“There are a lot of positive ways AI can impact our lives, but there’s a risk about how it can be used in this year’s extremely important elections.” – Edward Hardy
In this week’s News Roundtable episode, Chris is joined by Chief Economic Adviser and a board member at the Centre for Economics and Business Research, Vicky Pryce, Labour National Executive Committee member, Jess Barnard and journalist and US and UK political commentator, Edward Hardy.
Jess outlines her hopes and fears about the Labour Party – hoping that Labour wins the general election, but fearing that Starmer won’t deliver any meaningful change. Vicky provides the economic forecast – how inflation may continue to improve and how the geopolitics of global conflicts like that in the Middle East, Ukraine, and potentially in Taiwan will affect our domestic economy. What will happen to UK interest rates in 2024?
For your information, Jess mentions anti-BDS laws in which BDS stands for boycotts, divestment and sanctions. In this context the BDS movement aims to put diplomatic pressure on Israel to observe international law.
Edward Hardy updates us on the stalemate of the Ukraine-Russia war and his analysis of British-US diplomacy surrounding Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Update: On Tuesday, Gaza’s health ministry said 22,185 Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza since October 7th. 507 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the war began, on top of the approx. 1,200 Israelis killed by Hamas on the 7th of October. This opens up a fascinating discussion about Britain’s diplomatic role to play (or not to play) in this conflict.
Chris turns the conversation to the US – who will be the Democratic nominee? Will Biden run despite universal disapproval over his age? Is it possible that Trump will put his ego aside and not run? What would another Trump presidency mean for the US and the world?
Finally, Chris asks each panellist their one high-impact prediction of the year – and they all give very different answers!
We’d love to hear what you think of the episode at email@wrightonthenail.fm.
Happy New Year,
WOTN Team
In this episode we discuss:
- Ukraine
- The Middle East
- The UK general election
- US politics
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