Oh God, What Now?

Keir Starmer suspended 4 ‘persistent rebels’ on Wednesday. Clive Lewis was not on that list, despite his many disagreements with his party, but he is on our podcast this week. We sat down with the MP for Norwich South to discuss those suspensions, why Labour's not delivering on its promise for ‘change’, and why the UK should move back closer to Europe. Plus, campaign group More in Common’s latest study categorises the electorate into seven groups. Is it useful? And who are these types of studies really for? And in the Extra Bit for subscribers – is there an argument FOR air con?  Escape routes: • Clive Lewis recommends Andor on via Disney Plus • Zoë recommends Dept Q on Netflix.  • Matt watched England vs India in the cricket. The 4th test is available to watch on Sky Sports from July 23rd • Dorian recommends Nye at the National Theatre. www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Zoë Grünewald and Matt Green. Audio Production by: Tom Taylor and Robin Leeburn. Video Production by: Chris Jones. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Macron-Starmer love-in during the French President’s UK visit was guaranteed to enrage the Continuity Brexiters. But will their one-in-one-out migration plans actually deliver? Plus, is Britain’s justice system broken beyond repair? Jury-less trials are on the horizon but are they the fix that an impoverished, dysfunctional courts system needs? And Greater Manchester’s mayor Andy Burnham is back with a bold Ten Year Plan for the city. Ambitious or just aspirational? We explore what the rest of the UK could learn from his northern blueprint. • Listen to The Bunker episode Watch The Spies – Can the CIA survive Trump? • Get a month of The New World in print and digital for just £1 here. ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel recommends the Mitfords drama Outrageous on the U channel.  • Matt recommend the Philosophise This podcast and The Crisis Of Narration by Byung-Chul Han.  • Seth had his mind blown by Bayeux Cathedral.  • Alison saw Olivia Rodrigo live.  NOT FOR PATREON • Back us on Patreon for ad-free listening, bonus materials and more.  Presented by Alison Phillips with Rachel Cunliffe, Seth Thévoz and special guest Matt Kelly. Audio production by Robin Leeburn and Simon Williams. Theme music by Cornershop. Produced by Chris Jones. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Donald Trump’s bill, we won’t be calling it beautiful, which takes from the poor and gives to the rich has passed into law. What’s in it and how easily did it get through Congress? Dr Colin Provost is an associate professor of public policy at University College London and joins the panel to get into it. Plus, Palestine Action has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government. Has this gone too far and what does this say about our right to protest in the UK, if anything? And in the Extra Bit FOR EVERYONE this week, is Angela Rayner’s Employment Rights Bill an attack on banter?  Sign up to our Patreon to get the Extra Bit exclusively for subscribers every week! Escape Routes:  • Colin recently read Careless People: A Story of Where I Used to Work  • Zoe recently watched America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy’s Cheerleaders on Netflix  • Ros watched Saltburn now it’s on iPlayer  • Dorian has been watching Such Brave Girls Follow us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/ohgodwhatnow.bsky.social  Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Ros Taylor and Zoë Grünewald. Audio Production by: Tom Taylor. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fragmentation special! It’s all kicking off on the right and the left. Are our panic-stricken political classes talking Britain into a Farage premiership just by making it sound inevitable? And could Zarah Sultana’s (possibly premature) launch of a new party of the anti-war left turn into a genuine threat to Labour? We’re calling it CorbTana. It’s going to catch on. Really.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Hannah recommends Couples Therapy on BBC iPlayer.  • Jonn recommends the US version of Ghosts.  • Raf saw War at the A Love Supreme festival.  • Andrew saw Goat and Infinity Song at Glastonbury.  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rafael Behr, Jonn Elledge, and Hannah Fearn. Audio Production by: Simon Williams. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What better way for Labour to celebrate a year in power than with a humiliating climbdown on welfare? Political historian Steven Fielding joins the panel to discuss rebellions, “Austerity PSD”, and how Starmer and Reeves can make Year Two better than Year One. Plus, after the anti-IDF rants by punk band Bob Vylan at Glastonbury, has the festival really become the antisemitic “hatefest” its critics claim? Unlike most of them, our own Andrew Harrison was actually there… And in the Extra Bit for Patreon supporters, is far-right ideologue Matthew Goodwin serious when he says he wants to be Reform UK’s Home Secretary, or just waffling to sell his Substack? • Listen to Why? with Emma Kennedy: Could we make a real Jurassic Park?  