How To Fix...

Leaving the EU, despite what the Leave campaign claimed last year, is turning out to be rather complicated. We were supposed to save money—£350m a week—but now it seems we’re paying tens of billions first. We were supposed to quickly sign a trade deal with the rest of the EU—the German car manufacturer would insist on it, remember—but we haven’t even started talks about talks yet. And all those concerns about what this meant for Northern Ireland and the border were pretty straight-forward to deal with, really—but, well, we know where we are with that… So, was there—is there—another way? In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by: · Asa Bennet, Brexit commissioning editor · Chris Bickerton, Cambridge academic · Alex Dean, Prospect’s Brexit expert Get in touch Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland Further reading The case for a slow-motion Brexit: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-case-for-a-slow-motion-brexit The EFTA Court piece we mentioned: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/in-future-britain-may-have-a-judge-on-the-efta-court-bench-says-its-president And since Chris talked about the productivity, here’s Diane Coyle’s recent piece for the mag: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/how-to-have-a-productive-brexit

How do you fix Brexit? Well, for a start it depends on whether you want us to leave or remain. Next week we’ll work out how to fix leaving. Today, we’re going to see if there’s a way to remain. Despite the vote, is it possible for the UK to remain in the European Union after all? It is, and we’ll explain how. In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by: · Alison McGovern, Labour MP · Alex Dean, Prospect’s Brexit expert Get in touch Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland Further reading The inside story of how David Cameron drove Britain to Brexit, by Ivan Rogers: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-inside-story-of-how-david-cameron-drove-britain-to-brexit Alison McGovern on why free movement doesn’t affect wages: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-evidence-is-clear-ending-free-movement-wont-raise-british-wages Ian Dunt on how Brexit negotiations are going to get worse: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/think-brexit-negotiations-are-going-badly-its-about-to-get-a-whole-lot-worse Dominic Cummings fears Brexit will fail: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/peering-over-the-cliff-edge-why-dominic-cummings-fears-brexit-will-fail

For the tenth episode of How to Fix we decided to hand the reins over to you, dear listener. What do you think needs fixing? We’ve whittled down your suggestions to half a dozen and have parcelled out your queries to a handful of prospect editors, including myself and Steph. So in the next twenty minutes or so you’ll hear Tom Clark discuss the state of the United Kingdom, Sameer Rahim will wax lyrical on English curriculums at universities, Steph will tell us all about children’s health and I’ll have a minor rant about sports administration. We’ll also talk about the age bias in the arts and discuss the growing distrust in the media. In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by: · Tom Clark · Sameer Rahim Get in touch Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland Further reading Here’s that bizarre piece about children spending less time outside than prison inmates: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/25/three-quarters-of-uk-children-spend-less-time-outdoors-than-prison-inmates-survey Here’s a good overview of the ‘decolonising Cambridge’ row: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cambridge-university-decolonisation-lola-olufemi-13831287 The moment when FIFA executives were arrested: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/sports/fifa-scandal-arrests-in-switzerland.html?_r=0

Think of a city with an air pollution problem and, a few years ago, Beijing probably would have sprung to mind. Dense smog, citizens in face masks, this was a problem that cities like London had left behind after the Clean Air Act of 1956 dealt with the problems caused by the great Smog of 1952. But while London and other cities in the UK don’t suffer from a Great Smog today, they are feeling the effects of air pollution in far greater ways than many of us have realised. An estimated 40,000 deaths each year are attributable in some way to air pollution. Too many cars, of which too many of those are diesel, are causing serious health problems. the mayor of greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, from the chair of the transport select committee, Lilian Greenwood; Sarah Macfadyen at the British Lung Foundation, and the science editor of Buzzfeed News, Kelly Oakes In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by: · Lilian Greenwood, chair of the transport select committee · Kelly Oakes, science editor, Buzzfeed UK · Sarah Macfadyen, policy manager, British Lung Foundation Get in touch Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland Further reading Here’s Kelly’s piece on Brixton Road and its air pollution: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/this-london-road-has-breached-its-annual-air-pollution-limit?utm_term=.wgXP2vEK9#.utDYk4ryz Here’s the British Lung Foundation’s very useful explainer on air pollution: https://www.blf.org.uk/support-for-you/air-pollution Here are those adverts about air pollution that Steph mentioned: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hardhitting-air-pollution-posters-to-go-on-display-on-londons-tube-network-a3661891.html

Right now, there are 65.6 million people around the world who have been forcibly displaced. That’s roughly equivalent to the population of Britain. Of those, 22.5 million are refugees. Of those, less than 200,000 were resettled last year in another country. So what about the rest? Well, many of them are in camps. We think of the refugee camp as a temporary structure. A place of tents and well-meaning aid workers in white t-shirts handing out food and medicine. And at first, they can be. But as the weeks turn into months and the months into years and the years into decades, and refugees still can’t go home, they are left in limbo. The aid often dries up. The camps become dangerous. Solutions are thin on the ground. In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by: · Kilian Kleinschmidt, former director of the Zaatari refuge camp · Ben Rawlence, author of City of Thorns Get in touch Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland Further reading Here’s a review of Ben’s brilliant book, City of Thorns: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/books/review/city-of-thorns-by-ben-rawlence.html Here’s a profile of Kilian Kleinschmidt from his time as the director of Zaatari: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/25/world/middleeast/kilian-kleinschmidt-calm-boss-at-center-of-a-syrian-refugee-camps-chaos.html

In the three weeks since the first allegations of sexual harassment and assault were made against Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, the floodgates have opened. From film to journalism, politics to law, women have come forward with horrific stories of assault and everyday harassment. No industry is immune. It feels as if something might have changed, as if we’ve reached—or are reaching towards—a tipping point. But are we? What, if anything, will actually change? What can we do—both men and women—to make sure that things change. And what do we mean by that? What does change look like? In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by: · Rosamund Urwin, a columnist for the Evening Standard Berlin · Musa Okwonga, writer and poet Get in touch Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland Further reading Read Musa Okwonga on what men must do to fight back against the Weinsteins https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/life/as-men-its-our-job-to-challenge-the-culture-that-enables-people-like-harvey-weinstein Rosamund Urwin has written frequently on how to end sexual assault and help support women’s rights in her Evening Standard Column (we love this piece on Donald Trump inauguration) https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/rosamund-urwin-a-brave-new-world-you-must-be-joking-a3444416.html Steph Boland has written on how informal whisper networks help women avoid predatory colleagues—and explains why harassment is not a party political issue in this piece on Jared O’Mara https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-jared-omara-story-isnt-about-the-internet-its-about-how-we-decide-who-should-be-in-politics

Back in May it was Mental Health Awareness week. Newspapers ran stories, MPs dutifully tweeted support, awareness was raised. Fine. But then what? One in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem this year. You’ve probably heard that stat before, or something similar. Politicians certainly have. But despite all the awareness, we as a society and as a nation, still struggle to take this seriously. Most companies still don’t understand the idea of a mental health sick day; governments are still unwilling to properly fund mental health care. If you break you arm, you go to A&E, see a doctor within four hours, and get it fixed. If you are diagnosed with a mental health issue, good luck if you get any treatment on the NHS inside six months. And even then, it probably won’t be very good. In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by: · Luciana Berger, shadow minister for mental health · Anoosh Chakelian, New Statesman · Mark Brown, journalist and mental health advocate Get in touch Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland Further reading Mark Brown on why it’s time to take student mental health seriously: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/its-time-to-take-student-mental-health-seriously Anoosh on workplace sick days: https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2017/07/i-felt-so-frantic-i-couldn-t-see-my-screen-why-aren-t-we-taking-mental Here’s an interview with Luciana Berger from 2015, just after she became shadow mental health minister: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/nov/04/luciana-berger-mental-health-crisis-minister

More than 4,000 people were sleeping rough in England in 2016. That figure is higher than it was in 2015; indeed, it’s a figure that’s been rising every year since 2010. And those are the official figures. Research by Crisis puts the real figure at 9,000—and they believe it could grow by three-quarters in the next decade. As the worst form of homelessness, rough sleeping is only the tip of the iceberg. It’s estimated that around a quarter of a million people in the UK are homeless—living in hostels or squats, cars or tents. In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by: Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow East Dawn Foster, Guardian columnist Juha Kaakinen, chief executive, Y-Foundation Get in touch 
Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland Further reading House of Commons Library Briefing paper on rough sleeping: http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN02007 Y-Foundation in Finland: https://ysaatio.fi/in-english/ You can find Dawn Foster’s work at the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/dawn-foster And here’s the piece in the New Statesmans from 2008 that Steph mentions: https://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/11/street-homelessness-end-rough

When the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was established in 1949 it had a purpose – to protect North America and western Europe in the face of the emerging threat, as they saw it, from the Soviet Union. But once the Cold war ended in 1989, some began to question whether there was any point to Nato. Over the following three decades it has found a new role – several new roles, in fact – from military interventions in the former Yugoslavia to dealing with piracy off the coast of the Horn of Africa. But it has also faced more challenges – from outside, in the form of a resurgent Russia; and recently from inside, thanks to an American president who doesn’t seem to understand what the organisation does and is quite happy to criticise its members. In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by:  Fabrice Pothier, former advisor to Nato secretary generals Anders Fogh Rasumssen and Jen Stoltenberg  Deborah Haynes, defence editor at The Times  Elisabeth Braw, non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council Get in touch Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland Further reading Donald Trump’s speech at Nato in May 2017: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/05/25/remarks-president-trump-nato-unveiling-article-5-and-berlin-wall Trump shoving the Montenegro president out of the way: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-40050926/trump-pushes-past-montenegro-s-pm A review of French president Emmanuel Macron’s speech about Europe (including defence) in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/28/world/europe/france-macron-european-union-reforms.html

Prime Minister’s Questions is the one bit of parliamentary business that most people are dimly aware of. It’s normally guaranteed to make the news in the evening, but it’s not exactly parliament at its best. It’s boorish, it’s petty and it turns the public off. This week, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by: Theo Bertram, former advisor to Gordon Brown and Tony Blair Esther Webber, reporter for BBC Politics and BBC Parliament Louise Thompson, lecturer in British politics at Surrey University Get in touch on Twitter Steve is @BloomfieldSJ Stephanie is @StephanieBoland Show notes Theo explains what it’s like to prepare a prime minister for PMQS: https://goo.gl/chQ5vH And here are some videos: John Bercow says order a lot. Then tells the childrens' minister to behave like an adult https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVs1jN85w10 David Cameron tells Angela Eagle to “calm down, dear” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URWXkPDwG0g [

Newspapers are in crisis. In fact, they’ve been in crisis for a decade and a half. Sales are down. Advertising is down. Jobs have been cut. The Independent shut down its print operation. The Guardian is losing tens of millions of pounds a year. The Telegraph is a shadow of its former self. And that’s before we even begin to look at the dire situation in the regional and local press, where dozens have been forced to close down. This week, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by: Lisa Markwell, the last ever editor of the Independent on Sunday Jim Waterson, political editor of Buzzfeed News Andreas Kluth, editor in chief of Germany’s Handelsblatt Global (https://global.handelsblatt.com/editor/akluth) Show notes: Here are Jim’s articles about the new wave of left-wing media sites: https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/the-rise-of-the-alt-left?utm_term=.fgovEJqkW#.xcJYM2GVo and https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/how-newspapers-lost-their-monopoly-on-the-political-agenda?utm_term=.sdZyAe12j#.yvNqzMa7r Here’s a piece on HuffPost (fittingly, a new media operation) about the final front page of the Indy on Sunday: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/independent-on-sunday-last-issue-cover_uk_56ee88fae4b0fbd4fe080b95 If you want to get in touch with us on Twitter, Steve is BloomfieldSJ; Steph is StephanieBoland

In the first episode of How to Fix, Steve Bloomfield was joined by Andrew Dilnot, Liz Kendall and Daniel Drepper to discuss social care—what's wrong with it, and how we could make it better. Show notes Here’s Andrew Dilnot’s report on Funding of Care and Support. Liz Kendall mentioned the Barker report. Here it is. Here’s Daniel Drepper’s book on Amazon. And if you’d prefer something in English, here’s a piece on Correctiv, the non-profit Daniel co-founded, that dealt with the same issue. In April 2015, Liz Kendall spoke to the Guardian about social care. Here are the manifestoes from 2017. Labour’s bit on social care begins on page 71, the Conservatives infamous policy is recorded for posterity on page 64, while the Lib Dems’ section is here. See you all next week!

What is How to Fix? by Prospect Magazine