In this week’s News Roundtable episode, Chris Wright CBE is joined by UK & US political commentator and journalist, Edward Hardy, political commentator and Communications Officer at the Institute of Economic Affairs, Reem Ibrahim, and Conservative Political Commentator, Lee Harris.
The discussion starts with the week’s big news on the government’s Illegal Immigration Bill and the ruling against it by the Court of Appeal, the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales that deals only with appeals from other courts or tribunals. The panel discusses whether the policy proposal is fundamentally flawed and what broader approach to immigration the government should take. The conversation opens up to the funding of public services and the Conservatives’ recent historic record of trying to pass unlawful bills.
Chris then asks the panel whether Rishi Sunak’s wealth makes him unfit to tackle the cost-of-living crisis in which public servants sell their homes to survive. They turn to the Thames Water crisis and the question of whether to nationalize water to avoid the government having to further bailout profiteering private companies. Reem Ibrahim explains why the privatization of public services and utilities isn’t working in the UK and why many don’t have the same problems as the UK abroad.
Despite their political differences, the panel agrees on whether the Conservative government seems to have downed tools, and if a general election should be called right now.
The final topic is the newly released Equity in Cricket report. It shows that 87% of people with Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage, 82% of people with Indian heritage and 75% of all Black people in cricket report to have been discriminated against in the last five years. The panel discusses the wider issue of racism in our society and the ways it can be tackled. With the issue of elitism also involved in the report, Chris asks the panelists whether they went to a private school, and their answers may not be what you expected…
‘I Hit The Nail Right On The Head’ by Billy Bremner.
© Fridens liljor/Micke Finell.
Rock around the clock productions AB.
www.rockaroundtheclock.co
In this episode we discuss:
- The Court of Appeal’s rejection of the Illegal Immigration Bill
- The UK government’s broader immigration policy
- Rishi Sunak’s wealth
- The Thames Water crisis, and a debate on re-nationalising public services and utilities
- Should the UK government call a general election now?
- The damning Equity in Cricket report. How do we tackle discrimination in wider society? Is elitism in society a major problem?
