The Why? Curve

A government with a thumping majority that can't seem to run the country. U-turns every week and a permanent sense of crisis. And none of this is new - Johnson, Truss, Sunak, May. The country doesn't seem to be able to find a set of politicians who are able to get on with running things. Or is it just that we won't let them, because every problem becomes a social-media-fuelled crisis? Is the Starmer administration just a symptom of a system that doesn't work? Tom Skinner, a former special adviser to five Conservative prime ministers, tells Phil and Roger what it feels like inside a Number Ten under siege, and what needs to change to make the UK governable again. 

The internet transformed the world with free information on everything for everyone, but is that era ending? The Chinese and Iranians can control what their people can see and read, and in the West there's a growing push to stop the young and vulnerable from getting access to violent, disturbing or pornographic material. Tech firms are being threatened with regulation unless they impose safeguards. Does all this signal the internet turning gradually into the 'splinternet', with the loss of a valuable freedom, or is it an overdue reassertion of sovereign power over Silicon Valley? Scott Malcomson is a fellow of the German council on Foreign Relations, and back in 2016 wrote the book "Splinternet: How Geopolitics and Commerce Are Fragmenting the World Wide Web". He tells Phil and Roger how things have changed since then.

Champagne on the beach of a private island in return for cosy deals and confidential memos - has the Epstein saga lifted the lid on a world of elite partying and low morals at the heart of political and business decision-making? Could the conspiracy theories about global control by hidden cabals have a kernel of truth? Ronen Palan, Professor of International Politics at City St George’s University, tells Phil and Roger it’s not a new phenomenon in the world.

Have we just, quietly, passed a key stage in human evolution? Scientists in California say they have created - not adapted - a virus. Artificial intelligence has enabled them to write the genome from scratch, and while a virus isn't, by definition, alive, they say they have the means to go further - to create life. What this could bring is a massive leap forwarded in treating disease, but it could also bring terrible risks - designer babies, insuperable biological weapons. Is this a technology anyone can control? Adrian Woolfson, co-founder of the biotech company Genryo, and author of "On the Future of Species: Authoring Life By Means of Artificial Biological Intelligence" tells Phil and Roger about the astounding opportunities and dangers.  

Is Reform UK looking increasingly like Conservatives 2.0? High-profile defections like Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman help add experience to Nigel Farage's party, but will they also mean it's not really the new force in UK politics many of its adherents want? And, as Kemi Badenoch's Tories drift further to the right, where do centre-conservative voters go? What is the future of the right in Britain? Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London, tells Phil and Roger.

There has been a seismic and permanent shift in the international order, and the President of the European Commission says this new world is defined by raw power. So where do the pieces fall after Donald Trump's threats to take Greenland, and his intervention in Venezuela? Is the global order now just a matter of money and military force? Is Europe in any position to say no to the man in the White House? Phil and Roger ask Stefan Wollf, Professor of International Security at the University of Birmingham

As divorce lawyers enter their busiest season, how sustainable is modern marriage? Plenty of couples never bother to formally marry, and the rate of break-ups in those who do has been rising. Does the model of lifelong partnership, sanctioned by law, work in an era of constant choice about everything from mobile phones to relationships? Are permanent couples the happiest form of human interaction? Phil and Roger get guidance from Dr Veronica Lamarche, senior psychology lecturer at the University of Essex.

Is Donald Trump aiming to reshape Hollywood? His supporters are putting money into making movies that reflect the MAGA outlook - old-fashioned heroes in action films - and bury what they see as the liberal woke influence on moviegoers. The struggle between Netflix and Skydance over who will buy Warner Bros is part of that. So will 2026 be the year that cinema turned to the right? Sarah Atkinson, Professor of Screen Media at King’s College London, tells Phil and Roger what to expect