Episodes
David Aaronovitch and guests discuss the reasons why millions of people in the UK aged between 16 and 64 are neither working nor looking for work and what we can do about it. Tony Wilson, Director of the Institute for Employment Studies Sam Avanzo Windett, Deputy Director at the Learning and Work Institute Torsten Bell, Chief Executive at the Resolution Foundation Production team: Sally Abrahams, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter Editor: Richard Vadon Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman Sound...
Published 04/25/24
Published 04/25/24
2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. In terms of population size there are none bigger than the six week exercise that got underway last Friday. The world’s biggest democracy - India - has gone to the polls and prime minister Narendra Modi is hoping – perhaps expecting – to win a third term. He first came to power in 2014 and since then fears about...
Published 04/22/24
David Aaronovitch and guests explore the thinking behind Iran's decision to attack Israel and ask what the short and long term aims of the Iranian regime are. Guests: Shashank Joshi, Defence editor at The Economist Ali Vaez, Iran Project Director at International Crisis Group Dr Roxane Farmanfarmaian, lecturer specialising in the politics of Iran and the Middle East at Cambridge University Production team: Sally Abrahams, Kirsteen Knight and Ben Carter Editor: Richard Vadon Production...
Published 04/18/24
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to “eliminate” Hamas but after six months of death and destruction in Gaza what do we know about their status? David Aaronovitch talks to: Jennifer Jefferis, Teaching Professor at Georgetown University's Security Studies program and author of Hamas: Terrorism, Governance, and its Future in Middle East Politics. Michael Clarke, Professor of Defence studies and Specialist Advisor to the Joint Committee on the National Security...
Published 04/11/24
The state pension system relies on the workers of today paying the pensions of current retirees. But does an aging population and rising costs threaten that model continuing? David Aaronovitch talks to: Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies Paul Lewis, financial journalist and presenter of Radio 4’s Money Box programme Claer Barrett, consumer editor at the Financial Times and presenter of the FT's Money Clinic podcast Sir Steve Webb, formerly Minister for Pensions and...
Published 04/04/24
2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. To mark this phenomenon we are broadcasting three special programmes. In the third and final programme in this special series we’re focusing on South Africa. It is 30 years since the African National Congress - led back then by Nelson Mandela - first won power. It has had a majority in parliament ever since. But this...
Published 03/05/24
2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. To mark this phenomenon we are broadcasting three special programmes. David Aaronovitch and guests discuss why do some countries bother holding elections if the outcomes are pre-determined and they also ask why the public bother voting in them? Guests: Naomi Hossain, Professor of Development Studies at SOAS Katerina...
Published 03/05/24
In 1964, pre-historic remains were discovered at Jabal Aṣ-Ṣaḥābah - or Mountain of the Companions - in the Nile Valley near what is now the border of northern Sudan and Egypt. That site contained evidence of the earliest known warfare believed to have taken place around 13,500 years ago. It’s thought that climate change led to that conflict; as crop yields became smaller, more groups had to compete with each other for what food sources were available. Spears and possibly arrows were the...
Published 02/28/24
It is two years since Russia began its costly conflict against Ukraine. How does it fund its war effort, how do sanctions impact that and how tight is Putin's grip on power? Guests: Sarah Rainsford, BBC Eastern Europe Correspondent Maria Shagina, Research Fellow for Economic Sanctions, Standards and Strategy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies Isaac Levi, Europe-Russia Policy & Energy Analysis Team Lead at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air Mark Galeotti,...
Published 02/22/24
Deaths from synthetic opioids such as nitazenes and fentanyl are low in the UK but there are fears the problem could escalate and that figures don't show the true picture of the situation. David Aaronovitch explores how dangerous these drugs are, why the opioid crisis is so bad in the US, where they come from and why a shortage of heroin in the UK could mean drug cartels switch to supplying these often fatal alternatives. Guests: Rick Treble, Forensic chemist, and advisor to the Government’s...
Published 02/15/24
This week a great queue of dentistless Bristolians appeared outside a new practice offering NHS treatment. That followed a report on children’s health which specifically referenced the poor and worsening state of their teeth. This week the government announced a package to try and improve things in England. But did it go anything like far enough to solve the problems of too few dentists being willing or able to treat NHS patients? David Aaronovitch is joined by the following...
Published 02/08/24
This week the Education Select Committee said that Ofsted and the Government must rebuild trust and make major changes to school inspections. This follows months of news coverage of the death of Ruth Perry, the headteacher who killed herself following an Ofsted inspection at her primary school. The coroner ruled that it contributed to her death. This week we ask - what’s the point of Ofsted? David is joined by the following experts: Sam Freedman, senior fellow at the Institute for...
Published 02/01/24
The UK is experiencing more rain and more floods than previously, and because of climate change this is set to get worse. More than 6 million homes are at risk of flooding in the UK. What is the state of the country’s flood defences? Can people get insurance? What can we do to prepare for a wetter future? David Aaronovitch is joined by the following experts: Louise Slater, Professor of Hydroclimatology at the University of Oxford Edmund Penning-Rowsell, Research Associate at Oxford...
Published 01/25/24
It’s been another difficult week for local government. Birmingham City Council announced it needs to make up to 600 redundancies to help balance its books and Middlesbrough Council decided to apply to the Government for £15m of emergency funding to avoid effective bankruptcy. Also this week new figures have been released showing just how much debt some local authorities hold. And it’s a lot. Since 2021 there have been six councils which have declared themselves effectively bankrupt. Given...
Published 01/18/24
As if the conflict in Gaza wasn’t bad enough, the fighting has ignited old and new tensions elsewhere across the region. Since the surprise attack by Hamas on 7th October, clashes on the Lebanon-Israel border have restarted, attacks on US troops stationed in Syria and Iraq have escalated and a group of Houthi armed rebels from Yemen has started firing rockets at cargo ships trying to access the Suez Canal from the Red Sea. So in this week’s programme David Aaronovitch asks how close the war...
Published 01/11/24
It’s almost 4 years since the UK left the European Union. Recent polls show a majority of people want to re-join the EU. But is this a realistic option? So in this week’s programme David Aaronovitch asks could we re-join the EU if we wanted? If we did, would it be of any benefit to the UK? And under what terms would the EU have us back? David is joined by the following experts: Peter Foster, Public Policy Editor at Financial Times Mujtaba Rahman, Managing Director for Europe at Eurasia Group...
Published 01/04/24
Aliens are back on the radar after a US Congressional hearing in the summer that featured former intelligence officer, David Grusch. The US Air Force veteran was once part of a task force created to look into what used to be called UFOs. Mr Grusch gave evidence that caused a sensation in America, claiming that the US military had, for decades, been in possession of crashed UFOs and 'non-human biologics'. His shocking claims were evidence that, whatever their accuracy, both created and...
Published 12/28/23
Housing charity Shelter’s latest figures show that homelessness has risen rapidly in the last year. In England, 279,400 people are living in temporary accommodation - an increase of 14% - most of whom are families. And the government’s own figures reveal that almost half (47%) of families who are homeless in temporary accommodation have been there for more than two years. Councils have a legal duty to house families and people who are vulnerable if they lose their homes, but the acute...
Published 12/21/23
Euthanasia is illegal in the UK. All attempts to change the law have failed. Other countries have legalised Assisted Dying and/or Euthanasia. In this week’s Briefing Room with David Aaronovitch we find out what their experience has been and what, if anything, the UK could learn from that. Joining David on the programme are: - Imogen Goold Professor of Medical Law at University of Oxford - Agnes van der Heide: Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam - Thaddeus Pope: Professor, Health...
Published 12/14/23
The start of Ukraine’s counter-offensive against occupying Russian forces was hailed as the breakthrough moment of the war so far. Now six months on, we ask what happened? The Secretary General of NATO has said we should be ‘prepared for bad news’ and the White House has warned that the US is running out of time and money to fund the war. In this week's Briefing Room with David Aaronovitch we find out why things haven’t progressed as hoped and how much Ukraine’s key backers still support the...
Published 12/07/23
UK net migration hit a record 745,000 in 2022 according to recently revised figures from the Office for National Statistics. That means the numbers coming to live in the UK were almost three quarters of a million more than those leaving. Reducing the numbers of people entering the country has long been a government priority with famous promises to reduce it to “tens of thousands”. In a post-Brexit era it had been assumed that the figures would naturally decline, but that hasn’t been the case....
Published 11/30/23
In recent weeks, and for obvious reasons, all eyes have been on Gaza. But more Palestinians live in the West Bank, the other Palestinian territory, and the area is critical forany chances of durable peace. Or to an expansion of the violence. So what is happening there right now? What is likely to happen? And does it entail more disaster or hold out the prospect of a settlement? David Aaronovitch talks to Dr Anne Irfan, historian of the modern Middle East at University College London, Dalia...
Published 11/23/23
Who's in the news for all the wrong reasons? David Yelland and Simon Lewis invite you to join them in the world of crisis managers and spin doctors as they watch the week's biggest PR disasters unfold.
Published 11/16/23
Israel and Hamas are at war and there are no signs of a quick resolution. But what would a resolution actually look like and who's actually going to try and negotiate one? David Aaronovitch talks to: Shashank Joshi, Defence editor at The Economist Steven Erlanger, Chief Diplomatic correspondent in Europe for The New York Times Professor Lina Khatib, Director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS University of London Production: Ben Carter, Sally Abrahams and Kirsteen Knight Production...
Published 10/19/23