Rock & Roll Politics with Steve Richards

Water privatisation was rushed through after the 1987 election. The many problems were as obvious then as they are now. So why was privatisation proclaimed as a Thatcherite triumph for decades?Rock N Roll Politics is live at the Hitchin Festival on Tuesday July 11. Tickets here:https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/hitchin/the-market-theatre/rock-n-roll-politics-with-steve-richards/e-kgvveaeaRock N Roll Politics is live at the Edinburgh Festival from Sunday August 13th with a different show every day. Tickets here:https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/steve-richards-presents-rock-n-roll-politics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The anti-Tory mood is deep and deepening but amidst the gloom where are the arguments about why nothing works in the UK? And where are the ideas that offer some hope that things can only get better? Plus - What have we learned in the fast moving Putin saga? All this and your brilliant questions too.Rock N Roll Politics is live at the Hitchin Festival on Tuesday July 11. Tickets here:https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/hitchin/the-market-theatre/rock-n-roll-politics-with-steve-richards/e-kgvveaea Rock N Roll Politics is live at the Edinburgh Festival from Sunday August 13th with a different show every day. Tickets here: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/steve-richards-presents-rock-n-roll-politicsSubscribe to Patreon for bonus podcasts and exclusive live events: https://www.patreon.com/RockNRollPolitics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Martin Rosenbaum was the BBC's Freedom of Information guru, seeking to uncover hidden material via the Freedom of Information Act, an item of legislation Tony Blair deeply regretted passing. Martin became the world expert on using the act and has now written a book called 'Freedom of Information: A Practical Guidebook'. Martin reflects on the dramas leading up to the act becoming law and what happened subsequently. As a former BBC editor he also discusses the political programmes he was involved in making.Book link:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Freedom-Information-practical-Martin-Rosenbaum/dp/1739800540/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is easy to blame Boris Johnson for everything that has gone wrong but the seeds of the current set of crises go deep, as the Covid Inquiry seems to recognise.Rock n Roll Politics is live at Edinburgh Festival from Sunday August 13 with a different show each day. Tickets here:https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/steve-richards-presents-rock-n-roll-politicsSupport Rock n Roll Politics on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/RockNRollPolitics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Following the publication of her book - My Family and Other Radicals, Polly Toynbee reflects on being privileged and on the left, her remarkable family, being on the losing side in politics most of the time and her hopes for Keir Starmer.Rock n Roll Politics is live at Edinburgh Festival from Sunday August 13 with a different show each day. Tickets here:https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/steve-richards-presents-rock-n-roll-politics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boris Johnson seeks to cause trouble for Rishi Sunak. Nicola Sturgeon is arrested. These dramas are more nuanced than they appear to be but for now the obvious beneficiary is Keir Starmer. However, Steve Richards asks if Starmer is conceding too much ground in advance of an election he looks like winning? Or does he look like winning because he concedes so much ground?Rock n Roll Politics is live at Edinburgh Festival from Sunday August 13 with a different show each day. Tickets here:https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/steve-richards-presents-rock-n-roll-politics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is the most pledged policy in recent decades and yet never delivered … Labour proposed a national care service in 2010, Theresa May had a plan in 2017, Boris Johnson pretended to have one in 2019 … So far nothing. Now the Fabian Society has set out its ideas for a National Care Service with a report broadly welcomed by its shadow Health Secretary, Wes Streeting. But where will the money come from and does Keir Starmer have the political will to deliver finally? That's two of many questions I discuss with Andrew Harrop, General Secretary of the Fabians as we delve deep in thorny areas with the next election moving into view.Rock N Roll Politics is live at the Edinburgh Festival from Sunday August 13th ... a different show every day. Tickets here:https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/steve-richards-presents-rock-n-roll-politics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boris Johnson is making life hellish for Rishi Sunak..causing trouble in relation to the Covid Inquiry, making the front pages most days of the week, making clear he blames Sunak for his fall. Former PMs make leadership difficult for their successors...does a politically active Johnson make it almost impossible to lead the troubled Conservative party?Support Rock & Roll Politics on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/RockNRollPolitics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a few decades the Conservative Party has changed from an expedient political force with MPs and members loyal to the leadership to a more factional and insurrectionary movement. Tim Bale, the author of The Conservative Party After Brexit-Turmoil and Transformation, has followed the changes at every level from the membership to the leadership. To make sense of the current turmoil in the UK's governing party we look back and follow the wild patterns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Suella Braverman and many others contemplating their leadership ambitions, take note. From Rab Butler to Jeremy Corbyn there are reasons why those seen by some as potential Prime Ministers never make it. Rock N Roll Politics is live at the Edinburgh Festival with a different show every day from Sunday August 13th. Tickets here:https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/steve-richards-presents-rock-n-roll-politics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices