In this week’s News Roundtable episode, Chris Wright CBE is joined by UK & US political commentator and journalist, Edward Hardy, political commentator and Communications Officer at the Institute of Economic Affairs, Reem Ibrahim, and Conservative Political Commentator, Lee Harris.
The discussion starts with the week’s big news on the government’s Illegal Immigration Bill and the ruling against it by the Court of Appeal, the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales that deals only with appeals from other courts or tribunals. The panel discuss whether the policy proposal is fundamentally flawed, and further about what broader approach to immigration the government should take. The conversation opens up to the funding of public services and the Conservatives’ recent historic record of trying to pass unlawful bills.
Chris then asks the panel whether Rishi Sunak’s wealth makes him unfit to tackle the cost-of-living crisis in which public servants are selling their homes in order to survive. They turn to the Thames Water crisis and the question of whether to nationalise water to avoid the government having to further bail out profiteering private companies. Reem Ibrahim explains why the privatisation of public services and utilities isn’t working in the UK and why many don’t have the same problems as the UK abroad.
Despite their political differences, the panel agree on the question of whether the Conservative government seem to have downed tools, and if a general election should be called right now.
The final topic is the newly released Equity in Cricket report. It shows that 87% of people with Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage, 82% of people with Indian heritage and 75% of all Black people in cricket report to have been discriminated against in the last five years. The panel discuss the wider issue of racism in our society and the ways it can be tackled. With the issue of elitism also involved in the report, Chris asks the panellists whether they went to a private school, and their answers may not be what you expected…
'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner.
© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.
Rock around the clock productions AB.
www.rockaroundtheclock.co
This episode was produced by Tom Platts
'I Hit The Nail Right On The Head' by Billy Bremner.
© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.
Rock around the clock productions AB.
This episode was produced by Sound Sapien
