Quiet Riot

Naomi and Alex zoom in on the Reform UK Party Conference and consider whether it is possible for Nigel Farage to professionalise the party and rid it of bigots - as he says he wants to do - and whether that makes it more or less dangerous to the health of our body politic. Plus a whistle-stop tour of other news, including the allegations agains Al Fayed and Harrods and the extraordinary scandal engulfing the Republican gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina. Plus - how to pack for a party conference! [TW rape and sexual assault.]We make all of our content universally available for free. But we do need your support to keep making it. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.Alex: “It’s very hard to think there won’t be a clash between those very big male egos at the centre of Reform UK. You have Richard Tice, ploughing in all the money, while getting none of the spotlight, Nigel Farage who has this overwhelming air of I-know-best, and then you have Lee Anderson - a recalcitrant blabbermouth who refuses to be reined in. At some point those big alphas will do bloody battle.”Naomi: “I sense that the mood is not going to be as jubilant as one would expect it to be, given it will be the first Labour Conference, post their landslide election win.”Naomi: “I hate packing for party conferences. And I am someone who likes packing.”Naomi's Guardian piece on the Canadian Reform Party's hostile takeover of the Conservatives, can be read here.Find us on Facebook and Twitter as @quietriotpod and on Bluesky. Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. (We are working on threads and YouTube.)IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A FUN mini edition of Poll The Other One, in which Naomi digs into the cross tabs and break points of a frivolous aspect of a very serious piece of polling: How does your favourite takeaway correlate with your age, location, party preference, and even newspaper of choice? Which are the only constituencies where 'chicken shop' is Top 3? What is a Sun reader's fave takeaway? And why will so few of us admit to loving a kebab? A perfect 10-minute listen.We make all of our content universally available for free. But we do need your support to keep making it. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.You can find the MUNCH MAPPER HERE.Find us on Facebook and Twitter as @quietriotpod and on Bluesky. Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. (We are working on threads and YouTube.)IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recorded live at the Radio Academy Festival 2024, Alex and Naomi, along with special guest, comedian and impressionist, Rory Bremner discuss #frockgate and Starmer's generally falling popularity and problem image, a second attempt against Trump's life and his lies, as well as a guide to Party Conferences. Plus regular features You Gotta Troll With It and Wokey Dokey. If you can afford to help, you can back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi. If you do so now, you can be part of the supporter editorial meeting next Thursday 26 September. CALL TO ACTIONThe government's consultation on visa conditions is here. The full list of consultations can be found here - they are sortable by subject area.Find us on Facebook and Twitter as @quietriotpod and on Bluesky. Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com.Click here for your Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Pack.Click here for a second Bluesky Starter Pack.Click here for the third Bluesky Starter Pack.IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Naomi and Alex talk through the weeks news, including the NHS report, winter fuel payments, the OBR report into national debt and immigration. And they speak to special guest, former UK-US ambassador Sir Kim Darroch on the latest Russian threats over Ukraine and the US Election. WHAT A PACKED SHOW!If you can afford to help, you can back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.Sir Kim Darroch on Trump's plan to end the war in Ukraine: "It's a ludicrous thing to say. He's giving away any leverage on Putin by preemptively announcing he will stop weapon supplies to Ukraine. That's a negotiating mistake. What Trump is actually proposing is a deal in which Ukraine allows Russia to win. That looks to me like a huge defeat for the West. It's ending the war by, effectively, forcing Ukraine to surrender."Naomi: “Is the Winter Fuel Allowance a moment like tuition fees were for the Lib Dems - something from which they will not recover? I don’t think so, for one key reason: With that u-turn, the Liberal Democrats hurt their own core voters. Well-off older people are not voting Labour.”Alex: “The country with the highest immigration is America. Which also happens to be the richest country. Those two things are related. There is something very particular to the energy migrants bring to a country. If you're looking for people with what you call get-up-and-go, you can’t do better than those who actually got up and went.”Find us on Facebook and Twitter as @quietriotpod and on Bluesky. Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com.Our THIRD Starter Pack to accompany this Special can be found here.Click here for your Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Pack.Click here for a second Bluesky Starter Pack.IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Scottish politics klaxon! This bonus episode is a real treat for Quiet Rioters, featuring the insight and wisdom of Strathclyde University politics professor Sir John Curtice.Sir John, Britain's best-known polling expert, is a regular fixture on TV and radio (for those of you who still watch telly...) and no election night is complete until he has cast his eyes over the political landscape.Naomi and Sir John look at the state of Scottish politics, the challenges for the big parties, the skip fire that is the Scottish Tory leadership race and examine the differences between politics north and south of the Border ... you may be surprised about how different things are (and are not).For an even bigger fix of Sir John, check out his podcast Trendy, with former Downing St adviser Rachel Wolf.And for an extra hit of Quiet Riot, find us on Facebook and Twitter as @quietriotpod and on Bluesky. Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com.Click here for your Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Pack.Click here for a second Bluesky Starter Pack.Our THIRD Starter Pack can be found here.IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with SandStone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex and Naomi, along with wonderful guests Alexis Conran and Simon Radford, discuss the fallout from Trump's "They're Eating The Dogs" humiliation by Kamala Harris. Followed by a discussion of why is regualtion of the gambling industry so lax, considering the lives gambling addiction destroys. Plus the return of Arlene On Me.If you can afford to help, you can back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.Simon: “There’s probably been three occasions in the last few decades where a debate has been decisive. Some people point to the Nixon-Kennedy debate, where Nixon won on Radio but Kennedy won on TV. Reagan cleaned Carter’s clock and it went from being a tight race to a landslide for Reagan. And then Trump versus Biden, which knocked the latter out of the race entirely.”Alexis: “We’re getting up to just under 500 suicides a year, which are thought to be related to gambling. I don’t know why we can’t force the industry to be a bit more responsible. You can’t watch sport without being prompted to gamble. You go to a PG film and there will be a gambling advert before it.”Alexis: “I think we need to make gambling a health issue. Just under half a billion quid from the NHS goes to helping problem gamblers. If we take it our of DCMS - why is it there? - and make it a Wes Streeting problem, you might see more action.”CALLS TO ACTIONInformation on the Gambling White Paper can be found here.Anthony O'Shaughnessy's "cougary" TikTok is here.Alexis Conran's documentary on gambling addiction is here.Find us on Facebook and Twitter as @quietriotpod and on Bluesky. Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com.Our THIRD Starter Pack to accompany this Special can be found here.Click here for your Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Pack.Click here for a second Bluesky Starter Pack.IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex gives his sleepless review of the Harris-Trump debate - complete with the best (and worst) clips and renders his verdict.If you can afford to help, you can back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi."So, DID SHE LOOK LIKE A PRESIDENT? I’m not sure. We associate so much of what makes a leader with masculinity - and often toxic masculinity. She didn’t look like a President because no President has ever looked like her. Did she look Presidential? She looked calm, centred, optimistic, and in control. Is that what people consider Presidential? By Jove, I hope so."Find us on Facebook and Twitter as @quietriotpod and on Bluesky. Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. (We are working on threads and YouTube.)Our THIRD Starter Pack to accompany this Special can be found here.Click here for your Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Pack.Click here for a second Bluesky Starter Pack.IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Naomi and Alex review the week's news, including the Grenfell report, Green Party conference, Tory leadership contest, Russia's election interference, Johnson's annoying columns, and Starmer's visit to Ireland. They're then joined by Cripps partner, chair of UK French Foreign Trade Advisors and Chevalier, Olivier Morel, to talk through the shock appointment of Michel Barnier as french PM.If you can afford to help, you can back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.“Barnier is probably the only person who could manage it… His first speech was non committal, but he at least said he would speak to everyone, which is the right stance. And through his experience of Brexit, Britain was not the hardest task - keeping 27 countries on board for that long process is an extraordinary feat.”“Everyone is looking at 2027, the next presidential election, which is the big one. It’s a poisoned chalice to be in government right now. You and others regard this [left] grouping as one. But as soon as they are confronted by the reality of voting on this issue or that, I can see them fracturing very easily.”That French polling can be found here.You can watch the Private Member's Bill ballot here - they were chosen by Tory MP Nusrat Ghani.Find us on Facebook and Twitter as @quietriotpod and on Bluesky. Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. (We are working on threads and YouTube.)Our THIRD Starter Pack to accompany this Special can be found here.Click here for your Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Pack.Click here for a second Bluesky Starter Pack.IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Electoral changes are a-coming in Wales, but that's not the only challenge facing politicians in Cymru.It's a country of contrasts, from the rugged scars of the Valleys and the beauty of Bannau Brycheiniog to the urban bustle of Cardiff and Swansea, and the bookish haven of Hay-on-Wye.Naomi Smith is joined by journalist Will Hayward for a timely stock-take of political life in a part of the country that we Quiet Rioters love, and a look at the contrasting fortunes and, indeed, difficulties looming for its political leaders.Find Will on X, if you still loiter in that odd place, @WillHayCardiff ... read his work on @WalesOnline ... and subscribe to his popular newsletter here.As for us, well, you can find us on Facebook and Twitter as @quietriotpod and on Bluesky. Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Our THIRD Starter Pack to accompany this Special can be found here.Click here for your Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Pack.Click here for a second Bluesky Starter Pack.IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO, IT MAKES SUCH A FABULOUS DIFFERENCE. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with SandStone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Naomi and Alex, with the LSE's Professor Paul Dolan, and More in Common's Luke Tryl, make their way through the news - including the Grenfell report, changes in how schools are assessed, and the Tory leadership race. And then we talk happiness. What is it? Why do we feel less of it? And how can we get happier in a polarised world. An illuminating and uplifting conversation.HELP US KEEP MAKING THIS PODCAST: CLick here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.Paul Dolan: “It’s much easier, much of the time, to hold someone else responsible for how you think the world is than it is to do anything about it yourself. The path of least resistance is blame.”Luke Tryl: “One of the bigger drivers [of online abuse] is the desire for in-group approval that social media gives you. It’s not just that you don’t see the impact you are having on the people you’re targeting. You also get lots of validation from the in-group.”CALLS TO ACTIONGrenfell United can be found here.Paul Dolan's books and other projects can be found here.Find us on Facebook and Twitter as @quietriotpod and on Bluesky. Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. (We are working on threads and YouTube.)Our THIRD Starter Pack to accompany this Special can be found here.Click here for your Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Pack.Click here for a second Bluesky Starter Pack.IF YOU CAN AFFORD TO CONTRIBUTE, PLEASE DO. Click here to back Quiet Riot on Ko-fi.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, and Kenny Campbell - in cahoots with Sandstone Global. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices