Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Cambridge Analytica’s data shenanigans, Jeremy Corbyn’s anti-semitism shenanigans, and Harriet Harman’s all-women leadership shortlist shenanigans are the three topics this week.
Joining us is Charlie Brades-Price, television producer and co-host of DAS Podcast, which discusses everything from sisterhood to sandwiches.
About a month and a half ago the launch of metropolitan elitist party Renew prompted us to ask why the group had garnered such voluminous press coverage – which we then added to by discussing it on our podcast.
The news cycle swiftly flushed the party out, but a recent interview by the Blairite comedian Matt Forde on his excellent podcast has shown there are signs of life in Renew.
To listen to Sam Harris’s Waking Up Podcast is to hear an ongoing rearguard action from the new atheist, neuroscientist and public intellectual, defending his reputation against critics eager to paint him as a supporter, unwitting or otherwise, of bigotry.
The death of Winnie Mandela, wife of Nelson and key figure in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, has prompted inevitable jostling between the opinion sections of Britain’s newspapers.
The Graun fielded a complaint from Afua Hirsch that the obits would have been nicer if Winnie was a white guy. This was prompted by Andrew Malone of the Mail, who described Mandela as ‘an odious, toxic individual who continued to preach hatred rather than reconciliation right up to the end of her life.’
Since February, Ukip has been heading for extinction after its leader Henry Bolton was ousted over his racist girlfriend, its interim leader Gerard Batten was forced to beg for £100,000 to prevent insolvency, and then the party was billed £175,000 in a libel case.
Countering overstatements about the party’s early demise, Kippers have come through, with branches raising £79,477 and individuals £215,411 for a total of £294,888.
It is surprising the party still has life left in it. Since the referendum on EU membership the purples have suffered scandal after scandal, seemingly unable to co-ordinate without full-time pundit and occasional politician Nigel Farage.
But more intriguing than the turnaround is the statement from Batten that the £175,000 libel costs were paid ‘by other means’ in addition to the £300,000 raised. The press release goes on:
‘With great energy and speed our new Treasurer, Sebastian Fairweather put together a plan to raise the money, which he did, and it was paid on 29th March. This money did not come from the funds raised by means of the current fundraising initiative.’
Given the party’s empty pockets and the allocation of the £300,000 elsewhere, just who saved Ukip from death by libel?