In Solidarity - by openDemocracy

Is Reform fascist, far-right or merely right wing? And do we really need to get into this?

Our guest on this episode, thinks we should: Daniel Trilling is a journalist, a long-time openDemocracy contributor, and the author of a new Book: If We Tolerate This: How the British Establishment Made the Far Right Respectable.

Daniel has spent decades covering the wild west of right-wing politics in England— from the fascists to the conservatives.

And his point, which we dig into over the length of this episode, is we need to correctly diagnose what Reform is, and what they are tapping into, before we decide what to do about it.

I found this conversation particularly thought provoking for two reasons: Whenever we cover Reform on openDemocracy (and we go at them very hard), we often get readers writing in saying, “I support Reform but I’m not racist”; On the other hand, I worry — to borrow from the title of Daniel’s book, if we are making a dangerous group respectable.

So yes, we need to get into it, and Daniel is just the person to do this with.

Buy Daniel's book: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/8711/9781037411571

Subscribe to openDemocracy: opendemocracy.net

00:00 Introduction
01:05 The Collapse of the UK's Two-Party System
02:18 The First-Past-The-Post Lottery
03:07 What is the "British Establishment"?
04:19 The Media Elite & Private School Pipelines
05:32 The "Punitive State": Working Class vs. The State
07:37 The Nigel Farage Playbook
10:48 The False Promise of "Fixing the Country"
13:30 "Anti-Nationals" & The Right-Wing Identity Crisis
16:32 Scottish Nationalism vs. Englishness
18:23 The Identity Void of Post-Empire Britain
21:40 How to Actually Defeat Reform UK & The Far-Right
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The climate crisis is changing the way nations think about food, energy, resources, war and peace. Melting ice caps are opening up new trade routes fought over by the world's great powers, conflicts are waged over food and mineral resources, shifting climates are fuelling migration – and Donald Trump says it's all just a scam.

Join Arthur Snell as he discusses his new book Elemental: the new geography of climate change and how we survive it. Spanning conflict in the Sahel, Russia's war in Ukraine, the US coveting Greenland, NEOM in Saudi Arabia, and China's energy push, Snell explores how the climate crisis is now in every part of our politics. But while there is much to concern us here, there's hope too. The world faces various futures, and it can adapt and respond to the realities of a changing climate.

📕 Buy Elemental: The New Geography of Climate Change and How We Survive it
https://uk.bookshop.org/a/8711/9781035412945

👉 Stay informed. Sign up for the openDemocracy newsletter: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/newsletters/
✊ Support our work. In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. We rely on listeners like you to keep our independent journalism free. Donate today: https://www.openDemocracy.net/donate/

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:20 The Petro-State Panic: Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the End of Oil
03:32 The Sahel Crisis: Climate Migration and Fragile States
08:24 Uranium & Mercenaries: Russia vs. France in Africa
10:25 The Arctic: Melting Ice, Shipping Routes, and Donald Trump
16:21 Ukraine: Why Putin is Weaponizing Food and Farmland
21:35 China’s Monopoly & Russia's Future as an "Economic Colony"
28:18 The Surprising Winners: Morocco, Interconnectors, and Climate Hope
32:41 Outro

Credits: Presented by Sian Norris
Audio engineering by James Battershill
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"My ultimate vision... was to achieve by means of AI and technology, what Jeremy Bentham tried to do with his panopticon." — UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
When the state openly admits it wants its eyes on you at all times, how do citizens fight back?

In this episode of In Solidarity, Matthew Linares sits down with Jim Killock, Executive Director of the Open Rights Group. We cut through the Silicon Valley PR to expose the terrifying reality of the modern surveillance state. From the aggressive rollout of facial recognition and predictive policing to the "revolving door" between Big Tech lobbyists and policymakers, we explore how our democratic infrastructure is being hollowed out for corporate profit.

This isn't just a warning - it's an escape plan. Jim breaks down the illusion of corporate regulation, the realities of "enshittification," and the actionable steps you can take to reclaim your digital sovereignty today.

Get involved offline. Find an Open Rights Group meetup near you: https://www.openrightsgroup.org/get-involved/

👉 Stay informed. Sign up for the openDemocracy newsletter: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/newsletters/

✊ Support our work. In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. We rely on listeners like you to keep our independent journalism free. Donate today: https://www.openDemocracy.net/donate/

Chapters:
00:00:00 - Introduction
00:01:27 - The AI Panopticon
00:04:18 - The Lobbyist Loop & The “Rip-Off”
00:10:26 - “Enshittification” & The Illusion of Choice
00:14:48 - Why relying on tech regulators is a “mug’s game”
00:18:51 - Escaping the Matrix: Interoperability, analog meetups, and fighting back

Credits: Presented by Matthew Linares
Audio engineering by James Battershill
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the US-Israeli war on Iran continues to escalate, the effects of the conflict are spiralling outwards across a world already whiplashed by cross-border violence, global tariffs, and the unravelling of regional alliances.
There is much that we do not know: How will spiking energy prices affect developing economies in Asia and Africa? What are the long term impacts of the destabilisation of the Gulf, a region that has long served as a magnet for labour and capital from around the world? What does the conflict in Iran reveal about the latest chapter in the relationship between international finance capital and nation states?
To talk through these questions, I interviewed analyst and columnist Mihir Sharma. Sharma is a principal research fellow at IPPR, and has been a Bloomberg Opinion columnist on global economics and politics for over a decade.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why are British and European politicians obsessed with Denmark's immigration strategy? We uncover the dark reality of the "Danish Model" and how it punishes asylum seekers by design.

Politicians across Europe - including the UK government - increasingly point to the so-called "Danish Model" as the ultimate solution for controlling borders, immigration, and asylum. But beyond the political talking points, what does this model actually look like on the ground?
In this episode of In Solidarity, host Aman Sethi sits down with Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, the first-ever Danish Professor in Migration and Mobility Law. They break down the harsh reality of "indirect deterrence," how Europe's most liberal border became its strictest, and the secret history of the modern passport.
Finally, they unpack the recent push by the UK and Denmark to bypass the European Court of Human Rights, and what that means for the future of global mobility. If you want to understand the reality behind the political rhetoric on border control, this is your essential briefing.
Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen is the director of MOBILE, the Danish National Research Foundation's Center of Excellence on Global Mobility Law.

👉 Stay informed. Sign up for the openDemocracy newsletter: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/newsletters/

✊ Support our work. In Solidarity is openDemocracy’s podcast about people, power, and politics. We rely on listeners like you to keep our independent journalism free. Donate today: https://www.openDemocracy.net/donate/

Chapters:
00:00 The Cruelty of the "Danish Model"
01:59 What Actually is the Danish Asylum Strategy?
05:39 Does "Indirect Deterrence" Actually Stop Migration?
07:16 The Human Cost: Punishing Migrants to Send a Message
14:18 The Secret History of the Modern Passport
19:00 The UK and Denmark's Plot Against Human Rights Law

Credits:
Presented by Aman Sethi
Audio engineering by James Battershill
Theme song ‘Odyssey’ performed by Edward Abela
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.