The Why? Curve

Who’d be a farmer? You have tiny profit margins. You’re held to high environmental and welfare standards against cheaper less-scrupulous foreign imports, and now you’re facing unaffordable inheritance taxes….. Is it worth working the soil in modern Britain? Is the job more custodianship of the land than running a profitable business? Peter Gittins is a lecturer at Leeds University Business School, and he help run his family-owned livestock farm in West Yorkshire - he gives Phil and Roger a picture of what its like to be a farmer now, and the challenges they face.

Should we be allowed to take our own lives? Should doctors or friends be allowed to help us? For the first time in a decade, MPs have a bill to consider on assisted dying. Parliament and the cabinet is split, and there are vigorous campaigns on both sides. Will it open the door to euthanasia for convenience, with old people and the disabled pressured not to be a burden? Or is it a measure of compassion for the suffering and the desperate? Phil and Roger talk through the new bill and its limitations with Dr Sam Carr of the Centre for Death and Society at Bath University.

How ready are we for the results of climate change? While leaders talk at COP29 about lessening global warming, some of the extreme weather predicted by scientists is already here. The hundreds dead in the Valencia floods suggest governments need to do more to keep us safe. Do we need to build differently, or live in more secure places? Can we be adequately protected from the increasing numbers of wildfires or hurricanes? Phil and Roger get the latest research from Ilan Kelman, Professor of Disasters and Health at University College London

The Donald is back. Another Trump presidency - with a Republican-dominated congress. So how will a world that looks back on 2016-2020 and shudders, deal with a volatile, unpredictable narcissist, who is now also convicted felon, in the White House? What will it mean for Ukraine, for Gaza, for China, for Europe? Paul Whiteley, Emeritus Professor of Government at the University of Essex, walks Phil and Roger through the likely challenges of Trump 2.0 for a world he says is now in a much more dangerous place.

Just days from one of the most divisive and consequential elections in US history, what are the chances of a second Trump presidency, or the first woman being installed in the White House? And how true are the alarming predictions of what it might mean for America and for the world? Dr Thomas Gift, Associate Professor of Political Science at UCL and founding director of its Centre on American Politics, tells Phil and Roger the vote is too close to call, with unpredictable changes of allegiance from traditional allies on both sides of the political divide. And Dr Gift has personal experience of what’s happening in the most important swing state - Pennsylvania.

Hard times and hard choices, but the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, seems determined to inflict pain on consumers, taxpayers and businesses in the short term, to plug what she says is a £40bn hole in the nation's finances. But does she need to? And is she going to hit the right targets, given that she has boxed herself in by committing not to raise income tax, VAT or National Insurance on employees? And is recalculating national debt by taking into account assets a sensible way of allowing her to borrow more - without spooking lenders? Simon French, Chief Economist and Head or Research at Panmure Liberum, tells Phil and Roger what she could and should do in Labour's first budget.

Why do so many of us opt to go under the knife to change our appearance? Cosmetic surgery is having a boom, with injections as well as scalpels and offering cheaper and barely-regulated treatments. It can be dangerous as well as pricey, and often ineffective, so why do it? Is it down to a distorted perception of beauty, conditioned by social media and reality TV? Does it need more regulation, as well as a push to ease social pressures? Phil and Roger ask Ruth Holliday, Professor of Gender and Culture at Leeds University, and co-author of the book "Kitsch! Cultural Politics and Taste" 

A year after October 7 and the landscape shaped over decades is irrevocably changed - Palestinians and Israelis killed in unprecedented numbers, Hezbollah and Hamas decapitated, Iran humiliated. And no end in sight to the bloodshed and destruction. So where have the pieces fallen? What chance of any kind of ceasefire on any front?What hope for the remaining Israeli hostages? Will things change further after the election hiatus in the US - Israel's biggest backer? Can Prime Minister Netanyahu cling to power indefinitely? Simon Mabon, Professor of International Politics at Lancaster University, tells Phil and Roger what the next year might bring

The Tory ship seems rudderless, and the vote for a new captain less than enthralling. After their underwhelming Birmingham conference, what hope is there for the Conservatives - hitherto the most successful political organisation in Europe? With the fewest MPs in its history, and missing many of the former big beasts of Toryism, does the party’s salvation lie in lurching further to the right to win back supporters from Reform? Or is the safe ground in the centre where the Lib Dems have drained their vote? Phil and Roger get the views of Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London, and Thor of “The Conservative Party After Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation”