Novara Media

This part two of our discussion about a new left party. You can listen to part 1 here: https://novaramedia.com/2025/01/30/time-for-a-new-left-party/

James Schneider, Jeremy Corbyn’s former Director of Comms, argues for a new party. But who would it speak to? Would it be democratic and in what ways? And what could it actually achieve in the volatile terrain of British Politics?

Zack Polanski, Deputy Leader of the Green Party of England and Wales, says we don’t need anything new. There is, after all, a socialist party in the UK already: it’s the Greens. And, unlike a new party, it already has everything it needs.

They spoke to Richard Hames about democracy, the challenge of combatting Reform, and a radical left vision for our collective future.

Lots of this episode was formed by comments we received on the first episode. If you’d like to shape future episodes in this series, please email [email protected]

“I’m literally a communist, you idiot”. For almost a decade Ash Sarkar has been one of Britain’s most prominent left wing political journalists. She first met Aaron Bastani in 2010, and was later invited on to the Novara FM podcast. It wasn’t long before she was calling Piers Morgan an idiot on morning TV.

Now she has written her first book, ‘Minority Rule’. It chronicles the rise of identity politics – left and right – and how social attitudes changed as our economic model became ever more rigged over the 2010s. Has identity politics been damaging for progressive change? What does it get right? And what does left-wing politics look like in a moment when ‘woke capitalism’ has subsided?

Your death should be your own, as much as possible. That’s one of the principles behind the Assisted Dying Bill. It lets adults with less than 6 months to live end their lives.

But disability campaigners fear that people who don’t want to die might be pressured to let themselves be killed.

Ellen Clifford is the author of The War on Disabled People: Capitalism, Welfare and the Making of a Human Catastrophe. She spoke to Richard Hames about one of the most fraught debates of our era.

It’s official – we’re in the middle of an unprecedented vibe shift. Donald Trump’s second term in the White House tips the political balance across the world. So, what happens next? And what defines the era that we’re living in? Ash Sarkar is joined by Professor Will Davies, author of The Happiness Industry and Nervous States, to talk about ‘libertarian authoritarianism’, the end of experts, and the death of globalisation.

Love is supposed to be the most universal human experience after death and taxes. So why do so many people feel like they’re failing in it? Ash Sarkar is joined by Shon Faye, author of the bestselling book The Transgender Issue, to discuss her new book Love In Exile. They talk about how marriage has changed since their grandmothers’ day, the crisis of lonely young men, and whether secularism is to blame for relationship breakdown.

After last week’s ACFM on the meaning and morality of personal debt, Keir and Nadia zoom out to the macroeconomics of debt.

Joining them to make sense of concepts like sovereign debt, structural adjustment and international ratings agencies is Heidi Chow, executive director of Debt Justice. She explains how and why countries borrow money, why Global South countries end up mired in debt, and how the climate crisis will affect national borrowing.

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It’s been five long years since the decisive defeat of Corbynism at the ballot box.

How, if at all, should the left reconstitute itself? Should everyone join the Greens? Or do we just need Mick Lynch to start a new party?

In this episode, Richard Hames is joined by Rachel Godfrey Wood, Joe Todd, and Oliver Eagleton to thrash it all out and arrive at the One True Answer.

We’re keen to hear from you on this topic! Lets us know your comments, criticisms and key strategic insights at [email protected]

Fourteen years ago Gary Stevenson was one of Citibank’s best performing traders. The bet that brought him success was one few foresaw: that despite record low interest rates, Britain’s economy would stay in the doldrums.

He wrote about that, and his time at Citi, in his bestselling memoir ‘The Trading Game’. In this, his third Downstream with Aaron, Gary talks about the rise of Reform, why the political establishment could be facing extinction; why Elon Musk’s wealth is a threat to democracy; and how the plan is to make you poorer – forever.

The concept of debt is as slippery as it is powerful. In this Trip episode, Keir, Nadia and Jem explain why debt is more like a belief than a calculation, and wonder how to imagine a society without it.

From credit cards to dowries, they discuss the reality and fantasy of debt, with ideas from David Graeber and Deleuze and music from Crass and Gwen Guthrie.

Find the books and music mentioned in the show: https://novara.media/acfm
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Elon Musk is the most symptomatic capitalist of our era: obsessed with publicity, by many accounts a fanatical workaholic, and increasingly in bed with the far right.

But how did he go from Obama-era liberal darling to giving a Nazi salute at Trump’s second inauguration?

Historian of ideas Quinn Slobodian has traced the relationship between big tech and the far right for years. His books include Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism and Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy.

He speaks to Eleanor Penny about the world that made Elon Musk possible.

Quinn Slobodian previously appeared on Novara FM in late 2023.