Quiet Riot

Alex Andreou and Naomi Smith welcome special guest LBC host James O'Brien to discuss Starmer's trip to Washington. What is the best he could come back with? And was raising defence at the expense of aid worth it? And of course 'Wokey Dokey' and 'Grin And Share It'. ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD***“The idea that history was over, because the Cold War was over, the Berlin Wall had come down, and liberal democracy had prevailed over the extremes of fascism or communism, was irresistible in 1989. So, this isn’t just about Ukraine. It’s about recognising we’re returning to an unsafe world.” “This defence spending announcement is a signal, an in-principle decision, that we are entering an era where hard power matters more than soft power. It is difficult to disagree with that assessment of the world right now.”“The bottom line is: the world changed last week in ways that nobody could have foreseen. And Starmer has done the thing that Starmer is quite good at - when the facts have changed he’s changed his mind.”“Badenoch channels the worst of Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss. It’s 50% Mordaunt shouting ‘stand and fight and stand and stand and fight and stand’ and 50% Truss going ‘we’ve got 10 and 1/2 minutes to save Western civilisation.”“The problem is many of the benefits of soft power are intangible - you can’t easily put a dollar value on a population not being displaced or someone not becoming radicalised. But it feels instinctively like it must be cheaper than hard power.”“Yes, using a logical train, in light of everything Trump has said and done, NATO is over. But using logical trains, when it comes to Trump is pointless. So until someone makes a compelling case of why it is in Trump’s personal interest, even NATO is subject to his caprice.”“It’s so hard to look at everything not through a lens of normality bias. I’ve caught myself so often, lately, thinking: this can’t be as bad as it looks, because I am biased towards believing that the danger cannot be as great as it appears.”CALLS TO ACTION LINKS: Click to find out more about Help for Heroes. An old - but still extremely useful - Charity Commission guide on choosing the right charity to support.Grin and Share It on the CBI report about Britain's Green Economy. James's encounter with Charlie, the farmer. Our bookshop featuring many of the books we have featured can be found at uk.bookshop.org/shop/quietriot. Kick your X habit, finally, by using one of three Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Packs. With one click, it will hook you up with, among many good accounts, Alex, Naomi, and Kenny.***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global.Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Andreou and special guest, London bureau chief for the ARD, the multi-award winning journalist, Annette Dittert with an analysis of Sunday's German federal election results.***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD***“NATO may have died - in the sense that, if the Article 5 commitment is not longer believable, if it is not something you can bank on, we may already be at a point when we need to start looking at something else, which looks a bit like NATO but doesn’t involve the US.”“Of all the weapons Ukraine uses, 55% are produced in Ukraine, 25% come from Europe and 20% from the US. The difficulty arises because a lot of that 20% from the US is made up of high-end air defence that is hard to replace. But it’s not impossible.” "The German election is proof of concept for what Musk's interference can achieve. European leaders need to get their s**t together and decide what they're going to do about his influence, because otherwise he's just going to pick them off one by one.""Any other records held by any other company would be accessible given the right court order. Even for confidential or privileged stuff, there are exceptions in cases of national security. So why should electronic data get a free pass where no other held records would?" LINKS: Our bookshop including many of the books we have featured can be found at uk.bookshop.org/shop/quietriot ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** Kick your X habit, finally, by using one of three Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Packs. With one click, it will hook you up with, among many good accounts, Alex, Naomi, and Kenny.With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global.Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Andreou and special guest, former diplomat and security analyst, Arthur Snell talk about the end of NATO as we know it, today's German federal election, and Apple's tussle with UK gov't over encryption. A packed episode!***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD***“NATO may have died - in the sense that, if the Article 5 commitment is not longer believable, if it is not something you can bank on, we may already be at a point when we need to start looking at something else, which looks a bit like NATO but doesn’t involve the US.”