Novara Live: Corbyn Reinstated
Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani discuss the reinstatement of Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour party.
Tag: Aaron Bastani
Opinion: Liberals Are Obsessed With Dominic Cummings Because It Lets Them Pretend Everything Else is OK
Aaron Bastani
In a world set to be increasingly defined by climate change, inequality, technological innovation and a crisis of elderly care, perceiving political outcomes as the result of bad people making bad decisions is an easy way out, argues Aaron Bastani.
The Bastani Factor: Is the UK High Street Dead?
What does the hollowing out of the high street do to the psyche of a town? And has the expansion of higher education obscured the precipitous decline of retail and other industries? Aaron Bastani heads to Portsmouth and Bournemouth to better understand the collapse of Britain's town centres.
Novara Live: Who Gets the Vaccine?
The world is rightly celebrating the arrival of a coronavirus vaccine. But with big pharma in the driving seat, will it really get to those in need? With Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani.
Downstream: Make America Normal Again. Interview With Adam Tooze
Joe Biden is President-elect of the United States. But what might his Presidency mean for working class Americans, US foreign policy and perceived national decline? Does his victory represent a return to political ‘normality’ after 4 years of the Trump White House? And what might Trump’s legacy be within the Republican Party? Joining Aaron Bastani […]
Novara Live: America on a Knife Edge
The ‘blue wave’ hasn’t materialised, and the US election will go down to the wire. Tonight we speak to Nomiki Konst for analysis of the race, plus Sarah Jaffe live from swing-state Pennsylvania. With Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani.
Novara Live: The Deadliest Wave?
Boris Johnson has been advised the second Covid wave could be deadlier than the first. Across Europe, will winter be grimmer than anyone predicted? With Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani.
Novara Live: Northern Revolt
A tier 3 lockdown has been imposed on Greater Manchester. But will Andy Burnham’s stand against the Tories have longer term effects? We ask the mayor of Salford, Paul Dennett. Plus: Rashford Vs Johnson; Kojo Koram on Critical Race Theory; Rivkah Brown on student rent strikes; and The Sky History contestant with neo-nazi tattoos.
The Bastani Factor: Why Labour Lost – Interview With James Schneider
In 2017 Labour, under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, achieved 40% of the vote in a general election – increasing their share of the vote by 10%. Two years later, in December 2019, that fell to 32% – as the party slumped to its lowest number of seats since 1935. What explains the difference between […]
Opinion: The House of Lords is a National Embarrassment – and the Joke is on Us
Aaron Bastani
With the latest round of party apparatchiks sworn into the House of Lords, our political system is becoming more and more inflected by patronage and nepotism. The Lords is a place for political parties, not democracy, argues Aaron Bastani - in fact that, alas, is its point.
Novara Live: Circuit Breaker
Labour and SAGE are pushing for a circuit breaker lockdown to curtail the spread of Covid-19. But what would a “circuit breaker” really achieve? We ask Professor Karl Friston of Independent SAGE. Plus: Everything that’s wrong with the test and trace system, Micah Uetricht on Trump returning to the campaign trail, and a correction from […]
Novara Live: One Virus, Two Englands
After a weekend of wrangling, Johnson has announced a three tier lockdown. Does this pandemic policy punish the North for Westminster failures? Plus, John Ashton on whether Merseyside was right to accept the highest lockdown restrictions and former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell on why he believes it’s time for the prime minister to be replaced. […]
Novara Live: Scotland Goes Dry
Sturgeon has announced scottish pubs will close for two weeks. With local lockdowns failing, Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani discuss whether the rest of the UK will soon follow suit? Plus, The growing backlash against 10pm curfew Unite slashes Labour funding UK’s booming arms trade.
Opinion: Covid-19 Has Shown University Isn’t About Educating Young People – It’s About Exploiting Them
Aaron Bastani
The spectacle of student lockdowns at British universities may seem absurd. But it’s just the logical conclusion of a system in which everything - including higher education - is subordinated to the interests of rentiers, landlords and big business, writes Aaron Bastani.
Novara Live: Locked In
Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani discuss the wave of lockdowns at British universities. Plus, anticapitalism banned in English schools, Paul Dacre and Charles Moore tipped for top BBC jobs, lawfare in Ecuador (w/ Guillaume Long) and Labour seeks to woo back rich donors.
Novara Live: Where’s the Support, Sunak?
Michael Walker and Aaron Bastani discuss Sunak’s lacklustre Job Support Scheme. Plus COVID chaos on UK campuses, why casual sex is still banned, Whittome sacked for opposing Torture.
Opinion: ‘Family Values’ Without Class is a Dead End for Labour
Aaron Bastani
The family is often seen as the political territory of the right. But with child poverty skyrocketing and families forced into increasingly abysmal living conditions, it’s right that Starmer wishes to reclaim it. To do so, argues Aaron Bastani, he must move beyond platitudes to a message that puts class politics at its heart.
The Bastani Factor: Control, Power and Resistance in the 21st Century. Interview With Cory Doctorow
What is the relationship between technology, society and politics? Is the former merely a tool for social control, or can it also open up new vistas of possibility and freedom? How can one become the other, and what does resistance look like in a world where culture, and digital culture, are increasingly constitutive of one […]