and poor under successive Tory governments. Atlantic Books has just published Polly's latest book, An Uneasy Inheritance, My family and other radicals, which has received …
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Ep 4: The English and the end of the United Kingdom
41:24
41:24
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41:24
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen speaks to historian and author James Hawes about the crisis of Englishness and the consequences this crisis is having on the rest of the United Kingdom. James, the author of internationally acclaimed The Shortest History of England , reveals how this crisis has deep historical and geographical roots that have dict…
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Ep 3: Britain's growing food crisis with Liz Webster
51:27
51:27
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51:27
Send us a Text Message. Nick Cohen speaks in depth about Britain's growing Brexit food crisis with Liz Webster from the campaigns, Save British Farming and Save British Food. #Brexit has already smashed food supply lines and jeopardised Britain's food security. Now new Brexit checks on EU imports scheduled for October look certain to lead to even m…
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Send us a Text Message. Get The Lowdown from Nick Cohen with veteran reporter and author John Sweeney on Putin and Russia's illegal war against Ukraine. John, the author of a recent book on Putin called "Killer in the Kremlin", discusses with Nick the possibilities for a Ukrainian victory as well as what defeat would mean for Putin's regime. Will P…
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Send us a Text Message. Writers and columnists Nick Cohen and Rafael Behr discuss the events that have shaped our world and dominated their personal and professional lives. Rafel discusses his new book - Politics - A Survivor's Guide. Rafel discusses how the impact of #Brexit and the wave of nationalist fervour in its wake has shaped his attitude t…
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