Crash Course With Michael Walker

If you believe the polls, Starmer's Labour are heading for a landslide even bigger than Blair's in 1997. But that landslide, if it comes, will not be caused by any overwhelming positivity about either Starmer or Labour. Does that make the election of 2024 fundamentally different to the election of 1997? And, what consequences will that have for Starmer and Labour in government, and for Britain's left.Guest: Jeremy Gilbert.

**This is a free preview of a members-only episode. You can sign up at patreon.com/crashcoursepod***When most commentators discuss the Tory collapse at this election they point to three things: Boris Johnson's partygate, Liz Truss's mini-budget, and Rishi Sunak's political ineptitude. My guest on this episode has a longer term explanation for Tory collapse, and he put his money where his mouth is - publishing a book on Tory decline immediately after Boris Johnson won his stomping 2019 majority. I spoke to Phil Burton-Cartledge about how he saw the Tories days were numbered before the rest of us.Guest: Phil Burton-Cartledge, senior lecturer in sociology at Derby University and author of 'The Party's Over: The Rise and Fall of the Conservatives from Thatcher to Sunak'

I'll soon be moving to focus on the UK general election, but first this is a final look at a much bigger democratic contest: India's.In episode 1 and 2 of my mini-series on India's election I looked at Modi's hindu nationalism and his approach to democracy. In this third and final episode I’m taking a look at India’s economy.It's hard to overstate the significance of India's economic development. The country is home to 1.4 billion people and if as some hope it develops at the pace of its neighbour China, these are 1.4 billion people who can look forward to getting better jobs, whose children can expect decent educations, and who - in the main - can expect to gain all the privileges that come with entering the global middle class.If India fails to achieve that growth - or only achieves the wrong kind of growth - it would mean hundreds of millions of people having those ambitions stunted.Guest: Arjun Ramani, The Economist. 

I've been wanting to get more ideological diversity and productive disagreement on Crash Course, and so I was pleased when Albie Amankona agreed to come on for an interview. Albie is a regular commentator on GB News, and vice chair of LGBT Conservatives. We discussed the council election results, how he became a conservative, the legacy of austerity, and whether he thinks his party is intentionally stoking a culture war. To listen to the full interview sign up at patreon.com/crashcoursepod

**This is a free preview of a longer paid episode. To sign up visit patreon.com/crashcoursepod**Given the local and mayoral elections in England and Wales I've taken a break from my India series to look at politics closer to home. In this episode I speak to George Eaton from the New Statesman about the nature of "Starmerism" and what Labour would do if - as seems very likely - they get into power at the next general election.

India's elections are the world's largest. But in a context in which Modi's political opponents are subject to arbitrary arrest, can we really call the country a democracy?LSE Anthropologist Alpa Shah thinks we shouldn't, and in her new book 'The Incarcerations' she explains how the arrest of 16 intellectuals and activists symbolises India's slide into authoritarianism, and even fascism.**This is a free preview of a paid episode. To listen to the full interview sign up at patreon.com/crashcoursepod**

To mark India's general election, I'll be doing a few episodes on the politics and economics of the world's most populous nation. In this first interview, I speak to the Oxford historian Pratinav Anil about Modi's Hindu Nationalism, and how it came to dominate politics in India.**This is a free preview of a paid episode. To listen to the full interview sign up at patreon.com/crashcoursepod**

In the second part of my conversation with Vincent Bevins we discussed the arab spring and the fall of the Soviet Union. The conversation includes Vincent giving a really useful explanation of the rise and fall of the Egyptian revolution, and me making a tentative case for small-c conservatism.**This is a free preview of a paid episode. To listen to all Crash Course episodes in full sign up at patreon.com/crashcoursepod**

Vincent Bevins is one of my favourite authors - and a good friend of mine - so I knew when I got him sat down in a room our conversation good go on for a long time. I wasn't wrong. This is the first part of a three hour conversation where we discuss his latest book "If We Burn: The Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution" . In this episode I tell Vince my doubts about the protest movements I was part of in the early 2010s, and we take a deep dive look at protest movements in Brazil and Chile.To listen to the full episode sign up at patreon.com/crashcoursepod