Breaking Britain: A Podcast about the Politics of a Disunited Kingdom

With elections looming on 4 July, the UK faces a turning point in its relationships with Europe and the wider world. Though there are three weeks of campaigning to go, all signs point to a substantial victory for the opposition Labour Party and a total collapse for the governing Conservative - or Tory - Party.To help us explore the impact this election will have on the UK's foreign and defence policy we've been joined by Ben Jones, whose fascinating research explores the impact of military cooperation on state sovereignty. As a lecturer in European foreign policy here at King's College London and with his extensive experience of the UK political scene, in this podcast Ben sets out the challenges a new UK government will face in a rapidly changing world. The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield. 

During the 2010s the Russian state under Vladimir Putin and a Turkish government led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan deepened a geopolitical relationship involving cooperation as well as armed conflict. Both leaders faced domestic political challenges while pursuing their own visions of great power status.Over the past two decades, Dimitar Bechev has written extensively about these complex interactions between Turkey and Russia in studies that are rich in fascinating insights. This week he will help us explore how an interaction between domestic protest and escalating conflict reshaped the politics of Turkey, Russia and their neighbours during the crisis of the 2010s.The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.

In the final years of the 2000s the UK and EU were rocked by seemingly endless turmoil on global financial markets. A sense of crisis over the future of the banking system and the Euro converged with a surge of support for eurosceptic populism to fundamentally disrupt British political life. To discuss the turmoil that enveloped the UK in the early 2010s we've been joined by Annette Dittert, who as London correspondent for German public broadcaster ARD has witnessed the ups and downs of British politics up close since 2008. With her extensive knowledge of the British political scene as well as her previous experience as a foreign correspondent in Warsaw and New York, Annette provides fascinating insights into tensions in British politics that laid the foundation for the fateful vote to leave the EU in the Brexit referendum of June 2016. The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.    

As the Crisis of the 2010s unfolded after the near collapse of the global financial system in 2008, relations between Russia and the West shifted from cautious cooperation to profound hostility. Yet even in the wake of the Russian military assault on Georgia in 2008, governments in the US and EU continued to hope for a reset of relations despite every escalatory step taken by Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime. In this episode we have been joined by Ruth Deyermond, who as Senior Lecturer in Post-Soviet Security at King's College London can help us explore key factors that led to the breakdown of relations between Russia and the West. As a scholar with a background in pathbreaking research exploring Russia's security landscape, Ruth can provide extensive insights into the emergence of tensions between Moscow and the West a decade ago that culminated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.

In the wake of the near collapse of the global financial system in 2008 the post-Cold War order was upended by a convergence of crises in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Beginning our series exploring this Crisis of the 2010s, we have been joined by Clingendael Institute Research Fellow Andrew Lebovich to explore the turmoil that engulfed communities across the Sahel and West Africa during this tumultuous period.The near collapse of the Malian state in the face of an insurgent offensive in January 2013 triggered a French-led European military intervention as well as wider regional instability that became intertwined with conflicts in every other state in the region. The rapid escalation of insurgencies, military coups and creeping involvement of Russian mercenaries and other external actors became symptoms of deeper structural pressures that have reshaped West African politics. As a scholar with extensive experience of the history and politics of West Africa, Andrew Lebovich can help guide us through the social roots of the crises that turned the Sahel region into one of the central geopolitical flashpoints of the 2010s.The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.   

In this week's episode, we have been joined by Glen O'Hara to explore the escalating crisis facing the UK's public services. Over the past 18 months among public services from universities to healthcare the British state has been shaken by waves of strikes and infrastructure breakdowns whose effects have come to be acutely felt in everyday life. With his extensive research background on the history of British state institutions, Glen O'Hara helps us explore the wider social, economic and political dynamics that have brought Britain's public services close to breaking point.As Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Oxford Brookes University, Glen O'Hara has published groundbreaking work on economic and social policy in Britain after the First World War. He is currently Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded programme 'Spaces of Hope: The Hidden Histories of Community-Led Planning in the UK' and writes regularly on current affairs and policy for The Guardian and The New European.The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.   

This week we've been joined by Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte to explore the impact the changing social position of LGBT voters has had on British politics. As discrimination from state institutions has eased and wider social acceptance has grown, people with LGBT backgrounds have gained more space to play an open and prominent role in British politics. With his research focus on how LGBT communities have influenced electoral politics across Europe, Stuart provides some fascinating insights into key social and political dynamics in contemporary British society.As an Assistant Professor in Quantitative Political Science at the University of Southampton, Stuart published his first book, “VOX: The Rise of the Spanish Radical Right”, and is currently working on his second book project “Lavender Ballots: How queers vote and how to win them over”.The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.   

This week on the Breaking Britain podcast, we examine the economic dilemmas the UK faces in an increasingly competitive global landscape. Joining us is John Mills, who as a senior figure in the world of business and author exploring the global economy who has written extensively to make the case for Brexit as a potentially transformative economic project.John Mills is founder and Chairman of JML, a consumer goods distribution company, which exports to more than 70 countries around the world. He is also an economist and author, noted for his writing on Brexit, the Labour Party and exchange rate policy. A lifelong Labour Party supporter, John has over the years played a prominent role in UK policy debates and was a  Co-Chair of Vote Leave and Chair of Labour Leave during the campaign over the UK's future in the EU in 2016. He was also national agent for the ‘No' campaign during the 1975 Referendum on the UK joining the European Economic Community (EEC).With his long experience of the challenges societies face at a time of accelerating globalisation, John Mills can help provide key insights into how UK governments can kickstart economic growth that has stagnated for too long.The background music is 'Through the City' by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.  

As inflation, the legacies of the Covid-19 pandemic and state austerity cause lasting disruption to families across the UK, the importance of school meals in providing children with regular access to healthy food has become a matter of national debate. To explore what  political controversies over the provision of school meals can tell us about social change in the UK we've been joined by Heather Ellis, a historian at the University of Sheffield. Together with Gary McCulloch at UCL and Gurpinder Singh Lalli at the University of Wolverhampton, Heather is leading an ESRC-funded project to investigate the policy and social history of the UK's school meal service. With this expertise, Heather can provide much-needed insight into the social impact and policy provision of school meals in the UK.The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.  

With opinion poll leads indicating that Labour under the leadership of Keir Starmer is on a path to winning the next UK elections, the period in which the party and its leadership was at war with itself seems a distant memory. Yet the deep divisions that opened up inside Labour when it was led by Jeremy Corbyn until 2019 still echo in debates within the British Left today. To explore these divisions within the British Left and how they affected debates over foreign policy we have been joined by Oz Katerji, a journalist and activist who has witnessed these controversies firsthand. As an experienced journalist and writer, over the past decade Oz Katerji has covered conflicts on the ground from Syria to Ukraine. He has also been an active participant in the fraught debates surrounding the future of the British Left. With this extensive personal experience, Oz Katerji can help explore the internal conflicts that nearly split the Labour Party.The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.   

This week on the Breaking Britain podcast, we examine how the UK's central bank, the Bank of England, has responded to the crises that have threatened to overwhelm Britain's institutions and economy over the past decade. Joining us is Tony Yates, who has written extensively on the macroeconomic dimensions of Brexit and other major structural changes that have transformed the UK's relationship with the wider world.With a distinguished career at the Bank of England, including as head of monetary policy strategy, Tony Yates has extensive experience of how crises affect the direction of monetary policy in the UK and EU. As a prominent academic and commentator he has continued to be an influential voice in debates surrounding the current state and future trajectory of the UK economy.

