Episodes
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2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. In terms of population size there are none bigger than the six week exercise that got underway last Friday. The world’s biggest democracy - India - has gone to the polls and prime minister Narendra Modi is hoping – perhaps expecting – to win a third term. He first came to power in 2014 and since then fears about “democratic backsliding” have been growing. So how concerned about that should we be? Step inside The Briefing Room and together we’ll find out.
Guests:
Yogita Limaye, BBC's South Asia CorrespondentRohan Venkat, editor of “India Inside Out” newsletterLouise Tillin, Professor of Politics in the India Institute at King’s College London Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow for South Asia at Chatham House.
Production team: Rosamund Jones and Ben CarterEditor: Richard VadonProduction Co-ordinator: Gemma AshmanSound engineers: Hal Haines and Sarah Hockley
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David Aaronovitch and guests explore the thinking behind Iran's decision to attack Israel and ask what the short and long term aims of the Iranian regime are.
Guests:
Shashank Joshi, Defence editor at The EconomistAli Vaez, Iran Project Director at International Crisis GroupDr Roxane Farmanfarmaian, lecturer specialising in the politics of Iran and the Middle East at Cambridge University
Production team: Sally Abrahams, Kirsteen Knight and Ben CarterEditor: Richard VadonProduction Co-ordinator: Gemma AshmanSound engineer: Neil Churchill
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Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to “eliminate” Hamas but after six months of death and destruction in Gaza what do we know about their status?
David Aaronovitch talks to:
Jennifer Jefferis, Teaching Professor at Georgetown University's Security Studies program and author of Hamas: Terrorism, Governance, and its Future in Middle East Politics.
Michael Clarke, Professor of Defence studies and Specialist Advisor to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy.
Khalil Shikaki, Director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research
Gershon Baskin, Middle East Director, International Communities Organization and a former Israeli negotiator with Hamas
Production team: Sally Abrahams, Kirsteen Knight and Ben CarterEditor: Richard VadonProduction Co-ordinator: Ibtisam ZeinSound engineer: Rod Farquhar
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The state pension system relies on the workers of today paying the pensions of current retirees. But does an aging population and rising costs threaten that model continuing?
David Aaronovitch talks to:
Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal StudiesPaul Lewis, financial journalist and presenter of Radio 4’s Money Box programme Claer Barrett, consumer editor at the Financial Times and presenter of the FT's Money Clinic podcastSir Steve Webb, formerly Minister for Pensions and current partner at Lane Clark & Peacock
Production team: Drew Hyndman, Kirsteen Knight and Ben CarterEditor: Richard VadonProduction Co-ordinator: Gemma AshmanSound engineer: Rod Farquhar
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2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. To mark this phenomenon we are broadcasting three special programmes.
In the third and final programme in this special series we’re focusing on South Africa. It is 30 years since the African National Congress - led back then by Nelson Mandela - first won power. It has had a majority in parliament ever since. But this year it could well be different. If so, does this decline of the ruling party bode well or badly for South Africa?
Guests:
David Everatt, Professor at the Wits School of Governance in JohannesburgDr Ayesha Omar, British Academy International Fellow at SOASAlexander Beresford, Associate Professor in African Politics at Leeds University Professor Cherrel Africa from the University of the Western Cape
Production team: Rosamund Jones and Ben CarterEditor: Richard VadonProduction Co-ordinator: Gemma AshmanSound engineers: Hal Haines and Neil Churchill
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2024 is the year of elections. According to one estimate just under 50% of all the people on earth live in countries where by December 31st there will have been a national vote. To mark this phenomenon we are broadcasting three special programmes.
David Aaronovitch and guests discuss why do some countries bother holding elections if the outcomes are pre-determined and they also ask why the public bother voting in them?
