172: A Kicking For Keir

Daniel Timms of the Sheffield Tribune tells the story of the solicitor who used legal loopholes to extract sums of £25,000 from Yorkshire homeowners. Part of Private Eye's Paul Foot Award 2026 shortlist series. 

Joe Duggan of the i paper tells the story of the workers falling ill and dying with silicosis after cutting fashionable kitchen counters without adequate protection. Part of Private Eye's Paul Foot Award 2026 shortlist series. 

The team discuss the Labour leadership, play Helen’s new quiz ‘Faction or Fiction’, and Saba Salman joins for a post-pre-mortem on the local elections.

The team discuss antisemitism across the British political scene, Nigel Farage's £5million bung, and one of the (few) bits of Parliament that genuinely works. 

Who wants to give Keir Starmer a kicking? Basically everyone. Rotten Boroughs editor Saba Salman joins Helen Lewis, Ian Hislop and Adam Macqueen to explain how British politics has fractured and how May's elections will be a total bunfight. Plus: how did Elizabeth II become Brenda, and what nicknames for Harry and Meghan never took off?

Is social media really as fun, child-friendly and good for mental health as everyone says? Helen, Adam, Andy and Matt Muir investigate. Plus, Reform and the Greens’ mirror-image election offerings, and a new (unauthorised) drama about the Prince Harry-Daily Mail trial.

Ian, Helen, Andy and special guest Richard Brooks discuss the USA entering its 'insane absolute monarch' era, the ongoing mayhem in the world's oil and gas markets, and check in on the financial arrangements of 'Little Donald', AKA Nigel Farage, and his Reform UK colleagues. 

Why did Trump declare his latest perfect, ‘very complete', already-won war, and how long will it go on? What will it do to American and British politics? Why can’t anyone in the British press remember the lessons of last time? What will this do to energy prices and the energy transition? And is this all a deliberate distraction from the Gorton and Denton by-election? Ian, Helen, Adam and Andy discuss the latest quiet week in world politics.

Ian, Adam, Andy and Rachael Claye discuss two men named Andrew - one who used to be a prince, and one who's still a solicitor with a very dubious practice. 

Street Of Shame writer Adam Macqueen updates Ian Hislop, Helen Lewis and Andrew Hunter Murray on the curious background to some of Prince Harry's key witnesses.