Oh God, What Now?

Is Farage faltering? Reform’s poll lead is slowly sliding, so much so that last week Farage administered a Trumpian punishment beating to pollsters YouGov in classic “shoot the messenger” style. Is Britain starting to see through Nigel’s chicanery – or is it all wishful thinking on our part? And how are Labour and the Tories dealing with not one but two insurgent parties: the Greens as well as Reform? 

Seth Thévoz and Rachel Cunliffe are joined by crossover guest Steve Richards of the Rock & Roll Politics podcast to read this week’s political tea leaves. 

• Last chance to sign up to our Live Zoom for Patreon people this Thursday 26 March. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Rachel loved Summerfolk, “Maxim Gorky's razor-sharp portrait of privilege and denial”, at the National Theatre 

• Steve saw Sirat, the astonishing road movie about travellers’ raves and existential loss. 

• Seth recommends Hoax: The Inside Story of the Howard Hughes-Clifford Irving Affair.

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Seth Thévoz and Rachel Cunliffe. Audio Production by: Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 
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Ed Davey wants Britain to have its own nuclear weapons – smart move against the Greens or the end of the old anti-nuke Lib Dems? Why is the damning story about Richard Tice’s tax avoidance not damaging the Reform deputy leader when it would sink any other politician? Does Louis Theroux’s documentary Inside The Manosphere tell us anything new about young men’s descent into hatred as recreation and business model? And in the Extra Bit: The usual suspects lose their mind over the ONS adding hummus and alcohol-free beer to the inflation basket. Can we have one day without a freakout over woke? Just one? 

• Join our live Zoom for Patreon backers on Thursday 26 March at 7pm. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Marie recommends the classic movie Kind Hearts and Coronets

• John recommends Death by Lightning on Netflix. 

• Jason recommends It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time: The Worst TV Shows in History and Other Things I Wrote by Bruce Vilanch

• Andrew recommends The Vorrh by B. Catling. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Marie le Conte, Jonn Elledge and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Chris Jones and Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.

www.podmasters.co.uk 
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The Mandelson Files are beginning to dribble out and they don’t look good for Keir Starmer. Will this be the final albatross round the PM’s neck? Zoë Grünewald and Rafael Behr talk over the unfurling consequences of the second-worst files in the world.

Plus, liberalism has taken a battering this past decade, but don’t worry! Centrism can still save the world. Bloomberg columnist Adrian Wooldridge’s new book Centrists of the World Unite! is a battle cry to get liberalism back into the game. What went wrong? What does liberalism even mean in the 21st Century? Does anything unite left liberals, neoliberals and managerial liberals and why do they keep screwing up? And in the battle between liberalism and tech power, who wins? 

Buy Centrists of the World Unite! through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Adrian recommends Southland on Netflix.

• Zoë recommends anything by the Danish painter Anna Ancher but if you can get to the Dulwich Picture Gallery it’s definitely worth a visit. 

• Raf has been reading Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Zoë Grünewald with Rafael Behr. Audio and Video Production by Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. 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

British voters are overwhelmingly against Trump’s war in Iran but the pundits and politicians of the Tory-Reform universe seem to want more, harder and faster. Why is the British right hooked on tough-guy politics? And will Farage’s fawning over Trump prove to be Reform’s Achilles heel? Plus, first pickings from the Mandelson files, Rachel Cunliffe on why Labour’s justice reforms (and the controversial moves on jury trials) might be one radical reform the Government doesn’t duck… and in the Extra Bit, the Nepo Babies of world politics. 

ESCAPE ROUTES

• Rachel recommends Small Prophets on BBC iPlayer

• Jason recommends Daniel Farson’s Guide To Britain Vol.1 on Blu-Ray. 

• Ros recommends Louis Theroux: Inside The Manosphere on Netflix. 

• Andrew recommends David Byrne’s Who Is The Sky? tour 

Help keep independent podcasting alive and kicking by supporting us at www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow

Presented by Andrew Harrison with Rachel Cunliffe, Ros Taylor and Jason Hazeley. Audio Production by Robin Leeburn. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. 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

The Government’s migration and asylum plans have had that unique Keir Starmer way of annoying everyone. Including many of their own MPs, such as Walthamstow’s Stella Creasy. She says her party is now asking people to live in “limbo” and that the new policy change is not “socially just”. She joins the panel to explain why. And in the second half, monsters are everywhere (including politics). But what is a monster? Why do humans keep inventing them — and what does that say about us? Dr Surekha Davies’ new book Humans: A Monstrous History, explores all of that, and she joins the panel to give her take. 

ESCAPE ROUTES: 

• Jonn has been reading the work of Iain M. Banks: https://iainbanks.co.uk/ 

• Zoë went to the Tate Modern to see the Nigerian Modernism exhibition 

• Surekha recommends a visit to the Samurai exhibition at the British Museum 

• Stella was DJing at the weekend to raise money for two charities WHICH YOU CAN STILL DONATE TO! They are Eat or Heat and Furnishing Futures

Buy Humans: A Monstrous History through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund Oh God, What Now? by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. 

www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow 

Presented by Zoë Grunewald with Jonn Elledge. Audio Production by: Chris Jones. Art direction: James Parrett. Theme tune by Cornershop. 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