Guests:
Naomi Hossain, Professor of Development Studies at SOASKaterina Tertychnaya, Associate Professor in Comparative Politics in the Department of Politics & International Relations at the University of OxfordBen Ansell, Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of OxfordErica Frantz, Associate Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University
Production team: Ellie House, Ajai Singh and Ben CarterEditor: Richard VadonProduction Co-ordinator: Gemma AshmanSound engineer: James Beard
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In 1964, pre-historic remains were discovered at Jabal Aṣ-Ṣaḥābah - or Mountain of the Companions - in the Nile Valley near what is now the border of northern Sudan and Egypt. That site contained evidence of the earliest known warfare believed to have taken place around 13,500 years ago. It’s thought that climate change led to that conflict; as crop yields became smaller, more groups had to compete with each other for what food sources were available.
Spears and possibly arrows were the high-tech weapons of choice in the Nile Valley. Flash forward to today and it’s AI-enabled drones that have been - literally - levelling the playing field for Ukraine in their battle against Russia.
But as technological advancement continues apace what lessons have we learned from recent conflicts and how might things change in the wars yet to begin?
Guests: Shashank Joshi, defence editor at The Economist, Dr Jack Watling, Senior Research Fellow for Land Warfare at the Royal United Services InstituteDr Emma Salisbury, associate fellow in military innovation at the Council on Geostrategy
Production team: Ben Carter and Kirsteen KnightEditor: Richard VadonProduction Co-ordinator: Gemma AshmanSound engineer: Neil Churchill
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It is two years since Russia began its costly conflict against Ukraine. How does it fund its war effort, how do sanctions impact that and how tight is Putin's grip on power?
Guests:Sarah Rainsford, BBC Eastern Europe CorrespondentMaria Shagina, Research Fellow for Economic Sanctions, Standards and Strategy at the International Institute for Strategic StudiesIsaac Levi, Europe-Russia Policy & Energy Analysis Team Lead at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean AirMark Galeotti, Writer on Russian security affairs and director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Ben CarterProduction Co-ordinator: Gemma AshmanSound engineer: Neil ChurchillEditor: Richard Vadon
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Deaths from synthetic opioids such as nitazenes and fentanyl are low in the UK but there are fears the problem could escalate and that figures don't show the true picture of the situation. David Aaronovitch explores how dangerous these drugs are, why the opioid crisis is so bad in the US, where they come from and why a shortage of heroin in the UK could mean drug cartels switch to supplying these often fatal alternatives.
Guests:Rick Treble, Forensic chemist, and advisor to the Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.Dr Caroline Copeland, Director of the National Programme on Substance Abuse DeathsAlex Stevens, Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of KentSam Quinones, journalist and author of 'Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic'
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonaldProduction Co-ordinator: Gemma AshmanSound engineer: Rod FarquharEditor: Penny Murphy
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This week a great queue of dentistless Bristolians appeared outside a new practice offering NHS treatment. That followed a report on children’s health which specifically referenced the poor and worsening state of their teeth. This week the government announced a package to try and improve things in England. But did it go anything like far enough to solve the problems of too few dentists being willing or able to treat NHS patients?
David Aaronovitch is joined by the following experts:
Beccy Baird, Senior Fellow, the King’s FundIan Mills, Dentist and Associate Professor of Primary Care Dentistry at the Peninsula Dental School in PlymouthThea Stein, Chief Executive of the Nuffield TrustProfessor Claire Stevens CBE, Spokesperson, British Society of Paediatric Dentistry
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonaldProduction Co-ordinator: Gemma AshmanSound: James BeardEditor: Richard Vadon
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This week the Education Select Committee said that Ofsted and the Government must rebuild trust and make major changes to school inspections.
This follows months of news coverage of the death of Ruth Perry, the headteacher who killed herself following an Ofsted inspection at her primary school. The coroner ruled that it contributed to her death.
This week we ask - what’s the point of Ofsted?
David is joined by the following experts:Sam Freedman, senior fellow at the Institute for GovernmentJohn Jerrim, Professor of Education and Social Statistics, at UCLCarole Willis, Chief Executive, National Foundation for Educational ResearchColin Diamond, Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Birmingham
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonaldProduction Co-ordinator: Gemma AshmanSound: Hal Haines and Neil ChurchillEditor: Richard Vadon
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The UK is experiencing more rain and more floods than previously, and because of climate change this is set to get worse. More than 6 million homes are at risk of flooding in the UK. What is the state of the country’s flood defences? Can people get insurance? What can we do to prepare for a wetter future?
David Aaronovitch is joined by the following experts:Louise Slater, Professor of Hydroclimatology at the University of OxfordEdmund Penning-Rowsell, Research Associate at Oxford University Centre for the EnvironmentHannah Cloke, Professor of Hydrology at the University of ReadingSteven Forrest, Lecturer in Flood Resilience and Sustainable Transformations, Hull University
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonaldProduction Co-ordinator: Sophie Hill and Katie MorrisonSound: Neil ChurchillEditor: Richard Vadon
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It’s been another difficult week for local government. Birmingham City Council announced it needs to make up to 600 redundancies to help balance its books and Middlesbrough Council decided to apply to the Government for £15m of emergency funding to avoid effective bankruptcy. Also this week new figures have been released showing just how much debt some local authorities hold. And it’s a lot.
Since 2021 there have been six councils which have declared themselves effectively bankrupt. Given the responsibilities of local government that feels serious for many of us.
So what are the financial pressures facing councils and why?
David Aaronovitch is joined by the following experts:Aileen Murphie, specialist adviser to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities select committee and former National Audit Office DirectorTony Travers, visiting Professor at the LSE’s Department of GovernmentKate Ogden, Senior Research Economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonaldProduction Co-ordinators: Sophie HillSound: Andy FellEditor: Richard Vadon
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As if the conflict in Gaza wasn’t bad enough, the fighting has ignited old and new tensions elsewhere across the region. Since the surprise attack by Hamas on 7th October, clashes on the Lebanon-Israel border have restarted, attacks on US troops stationed in Syria and Iraq have escalated and a group of Houthi armed rebels from Yemen has started firing rockets at cargo ships trying to access the Suez Canal from the Red Sea. So in this week’s programme David Aaronovitch asks how close the war in Gaza is to becoming a wider conflict across the Middle East.
David is joined by the following experts:Frank Gardner, BBC’s Security Correspondent.Dr Elisabeth Kendall, Arabist & Middle East specialist and also The Mistress of Girton College at the University of Cambridge.Jane Kinninmont, Policy & Impact Director at the European Leadership Network.Scott Lucas, Professor of International Politics at University College Dublin’s Clinton Institute.
Production team: Nick Holland, Kirsteen Knight and Charlotte McDonaldProduction Co-ordinators: Sophie HillSound: Neil ChurchillEditor: Richard Vadon
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It’s almost 4 years since the UK left the European Union. Recent polls show a majority of people want to re-join the EU. But is this a realistic option?
So in this week’s programme David Aaronovitch asks could we re-join the EU if we wanted? If we did, would it be of any benefit to the UK? And under what terms would the EU have us back?
David is joined by the following experts:Peter Foster, Public Policy Editor at Financial TimesMujtaba Rahman, Managing Director for Europe at Eurasia Group who advise investors on political riskJill Rutter a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Government who directed the organisation's work on BrexitAnand Menon, Director of the UK in a Changing Europe
Production team: Sophie Eastaugh, Kirsteen Knight and Alex LewisProduction Co-ordinators: Katie MorrisonSound: Rod FarquharEditor: Richard Vadon
Photo by ANDY RAIN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock (13998647a)
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Aliens are back on the radar after a US Congressional hearing in the summer that featured former intelligence officer, David Grusch. The US Air Force veteran was once part of a task force created to look into what used to be called UFOs. Mr Grusch gave evidence that caused a sensation in America, claiming that the US military had, for decades, been in possession of crashed UFOs and 'non-human biologics'.
His shocking claims were evidence that, whatever their accuracy, both created and reflected a growing and serious debate - from astrophysicists and astrobiologists to policymakers about what if anything, is out there. Anything alive and anything civilised.
So, as 2023 turns into 2024, what is the state of our understanding about whether or not we are alone in space? David Aaronovitch explores the history of UFOs stretching back to the 1940s and discusses whether intelligent life exists beyond Earth.
David Aaronovitch talks to: Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, British space scientist and science educatorGarrett Graff, Journalist and historian. Author of ‘UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government's Search for Alien Life Here ― and Out There’.Avi Loeb, Astrophysicist and Baird Professor of Science at Harvard UniversityMonica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Science at the Open University.
Presenter: David AaronovitchProducer: Sally Abrahams Sound: James Beard and Neil Churchill Editor: Richard Vadon
Archive Credits: Congressional Hearing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, 26 July 2023 courtesy of C-Span
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Housing charity Shelter’s latest figures show that homelessness has risen rapidly in the last year. In England, 279,400 people are living in temporary accommodation - an increase of 14% - most of whom are families. And the government’s own figures reveal that almost half (47%) of families who are homeless in temporary accommodation have been there for more than two years. Councils have a legal duty to house families and people who are vulnerable if they lose their homes, but the acute shortage of affordable homes means they are having to rely on temporary accommodation for long periods.So what can be done to fix the growing numbers who find themselves homeless?
David Aaronovitch is joined by the following expert guests:Christine Whitehead, Housing Economist, London School of EconomicsRachelle Earwaker, Senior Economist, Joseph Rowntree FoundationMatthew Wilkins, Head of Value for Money, Centre for Homelessness Impact
Production team: Kirsteen Knight, Alex Lewis and Sophie EastaughProduction Co-ordinators: Jacqui Johnson and Sophie HillSound: Rod FarquharEditor: Richard Vadon
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Euthanasia is illegal in the UK. All attempts to change the law have failed.
Other countries have legalised Assisted Dying and/or Euthanasia. In this week’s Briefing Room with David Aaronovitch we find out what their experience has been and what, if anything, the UK could learn from that.
Joining David on the programme are:
- Imogen Goold Professor of Medical Law at University of Oxford- Agnes van der Heide: Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam - Thaddeus Pope: Professor, Health Law Institute, Mitchell Hamline School of Law (Minnesota, USA)- Richard Huxtable: Professor of Medical Ethics and Law at the University of Bristol
Production: Kirsteen Knight, Alex Lewis and Claire Bowes Production Co-ordinators: Jacqui Johnson and Gemma AshmanSound: James BeardEditor: Richard Vadon
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The start of Ukraine’s counter-offensive against occupying Russian forces was hailed as the breakthrough moment of the war so far. Now six months on, we ask what happened?
The Secretary General of NATO has said we should be ‘prepared for bad news’ and the White House has warned that the US is running out of time and money to fund the war.
In this week's Briefing Room with David Aaronovitch we find out why things haven’t progressed as hoped and how much Ukraine’s key backers still support the war.
Joining David to discuss are:Shashank Joshi - Defence Editor at The EconomistMichael Clarke - Professor of Defence studies and Specialist Advisor to the Joint Committee on the National Security StrategyKarin Von Hippel - Director General, Royal United Services InstituteProf. Dr. Daniela Schwarzer - Executive Board member of the Bertelsmann Stiftung, a German foreign policy think tank based in Berlin
Production: Kirsteen Knight and Alex LewisProduction Co-ordinators: Jacqui Johnson and Sophie HillSound: Neil ChurchillEditor: Richard Vadon
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UK net migration hit a record 745,000 in 2022 according to recently revised figures from the Office for National Statistics.
That means the numbers coming to live in the UK were almost three quarters of a million more than those leaving.
Reducing the numbers of people entering the country has long been a government priority with famous promises to reduce it to “tens of thousands”. In a post-Brexit era it had been assumed that the figures would naturally decline, but that hasn’t been the case.
David Aaronovitch invites you into his briefing room to discover what these numbers mean for the UK.
He’s joined by:Jay Lindop, Director, Office for National Statistics, Centre for International Migration Heather Rolfe, Director of Research and Relationships at the think tank British Future. Madeline Sumption, Director of Migration Observatory, University of Oxford
Production: Sally Abrahams, Kirsteen Knight, Alex LewisProduction Co-ordinator: Jacqui Johnson + Sophie HillSound: Neil ChurchillEditor: Richard Vadon
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