No Sacred Cows

It’s time Keir Starmer dumps Trump - for the interests of the UK as well as his own and the Labour Party’s political skin. 

The populist right is railing loudly against the decline in birthrates in the US and the UK - not always out of sincerity, and often with overtly racist reasoning. As a result the left has buried its head in the sand and refused to go near the issue. But there is no reason, Anna McShane from the New Britain Project argues, to do so. 

A year into the Labour Party in power in the UK and the loss of the Democrats to Donald Trump in the US, we round out 2025 with the crew giving a damning verdict on where the center left is at the end of this year, and give a tour de force of what what must be ahead if we are to win back trust, credibility and deliver change in 2026.

Co-author of the recent report ‘Inside the mind of a 16 year old’ for UK think-tank Demos together with Peter Hyman, Shaub details the journey of speaking with 700 young people across the country about their thoughts on politics - and why centre-left politicians need to get their house in order when it comes to talking to young people themselves.Now is not the time for timid grids of the past - it’s well past the moment for something new and different; politicians happy to go where voters are; unafraid of being authentic. It’s not just what young people demand - but what our politics, and democracy, needs.It’s time to slay the sacred cow that the centre-left is talking to young people - it’s not.

Centre-left governments are often few and far between. So when they lose their way - the renewal has to be done swiftly, and at times bloodily. Trapped in process and unable to communicate, McTernan says the left loses its way when it believes the state has became our friend, just because we are running it. Bureaucratic, talking about ‘delivery’, and using management speak, we forget who the enemy is and what the purpose of a centre-left government is all about. What is required, instead, is to junk the sacred cow that the state is the answer and offer a clear moral purpose as a progressive government - aligning ourselves with the people.Join as we dive head-first into a long overdue debate about the future of mainstream politics on both sides of the Atlantic - no holding back, no pulling punches.

This week the herd is joined by Tone Langengen, Senior Policy Advisor at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, who argues that the centre-left must face economic and political reality and realise that people won’t back Net Zero unless it means cheaper energy and credible growth. Has this agenda become a moral badge rather than a workable plan and can that shift without abandoning climate ambition?

The political center and center-left needs to create new ways to protect our peace and prosperity, based on a clearer understanding of our mutual national interests, or else we risk slipping deeper into anarchy, towards World War Three - or even, armageddon. Join the herd as we dive into the future of foreign policy and where we’ve gone wrong in the last few years.

Join us in this second episode where the herd are joined by Frank Sharry, a former Kamala Harris adviser and founder of US think tank America’s Voice, to look at whether the centre-left needs to ditch its timidity and how it can talk about and win on the issue of immigration.