Past Present Future

• The History of Bad Ideas: Austerity

  For the first episode in our new series about how bad ideas take hold, David talks to economist Mark Blyth about austerity, the cost-cutting idea that refuses to die. Why is it an article of faith that states need periodic purging to stop them getting too greedy? Why does this so often happen at times when it does most harm, from the 1930s to the financial crisis that began in 2008? And how is the politics of austerity playing out today, in Starmer’s Britain, in Milei’s Argentina and in the DOGE wars happening in Trump’s America? David’s new 20-part series Postwar – about the 1945 general election and the making of modern Britain – is available now on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m002d8v1 Next time on The History of Bad Ideas: Genius w/Helen Lewis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• Politics on Trial: Charles I vs Parliament

  Today’s political trial is perhaps the most consequential in English history: the trial and execution of King Charles I for treason in January 1649. How could a king commit treason when treason was a crime against the king? How could a court try a king when a king has no peers? How could anyone claim to speak for the people after a civil war when so many people had been on opposite sides? The answers to these questions would cost more than one person his life – but they would also change forever the prospect of holding tyrants to account. Out now on PPF+: Part 2 of David’s conversation with Robert Saunders about the 1975 European referendum and the question of why it all ended up so differently in the Brexit referendum of 2016. Sign up now to get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus David’s new 20-part series Postwar – about the 1945 general election and the making of modern Britain – is available now on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002d8v1 Next time: The History of Bad Ideas: Austerity w/Mark Blyth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• Politics on Trial: Galileo vs the Inquisition

  Today’s trial is one of the most notorious in history but also one of the most misremembered. Galileo’s epic confrontation with the Catholic Church over the question of whether the earth moves round the sun – culminating with his interrogation and condemnation in Rome in 1633 – was not just a matter of truth vs ignorance or science vs superstition. It was also twenty-year long struggle on the part of both sides to find a way to co-exist. Did they succeed? Not exactly, but it wasn’t for want of trying. Then – and perhaps now – science and religion needed each other. Out now on PPF+: Part 2 of David’s conversation with Robert Saunders about the 1975 European referendum and the question of why it all ended up so differently in the Brexit referendum of 2016. Sign up now to get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus David’s new 20-part series Postwar – about the 1945 general election and the making of modern Britain – starts on BBC Radio 4 tomorrow and the first 10 episodes will be available to download on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002d8v1 Next time in Politics on Trial: Charles I vs Parliament Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• 50th Anniversary Special: The 1975 European Referendum w/Robert Saunders

  Today’s episode is about a pivotal event in British history that took place exactly 50 years ago: the 1975 referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Community. David talks to historian Robert Saunders about why it was so different in so many ways from the Brexit referendum in 2016. Why in 1975 were Labour and the SNP the Eurosceptic parties? What made the Tories pro-European? Where was immigration as an election issue? How did the Yes campaign overturn a big deficit in the polls? Plus: why didn’t it settle the question, so that another referendum had to be held four decades later? Available tomorrow on PPF+: Part 2 of this conversation in which David and Robert try to make sense of the many differences between the 1975 and 2016 referendums as well as exploring where Britain stands in relation to Europe in 2025. Sign up now to get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus Robert Saunders’s definitive history of the 1975 referendum Yes To Europe! is available wherever you get your books https://bit.ly/3FE04mP Next time in Politics on Trial: Galileo vs the Inquisition Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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• Politics on Trial: Mary Queen of Scots vs the Secret State

  In today’s episode an extraordinary political trial that culminated in the execution of one queen at the behest of another: Mary Queen of Scots, convicted of treason in 1586 and beheaded in 1587. But who really wanted her dead, Queen Elizabeth or Elizabeth’s powerful political servants? Why did Mary demand to be tried before parliament rather than a court of noblemen? How did she attempt to defend herself in the face of apparently overwhelming incriminating evidence against her? And who was the only person who voted for her acquittal? Listen to David’s episode about Schiller’s Mary Stuart as part of our Great Political Fictions series https://www.ppfideas.com/episodes/the-great-political-fictions%3A-mary-stuart Next time: 50 years on from the 1975 Europe Referendum w/Robert Saunders Coming soon in Politics on Trial: Galileo vs the Inquisition   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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