Best Alys Denby Podcasts (2024)

1
Boats and votes 23:52

5M ago23:52

23:52

Parliament is back and so are the Tory factions fighting over the Rwanda scheme. In the first CapX Podcast of 2024, Alys Denby is joined by Research Director at the Centre for Policy Studies Karl Williams to discuss how debates over immigration policy will play out over the next year, and what impact they will have on the upcoming general election.…

1
CapX's Christmas podcast: Heroes and villains of 2023 40:48

6M ago40:48

40:48

CapX Editor Alys Denby runs through the people and policies that made 2023 another peculiar year in politics, with Poppy Coburn, Assistant US Opinion Editor at the Telegraph, William Atkinson, Assistant Editor at Conservative Home and Joseph Dinnage, Deputy Editor of CapX. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

1
Analysing the Autumn Statement with Richard Hughes and Vicky Pryce 31:36

6M ago31:36

31:36

Aside from a windfall from higher inflation which the Chancellor used to make tax cuts, the underlying picture for the economy is essentially flat. That being said, some welcome pro-growth measures were announced, most notably the decision to make full expensing permanent. But is it too little too late? To analyse what this means for the future of …

1
Israelophobia with Jake Wallis Simons 42:07

8M ago42:07

42:07

The world has just witnessed the worst attack on Jewish people since the Holocaust. Yet amid the international condemnation of Hamas terrorists, there has also been equivocation – and even celebration in some quarters. No other conflict stirs emotions like that between Israel and Palestine - so why is it that the world’s only Jewish state appears t…

1
Making sense of Conference with Robert Colvile 11:15

8M ago11:15

11:15

It’s Party Conference season, and while the Lib Dems were kayaking and playing crazy golf in Bournemouth last week, this weekend it’s the Tories’ turn to troop up to Manchester. Attendees are anticipating drama, gossip and exciting policy announcements – the Prime Minister is promising 'long-term decisions for a brighter future'. But while Rishi Su…

1
Cambridge, too far? 21:34

10M ago21:34

21:34

CapX talks about housing a lot – most often to scream 'build more houses!' into a void – yet politicians appear stuck in a doom loop when it comes to this urgent topic. Conservative MPs talk a good game about the need for housing, as long as it's anywhere but in their constituency, while Labour talk up discredited socialist ideas like rent controls…

1
The War On Your Mind 34:38

11M ago34:38

34:38

In a world saturated with information, we have more choices than ever – but how freely do we make them? In their new book Free Your Mind – The new World of Manipulation and how to Avoid it, journalist Laura Dodsworth and behavioural scientist Patrick Fagan argue that there is a war on our minds as the media, advertisers, politicians and big tech vi…

1
Isabel Hardman on the NHS' Fight for Life 33:07

11M ago33:07

33:07

The NHS recently marked its 75th birthday with the kind of love-in most countries reserve for a passing monarch or truly iconic celebrity. So what is about our health service that has created such a fervent attachment amongst so many Brits, even when it underperforms compared to some of our continental peers? To find out, we invited the journalist,…

1
Where does all your rubbish go? 27:02

11M ago27:02

27:02

Trash, garbage, litter or rubbish – whatever you call it the world is producing ever more of the stuff. But where does it all go once it's left our colour-coded bins? And what about all those clothes you leave at the charity shop thining you've done a good turn? The fascinating tapestry of grime that is the modern waste industry is documented in pa…

1
Frank Luntz on the language of freedom 29:28

12M ago29:28

29:28

He’s best known for coming up with the terms death tax and climate change, so it’s fair to say Frank Luntz knows a thing or two about political communication – making him an ideal guest for the CapX Podcast. We sat down to discuss his latest project for the Centre for Policy Studies delving into how the British public really feel about that most Am…

1
This is Europe with Ben Judah 28:07

12M ago28:07

28:07

How do we really live now? From a Romanian truck driver to an Amazon deliveryman and a factory production line worker, Ben Judah tried to answer that question by speaking to the people whose labour makes the freedom and prosperity the rest of us enjoy possible – for his latest book This is Europe. The author and Atlantic Council fellow crossed the …

1
The big AI debate 23:07

12M ago23:07

23:07

As with so much modern political theatre, the debate on artificial intelligence has become polarised to a point that is often profoundly unhelpful, with a false dichotomy between 'doomers' and utopians who see AI as a solution to the world's many problems, both technical and social. Between those positions is a world of nuance and wildly varying pr…

1
A fork in the road 20:46

1y ago20:46

20:46

There are few political questions as vexed as how to tax hard-pressed motorists. For many years, the Treasury has treated British drivers as a cash cow, levying high taxes while investing relatively little in the road network. Now, however, things are changing rapidly. The take-up of electric vehicles and the upcoming ban on new petrol and diesel c…

1
What's the point of National Conservatism? 24:26

1y ago24:26

24:26

What is National Conservatism? That's the question we're grappling with this week following the big National Conservatism Conference in London. While it certainly generated lots of media heat, it's still not particularly clear what this US-imported idea actually stands for. Indeed, the answer seemed to vary depending on which of the eclectic cast o…

1
Lord Frost on the state of Brexit Britain 34:55

1y ago34:55

34:55

Our guest this week played an instrumental role in the UK's departure from the European Union. As Boris Johnson's Europe adviser and then chief negotiator in the exit talks with the EU, Lord Frost drew on a lifetime of experience as a civil servant and foreign office diplomat to help get the Trade and Cooperation Agreement over the line. Since leav…

1
In defence of the rich – with Emily Carver, Luke Johnson, Merryn Somerset Webb & Martin Vander Weyer 48:07

1y ago48:07

48:07

Here at CapX we love an unfashionable cause – and in a cost of living crisis, few demographics are less popular than those who seem to be struggling less. But we're also fans of basic economic concepts, and with the tax burden the highest it’s been since the era of state socialism under Attlee, the Laffer Curve inevitably comes to mind. Because whi…

1
Fuelling the future 21:29

1y ago21:29

21:29

Did you know that every time you fill up your car, you are paying for the UK’s biofuels mandate, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO)? In fact, some 6% of the price Brits pay at the pump goes on biofuel being blended into petrol and diesel. More concerning still at a time of soaring food prices, crops such as wheat and corn are still a ce…

1
Reasons to be fearful, with Ed West 36:30

1y ago36:30

36:30

Things can seem a bit gloomy at the moment, and no one is better suited to explaining why than our guest this week, the Tory writer and self-proclaimed doom-monger Ed West. In an eclectic career that has spanned lad mags, religious publications and a very popular personal Substack, Ed has become one of the most entertaining, thought-provoking write…

1
AI-pocalypse now? 23:38

1y ago23:38

23:38

Breathless predictions of AI-induced doom are all around, with some experts in the field saying the technology has already advanced beyond the point of no return. The recent open letter signed by the likes of Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak and Andrew Yang was just the latest example of the unease that programmes such as Chat GPT-4 have provoked. So how w…

1
Stephen D King on why we need to talk about inflation 37:59

1y ago37:59

37:59

After years where prices barely seemed to rise and interest rates remained stubbornly low, the last two years have seen inflation come roaring back - combined with union strife and an energy crisis it has felt like we've been living through the 1970s all over again. What better time then, for an economist to publish a handy explainer on just what i…

1
Ben Ansell on Why Politics Fails 36:26

1y ago36:26

36:26

Would we all be better off if only we had better politicians? It's a comforting illusion, but really the problem isn't those who sweep in and out of power, but you and me, the public - that's the basic argument put forward by political scientist Ben Ansell in his new book Why Politics Fails. Drawing on examples from Ancient Greece to Brexit and Cov…

1
Hannah Barnes on the rise and fall of the Tavistock gender clinic 41:16

1y ago41:16

41:16

How did an NHS clinic end up prescribing young people potential dangerous medical treatment with next to no data on the long-term effects? And why did that same clinic fail to respond to the concerns not just of outsiders, but its own staff? These are just some of the many questions posed by BBC journalist Hannah Barnes in her new book 'Time To Thi…

1
Breaking down the Budget 31:20

1y ago31:20

31:20

It's that special time of year again when the Chancellor delivers a Budget, before commentators, policy wonks and political opponents rush to tear it apart in the ensuing days. In that noblest of British traditions, we invited our editor-in-chief, Robert Colvile and the Centre for Policy Studies tax and policy guru, Tom Clougherty, for a special Bu…

1
Colonialism and the culture wars with Nigel Biggar 46:50

1y ago46:50

46:50

How bad was the British Empire? That's the question Nigel Biggar, Emeritus Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, has attempted to answer in his book Colonialism a Moral Reckoning. But in doing so, he has confronted those who don’t just want to tell a one-sided story of an imperial project motivated solely by r…

1
Ross Clark on 'Not Zero' 45:35

1+ y ago45:35

45:35

The Government's Net Zero target is nothing if not ambitious - to decarbonise the British economy - energy, manufacturing, transport and agriculture included - all in the space of just a few decades. But while there is a glut of potentially exciting new low-carbon technologies, and some encouraging signs that renewables are getting a lot cheaper, t…

1
Gavin Jackson on how money makes the world go round 33:26

1+ y ago33:26

33:26

This week we're talking about moola, lolly, dough or dosh - the thing that makes the world go round...Money. In his recent book Money in One Lesson the economic journalist Gavin Jackson tries to answer a seemingly basic but very tricky question: what is money and how does it work? It's a grand tour of the monetary world, from pigs in Papua New Guin…

1
Alex Massie on the Sturgeon succession 38:01

1+ y ago38:01

38:01

Nicola Sturgeon's resignation on Wednesday morning was a slightly puzzling political event – 'shocking', in the sense that it heralds the departure of a politician who has occupied the highest perch in Scottish politics for so long, but also not all that surprising, given both the First Minister's recent political travails and the fact she had star…

1
Remaking Britain 27:32

1+ y ago27:32

27:32

Britain isn’t working well for many of us right now. The cost of energy, housing, and food are too high, while decent jobs with real prospects are hard to come by. That is the clarion call of a new campaign group that aims to get Britain building again - Britain Remade starts from the conviction that Britain has been a great hub of industry and sci…

1
Why is tax so taxing? 34:37

1+ y ago34:37

34:37

Few political questions are as basic, or as pressing, as how a government raises the money it spends – and the last year in British politics has provided ample examples of the political pitfalls of tax reform. In principle a good tax system should be a winning combination of fairness, efficiency, smooth revenue raising and growth-enhancing incentiv…

1
Christopher Snowdon on why Nanny doesn't know best 47:06

1+ y ago47:06

47:06

From sin taxes to plain packaging, smoking bans to warnings about the perils of office cake, the reach of Britain's nanny state has never felt more pervasive or pedantic. Only this week the public health panjandrums came up with a new wheeze - proposing reducing the calorie content of certain naughty foods by 10% in a bid to shrink the nation's wai…

1
John Longworth on how to make Brexit work for Britain 39:50

1+ y ago39:50

39:50

Our guest this week. John Longworth, is a real titan of UK PLC. As a scientist, business, entrepreneur and advocate for the interests of British business, there aren't many who have John's breadth or depth of experience - something he's bringing to bear now as chairman of the Independent Business Network, which represents our often ignored small an…

1
Samuel Hughes on solving the housing puzzle 34:07

1+ y ago34:07

34:07

CapX regulars know all too well the parlous state of British housing. We don't build enough, what we do build is often shoddy and angrily opposed by local people, and both rents and mortgages are increasingly out of the reach of even those on middling income. There is no single silver bullet, no snapping of the fingers that will suddenly deliver a …

1
The CapX Podcast: The heroes and villains of 2022 50:48

1+ y ago50:48

50:48

Trying to boil down this eventful, hectic and often tragic year into a single podcast was always going to be a hell of a challenge - but here on the CapX Podcast we like to shoot for the moon and cram in as much content for our loyal listeners as possible. To that end, our editors John and Alys brought together some of Westminster's sharpest commen…

1
Educating England 30:45

1+ y ago30:45

30:45

Wherever you look workers are going on strike and our schools are no exception - even though Jeremy Hunt managed to find an extra few billion behind the Treasury couch for education at his recent Autumn Statement. So what's going on here, why are union leaders still balloting, and what's the state of English schools after 12 years of Tory-led gover…

1
Census sensibilities 45:25

1+ y ago45:25

45:25

What kind of country is Britain today? That might be a rather broad question, but thanks to the recently published census, we can have a stab at answering it – at least for England and Wales. For this week's topical podcast we kick off with deep dive into those findings, what they say about Britain's demography and, in particular, the rapidly decli…

1
Baroness Dambisa Moyo on the global growth challenge 31:03

1+ y ago31:03

31:03

Baroness Dambisa Moyo is a seriously impressive woman. She’s worked at the World Bank and Goldman Sachs analysing global economic trends, and sat on the boards of numerous FTSE100 companies including Barclays and Chevron. She’s also the author of five books including best-sellers Dead Aid – a critique of development policy in Africa – and How the W…

1
Tyler Cowen on talent, economic optimism – and where to find a decent curry 40:08

1+ y ago40:08

40:08

Our guest this week is one of a kind. A truly polymathic personality, there's not much Tyler Cowen doesn't have a well informed view on, from the merits of Bradford curry houses to the future of cryptocurrencies and the fate of Trussonomics. That breadth of interest is evident from his prolific writing on his Marginal Revolution blog, in the pages …

1
Oliver Wiseman on America's 'red ripple' 33:46

1+ y ago33:46

33:46

We're turning our gaze Stateside this week where the mid-term elections promised a red wave and delivered ,well, something more like a ripple. A bad night for Donald Trump, a pretty good one for Joe Biden and a fascinating tee-up for the presidential race in a couple of years' time. To chew over the results we welcomed back to the podcast my predec…

1
Ian Acheson on police, prisons and protecting the border 38:27

1+ y ago38:27

38:27

Law and order has shot up the political agenda in the last year or so, with the chaos in the Channel, damning reports into the culture of the Met Police and chaos in the prison system. Just this week we've seen the firebombing of a migrant centre in Dover and uproar over the treatment of asylum seekers at an asylum centre in the Kent village of Man…

1
Third time lucky? 34:34

1+ y ago34:34

34:34

Typical isn’t it – you wait ages for a new Prime Minister and then three come along in six months. Rishi Sunak has taken command of a party that’s been through a bruising ideological battle and taken a battering in the polls as a result. He inherits an economy that’s in even worse shape than it was when Liz Truss took charge, which, to be clear, wa…

1
Iuliia Mendel on working for Zelensky and Ukraine's fight for survival 32:32

1+ y ago32:32

32:32

Volodymyr Zelensky became a a global icon almost overnight following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of this year. The force of his leadership and defiance in the face of overwhelming Russian force offered hope in his country's darkest hour. For our guest this week, Zelensky's heroic defiance came as no great surprise. Iuliia Mendel wor…

1
The CapX Podcast: Bonds, Bailey and Bonking for Britain 49:18

1+ y ago49:18

49:18

We aren't in the habit of quoting Lenin on CapX, but his observation that there are 'decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen' has felt pretty apposite recently. So there's plenty to discuss in our latest topical podcast: from chaos in the gilt markets to the Government's growing list of u-turns. We also take on the broader questi…

1
The CapX Podcast: Richard Reeves on why modern men are struggling 46:32

1+ y ago46:32

46:32

When we think of the fight for gender equality, more often than not it's framed in terms of the unequal, often violent, treatment suffered by women and girls. In many, many places, that is very much still the case - but in the West the 'battle of the sexes' is not as clear cut as it once was. Though there are certainly a host of challenges facing w…

1
The CapX Podcast: Julian Jessop on a tough week for 'Trussonomics' 31:54

1+ y ago31:54

31:54

There's no doubt it's been tough week for proponents of so-called 'Trussonomics', with the Government's Growth Plan taking pelters from all sides and the Bank of England stepping in to calm down the gilt markets. But does that mean the game is up for supply-side reformers? Our guest this week, Julian Jessop, has been in the vanguard of the pro-libe…

1
Edward Chancellor on The Price of Time 46:11

1+ y ago46:11

46:11

From ancient Mesopatamia to the Monetary Policy Committee, the story of trade, commerce and capitalism is also the story of interest rates. Few people are as intimately acquainted with that topsy-turvy narrative as our guest this week, the financial journalist and historian Edward Chancellor. In his recent book The Price of Time, Edward offers not …

1
Brad DeLong on Slouching Towards Utopia 35:08

1+ y ago35:08

35:08

In a world of relentless, high-velocity news, sometimes it pays to take a step back and look at the big picture. Our guest this week, the US economist Brad DeLong, does that with some aplomb in his new book 'Slouching Towards Utopia', a sweeping survey of economic development from the late 19th century to the present day, and an attempt to work out…

1
Exam questions with Dr David James 30:34

2y ago30:34

30:34

It’s results season, so as well as an opportunity to offer congratulations or commiserations to all our many teenage listeners getting their GCSEs and A Levels this week, it’s a chance to talk about education policy. This is the first year since the pandemic that anyone has sat public examinations, which means an inevitable readjustment and many ch…

1
Robert Colvile and Henry Hill on the way water works 50:14

2y ago50:14

50:14

Water, water everywhere...this week's news has been dominated by rows over the privatised utilities. From polluting water companies to 'greedy' energy bosses, it's open season on anyone who dares turn a (highly regulated) profit while providing an essential public service. Recent water and high energy prices have also turned a spotlight on a chroni…

1
Are you a Booster or a Doomster? 45:35

2y ago45:35

45:35

Are you a booster or a doomster? A recent article by the economist and CapX regular Sam Bowman suggests this is the divide in UK economic policy. For the Boosters, not only is growth paramount, but there's plenty we can do through better domestic policy to improve things, both right now and for future generations. Doomsters, unsurprisingly, take a …

1
Madeline Grant on the age of 'vibes politics' 43:29

2y ago43:29

43:29

This week we were delighted to welcome one of the stars of the centre-right media landscape, Madeline Grant. After starting out in thinktank world at the Institute of Economic Affairs, Madeline has since forged a path in journalism as a comment editor, columnist and latterly sketch-writer at the Daily Telegraph. There was plenty for us to chew over…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Alys Denby Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Quick Reference Guide