172: Progressive realism

This week, Chris Bayliss and Poppy Coburn discuss Britain’s new command economy, and why the free market is anything but.www.thecritic.co.uk This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe

Fleur Meston and Poppy Coburn talk about how much the Overton Window has shifted in the last year, and how the continuing political rhetorical war around immigration proves the radical right are anything but.Head to www.outpoststudios.net and subscribe for all our bonus episodes. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe

Chris Bayliss and Tom Jones if Britain’s punishment system is really that broken, and if our authorities are giving up on crime and punishmentHead to www.outpoststudios.net and subscribe for all our bonus episodes. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe

It’s the season of goodwill, and in the first of our new Critic Show Graham Stewart joins Tom Jones to discuss the editorial themes of the Critic’s double bumper festive issue, as well as the New Critic essay and the debut piece on the decline and fall of the British Army. Head to www.outpoststudios.net and subscribe for all our bonus episodes. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe

Hello, and welcome to The Critic Show.Let’s not bother burying the lede. Britain’s best in-print periodical and online comment engine is re-launching our podcast — and this time you’ll be able to see us, as well as listen.Today we’ve released the first 4 episodes, which you can watch here. In these first episodes, regular Critics Chris Bayliss, Poppy Coburn, Fleur Meston and I discuss anarcho-tyranny, how the Overton window has shifted on immigration in the last year and whether Britain’s economy is fake. There’s also an episode with Critic editor Graham Stewart and I, where we discuss the Christmas double issue, the new Critic Essay and the debut piece by Ben Barry, on the decline and fall of the British Army. After that you’ll be able to join us every Monday. You can find it here on Outpost - and for full access to the exclusive bonus episodes, subscribe now. Does the world need another podcast? I get it. It must feel like every magazine has a podcast. It must feel like every 25-75 year-old man with a passing interest in culture and politics — and a lingering sense of frustration in life — has a podcast.Well, forget all that. It’s like watching St Paul’s being built and asking Christopher Wren if London hasn’t got enough churches. It’s like watching Shakespeare draft Hamlet and asking if the world really needs another play about moody teenagers. It’s like hearing Beethoven preparing his Ninth and asking if he doesn’t think there are already enough symphonies.Produced in partnership with Outpost Studios, this won’t be another chummy centrist political podcast — the kind Ben Sixsmith hates — that regurgitates the week’s news. Britain’s podcast market is saturated with the offerings of centrist hacks endlessly rehashing whatever has come up in Westminster that week, with no attempt to get under the skin of any story.Rather than chase the news cycle, we’re going to do what The Critic does best — leading sacred cows to slaughter. We’ll have satire rather than sanctimoniousness, punchy commentary rather than ponderous blather and, crucially, The Critic Show won’t be hosted by a man who made the case for invading Iraq or Lewis Goodall.Instead it will be hosted by me, Tom Jones, frequent contributor to these most august pages and owner of both the best hair and the best Donald Trump impression in journalism. I hope you’ll join me, as well as all the other varied and talented Critic contributors who will appear on the podcast, as we dig the scalpel of our analysis into the flesh of world events. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe

Actor James Dreyfus joins Jo Bartosch to discuss the gender wars, cancel culture and the stifling of individuality in art. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe

Can Labour's new foreign policy doctrine work in our troubled world? Professor Patrick Porter joins Sebastian Milbank to discuss this, the Chagos Islands, Lebanon and the future of Britain in an increasingly isolated Europe.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe

In an age of globalisation could world government be on the horizon? Gal Treger joins Sebastian Milbank to discuss his recent article, and how deeper forms of identity and belonging will always take their revenge on dreams of worldwide hegemony. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe

Three very sleepy men discuss the election result. In an heroic bit of Critic broadcasting, Richard Johnson, a senior lecturer in politics at Queen Mary University and Sam Bidwell, a Parliamentary researcher and freelance writer join executive editor Sebastian Milbank to talk Reform, sectarian voting, first past the post, and Labour's constitutional plans.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe

As Britain goes to the polls, we look at one of the election's untold stories — the emergence of a revived SDP (Social Democratic Party), carrying forwards an Owenite, socially conservative and economically left wing message to British voters. The SDP's leader, William Clouston, joined Executive Editor Sebastian Milbank to explain the party's vision.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.outpoststudios.net/subscribe