The British Dream

She'll deny it if you give her the chance... Let's rip up Theresa May's conference speech. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was good, but is it good enough? Let’s rip up Jeremy Corbyn’s Conference Speech! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Earlier in the summer the world looked on in horror as Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance border policy led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents. Audio recordings of crying infants and pictures of kids surrounded by border guards could hardly fail to move you. But do we have the moral high ground in the UK? The separation of children from their parents at the hands of the border system is something that goes on in the UK, but it’s much less well known. This week the British Dream talks to Nick Beals from Bail for Immigration Detainees, who tells us the group has tried to help 328 children separated from their parents by the border regime in the last year. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are we seeing the normalisation of fascism? There's a disturbing pattern of politicians making extreme statements, columnists writing apologia for racism, and far-right figures taking to the airwaves for soft interviews with sycophantic journalists. On the British Dream this week, Simon Childs chats to Hussein Kesvani about what to make of this new reality, and look at how far-right ideology related to mainstream conservatism and gullible journalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Remember in the spring when Ireland voted to legalise abortion? People in Northern Ireland do. They remember how everyone looked to Northern Ireland – with its exceptionally harsh abortion laws – and wondered if they would take a similar step. Northern Irish women took to the streets demanding their rights with banners reading “the North Is next”. With the Conservative government being propped up by the anti-abortion Democratic Unionist Party, it felt like the pressure might even topple Theresa May’s government. Then the news cycle moved on, as ever. But today we’re going back there and asking, ‘what happened with that?’ Goretti Horgan is Policy Director at ARK, a social policy hub started by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast Ulster University. She’s an activist and she gave The British Dream podcast the lowdown on the fight for women's rights in Northern Ireland. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Grime has gone from a music genre that the police tried to snuff out, to one of Britain’s most in demand cultural exports, all the while maintaining its anti-establishment edge. We spoke to Dan Hancox, author of Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime, about why the genre sounds like a riot that’s about to happen, its adversarial relationship with the state, and its roots in a London taken over by luxury flats and privatised public space. We also chatted about the moral panic currently surrounding Drill and knife crime, and asked whether violent music leads to violence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When the British people voted to “take back control” and leave the EU, you have to wonder if they were doing so looking forward to passing references to technocratic policy detail filtered through a Westminster melodrama, a sort of Tory Battle Royale played out by Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson and Anna Soubry, with people’s opinions wielded as a weapon to shut down debate. But here we are. As Brexit shudders on, We spoke to Dr Marina Prentoulis, from Another Europe Is Possible, about the politics, the press and the possibilities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In April an obscure, sub-cultural, iconoclastic, left-wing Jewish group called Jewdas made tabloid news by inviting Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to a Seder, in which a beetroot was held aloft as attendees shouted "F**k capitalism". In the context of an anti-Semitism scandal that is dogging the Labour party, this was interpreted as further evidence that Corbyn wasn't taking the problem seriously. Somehow, Jewdas themselves ended up being accused of anti-Semitism. We spoke to two members of Jewdas about being front-page news, where left-wing anti-Semitism comes from, and wether things are getting better or worse. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"It was disturbing for us to see young people targeted in this kind of way"  Silkie Carlo is a Director at Big Brother Watch, an independent non-profit organisation leading the protection of privacy and civil liberties in the UK. She chats to Simon Childs, Home Affairs Editor at VICE.COM, about how scary the police’s use facial recognition technology is. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“What gets talked about is immigration and borders—what doesn't get talked about is people and people's lives" Gracie Bradley is an Advocacy Officer for Liberty, campaigning for human rights in the UK. She chats to Simon Childs, Home Affairs Editor at VICE.COM, about where the Windrush Scandal fits into the Government's "Hostile environment" project. Recorded 10am on Thursday 26th April 2018. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Our kids are bearing the brunt of institutional racism and ultimately paying with their lives" Stafford Scott is a Race Advocacy Officer at The Monitoring Group, an anti-racist charity. He chats to Simon Childs, Home Affairs Editor at VICE.COM, about the knife crime epidemic, the influence of social media on young people, and state racism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“We are paying to learn how to work in jobs that no longer pay” Students from all over the UK have joined the University strike in solidarity with their lecturers this year. Hear an oral history from those who have been protesting, hogging the picket lines and running the occupations at Universities around the country. Hosted by Simon Childs, VICE UK's Home Affairs Editor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So much has changed in far right politics. The British National Party have come and gone, the English Defence League have disappeared, and lord knows what's going on at UKIP. As part of Hate Island, our special investigation into the far-right, Simon Childs, VICE UK's Home Affairs Editor, is in conversation with journalist James Poulter, Broadly Editor Zing Tsing, and Henry Langston, VICE Producer. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matt Myers has written an oral history of the 2010 student movement that cast off the cliche of an apathetic youth, embarrassed Nick Clegg, sacked the Tory HQ, but didn’t quite manage to stop tuition fees going up. Simon Childs, Home Affairs Editor at VICE.com, discusses with Matt why the Iraq War and 2010 student movement is helpful lens to look at what’s going on today, particularly because a lot of people who were angry then are movers and shakers in the movement behind Corbyn now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most people didn’t hear Jeremy Corbyn’s foreign policy speech to the UN Assembly in December 2017. But basically it set out what you could call the Corbyn Doctrine on UK foreign policy for the Labour Party. Simon Childs, Home Affairs Editor at VICE.COM, kicks off the first in our "Speeching" series. It’s all about corruption, solidarity and putting Britain on a level playing field with the rest of the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is Brexit a hangover from Blairism? Are we living through the political comedown after Tony's Britpop party? Richard Power Sayeed, author of the book "1997: The Future That Never Happened" chats with Simon Childs, Home Affairs Editor at VICE UK. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s been a quiet year, with only one of the most surprising elections in living memory to distract us form Brexit, the Grenfell Tower Fire and the Westminster sex abuse scandal, to name just a few. Join the British Dream as we travel back 12 months, to a completely different political landscape where Theresa May was riding high in the polls and Jeremy Corbyn was far from the absolute boy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join the British Dream to round off conference season with the podcast that the Prime Minister named her vision for the country after. We dive into the content of Theresa May's ill fated conference speech and find out that even if she delivered it properly, it would have sucked anyway. And a conversation with Solomon Hughes, journalist for VICE and Private Eye, who has spent years sniffing around political party get-togethers on the look out for corporate lobbyists and dodgy influence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With summer coming to an end and politics whirring back into gear, we’ll finally get some more Westminster podcast fodder soon, but for now we’re still focussing on trivial things like the end of the world. Tune in for an interview with a guy who sells nuclear bunkers, an update on Brexit, and we dissect the weird story of Activate – the so called Tory Momentum. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the summer recess sits uneasily with the potential of nuclear winter, Tories are writing confused think-pieces, while Corbyn is sticking to what he knows, heading off on another campaign tour. We ask what the Conservatives should do next, whether Moggmentum will give the Tories any impetus, and discus nuclear war – Good or Bad? We also head to the Manchester International Festival to hear about whether the youth vote rocked the election. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.