
The Lowdown from Nick Cohen
Get The Lowdown from Nick Cohen as he investigates a world that seems to get ever more crazy, with leading commentators, columnists and politicians.Each week, leading commentator Nick Cohen talks to the country's leading movers and shakers - to cut the through much of the noise and commentary that passes for so much political discourse these days. Nick - a long-term columnist for The Observer and The Spectator - teams up with other commentators, journalists, authors and politicians to make sense of our ever stranger and troubling world. Nick aims to help keep you sane! So please get The Lowdown from Nick Cohen and subscribe to his Substack column - Writing from London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Latest episodes

Sep 13, 2023 • 29min
Ep 11: The Stagnation nation - is the UK's decline unstoppable? with Profesor Jonathan Portes
Send us a textThis week, Nick Cohen gets The Lowdown from Jonathan Portes , Professor of Economics and Public Policy at King's College London, ex- Chief Economist at the Cabinet Office. Jonathan is also a Senior Fellow of the Economic and Social Research Council's UK in a Changing Europe initiative, which examines the UK's now troubled relatIonship with the EU.Can anything be done to prevent the UK's growing economic crisis? Is decline inevitable? Jonathan reveals how the UK's growth rate shrank by three-quarters following the 2008 crash. Now the country's annual growth rate is an anaemic half a percent with the economy projected to double every 120-140 years instead of the pre-2008 35-year period. Inevitably, Brexit's not helping as it hits trade and tax revenues. But there are other systemic failures.Jonathan says there's plenty of things a new Labour government could do - despite the calamity of Brexit - to try and run things around: build homes, reform social ansd tax policy plus up-date our dysfunctional and decrpit voting systemSupport the showListen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 24, 2023 • 47min
Ep. 9: Wither and whither the Tories? With author & Conservative Party expert - Professor Tim Bale
Send us a textProfessor Tim Bale of the Queen Mary University of London is widely looked on as the UK's keenest academic observer of the Conservative Party. Tim's latest book The Conservative Party after Brexit (published by Polity) charts the Party's dizzying descent into populist and radical hard right Brexit populism. Have the Tories truly transmogrified into to the far right europhobic party they appear to be or are they merely aping one to appeal to the ageing reactionaries controlling local Tory constituencies, and, against the odds, cling onto power whatever the cost to the country?Tim Bale argues the Tories are almost certainly on the way out of power- and thatb Rushi Sunak doesn't appear to have what it takes to save them.Support the showListen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jul 2, 2023 • 42min
Ep 8: From Russia with hate - the hang-up of history with Jade McGlynn
Send us a textRussia expert and author Dr Jade McGlynn joins Nick Cohen from Kyiv to talk about Ukraine's tragedy - a Russia that has been badly run by bad men - with a couple of rare exceptions here and there. And how this also happens to be Russia's tragedy. Jade explains how the recent "Mad March on Moscow" by Wagner militia mafioso Yevgeny Prigozhin is a symptom of Vladamir Putin's dysfunction and despotism, and how hatred flows now flows between Ukraine and Russia like drones and missiles.Jade McGlynn - widely acknowledged as a brilliant and insightful author and Russian observer - is the author of two recent landmark books relating to the tragedy now playing out in Ukraine - Russia's War, published by Pushkin House, and Memory Makers, just published by Bloomsbury. Memory Makers, The Politics of the past in Putin's Russia, is based on Jade's analysis since 2014 of the start of Russia's illegal incursions into Ukraine. The book examines how Russia's repeated misadventures into its neighbour's territories are driven by the obsessive lies and myths it's gaslit into believing by Putin, and too many of his predecessors.Support the showListen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 26, 2023 • 39min
EP 7: Race in the UK and the US - with Tomiwa Owolade
Send us a textThe Lowdown from Nick Cohen this week examines the issue of race and diversity in the UK with the freelance writer and author Tom Owolade.Tom's brilliant and ground-breaking book This is not America - published by Atlantic - argues that too much of the debate about race in Britain has been viewed through the prism of American experiences and history. This prism fails to reflect the challenges – and achievements – of an increasingly diverse black British population and distorts how many people view the issue of race in the UK.Tom tells Nick that too few Brits understand the ethnic changes that are taking place in the UK or even the wide diversity of black British communities themselves, especially given the arrival of people from west and east Africa in recent years. Tom also believes class is a hugely important additional factor in the UK. Tom and Nick explore the significant differences in the history and experiences of black Brits and Black Americans. You can read Nick's assessment of Tom's important debut book in his Substack column, Writing from LondonSupport the showListen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 28, 2023 • 51min
Ep 3: Britain's growing food crisis with Liz Webster
Send us a textNick Cohen speaks in depth about Britain's growing Brexit food crisis with Liz Webster from the campaigns, Save British Farming and Save British Food.#Brexit has already smashed food supply lines and jeopardised Britain's food security. Now new Brexit checks on EU imports scheduled for October look certain to lead to even more empty supermarket shelves and further fuel food inflation. Liz Webster explains how Brexit threatens to worsen even further Britain's already chronic food shortages, a crisis already exacerbated by climate change and Putin's illegal aggression against Ukraine.Support the showListen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.