Oh God, What Now?

As Boris Johnson is busted with bubbly, will new No.10 arrivals come to his rescue – or are they too late to the parties? Journalist and author Marie Le Conte joins us from sister podcast The Bunker to discuss the latest ins and outs at Downing Street and the mini Cabinet reshuffle. Plus, while the PM loses friends at a rapid rate, a constant ally remains in the form of Nadine Dorries. We ask, what’s her deal? “Like Matt Hancock, this rambling scandal will disable Johnson – but it’ll be something else that gets rid of him.” – Alex Andreou “It doesn’t matter if Johnson apologises about the Savile smear. The point is, in the country the moral line has held.” – Ian Dunt “The penalties for accusing someone of lying are far worse than the lying itself, and that cannot stand.” – Ian Dunt "Johnson has built a parliamentary party of morons, and surrounded himself with the worst of them." - Alex Andreou "Dorries' behaviour is so bizarre that people have to come up with explanations, but the basic answer is she's shit." - Ian Dunt www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnowPresented by Naomi Smith with Alex Andreou and Ian Dunt. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Alex Rees. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boris Johnson remains consistent in at least one regard – he continues to disappoint yet fails to surprise with his actions. With the PM’s bluster having backfired of late, journalist and author of Just Boris: A Tale of Blond Ambition Sonia Purnell joins us to discuss his position. Meanwhile, questions have been raised over “dirty money” from Russia “flowing into” London. How does this tie in with our politics – and place on the world stage?  “Boris was driven by the agenda of his own career. He had to be number 1 and of course the most powerful person in the country is the Prime Minister.” - Sonia Purnell  “It’s getting hard to defend the system.” - Ian Dunt  “Tory MPs have essentially desensitised themselves, and there are no boundaries to what they will defend.” - Ros Taylor  “Johnson is not a nice, cuddly teddy bear. There is a loss of control when he’s under threat.” - Sonia Purnell  “For the Tory party to change, you have to hurt it at the ballot box.” - Ros Taylor www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnowPresented by Dorian Lynskey with Ian Dunt and Ros Taylor. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Alex Rees. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is the party nearly over for Boris Johnson, or can he continue to have his cake and eat it? With a police investigation launched into Downing Street’s lockdown shenanigans, and the publication of Sue Gray’s report apparently imminent, we assess the Prime Minister’s seemingly ever-precarious position. Beyond that we look at Rishi Sunak’s manoeuvres and motivations, as he’s touted as a successor to Johnson. What are the Chancellor’s chances? “The Government has lied so many times, over and over, that it’s genuinely impossible to tell whether they’re telling the truth at all.” – Naomi Smith  “The people of Ukraine are not a press office for you to fire off press releases when things aren’t going well for you in the Commons.” – Ian Dunt  “What sort of crazy world is it where Johnson welcomes an actual criminal investigation by the police, where he could be prosecuted, as some sort of relief, just because it extends his time in power.” – Naomi Smith “How can the Met investigate these breaches when they happened under their noses.” – Ros Taylor www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnowPresented by Dorian Lynskey with Ian Dunt, Naomi Smith and Ros Taylor. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Alex Rees. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Sue Gray report is imminent, Tory backbenchers are sending in their letters to the 1922 committee, and Bury North MP Christian Wakeford has defected to Labour. Is Boris Johnson a dead man walking, or can he really ride this out? Plus, we discuss the Government’s latest attack on the BBC, and how to fund the national broadcaster in the age of streaming. The Financial Times’ Chief Features Writer Henry Mance is our special guest this week. “Johnson must have thought he was home free, then on the last question David Davis called for his resignation in the strongest terms.” - Alex Andreou “Christian Wakeford having a majority of only 402 in a red wall seat is probably a motivating factor in him having switched.” - Minnie Rahman “Older MPs rebelled against Cameron and May, yet they now think they’re in a position to tell newer MPs ‘you shouldn’t rebel’.” - Henry Mance “Attacks on the BBC are incoherent, the Government want it to be a patriotic national broadcaster, yet they also want it to be like Netflix.” - Henry Mance www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnowPresented by Dorian Lynskey with Minnie Rahman and Alex Andreou. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Alex Rees. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When is a party not a party? As Boris Johnson slobbers out a pitifully insincere apology for No.10’s Turbo Garden Rave 2020, has he finally lost the Tory Party as well as most of the country? Plus, Liz Truss: Portrait of a Woman Who’s Dire. What makes Cosplay Thatcher run? And who would our panel put in the Lords? Comedy writer of HIGNFY fame Sara Gibbs is our special guest.   “I can’t pretend I’m not enjoying this absolute lying bastard getting his comeuppance… He is boxed in by his own bullshit.” – Ian Dunt “I’ve been to some bad parties but none so bad I thought they were work meetings.” – Naomi Smith” “Trying to get a COVID LFT is like trying to get a five star meal.” – Ian Dunt “In Liz Truss’s infamous cheese speech you could see her brain going ‘Do a smile now.’ I have no idea what’s going on in there. She’s naked ambition in a skin suit.” – Sara Gibbs “It’s a lie within a lie within a lie, tumbling into oblivion.” – Ian Dunt “The mistake with Boris Johnson was treating him like a bumbling buffoon… We made him seem innocuous. I worry about doing the same with Liz Truss.” – Sara Gibbs “I’d rather Boris Johnson stayed there as a dead man walking… But the alternatives do look very, very beatable.” – Ian Dunt Back us at www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnowPresented by Dorian Lynskey with Naomi Smith and Ian Dunt. Producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Alex Rees. Theme music by Cornershop. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s the first Oh God, What Now? of 2022, and we’re going back to our roots by looking at good old Brexit. What joys will our prolonged divorce from Europe bring in the year ahead? Plus Keir Starmer put his “Contract with the British public” on the table in a speech earlier this week, but what exactly is it? And in the extra bit, we discuss Netflix’s apocalyptic comedy Don’t Look Up. “Macron has nothing to lose with this rhetoric, anti-vaxxers aren’t going to vote for him anyway and the vaxxed don’t want a lockdown.” - Ros Taylor “What we’ve learnt is that the sub-tribes within the Brexit tribe want very different things.” - Alex Andreou “The Brexiteers promised IMAX, but instead they’re huddling round a black and white TV showing the Australia trade deal again.” - Dorian Lynskey “The Tories are really struggling to maintain the culture war, and without it politics returns to a discussion of material conditions.” - Ian Dunt “The Tony Blair peerage debate is one of the most boring debates, there should be a button on Twitter to shut down discussion on Blair.” - Ian Dunt www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnowPresented by Dorian Lynskey with Alex Andreou, Ian Dunt and Ros Taylor. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Alex Rees. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In our intra-Christmas special to tide you over til January, we present some of the best bits of OGWN from 2021. From scourge of the No.10 party person Pippa Crerar to representative of endangered species the ‘sensible Tory’ David Gauke, from the Sunday Times Insight Team’s incredible work on the Government’s pandemic failures to favourite guests Andy Burnham and Sarah Gibb, here are some of our favourite moments.Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, Ian Dunt, Minnie Rahman and Ros Taylor. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Alex Rees. Theme music by Cornershop. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

🎶 “Simply having/A terrible cheese and wine…” 🎶 In the last OGWN of 2021, our Christmas stocking bulges with troubles for Boris Johnson. Lord Frost bails out, the UK caves over the ECJ and the Northern Ireland Protocol, people have never been so angry about cheese and/or wine, and he’s lost control of COVID measures – again. What a way to end the year.Plus: The panel reads the tea leaves for reasons to be optimistic in 2022. The many faces of the Liz Truss Multiverse. And what’s the worst Christmas our panel have ever had? “The Brexiters can’t let Northern Ireland be seen as the only part of the UK to make a success of Brexit… because it’s still in the Single Market.” – Naomi Smith “Lord Frost’s resignation was timed to cause maximum damage to an already damaged Johnson. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the rivals had offered him a job.” – Alex Andreou “Liz Truss is oozing with desperation for the top job, it’s almost embarrassing.” – Naomi Smith “If the Government is saying we need something in a week, the science is probably saying we needed it a week ago.” – Minnie Rahman Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou, Minnie Rahman and Ros Taylor. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Theme music by Cornershop. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SHORT SHARP SHROP: Christmas comes early as Johnson’s Tories are utterly humiliated in the North Shropshire by-election, with the ignominious loss of a 23,000-vote majority in a Tory heartland – and the biggest swing to the Lib Dems since 1993. What brought about this debacle: sleaze, scandal, Christmas parties, Johnson selling out farmers, Owen Paterson’s arrogance, or Johnson’s own repellent personality? And did Labour play it right by not campaigning too hard? Ros, Naomi and Dorian gather for a nice hot glass of mulled schadenfreude. “This shows there isn’t yet huge appetite for a Starmer government. What there is, is disgust at the Conservative government.” – Ros Taylor “Unlike Chesham and Amersham this wasn’t Remainers’ Revenge. This was very much a verdict on Johnson.” – Naomi Smith “The Paterson affair shows Johnson’s fatal flaw: hubris. This will be his downfall.” – Ros Taylor Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Naomi Smith and Ros Taylor. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Theme music by Cornershop. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boris Johnson finally looks vulnerable, but should we really want him to go on the eve of the Omicron Wave? Is Partygate plus COVID fatigue a recipe for non-compliance? Did Plan B happen so fast to save Johnson’s skin – and should Lib Dems, Greens and the Left really make common cause with libertarian Tories over vaccine passports and mandatory vaccinations?Plus, the Afghanistan Withdrawal was among the most shameful episodes of 2021. We ask Kim Ghattas – Middle East expert and author of Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran and the Rivalry that Unravelled the Middle East – if the West will ever have positive influence in the region again. “This is a hugely weakened Johnson… Nobody could have predicted he’d collapse so badly, so soon.” – Naomi Smith “We are in a very scary place now with the virus. Soon we’ll run out of testing capacity – and we will have no idea how many people have COVID.” – Ros Taylor “I look at Partygate and think maybe we should be kinder to our own politicians in Lebanon. Maybe they’re not so bad.” – Kim Ghattas “If there’s one thing worse than going into this stage of the pandemic with the Tories in charge, it’s going in with nobody in charge.” – Ros Taylor “The Taliban have realised they can’t operate like they did in the 90s… They have to let technocrats who are women to go back to work, because they know how to run a country.” – Kim Ghattas Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Naomi Smith and Ros Taylor. Assistant producers: Jacob Archbold and Jelena Sofronijevic. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Theme music by Cornershop. Thanks to Stephen and Mandy for the graphic. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices