Pod Save the UK25 Tammi 2024

Why are our councils going bust?

1 in 5 local councils in England is in danger of going bankrupt within the next two years - it’s a growing crisis that Westminster has done its best to ignore. With their budgets continually slashed, council leaders are faced with sometimes impossible choices about which services can be funded and which have to be axed. Nish and Coco discuss the crisis with a council leader, Joe Harris, and a ‘policy wonk’ Zoe Billingham. As they chat it emerges that Michael Gove has committed an extra £500 million into the pot for next year. Our guests verdict? It won’t touch the sides.

Meanwhile in Westminster, is it a rebellion if it’s only one person rebelling? Plus introducing your new favourite Conservative group…the Popular Conservatives or PopCons! Nish is obviously delighted to hear about another SFG (or stupid fucking group), especially as this one has a certain Liz Truss attached to it.

Also find out what Ministers Lucy Frazer and Hugh Merriman did to jointly take the villain of the week crown, while the hero of the week goes to a judge who defended the honour of the poppadom.

Pod Save the UK is a Reduced Listening production for Crooked Media.

WhatsApp: 07514 644 572 (UK) or + 44 7514 644 572

Insta: https://instagram.com/podsavetheuk

Twitter: https://twitter.com/podsavetheuk

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@podsavetheuk

Facebook: https://facebook.com/podsavetheuk

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/podsavetheworld

Guests:

Joe Harris, vice chair of the Local Government Association, and the Lib Dem leader of Cotswold District Council

Zoë Billingham, the director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) North think tank

Audio credits:

Sky News

BBC News / Laura Kuenssberg

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(161)

Gaza and Benefits: is Starmer changing course?

Reunited, Coco and Nish are finally back together in the studio to talk U turns, disability benefits, Brexit and… gimp masks? There’s a lot of politics to catch up on including some big shifts from th...

22 Touko 202546min

Pod Save an Island of Strangers

Coco’s back! She’s both sleep and politics deprived, but Nish is ready to fill her in.The government's shake-up of legal migration laws landed this week - but the news has been dominated by one questi...

15 Touko 202550min

How Labour should (but probably won’t) reset after Reform’s big win

There’s no ifs or buts - Reform had a won big in last week’s local elections - but it’s not all bad news. Near-total Tory wipeout, positive signs for the Liberal Democrats and Greens and a lesson for ...

8 Touko 202551min

The UK Supreme Court ruling and the fight for trans rights

In the wake of the UK Supreme Court ruling that the legal definition of woman should be based on biological sex, Nish and Zoë speak to LGBTQ+ activist Ellen Jones, author of "Outrage: Why the fight fo...

1 Touko 202554min

Nish and Coco spill the tea: your questions answered

As Parliament sits for Easter Recess, Nish and Coco dive into the PSUK mailbag to answer your burning questions. There’s the serious political questions - who are the real progressive party? How can w...

17 Huhti 202540min

Trump’s Tariffs: are you feeling liberated?

UPDATE: 10/04/25: President Trump has planned to pause extended tariffs on most countries for 90 days, while pushing ahead on plans to implement a 104% tariff on Chinese goods. A flat 10% tariff remai...

10 Huhti 202547min

Waiting For The Apocalypse: tariffs, food security and the right to protest

Warning: this episode contains descriptions of sexually explicit and sexist song lyrics.While we wait to see if Trump’s tariff juggernaut is going to squash our fragile economy, Nish and Coco count th...

3 Huhti 202556min

Austerity 2.0: can Reeves cut her way to growth?

First the good news: we might just manage to build a lot of new houses. And the bad news? Millions of people will be worse off and about fifty thousand children will be pushed into poverty by welfare ...

27 Maalis 202552min