ESCAPE ROUTES • Rachel has been bingeing on Wimbledon.  • Jonn has been reading Trespasses by Louise Kennedy. • Steven has been listening to the title track of Close To The Edge by Yes. • Alison is very excited about the Women’s Euros.  • Back us on Patreon for ad-free listening, bonus materials and more.  Presented by Alison Phillips with Rachel Cunliffe and Jonn Elledge. Audio production by Robin Leeburn and Tom Taylor. Theme music by Cornershop. Produced by Chris Jones. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Labour MPs rebelling over Keir Starmer’s planned cuts to welfare benefits – where does he stand now with his party and does even more trouble lie ahead? Plus, the UK’s new industrial strategy is hot off the press. What makes it so ambitious, and has it learned the lessons from Boris Johnson's failed levelling up plan?  ESCAPE ROUTES • Seth recommends Gilbert and Sullivan’s Princess Ida • Hannah recommends Slags by Emma Jane Unsworth and the new Adam Curtis series, Shifty • Zoe recommends Olivia Rodrigo at Glastonbury • Ros recommends The Four Seasons on Netflix www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Ros Taylor with Zoë Grünewald, Seth Thévoz and Hannah Fearn. Audio Production by: Robin Leeburn. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dog whistle think pieces seem to be back in fashion and right wingers are more frequently using rhetoric that sounds a bit like Enoch Powell. Powell was condemned for Rivers of Blood, why isn’t sounding like him so damaging for the modern right? Plus – AI and copyright. It’s put Labour at odds with Elton John, never a good place to be. Politico’s Joseph Bambridge joins the panel to talk through the furore.  Read Joseph’s piece in Politico: https://www.politico.eu/article/ai-copyright-political-nightmare-labour-uk-models-tech/  ESCAPE ROUTES  •  Rachel watched Virgin Island on Channel 4  • Raf has been reading Barbara Kingsolver novels • Joseph watched The Contestant  • Dorian watched Black Ops  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow  Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Rafael Behr and Rachel Cunliffe. Producer: Chris Jones. Audio. Production by: Robin Leeburn. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this discussion, Charlotte Nicholls, MP for Warrington North and a passionate advocate on current affairs, dives into the complexities of the UK's role amid rising tensions with Iran and the fallout from Brexit. The conversation tackles the evolution of public sentiment, exploring perceptions of failure and desires for a closer EU relationship. They also address the impacts of recent heatwaves, calling attention to climate change and the need for cultural adaptation. To lighten the mood, Charlotte shares some engaging book recommendations.

Trump came down that golden escalator ten years ago this week, and thus began America’s descent to the depths of madness. The gang looks back on his political journey, from launching into the GOP race from Trump Tower to whatever you’d describe where we are now. Plus, Reform UK won loads of council seats – and now it actually has to take charge of things. So, how’s that going? (We promise we say more than just bad.) Then in the Extra Bit for supporters – can we ever be as happy as Finland? And what does that even mean? • Listen to The Bunker including Andrew’s interview with Peter Ricketts.  ESCAPE ROUTES  •  Matt went to see The Ballad of Wallis Island at the cinema • Zoe went to Primavera in Barcelona – and she says to watch Chappell Roan’s set online if you can!  • Raf went to see Showstopper! • Dorian suggests Decoder Ring   www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow    Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Rafael Behr, Zoe Grunewald and Matt Green. Producer: Chris Jones. Audio. Production by Robin Leeburn. Music by Cornershop Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tanks for nothing… We look at the contrast between Trump’s pathetic North Korean-style self-celebration, the magnificent #NoKings protests, and the horror of the Minnesota assassinations. Plus, Starmer flips on a grooming gangs inquiry and the violence in Ballymena. And we grill special guest Chris Curtis MP on Labour’s housing plans and why Paul Weller was wrong about Milton Keynes.  ESCAPE ROUTES • Hannah recommends Pulp live and their new album More.  • Jonn recommends Our Friends In The North, no longer on iPlayer but on Apple TV+ instead. • Chris recommends baffling 2010s series Lost on Netflix. • Andrew recommends East German hit woman comedy-thriller Kleo also on Netflix.  • Back us on Patreon for ad-free listening, bonus materials and more.  Presented by Andrew Harrison with Jonn Elledge and Hannah Fearn. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Theme music by Cornershop. Produced by Chris Jones. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices