The Bunker

The Union Jack represents many things for many people, linked to historical pride – but also shame. And, unfortunately, it’s become somewhat synonymous with the political Right. So what is Labour’s relationship with the flag? Andrew Harrison asks The People's Flag and the Union Jack: An Alternative History of Britain and the Labour Party co-author Gerry Hassan if Labour can reclaim Britishness.  

• “I don’t think anyone in the UK can be completely objective about the Union Jack. Flags are things we have emotional connections with. The Union Jack’s meaning has evolved over centuries.” – Ger...

Sunak has lost another MP after Mark Menzies announced he’s leaving the Tories and won’t stand at the next election. What issues does this raise for the PM? Meanwhile, the Tory leader is set to head to Poland to discuss the Ukraine war with Donald Tusk. What will they talk about? Plus, will Israel go ahead with further strikes on Rafah? And can Donald Trump manage to stay awake during his hush money trial this week? Alex Andreou joins Ros Taylor to discuss the week ahead.  

• “They were happy to comment on an ongoing inv...

We know what happened the last time Donald Trump lost – and Joe Biden wants to make sure he’s prepared for more shenanigans this time out. If Trump doesn’t win “he is willing to cheat and steal it,'' writes today’s guest Adam Rawnsley, reporter for Rolling Stone magazine. He joins Jacob Jarvis in The Bunker to discuss how President Biden is preparing for an electoral tussle with the GOP.

• “The one message we keep seeing from the polls is that no one is excited for this race.” – Adam Rawnsley

• “We have a uniquely dim system …...

Vladimir Putin has a tight grip on information in Russia. How does he shape how his nation sees the rest of the world? And how does he actually perceive other countries? Chris Jones asks Dr. Ivan Grigoriev, lecturer in Russian politics at the King’s Russia Institute.  

• “Propaganda in Russia is like a steamroller that keeps rolling over and over the population.” - Dr. Ivan Grigoriev 

• “Russia’s election went just how we thought it would: It was an 87% landslide election for Vladimir Putin. And the primary goal of this election was to show that if Putin...

Paris is like Marmite – you either love it or you hate it. But it’s changing. Physically, through massive expansions in social housing and transport and a €40bn shot of investment, but also politically and psychologically. People are even smiling in the streets these days. Ros Taylor talks to Simon Kuper, Financial Times columnist and author of Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century, about how the French capital is transforming in the lead up to this year’s Olympics. 

• “One thing that globalisation does is it removes these weird localities – and in Paris, that locality was rudeness.” – Si...

Political drama can be tedious but we can all enjoy watching a bitter rivalry unfold. What have been the greatest personal beefs in British politics? Before Starmer and Sunak there was Thatcher and Heath, Blair and Brown, Cameron and Johnson. Seth Thévoz talks Andrew Harrison through some of the ultimate Westminster head-to-heads.  

• “When the personal overrides the principle, that’s when it becomes a problem. It’s a weak spot if you’re trying to bring down a person and not forward a cause.”  

• “There are tales of Brown yelling at Blair, ‘You ruined my life!’”  

We a...

All eyes remain on the Middle East after Iran’s drone attacks on Israel. How will Netanyahu respond? And how are Britain and the US going to react? In the UK, Parliament returns – what is on the agenda? Plus, we look at other flashpoints across the globe – and round-up the rest of the domestic news. Alex Andreou and Hannah Fearn talk through the week ahead.  

• “Perhaps it is a poor choice of timing for Iran, but it feels like a febrile time for the entire region.” – Hannah Fearn 

• “It feels like both sides are looking for a fore...

Donald Trump needs evangelical Christian voters to back him to stand a chance in November. But can his religious rhetoric and doubling down on his supposed love of all things Jesus really help him win? Philip Bump is a national columnist for The Washington Post and says that “Trump’s appeal to Christians is more limited than he suggests”. He joins Jacob Jarvis in The Bunker to discuss whether Trump’s Christian pandering will help him. 

• “There’s definitely a subset that believes that the hand of God came down and anointed Donald Trump.” – Philip Bump

• “I don’t know i...

Every party promises a growing economy as a solution for everything – but can economic expansion carry on forever? On a planet with finite resources, can growth really be infinite? Ros Taylor talks to Daniel Susskind, economic professor and author of Growth: A History and a Reckoning, about the mystery of economic growth, what “degrowthers” want, and how to balance the pros and cons of an ever-expanding economy. 

• “Economic growth feels like it’s a permanent fixture, and yet for most of history there was no growth at all. Modern economic growth only really began about 200-250...

Adolf Hitler still comes up in conversations startlingly regularly – particularly online. Why? Sir Richard J. Evans, regius professor emeritus of history at the University of Cambridge and the author of The Hitler Conspiracies: The Third Reich and the Paranoid Imagination, as well as countless other titles, tells Jacob Jarvis why we’re still so obsessed with one of the most evil people to ever live. 

• “Our perspectives change - you can now look at Hitler through the eyes and experience of Donald Trump, whose relationship to the truth and hostility to democracy make us look at Hitler...