Analysis

Latest Episodes:

Scottish Nationalism: From Protest to Power Jul 15, 2013

Show notes

Just what does the Scottish National Party want? And what could it mean for the UK?

Douglas Fraser investigates the SNP's long search for an independence vision that works. He talks to insiders about the party's turbulent past, torn, as one leader put it, between 'Jacobites and Jacobins'. How has the party tried to build a vision of Scottish identity that keeps pace with social change? Does it aim to preserve the old British welfare state, or try something different? What do its plans for continued close links with the rest of the UK mean for its vision of a separate Scotland?

Scotland may be diverging more and more from England, whatever happens in next year's independence referendum. With that vote fast approaching, where this debate is heading matters for everyone in the UK. The SNP's journey reveals much about this important change.

Presenter: Douglas Fraser Producer: Chris Bowlby Editor: Innes Bowen.

They're Coming for Your Money Jul 08, 2013

Show notes

Paul Johnson, the director of the widely-respected independent Institute for Fiscal Studies, has been looking at the latest projections for how much the government will spend in the next five years and how much revenue it will receive. Despite the recent announcement of further cuts in spending, tax rises look difficult to avoid.

Paul explores the reasons for this gap in the budget and asks what taxes could help to fill it. With tax avoidance and evasion now at the top of world leaders' agendas, he asks if the increasingly tax-averse companies sector can be made to pay more and how much the rich and wealthy could contribute. He also considers the taxation of our houses and pensions and whether more will be taken from them.

Then he focuses on the three levies which contribute the lion's share of government revenue - income tax, national insurance and VAT - and, with politicians, economists and tax experts, finds out how much we are all - young and old, better and worse off - likely to pay. He also drops in on a young family in Norfolk to discover what taxpaying voters think of the choices and what they will be expected to pay.

Among those taking part: Nigel Lawson (former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer); Kitty Ussher (former Labour Treasury minister); Bill Dodwell (head of tax policy at Deloitte); Julian McCrae (former top Treasury official now at the Institute for Government); Gavin Kelly (chief executive of the Resolution Foundation who worked during the Blair/Brown years in Downing Street and the Treasury); and Malcolm Gammie QC (a leading tax lawyer).

Producer Simon Coates.

Syria and the New Lines in the Sand Jul 01, 2013

Show notes

Where the Arab Spring overthrew dictators, is the Middle East now dismantling the very 'lines in the sand' imposed by Britain and France a century ago? Edward Stourton investigates.

Pornography: What Do We Know? Jun 24, 2013

Show notes

What do we really know about the effects of pornography?

Public debate has become increasingly dominated by an emotive, polarised argument between those who say it is harmful and those who say it can be liberating. Jo Fidgen puts the moral positions to one side and investigates what the evidence tells us. She explores the limitations of the research that's been carried out and asks whether we need to update our understanding of pornography. She hears from users of pornography about how and why they use it and researchers reveal what they have learnt about our private pornographic habits.

With pornography becoming increasingly easy to access online, and as policy-makers, parents and teachers discuss how to deal with this, it's a debate that will have far-reaching implications on education and how we use the internet.

Producer: Helena Merriman

Interviewees:

Professor Neil Malamuth - University of California Dr Miranda Horvath - Middlesex University Dr Ogi Ogas - Author of A Billion Wicked Thoughts Professor Roger Scruton - Conservative philosopher and Author of Sexual Desire: A Philosophical Investigation Professor Gail Dines - Wheelock College, Boston.

Predistribution Jun 17, 2013

Show notes

Predistribution is Labour's new policy buzzword, used by leader Ed Miliband in a keynote speech. The US thinker who coined the phrase tells Edward Stourton what it means.

The Quantified Self: Can Life Be Measured? Jun 10, 2013

Show notes

Self knowledge through numbers is the motto of the "quantified self" movement. Calories consumed, energy expended, work done, places visited or how you feel. By recording the data of your daily life online, the life-loggers claim, you get to know who you really are.

So far this type of self-tracking is the obsession of a geeky minority. But through our smartphones and social networking sites more and more of us being drawn into this world by stealth. Frances Stonor Saunders asks what it means for our ideas about privacy and sense of self.

Producer: Fiona Leach.

Is Regional Policy a Waste of Time? Jun 03, 2013

Show notes

The gap between English north and south is growing. But does government have the answer? In the north-east of England, Alison Wolf discovers why 'regional policy' may be a waste of time. Does better infrastructure or state support for 'key' industries make a real difference? But there's a twist. Instead of everyone heading from north to south, there may just be a move back in the other direction. She discovers that individuals chasing quality of life, not government pushing its policies, will be what really decides the regions' future.

Presenter: Professor Alison Wolf Producer: Chris Bowlby Editor: Richard Vadon.

Labour's New New Jerusalem May 27, 2013

Show notes

The words of William Blake's Jerusalem were invoked by Labour Prime Minister Clement Attlee when he launched his party's proudest achievement: the creation of a welfare state.

"I will not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand, Till we have built Jerusalem, In England's green and pleasant land."

But some leading Labour Party figures no longer believe in the top down model that was meant to make real that vision of a "new Jerusalem". Mukul Devichand hears from leading Labour Party figures who want a radical new welfare settlement, saying the state itself is to blame for society's ills as much as the market.

This new cadre of Labour thinkers is known as "Blue Labour". Two years ago we made a programme about them. Then they were worried about the impact of immigration on blue collar communities.

Now they are part of Labour's inner circle: academic Maurice Glasman has been elevated to the House of Lords; Jon Cruddas MP is in charge of writing the party's manifesto; and Ed Miliband's widely applauded "One Nation" conference speech last year was written by "Blue Labour" godfather Marc Stears.

The post war welfare settlement, according to Lord Glasman, represented the triumph of those who believed that government could solve social problems. That victory, says Glasman, came at a price: "A labour movement that was active and alive in the lives of people became exclusively concerned with what the state was going to do."

The alternative, according to Blue Labour thinkers, is welfare delivered at local level rather than by a centralised state; and a benefits system that prioritises those who contribute over those who do not. "The key concept we use is incentive to virtue," Lord Glasman tells Mukul Devichand, "so we have to be judgemental."

Producer: Fiona Leach

Interviewees include:

Maurice Glasman Labour Peer

Sir Robin Wales Labour Mayor of Newham

Jeremy Cliffe Britain Politics Correspondent, The Economist

Polly Toynbee Guardian Columnist

Andrew Harrop General Secretary, The Fabian Society.

Nudge Theory in Practice Mar 25, 2013

Show notes

Politicians are wary of forcing us to do the things they think we should such as drinking less, saving more for our pensions or using public transport. But they are also reluctant to do nothing. The theories expounded in the book Nudge, published in 2008, suggested there was a third way: a "libertarian paternalist" option whereby governments made doing the right thing easier but not obligatory. Rather than making pensions compulsory, for example, governments could make saving for one the default option whilst preserving the right to opt out.

Nudge theory appealed to our better selves and to our politicians. The book's ideas were taken up by those inside government in Britain and the US.

One of the book's authors, Cass Sunstein, answers questions from an audience at the Institute for Government in London and tells presenter Edward Stourton how well he thinks his theories are working in practice.

Producer: Rosamund Jones.

Who Decides if I'm a Woman? Mar 18, 2013

Show notes

A spat between feminist Suzanne Moore and transgender rights activists played out on social networking sites, and then hit the headlines when journalist Julie Burchill joined in too.

Jo Fidgen explores the underlying ideas which cause so much tension between radical feminists and transgender campaigners, and discovers why recent changes in the law and advances in science are fuelling debate.

Contributors:

James Barrett, consultant psychiatrist and lead clinician at the Charing Cross National Gender Identity Clinic

Julie Bindel, feminist and journalist

Lord Alex Carlile QC, Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords

Melissa Hines, professor of psychology at Cambridge University

Richard O'Brien, writer of the Rocky Horror Show

Ruth Pearce, postgraduate researcher in sociology at the University of Warwick

Stephen Whittle OBE, professor of equalities law at Manchester Metropolitan University

Producer: Ruth Alexander.