Tag Archives: podcasts

Health Podcast – The Elephant in the Room

In the latest of the Green Book podcasts we’ve looked at health, not from the usual angle of the NHS itself but at the health of the UK population.  If you missed it last month, you can still catch up

Why is it that we have one of the unhealthiest populations amongst developed countries? What might that mean in terms of demand and costs in the NHS, apart from all the wider social and economic consequences?  

It’s not as if this is news, as it has been covered in detail by people like Sir Michael Marmot, with his reports going back to 2010, and others before that.  Is it just about more money and resources for the NHS – or are we missing something in how and where we tackle the problems?

Norman Lamb chaired the session, having been a Lib Dem MP and health minister as well as the current chair of a health trust.  Joining him was Wendy Taylor who was a clinical oncologist as well as a current councillor in Newcastle with a particular interest in public health. Joining them we had two guests who are currently writing a book on the subject, which they have loosely titled ‘The Elephant in the Room’.  Roy Lilley and Ed Smith both have business backgrounds but have led and worked extensively with health trusts and both public and private health bodies.  Whilst being strong supporters of the NHS, they see the impossibility of dealing with the ever-escalating demands of an unhealthy population.  

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LISTEN: Ed Davey talks about his life as a carer

Ed Davey has given an interview to the Times Radio podcast What I Wish I’d Known. He talks about his life as a carer for his Mum, Nanna, son and wife.

The Times newspaper has a report on the podcast (£)

He describes how he was with his mother when she died of Cancer when he was 15, in his school uniform and how he felt afterwards:

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LISTEN: Jim Wallace on his long career

Jim Wallace, who as Scottish Lib Dem Leader served as Deputy First Minister from 1999-2005 and then as Advocate General for Scotland during the Westminster Coalition years, has done an interview for the BBC Podlitical podcast, available here on BBC Sounds or wherever else you get your podcasts.

The programme synopsis says:

The Lib Dem peer and former Deputy First Minister shares thoughts from his career. Lord Wallace talks to Lucy Whyte and Kirsten Campbell about the early days of Scottish Parliament, his conversations with First Minister Donald Dewar and Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his role as acting First Minister. Wallace shares his thoughts Brexit and Independence, as well as the UK Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition of 2010, and why he thinks political parties have a problem with offering things that aren’t possible.

It’s a great listen.  Jim talks about how he was willing to walk away during the 1999 coalition negotiations, but that the deal was done due to him and Donald Dewar’s willingness to work to find a way through the difficulties. He describes receiving a phone call from Tony Blair in the middle of it all, and hearing Donald Dewar in the next room speaking to our Paddy on the phone.

He talks of his pride at introducing Freedom of Information legislation, something that had long been a passion, and his delight when the Act was praised.

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The Green Book returns – the podcast goes live

As trailed here, the team who gave us the Green Book some 10 years ago is launching a new podcast series, starting with an episode on the economy.

This is hugely important as concerns about the economy, be they low paid jobs, insecurity or our apparent inability to fund decent public services and infrastructure, are at the top of most people’s concerns.

We’re all well aware of the lack of investment in this country, both public and private which has led to this situation. However, the standard answer from most of our politicians has been ‘but there is no money’ – the excuse for the austerity of the last 13 years – which has only made things worse.  Meanwhile our debts, both personal and public, have just got bigger.

What’s needed is a different approach and a new way of thinking about political economy. So in this episode of Green Book Pod, we look at what has been done differently elsewhere, in particular in the USA where Biden is turning the economic approach of the last 20-30 years upside down, and we ask where the money might come from.

Joining us are three great guests:

Vicky Pryce who is a very well-known economics commentator, regularly on TV, radio and in the media. She is the Chief Economic Adviser at the Centre for Economics and Business Research and was joint head of the Government’s Economic Service.

Max von Thun was economic advisor to the party when Vince Cable was leader and is now the European director for the US based Open Markets Institute.  He brings good insights into what is happening in the US with Bidenomics, which is a real challenge to the economic assumptions of the last 20-30 years.

Richard Murphy who was one of the creators of the original Green New Deal and also the tax justice movement. He is a very active blogger on political economy, and has thought long and hard about government funding and where the money could come from.

Chairing the session is me,  Robin Stafford.  I have been supporting the party on economic matters over the last 5-6 years.

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LISTEN: Ed Davey on For the Many Live at Edinburgh

Ed Davey’s appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe is now available online.

He talked to Iain Dale and Jacqui Smith for their For the Many podcast.

Ed was in cracking form, very funny, bright and relaxed.

He came on stage while Iain and Jacqui were having a bit of a barney about women’s football. I had tweeted Jacqui after Iain told Harriet Harman that one thing that men could do better than women was play football. She got a lot of mileage out of that over the various shows. Anyway,  Ed was full of support for the Lionesses.

Jacqui then challenged Ed to come up with an act of heroism after Keir Starmer helped find a dog while he was on holiday in the Lake District. She might not have been expecting him to come up with an actual example, but he did rescue a woman from the path of an oncoming train.

Jacqui challenged him to get Iain Dale, who has said multiple times that he’s not sure who to vote for at the next General Election, to commit to voting Lib Dem. Ed is smarter than to fall for that trap, and, while he outlined lots of good reasons to vote Lib Dem, he recognised we might not gain Iain’s support.

Iain challenged him on why our national polling isn’t reflecting our by-election success. He pointed to local election success and the fact that we were talking to people about the issues they cared about.

His top task, he said, is to get the Conservatives out of Government.

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Heartbreak, humility and humour – Alex Cole-Hamilton talks to Matt Forde

A wee treat for your commute today, or to have on in the background while you work from home.

New Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton was the guest on this week’s Political Party podcast hosted by Matt Forde.

It’s a brilliant chat, incredibly serious and moving in places, absolutely hilarious in others. At the start, Matt Forde warns us that it includes Alex’s account of a man who died by suicide in front of him a few years back. It’s one of the reasons he has been so persistent in questioning the Scottish Government on their lack of a suicide prevention strategy or lack of mental health support.

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Nick Clegg’s podcast interview with George Osborne didn’t help me manage my anger

I used a car journey yesterday to listen to Nick Clegg’s podcast, Anger Management, yesterday. I was a bit perturbed that he’s only been talking to white men of a certain age so far, but am reassured that this is going to change soon, with Harriet Harman and Elif Safak coming up.

I decided that yesterday’s sunshine was too lovely to be spoiled by listening to the chat with Nigel Farage, so I listened to the Know your Frenemy chat with George Osborne instead.

I still have some time for the coalition and the things that the Liberal Democrats brought to the table that did make life better for people – better mental health care, shared parental leave, extra money for disadvantaged kids in school and the like, ending child detention for immigration, all the green stuff we did and our work on international development. I am also acutely aware of the mistakes that we made, particularly around immigration (the minimum income requirement to bring your non British spouse in for a start) and cutbacks in social security that caused real misery. Sometimes stopping the Tories doing their worst just wasn’t enough.

So the conversation between Nick and George, a reuniting of half The Quad who made all the decisions during the coalition years, was peppered with several instances of Nick telling George how much he’d infuriated him. Hearing about Osborne’s upbringing was interesting, with his Labour voting mum and Conservative inclined father.

They had an interesting conversation about the media with Osborne, the newspaper editor, speaking up for newspapers and for regulation of  social media. 

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Talking Bournemouth and Brexit with Sam Skubala on the Politics World podcast

Have a listen to my chat with Sam Skubala when we talked about Bournemouth, Brexit, Vince and Jo. And about reducing inequality.

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A personal guide to the 13 most essential political podcasts

podcastsCommuting is a major part of my daily life, so I find podcasts are an essential way to make use of time I’d otherwise spend staring vacantly out the window or idly refreshing and re-refreshing Twitter. Here, in order of where they appear in my iTunes directory, are the podcasts I listen to most frequently…

The Economist’s podcasts – a good mix of audio recordings of selected articles from the print edition together with brief discussions involving the Economist’s expert correspondents. Slightly irritatingly the sound can vary between recordings, so you …

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I get “spiky” on For A’ That podcast

On Saturday I took part in the For A’ That podcast in Scotland along with regulars Andrew Tickell and Michael Greenwell and fellow guest Green (and former Liberal Democrat) Douglas McLellan. It’s not all about Scottish stuff. We had quite a long conversation at the beginning about immigration and Nick Clegg’s speech in particular.

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