“Of all the weapons Ukraine uses, 55% are produced in Ukraine, 25% come from Europe and 20% from the US. The difficulty arises because a lot of that 20% from the US is made up of high-end air defence that is hard to replace. But it’s not impossible.” "The German election is proof of concept for what Musk's interference can achieve. European leaders need to get their s**t together and decide what they're going to do about his influence, because otherwise he's just going to pick them off one by one.""Any other records held by any other company would be accessible given the right court order. Even for confidential or privileged stuff, there are exceptions in cases of national security. So why should electronic data get a free pass where no other held records would?" LINKS: Arthur Snell's Behind The Lines episode with Mike Martin.Our bookshop including many of the books we have featured can be found at uk.bookshop.org/shop/quietriot ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global.Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Extended 40min version of Alex Andreou and Salma Shah (filling in for Naomi) talking to Emmy-award-winning journalist specialising on NATO, Luke McGee, discussion on whether the USA is still our ally and what the future of NATO is. ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD***“There is a logical inconsistency to America demanding that Europe commit more to the NATO project, at the moment it also says: we’re not particularly committed to it.” “I don’t think it’s one man, behind a desk in the White House that will control the fate of NATO. We have to have some confidence in our institutions and the many thousands of people that contribute to them.”“Along with support for Ukraine, ‘the special relationship’ seems to be breaking apart with it. Because Russia is a much more pertinent threat to us than it is to America. And it feels like they just want it off their desks.” “The late Christopher Meyer, former UK ambassador to the US, used to say ‘the special relationship’ never existed. I think that’s probably true. American interest in Europe has always been somewhat overstated.”“For the last 20 years, whenever the idea of a European army was floated, the main objector was NATO and countries who saw it as foundational, like the UK or the US, because they saw it as a threat to NATO centrality as a defence force. Now they turn around and say ‘why don’t you have your own European army?’ after blocking it for decades.”“Are we now in a situation where America is Russia’s bitch? I don’t think that is the case. But it’s clear there are people around Trump who have absolutely swallowed Kremlin talking points and get their information from weird accounts on X. That’s very dangerous.”CALLS TO ACTION LINKS: You can find out more about the PAME Arctic Cleanup Project here. You can find out more about Ukraine Medical Aid here.You can find out more about the Ukraine Freedom Fund here.Our bookshop featuring many of the books we have featured can be found at uk.bookshop.org/shop/quietriot. Kick your X habit, finally, by using one of three Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Packs. With one click, it will hook you up with, among many good accounts, Alex, Naomi, and Kenny.***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global.Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Andreou and Salma Shah (filling in for Naomi) welcome guest Emmy-award-winning journalist specialising in NATO, Luke McGee, to discuss whether - and I cannot believe I am about to type this - the USA is still our ally or "Putin's Bitch". Plus - Who is out to get Rachel Reeves? We sort truth from gossip and explore why there is already dysfunction in such a young administration with such a secure majority. And of course 'Wokey Dokey' and 'Grin And Share It'. ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD***“Along with support for Ukraine, ‘the special relationship’ seems to be breaking apart with it. Because Russia is a much more pertinent threat to us than it is to America. And it feels like they just want it off their desks.” “The late Christopher Meyer, former UK ambassador to the US, used to say ‘the special relationship’ never existed. I think that’s probably true. American interest in Europe has always been somewhat overstated.”“For the last 20 years, whenever the idea of a European army was floated, the main objector was NATO and countries who saw it as foundational, like the UK or the US, because they saw it as a threat to NATO centrality as a defence force. Now they turn around and say ‘why don’t you have your own European army?’ after blocking it for decades.”“Are we now in a situation where America is Russia’s bitch? I don’t think that is the case. But it’s clear there are people around Trump who have absolutely swallowed Kremlin talking points and get their information from weird accounts on X. That’s very dangerous.”“I think the talk of the reshuffle is just talk at the moment… But perhaps one of the questions Rachel Reeves should be asking herself is whether she needs a reshuffle in her own team. Does she have the right skills in her advisors?“CALLS TO ACTION LINKS: You can find out more about the PAME Arctic Cleanup Project here. You can find out more about Ukraine Medical Aid here.You can find out more about the Ukraine Freedom Fund here.Our bookshop featuring many of the books we have featured can be found at uk.bookshop.org/shop/quietriot. Kick your X habit, finally, by using one of three Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Packs. With one click, it will hook you up with, among many good accounts, Alex, Naomi, and Kenny.***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global.Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Andreou and Naomi Smith talk through the week's news, with a focus on Trump and Musk's assault on federal government - and how it might just turn against them. A detailed report by Frontier Economics AND a megapoll by YouGov, commissioned by Best for Britain, outline stunning growth opportunities - if Starmer goes for the right UK-EU reset. The public is fully behind the idea.Plus, as Reform UK continues to gaslight the country about Brexit and ride high in the polls, there may be a giant chink in their armour. ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD***"Pete Hegseth sat down at the poker table with his cards facing his opponents. The damage is done. You can't walk that back. You can't ask the other poker players to unsee the cards you just showed them."“The latest Trump tariff package accumulates his grievances with the rest of the world, whether they are real or imagined. It could mean anything, or othing. It's impossible to process until we understand what he means - and nobody can do that, because Trump doesn't understand it.”“The Trump tariffs executive order is a nothing. It is an invitation to leaders from around the world to come and kiss his ass. This is the Fisher-Price version of a Presidency. They give him buttons to push and levers to pull that are attached to nothing.” “Reform UK hasn't got any experience of actual government or much on-the-ground resources. The Conservatives can offer decades of experience and local associations, but need Reform's popularity. The sweet spot is there. That's where a deal might be done.”LINKS: Byline piece with background on Together and its links to other campaigns is here. Christina Pagel's substack on the signs of authoritarianism and how the Trump WH tracks.Our bookshop including many of the books we have featured can be found at uk.bookshop.org/shop/quietriot ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global.Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this conversation, Michael Peel, FT science editor and author, shares his insights on Britain’s identity crisis post-Brexit. He argues that nostalgia fuels the UK's dysfunctional politics and emphasizes the need for political clarity. Peel critiques the empty promises of the Brexit campaign and discusses how Britain's past has overshadowed its present potential. He also highlights the missed opportunities in managing natural resources like North Sea oil, drawing a stark contrast with Norway's wealth fund success.

Alex Andreou and Naomi Smith welcome special guest founder of Scientists for EU and chair of European Movement UK, Mike Galsworthy to discuss whether it is better to unite pro-European forces behind one mission or let them be a lively, symbiotic ecosystem. Plus a deepdive into the UK's science and technology strategy. Join the US in deregulating? Or join Europe and actively drain science capacity from it?And of course 'Wokey Dokey' and 'Grin And Share It'. ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD***“As a campaigning organisation, you have to go to where people are - the spaces that they occupy, the informational areas that they’re in, and in person. You have to meet them where they are both physically and in terms of opinion, whether ministers or voters.”“What we are talking about is not a political party winning, but rather how do you move all of UK society in the same direction. At each and every level [rejoining the EU] has to be made relevant to each and every community - personally, regionally, demographically.”“The gov’t knows where the public is. The polling has been very clear for some time. The single most influential group that needs to step up right now is business - every size, every industry, every location. They need to step and push gov’t towards EU alignment during this critical period in the run up to the [Starmer - von der Leyen] summit.” “There is a real opportunity right now, given the way Trump is behaving, for a ‘brain drain’ from the States and diversion of talent that would usually flow to the States, especially from Global South countries worried about the racism and the barriers to funding. The UK and Europe should get together to move on this.”“With the falling apart of USAID, the soft power opportunity there, through science and health security, is huge. This is where both the UK and the EU are strong and trusted.”“Population decline is an existential threat to mature Western economies and soon they will find that they are actually in competition for immigration. The first such country to realise this, will reap huge benefits.”CALLS TO ACTION LINKS: Click here to ask your MP to read Best for Britain's Growth Report.Sign up for European Movement here. Support the Open Rights Group here. Grin and Share It about funding underprivileged musicians by selling a stradivarius here.Ida Haendel playing Brahms Violin Concerto in D Major, Op.77 on a rare stradivarius.Full interview with Sir John Curtice on Rejoin prospects for the i here.Mike's Byline Networks is here.Our bookshop featuring many of the books we have featured can be found at uk.bookshop.org/shop/quietriot. Kick your X habit, finally, by using one of three Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Packs. With one click, it will hook you up with, among many good accounts, Alex, Naomi, and Kenny.