What's Left? With Jovan + Freddie

Will the Left Forgive Itself? – Alastair Campbell

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content ********************************************** Can the Left forgive the Centre? Can the Centre forgive the Left? This week we are joined by the UK's second biggest politics podcaster on where the Left is going wrong and how it must unite to win. Keeping out Reform will not be enough to fix the country. A consensus must be built around a political economy that works for the majority, rather than a privileged few. So how do we get there? What can be done? Who can tell the right story? Centrist Dads will be delighted to know that we haven't figured it out just yet, and can keep on equivocating in the meantime... Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:29 Is The Rest Is Politics Too Orthodox? 08:59 Short-Form Politics and Short-Termism 16:03 Who Cares About Truth? 21:37 Failure of Globalisation 26:50 Madman Theory and WW3 35:43 What New Labour Got Wrong 43:01 Class Warfare 52:21 Are Greens the Future of the Left? 1:01:30 Has Farage Hit His Ceiling? 1:06:07 Crypto Billionaires Financing Reform 1:11:47 Will The Labour Party Survive the Century? 1:17:45 Is the Left Intellectually Bankrupt? 1:23:55 Is Gen-Z Cooked? 1:28:05 Teamwork Makes the Dream Work 1:31:40 Abuse in Public Life

Why Won't Labour Talk To Gary Stevenson?

In our latest video essay (optimised for YouTube), Freddie breaks down why the Labour Party refuses to engage meaningfully with Gary Stevenson - and why that all might be about to change... ********************* JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content *********************

Labour's Leadership Conspiracy - Phil Tinline

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft [http://substack.com/@wtfisleft] Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content ********************************************** The Labour leadership crisis has gone nuclear with Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigning this afternoon, after a week of intense speculation of a coup following Labour's local elections drubbing. We sat down with Phil Tinline, author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain and The Death of Consensus: 100 Years of British Political Nightmares, to dive deep into the chaos. Phil is an expert in both Labour history and conspiracy theories - coalescing here for a rich discussion on the polycrisis that has rendered the British state obsolete. How can Labour make the case that they aren’t the Tories, with infighting and psychodrama returning from 2022-3? Do bond market jitters await? Chapters 00:00 Intro 02:48 Britain's Permacrisis 12:09 Starmer's Leadership Challenge 20:53 Burnham's Manchesterism 30:57 Politics Love of Conspiracy Theories 39:04 Breakdown In Political Communication 48:45 Who is Labour for after the AI revolution? 56:35 British Cultural Identity 1:05:40 Conspiracy Theory vs. Reality 1:16:35 The Iron Mountain Conspiracy 1:23:30 Who Believes Conspiracies? 1:31:20 Reinvigorating the Social Contract 1:34:30 Reform, Donations and Accountability

Gymskin, UK Groypers + Local Elections - Tom Nestor

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft [http://substack.com/@wtfisleft] Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content ********************************************** Skit Comedian Tom Nestor and host of podcast All Right Idiots [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCX-3W1HaLhw5v0aRQkMc_0g] joins us for a chat on livestreamers, chronically online extremists and the upcoming local elections. After calling out Freddie for his cold approach game with viral streamer Gymskin, the boys invited Tom on the podcast to discuss the best way to get non-political audiences caring about the issues of our time... Chapters 00:00 Gymskin + Freddie 09:25 Livestreaming Gone Mad 17:47 Right-Wing Comedians 22:04 Talking To Reform Voters 33:00 Corbyn, Polanski + Tom's Politics 38:00 Cancellations and Conspiracies 45:27 UK Groypers 53:39 Feeling Sorry For Isolated Young Men? 59:55 Jovan's RW Cancellation 1:05:40 Anti-White Prejudice 1:14:30 What Makes English Identity? 1:21:15 Immigration Debate 1:25:10 Greens + Local Elections 1:33:06 In Defence of Labour

What Comes After Neoliberalism? - Louisa Munch

JOIN US ON SUBSTACK: substack.com/@wtfisleft [http://substack.com/@wtfisleft] Early Access to Ad-Free Extended Interviews Ask our Guests Questions LIVEs with Jovan + Freddie WL Book Club + Community Discussion Articles + Exclusive Content Has political imagination died? Having made a name for herself as a leftist short-form content creator, Louisa Munch has quickly become Instagram’s favourite Critical Theorist. Expert in applying canonical political texts to the chaos we see unfolding today, Louisa joins us for a meandering discussion on higher education, leftist utopia and the how to challenge the insurgent populist right. In this conversation, we explore the concept of ‘nostalgia’ and the mythological way it is deployed by the radical right, to call for a return to a harmonious and tranquil past. This idealised vision of what has come before is a seductive construction for many Brits, who have felt the grandeur and richness of the UK fade over the course of their lifetimes. Who is to blame? Many are deeply dissatisfied with our current Labour government, who have not upended the neoliberal economic consensus, opting for foreign investment given constraints in the omnipotent bond market. But without engaging our economic imagination, it seems that Britain is fatalistically condemned to managed decline, energising populist demands on either flank. Over and over again, elections are being won and lost on which candidate most represents the change that people want to feel to our socio-economic order. Sticking with the devil you know doesn’t seem very attractive if you think you’re on the road to Hell. If neoliberalism is indeed in its final days, then the question is what will replace it? Louisa argues that the Left needs to be thinking in the future, striving to achieve an ideal of worker empowerment that is free from neoliberal constraint. But can critical theory, the analysis of power relations and how to challenge them, tell us what that ‘utopia’ should look like and how to get there in practice? 00:00 Intro 03:45 Alienation and Economic Migration 08:17 Can the Left Use Nostalgia? 16:22 Universalism and the Boomer Class 21:45 Is Critical Theory Just Left-Wing Meta-Ideology? 28:05 Is Questioning Power Emotive or Rational? 31:55 Cross-Cultural Nostalgia 36:45 Is University Delivering What Society Needs? 44:30 Immigration and Integration 49:04 Patriarchy, Misogyny and Grooming Gangs 56:04 Pink Ladies Movement 1:00:29 White Working Class Anxiety 1:07:35 Economic Growth and Zero-Sum Thinking 1:13:05 Solving the Poverty of Ambition 1:17:20 Beware Utopian Idealists? 1:25:04 Gramsci + Cultural Change 1:30:05 Is America Still Democratic?