This week on the Breaking Britain podcast, we take a look at some of the parallels between political populism in the UK and states in Central and Eastern Europe. Joining us is Marcus How, who as an experienced analyst of rapidly changing states such as Austria, Hungary, Czechia or Poland has written extensively on the emergence of populist parties that have transformed the politics and geopolitics of Europe.As Head of Analysis at VE Insight, Marcus How has developed fascinating insights into the impact that informal cliques can have on the risk environment in a state or region. Dynamics that are crucial to understanding politics in Central and Eastern Europe as well as Britain.

This third series of the Breaking Britain Podcast will take a closer look at  how the strategic challenges facing the UK interact with crisis and change around the European Union and its neighborhood. This week, we've invited Selim Koru to join us here at the European and International Studies Department at KCL to discuss the parallels and differences between populist politics in Turkey and populism in the UK and the EU. To understand how Turkish politics is intertwined with developments in the EU and UK, we've also explored how relations between Turkey and its European partners have evolved over the past decades.As a scholar and commentator of Turkish politics, Selim Koru has regularly explored the power structures that have enabled President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to sustain his grip on the Turkish state for over two decades. Currently a researcher at the University of Nottingham, since 2011 Selim has also produced incisive analysis of key developments in Turkish politics at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. 

In November 2021, defence analysts began to notice a worrying build-up of Russian troops around Ukraine's borders. In the months that followed, this surge of troops has fuelled concerns that a Russian military invasion of Ukraine could be imminent from mid-February 2022 onwards. As frantic efforts unfolded to engage in negotiations with Russian diplomats and President Vladimir Putin along with moves to strengthen the Ukrainian military, debates have opened up in the US, UK, EU and Ukraine about how a long term pathway of de-escalation with a Russian state elite can be found.This week, we have been joined by Anton Barbashin to discuss why relations between Russia and the West have deteriorated so badly, and examine how relations between both sides can be improved again. Now completing his PHD at the University of Glasgow, Anton is also the Editorial Director of Riddle Russia, a platform that provides some of the most incisive and thoughtful analysis of Russian politics and Russia's interactions with Europe and the wider world. As an observer and researcher studying Russia's development over the past decade, Anton is ideally placed to explore how Russia and the West have spiralled into the current moment of tension, and whether there might be a way out of it. The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.  

In the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum that led to the UK's departure from the EU, many observers assumed that the Netherlands would be the next state most likely to seek a political rupture with its European allies and partners. Long seen by UK politicians and pundits as a state with a similar outlook to their own, the Netherlands also faced a longstanding challenge to its established post-1945 political order from competing populist movements. Yet as the wrangle between the UK and EU over their future relationship quickly became a messy process that is still not entirely resolved, the Netherlands remained deeply embedded in the political order of the EU systemTo help us explore how Brexit, the rise of populist movements and other economic and political pressures facing Europe have affected the Netherlands, we have been joined this week by Caroline de Gruyter. As a journalist and scholar based in Brussels, Caroline de Gruyter is the European Affairs correspondent for NRC Handelsblad, one of the leading Dutch newspapers, and has written for many other major media outlets including Foreign Policy and De Standaard. Most recently, she has written a fascinating study of the impact of the Habsburg legacy on the European Union called 'Beter Wordt Het Niet: Een Reis Door de Europese Unie en het Habsburgse Rijk'. With such a broad perspective, Caroline de Gruyter provides nuanced insights into how the relationship between the Netherlands and European integration has evolved over the last decades. The background music is Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield. 

The past decade has witnessed growing controversy surrounding the erosion of the rule of law in and outside the European Union. In Hungary, Serbia, Turkey and other European states the concentration of power in the hands of the executive at the expense of the autonomy of legislatures and judiciaries has triggered popular protests over a drift to authoritarianism. More recently, attempts by the Polish government to exert direct control over Poland's Constitutional Court have led to a confrontation with EU institutions concerned over the impact of these measures on the rule of law in Poland. In the wake of these clashes between Poland's governing party and the  EU, concerns have grown that these tensions could lead to the kind of deterioration of relations that unfolded between the EU and parts of the UK's political system before the Brexit referendum of 2016.This week we have been joined by Jan Grzymski, whose research on the politics of migration at the Center for Migration Research of the University of Warsaw can help us explore some of the key factors shaping  tensions between Poland and the EU. His work on populism and the the impact of migration debate on Poland's relations with its neighbours can also provide fascinating comparative perspectives with the dilemmas faced by the UK and other European states experiencing  fraught debates over the politics of migration and the rule of law.The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.

A year after the UK withdrew from the structures of the European Single Market, the effects of Brexit are beginning to be felt. While the COVID19 pandemic and debates about the future of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland continue to overshadow political life within the UK, the reconfiguration of the UK's relationship with the EU has also had a profound effect on relations between the UK and each of the EU's member states.  For some EU member states such as Czechia, that had developed a strong working relationship with the UK over security and trade issues, the deterioration of relations between the EU and UK has been a source of frustration. Exploring the particular perspectives of an EU state like Czechia can help provide insights into how Brexit and the internal tensions within the UK Union are perceived in the rest of Europe.To help examine how Czech society has responded to the changing relationship between the EU and the UK, in this week's episode we have been joined by  Monika Brusenbauch Meislová. As Assistant Professor at the Department of International Relations and European Studies at Masaryk University,  she has developed fascinating research on how interactions between populism, technocracy and security have affected the politics of Czechia, the UK and other European states. This detailed analysis means Monika Brusenbauch Meislová is ideally placed to set out how Czechia and other EU states are responding to Brexit and wider challenges facing the UK. The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.    

In the wake of its departure from the EU and its growing internal tensions, the UK's relationship with the wider world is undergoing a process of transformation. Still coming to terms with longstanding legacies of the British Empire as well as a recent merger of the Department for International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the UK faces rapidly changing geopolitical challenges that will affect its relationship with the wider world.With her fascinating research on  geopolitical hierarchies between the Global North and South, as Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of Stirling, Toni Haastrup has provided fresh insights into how racial and gender power structures affect relations between states. In her book, Charting Transformation through Security: Contemporary-EU Africa Relations, in a wide range of other publications as well as in her position as Editor in Chief of the Journal of Common Market Studies, Toni Haastrup has played a crucial role in developing innovative perspectives on these dynamics of global power. In this week's podcast she will help us explore what this changing geopolitical landscape means for the UK's role in global politics. The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.    

After months of campaigning, voters in Scotland, Wales and parts of England went to the polls on 6 May 2021. While local elections and a byelection signalled that the Conservative Party is still dominant in England, strong results for the Scottish National Party in Scotland and the Labour Party in Wales indicate a very different picture for two other member nations of the United Kingdom. In Scotland, initial analysis in the Scottish Election Study set out how the outcomes of elections to the Scottish Parliament reflect the culmination of a widespread shift in party loyalties that has been opening up since the beginning of devolution in the late 1990s.This week we have been joined once again by David Leask to examine what these election results can tell us about the state of the UK Union. Through a long career in Scottish journalism as Chief Reporter at the Herald and now as a columnist for a wide range of other publications including the Herald and the Times, he has covered the remarkable transformation of Scottish political culture over the past two decades. David is ideally placed to reflect on how these trends are changing Scotland's relations with the rest of the UK and the wider world.  The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.   

For the past half decade, British political parties and state institutions have struggled to formulate a new geopolitical role for the United Kingdom.  Faced with the twin challenges of departure from the European Union and internal pressure on the unity of the British state, the UK government has recently set out an integrated review of foreign and defence policy. In this week's episode with Matthew Ford, we will explore how these shifts in British military culture have shaped debates about the United Kingdom's unity and identity. Through his extensive work as a researcher in military affairs,  Matthew Ford has  provided innovative perspectives on how shifts in military culture and technology have shaped the development of states in Europe and the wider world. In his ground-breaking book, Weapon of Choice: Small Arms and the Culture of Military Innovation, as well as articles in journals such as International History Review and the Journal of Strategic Studies, Matthew has delved into social and technological changes that have affected the British military in ways that are having a profound impact on the unity of the United Kingdom. The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.  

In March 2021, the UK government released an integrated review of foreign and defence policy outlining the strategic foundations for its interactions with the wider world. In this week's episode with Bleddyn Bowen, we will discuss how the UK's geopolitical position on the global stage is being affected by pressures on the unity of the British state. At a time at which questions over Scottish independence, Northern Ireland's borders and Welsh autonomy have become fraught, the interaction between tensions over the future of the UK Union and uncertainty over the UK's global role in the wake of Brexit will shape the British state's relationship with Europe and the wider world.With his groundbreaking work on strategic theory and space warfare, Bleddyn Bowen has developed fascinating insights into the strategic challenges facing states in the 21st century. As Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Leicester, Bleddyn has played an active role in debates over geopolitical strategy in such work as his book,  War in Space: Strategy, Spacepower, Geopolitics, as well as through engagement with institutions such as the Royal United Services Institute, Royal College of Defence Studies, The Guardian and Le Monde to name a few.  With such a wide-ranging perspective on a rapidly changing strategic landscape, Bleddyn is an ideal position to help us explore Britain's shifting position on the global stage. The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.    

This week the Breaking Britain Podcast looks at how Unionism as a political identity and Britishness as a cultural identity have been affected by the growing pressures on the unity of the United Kingdom. Though independence movements have grown in Wales as well as Scotland and debates over Irish unification have gained momentum, political Unionism along with wider forms of British cultural identity still command the loyalty of substantial parts of the UK population across the political spectrum. The extent to which Britishness is a resilient political and cultural identity will determine how far the political system of the United Kingdom will be able to renew itself.In this episode we've been joined by Alex Massie to help us analyse how political Britishness has evolved in response to the geopolitical dilemmas that Britain now faces. Alex Massie is currently Scotland Editor of The Spectator and a columnist for the Scottish edition of The Times. He has also worked as Washington correspondent for The Scotsman and Assistant Editor of Scotland on Sunday and also written for The Washington Post, Politico, The Daily Telegraph, The New Republic, Foreign Policy and many other global media outlets. With his extensive experience of the constantly changing landscape of Scottish and global politics, Alex Massie can help provide in depth insights into the factors shaping the future of Unionism in the United Kingdom.

This week, the Breaking Britain Podcast will explore the often fraught relationship between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. Over the past century interactions between both states have suffered from tensions over issues of territorial integrity and national sovereignty. With the legacy of decades of violence in Northern Ireland as a constant source of tension between both societies, the internal faultlines that risk pulling the UK Union apart have inevitably had an impact on politics and everyday life in Ireland.To help us explore how worsening polarisation within the UK has affected its relationship with Ireland, this week we've been joined by Naomi O’Leary. As Europe Correspondent for the Irish Times and creator of The Irish Passport Podcast with Tim Mc Inerney, Naomi O'Leary has provided fascinating insights into how political and cultural change in Ireland has evolved over the last century.  Her award-winning 2016 documentary “Granite and Chalk” explored hidden aspects of Ireland's early twentieth century history, while her work as a former correspondent of POLITICO Europe, Reuters in Rome, and Agence France-Presse in London, focused on key issues shaping the future of the European Union. With such wide-ranging experience, Naomi O'Leary is ideally placed to provide a wider perspective on how the UK's own troubles are affecting its relationship with Ireland and its European partners. The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.    

In this episode, recorded on 8 February 2021, we explore how tensions over the unity of the British state have affected debates over power and identity in Welsh society. With its own legislature, language and party landscape, Wales has evolved a unique political culture whose internal evolution has become increasingly affected by debates over independence and the role of the EU in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England.To explore the transformation of Welsh politics, we've been joined by Professor Roger Awan-Scully. Through his work as Professor of Political Science at Cardiff University and Chair of the Political Studies Association, Professor Awan-Scully has developed fascinating insights into the power dynamics around the politics of devolution and identity in Wales as well as the United Kingdom as a whole. In ground-breaking studies such as Representing Europe’s Citizens? Electoral Institutions and the Failure of Parliamentary Representation in Europe, Wales Says Yes: Devolution and the 2011 Welsh Referendum and more recently 'For Wales, do not see England: An analysis of the 2017 General Election', he has explored the pressures on the UK Union in fascinating ways that can help place accelerating political change in Wales in a wider historical and global context. The background music is by Through the City by Crowander, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.

As part of the Europe's Borderlands research group at the King's College London European Studies Department, this podcast series will take a deeper look at how the United Kingdom's crisis of unity will affect the nations on the islands of Britain and Ireland. In this episode, recorded on 28 January 2021, we examine how debates over Scottish independence interact with wider geopolitical pressures. How do international tensions over security and great power competition affect Scottish politics? What would the foreign and defence policy of an independent Scotland look like? In what way will transnational ideological trends affect Scotland whether as an independent actor or still within the UK Union state?To help us explore these themes, this week we have been joined by David Leask. Through a long career in Scottish journalism, first as Chief Reporter at the Herald and now at a wide range of publications including the Times, he has frequently covered how Scottish politics and society have interacted with and been affected by wider geopolitical pressures. With his impressive work examining Scotland's role on the global stage, David Leask provides us with fascinating insights into the changing nature of the geopolitics of Scotland. The background music is by Brother Monsplaisir, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.

As part of the Europe's Borderlands research group at the King's College London European Studies Department, this podcast series will take a deeper look at how the United Kingdom's crisis of unity will affect the nations on the islands of Britain and Ireland. In this episode, recorded on 20 January 2021, we will look at how the constitutional structures of the United Kingdom have been transformed by the devolution of power to the Scottish Parliament as well as the Assembly in Northern Ireland and the Senedd in Wales.To help explore the impact devolution has had on the interactions between member nations of the UK, this week we've been joined by Professor Nicola McEwen. As Professor of Territorial Politics and Co-Director of the ESRC Centre of Constitutional Change at the University of Edinburgh, as well as Senior Research Fellow at the UK in A Changing Europe Initiative, she has conducted extensive research in the fields of territorial politics, nationalism and multi-level government. In publications such as The Territorial Politics of Welfare (Routledge, 2009) or ‘Brexit and Scotland: between Two Unions’ in British Politics (2018, Vol 13/1), Professor McEwen has developed new perspectives on the strengths and vulnerabilities of devolved forms of government in ways that can bring extensive insights into how the UK's constitutional order will respond to the pressures it now faces. The background music is by Brother Monsplaisir, and the production for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.

As part of the Europe's Borderlands research group at the King's College London European Studies Department, this podcast series will take a deeper look at how the United Kingdom's crisis of unity will affect the nations on the islands of Britain and Ireland. In this opening episode we will explore the historical legacies that have fuelled support for nationalist movements in Scotland as well as Northern Ireland, and how the impact of these legacies might affect a changing UK as well as an increasingly powerful European Union.This week's show, recorded on 17 January, we are honoured to have Peter Geoghegan as our guest, who as investigations editor for OpenDemocracy has covered some of the key factors destabilising the politics of the British state. In his acclaimed Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics, Peter set out how a surge of undisclosed donations have reshaped British politics. In The People's Referendum: Why Scotland will Never Be the Same Again he provided a compelling argument for how the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence fundamentally transformed British politics. As a incisive observer of the politics of the islands of Britain and Ireland, Peter is the ideal guide for our journey through the past century of political endings and beginnings that have brought the British state close to breaking point.The background music is by Brother Monsplaisir, and the production work for this podcast was by Daniel Mansfield.