***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global.Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Andreou and Naomi Smith talk through the week's news, with a focus on Trump and Musk's assault on federal government - and how it might just turn against them. A detailed report by Frontier Economics AND a megapoll by YouGov, commissioned by Best for Britain, outline stunning growth opportunities - if Starmer goes for the right UK-EU reset. The public is fully behind the idea.Plus, as Reform UK continues to gaslight the country about Brexit and ride high in the polls, there may be a giant chink in their armour. ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD***“What we’re seeing is an overall strategy of moving so fast and doing so much that the judicial system, the Democratic Party, any media still inclined to scrutinise the Presidency, they simply don’t have time to react to all of it.”“USAID has a tiny budget. $40bn in the context of a $7 Trillion annual federal budget is nothing. It gets Trump and Musk nowhere near the trillions they said they would save. It is performative, chosen precisely because of the ripple effect in so many sensitive areas.”“If the UK pursues deep alignment on goods with the EU, you're looking at between 1-1.5% GDP growth. So clawing back about a third of what the OBR says we've lost as a result of Brexit. If you do deep alignment on goods and services, it's between 1.7 to 2.2%. Clawing back more than half of what we will have lost. The cost of inaction is that we continue to atrophy and we recover none of that loss growth.” “When you do UK-EU deep alignment, on goods in particular, you get the greatest spread of growth outside of London. It disproportionately impacts non-South-East. West Midlands and the North get the biggest boost. Why? Well, that's where what industry we do still have tends to be located and they have been the most negatively impacted [by Brexit].”“All this ‘shock and awe’ from Trump and Musk can feel overwhelming. But forced to defend all of this will stretch them thin. We have to be considered and strategic. Once the challenges start coming, it is them who will have to prioritise what to defend and what to junk. So take a breath and hold the line.”CALLS TO ACTION AND LINKS: You can see the full BfB/Frontier report on UK-EU growth here.David Frum's article for the Atlantic is here. Our bookshop featuring many of the books we have featured can be found at uk.bookshop.org/shop/quietriot ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global.Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Andreou and Naomi Smith (fresh from Brussels) welcome special guest Rachel Shabi to discuss her new book on antisemitism, Trump's proposed cash + ethnic cleansing deal, Starmer trying to make himself invisible, while negotiating with Europe, and the general fever dream we seem to be living through. Plus a stunning audio letter from Arthur Snell in Israel. And of course 'Wokey Dokey' and 'Grin And Share It'. ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD***“The only way to stand up to Trump is collectively and the UK finds itself outside that large European collective bloc. It is particularly unfortunate and how the Labour gov’t can square that, I don’t know, but they have to find a way.”“Trump is looking for people to punish, but also for a country to reward, to show the others what happens. And his rhetoric about Starmer is different than any other European leader. So, maybe the UK is weirdly manoeuvring itself into a sweet Goldilocks deal.”“When you’re talking to Europe, while showing this much ankle to the US in general and in particular Trump, I think your ability to progress negotiations with the EU will be highly constrained.” “I don’t think there’s any point in second-guessing a chaos-merchant, who likes to throw chaotic statements into the public space, precisely for the purpose of sowing chaos. And I don’t think there’s any point in treating [Trump’s Gaza comments] as some strategic move.”“The realities of antisemitism are messy. The conversations we need to have are messy. It takes time and the building of trust that means not automatically assuming bad faith. The problem is we are trying to have those conversations in the midst of a political and media environment that is obnoxious and divisive.”CALLS TO ACTION LINKS: You can buy Rachel Shabi's 'Off White' here. You can buy Chris McGreal's 'American Overdose' here.Our bookshop featuring many of the books we have featured can be found at uk.bookshop.org/shop/quietriot You can see the full results of the BfB polling on prioritising Europe here.You can find the Medical Aid for Palestinians charity here.***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global.Email us at quietriotpod@gmail.com. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices