Byline Podcast

Has Labour declared war on welfare? The party was traditionally seen as a friend of the dispossessed, the downtrodden and the disabled, but Chancellor Rachel Reeves is looking to reduce the benefits bill by almost £5 billion pounds through changes revealed in her spring statement as well as previously announced adjustments to eligibility for the Personal Independence Payment. Official estimates forecast that, as a result, more than 3 million families will lose an average of £1700 a year by 2030 Another 3.8 million families will gain from changes to the system but only by an average of £420 a year The government says it will provide an additional £1billion to support people with health conditions into work.Adrian Goldberg discusses the cuts with disabled activist Ellen Clifford, author of The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe and Anna Landre, a wheelchair user who helped shape reform of the disability benefits system in her native USA.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the US engaging in its own self destructive version of the UK's decision to quit the European Union, by withdrawing from a central role in global affairs?Byline Times executive editor Peter Jukes is joined by the magazine's editor-in-chief Hardeep Matharu and regular contributor Otto English.Introduced by Adrian Goldberg.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg, Harvey White and Phil Driscoll. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adrian Goldberg discusses the consequences of Saudi-owned Newcastle United's Carabao Cup Final victory with John Hird and Peter Sagar of NUFC Fans Against Sportwashing.Produced by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White in Birmingham. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adrian Goldberg discusses Labour's proposed welfare cuts with Byline Times Political Editor Adam Bienkov and Tom Pollard, head of social policy at the New Economics Foundation. Tom is a former senior mental health policy advisor to the DWP, and is a part time mental health social worker.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Liverpool was once the UK's primary port of Empire but has now outlived its original purpose and like many post industrial towns in the UK is struggling for a new identity. Adrian Goldberg talks to Sam Wetherell about his new history, 'Liverpool And The Unmaking of Britain' which offers a perspective on the city as a symbol of both obsolescence and regeneration. Sam's book is a kind of love letter, exploring how Merseyside was abandoned by the capital – and by capital - when it was deemed surplus to requirements. And never mind the people left behind....Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adrian Goldberg hears from Zarina Zabrisky, a Byline Times reporter on the frontline of Ukraine's defence against Russian aggression in Kherson. Zarina details the impact of the withdrawal of US intelligence, especially in the Kursk region, parts of which Ukraine had seized in a counter offensive; and she also tells us about claims made by former KGB agent that Donald Trump was recruited as a Russian spy in 1987.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Trump's treatment of his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy is increasingly looking less like international diploamacy and more like performative cruelty. But why? Adrrian Goldberg introduces a conversation between Byline Times Executive Editor Peter Jukes and Editor in Chief Hardeep Matharu.Produced by Adrian Goldberg, Harvey White and Phil Driscoll. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer really be the bridge across the Atlantic to Donald Trump, an American president seemingly hell bent on destroying the NATO alliance…?Adrian Goldberg discusses whether the two leaders have a special relationship - and whether that can help Ukraine - with former UK diplomat Alex Hall Hall.Produced in Birmingham UK, by Adrian Goldberg. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Adrian Goldberg asks 'what's next for Germany?' after an election which saw the centre-right Union alliance between the conservative CDU and the CSU takes 28% of the vote. The CDU’s leader Friedrich Merz is in pole position to form the next government and become Chancellor but the far right AfD came second with 20% of the votes and polled especially strongly in the east of the country. Merz has talked about the need for Germany to wean itself off dependence on the US for defence.Adrian is joined by Helena Marschall, an activist with Berlin-based environmental pressure group Fridays for Future, and Jonathan Barth is a co-founder and Senior Fellow of ZOE Institute for Future-Fit economies.Produced in Birmingham, UK by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Social media phenomenon and left wing polemicist Ash Sarkar talks to Adrian Goldberg about her new book 'Minority Rule – Adventures In The Culture Wars' published by Bloomsbury.Produced in Birmingham by Adrian Goldberg and Harvey White. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices