Podcasts about Yes Minister

X: @americasrt1776 @ileaderssummit @NatashaSrdoc @JoelAnandUSA @supertalk Join America's Roundtable (https://americasrt.com/) radio co-hosts Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy with Lord Dominic Johnson, the co-chairman of the United Kingdom's Conservative Party. Lord Johnson served as the UK's Minister for Investment and Exports at the Department for Business and Trade. He is a Member of the House of Lords. Previously, he was a financier and co-founder of Somerset Capital Management. The conversation on America's Roundtable with Lord Dominic Johnson is focused on the following topics/issues: — The significance of the US-UK Special Relationship on the economic, trade and security fronts. — On this Memorial Day Weekend, the conversation also elevates the importance of American and British soldiers joining forces to preserve freedom and defeat tyranny on the European continent and the Asia-Pacific region during World War II. — Reflecting on the principled leadership of President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, two iconic leaders who were on the world stage at the same time with a shared goal to advance major economic reforms, bolster the West's security which hastened the fall of the Berlin Wall, and strengthen the American-British partnership. — An update on the US-UK trade agreement talks. — The benefits of the Anglo-Saxon common law and appreciation of free markets shared by America, Britain and most Commonwealth nations. — The future of the conservative movement in America and Britain. americasrt.com (https://americasrt.com/) https://summitleadersusa.com/ | https://jerusalemleaderssummit.com/ America's Roundtable on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/americas-roundtable/id1518878472 X: @americasrt1776 @ileaderssummit @NatashaSrdoc @JoelAnandUSA @supertalk America's Roundtable is co-hosted by Natasha Srdoc and Joel Anand Samy, co-founders of International Leaders Summit and the Jerusalem Leaders Summit. America's Roundtable (https://americasrt.com/) radio program - a strategic initiative of International Leaders Summit, focuses on America's economy, healthcare reform, rule of law, security and trade, and its strategic partnership with rule of law nations around the world. The radio program features high-ranking US administration officials, cabinet members, members of Congress, state government officials, distinguished diplomats, business and media leaders and influential thinkers from around the world. Tune into America's Roundtable Radio program from Washington, DC via live streaming on Saturday mornings via 68 radio stations at 7:30 A.M. (ET) on Lanser Broadcasting Corporation covering the Michigan and the Midwest market, and at 7:30 A.M. (CT) on SuperTalk Mississippi — SuperTalk.FM reaching listeners in every county within the State of Mississippi, and neighboring states in the South including Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee. Tune into WTON in Central Virginia on Sunday mornings at 6:00 A.M. (ET). Listen to America's Roundtable on digital platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Google and other key online platforms. Listen live, Saturdays at 7:30 A.M. (CT) on SuperTalk | https://www.supertalk.fm

This poll out today saying nearly half of us are more concerned about power prices than we were a year ago, is nonsense. Because I reckon we're all concerned about it, not just nearly half of us. If you're not concerned about your power bill, then I'll have what you're having thanks. Only 8% of people who took part in this survey by Curia said they were less concerned. I'll have some of what they're having, as well. More to the point, as well as being worried about the prices, we should be just as —if not more— concerned about the lack of action when it comes to doing something about it. And maybe that's because there is actually one way of doing something about it. It's probably a bit old school, but I reckon we are never going to get on top of rising power prices unless the government takes over ownership of the whole thing. Just like it used to. Nationalise it. Because I've had a gutsful of politicians saying the same stuff, year after year, and nothing changing – and I'm talking about politicians from all sides here. And the people who took part in this survey feel the same. 69% said the Government isn't doing enough to bring prices down. 13% thought it was, and 18% didn't know. The results also show 67% believe the profits being made by electricity companies are unreasonably high. The only thing I would say to that is, how do they know? I'm sure you can find that information somewhere, but I think there is an assumption that the power companies are creaming it. Nevertheless, for me, the only solution to the power price issue is nationalisation – then we'd get more than just words and no action. Example: Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones going all “shock horror” on it. Saying he can't believe how bad things have got. He's saying today: “I can't believe, even in my lifetime, I'd see it this bad.” Which is all very well, but what are you going to do about it Shane? My message is the same to Energy Minister Simon Watts, who is saying: “Energy prices have added real pressure to household budgets at a time when the cost of living is already biting hard”. Yes Minister. But tell us something we don't know already. The current government. The last lot. The government before them. And the one before them. They're all the same. They tut-tut about power prices and promise this and promise that, but nothing changes. And it's probably because they know that they can't actually do anything, because the model is broken. They probably know that the only way they could do something would be to buy back the shares in the big power generation and retail companies that were flogged off years ago go back to some sort of electricity corporation model. I'm not the only one thinking that this is old-school approach is the answer. Power prices going through the roof are a problem all around the world. Which is why over in the UK, one of these think tank outfits thinks the British government should take over ownership of all the gas power stations so that consumers aren't "held to ransom" by the power companies. So if they think that, and I think that, what do you think? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us a textJohannes 10:31-33 Die Jode het toe weer klippe opgetel om Hom te stenig, maar Jesus sê vir hulle: “Op gesag van die Vader het Ek julle talle goeie dade laat sien. Oor watter een daarvan wil julle My stenig?” “Dis nie oor 'n goeie daad dat ons jou wil stenig nie,” antwoord die Jode Hom, “maar oor godslastering, omdat jy, wat 'n gewone mens is, jou as God voordoen.” Ons ken almal die uitdrukking wat dikwels in kommentaar by rugbywedstryde gebruik word: “hy speel die man en nie die bal nie.” Dis 'n klassieke taktiek wat gebruik word wanneer jy ‘n individu se argument wil afskiet - eerder as om sy of haar optrede of argument aan te val; val jy die persoon aan.Dit is iets wat jy oral sien - in die politiek beslis, in die werkplek, in gemeenskapsgroepe, oral. In die klassieke Britse komedie, "Yes Minister," het die gewetenlose staatsamptenaar, sir Humphrey Appleby, dit so gestel:Jy moet die mense laat glo dat hierdie man 'n warm, vrygewige mens is. Dan wys jy die gehoor daarop dat dit net 'n front is en dat hy hulle mislei omdat hy in der waarheid 'n koue, konkelende politikus is.Slim, humoristies … maar in die kol. As jy die goeie dinge wat iemand doen, wil ondermyn, gooi klippe na die individu, nie na hul optrede nie. Dit is presies wat hier aan die gang was: Johannes 10:31-33 Die Jode het toe weer klippe opgetel om Hom te stenig, maar Jesus sê vir hulle: “Op gesag van die Vader het Ek julle talle goeie dade laat sien. Oor watter een daarvan wil julle My stenig?” “Dis nie oor 'n goeie daad dat ons jou wil stenig nie,” antwoord die Jode Hom, “maar oor godslastering, omdat jy, wat 'n gewone mens is, jou as God voordoen.”Jesus het natuurlik verstaan wat besig was om te gebeur en het hulle uitgedaag: “Oor watter een daarvan wil julle My stenig? En nie lank daarna nie, het hulle Hom wel doodgemaak.Hierdie aanvalle op Jesus gaan vandag nog voort. Moenie geflous word nie. Kyk na sy goedheid. Kyk na alles wat Hy gesê en gedoen het. Want my vriend, Hy het na hierdie aarde gekom vir jou.Dit is God se Woord. Vars … vir jou … vandag.Support the showEnjoying The Content?For the price of a cup of coffee each month, you can enable Christianityworks to reach 10,000+ people with a message about the love of Jesus!DONATE R50 MONTHLY

His 14 year-stint at the top of European politics has earned him a distinguished record of domestic and international achievements.Mark Rutte, born in The Hague in 1967, embarked on a career in business after leaving university and held several positions at Unilever.His career in Dutch politics started in 2002, and four years later – as leader of the VVD party – he became prime minister.During his tenure, he steered the Netherlands through times of significant national and global upheaval. From economic crisis, to the coronavirus pandemic.And now, as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 14th Secretary General, he faces his next challenge – leading Europe's response to recent Russia-US talks over Ukraine.Mark Coles takes a closer look at Mark Rutte.Production TeamProducers: Sally Abrahams, Mantej Deol, Chloe Scannapieco Editor: Ben Mundy Sound: Neil Churchill Production Co-ordinators: Maria Ogundele and Sabine SchereckCredits Joint press conference by NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte with the President of Slovakia, Peter Pellegrini, 20 Feb. 2025 Mark Rutte cycles away from his office, on his last day as Prime Minister of the Netherlands, tv47 Yes Minister, BBC TV, Comedy Greats

Scott and Julian continue their chats and reach British politics with 80s sitcom Yes Minister. If you enjoy this, please check out our massive back catalogue of reviews and try our patreon for more bonus content www.patreon.com/20cgmedia

Brannavan Gnanalingam is one of the first South Asian writers to be published in New Zealand. His eighth novel, a political satire is The Life and Opinions of Kartik Popat. Think Veep, or Yes Minister - set in the Beehive. It's also a book about ideas, about fitting in. Brannavan Gnanalingam is an award-winning novelist and film reviewer, and former columnist for the Sunday-Star Times.

How do you follow a massive film with a fantastic and well-informed guest? Do another one straight away! This week we are joined by the brilliant TV writer, journalist, podcaster, and comedian Mollie Goodfellow to talk about one of the greatest sitcoms of the 21st century, The Thick of It, and the film it spawned, In The Loop. Make sure young ears are out of shot because this is a sweary one… and that's just Rob and Guy's thoughts on Alistair Campbell! We look at Armando Iannucci's magnum opus as the man behind so many enduring TV comedy classics of the 90s. With inspiration from endorsing Yes Minister on Britain's Best Sitcom in 2004, he took on the political establishment, turning it into his big-screen directorial debut and subsequently hit HBO political comedy Veep. Not since Michael Rimmer have we tackled satire. We ask if there is any weight to the claim that you can't make this kind of comedy anymore because of the state of politics today and whether New Labour 2.0 would even allow itself to be sent up in the same way it was in its original iteration's death knell in the late 00s.  We hope it's not too much of an omnishambles as Britcom Goes to the Movies presents In The Loop!   The Thick of It – Insults https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njcuww9Einc   The Thick of It – Tim in Ruislip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xcVov-UL4Q    The Thick of It – Nicknames  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJMNHu9YM-4    The Thick of It – Blinky Ben Swain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALNjevGdB5g   In the Loop – The Culture Show with Alistair Campbell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcFaizGw860    In The Loop – Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJU2qRg5zLI    In The Loop – Jamie  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jr731Mhxkg   In the Loop – Don't Call Me English https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySD0u4RXXcI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bunny is in the garden with David Haig MBE an extremely keen gardener though his famous face is familiar to many as Bernard in ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral', Jim Hacker in the film of ‘Yes Minister' and has appeared in ‘Killing Eve', and the Downton Abbey film too.   He is also a celebrated playwright, he wrote  ‘My Boy Jack'  where he not only penned  the play but also played Rudyard Kipling with Daniel Radcliffe as his son.  David loves the rain and understands a fair bit about our climate having written the drama ‘The Challenge' about the meteorologist James Stagg, who helped changed the outcome of the war by predicting the weather for the proposed date of D Day.  See David in his garden in Bunny's YouTube video ‘David Haig in  his Generous Garden talking about gardening, Acting and Playwriting' #davidhaig #actor

He's a polymath who cares deeply about the world, tries to understand it, and straddles many fields. He's played a key role over the last few decades in India's journey towards development. Ajay Shah joins Amit Varma in episode 402 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and times. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.)   Also check out: 1. Ajay Shah on Twitter and Substack. 2. Everything is Everything -- Ajay Shah's YouTube show with Amit Varma. 3. Life Lessons -- A course taught by Ajay Shah and Amit Varma. 4. In Service of the Republic: The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Vijay Kelkar and Ajay Shah. 5. XKDR Forum. 6. The LEAP blog. 7. Previous episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ajay Shah: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 8. The Surface Area of Serendipity -- Episode 39 of Everything is Everything.  9. The Economic Lives of the Poor -- Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo. 10. The Universe of Chuck Gopal — Episode 258 of The Seen and the Unseen. 11. The Hiking Episode -- Episode 35 of Everything is Everything. 12. Declutter -- Episode 30 of Everything is Everything. 13. The Life and Times of Mrinal Pande — Episode 263 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. Pushpesh Pant Feasts on the Buffet of Life — Episode 326 of The Seen and the Unseen. 15. The Life and Times of Ira Pande -- Episode 369 of The Seen and the Unseen. 16. A Meditation on Form -- Amit Varma. 17. A Passion for Cycling -- Episode 53 of Everything is Everything. 18. Il Lombardia: Tadej Pogačar delivers historical fourth consecutive victory. 19. Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy. 20. Seven Stories That Should Be Films -- Episode 23 of Everything is Everything (including Ajay's retelling, 'The Fat Frogs of Tatsinskaya'). 21. India's Greatest Civil Servant — Episode 167 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Narayani Basu, on VP Menon). 22. VP Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India — Narayani Basu. 23. Five Epic Stories That Must Be Films -- Episode 29 of Everything is Everything (including Amit's retelling of VP Menon's story). 24. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 — Tony Judt. 25. The God That Failed -- Edited by Richard Crossman. 26. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. 27. Free to Choose -- Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. 28. Both Sides Now -- Joni Mitchell. 29. How to Write a Paper -- Episode 62 of Everything is Everything. 30. Jim Corbett on Wikipedia and Amazon. 31. Trek The Sahyadris -- Harish Kapadia. 32. Inflation Targeting Rocks! -- Episode 68 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. The Heckman Equation. 34. A Deep Dive Into Education -- Episode 54 of Everything is Everything. 35. The Two Cultures -- CP Snow. 36. Shivaji and His Times -- Jadunath Sarkar. 37. Suyash Rai Embraces India's Complexity — Episode 307 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. Seeing Like a State — James C Scott. 39. The Tyranny of Experts — William Easterly. 40. Are You Just One Version of Yourself? -- Episode 3 of Everything is Everything. 41. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Ramachandra Guha: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 42. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 43. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything if Everything. 44. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 45. Plato (or Why Philosophy Matters) — Episode 109 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rebecca Goldstein). 46. How to Do Development -- Episode 57 of Everything is Everything. 47. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 48. The Life and Times of Chess -- Episode 52 of Everything is Everything. 49. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. 50. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 51. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 52. The Beauty of Finance -- Episode 21 of Everything is Everything. 53. What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? -- Episode 18 of Everything is Everything. 54. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 55. The Importance of Finance — Episode 125 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 56. India in Transition: Freeing the Economy -- Jagdish Bhagwati. 57. The UNIX Episode -- Episode 32 of Everything is Everything. 58. Don't Mess With the Price System -- Episode 66 of Everything is Everything. 59. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 60. The Ghost and the Darkness -- Stephen Hopkins. 61. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 62. Understanding India's Pensions Disaster -- Episode 65 of Everything is Everything. 63. What Bruce Springsteen Means to Us -- Episode 13 of Everything is Everything. 64. Distance From Delhi -- The Takshashila Institution. 65. Beyond A Boundary -- CLR James. 66. Letters for a Nation: From Jawaharlal Nehru to His Chief Ministers 1947-1963 -- Jawaharlal Nehru. 67. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister — Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. 68. The Long Road to Change -- Episode 36 of Everything is Everything. 69. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 70. Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working -- Jonathan Rauch. 71. Understanding deviations from the fiscal responsibility law in India -- Pratik Datta, Radhika Pandey, Ila Patnaik and Ajay Shah. 72. Who Lends to the Indian State? -- Aneesha Chitgupi, Ajay Shah, Manish Singh, Susan Thomas and Harsh Vardhan. 73. The Percy Mistry report. 74. Bare Acts. 75. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 76. Shruti Rajagopalan on our constitutional amendments. 77. The First Assault on Our Constitution — Episode 194 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Tripurdaman Singh). 78. Sixteen Stormy Days — Tripurdaman Singh. 79. Caged Tiger: How Too Much Government Is Holding Indians Back — Subhashish Bhadra. 80. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State — Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 81. The Matrix -- Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski. 82. How Family Firms Evolve -- Episode 34 of Everything is Everything. 83. From Imperial to Adaptive Firms -- Episode 37 of Everything is Everything. 84. Graduating to Globalisation -- Episode 48 of Everything is Everything. 85. Jeff Bezos on The Lex Fridman Podcast. 86. Born to Run -- Bruce Springsteen. 87. Go to the root cause (2007) -- Ajay Shah. 88. Bhargavi Zaveri-Shah Will Not Wear a Blue Tie to Work — Episode 389 of The Seen and the Unseen. 89. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 90. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 91. When Should the State Act? -- Episode 26 of Everything is Everything. 92. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 93. Public Choice – A Primer -- Eamonn Butler. 94. The Journey of Indian Finance -- Ajay Shah. 95. Amrita Agarwal Wants to Solve Healthcare -- Episode 393 of The Seen and the Unseen. 96. Fortress and Frontier in American Health Care -- Robert Graboyes. 97. We Love Vaccines! We Love Freedom! -- Episode 27 of Everything is Everything. 98. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah). 99. Pranay Kotasthane on Amazon. 100. A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox -- Henrik Karlsson. 101. For Whom the Bell Tolls -- Ernest Hemingway. 102. Essays in Persuasion -- John Maynard Keynes. 103. The Ascent Of Man -- Jacob Bronowski. 104. How to Modernise the Working of Courts and Tribunals in India -- Many authors including Ajay Shah. 105. How to Modernise the Working of Courts and Tribunals in India -- Ajay Shah. 106. The lowest hanging fruit on the coconut tree — Akshay Jaitly and Ajay Shah. 107. Climate Change and Our Power Sector — Episode 278 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Akshay Jaitley and Ajay Shah). 108. The Brave New Future of Electricity -- Episode 40 of Everything is Everything. 109. False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet -- Bjorn Lomborg. 110. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 111. Nuclear Power Can Save the World -- Joshua S Goldstein, Staffan A Qvist & Steven Pinker. 112. But Clouds Got In My Way -- Ayush Patnaik, Ajay Shah, Anshul Tayal and Susan Thomas. 113. Everybody Lies — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz. 114. The Truth About Ourselves — Amit Varma. 115. Capitalism and Freedom -- Milton Friedman. 116. Against the Grain -- James C Scott. 117. The Beatles, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen on Spotify. Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. Amit and Ajay also bring out a weekly YouTube show, Everything is Everything. Have you watched it yet? You must! And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘Dreaming' by Simahina.

In this interview with Andrew Thomson, a Scottish seasoned professional in the energy sector, we delve into the multifaceted landscape of oil, renewable energy, and their global implications through a personal lens. Andrew shares his journey from working in the oil industry over 20 years to recently transitioning into nuclear and wind energy sectors. Through his experiences, he provides insights into the socioeconomic impact of oil, the challenges of transitioning to renewable energy, and the complexities of global politics that intertwine with the energy sector.Exploring Andrew's experiences working offshore in locations like Nigeria and Azerbaijan, the discussion uncovers the substantial influence of hydrocarbons and the cultural, socio-economic, and safety developments within the oil sector. The discussion delves into the critical role of energy across modern life, impacting everything from education to communication, while critiquing governmental actions on energy policies and advocating for a balanced energy strategy, similar to Japan's where currently works in setting up Wind Turbine Platforms (using much of the same technology as oil rigs). Furthermore, the dialogue highlights the philosophical and challenging practical shifts toward renewables, exploring political and economic challenges in this transition. Through Andrew's perspective, one can try to better attempt to begin to understand the global energy politics, the necessity of interdisciplinary approaches in energy careers, and the shifting dynamics in the energy sector.Time Stamps * 00:00 The Importance of Energy in Modern Life* 01:00 Introducing Andrew: From Oil to Climate-Friendly Energy* 01:46 Andrew's Background and Career Journey* 02:38 Life and Work in the Oil Industry* 07:34 Challenges and Dangers of Offshore Drilling* 10:54 The Culture and Lifestyle of Oil Workers* 20:58 Global Perspectives: Working in Africa and Beyond* 23:58 Corruption and Local Interactions in the Oil Industry* 38:09 A Costly Mistake and Cultural Reflections* 38:54 Corruption and Anti-Corruption Measures* 40:09 Cultural Differences and Acceptance* 41:13 Colonial Legacy and Historical Perspectives* 43:41 Nationalized vs. Private Oil Companies* 45:46 Transition to Renewable Energy in Japan* 46:12 Challenges in the Oil Industry* 48:22 Geopolitics and Energy Policies* 56:43 Experiences with Government Agencies* 01:03:56 Future Prospects and Peak Oil Debate* 01:08:06 Final Thoughts on Energy and PolicyHighlights and Quotes of Interest On Energy Source MixesJapan has a long term vision.It has a vision of a percentage mix of nuclear fossil fuels, renewables, whereas I feel like I'm fairly against it in my home country, in the UK, because we don't have a long term plan. We've had four prime ministers in the last two years. One of them wanted to build eight nuclear power stations, the next one to start fracking. I believe in an energy mix. I think there's a lot of irresponsibility talked about these days in terms of the energy transition. I do think there should be an energy mix.And then the one now wants to quadruple our offshore wind capacity in eight years, which is impossible. It's quite nonsensical. It's quite short term thinking. I'm not anti wind, I'm not pro oil, I'm not anti or pro any, anything. What I'm pro is a science based, long term, non subsidy, non corruption based market solution.On Incentives in Oil Vs “Renewables”So right now, it seems like oil is completely negative and then offshore wind is completely positive. You look at the motivations behind companies putting in offshore wind turbines or the service companies exactly the same as motivations behind all companies.Neither one is doing them. For anything other than to make money. And I think it's simplistic and a little bit silly to think that the boss of an oil company is some sort of J. R. Ewing, person that likes to run over puppies on the way home and the boss of an electricity company or a turbine installation company or whatever is some sort of, sandal wearing saint that doesn't care about money. Everyone in pretty much, I would say any corporation, that statistic about men are CEOs, they're psychopaths. All they care about is money. And I think there are a lot of like there's a lot of talk about subsidies in [renewables] On Oil's Beastly NatureIt only takes, one ignition source and then you're on top of a fireball…potential that the entire thing can blow up underneath your feet. On Life without Oil It's the world we have is impossible to have without oil. Sure. You can reduce it. It's going to run out eventually one day anyway.So reducing it is not a bad thing, but to pretend that you can just press stop and then you can put in a wind turbine is nonsensical. And the politicians know it's nonsensical as well.  The sheer scale of, Hydrocarbon involvement in our modern industrial life is so incredibly difficult to untangle. There's literally nothing more important than our energy because it ties into the availability of education and medicine and travel and communication. Right, without. some form of mass energy production. We're right back to the medieval ages.On The British State I speak from a very UK point of view because it's my country, it's my home. I feel As ever, the British state works against the British people, not for the British people, which is a contrast to some of the countries that we may look down our noses on a little bit more as not developed, where, and Japan is a great example of this, where Japan seems to do things for the benefit of Japanese people, which seems to be a controversial idea back home. Learning from Travel This is part of, traveling. You see so many countries where people are so proud of their country. Nigerians were some of the most proud people I think I've ever met, and it's the same in Japan. And I worry the direction our country's going, both the UK and the US, when we were raising a generation of children who are being taught to be embarrassed by where they come from. Though I really feel like in the West we've made a mistake over the years in trying to impose our way of looking at the world on other cultures.Post Interview Notes / Links from AndrewHere are some relevant links that might be of interest:"Empire of Dust", a fascinating documentary widely referenced online, but with no major release I don't think, that shows interaction between a Chinese contractor and locals in the DRC. It's a perfect example of culture clash, the strength in the documentary being there is no western-style narrative, it's simply two very different cultures interacting honestly with each other. The film-maker is Belgian which is particularly interesting given their colonial history in the DRC.Watch @ https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5gdfm4I can particularly recommend Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness if you're interested in the dark side of colonialism, or any history of DRC or Zaire as it was. One of my favourite films is Apocalypse Now, which along with the book perfectly makes the point I was trying to, which is how these cultures are manifestly different from ours, and any attempt to convert or run these societies in a western way will ultimately end up in failure, unless it's done by complete dominance, which of course, is wrong. It's a subject I find really interesting, and my experiences in Africa really changed how I view the world.On Energy Prices “Strike Prices” and Renewables Some links explaining the Strike Price for electricity set through the CfD (Contract for Difference) mechanism that guarantees a specific rate for electricity to renewables companies.https://www.iea.org/policies/5731-contract-for-difference-cfdhttps://www.eurelectric.org/in-detail/cfds_explainer/ It's quite hard to find a non-biased article explaining this, but the basic mechanism is:What isn't always mentioned is the "top-up" when the price falls is paid to the generators by the consumer, in the UK at least, in the form of a levy on the electricity price. Which is fine in theory to have a set electricity price, but currently the UK has the 3rd highest electricity costs in the world:https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/cost-of-electricity-by-countryOn British Embassy Support (Weapons:Yes / Hydrocarbons: No)UK government ending support for oil and gas sector abroad:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-announces-the-uk-will-end-support-for-fossil-fuel-sector-overseasBut no issue promoting UK weapons manufacturers:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/3/15/uk-spent-1-3m-on-security-for-worlds-biggest-weapons-fairSubsidies provided to the oil and gas industry in the US: (this can be complicated to assess because the IMF considers environmental and health costs after production as an effective subsidy, whereas the OECD and the IEA do not)https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-fossil-fuel-subsidies-a-closer-look-at-tax-breaks-and-societal-costsCorrection on Refinery Capacity in NigeriaI was slightly mistaken, there is some refinery capacity in Nigeria, in fact it's the highest in all of Africa, however it is still around half of what Houston alone produces per day.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13203-018-0211-zOn Oil Piracy / Theft (Discussed During Interview as Another Source for Danger / Volatility / Environmental Damage) Oil pipeline theft still seems to be a problem in Nigeria sadly:https://www.pipeline-journal.net/news/explosion-nigeria-oil-pipeline-kills-12-shell-blames-crude-oil-theft-tragedyOn Working in the Pubic SectorI was thinking about one of your last questions afterwards, whether I'd ever work for the government. You know, I would actually love it, to be able to make some type of positive impact, I'd really enjoy that much more than my current job, it's just that what I would advocate is so far in the opposite direction of the UK foreign office and civil service's ethos (non-judgmental promotion of UK interest and people without imposing change on other countries) that I wouldn't get the opportunity. The British sitcom "Yes Minister" captures perfectly how the UK establishment works, it's from the 80s but still very relevant. It works to ensure the continued existence of the establishment, not the general population.AI Machine Transcription - Enjoy the Glitches!Andrew: The sheer scale of, Hydrocarbon involvement in our modern industrial life is so incredibly difficult to untangle.There's literally nothing more important than our energy because it ties into the availability of education and medicine and travel and communication. Right, without. some form of mass energy production. We're right back to the medieval ages.Leafbox: Andrew, thanks so much for making time for me. I know you're a busy guy. Yeah, I really appreciate it. Actually, when I first met you, I was actually fascinated with your work because you're one of the few people I know who has jumped from the oil sector to a climate friendly energy sector, I call it, so I was very curious about your perspectives on both. Having, your wife told me that you lived in Baku and that alone, it is probably a book's worth of questions. Andrew, why don't we just start tell us who you are, where you are, what's the weather like in Fukuoka? And where are you from?Andrew: Well, the most important thing the seasons in Japan seem to follow rules like the rest of Japan. So it's got the memo recently that it's not summer anymore, which is great because summers here are pretty brutal. And it's cloudy and rainy, which from someone from Scotland is nice and familiar.Yeah, I guess be brief biography. I'm Scottish from the North of Scotland. This is usually the point where someone says, well, you don't sound Scottish, but that's because I was born down in England. But moved up Scott, two parents from very remote rural part of Scotland. And we moved up when I was about six.So I went to the local university Aberdeen which at the time was the oil capital of Europe. So with a passion for engineering and a desire to Just have adventure really as a young guy wanting to see the world. Also oil is always historically been very well paid. Probably along the lines of, I don't know, market wise, your career options, lawyer, doctor, that sort of thing, which was never really my interest in an oil worker.So anyway financial motivations, adventure motivations, just an interest in big, heavy engineering pushed me in that direction. I joined, graduated, I took a master's in offshore engineering graduated and joined Halliburton about six weeks before 9 11. So this was in the year of of Dick Cheney, of course then I eventually ended up working offshore.For a company that worked on drilling rigs, doing directional surveys, so you would run drilling tools down the well and that was quite life changing, really very exciting. A lot of. Pressure. This is all gonna make me sound very old, but pre smartphone days. So you were a lot more on your own in those days.I did that for four years. Then I ended up running operations in Lagos, Nigeria. Did that for three years, joined a Norwegian company, worked for them in Aberdeen, and then again, oil service. And ended up running their operations in Baku and Azerbaijan. Then COVID came along and like for a lot of people turned the world upside down.So with the low oil price ended up being made redundant and Really struggled for about a year or so to find work and then it wasn't ideological either one way or another in terms of the energy transition, it's quite heavily marketed these days but I'm not overly convinced that it's as easy as politicians seem to say it is but I took a job for a company drilling offshore foundations.And I was working on a nuclear power station, the cooling shafts for a nuclear power station. And then I simply got a job offer one day an online recruiter to come to Japan to work on offshore wind which has some, Close. It's basically the same things I was doing, except it was in nuclear.So yeah, none of it's been a straight line or a plan, but just the opportunity came up. We really wanted to have another period abroad. So we took the move and then I find myself on a beach speaking to yourself after about a year or so. Leafbox: So Andrew, going back to university time, exactly what did you study? Was this petroleum engineering? Or Andrew: It was no, it was mechanical engineering. But being in it was Robert Gordon university in Aberdeen, but being in Aberdeen, it was very heavily oil influenced at the time. I was actually. obsessed with cars and motorbikes, anything with an engine. So I really wanted to do automotive, but I didn't have the grades to go to a lot of the bigger universities down South.And I was 16 when I went to university and didn't really want to go too far. So I did mechanical. And then that led on to a degree in offshore engineering at the same university, which was completely oil focused. Leafbox: And then Andrew, can you tell me a little bit about the makeup of, the demographics of when you entered the oil industry and especially in Scotland and what were these offshore platforms like, you have engineers with high degrees and then what about the workers themselves?Andrew: Yeah. Yeah. So, your average rig is made up of a lot of different job functions. At the top or guess with the most responsibility. So you've got your company that own the rig. They're the drilling contractor and they have their personnel the guy that manages the rig, and then they have all different personnel, including all the deck crew and all the roughnecks raised about, but then you have the oil company that contracts them.And they have someone offshore running it, but they have a lot of engineers. And then you have all these like service companies, which is what I've worked for that come in and do things. So you typically have on the oil company sides. You'd have someone with, degrees, you'd have like their graduate programs, you'd have young people coming offshore, their first time offshore, but they'd be quite high up relatively.And then you would have your deck crew, mechanics, electricians, which typically weren't university educated. And the guys right at the very top who'd be like, Oh, I am like the rig manager generally, especially in the old days, wouldn't be university educated, but they would just have worked offshore for a very long time.So that they'd be very knowledgeable and skilled in what we're doing. A lot of them took degrees as, technology increased. And it became, more important to have a degree, but especially in the old days, although I think at that level in that job, people wouldn't have had degrees, but you do have, it is a big mix between like I said, your deck crew and the people that are more like the, engineers, geologists, et cetera.And I can't speak for every region, but you do find that you've got, so say the comparative salary or career prospects of a welder, or a mechanic or somewhere you've suddenly got someone who could earn, I don't know, in the U S but in the UK, maybe Twenty five twenty twenty five thousand pounds a year.Maybe, like three years ago in their offshore making like 60, and it's I think it's the same thing in the U. S. you have people from very poor areas that can go offshore and just, quadruple more there their salaries and it's a, But there's a reason why they're, there's a reason why they're getting paid that is because it's a lot more difficult and dangerous when you're away from home and stuff. It's a strange old mix in a lot of ways. Leafbox: And then can you describe for people just what the actual dangers are? Give people an image of what these platforms are like to be on them and how to build them and the complexity of these devices.Andrew: There's so you have there's a lot of different forms, but basically you have a drilling rig. which can be like a semi submersible which floats or a jack up which legs are like sitting on the ground or you could even have a ship that comes like, it all depends on the the depth of the water depth usually.So you'll have this vessel that drills a well and then eventually, so they'll drill a number of wells and then you'll have a platform which is fixed to the seabed usually and then that can that has like a. A wellhead that connects all the wells and then takes the hydrocarbons on board and then it might pump it to another bigger platform or it pumps it to some like somewhere where it's processed and then it's pumped on shore.There's different. There's common dangers. Everything from there've been a number of helicopter incidents over the years. Generally, a lot of these rigs are so far away that you'll take a, you'll take a chopper backwards and forwards. And it's been well documented of things like gearbox failures and stuff.You're probably one of the biggest, I don't have the HSC statistics in front of me, but one of the biggest injuries are probably slips, trips and falls. Because, your average drilling rig has maybe four or five levels to it, and you're up and down stairs all day with big boots on and a hard hat and glasses and stuff, and people tripping on themselves.Obviously drilling, you've got well you've got a lot of overhead lifts, a lot of people get injured with the fingers getting caught between loads roughnecks, raced abouts on the drill floor when they're handling drilling pipe. I've met a lot of people over the years that have got one or more fingers missing, because it's very easy to get your finger nipped between two things are being lifted, especially when people put their hands on to try and direct them.And then obviously the pressure of the hydrocarbons look at deep water horizon, for example the oil and the gas, It's funny listening to your podcast with Jed about oil being sentient that the pressure that the oil is under.So when you tap into, obviously it wants to go, it wants to go up and out. And then that could literally rip a rig apart if it's not if it's not controlled. And then obviously you've got the ignition risk, which, you've got Piper Alpha in the UK and you've got, like I say, Deepwater Horizon, there's been a number of rig explosions and then going back to what I said about platforms.So Piper Alpha was a platform and that was processing gas. So you have 100 and 170, 200 odd people working and living. on a structure offshore where there are like an enormous amount of gas that's being pumped. extracted and pumped like underneath their feet and it only takes, one ignition source and then you're on top of a fireball.And I remember being offshore when they're flaring, which is a process whereby they burn off excess gas and just being stunned by the ferocity of the noise, nevermind the heat of the, that it's just like a primal hour, you, you can stand a couple of hundred. Yards away from it and you can feel it on your face, it's just, it's very different.I've been offshore on a wind turbine installation vessel, which has the same offshore industrial risks in terms of lifted injuries, slips, trips, and falls and suspended loads. But you don't have that. You don't have that like potential that the entire thing can blow up underneath your feet.Leafbox: So with this danger and this kind of. wild beast underneath you. How did the men and women respond? You had in your email, a little bit of this kind of cowboy culture. I'm curious what the culture of these workers are like, and maybe in Scotland and what you've seen around the world. If these people aren't usually they're more working class or what's the relationship with them and the engineers and yeah, tell me about that.Andrew: It's it's a very, it's a very masculine environment. That's not to say that there aren't women offshore in the industry. There, there absolutely are. And there, there are more and more these days especially in certain countries, like in Scandinavia, for instance But it's a very, especially when you get down to the deck crew, it's a very, the recruits are very masculine, very like macho environment.It's quite a tough environment. It's a very hard working environment. The it's not that people I wouldn't say a matter of fact to say the opposite in terms of people having a cavalier attitude to safety. There have been a number of incidents over the years in the industry and each incident spurred along quite a lot of improvements in health and safety.So I'd say probably in terms of. Industry, it's probably one of the safest industries, well, it's probably one of the industries with the best safety attitude. I'm sure maybe nuclear is probably up there as well, but people are aware offshore of the risks. There's a huge QHSE industry.There's a, most companies have some form of a HSE system, which allows anyone from someone who works for the camp boss, like someone who changes the sheets, the cleaners, the cooks to like the driller can stop operations if they think that something is dangerous and there can't be any comeback, and stopping operations offshore is a big deal.Because the average. Rigorate is, it fluctuates, but the average is, I don't know, a few hundred thousand, I don't know what it is at the moment, but let's say up to maybe a half a million more for the biggest rates, biggest rigs per day. That's what, 20, 000 an hour. So if you see something that's dangerous and you stop it for a couple of hours that's a lot of money.So it takes a lot of nerve to do that, but the industry has been pretty good. They have these systems called stop cards. Like I say, Different companies have different names for it, but it gives the ability to It gives you authority for someone not to be forced into doing something that they think is dangerous.So overall, I actually think the health and safety culture is quite good. But if you look at Deepwater Horizon, that was a classic example of even at the corporate level, people being frightened to say no and frightened to halt operations. So that does still persist due to the sheer amount of money involved.Leafbox: And then tell me about in your email, you had a quote line about, these workers spending their money, maybe not as wisely. I'm curious to describe and understand the cowboy. I have this image, my father worked for Exxon for a long time. And his biggest problem was piracy. They had so much issues with piracy, but this was in the Caribbean. So it's just constantly people stealing oil from them. So maybe yeah, tell me how it is now after I guess 2000s, how it's changed. You're describing this very safe sounding MBA driven culture, but I have trouble.Yeah. Tell me what it's like around the world. Andrew: So that's the sort of the day to day attitude offshore, which is pushed very heavily by the oil companies. It's a lot of recording. They record lost time statistics which also not to get sidetracked, but that has a slightly negative effect as well in terms of if a rig has, say.That they'll, quite often rigs will have a big display when you arrive and it says this amount of days from the last accident and if they go like a year without any LTIs, everyone on the rig could get like an iPad or some sort of bonus or something and it's a big deal not to have incidents that cause a loss of time and that, by that if someone has to go to hospital, someone has to leave the rig, but that also does encourage it can encourage hiding of things, someone maybe, they've smashed their finger, but can they just maybe report it, but maybe just go on like light duties or something rather than go to the hospital before, before their shift change sort of thing which does happen and it's not healthy.But anyway, to get back to your point I think it comes from, as I say it's, a way for someone who would have no other avenue to earn the amount of money that they would get offshore by taking on the additional risk and being away from home. So say an electrician, your average construction electrician wages are probably pretty good these days, but if you take someone working in, some rural place in, in the States who is like a car mechanic or something, and then they go offshore And they're multiplying their salary, but they're multiplying their salary, perhaps coming from an environment where no one's ever had that type of money.They're coming home with maybe try to think of some people I've known, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year when their salary may have been I don't know, sub six figures, but they don't come from an environment where that sort of money is common. So you then have a situation whereby they are the one person in their family or town or their local bar.who has loads of money, who's been away from home for four weeks, but he doesn't have the most stable relationship precisely because they're not at home, but yet they've got loads of money and loads of time. You can see how that can encourage perhaps resentment. Or just a feeling of alienation from that community.That sort of person, say they have a lot more money than their friends, maybe they want to buy them drinks, but then do they want to have to do that all the time? I've known people that have been divorced multiple times, that have bought boats and all sorts of things that they never use and they end up with, paying for There are families that they never see, the families that get remarried, the kids that they never see.I've worked with directional drillers that I've got a wife in one country, an ex wife in another country, kids that don't like them, and they just pay for all these families. They get onshore and then they spend the next couple of weeks with some, teenage prostitute blowing all the money on that drink for the rest of the month and then they're back offshore.the shakes and then they decompress over the month and then the cycle repeats itself. So in the one sense, it's a fantastic opportunity for social mobility, but it also can leave a lot of chaos behind it. And I'm certainly not at all. And having come from a work class background myself, I'm not certainly saying that.It shouldn't be there. I think it's a positive thing and it's up to these people what they want to do with their money. I'm just saying it's an interest in social observance that it's, you don't get that many working class people that can leave school and have a manual trade and can go and be a lawyer or a doctor or a CEO but you are all of a sudden getting these people in situations who are making the same amount of money, but without the family structure.Or the societal structure that can prepare them for that.Leafbox: Jumping to the next topic, I'm curious, you first mentioned Dick Cheney, what was your relationship, you're in Scotland, and how does that fiddle in with the Middle East? oil wars and just the general kind of, I feel like when my father worked in oil, there wasn't that much of a hostility in the general environment.It was just people drove cars and you worked in the oil industry and it wasn't that. So in post 2000, I would say things change both from the climate perspective and then from the kind of American imperialist association with oil. Andrew: It's changed massively in terms of hostility. Just, it's just like night and day. So when I graduated, I remember being at school in the early nineties and there was, I don't think it was climate, no, no global warming. It was called then. So there was discussion of it.But the greenhouse the ozone layer was the big deal. And there was environmentalism, Greenpeace was quite big at that time. But. The, there was no stigma like whatsoever into going into the oil industry. And you could see that in terms of the courses at the time they were called there was like drilling engineering courses, offshore engineering courses petroleum engineering.You go back to the same universities now and it's like energy transition. I think you'll struggle to find that many courses that have got the words petroleum or drilling in it. And also it was very easy to get a job in those days in the industry. The, yeah the Gulf War, so the second Gulf War at the time working for Halliburton, I was very conscious of, it was very interesting to me how the company was structured.So you had Halliburton Energy Services and you had KBR, Kellogg, Brennan, Root, and they were the company that won the uncontested contract to rebuild in Iraq. But the way the company was structured. Was that they were that they were split up basically. So if one of them had gone down the toilet for any of these issues, they were separated.I was very happy to join Haliburton. It was a big career wise. I thought it was very good. I look back now, it's funny how I look back, like inside, I look back on that whole Iraq war with absolute horror now, but I had grown up with Free internet with, what at the time were considered authoritative news sources with the BBC and British newspapers.It might sound naive, but you believe that people are doing the right thing. And I just thought at the time that, that, we were going into Iraq because it was a very bad person there. And I look back now, with I look at Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and all the things that have happened with absolute horror.But at the time it just seemed quite straightforward. My, my view on the oil industry hasn't changed in terms of, I, I believe in an energy mix. I think there's a lot of irresponsibility talked about these days in terms of the energy transition. I do think there should be an energy mix.I don't think it should be any one source of energy. But I feel like we're in the same position that we're in before except instead of it being everyone's desperate to make money out of oil. I think everyone's desperate to make money out of renewables these days. Leafbox: Well, before we jump to that point, I want to I think that's a big topic we'll go to, but tell me about your jump to Nigeria.You're still naive then, or eager help, Nigerian oil industry or what you get assigned to Nigeria. What's that like? Andrew: Well, so I so that four years of us, so the three years I worked for that company originally was on it was on an ad hoc basis. So basically I would be at home. I'd get a phone call.And I could, I had to live within 45 minutes of the airport but I usually got at least a day. Sometimes it wasn't, it will, it was literally a day. Sometimes it was like a week, but I would get a call and then I could go anywhere in a region was Europe, Africa, Caspian. So I could go anywhere.Most of it was in West Africa. So I would go and work offshore in the Congo. Not the DRC, but the Republic of Congo Gabon, Nigeria, but all over Europe and occasionally like the Far East. So I had a lot of experience of Africa at that point. My very first, one thing I did want to, I was thinking the other day, one thing I did want to mention was when I first went, in terms of naivety, when I first time I ever went to Africa was in the Congo.And I'd grown up in the eighties where we had Live Aid was basically anyone's kind of opinion of Africa. And I remember at school we used to be forced to sing Do They Know It's Christmas, like every Christmas. So that was everyone's opinion of Africa was like just basically starving children. And I arrived in the Congo.They've got quite a decent airport now in Point Noir, but when I arrived it was literally a concrete shed with arrivals on one side and departures on the other and just like sand on the ground. And I can't remember coming out of that totally by myself just with my Nokia phone with the local contacts phone number and all these little kids appeared like Tugging it, tugging at my trousers asking for money and I was absolutely horrified I'd never seen like poverty like that and I felt horrible that I couldn't help them.But it's funny how You not that I don't care about children, but you harden yourself to what the reality of life is like in places like that. And I did that for three years. I was in Angola rotating for a year. In Cabinda, which is a chevron camp. And then I I got the job in Nigeria.And actually my father passed away just before I got that job. So I was a bit rudderless at that point. I really enjoyed it got to me in the end, I was there for three years and I started to get very frustrated when I was at home, that's when I thought I need to make a change.But there's a sort of happy level of chaos, I found. It's. in Nigeria, where things are, they don't work in the sense that they would do in, in, in what you'd call, developed countries. You can't rely on things to work. You can't really rely on people in a certain sense, but there's a sort of happy, it's difficult to explain.Like it's just, It's a very chaotic place, a very noisy, chaotic place. But once you accept that it's quite a good laugh actually. I have some quite happy memories from working there. Leafbox: So Andrew, when you enter in these places you first described your kind of exposure to Congo, but how do you conceptualize the interaction between the Western oil companies and I guess the local developing country?Do you think about that? Or are all the workers local? Or is everyone imported from all over the world? And Andrew: There's a big move towards localization in pretty much any location I've been which is, which has changed over the years. So when I first started working say in Africa, as an example.Pretty much all of the deck crew, all of the roughnecks were all Africans or locals from whichever ever country you're in. But once you got to the upper levels, like the Western oil companies, you would have, so you'd have like drill engineers, which weren't. You might describe them as like project managers of the drilling operations.So there you would have kind of a mix of locals and expats, but you pretty much always find once you went above that to like drilling managers. You'd find all what they call company men, which are the company's representative offshore, pretty much always expats. That has changed over the years, which I think is a very positive thing.A lot of countries, Azerbaijan's like this, a lot of countries in Africa, Nigeria is like this. They put within the contracts, like a local content. So for a company to win the license and which is then cascaded down to the subcontractors, you have to have a percentage of local employees and you have to have a system for replacing your senior people, training up locals and replacing them over time, which I think is very positive because after all, it's there.Oil is their resources. There are in certain locations with certain companies, a pretty bad history. Shell Nigeria, for example. You can your listeners can look all this up, but there have been, various controversies over the years on the whole, I think on the whole, I think.that it's a positive for these countries because I look at it in terms of a capitalist sort of capitalist approach that, you know and it's almost like the thing that I was saying where you have like someone who comes from a family or a class where they are not exposed to money and all of a sudden they have a huge amount of money where you could say the same thing with some tiny country where by a that they've had a level of civilization and a level of like income over the years and all of a sudden someone discovers oil and there's no way you can reasonably expect a society to just, you can't take somewhere that goes from like tribal pre industrial revolution conditions and make it New York City overnight.It's just, it's not going to happen. And just expanding that slightly, I was in Papua New Guinea in the eastern part And up in the highlands on a well site a while ago. And that was fascinating because Papua New Guinea is still, it's a country, but it's still very tribal. So once you leave Port Moresby you're really, it's not like you're going to call the police if someone tries to assault you or call an ambulance or something.It's very much like I say, pre industrial revolution, tribal. societies, but they're sitting on billions of dollars of gas. So you get these little pockets of on the shore drilling rigs. And they're just pumping millions and billions of dollars worth of gas out from under your feet, but they pay the locals.And the site that I was on right at the top of the hill overlooking it was a big mansion owned by the who, as soon as he started drilling, he would get 10 million. And then, as I was informed, would probably disappear down to Australia and, enrich the local casinos and stuff. But, who is to say that is, would it be great if he built a hospital and built a school and improved the lives of everyone around him?Oh, of course it would. But who's to say morally that we Chevron should be, I understand the point that maybe Chevron should be building these things, but who is to say that the condition should be attached to what that chief spends his money on. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I I think I place a lot of responsibility on hydrocarbons are located.I do think there have been a lot of very negative practices by By all companies over the years, and they absolutely have a duty to maintain the environment. But I think it's a bit hypocritical. I see a lot of rich Western countries, especially now saying to a lot of poorer, undeveloped countries that they shouldn't be drilling or they shouldn't be, should be using the money differently.And I think, well, it's their resource. I look at it more from a capitalist point of view, rather than, like I said in my email, I'm quite anti interventionist in that sense. So historically I'm going to, this continues now, but there have been issues with literally, so they put these big pipelines through people's villages and the way that a lot of these things are organized is like I said, about Papua New Guinea they'll contact, the tribal chief and we'll pay a rent or some sort of fee to, to put these big pipelines through, through these small places.But there are some times when, I haven't, I, the right tribal chief or they've not paid enough or there's some sort of dispute and you will get villagers literally drilling into these oil pipelines with drills and buckets to steal the oil. And of course someone's doing it and they're smoking or there's some sort of ignition source and the whole thing erupts and, the village is burnt and it's a horrible, tragedy but it's just it's a funny, again, it goes back to the theory of what I was saying, the juxtaposition of that very valuable resource with a very, with a civilization, with a community, probably better way of putting it, who has never had access to that amount of money.So you're literally pumping these, this thing through their village that is worth more money than they'll ever see in their lifetime. And obviously the temptation to try to take some of that. is there, almost like understandably, but then again it quite often results in a lot of death and destruction.So that's yeah, it's just it's part of the whole industry in a lot of ways. And other industries, when you look at things like lithium mining and diamonds and stuff, you have a very high value resource That has been, by pure chance, located in a very poor part of the world and it results in these tragedies sometimes.Leafbox: I was going to ask you about the processing of oil. So when export the raw crude. Mostly the oils and process somewhere else. You were, you're taking the oil from Nigeria. Like Venezuela, they have to ship it all to Houston or whatnot to get turned into different solvents and gasoline. And, Andrew: This is probably when I'll need some fact checking, but my recollection of the time in Nigeria was that they weren't processing the oil on shore.I stand corrected if that's wrong, but my understanding was that they weren't, or at least there wasn't very many refineries, so it was basically all, like you said, extracted and then sent abroad. To be refined. That's certainly the situation in in Papua New Guinea. A lot of it is turned an LPG there and then shipped abroad.I guess I would guess, I would assume that would be the situation in a lot of West African countries for a lot of reasons, you have an established. Supply chain, you have established skill set in other places, then it comes down to cost and then you have the security of, you can imagine the enormous amount of investment you would need in a refinery.And would you rather do that in a place that's had a history of civil war, or would you take the cost to ship it abroad and do it somewhere else, Leafbox: no, it's understandable. I think that's important for listeners to understand that. The refinery in Louisiana or whatnot, or, it's so massive, it's billions of dollars and it's such a dangerous place to work also. Right. Those are just like literally atomic bomb sized potential energy. Andrew: The one thing that, there's always been, say in Scotland, there's been a little bit of resentment towards, Aberdeen and they're all like rich up there from other places in Scotland, but I think that there is, people are aware of Deepwater Horizon and Piper Alpha, et cetera, but I do think that there has been an underappreciation of the, just the Crazy risks that are involved when you're working offshore and handling hydrocarbons.Like I said, you take a helicopter to work with all the risks that I had in, in tails, and then you spend a month or so working on top of something that is effectively, a bomb if if things aren't handled properly. And you're, how far away are you from like emergency services?There are supply vessels and stuff, but. It's very much an environment where you have to just be very careful and very aware of dangers, which I think the industry now has got very good at. But yeah, the wages are high, but they're high for a reason. It's not it's not an easy, it's not an easy job in terms of that.And like I alluded to before, in terms of family stability, working away and coming back is not really conducive quite often to, to a healthy home life.Leafbox: Going back to Angola for a second I read an account of the Chinese are very heavily in Luanda and Angola, and they had the terrible civil war.But one of the things that really stood out to me is that all the Chinese use Chinese labor. So their oil boats are all Chinese workers and they often use ex felons, which I thought was interesting. But there's, I guess they, all these ex felons in Angola, I don't know if you saw this, I wanted to confirm it, but there's a lot of half Chinese, half Angolan children now because all the Chinese roughnecks.They're all men. So there's a booming Angolan prostitution and it just was so wild. Angola think Luanda is the most expensive city in the world. But then the most violent too, so yeah, just what's your general impressionAndrew: I I've been in Luanda in total, probably just a couple of days.Most of my time was spent in a, so Chevron Texco have this place called Cabinda. Which is actually, technically speaking, if you look at the map, it's not actually connected to Angola, you've got Angola, then you've got a little gap, and then you've got Cabinda, which is the little gap is part of the DRC, I think but Cabinda is where all the onshore processing of the oil is.It's part of Angola and it's like a prisoner of war camp and you go up there and you can't leave pretty much until you've finished your work. But my impression of Lulanda wasn't great at all. I remember driving into it and there's these massive shanty towns on the edge of the city with just like literal rubbish tipped down the side of these hills.And then you get into the city and it's just a. massive continual traffic jam with Porsche Cayennes and Range Rovers and G Wagons. And it just felt in the way that I was describing Lagos and even Port Harcourt, which has a pretty bad reputation as a sort of, chaotic, but fun sort of chaos.I felt and this is just my personal impression, I felt Lwanda was chaos, but dangerous chaos. Not you wouldn't stay in a staff house there and you wouldn't go out for a drink anyway. You wouldn't even really go out for lunch much. You just stayed in. It looked to me like as if you'd taken a European city, which I guess it, that's how it was built.And then you just start maintaining it from like 1960s onwards, but then you'd add it in a civil war and I appreciate the civil war was like a proxy civil war and then just didn't repair any infrastructure and just peppered the whole place with like bullet holes.It wasn't, it was not particularly, it's not a place that I would recommend to be quite honest with you. In terms of the Middle East, the comparison with the Middle East I've not really worked that much in the Middle East, to be quite honest with you. I guess my closest is the Caspian, which is more Central Asia, but that was way more structured.Yes, there's massive amounts of corruption, massive amounts of poverty. But yeah, absolutely more structured and less chaotic in that sense. Leafbox: Andrew, what's the relationship in Nigeria, there's famous activists who, like the Shell, they polluted so heavily, but then I guess the military tribunals would erase or disappear people.Maybe this is before you worked there, but what, as, what was the relationship of the company men with the government? Was there open kind of corruption or? What was your general vibe of is the manager's job and kind of getting these contracts. Talk to me about that. Like Deanna, how did the, you know, Exxon versus Armco or whatever it is, whoever's ever getting these contracts, there's obviously backdoor dealings.Andrew: Yeah, in terms of, actual drilling licenses I was never near or even remotely near the people that will be making those sort of decisions. And I'm certainly not going to allege corruption at that level. And I don't have any evidence, but what I would say, and again, all of this is just my personal opinion.It's, I'm not disparaging any one particular place in general, but the level of corruption. that I would see was so endemic that I just came to feel it was cultural which again, it's not really don't want to make that sound like it's a slight, to me it was an understanding of I really feel, and just briefly going back to the whole Bob Geldof Live Aid thing, I really feel like in the West we've made a mistake over the years in trying to impose our way of looking at the world on other cultures.And what I would see in most West African countries was it was just an accepted way Of living, accepted way of dealing. So you would go to the airport. We used to have these boxes that would have electronic equipment in them. And we had to hand carry them cause they were quite fragile.And then you would go to the check in desk and they would be like okay, well we have to get some stairs to lift this into the plane. So that's an extra 50. I'm not sure you actually own this equipment. It's got another company written on it. You give me a hundred dollars.Sometimes it's not quite said, you'll just get so much hassle and you'd see other, you'd see some people there that would freak out in case thinking that they were gonna, arrested or something. They just open their wallet and hand over loads of money. The, but it's not it's not like some under the table nefarious plot it's just like the checking guy is getting paid next to nothing He sees someone who's obviously got all my money and he has How can I get that money off him and it's at every single level my I mean I suppose I would say I was wise to it, but even I would make naive mistakes.I remember on a leaving day when I left Nigeria I had this driver who I'd still consider a friend. I messaged him on Facebook sometimes, and he was a really nice young guy who would go out of his, literally out of his way to help me. And I made the silly mistake of handing in my bank card on my like, leaving due.I'd had a little bit to drink and I just thought, surely it'll be fine. And of course I get back to the UK, I check my statement and there's a couple of hundred dollars missing or a hundred pounds missing. At the time I was like, that must be a bank error, surely not. But I look back in it now and I just think, again, this isn't, this honestly isn't even a criticism, it's just the culture is to try and hustle.And if you, if it doesn't work, well, I tried. It's just, it's endemic in that sense. I don't doubt that there most likely have been over the years some very shady practices on the behalf of Western oil companies and Western governments. You only have to look at the history of, BP and the UK government and Americans in Iran and coups to get oil and all these sorts of things.But I'm just talking about like the corruption that I've seen, it seemed, Cultural in that sense. It's just everywhere. The one thing that I would say is that companies I've worked for within the contracts is very heavy anti corruption. So the FCPA, if I'm remembering that right, in the US. The anti corruption laws are very strong to the point where if a company official from a country, say like Scotland, is a manager and he signs off on a bribery expense, he can actually, if I'm right in recalling this, he can end up going to jail himself for that.So a hundred percent, I'm sure it's happening by at the same time legally, there are some very strict laws against it. Leafbox: When they just outsource to local sub providers, that's what I would imagine they do to get around that. Andrew: I think it's a case of well, just don't tell me sort of thing.Leafbox: Yeah. Andrew: I'm pretty sure that, that's why. Well, Leafbox: I think people don't understand if you haven't been to these countries, it's just it's just not Norway. It's not. Yeah. It's a very different. Yeah. Andrew: And. I, sorry to interrupt you, but I've done quite a bit of work in Norway and I have found that some countries and some cultures seem to have a difficulty accepting that the world isn't the way that they are.And I think that that, not to, not to boast or to my trumpet here, but I think that one thing that I've learned over the years is that some places they just are the way they are. And it's, of course you don't want to encourage. Corruption, you don't want to encourage mistreatment, but I don't believe it's your right.Like I'm like, I live in Japan now and some things, a lot of things about Japan I absolutely love, but there are also some things about Japan that just don't seem right to me. But it's not my place to come in and say, right, you're doing this wrong. You should be doing this the other way. It just isn't, it's not my country.And I felt the same way in Africa. There's loads of things about Nigeria that I was like, this is absolute madness. But it's their madness, it's not my madness, and I'm a guest in their country. Leafbox: What do you think the difference, in your email to me, you wrote about the colonial being British, how's that relationship been for you?You've, non interventionist now, but you wrote about, your forefathers or previous generations having quote, good intentions. Maybe tell me about that. Andrew: I think that I know that there's a lot in the UK as with America now that's quite, there's a lot of attempt to be revisionist within history and question history, which I'm a big fan of people questioning history.I just think once again, that we are tending to look at things from a very Western point of view without taking into account like global history. I know believe, through my experience of traveling, I now think, well, exactly like what I just said, I don't think it's our place to change countries to mold them in our ways, but I do have a more charitable view of a lot of our maybe not every one of them, certainly not every country's colonial adventures, but I do think that some of them were more motivated by, as I said, a Christian desire to end certain barbaric practices.If you look at, the I forget what the practice is called, but the practice of people burning their their wives on the husband's funeral pyre in India and the whole slavery, which, yes, Britain was a part of but it's quite clear that, the British Navy was very important, effective in, in, in ending the global slave trade.So I'm very proud of where I come from and I'm proud of my ancestors. I don't deny that They were put that they, there weren't some, as I said, some negative aspects and atrocities, but I just think that again, when it comes to, and I think about this more because I have kids now.So I think about how I want them to feel about the country going forward. This is part of, traveling. You see so many countries where people are so proud of their country. Nigerians were some of the most proud people I think I've ever met, and it's the same in Japan. And I worry the direction our country's going, both the UK and the US, when we were raising a generation of children who are being taught to be embarrassed by where they come from.Leafbox: Going back to oil for a second, Andrew, the colonial legacy is impossible to digest in a short interview, but do you have, what's the general like Pemex or the Venezuelan oil companies or the Russian oil companies? What's your general impression of nationalized oil companies versus the private?Andrew: Yeah. I so I guess my biggest experience is in Azerbaijan, there's a company called Soka which is the national oil company. And of course all these national oil companies, a lot of them have shares in international like private oil companies.So it's not always a clear divide of either one or the other, but I guess I, as someone who really. believes in capitalism. I think that in terms of efficiency and certainly in terms of safety, in terms of environmental compliance, I think that the private oil companies are much more answerable to activism, to just a sense of corporate responsibility than private oil companies.And if you're in somewhere like Russia, like you say, Venezuela and the national oil companies is polluting the water. Well, What are you going to do about compared to a private oil company who has, a much more, it has shareholders and I guess more of a global footprint. But I also come back to the point, as I was saying about localization that these resources are the country's resources and I think it's quite right that companies pay.I wouldn't say prohibitive amounts of tax, but I think it's quite right that companies pay a lot of money in tax when they extract the hydrocarbons, and they have local content. I guess the ideal for me is private, but with a level of public ownership. But not actually running the operations because I think as soon as you take away, as soon as you take away that meritocracy, you end up with health and safety risks, you end up with just waste, and when it comes to something like with the large amounts of money involved That just ends up taking money away from the actual people.I don't think it's, I don't think it's generally a great idea, but I think a sort of public, a bit like you see a lot here in Japan actually, a public private mix, if done properly, is probably the way to go for a lot of utilities. Leafbox: Great. So Andrew, maybe it's time to jump to the oil and energy diverse mix.Tell me about what brings you to Japan. First, you work on nuclear and now wind. Andrew: Yeah. For me, I can't claim any sort of high minded high minded drive to change from one industry to the other. It was purely, I had a mortgage and a new baby and I desperately needed a job. So that was how I made that jump.The one thing I have experienced over the years, it's certainly the place I've worked. It's very, Unless you're in a region that has like a national oil company, it's even then I guess depends who you are. It's very meritocratic, but it's quite cutthroat. So oil companies, service companies, as soon as oil price drops, it's very cyclical.People just get made redundant. People, I saw people at Halliburton had been there for literally 40, 50 years being made redundant just because the share price dropped a few points. I've been made redundant twice myself. And yeah, it's just horrible. And there's nothing you can do about it because it's an economic decision.It's nothing to do with your performance. And that happens to, it's probably very few people on the street that hasn't happened to It's the downside of the high salary really. So coming into wind it was really an opportunity to, as I say, we wanted to live abroad again for a little while.And opportunities to live in Japan don't come by very often. And it's interesting. It's interesting. It's very different. It's interesting from an engineering point of view. It's a lot of heavy lifts. And Japan, I think Japan has a good attitude towards offshore wind, because everything else, Japan has a long term vision.It has a vision of a percentage mix of nuclear fossil fuels, renewables, whereas I feel like I'm fairly against it in my home country, in the UK, because we don't have a long term plan. We've had four prime ministers in the last two years. One of them wanted to build eight nuclear power stations, the next one to start fracking.And then the one now wants to quadruple our offshore wind capacity in eight years, which is impossible. It's quite nonsensical. It's quite short term thinking. I'm not anti wind, I'm not pro oil, I'm not anti or pro any, anything. What I'm pro is a science based, long term, non subsidy, non corruption based market solution.Obviously you've got environmental aspect of climate change, et cetera, which needs to be taken into account. But I found, I find a lot of the attitude towards renewables and towards the energy mix quite histrionic and not really based on facts. Leafbox: Do you ever think about, geopolitics as an engineer in terms of, where these pressures are coming from.Europe particularly seems so against oil and hydrocarbons, but if you do any scientific research, you just, there's the capacity of hydrocarbons to produce energy is just unparalleled in terms of the input to output. And wind is just not a realistic option. Andrew: I think that, I think there's a general I would say it's a mistake, but I think it's done on purpose, but there's a general attitude that seems to be portrayed in the media that you can have one company or one industry is virtuous and everything they do is virtuous and there are no negative connotations or motivations behind what they're doing.And then the other is just all negative. So right now, it seems like oil is completely negative and then offshore wind is completely positive. You look at the motivations behind companies putting in offshore wind turbines or the service companies exactly the same as motivations behind all companies.Neither one is doing them. For anything other than to make money. And I think it's simplistic and a little bit silly to think that the boss of an oil company is some sort of J. R. Ewing, person that likes to run over puppies on the way home and the boss of an electricity company or a turbine installation company or whatever.is some sort of, sandal wearing saint that doesn't care about money. Everyone in pretty much, I would say any corporation, that statistic about men are CEOs, they're psychopaths. All they care about is money. And I think there are a lot of like there's a lot of talk about subsidies.You just touched on it, I think. And people talk about subsidies and oil when they're talking about subsidies and oil, what they're talking about is the The fact that when you drill an oil well, which can be anything between, I don't know, 30 and like upwards of 100 million, you basically get to claim that back off the tax.Now the tax in the UK is, it was about 75 percent on the oil that they extract and profit from the oil they extract. But if you have that say 100 million cost, how many companies can drill three or four wells at 100 That you're going to get anything out of that. Very few companies can afford to take that risk.I don't think it's a bit rich to call that a subsidy when you've got the whole CFD process for offshore wind, which effectively guarantees the strike price of electricity. So you imagine if you had that for oil, you would have, You would have countries buying oil off the oil companies when the price dropped, and they don't have that, they don't have that, that, that mechanism, but you simply wouldn't get offshore winds without a decent strike price, which you've seen recently in the auctions when no one bid on the licenses in the UK, and I think it was the US as well.Leafbox: So in essence you prefer just like a free market, totally. Not a totally free market, but in the sense that a clear transparent market. So if that really incentivized the right incentives, like you're saying in Japan, they have that mix of nuclear and hydrocarbon and wind and solar. And in Japan, I always feel like they're just burning trash.That's their real power generation. Andrew: It's funny that it's such a funny place in so many ways, but you've got this island, which has, a lot of geothermal resources. But in terms of mineral resources, it's not in a great position yet. It manages to be so incredibly self sufficient in terms of industry, in terms of fuel price.Like they, they said to me when I arrived here, Oh God, it's so expensive electricity. It's like about 60 to, to a month for the electricity in your house. And it's a four bed house with five air cons on 24 seven. I'm like, geez, you just see the price UK. You'd be like, 10 times almost. So they managed to make it work, but like everything else here, like I said, it's a long term, long thought process.And Obviously, I guess we haven't really talked about it, and I'm not, I don't feel qualified even to talk about it at all, to be honest with you, but in terms of climate change, I am very much meritocratic and capitalist in that sense that I think the market will identify the most efficient.way of providing energy, but I completely accept that there needs to be a level of environmental regulation because going back to what I said, CEOs, I think of any company would do anything if it made them money. And I've seen, I saw this in Azerbaijan. You go out, you're back, he's an absolutely beautiful city, but if you look back through its history of being part of the Soviet Union, the level of just pollution was unreal and it still suffers from a lot of that, especially out with the main city. So I 100 percent agree with environmental regulations. I think that, I think there's a lot of politics behind climate change. I'm quite skeptical of international NGO organizations, especially with the last few years that we've had.But I think that the yeah, I think that Japan's got it right. I think we need a mix and we need to not. Pretend like we are doing in the UK at the moment that for instance, the electricity price in the UK is doubled since 2019. And it hasn't here in Japan, and there, there tends to be a thought of, well, we just need to do all this because climate change is going to happen.It doesn't matter that, that people are suffering now, I don't think, I think people tend to. tend to maybe forget the, it's like the, the just stop oil extinction rebellion types. It's the world we have is impossible to have without oil. Sure. You can reduce it. It's going to run out eventually one day anyway.So reducing it is not a bad thing, but to pretend that you can just press stop and then you can put in a wind

This week we look at the UK General Election results and what it means - including votes; the rise of Islamist politics; Reform; Kris Kandiah; Farage and the Channel 4 actor; BBC hit job on Miriam Cates; Welsh Parliament to ban lying;  Yes Minister; The Blob wins; Biden meltdown; Australian Muslim Senator resigns; Christians massacred in Nigeria; Glastonbury borders; The religious Euros; Malen the Christian; Euthanasia in the Netherlands; SEEK 41 - The Devil and Hell with music from D:Ream, the Who, Coldplay,  Rameau,  the Rolling Stones and the Scottish Praise Gathering youth choir

He's an elder statesman in the worlds of journalism, policy and economics in India -- and he takes the long view. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha joins Amit Varma in episode 388 of The Seen and the Unseen to talk about his life and learnings. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha on Twitter, Mint and Artha Global. 2. The Rise of India -- NIranjan Rajadhyaksha. 3. Niranjan Rajadhyaksha interviewed in Marathi by Think Bank: Part 1. Part 2. 4. MV Rajadhyaksha and Vijaya Rajadhyaksha. 5. The Times of India obituary of MV Rajadhyaksha. 6. Adventures of a Bystander -- Peter F Drucker. 7. The Theory of Moral Sentiments -- Adam Smith's book that contains the concept of the impartial spectator. 8. The Impartial Spectator columns by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha and Shruti Rajagopalan. 9. Ratatouille -- Brad Bird. 10. The Overton Window. 11. John Maynard Keynes on Alfred Marshall. 12. The Rooted Cosmopolitanism of Sugata Srinivasaraju — Episode 277 of The Seen and the Unseen. 13. The Rise and Fall of the Bilingual Intellectual -- Ramachandra Guha. 14. Understanding India Through Its Languages — Episode 232 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Peggy Mohan). 15. Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages — Peggy Mohan. 16. The Heckman Equation -- a website based on James Heckman's work. 17. Select episodes of The Seen and the Unseen with Suyash Rai (1, 2) and Rahul Verma (1, 2). 18. Stri Purush Tulana by Tarabai Shinde on Amazon and Wikipedia. 19. Kalyanche Nishwas by Vibhavari Shirurkar (Malati Bedekar) on Amazon and Wikipedia. 20. Makers of Modern India -- Ramachandra Guha. 21. Simone de Beauvoir (Wikipedia, Britannica, Amazon) and Germaine Greer (Wikipedia, Britannica, Amazon). 22. Gopal Ganesh Agarkar's essay on education for girls. 23. The omnibus volume of BR Nanda's biographies of Gokhale, Gandhi and Nehru. 24. The Adda at the End of the Universe — Episode 309 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vikram Sathaye and Roshan Abbas). 25. This Be The Verse — Philip Larkin. 26. Rohit Lamba Will Never Be Bezubaan -- Episode 378 of The Seen and the Unseen. 27. Volga Se Ganga (Hindi) (English) -- Rahul Sankritayan. 28. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 29. Turning Over the Pebbles: A Life in Cricket and in the Mind -- Mike Brearley. 30. Slow Horses (book one of Slough House) -- Mick Herron. 31. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 -- Tony Judt. 32. On Warne -- Gideon Haigh. 33. The Essential Keynes -- John Maynard Keynes. 34. The Age of Uncertainty — John Kenneth Galbraith. 35. Asian Drama -- Gunnar Myrdal. 36. Aneesh Pradhan on Spotify, Amazon, Instagram, Twitter and his own website. 37. Malini Goyal is the Curious One — Episode 377 of The Seen and the Unseen. 38. The UNIX Episode -- Episode 32 of Everything is Everything. 39. The O-Ring Theory of Economic Development -- Michael Kremer. 40. Why Abhijit Banerjee Had to Go Abroad to Achieve Glory -- Amit Varma. 41. Why Talent Comes in Clusters -- Episode 8 of Everything is Everything. 42. The Dark Knight Rises -- Christopher Nolan. 43. Thinking it Through -- The archives of Amit Varma's column for Mint. 44. Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker -- Ved Mehta. 45. Videhi -- Vijaya Rajadhyaksha. 46. Select pieces on the relationship between Raymond Carver and Gordon Lish: 1, 2, 3, 4. 47. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy -- Joseph Schumpeter. 48. Maharashtra Politics Unscrambled — Episode 151 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sujata Anandan). 49. Complaint Resolution Systems: Experimental Evidence from Rural India -- Chinmaya Kumar and MR Sharan. 50. Parkinson's Law — C Northcote Parkinson. 51. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 52. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 53. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 54. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan — Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 55. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity — Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 56. The Reformers — Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 57. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 58. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 59. The Logic of Collective Action — Mancur Olson. 60. Ashutosh Salil and the Challenge of Change — Episode 312 of The Seen and the Unseen. 61. Rational Ignorance. 62. The State of Our Farmers — Ep 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil, in Hindi). 63. India's Agriculture Crisis — Ep 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra & Kumar Anand). 64. The Indian State Is the Greatest Enemy of the Indian Farmer — Amit Varma. 65. The Worldly Philosophers --  Robert Heilbroner. 66. The Clash of Economic Ideas — Lawrence H White. 67. Capital-Labor Substitution and Economic Efficiency -- Kenneth Arrow, Hollis Chenery, Bagicha Singh Minhas and Robert Solow. 68. Room 666 -- Wim Wenders. 69. Laapataa Ladies -- Kiran Rao. 70. The Brave New Future of Electricity -- Episode 40 of Everything is Everything. 71. What I, as a development economist, have been actively “for” — Lant Pritchett. 72. National Development Delivers: And How! And How? — Lant Pritchett. 73. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 74. Smoke and Ashes -- Amitav Ghosh. 75. Sata Uttarachi Kahani -- GP Pradhan. 76. Gopal Ganesh Agarkar and Bal Gangadhar Tilak. 77. Collections of VD Savarkar's Marathi essays: 1, 2. 78. Savarkar and the Making of Hindutva -- Janaki Bakhle. 79. Savarkar Te BJP -- SH Deshpande. 80. Sarvakarancha Buddhiwad Ani Hindutvawad -- Sheshrao More. 81. Swatantryaveer Savarkar Ek Rahasya -- DN Gokhale. 82. Shodh Savarkarancha -- YD Phadke. 83. The Taking of Pelham 123 -- Tony Scott. 84. Sriram Raghavan (IMDb) (Wikipedia) and Vijay Anand (IMDb) (Wikipedia). 85. Manorama Six Feet Under -- Navdeep Singh. 86. Agatha Christie and Frederick Forsyth on Amazon. 87. Salil Chowdhury and RD Burman on Spotify. 88. Haikyu -- Haruichi Furudate. 89. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 90. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister — Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. 91. Dilip José Abreu: an elegant and creative economist — Rohit Lamba. Niranjan would like to inform listeners that Spontaneous Order would be translated to Marathi as उत्सफूर्त व्यवस्था. This episode is sponsored by CTQ Compounds. Check out The Daily Reader and FutureStack. Use the code UNSEEN for Rs 2500 off. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘The Impartial Spectator' by Simahina.

Our greatest moral imperative is to solve the problem of poverty -- and after over 75 years, we still have some distance to travel. Rajeswari Sengupta joins Amit Varma in episode 387 of The Seen and the Unseen for a deep dive into how we got here, where we went wrong, what we got right, and how we should look at the Indian economy going forward. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out:1. Rajeswari Sengupta's homepage. 2. Demystifying GDP — Episode 130 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta). 3. Twelve Dream Reforms — Episode 138 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan, Rajeswari Sengupta & Vivek Kaul). 4. Two-and-a-Half Bengalis Have an Economics Adda -- Episode 274 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rajeswari Sengupta and Shrayana Bhattacharya). 5. Talks & Discussions on the Indian Economy featuring Rajeswari Sengupta. 6. Rajeswari Sengulta's writings on the Indian economy. 7. Rajeswari Sengupta's writing for Ideas for India. 8. Rajeswari Sengupta's writing on the Leap Blog. 9. Rajeswari Sengupta's pieces on GDP: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 10. Rajeswari Sengupta's pieces on fiscal policy: 1, 2, 3. 11. Rajeswari Sengupta's pieces on the banking crisis: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 12. Rajeswari Sengupta's pieces on the financial sector: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. 13. Rajeswari Sengupta's pieces on Covid: 1, 2, 3, 4. 14. Getting the State out of Our Lives -- Rajeswari Sengupta's TEDx talk. 15. Why Freedom Matters -- Episode 10 of Everything is Everything. 16. The Reformers -- Episode 28 of Everything is Everything. 17. The Importance of the 1991 Reforms — Episode 237 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan and Ajay Shah). 18. The Life and Times of Montek Singh Ahluwalia — Episode 285 of The Seen and the Unseen. 19. The Forgotten Greatness of PV Narasimha Rao — Episode 283 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vinay Sitapati). 20. India's Lost Decade — Episode 116 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Puja Mehra). 21. The Life and Times of KP Krishnan -- Episode 355 of The Seen and the Unseen. 22. Lant Pritchett Is on Team Prosperity -- Episode 379 of The Seen and the Unseen. 23. Josh Felman Tries to Make Sense of the World — Episode 321 of The Seen and the Unseen. 24. Rohit Lamba Will Never Be Bezubaan -- Episode 378 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Yugank Goyal Is out of the Box — Episode 370 of The Seen and the Unseen. 26. The State of Our Farmers — Ep 86 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Gunvant Patil, in Hindi). 27. India's Agriculture Crisis — Ep 140 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Barun Mitra & Kumar Anand). 28. The Tragedy of Our Farm Bills — Episode 211 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah). 29. The Art and Science of Economic Policy — Episode 154 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah). 30. Two Economic Crises (2008 & 2019) — Episode 135 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satynanand). 31. The Indian Economy in 2019 — Episode 153 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 32. Subhashish Bhadra on Our Dysfunctional State -- Episode 333 of The Seen and the Unseen. 33. The Importance of Data Journalism — Episode 196 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 34. Rukmini Sees India's Multitudes — Episode 261 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Rukmini S). 35. Pramit Bhattacharya Believes in Just One Ism — Episode 256 of The Seen and the Unseen. 36. Understanding the State -- Episode 25 of Everything is Everything. 37. When Should the State Act? -- Episode 26 of Everything is Everything. 38. Public Choice Theory Explains SO MUCH -- Episode 33 of Everything is Everything. 39. Our Population Is Our Greatest Asset -- Episode 20 of Everything is Everything. 40. What's Wrong With Indian Agriculture? -- Episode 18 of Everything is Everything. 41. The Long Road to Change -- Episode 36 of Everything is Everything. 42. India Needs Decentralization -- Episode 47 of Everything is Everything. 43. Beware of These Five Fallacies! -- Episode 45 of Everything is Everything. 44. Stay Away From Luxury Beliefs -- Episode 46 of Everything is Everything. 45. Graduating to Globalisation -- Episode 48 of Everything is Everything (on I18N). 46. Ask Me ANYTHING! -- Episode 50 of Everything is Everything. 47. Four Papers That Changed the World -- Episode 41 of Everything is Everything. 48. The Populist Playbook -- Episode 42 of Everything is Everything. 49. The 1991 Project. 50. The quest for economic freedom in India — Shruti Rajagopalan. 51. What I, as a development economist, have been actively “for” — Lant Pritchett. 52. National Development Delivers: And How! And How? — Lant Pritchett. 53. Economic growth is enough and only economic growth is enough — Lant Pritchett with Addison Lewis. 54. Is India a Flailing State?: Detours on the Four Lane Highway to Modernization — Lant Pritchett. 55. Is Your Impact Evaluation Asking Questions That Matter? A Four Part Smell Test — Lant Pritchett. 56. The Perils of Partial Attribution: Let's All Play for Team Development — Lant Pritchett. 57. Some episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on the state of the economy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 58. Accelerating India's Development — Karthik Muralidharan. 59. Unshackling India -- Ajay Chhibber and Salman Soz. 60. India Grows At Night -- Gurcharan Das. 61. India's Problem is Poverty, Not Inequality -- Amit Varma. 62. Mohit Satyanand's newsletter post on the informal sector. 63. Pratap Bhanu Mehta's column on mission mode interventions. 64. The Hedonistic Treadmill. 65. 77% low-income households saw no income increase in the past 5 yrs -- Vasudha Mukherjee. 66. Pandit's Mind — The 1951 Time magazine cover story on Jawaharlal Nehru. 67. Economic Facts and Fallacies -- Thomas Sowell. 68. An Autobiography -- Jawaharlal Nehru. 69. The Double 'Thank You' Moment -- John Stossel. 70. Profit = Philanthropy — Amit Varma. 71. India After Gandhi -- Ramachandra Guha. 72. The China Dude Is in the House -- Episode 231 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 73. The Dragon and the Elephant -- Episode 181 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Hamsini Hariharan and Shibani Mehta). 74. Caste, Capitalism and Chandra Bhan Prasad — Episode 296 of The Seen and the Unseen. 75. The Collected Writings and Speeches of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. 76. Population Is Not a Problem, but Our Greatest Strength -- Amit Varma. 77. How to assess the needs for aid? The answer: Don't ask -- William Easterly. 78. The White Man's Burden -- William Easterly. 79. The Elusive Quest for Growth -- William Easterly. 80. The Tyranny of Experts -- William Easterly. 81. Planners vs. Searchers in Foreign Aid — William Easterly. 82. Pandit's Mind — The 1951 Time magazine cover story on Jawaharlal Nehru. 83. 75 Years of India's Foreign Exchange Controls -- Bhargavi Zaveri Shah. 84. Breaking the Mould: Reimagining India's Economic Future — Raghuram Rajan and Rohit Lamba. 85. The History of the Planning Commission — Episode 306 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Nikhil Menon). 86. Adam Smith on The Man of System. 87. The Use of Knowledge in Society — Friedrich Hayek. 88. Price Controls Lead to Shortages and Harm the Poor -- Amit Varma. 89. The Great Redistribution -- Amit Varma. 90. Backstage: The Story behind India's High Growth Years -- Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 91. The Indian State Is the Greatest Enemy of the Indian Farmer -- Amit Varma piece, which contains the Sharad Joshi shair. 92. India's Massive Pensions Crisis — Episode 347 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Ajay Shah & Renuka Sane). 93. The Economic Legacies of Colonial Rule in India -- Tirthankar Roy. 94. The Semiconductor Wars — Episode 358 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Abhiram Manchi). 95. BR Shenoy on Wikipedia and Indian Liberals. 96. BR Shenoy: Stature and Impact -- Peter Bauer. 97. The Foreign Exchange Crisis and India's Second Five Year Plan -- VKRV Rao. 98. India's Water Crisis — Episode 60 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vishwanath S aka Zenrainman). 99. The Delhi Smog — Episode 44 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Vivek Kaul). 100. Fixing Indian Education — Episode 185 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Karthik Muralidharan). 101. Education in India — Episode 77 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Amit Chandra). 102. The Profit Motive in Education — Episode 9 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Parth Shah). 103. Our Unlucky Children (2008) — Amit Varma. 104. Where Has All the Education Gone? — Lant Pritchett. 105. Every Act of Government Is an Act of Violence -- Amit Varma. 106. Narendra Modi takes a Great Leap Backwards -- Amit Varma on DeMon & Mao killing sparrows. 107. The Emergency: A Personal History — Coomi Kapoor. 108. Coomi Kapoor Has the Inside Track — Episode 305 of The Seen and the Unseen. 109. Seven Stories That Should Be Films -- Episode 23 of Everything in Everything, in which Amit talks about the Emergency. 110. Milton Friedman on the minimum wage. 111. The Commanding Heights -- Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. 112. Bootleggers and Baptists: The Education of a Regulatory Economist -- Bruce Yandle. 113. Raees: An Empty Shell of a Gangster Film — Amit Varma. 114. Josh Felman on Twitter, Project Syndicate, JH Consulting and The Marginal Economist. 115. Obituaries of SV Raju by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha and Samanth Subramanian. 116. Breaking Out -- Padma Desai. 117. Breaking Through -- Isher Judge Ahluwalia. 118. India's Far From Free Markets (2005) — Amit Varma in the Wall Street Journal. 119. Naushad Forbes Wants to Fix India — Episode 282 of The Seen and the Unseen. 120. The Struggle And The Promise — Naushad Forbes. 121. Half-Lion -- Vinay Sitapati's biography of PV Narasimha Rao. 122. A Game Theory Problem: Who Will Bell The Congress Cat? — Amit Varma. 123. India Transformed -- Rakesh Mohan. 124. Highway to Success: The Impact of the Golden Quadrilateral -- Ejaz Ghani, Arti Grover Goswami and William R Kerr. 125. The Cantillon Effect. 126. The Lost Decade -- Puja Mehra. 127. Modi's Domination – What We Often Overlook — Keshava Guha. 128. XKDR Forum. 129. Beware of the Useful Idiots — Amit Varma. 130. Some of Amit Varma's pieces and episodes against Demonetisation: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 131. Episode of The Seen and the Unseen on GST: 1, 2, 3. 132. Miniature episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on PSBs, NPAs and NBFCs. 133. The Bankable Wisdom of Harsh Vardhan -- Episode 352 of The Seen and the Unseen. 134. Politics of Economic Growth in India, 1980-2005 -- Atul Kohli. 135. The Economic Consequences of the Peace -- John Maynard Keynes. 136. India's GDP Mis-estimation: Likelihood, Magnitudes, Mechanisms, and Implications -- Arvind Subramanian. 137. What a Long Strange Trip It's Been -- Episode 188 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Arvind Subramanian). 138. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on Covid-19: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. 139. A Venture Capitalist Looks at the World -- Episode 213 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sajith Pai). 140. The Indus Valley Playbook — Sajith Pai. 141. India's Trade Policy Is Working Great — for Vietnam -- Andy Mukherjee. 142. A Trade Deficit With a Babysitter -- Tim Harford. 143. The City & the City — China Miéville. 144. A Decade of Credit Collapse in India -- Harsh Vardhan. 145. The Low Productivity Trap of Collateralised Lending for MSMEs -- Harsh Vardhan. 146. Economic Learnings of India for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Bihar -- Episode 345 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Mohit Satyanand and Kumar Anand). 147. They Stole a Bridge. They Stole a Pond -- Amit Varma. 148. Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister -- Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay. 149. The Right to Property — Episode 26 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Shruti Rajagopalan). 150. Episodes of The Seen and the Unseen on agriculture: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 151. Some of Amit Varma's pieces on agriculture: 1, 2, 3. 152. The Crisis in Indian Agriculture — Brainstorm on Pragati. 153. Where are the Markets? — Kumar Anand. 154. Empower Women Farmers -- Mrinal Pande. 155. The Mystery of Capital — Hernando De Soto. 156. India Unbound -- Gurcharan Das. 157. In Service of the Republic — Vijay Kelkar & Ajay Shah. 158. We, The Citizens: Strengthening the Indian Republic — Khyati Pathak, Anupam Manur and Pranay Kotasthane. 159. Making Policy Fun with Khyati Pathak and Friends -- Episode 374 of The Seen and the Unseen. 160. Seeing Like a State — James C Scott. 161. Free To Choose — Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman. 162. Classical Liberalism- A Primer -- Eamonn Butler. 163. Friedrich Hayek: The ideas and influence of the libertarian economist -- Eamonn Butler. 164. Milton Friedman: A concise guide to the ideas and influence of the free-market economist -- Eamonn Butler. 165. Public Choice – A Primer -- Eamonn Butler. 166. Adam Smith – A Primer: Eamonn Butler. 167. The Clash of Economic Ideas -- Lawrence H White. 168. Just a Mercenary?: Notes from My Life and Career -- D Subbarao. 169. Who Moved My Interest Rate? -- D Subbarao. 170. Advice & Dissent: My Life in Public Service -- YV Reddy. 171. A Business History of India -- Tirthankar Roy. 172. Courage to Act: A Memoir of a Crisis and Its Aftermath -- Ben Bernanke. 173. Whole Numbers And Half Truths -- Rukmini S. 174. Fragile by Design -- Charles Calomiris and Stephen Haber. 175. Universal Man: The Seven Lives of John Maynard Keynes -- Richard Davenport-Hines. 176. A Life in Our Times -- John Kenneth Galbraith. 177. The Age of Uncertainty -- John Kenneth Galbraith. 178. Fixing the Knowledge Society -- Episode 24 of Everything is Everything. Amit's newsletter is active again. Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Amit Varma and Ajay Shah have launched a new video podcast. Check out Everything is Everything on YouTube. Check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: ‘It's Complicated' by Simahina.

Summary The UK is having an election! In this episode of the Anglotopia podcast, Jonathan and Jackie discuss the British election system and how it works from a non-party political perspective. They provide an overview of the parties involved, the role of the monarch, the campaign season, election day, and the counting and results process. They also touch on the concept of party manifestos and the importance of constituency-level vote counting. The conversation explores various British political TV shows and their relevance to the British political system. The hosts discuss shows like Yes Minister, The Thick of It, House of Cards, and more. They also mention books that provide a crash course in British politics. The conversation concludes with recommendations for viewers who want to learn more about British politics or enjoy political dramas. Links Non-sugar Sweetener Books: UK Explained The British Polity Yes Minister History The Shortest History of England How Britain Really Works British TV Shows Discussed: Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister The Thick of It House of Cards A Very British Coup The Politician's Husband  The Diplomat A Very English Scandal Stonehouse Anatomy of a Scandal The Amazing Mrs Pritchard Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years The Gathering Storm Relevant Clips to Watch: Michael Portillo Loses the Count Election 2019 BBC Coverage Politics Unboringed by Jay Foreman Yes Minister Funniest Moments The Definitive Malcolm Tucker Rant Anthology | The Thick Of It - BBC Keywords British election system, parties, monarch, campaign season, election day, party manifestos, constituency-level vote counting, British politics, TV shows, Yes Minister, The Thick of It, House of Cards, political dramas Takeaways The British election system operates on five-year terms, with the Prime Minister having the power to call an election within that timeframe. The main parties in the UK are the Conservative and Union Party (right-wing), the Labour Party (left-wing), and the Liberal Democrats (middle of the road). The Scottish National Party and Northern Irish parties also play significant roles in elections. Manifestos are a major part of the election process, with each party outlining their policies and commitments if they come into power. Election day in the UK is not a national holiday, and media coverage is limited until the polls close at 10 p.m. Vote counting takes place at the constituency level, with a race to see which constituency can count the votes first. British political TV shows like Yes Minister, The Thick of It, and House of Cards provide an entertaining and insightful look into the British political system. These shows often highlight the power struggles, backroom deals, and comedic elements of British politics. Books like 'Britain Explained' and 'The British Polity' offer a crash course in British politics and provide a deeper understanding of the political system. Viewers interested in British politics or political dramas can find these shows on platforms like Britbox and Netflix. The shows mentioned in the conversation are Yes Minister, The Thick of It, House of Cards, A Very British Coup, The Diplomat, A Very English Scandal, Stonehouse, The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard, The Politician's Husband, Anatomy of a Scandal, and Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years, and The Gathering Storm. Sound Bites "A party manifesto is like a contract with the voters" "This usually leads to some very wonderful political clips for later on of candidates being embarrassed that they lost in 'Portillo Moments' or like people surprised that they won an outburst." "So Michael Portillo is now known for his colorful pants and doing train tours around Britain on like your favorite show." "He lost his seat. He was a government minister and he didn't even win like, he's just standing there. Like he could see the soul drain from his body as he lost." Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the British Election System 02:20 The Role of the Monarch in British Politics 05:37 Party Manifestos: A Contract with Voters 16:54 The British Election Season: A Six-Week Affair 26:38 Insights into the British Election Process and Election Night Traditions 54:13 Exploring British Political TV Shows and Dramas

The UK is having an election! In this episode of the Anglotopia podcast, Jonathan and Jackie discuss the British election system and how it works from a non-party political perspective. They provide an overview of the parties involved, the role of the monarch, the campaign season, election day, and the counting and results process. They also touch on the concept of party manifestos and the importance of constituency-level vote counting. The conversation explores various British political TV shows and their relevance to the British political system. The hosts discuss shows like Yes Minister, The Thick of It, House of Cards, and more. They also mention books that provide a crash course in British politics. The conversation concludes with recommendations for viewers who want to learn more about British politics or enjoy political dramas. Links Non-sugar Sweetener Books: UK Explained The British Polity Yes Minister History The Shortest History of England How Britain Really Works British TV Shows Discussed: Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister The Thick of It House of Cards A Very British Coup The Politician's Husband  The Diplomat A Very English Scandal Stonehouse Anatomy of a Scandal The Amazing Mrs Pritchard Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years The Gathering Storm Relevant Clips to Watch: Michael Portillo Loses the Count Election 2019 BBC Coverage Politics Unboringed by Jay Foreman Yes Minister Funniest Moments The Definitive Malcolm Tucker Rant Anthology | The Thick Of It - BBC Keywords British election system, parties, monarch, campaign season, e

This week on TM&TM we find ourselves in The Thick Of It as we keep ourselves In The Loop with one of the key figures, no, THE key figure in the UK wines and spirits industry. TM&TM Towers is a House Of Cards (the original, not the remake), but we had to say Yes Minister when the chance to speak to the most influential person on the UK scene. We had so many questions for this individual that we only made it to Page Eight. We are beyond privileged to say this is part I of our talk with The WSTA's chief executive, Miles Beale. He will need no introduction (but we do give him one in the episode) as he has steered the WSTA and our industry through multiple swells and storms during his tenure at the top. From his life as a civil servant, move into politics, and becoming the UK's most influential drinks figure (did we mention that?) in Part I we enjoy some fun and frolics before a much more serious Part II arrives next week. Ferg delivers his now classic interview style with an updated and much more respectful take: Miles Does Miles Does Not while Lee asks questions about attire, snooker, and the notion of politicians as celebrities. From his loose connections to navy rum and his rumoured part in The Matrix, Miles plays along with our silly games with grace and style, as we would expect. In next week's episode we talk (genuinely) about the bigger issues facing our industry and the fabulous work of the WSTA. For now, enjoy hearing Miles share his preferred tipples, political background, and how to handle a suit-based interview crisis. Our sincere thanks to Miles for his time to record this and talk about things seemingly unrelated to the very important work of the WSTA. We promise that next week's episode is definitely worth a listen, especially if you're in, around, or connected to alcoholic drinks in any way. TM&TM: Firing Large Guns podvailable to loadstream from wherever you downcast your audio experiences on Thursday morning.

This is the latest in my series of podcasts explaining how economics works in the credit crunch and now virus pandemic era. This week I give my thoughts on a question about the Ben Bernanke Reviews into Bank of England economic forecasting. I use the examples of Yes Minister and "group think" to explain it is not what it appears to be.

Yascha Mounk and Jonathan Lynn discuss why the dysfunctional relationship between politicians and civil servants made for great TV, and what that tells us about the nature of politics. Jonathan Lynn is an English writer, director and producer. Lynn is best known as the co-creator of the series "Yes, Minister" and its sequel, "Yes, Prime Minister." He also directed the films "My Cousin Vinny" and "The Whole Nine Yards." In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jonathan Lynn discuss how his television comedy about the inner workings of British government became Margaret Thatcher's favorite show; how political satire has evolved over the decades; and the value of producing art with collaborators who hold different political views. This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity. Please do listen and spread the word about The Good Fight. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: podcast@persuasion.community  Website: http://www.persuasion.community Podcast production by Jack Shields, and Brendan Ruberry Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google Twitter: @Yascha_Mounk & @joinpersuasion Youtube: Yascha Mounk LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What would it mean if we had local authorities and councils that saw their mission as building relationships with the communities they serve? This week we talk with Nick Kimber, the Director of Strategy and Design at the London Borough of Camden. He has helped create a council that builds relationships with the community it serves in everything that it does, from child protection to garbage collection.He shares with us how he came to believe in the power of relationships in local authorities, and what it means for councils to serve a mission of place making. For all those people who used to laugh at Yes Minister, this episode is a powerful salve, sharing how public servants can be powerful change makers and be a source for generating ordinary hope.This episode is the first in our 2024 UK special, sponsored by the Civic Power Fund and the UCL Policy Lab. They bring together extraordinary ideas and everyday experience to understand how we can change the world. To find out more about the amazing work undertaken by the London Borough of Camden, check out this speech by Camden Councillor Georgia, Leader of the Council and Chair of London Councils. For more about ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook, Instagram, Threads - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On X/Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatattsOn LInkedIn - Amanda.Tattersall Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What would it mean if we had local authorities and councils that saw their mission as building relationships with the communities they serve? This week we talk with Nick Kimber, the Director of Strategy and Design at the London Borough of Camden. He has helped create a council that builds relationships with the community it serves in everything that it does, from child protection to garbage collection.He shares with us how he came to believe in the power of relationships in local authorities, and what it means for councils to serve a mission of place making. For all those people who used to laugh at Yes Minister, this episode is a powerful salve, sharing how public servants can be powerful change makers and be a source for generating ordinary hope.This episode is the first in our 2024 UK special, sponsored by the Civic Power Fund and the UCL Policy Lab. They bring together extraordinary ideas and everyday experience to understand how we can change the world. To find out more about the amazing work undertaken by the London Borough of Camden, check out this speech by Camden Councillor Georgia, Leader of the Council and Chair of London Councils. For more about ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook, Instagram, Threads - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On X/Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatattsOn LInkedIn - Amanda.Tattersall Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bonus episode, Gareth is a guest on The Modern British History Podcast. Harry White is the host and he generally looks at the modern (post war) British political scene. In this episode, he invited Gareth on to discuss the eighties sitcom Yes Minister and they discuss how it caricatures the civil service of the time. And have things changed forty years later? Find more from Harry here: https://www.modernbritishhistory.co.uk/

Former Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable said he will not join calls for former Post Office boss Paula Vennells to lose her CBE over the Horizon scandal.Commentator Sam Armstrong reacts to Vince Cable's exchange with Julia, saying he has “no respect” for him.“What I just witnessed was the most panglossian… disgraceful, Yes Minister style, pathetic not even a defence for what happened under his tenure.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy New Year!, The Observer, Dark Harvest, Dirty Filthy Love, A Murder at the End of the World, For All Mankind, Rick and Morty, Quentin Blake's Box of Treasures: Zagazoo, Quentin Blake's Box of Treasures: Jack and Nancy, Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder, Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road, The Famous Five, Yes Minister, The Thick of It, Columbo, Blake's 7, JLab Rewind Wireless Retro Headphones, A Hash of Things, New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!, The Observer, Dark Harvest, Dirty Filthy Love, A Murder at the End of the World, For All Mankind, Rick and Morty, Quentin Blake's Box of Treasures: Zagazoo, Quentin Blake's Box of Treasures: Jack and Nancy, Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder, Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road, The Famous Five, Yes Minister, The Thick of It, Columbo, Blake's 7, JLab Rewind Wireless Retro Headphones, A Hash of Things, New Year's Resolutions

 Hoy Calvo Expósito y un servidor hablamos de la narrativa en el mundo de los juegos de mesa, y en los mismos juegos.53 minutos despues Roi nos hablará de los juegos de Corné van Moorsel, luego los juegos de la semana A Study in Emerald y Amun-Re. Para terminar la serie de TV de los años 80 Yes Minister! (y Yes Prime Minister!) DESCARGAR

Produced by an ex-Beatle, starring an ex-Python, written and directed by an ex-Yes Minister writer. What's not to like about Nuns on the Run? Guy and Rob look to answer that question in episode 8 of Britcom Goes to the Movies. As well as Nuns on the Run, we delve deeply into Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister and shallowly into the Swiss cheesy electro band Yello. There's plenty about Handmade films and what they did for the British movie industry. Now we get close to the end of the series, the battle for quiz scores is hotting up, with very little to separate the two hosts. This one gets a bit shouty! Yes Minister - Who reads the papers?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGscoaUWW2M Yes Minister - The Best of Sir Humphrey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WupyKCfB_E Nuns on the Run - Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNkv_-zMElY Nuns on the Run - Car Chase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feQ3Xnn8WlY Yello - The Race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4QbJRAWvRU Beyonce - He Still Loves Me (Directed by Jonathan Lynn)

"In stage one, we say nothing is going to happen.  Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it. In stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do......Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.”I'm joined by 'my right honourable member' Gareth Allen from the British Sitcom History Podcast constituency to dissect the interminable obfuscations and myriad machinations of this early 1980s gem of political satire: 'Yes Minister'. We hope you enjoy the podcast! 

‘Yes Minister' first aired on the BBC television in 1980 until it ended in 1988, possibly due to the fact that it was becoming harder to distinguish the comedy series from the nightly news casts that followed. Among the many quotes attributed to the Cabinet Secretary Sir Humphrey is “Minister there is going to be and Inquiry” to which the reply from the Prime Minister Jim Hacker is “Oh good, then nothing will happen.” Well yes and here we are again -

In this episode, we take you deep into the wondering world of the QWERTY keyboard, where: the longest top-row word is 'rupturewort', a type of plant Peru is the only country that can be typed on one row of a keyboard If you type letters using alternate hands, skepticism is the longest typed word you can type And then we come to a scene out of Yes Minister, where three barrages on the Yamuna River are managed by three different states - Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. This can  only be a backdrop for a Wodehousian novel, not flood management in the capital city. Some more tickles and laughs in store for you in this edition of Shorts. Do write in to tell us what you think at 3TB@unblox.com. Follow us on Spotify, Insta or YouTube 

One of New Zealand's leading farming academics says "What El Nino drought?" Plus she channels her finest Sir Humphrey Appleby (from Yes Minister) when talking about the excesses of the NZ Public Service.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So the political party that didn't know what it stood for anymore and offered no real future lost the election to the party that offered tax cuts that are affordable only by increasing taxes on the wealthy and then claim that we're back on track.  I'd argue that New Zealand is confused.  How else can you explain a nation that just 3 years ago so gratefully gave a red tide to Labour and now switches to a blue tsunami after a thousand days?  I think the theme of the election is more that it was time for a change than getting back on track.    It's been an horrific four years of pandemics, cyclones, floods, fires. On top of that some ineptitude as Labour gave us slogans rather than policies. Exactly what they criticise National for.  It was decades worth of angst in just six years so we changed the one thing we could.  So National get their turn.  But the wholesale switcheroos we've seen in the past two elections are not a good thing for the country.  When Labour took an outright majority in 2020 we lost some of our best National MPs. The retirement of senior MPs like Joyce and English took the wise rudders.  Now the same thing has happened to Labour.  The upshot is a parliament full of newbies on both sides with no real depth of experience and knowledge in governance.  And governance is not like regular business. If you don't believe me read Stephen Joyce's book about his experiences as a newly minted Transport Minister.    Yes Minister is a documentary not a comedy.  Such dramatic flip flops smacks of a lack of core belief and that a lot of us will vote for whoever offers us the most moolah in the back pocket. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Or London, I guess. Episodes Watched This WeekYes, MinisterS1,E1, Open GovernmentS1,E7, Jobs for the BoysS2,E1, The Compassionate SocietyS3, E6, The Whiskey PriestS3, E1 Equal OpportunityThe Thick of ItS3, E1 S2, E3S4, E3VeepS2, E5 HelsinkiS3, E9 CrateS4, E9 TestimonyS4, E1 Joint SessionS7, E6 OsloLindsey Ellis's Hillary Clinton VideoMargaret Thatcher SkitSupport the showPlease consider supporting the show on Patreon.Follow us on social media:TikTok (this is where we are most active!)FacebookInstagram

Titia Ketelaar deelt deze zomer een serie waar ze als kind met haar vader op de bank hardop om moest schateren. De Britse televisieserie Yes Minister, uit 1980. Waarom? Titia: ‘de serie leert ons dat ambtenaren lang niet altijd achter de idealen van hun politicus staan, en geeft nog altijd houdbare lesjes communicatie voor beginnende politici.'Heeft u vragen, suggesties of ideeën over onze journalistiek? Mail dan naar onze ombudsman via ombudsman@nrc.nl.Gast: Titia Ketelaar Presentatie: Guus ValkRedactie, productie en montage: Vita van LennepZie het privacybeleid op https://art19.com/privacy en de privacyverklaring van Californië op https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This month, Dave is surprised that neither Annie nor our friend, Derek, has seen Yes, Minister. Derek joins us as a special guest for a lively discussion of the presentation of 1980s UK central government. Many thanks, as ever, to Cambo for our theme music. Contact us: Email: willyoustillloveit@gmail.com Twitter / Mastodon: @loveittomorrow

It's another episode of Half Pints, where your panelists come in with a fact each. This time, we look at the origins of high heels, Tony's prediction that a marathon record will be broken, and Chuck wondering if indeed we are back to pre-covid days work-wise. As always, the topics are just excuses for your hosts to make random jokes and observations and among them are some commentary puns, Yes Minister references and more. Also, here's a compilation of all the times Bart prank called Moe in The Simpsons:https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Bart%27s_prank_calls Add one part news, one part bad jokes, one part Wikipedia research, one part cult references from spending too much time on the internet, one part Wodehouse quotes, and one part quality puns, and you get Simblified. A weekly podcast to help you appear smarter, to an audience that knows no less! Your four hosts - Chuck, Naren, Srikeit, and Tony attempt to deconstruct topics with humor (conditions apply). Fans of the show have described it as "fun conversations with relatable folks", "irreverent humor", "the funniest thing to come out of Malad West" and "if I give you a good review will you please let me go". Started in 2016 as a creative outlet, Simblified now has over 300 episodes, including some live ones, and some with guests who are much smarter than the hosts. Welcome to the world of Simblified! You can contact the hosts on: Chuck: http://twitter.com/chuck_gopal  / http://instagram.com/chuckofalltrades Naren: http://twitter.com/shenoyn  / http://instagram.com/shenoynv Tony: http://twitter.com/notytony  / http://instagram.com/notytony Srikeit: http://twitter.com/srikeit  / http://instagram.com/srikeitSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's episode We touch base with our good mate Professor Hugh Campbell from Otago University…  This week's Yes Minister features local government minister Kieran McAnulty…  And we find out how wool carpet manufacturer Bremworth is navigating the aftermath of flood damage.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An interview with Dr. Gerard Casey about his article "The Indefensibility of Political Representation." Dr. Casey introduces himself and recounts how he became a libertarian anarchist. He speaks about the idea of legitimate command and various options proposed to justify the state's supposed authority. He summarizes some of his examination of political representation from his article. He also talks about what real democracy was like, and closes with a reflection on caring for the poor in a free society. https://reformedlibertarians.com/014/ 00:00 Start 00:32 Episode description Article discussed (25 min read), "The Indefensibility of Political Representation" by Dr. Gerard Casey : https://mises.org/library/indefensibility-political-representation Audio presentation (18 mins) : https://mises.org/library/which-be-master-indefensibility-political-representation 01:51 About Dr. Casey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Casey_(philosopher) Academia page: https://ucd.academia.edu/GerardNCasey Interviews by Dr. Casey: https://www.youtube.com/@caseyinconversation6380 Twitter: https://twitter.com/Casey5122dark 05:18 Libertarian conversion The Theory of Money and Credit by Ludwig von Mises : https://mises.org/library/theory-money-and-credit 10:07 Principles of legitimate command 15:11 Options proposed to justify the state The main option in the West today is the idea of "representative" democracy which is equated with self-governance 17:54 Hannah Pitkin's analysis and the basic incoherence of political representation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Fenichel_Pitkin The Concept of Representation by Hanna Pitkin : https://www.amazon.com/dp/0520021568?tag=kerrybaldwin-20 25:44 Inevitable bureaucratic obstacles BBC2's "Yes Minister" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister 29:46 Actual democracy and sortition Against Elections by David Van Reybrouck : https://www.amazon.com/dp/1847924220?tag=kerrybaldwin-20 Jury Nullification: https://fija.org 37:24 Let The Poor Starve? https://reformedlibertarians.com/let-the-poor-starve-gerard-casey/ How Govt "Solved" The Healthcare Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFoXyFmmGBQ&list=PLwrDNUO5MDu95jfsFdfN2oe8vXQ6Cma-h&index=7 Books by Dr. Gerard Casey: (2012) Libertarian Anarchy : https://www.amazon.com/dp/1441144676?tag=kerrybaldwin-20 (2013) Murray Rothbard : https://www.amazon.com/dp/1441100792?tag=kerrybaldwin-20 (2017) Freedom's Progress? - a history of political thought : https://www.amazon.com/dp/1845409426?tag=kerrybaldwin-20 (2019) ZAP - free speech and tolerance in light of the Zero Aggression Principle : https://www.amazon.com/dp/1788360176?tag=kerrybaldwin-20 (2020) After #MeToo : https://www.amazon.com/dp/1788360273?tag=kerrybaldwin-20 (2021) Hidden Agender : https://www.amazon.com/dp/1788360583?tag=kerrybaldwin-20 Also see Episode 7: Can Libertarians Be Conservatives? : https://reformedlibertarians.com/007 The Reformed Libertarians Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute: https://libertarianchristians.com/ and a member of the Christians for Liberty Network: https://christiansforliberty.net Audio Production by Podsworth Media - https://podsworth.com   

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on April 2nd 2023 I'm delighted to say that this week our returning guest is the writer MICHAEL SEELY who got in touch to ask if he could return to the show and have a little chat about his favourite comedy series which is (or are) YES, MINISTER and its continuation as YES, PRIME MINISTER, a pair of linked series written by Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn which were first broadcast on the BBC between 1980 and 1988, and which starred PAUL EDDINGTON, NIGEL HAWTHORNE and DEREK FOWLDS as the lead trio of JIM HACKER MP, SIR HUMPHREY APPLEBY, and BERNARD WOOLLEY as they inhabited and manipulated evens in the corridors of power, initially in THE DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE AFFAIRS and later on in the very heart of the British government in a fictionalised, but very convincing, NUMBER TEN DOWNING STREET. PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.

The National Party's MP for Selwyn Nicola Grigg joins the REX team for a round of "Yes Minister".See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Well, a slight reshuffle of proceedings this weekend - time now for the latest edition of Yes Minister, and our guest this week has just recently been handed the National Party's agriculture spokesperson role, taking over from Todd Muller, it's a different Todd, Todd McClay…  Welcome onto REX!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For this week's edition of Yes Minister, and we thought as we're here in the Manawatu for CD Fieldays, we'd get the local MP on for a chat - Rangitikei MP Ian McKelvie joins the show.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Time now for this weekend's edition of Yes Minister, and we're the ACT Party's Agriculture Spokesperson, Mark Cameron.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Alright, time for this week's Yes Minister, and we're joined now by the Member of Parliament for Waikato, a former Young Farmer of the Year, National's Tim van de Molen.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jonathan Lynn has directed 10 feature films including the cult classic Clue (he also wrote the screenplay), Nuns on the Run (also written by Mr Lynn), My Cousin Vinny, The Distinguished Gentleman, Sgt. Bilko, Greedy, Trial And Error, The Whole Nine Yards, The Fighting Temptations and Wild Target. His first produced screenplay was The internecine Project (1974) . For television, Jonathan's writing credits include dozens of episodes of various comedy series but he is best known for the phenomenally successful, multi-award-winning BBC series Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, co- written and created with Antony Jay. His numerous awards include the BAFTA Writers Award, Writers Guild (twice), Broadcasting Press Guild (twice), NAACP Image Award, Environmental Media Award, Ace Award –Best Comedy Series on US cable, and a Special award from the Campaign For Freedom of Information.

I have been asked to cover British humour and comedy many, many times by listeners. Finally, I have given in with covering 'satire' with the 'Alphabet of Britishness'. What is 'satire'? According to Dieter Declercq, author of 'Satire, Comedy and Mental Health: Coping with the Limits of Critique' (published by the company I work for):"Satire is a genre with the purpose to critique and entertain. In other words, when we classify a form of creative expression as satire, we frame it as setting out to critique some social wrongness as well as offering aesthetic pleasures associated with entertainment. These moral and aesthetic purposes interact in satire, although neither is wholly instrumental to the other – and they ultimately also pull in different directions, which makes the genre ambiguous.”In this episode, I first ruminate on satire that I have personally seen in other countries, for example, Turkish satire and the role played by penguins during the Gezi Park protests (9 years ago), thanks to CNNTurk. I coment on Turkish humour generally, and the tale of Nasreddin Hoca and the bump in the night. I also recollect Turkish Cypriot satire, which led to a leading newspaper changing its name from 'Avrupa' to 'Afrika', a move that had very significant satirical connections. Finally, I comment on Cantonese satire, especially humourists based in Hong Kong using Winnie the Pooh, leading to a ban on images of the classic character on the Mainland of China. After all this, I finally start delving into the history of British satire, from Hogarth's 'Gin Lane' images to the rise of first Punch Magazine (including '1066 and all that'), then Private Eye magazine, and the 1980s BBC TV show 'Yes Minister'. My final recoomendation is the TV satirical quiz show 'Have I Got News For You'. Message me anytime on Instagram, or e-mail: AlbionNeverDies@gmail.comCheck out my https://www.youtube.com/britishcultureCheck out my Red Bubble shopSeveral subscribers have their postcards and other little 'thank you's in the post, randomly drawn from the list, and one has a free mug on the way!Subscribe to my newsletter: https://youtube.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=b3afdae99897eebbf8ca022c8&id=5165536616Support the show

Jesus Said Yes | Minister Linda Chisolm by Word of Life LV

Yes Minister, which later became Yes Prime Minister, was a BBC sitcom that ran from the late 1970s to the late 80s. On one level it was an extremely well-scripted and funny comedy, but it also offered a very profound and only slightly exaggerated look at the very interesting but also rather dark and slightly insane way in which we and our lives are governed by those at the top of the power game. Indeed, it seems to get more and more relevant as time goes on, and this podcast explores the various levels of the show and the way in which its message seems to have been somewhat lost in the comedy aspect of it. This is mostly a solo effort from Antony but there is a coda included which includes 'spiritual brother' of this podcast Julian Charles of 'The Mind Renewed'   I hope you enjoy the show! If so, please subscribe, like, share etc... Facebook page- https://www.facebook.com/lifeandlife75 Twitter- https://twitter.com/lifeonly75 To leave feedback, please write to lifeandlifeonly@gmail.com Support Antony's work at www.buymeacoffee.com/antonyrotunno Antony's website (blog, music, podcasts, life coaching) https://www.antonyrotunno.com   episode links Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister basic details https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister Some classic clips of the show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynGg8r0zfzI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilSBK6D1oYY Documentary about the show https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRocvuyAMeI 'The Secret World of Whitehall' (The Real Sir Humphrey) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utDEkUWyQ8Y The Thick of It (21st Century 'Yes Minister' with far more swearing!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpT0U-KDcXM Julian Charles's website and our 'truth comedy' episode https://themindrenewed.com/ https://themindrenewed.com/episodes/2014-15/608-ep016    

Zdá sa, že to môže byť prvý film Tma Cruisa s miliardovými tržbami. Na nový Top Gun sa čakalo viac ako tridsať rokov a už verejnosť rozdeľuje: jedni hovoria, že je to vlastne skvelý oddychový film, iní zase, že je to hlúpy a zbytočný hollywoodsky blockbuster. Chvália sa letecké scény aj hania dialógy. Film je ale svojim spôsobom aj vyvrcholením kariéry Toma Cruisa a na krátky okamih sa v ňom objaví aj Val Kilmer. Čo Top Gun znamenal a znamená pre ich kariéry, čo tento film hovorí o našom vkuse aj vkuse Hollywoodu a je to jednoducho dobré kino? Tomáš Prokopčák sa pýta Kristíny Kúdelovej. Zdroj zvukov: Paramount Pictures, TBS, The late late show with James Corden Odporúčanie: Takmer po desiatich rokov sa s novou sériou vrátila skvelá dánska politické dráma Borgen. Znalci prostredia hovorievajú, že tento seriál má – možno hneď po satire Yes Minister – najbližšie k realite reálneho politického zákulisia. Keďže tento raz už séria vznikala v spolupráci s Netflixom, je trochu zameraná na širšie medzinárodné publikum než prvé tri a mierne tým trpí aj scenár... no aj tak je Vláda mojim dnešným odporúčaním, určite ju vyskúšajte. – Ak máte pre nás spätnú väzbu, odkaz alebo nápad, napíšte nám na dobrerano@sme.sk – Všetky podcasty denníka SME nájdete na sme.sk/podcasty – Podporte vznik podcastu Dobré ráno a kúpte si digitálne predplatné SME.sk na sme.sk/podcast – Odoberajte aj denný newsletter SME.sk s najdôležitejšími správami na sme.sk/brifing – Ďakujeme, že počúvate podcast Dobré ráno.

The biggest problem with the whole Roe v Wade is that nobody – on either side – is really considering the underlying and ancillary issues that we are headed both from and into. I know… that sounds non-sensual and irrational. There are always unintended(?) consequences of every ruling. Things that should have been obvious, but were ignored for the “greater good…” But I want you to consider a couple of things: First, there are laws that prevent the government from monitoring your cell phone for location information or your online activity without probable cause and a warrant. Second, there are no laws to prevent the government from buying that same information from the people to whom we voluntarily give it. Read that sentence again. Now, ask yourself what would happen if the government uses information that it buys (with your tax dollars) from the people to whom we gave the information and then uses that information to investigate or charge you with a crime? Can't happen? It already is happening. One of the prime areas of focus of charges based on data “acquired” by the government is… well… you can probably guess…

On this week's show the Blind Guys get political as we are delighted to be joined by Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth: Roderic O'Gorman. We talk about how life has changed for him since the Irish general election at the beginning of 2020. We chat about improving the lives of people living with disabilities, and after our chat we learn about a very important vote that took place in the Dáil (our Irish Parliament) during our chat with Minister O'Gorman. Jan is worried about his house being flooded due to global warming, but Stuart and Óran remind him that he can find sanctuary here in Ireland, all he needs to do is grab hold of that Zipline we installed earlier this year between Jan's house and Stuart's apartment. The guys are still arguing about Clodagh's new email jingle, but Stuart much like Maggie Thatcher, he's not for turning. We have email messages from Jade (of Ulysses fame), Gary in Cape Town, and from Saleem in Dublin. We talk briefly about Windows 11 and of course, the show would not be complete if we didn't talk about Stuart's counter top dishwasher. So sit back, cool the jets, and chill out for an hour - let Blind Guys Chat help you relax as if you were in a bath full of puppies. Huh....?