The Trawl

Ed Sheeran dropped Macklemore for saying Free Palestine, and now the support acts have since been dropping Ed Sheeran. Turns out "apolitical" is a position, and it's not a popular one. Andy Burnham finally did something and slapped a trade ban on Israeli settlement goods and US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee is furious about it. Excellent work. An Israeli newspaper is reporting Netanyahu had an explicit warning before October 7th and sat on it. Jemma and Marina go through what that means and why it matters. Meanwhile, Reform have banked £72 million from two donors with very interesting backgrounds, so of course the BBC covered it like a charity gala. Worry not...Isabel Oakeshott has assured us billionaires want nothing in return. Sure, Isabel.Plus the week's most underrated tweets. Grab your pyjamas. This one's a lot.Join The Trawl's Facebook BRAND NEW Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660Get your tickets for The Trawl Live from https://thetrawl.tix.to/ticketsThank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast Patreonhttps://patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcast Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/@TheTrawl Twitterhttps://twitter.com/TheTrawlPodcast

This week, Marina and Jem start in America — where Trump calls 18 dead soldiers "small potatoes," posts AI-generated videos of himself beating world leaders with a hockey stick, and explains trade to a room of adults too scared to tell him he's wrong. Rinse, repeat, somehow getting worse.Then they come home to Blighty — where things are going brilliantly. Hundreds of men in matching black balaclavas staged two days of (NOT) spontaneous protests in Dover and Portsmouth, injuring police, blocking ferries, and terrifying British families trying to get into town. Arrests: none. Funny that — almost like if you'd been a blind OAP or a vicar protesting for peace, they'd have found the handcuffs. Also: a coachload of Pakistani cricketers gets surrounded by a brainless mob, the RNLI gets grief for not letting people drown, and Nick Ferrari has some thoughts. All recorded at 9:40pm on empty stomachs, and it shows.Join The Trawl's Facebook BRAND NEW Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660Get your tickets for The Trawl Live from https://thetrawl.tix.to/ticketsThank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast Patreonhttps://patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcast Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/@TheTrawl Twitterhttps://twitter.com/TheTrawlPodcast

Trump reinvents 9/11 with himself as the hero, fireman-carried, fist in the air, saving the day from... four miles away. Meanwhile, it's all happening at the Reform conference, Farage lays out exactly how he'd neuter the House of Lords if it gets in his way, a woman protester gets her hair pulled and is hit with a crutch by livid OAPS and Robert Jenrick "resigns" from a job he doesn't have over a budget that doesn't exist. Plus: Zia Yousaf's dog-whistle campaign video, the finest vox pops democracy has to offer, and one man who is, unfortunately, very open to dating his cousin. It's a pretty crazy one with a lot of laughs. Join The Trawl's Facebook BRAND NEW Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660Get your tickets for The Trawl Live from https://thetrawl.tix.to/ticketsThank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast Patreonhttps://patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcast Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/@TheTrawl Twitterhttps://twitter.com/TheTrawlPodcast

Jemma and Marina wade through the wreckage of Reform UK's worst week yet. A year-long undercover sting by investigative outfit Verbatim catches Nigel Farage's closest aides, head of policy James Orr and confidante Dan Jukes, on tape discussing how to secretly fund Reform's own polling through a fake American donor, all while a fictional $500,000 donation dangles in the background. Farage himself calls the scheme "amazing" and "bang for buck" on camera.Cue two sackings, a genuinely spectacular pile-up of excuses (entrapment! pub banter! "I wasn't listening"! they're just contractors!), and a late, jittery conference speech built on the same recycled security excuse Farage used to dodge the Clacton by-election.Plus: a genuinely wholesome voice note to restore your faith in dating apps (honest guv), and a deep, unnecessary dive into everyone's feelings about oysters.Corruption, contradictions, and crustaceans. Settle in, Trawlers.Join The Trawl's Facebook BRAND NEW Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660Get your tickets for The Trawl Live from https://thetrawl.tix.to/ticketsThank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcastPatreonhttps://patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcastYoutubehttps://www.youtube.com/@TheTrawlTwitterhttps://twitter.com/TheTrawlPodcast

Trump is renaming lakes, posting increasingly deranged AI images and apparently gearing up to declare the midterms rigged before they've even happened. Meanwhile, the US is reportedly threatening Britain over the Falklands, Trump's CIA director is making mysterious trips to Moscow, and democracy feels increasingly like it's being held together with Sellotape.Then there's Israel and Gaza, where the rhetoric and imagery become ever more horrifying, Netanyahu gets a very frosty reception at the UN, and the UK promises a “comprehensive reset” of its Israel policy. Jemma and Marina also look at the devastating floods in Nepal, the climate crisis, the astonishingly low level of US aid and the depressing willingness of tech giants to bend to political power.Plus: AI geese, Dolly Parton, a very adventurous boiler man, Tim Curry, and a load of Under Rateds.It's another week where reality has apparently given up.Join The Trawl's Facebook BRAND NEW Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660Get your tickets for The Trawl Live from https://thetrawl.tix.to/ticketsThank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast Patreonhttps://patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcast Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/@TheTrawl Twitterhttps://twitter.com/TheTrawlPodcast

It’s been a busy week in politics. Andy Burnham is back, delivering a barnstorming speech attacking the legacy of Thatcherism and Brexit… before promptly getting himself into a spot of bother over a Sainsbury’s work-experience scheme, political donations and a rather fetching supermarket fleece. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer quits as an MP, James Cleverly quits the Shadow Cabinet to spend TWO YEARS campaigning to become Mayor of London, and Reform continues its relentless assault on reality.Marina and Jemma ask why every Reform brain fart seems to become a BBC headline, examine Robert Jenrick’s latest immigration claims, and marvel at Peter Hitchens being forced to publicly deny that he thinks Rupert Lowe is the next Winston Churchill.And then, because this is The Trawl, the Trawl ladies move seamlessly from the state of the nation to men who deliberately don’t shower before dates, Jemma’s frustration with dating, the £450,000 Birkin bag from hell and the enduring question: how quickly can one shower before becoming a social pariah?Politics, hypocrisy, free labour, filthy rich people and filthy men. Just another day on The Trawl.Join The Trawl's Facebook BRAND NEW Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61590931382660Get your tickets for The Trawl Live from https://thetrawl.tix.to/ticketsThank you for sharing and please do follow us @MarinaPurkiss @jemmaforte @TheTrawlPodcast Patreonhttps://patreon.com/TheTrawlPodcast Youtubehttps://www.youtube.com/@TheTrawl Twitterhttps://twitter.com/TheTrawlPodcast