515. Starmer’s Foreign Aid Betrayal, Islamophobia & Australia’s Far Right (Question Time)

26 Mar 2026 · 52 min · 24 chapters

Ask about this episode

Ask anything about it. ChatGPT or Claude reads this page and answers with the times it was said.

Connect VO and ask about every podcast you hear, including the moments you saved. Add to ChatGPT · Add to Claude

In short

Keir Starmer’s government cut UK international development spending from 0.7% to 0.3%, which Rory Stewart argues is a national security and moral “betrayal,” worse than austerity and the lowest level since 1970/56 years; discussion also covers Islamophobia and politicized religion in Britain, plus Australia’s far-right and Islamophobia themes.

Guests

No separate guests. Hosts are Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart. Audience questions come from listeners: Lucy (Warrington), Dale Fletcher (Warwickshire), Mary (Adelaide), Osama (Denham), and Alessandro.

Key claims

Starmer’s cuts are “almost a 70%” drop in development spending; removing money used for refugees in Britain still leaves ~0.24% GDP, the lowest since 1970. Development supports conflict prevention and soft power. Islamophobia is “weaponized” via “Judeo-Christian” culture-war narratives and misinformation (e.g., false claims about Muslim education leaders and Trafalgar Square prayers). Australia’s South Australia election shows far-right One Nation beating Liberals, while Malinowskis wins big.

Notable examples

Trump/Elon Musk-era US cuts (USAID, PEPFAR, UN agencies); Norway/Luxembourg/Sweden/Denmark meeting 0.7% target; Trafalgar Square prayers; Henry Lawson poem “The Duty of Australians”; Malinowskis’ social-media/campaign reforms; Ofcom and GB News “Farage TV” complaints.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Starmer's Cuts to International Development

0:45 to 3:39

Discussion on the implications of cutting the development budget.

“I don't think people have concentrated on this.”

Impact of Development Aid Cuts

6:29 to 12:00

Analysis of the consequences of reduced international aid spending.

“And also your point about America is absolutely right.”

Debate on Rejoining the EU

12:00 to 14:03

Exploration of the political implications of calling for the UK to rejoin the EU.

“Well, we'll have to get him on the podcast and ask him, won't we?”

Brexit's Impact and Political Relationships

14:03 to 17:01

Explore the evolving dynamics of the UK's relationship with the EU post-Brexit.

“Farage, he didn't really go for it either.”

International Development and Political Strategy

17:01 to 19:44

Discussing the importance of international aid and the political strategies surrounding it.

“I've got a lot of stuff about this election.”

South Australia's Election Results

19:44 to 22:09

An analysis of Peter Malinowskis' victory and its implications for the far right.

“He's a bit more Sanchez-like on the subject.”

Peter Malinowskis: Lessons in Leadership

22:09 to 24:28

Examining the leadership style and electoral success of Peter Malinowskis.

“that they're somehow all sort of beyond the pale.”

Challenges of Far-Right Populism

24:28 to 27:21

Discussing the rise of far-right parties and their impact on traditional politics.

“The bad news is that in 26 of these contests, it was a Labour One Nation contest, and only 12 was against the Liberals.”

Islamophobia in Britain

27:42 to 28:00

Analyzing the rise of Islamophobia in British politics and its implications.

“Welcome back to The Rest is Politics Question Time with me, Rory Stewart.”

Understanding Anti-Semitism and Cultural Narratives

28:00 to 28:40

Exploring the complexities of anti-Semitism and the misuse of cultural narratives.

“I also think anti-Semitism is a real thing.”
Show all 24 chapters

Social Media's Role in Misrepresentation

28:40 to 29:40

Discussion on how social media amplifies misreporting concerning Muslim communities.

“This is not because they're big church growers.”

Community and Faith: Bridging Differences

29:40 to 30:50

Highlighting interfaith efforts to cultivate understanding among communities.

“It's one of the lovely things that Jewish communities do.”

Politicization of Religion and Its Consequences

30:50 to 31:30

The impact of politicizing religions, particularly in Western contexts.

“Well, I think the answer is that all of these issues are being very, very successfully weaponized.”

Religious Narratives in Global Politics

31:30 to 32:50

Examining how religious narratives shape political landscapes globally.

“Actually, a more sensible way to talk about it is Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all being people of the book.”

Exploring Extremism Across Beliefs

32:50 to 34:10

Discussing extremist views found across various religions and ideologies.

“Orban, he's full of this religious stuff.”

Christianity's Message vs. Political Actions

34:10 to 35:30

Contrasting the core messages of Christianity with its political interpretations.

“So look, all different things can be used like this, but there's something particularly horrible, particularly horrible about Christianity, which where the whole narrative is supposed to be peace, forgiveness, love.”

The Role of Royalty in Political Discourse

35:30 to 36:40

Analyzing the expected involvement of the monarchy in political matters.

“Well, I think he's in a very difficult situation.”

Celebrating British Achievements and Politics

36:40 to 37:40

Celebrating national projects while critiquing current political actions.

“Well, he isn't the only thing we know that Trump actually quite likes about the United Kingdom.”

Discussion on Urban Development and Environment

38:00 to 39:40

Conversations about urban projects and their environmental significance.

“I mean, obviously, he stepped down in 97.”

Personal Anecdotes and Cultural Insights

39:40 to 42:00

Sharing personal stories and insights related to London's cultural landscape.

“You can't get down off the wall because the police will get in trouble.”

Exploring Radicalization and Family Impact

42:00 to 45:30

The hosts discuss the emotional toll on families of individuals involved in radical acts.

“Could you include some book recommendations in your newsletter?”

Book Recommendations on Geopolitics and AI

45:30 to 46:56

The hosts share insightful book recommendations related to geopolitics and artificial intelligence.

“One is a great book by Arthur Snell called Elemental.”

Insights from UEFA Conference

47:25 to 48:04

The hosts recount their experience at a UEFA conference discussing football associations and issues.

“because it really, it doesn't have all the answers, but maybe if we chat about it, we can maybe get to some more.”

Discussion on Tartan Coats and Personal Gifts

48:04 to 50:58

A light-hearted discussion about jackets given as gifts and personal anecdotes related to them.

“I know I said a final one, but this is really the final one.”
Hear the part that matters, and keep it.Open this episode in VO. Double tap your headphones to save a moment as you listen.
Get VO free

Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Thanks for listening to The Rest is Politics. To support the podcast, listen without the adverts and get early access to episodes and live show tickets, go to therestispolitics.com. That's therestispolitics.com.

0:20Welcome to The Rest is Politics Question Time with me, Alastair Campbell. And with me, Rory Stewart. Now, Rory, I think we may agree on this one. Lucy is a Trip Plus member from Warrington. Love the Warrington Wolves. What did you make of the government's announcement last week that it is cutting the development budget from 0.5 % to 0.3 %? Surely, says Lucy, at a time of increasing war, worsening global security, we should not give up on tackling both the root causes and consequences of these conflicts. Yeah, I think it's completely shocking.

0:48Rory Stewart:I don't think people have concentrated on this. So firstly, the Labour government, when the Tories decided to cut international development, attacked them repeatedly in the House of Commons. And Keir Starmer made these great value speeches about how the Tories need to understand that international development is national security and there's no trade-off between the two. He said that when he did the podcast in opposition. Absolutely. And everyone was very cheered up when he said the podcast in opposition that he was going to hold to the 0.7 % commitment. And they were all very much signed up as soon as fiscal conditions allow will come in.

1:17Rory Stewart:Then they came in and they said they were going to increase spending on various things, but in fact, not on international development. And the fact is that what Keir Starmer's government has done with international development spending is worse than anything that happened during austerity, worse than anything that happened on international development under Boris Johnson or Liz Truss or anyone. In fact, on international development. So austerity was a 25 % cut in departments. This is almost a 70 % cut in international development spending from where I was as the international development section.

1:50Rory Stewart:In 2019, I was spending about US$20 billion a year. We're now down in practice. If you take out the amount that they're now using that money to spend on refugees in Britain. So you take that out, we're down to about something like 0.24%. This is the lowest level of British spend on international development since 1970. We were spending more on international development during the oil crisis of 73. During the moment when we went to the IMF in the 1970s, we were spending more on international development. On Mrs. Thatcher, we were spending more on international development. On austerity. Keir Starmer has taken us down to the lowest level in 56 years.

2:29Rory Stewart:You're not happy. It's extraordinary. I mean, it doesn't make moral sense for the Labour Party that cares about these things. I mean, you created the 0.7 % commitment. You created the Department of National Development under New Labour. It's one of the few things that the Tories got behind. David Cameron got behind it. Theresa May was under a lot of pressure after Brexit to cut it. But she decided, actually, I think rightly, that when Britain left the European Union, the last thing it could do is start retreating from the world by cutting international development. So she kept that commitment forward.

2:57Rory Stewart:Add to that, we're now in a world in which Trump has cut international development spending. Apart from the moral and political stuff, it's the context, completely changed world. So we are in the world of the second Trump administration. We're in the world of Elon Musk and Doge. We're in the world in which Musk comes in and destroys USAID, cuts all that spending, destroys all the support for PEPFAR AIDS programs, malaria, TB, all of that in crisis. The US has stripped all its funding from... Democracy as well. Key UN agencies. And yet we are now spending less as a percentage of our GDP than Trump's United States of America on international development.

3:37Rory Stewart:Okay, let's take a quick pause. Back in a moment. This episode is brought to you by Fuse Energy. Energy policy rarely stays in Westminster for long, usually arrives with a bill. And from the 1st of April, 75 % of renewables' obligation costs will come off electricity bills and move into general taxation. So if bills are meant to fall from April, why would anyone bother switching? Because policy sets the floor. The saving itself is automatic. What suppliers offer beyond that isn't, and that's where real competition operates. Fuse goes beyond the mandated saving. Customers who switch save around an additional£200 on average.

4:19In the Fuse Energy app, you can see exactly what you're using and what it costs with 24-7 support if you need it. Listeners to the show will also receive a free TripPlus subscription when they switch. Get more than just lower rates. Switch today at FuseEnergy.com slash politics using the code politics and save around£200 on your bills.

4:39Rory Stewart:Visit FuseEnergy.com for full details and terms and conditions.

5:1039 seconds. In the UK, hundreds of cyber-enabled crimes are reported each day, with around£4.5 million lost daily to cybercrime.

5:19Rory Stewart:And this is only going to become more true with AI. We think of security risks as big and dramatic, but increasingly not. They're creeping in through the ordinary, an email that looks plausible, a link that feels routine. That's why I've been using NordVPN to close the gap. NordVPN encrypts your internet connection, hides your IP address, and protects your bank details and passwords so you're not assuming everything online is safe. To get the best discount on your NordVPN plan, go to nordvpn.com slash restispolitics. You'll get four extra months free on the two-year plan plus a 30-day money-back guarantee.

5:55The link is in the episode description.

6:09From start to finish, search thousands of vehicles with great prices. All online, all on your time. And when you're ready, your new car shows up right at your door. It doesn't get better than that. Buy your car the easy way on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. The other thing to point out, this is a really kind of nerdy point, but I'll make it anyway. it is british law that we spend 0.7 of gdp or no cza so parliament has to have a vote on this surely to there has to be a new law power that law has to be changed i mean i find it very depressing i think we said at the time that okay ukraine happens and the costs are going to be enormous that to me was the point at which labor could have and would have got away with putting up tax instead of which they wanted to play this overseas aid versus defense argument which is what they're doing now and i actually i read yesterday the hansard on yvette cooper's statement on it oh my god she was given a really really rough time very very few people weirdly across the house across

7:19Rory Stewart:the house yeah i mean you had bambus charolambus who's labor yeah obviously you had greens lib dems but you also had a lot of conservatives harriet baldwin also asking these questions about one return to 0.7%. Yeah, I think it's bad. And also your point about America is absolutely right. And there are some countries, and I know it's easier for Norway because unlike us, they didn't spaff the oil money. They created the Sovereign Wealth Fund and they're an extraordinarily successful, wealthy country. But they're currently at 1.02 % of gross national... Which is nearly four times as much as the percentage of GDP.

7:52Yeah, exactly. Ireland, 4.5 % increase last year, currently at 0.57%. South Korea, it went up. South Korea went up 24%.

8:03Rory Stewart:From a low base, from a very, very low base. Japan, Australia. So these are countries which, you know, you talk about the middle powers and creating a new alliance. So those countries who are on the front lines, South Korea, Japan, they really are places that matter. Norway worrying about the Arctic. They're all deciding to increase international development because as Keir Starmer told us when he was criticizing the Tories for doing it, this actually helps our defense and security. And that if you really want to think either about how do you stop the root causes, the kind of things that drive conflict, of course, it's not the answer to everything, but providing a bit of support in a humanitarian crisis, providing a bit of support to governments, providing support to refugees, reduces conflict, which doesn't get to us.

8:46Rory Stewart:But also if you're thinking about self-power, I mean, the spending in Africa is now a fraction of what it was. So even when I was the African minister back in 2016, I think our bilateral and multilateral aid to Africa was probably running at about six, seven billion dollars. And it's probably now less than a quarter of that. And meanwhile, across Africa, Russia is moving in with hard power and China's moving in with soft power. China's just done this amazing deal on visa travel for lots of the African countries. So add to that, that we are really struggling to think about values. And we're looking for a way to describe, let's say your Canada, the UK, Europe, why there should be your Alexander Stubb four corners.

9:31Rory Stewart:We can see what China represents, we can see what Russia represents, we can see what Trump's America represents. What is Europe's defining feature going to be? It's presumably not going to be, we are the richest, most low-tax, entrepreneurial, tech-savvy country in the world. That's gone. We're not going to be, we are the command and control, authoritarian communist state, nor we are the nuclear disrupter of the European order. No, we're supposed to be liberal democracy values. Part of that value has got to be. Internationalism. It can't be very difficult, this argument. So the argument isn't, we're going to give all our money to other people's countries, but every pound we spend abroad in the most extreme poor countries goes 100 times further than it does at home.

10:16Rory Stewart:I mean, in very real terms, 1 ,000 pounds for a family in extreme poverty on the Kenya border is 100 times more valuable than it would be for URI. And 0.7 % is not a lot. That's obviously 99.3 % is still spent in the UK. We're just asking for a tiny fraction to reflect the fact that in some ways, people are suffering in Britain, but compared to what the conditions you're living in in extreme poverty in Africa. And also, as well as being a British law, 0.7%, it's also the United Nations target for all countries. And right now, only four are meeting it. That's Norway, Luxembourg, Sweden, and Denmark.

11:00And Sweden are actually cutting. And if you look at all the overseas aid budgets that have been cut, so between them, US, UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Austria, New Zealand, Canada, they accounted for nearly three quarters of the total global overseas development budget in 2024 okay so when you've taken out some of the really big spenders particularly us and the americans that's a catastrophic catastrophic impact upon a lot of people a lot of countries why can't keir

11:33Rory Stewart:starmer see that if we're serious about a world after trump and we're going to have our own values in our own international system, our new alliances. We need British diplomats. We need development almost more, actually, than we need the hard power. If we're going to renegotiate a new relationship with the European Union, think about new institutional structures, think about China, what we actually need is Britain leaning out into the world, being a bit more global Britain, not less. So why are we retreating? Well, we'll have to get him on the podcast and ask him, won't we? But I agree. I do think that we underestimate the extent well we underestimate the opportunities of our soft power potential because this is still enormous but i think this sends out a pretty bad message about how we think about things and i get the politics of pitting against defense the other thing that annoys me is that normally there's an absolute outcry when a government breaks a manifesto promise there's been next to no outcry over this it's in the manifesto we're going to stick to 0.7 percent.

12:30And now we're not. So it's all very well to say you need to make tough choices. But this feels like one of those choices that doesn't feel that tough, because a lot of people in the country are thinking, well, these are far away places of which we know nothing. And that's what depresses me. Anyway, you mentioned the European Union there, Rory. Yeah, absolutely, Alistair.

12:50Rory Stewart:And I've got a question for you. Dale Fletcher, Warwickshire. Are current calls for the UK to rejoin the EU misdiagnosing the problem. Leaving the EU was supposed to remove the long-standing habit in UK politics of attributing domestic failings to Brussels. What we've seen since is the exposure of underlying weaknesses in our own governance, productivity and policy execution leading to ever-increasing economic difficulty. Is there a risk that the rejoined debate becomes less about fixing those issues and more about restoring an external point of blame? Well, the answer to that only if we embrace this debate with the lack of confidence that I'm afraid was part of the reason why we left in the first place.

13:29So it needn't be like that. It needn't be like that. I do feel, I mean, this is part, you've got to be careful about, you know, your own desires getting in the way of rational assessment. I do feel this debate is moving and I feel it could move quite quickly. So Sadiq Khan does an interview in an Italian newspaper and basically says Labour should have it in the manifesto that we're going back in. Okay. Why in an Italian newspaper?

13:50Rory Stewart:It's a weird way to reveal your big policy. Well, probably because he was asked. Right. Probably. And it was a La Republica. And I don't know, maybe not a bad thing. But anyway, I thought what was interesting was the lack of screaming hab-dabs about it. And also, I sense that Mr. Farage, he didn't really go for it either. And I'll tell you another thing we've noticed. So we've done recently, we've interviewed Pedro Sanchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, Alexander Stubb, the President of Finland. Do you think it was interesting how they both were very, very clear in stating as a fact, without sort of rubbing our nose and just saying, well, look, you know, we all know Brexit's been a disaster for the UK.

14:25And if you came back, we would like to have you. Absolutely.

14:27Rory Stewart:And the French foreign minister said the same this week. He did. He did. And you sent that to me because I've always been a bit worried that we might get raked over the coals. And a year ago, people were still talking that time, but maybe they've become more friendly. Chris Bryant. Interesting. I was just quoting him yesterday on the House of Lords. But he said, and I think this is a message to the whole government, he says the UK's relationship with the EU is not a series of policy decisions, but instead one great big decision. And I think there's a lot to be said in general about the way the government does stuff.

14:58Rory Stewart:A little bit more binary, this is the big vision, instead of lots of tiny little decisions. Well, as you know, I really like Nick Thomas Simmons, who's the minister in charge of this. And he is following the brief. is basically improving step by step here there and everywhere but there's definitely got to come a point where we do make that big step because it's it is a big step there's no doubt about that and there are massive political risks attached to it but my view in politics and particularly political strategy it's always best to have fights about things that really really matter and rachel reeves again was interesting last week so she did the may's lecture and she said you know red line not joining the single market customers but within it she's basically she said she's put the estimate of the loss to our economy now eight percent i've been merrily quoting five to six percent for some time we now have the chance for these checkers saying it's eight percent so i do feel this is moving interestingly at the fulham burnley game on saturday burnley fans are always projected as you know being all these sort of you know brexiteers and da da guy came up to me and and and just he was getting married to an italian yeah he said you know i'm finally going to get sorted he was an absolute lancastrian yeah but he was basically saying brexit has ruined his life up to now run his business his personal life etc so he's now going to get married to an italian get a passport do you think um international development could have also been a big fight quite an unusual fight that you wouldn't necessarily be expecting the labor party to have but actually could be quite inspiring for people could some have got out there and said listen this is the move we're on we've inherited a difficult situation but we're getting back to 0.7.

16:34And let me say, when we were in opposition, it was a big part of our inspiring agenda. It was a big progressive thing. And, you know, Tony Blair used to make speeches. And, you know, when you're writing a speech, I always used to sort of, as we were planning the speech, I would always put a little red tick against what I knew was going to be a clap line in a speech. International development always. So it was inspiring. People did want to hear things like that. So look, I think we're on the move on brexit i could be wrong but i really do i think a lot of people i did that and i did um the troll podcast the other day with marina perkus and jemma forte they've got full-time jobs they've got families and what have you they were quotes radicalized by brexit and they are you know adamant they're going to stay involved and stay engaged until this thing gets undone question

17:21Rory Stewart:for you uh one of your favorite places in the world south australia yep marie who's actually TripPlus member from Adelaide. We have a lot of Australian listeners. I've got a lot of stuff about this election. Does the election result here in South Australia over the weekend show that liberals and centrists aren't doing enough to counter the rise of the far right? Or are there any lessons for leftist centre parties worldwide in the second term landslide win of Peter Malinowskis? Could you begin, please, for listeners who are not in South Australia by just reminding people what happened in that election?

17:51Well, Peter Malinowskis is a guy that I met in Adelaide at their book festival a couple of years ago. And you and I did an event. You were online and I was in this amazing hall in Adelaide. And Peter Malinowskis introduced us. And that's how I got to know him. And I found him incredibly impressive from the off. And we had lunch together in London. And we had lunch together when he came over here. We've had him on the podcast. And he has just pulled off a remarkable win. The answer to the question is it's both of those things. Because the two big outcomes of this election, One is Malinowskis has got a huge landslide win.

18:28But the second thing that has happened is that the One Nation Party, which is the UK reform with a bit of Rupert Lowe tucked in with it, they have beaten the Liberal Party, which is their, as it were, their Conservative Party. So their traditional right-wing party has been beaten. That's the first time for decades.

18:47Rory Stewart:So this is extraordinary. This is like a shift from a traditional two-party system. And I think the two main parties, Labour and Liberals, just got into the sort of high 50 % of the vote. When, as in the UK, you go back in time, they would have been much more substantial two-party systems. And Pauline Hanson, when you and I were in Australia, just going to come to your conversation with Peter, but people were congratulating themselves on the fact that Pauline Hanson was a bit useless and a bit of a joke. And, you know, we were often saying on this podcast as recently as 12 months ago, isn't it great that compulsory voting and preferential voting means that they don't have to deal with Nigel Farage and now they are dealing with him.

19:23And that's kind of what he said. And it was very interesting. His acceptance speech was really interesting. He thanked family and friends and campaigners and all that. And then he thanked his opponents for being so gracious in defeat. And then he said that he'd had this phone call from the One Nation candidate. And the audience, all Labour Party members and supporters, started to boo at the mention of the guy's name and malinauska just says no no no no he said this is this was an impressive campaign that they fought and we should and so i think his positioning with it is going to be we have to show respect to their views but but but but but respectfully

20:03Rory Stewart:but he's not endorsing that he's not he's not going down the storm i'm going to lean into it in fact he's you you shared a poem that he read shall i read you the poem yeah give us the poem because it gives you a sense of the fact that he's standing up for his eyes. He's a bit more Sanchez-like on the subject. He totally is. So he said he had two reflections. And the first was, don't be satisfied at winning. Only be satisfied by what we do with the victory. So that's the first thing. Don't gloat. And then he then said that when he was voting himself, he was standing alongside this guy who came from Vietnam.

20:33He was a boat person from Vietnam. And the guy just spoke to him and they had a chat. and he was describing this guy's sense of patriotism to Australia, being a Vietnamese boat person. And then he quoted this poem by a guy called Henry Lawson, who's a famous Australian poet. His face is actually on their$10 notes. And the poem is called The Duty of Australians. I won't read all of it. I'll read the bit that Peter Malalowskis read out. "'Tis the duty of Australians in the bush and in the town, to forever praise their country, but to run no other down. When a man or nation visits in the heyday of its pride, tis the duty of Australians to be kind but dignified.

21:14Tis our duty to the stranger, landed maybe but one hour, to give all the information and assistance in our power, to give audience to the new chum and to let the old chums wait, lest his memory be embittered by his first days in the state. Tis our duty when he's foreign and his English very young, to find out and take him somewhere where he'll hear his native tongue to give him our last spare moment and our pleasure to defer he'll be father of australians as our foreign fathers were how cool is that and that he's a lithuanian i mean malinauskas his second year you know his grandparents went there they were from lithuania and hungary so i thought you're right he was basically saying we stand up for all australians we stand up for immigration we look after everybody we welcome them.

22:02But I think the point he was making is don't fall into the trap of saying just because they've suddenly voted for a very right-wing party as opposed to a right-wing party, that they're somehow all sort of beyond the pale.

22:14Rory Stewart:Well, for what it's worth, the kind of conventional wisdom seems to be that his strengths were competence, kind of sort of he's just seemed competent, some winnable reform fights, which we talked about a lot, him banning social media, campaign finance reform. But they were big things. Really big things. Really big. Big, risky, not necessarily popular. I mean, he actually explained on the podcast that most of his advisors were advising him not to do them. And finally, not letting the opponents pick the terrain on the culture wars. He's got a clear position, but he's sort of kind of slightly diffused it.

Read the full transcript

22:48Rory Stewart:It's really weird, though. Let's just for a second. I mean, huge congratulations to Malinowski. One of the problems, though, maybe, and this maybe relates to some of these questions we got, Mary's from Adelaide, that it's difficult taking lessons across because he may be just a pretty exceptional politician. And that saying to me or Keir Starmer, you need to be more like Peter Malinowskis may not really work. Or maybe I'm undermining a lot of your entire life, which is going around telling people how to be more like the new Labour government. But presumably people might say to you, it's quite difficult because you don't actually have Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

23:25Rory Stewart:It's no good just saying to some random politician, you need to be more like that. Look, you can't say to somebody, be something that you're not. I mean, Malinowski is a bit like Sanchez. He's very tall and very handsome. He's a good looking bloke. You're saying something about me and Keir Starmer. I think you'd have to grow a bit to be like, he's a Malinowski. But I'll tell you the other thing is that what you described there is he takes bold, clear positions and he then fights for them and he's seen to fight for them. And they're positions that Starmer could have taken, I'm afraid. There's no reason why Starmer couldn't have run something on social media.

23:58Rory Stewart:Absolutely. Which they're now doing. But we always say whenever he does it, following... But can we see it? I mean, with Malolskos, it defined him. He made it the big issue. He let us see the stakes. We sensed Google moving against him, Twitter moving against him. And then Albanese made it federal. That's leadership, I agree. But I think that where Marie's question is right, though, and this is what Peter Malolskos said when we were, you know, exchanging texts over the weekend is that you know this is an amazing win and let's just be let's just look at it he's got you know the liberal party the traditional opposition got four seats pauline hansen's one nation got one seat the greens got zero seats on 10 of the vote so it's they're gonna have to work out how do you have an opposition when he's got such a big majority within the south australian parliament i think there's there's something in the it's the boldness and it's the clarity of it's the relentlessness of communication as well without being an a-hole i mean oh he's not i mean i i got some nice texts from friends of mine who are part of the old liberal party the sort of tory party in in in australia and i'm quite struck that yeah they've they grumble but they're not really chippy about peter malolskis i mean they they occasionally suggest he's populist but that's pretty close suggesting he's popular but boy oh boy the one nation thing we shouldn't underestimate that i mean just just to move off the good news onto the bad news.

25:20Rory Stewart:The bad news is that in 26 of these contests, it was a Labour One Nation contest, and only 12 was against the Liberals. And One Nation, Pauline Hanson, which was a joke, is not a joke anymore. I mean, it's a little bit reform. And what we're discovering around the world, unfortunately, is nobody is immune. There was an Iberian exception. Spain and Portugal weren't supposed to have populist parties. Now they have them. Australia was meant to have a system that defeated populism now it's got it so something's happening and melinolsk is a great clue on how you might beat them but they're a real reality and these and the right parties this is true in britain and it's true the republican party in spades are in such trouble because they cannot hold together people like me who are sort of i suppose centrist moderate urban old-fashioned conservatives and the kind of culture war anti-immigration populists they're having their whole coalition torn in two.

26:17Very interesting, though, how in the mayor elections in France over the weekend, the far right have not done nearly as well as they thought they were going to. Well, that's encouraging, although the AFD is up 10%. The AFD is doing horribly well at the moment. But again, there was an election in one of the lender last week, and it was the CDU who took it from the STP, right? And then the AFD did rise, but they didn't take it. But I'll say the other thing that's interesting, and this is something else I talked about with Malinowskis. we often say we brits that we're always in terms of political campaign techniques and so forth we're always a bit behind the americans i hope we stay behind the americans right now but that's been historically you know something happens in america then we do and the australians then tend to be a few years behind us yeah because pauline hansen's talents haven't changed no still pretty ghastly politics and not a great politician yeah but the debate has changed and the traditional right-wing party has kind of looks like it's imploding a bit it's not nationwide but there it was a really really bad defeat.

27:13But anyway, well done, Mr. Malinowskis. He's a really interesting guy, and I'm very, very pleased that he walked it.

27:20Rory Stewart:Brilliant. Let's take a break. And when we come back after the break, we're going to be talking about Islamophobia in Britain. We're going to be talking about a new King Charles footpath. You have a lighter question for us, and we're also going to share some book recommendations. Excellent.

27:42Rory Stewart:Welcome back to The Rest is Politics Question Time with me, Rory Stewart. And me, Alastair Campbell. Okay, here's one for you, Rory. It's about your old party. Ayan, why do you think the Tories have adopted a reform strategy of Islamophobia as a popular policy? I think Islamophobia is a very, very, very, very real thing. I also think anti-Semitism is a real thing. What seems to be difficult is acknowledging that both those things are happening in spades. there's this very weird thing going on at the moment called the judeo-christian culture which you're now hearing farage talking about a great deal it's really weird i mean we now have uh robert jenrick here's mini me uh talking about psalm sunday psalm sunday yeah so what's going on with psalm sunday what is it actually means palm sunday yeah what you know i know that yeah exactly what you notice is that even you as an atheist know that these guys were not talking about Christianity.

28:36Rory Stewart:Tommy Robinson's march was a lot about Judeo-Christian culture. This is not because they're big church growers. Because they're white. Yeah. And it's extraordinary, the stuff you see on social media. Unbelievable. The repeated stuff that you see, and I get it in my feeds often, is stories saying, the head of education in Britain, who's a Muslim, has decreed that. And then you have to search and find out that whoever they're referring to is not the head of education in Britain. And he hasn't decreed that, right? By which time it's been shared with, you know, 10 ,000 people, 100 ,000 people. One this morning saying that one of the independent MPs saying that they want Muslims to take over the whole of Birmingham, that Mohammed is the most popular name in this.

29:20Rory Stewart:And now the most recent thing is Nick Timothy complaining about a prayers in Trafalgar Square. It's Theresa May's former advisor who's now an MP. And it's heartbreaking because actually that was Muslims welcoming people. So what was it? This is an event in Trafalgar Square. It's been going on for years. In different places. And the Muslim community, like the Christian community and the Jewish community and the Sikh community and the Hindu community, go out of their way to welcome people. It's one of the lovely things that Jewish communities do. They invite Muslims and Christians to come to synagogues, and Muslims are increasingly inviting other people to come and pray with them to show that actually people who have a faith in God have far more in common than divides them, to make it slightly less threatening.

30:04Rory Stewart:So why does Nick Timothy not like it? He says it's an act of domination. Who's dominating whom? The idea is that Muslims are dominating everybody else. I saw it. I saw it. There's something so sad about being unable. Why can't we get to a stage of accepting in the way that we've made progress from so many other things in the world, right? Kind of views that we used to have about women or about people who are gay. One of the stories we tell ourselves is that as people have more gay friends, they're less homophobic. That the kind of prejudices people had 50 years ago was going to know any gay people and now no gay people, they're less worried about it.

30:39Rory Stewart:Why are we not getting there with Muslims? Because anybody who makes friends with a Muslim immediately sees all the human qualities, the generosity, the love, the dignity, the friendliness, and all scary people. Well, I think the answer is that all of these issues are being very, very successfully weaponized. So the front page of the Financial Times review at the weekend was a whole huge piece about the way that the right here are trying to engender the same sort of politicization of religion as you've had in the United States. GB News, the owner of GB News, who's spaffing 100 million quid, whatever is on their losses to try and sort of propagandize for the right.

31:20A lot of it is about this Judeo-Christian thing.

31:23Rory Stewart:This Judeo-Christian thing is interesting because not to make too fine a point on it, the attachment of Judeo to Christian is very odd, right? Actually, a more sensible way to talk about it is Islam, Christianity, and Judaism all being people of the book. They're actually broadly, in many ways, Islam has more in common with Judaism than it does with Christianity. But broadly speaking, there are three religions that are very, very close. One God, similar traditions. Islam actually venerates Jesus, venerates Moses. I mean, so this weird thing of Judeo-Christian and lopping off the Islam bit is really weird.

32:01Rory Stewart:I can see the logic for Christianity. I can see the logic for Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. But Judeo-Christian? So you're a Christian? Yes. I'm an atheist. Yes. And I'm probably more driven by politics than faith. Right. Okay. So I look at Robert Jenrick. Yeah. Now, as it happens, I'm preconditioned to think the guy's a complete bullshitter because I've seen a lot of evidence. He's a complete bullshitter and utterly opportunistic. So when he says the importance of Psalm Sunday, right, which is actually an evil eye, though, it's Palm Sunday. Do you remember why it's called Palm Sunday? It's to do with something or other.

32:38Yeah. parboiled. No, it's not. I don't know. I haven't got a clue. You'll tell me. But then I see Farage, and it's inserting itself more and more into his communications. We've got the election coming up in Hungary quite soon, okay? Orban, he's full of this religious stuff.

32:53Rory Stewart:And it's now being praised by Netanyahu, and Trump. Not only praised by Netanyahu, Netanyahu went to Hungary to endorse him in the campaign. J.D. Vance is about to, we talk about not interfering in other people's elections. J.D. Vance is about to go. And of course, Vance is a lot of its religion. It's a lot of eccentric narrative there too, isn't it? Because it's a sort of Christian narrative, which is also based on the idea that the Hungarians are Magyar nomads who came out of Central Asia. The whole thing's very confusing. But you say, how does it happen? What happens is you take any story you want and you can politicize it.

33:25So, and I've always felt, maybe it's because my mother was a believer and my sister's a believer, and I see people who have their faith and they think it's all about doing good. Right. Respecting other people and belief in something above you that's better than you. But you basically try to do good.

33:45Rory Stewart:Yeah, and also accepting that you're pretty fragile and flawed and the world's a bit screwed up. Exactly. This is a way of talking and forgiving and thinking about the way we're all a bit screwed up. And I don't see any of that in Trump, in Vance, in Hexas. Hexas actually reads from the Bible at his press conferences while he's busy showing these videos of 10-pin bowlings done up as American flags, taking out jihadis in his head. So Joe Rogan, who is not usually the person who presides in this podcast, had an extraordinary moment of revelation where he was following up one of these American colonels who gave a speech saying how happy he was about this Iran war because what the book of Revelations tells us is that Donald Trump is going to unleash Armageddon on the world and this is going to lead to the Second Coming.

34:31Rory Stewart:coming yeah and joe rogan was like whoa and the guy on the podcast with him was like okay i get it it's not just that there are mad muslims out there with crazy fundamentalist views who are trying to bring the world to an end there are mad christians out there well add to that there are mad atheists out there you know adolf hitler famous he was an atheist there are mad buddhists out there i mean one of the sad things in myanmar is that's one of the most you believe it right one of the most peaceful imaginable religions in the world managed to generate its own violent genocidal nationalists. So look, all different things can be used like this, but there's something particularly horrible, particularly horrible about Christianity, which where the whole narrative is supposed to be peace, forgiveness, love.

35:12Rory Stewart:And the Pope does keep trying to point this out, to be fair to him. And actually it was a Christian bishop who came out and praised what the Muslims were doing in Trafalgar Square and tried to stand up for them. I mean, so the church is not responsible for this really but just on this thing about the um the politicization of religious religion in the united states and trump doesn't do that much he did it in his first time he went carrying his bible to that thing and but he doesn't sort of push it down your throat like vance does and like hexath does i really think we're getting very close to the point where your friend the king should follow the pope and saying i'm not going to 250th anniversary stuff i'm going going to spend the day with the poor people.

35:55What do you think of that, Rory?

35:57Rory Stewart:Well, I think he's in a very difficult situation. I think he's a very difficult situation. You talked about this constitution. He is there in many ways to support this government. And I think it's a call that Keir Salman's got to make. What would you do if you were Keir Salman? What would you be advising the king to do? I really do think we're very close to it. Just go through the last few days. You had that horrible thing we talked about on the main podcast about Robert Mueller. I'm glad he's dead. Very Christian. You had him doing that endorsement for Orban. You've had him posting a clip from a satirical program, taking the piss out of Keir Starmer for being weak in the face of Donald Trump.

36:36Rory Stewart:But is Starmer's calculation not, in a sense, that the only thing... He's probably thinking containment. Well, he isn't the only thing we know that Trump actually quite likes about the United Kingdom. Is the royal family the one person? I didn't know it was any good the first time. You had the state visit, that nonsense of being driven around Windsor Park with low crowds there. And so you treat him like a man baby. You know, you could argue we got a few months decent treatment. Since when, barely a day goes by that he doesn't insult Keir Starmer. Well, I'm going to do tilt because I think the king's in a difficult position there.

37:10Rory Stewart:But there's something that actually he's got a lot of credit for recently. Oh, the coastal path. That's it. I love the coastal path. Well, maybe we should walk a part of it sometime. Not all of it. It's 2 ,000 miles of it. I don't know. We should do it in sections. So, Osama, who's a TripPlus member from Denham. There's a lot of doom and gloom in the UK right now. Can we celebrate some of our recent achievements, such as the completion of the world's longest coastal path? Yeah. This project started under Gordon Brown, took 18 years to compete, whereas the northern part of HS2 was suddenly mothballed by Rishi Sunak without parliamentary approval.

37:45Rory Stewart:Bloody Taurus. Osama's being a bit... Why do you stick that in? How can government and citizens monitor and protect long-term projects that transition between governments and generations? Well, I want to pay tribute, given that he's being nice about Gordon Brown, to John Major, whose national forest is now a real delight. I don't know whether you've seen it. I mean, obviously, he stepped down in 97. It's incredible. It went into basically an area of damage. I like stepped down. Damage. Was crushed by you in an election. It was absolutely obliterated. He was malinorskist. You know, it's amazing, right?

38:18Rory Stewart:So that was waste ground and has been transformed into this beautiful forest and now this coastal path. You can also now walk along the north bank of the Thames. So maybe if you're not prepared to do the full 2 ,000 miles, I mean, north bank of the Thames is beautiful. I love the idea of the coastal path. Sadiq Khan, your mate. The south bank of the Thames, it's still a bit annoying. I often try to walk that. There are many bits where you are pushed away from the river. You get stuck by stuff. You can't particularly get from Greenwich through. That's not rocket science. A really determined there.

38:46Rory Stewart:I hate that phrase. Okay. I absolutely hate that. It's a terrible cliche. It's not rocket science. What does it mean? Well, what it means is that if I were mayor of London, I would promise to resign in a year unless I'd sorted out the southern path along the coast. Did you say it's not rocket science when you made the prison's pledge? No, I didn't say that. Because I really do hate that phrase. Please desist from using it. I'll stop that. Okay, I'll stop that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm very surprised that you're using such a profound and horrible cliche. Actually, I had a friend who managed to use that phrase when people were actually discussing space and somebody was able to say, actually, it is.

39:21Fiona and I went this morning. We had a body off. Went to see the Turner Constable exhibition at the Tate Modern.

39:28Rory Stewart:Good blimey. So I walked here. And I noticed just before you get to the House of Laws, there's like a beach. Yeah, yeah, it's lovely. So what's happening there? At Low Tide. What's happening there? There's always a beach at Low Tide. Can you go out there and swim? You can't get down off the wall because the police will get in trouble. You wouldn't swim in the water, would you? Go down the beach, it's really fun. If you go down the gravel, there's amazing things. You can find 16th century pipes and all this kind of stuff. I also once went canoeing with Mr. McDonald, the SMP MP. We canoed straight past the House of Lords Terrace.

39:57Rory Stewart:Yeah, that was a fun moment. Were they lobbing abuse at you? Were you lobbing abuse at them? Yeah, back and forth. And my canoe partner lobbing abuse at me. I think the coastal path is great. I think the... And that's a great thing for the king to be involved in. It was great. I mean, I think the king's been stuffing the environment. his Amazon documentary which I keep talking up on Harmony so I think it's great that he's got involved in that and got behind that Do you think he'll join in the New World's campaign to get all our readers to watch an hour of GB News Tell us about that campaign I don't think his majesty is going to be involved in the New World campaign to watch an hour of GB News I don't think he likes GB News Tell us about it That's a weird segue way that's like when you tell me off and i go on on sky news i'm not mentioning the podcast you do that it's yeah last week we talked about the new world and then ed davie thank you very much ed davie raised it in the commons i didn't like keir starmer's response i don't think he was listening much because he basically said i'm a great believer in freedom of speech and ofcom needs to sort itself out in other words ofcom should be in charge of sorting itself out when the point we're making is ofcom is totally unfit for purpose and has been useless at stopping GB News from becoming Farage TV.

41:13So their line to us, as I said to you last week, was that, well, we can only act if we get complaints. So we're asking our listeners and our readers and anybody that we meet, we're saying, just spend one hour. And send in your honest views. Send in your honest views. Have the Ofcom guide about impartiality and fairness and balance and accuracy. And then if you think it's been breached, write to Ofcom. Then they'll have to investigate your complaint. It's a lovely idea. So I think if the King and Camilla would like to do that, That'd be great.

41:40Rory Stewart:That's a lovely idea. You just reminded me, actually. I've completely failed to praise, and this is with huge apologies because I'm so bad at these segues, my friend Simon Collins, former ambassador to Riyadh, who was very, very helpful in helping me understand what's happening in the least. Right, now, final question. That was a really bad segue. He's so bad at plugging. I'm so bad, yeah. Final question from Alessandro. Could you include some book recommendations in your newsletter? Oh, yeah. Not only about Iran. Have you read anything good recently in any language? Do you know when we were in Spain?

42:11Yes. Do you remember Sanchez's press secretary, communications director? And she was a journalist like me before I became a communications director. She was a journalist. And she'd written a book in Spanish, which translates as In the Womb of the Jihad. Very good. Okay. And I said, well, I can't speak Spanish. And she said, well. You can read Spanish, can't you? I could probably read. But then she said, well, she signed it. Yes. And then she said, it's been translated into French. But I honestly think, you know, I'm always asking publishers to pick up German books, one of which has just been done, by the way.

42:46This is... Alexandre Gill. No, this is great. Because basically, what you get is, you were saying this about, you know, the way that we think about people. So if you think, if I think of somebody who's a suicide bomber, say, who went from Britain or France or Belgium, they're the three big countries. She only talks to Belgian and French people, families of jihadis. Somebody goes and he's a suicide bomber. What are your thoughts about what their family might be like?

43:11Rory Stewart:I think it's heartbreaking. I mean, I think it's, firstly, it's somebody who's taken their own life. Secondly, it's somebody who's got involved in a violent, criminal, horrible act of murdering other people. I'd imagine it's like talking to the parents of people who I saw in prison who'd committed horrible crimes, which is the terrible kind of terror in your heart of the horror that your son has inflicted on the world and asking yourself what you did to create the situation in which that happens. What often happens is that somebody gets involved in that, and then the way they're then treated by the public, by the media, is like somehow this is down to you because you're their family.

43:49Rory Stewart:You're their parents, yeah. And I mean, I've not finished the book yet, but I'm reading one at the moment where actually the parents are Catholics, and he was raised as a Catholic. Yeah. And he gets radicalized, and off he goes, aged 18. and it's just incredibly moving to get this and and she's done an amazing job she spent a lot of time with these people getting their whole life story i mean it must be awful but it is but the parents of that person who assassinated charlie kirk or the guy that uh tried to assassinate trump or the parents of the um young scottish boy who went off to fight on the russian side against the ukrainians yeah i mean i don't know how you process your 18 19 year old going off to No, I'm just reading one of a sister, the sister of a guy who was involved in Islamic State, and she lost her job on the back of it.

44:41Right. You know. Or parents of people who do school shootings. Yeah. Anyway, it's really interesting. I asked you what you thought, and I'd like to think I'd have given the same answer. But the honest truth is, I've probably never thought of it. You hear about somebody doing something like a suicide bomber. you get a snatch of what they look like because there's a picture of them. But then you probably don't think what's behind that.

45:04Rory Stewart:I knew someone who tried to strap himself up and blow himself up. And he was basically a kind of troubled, naive 18-year-old who I knew in Afghanistan and who decided to try to... was radicalized and went over to the Haqqani Network and tried to blow himself up and was stopped by the police just 50 yards from detonating himself. I don't know what you do with it. It's a horrible thing. What are you reading? Yeah, so a couple of things. One is a great book by Arthur Snell called Elemental. And this is a book about geopolitics and climate. So anyone really interested in geopolitics and climate, I'd really recommend it because Arthur Snell is a former British diplomat.

45:44Rory Stewart:He's worked in some of the very toughest places in the world. He also did conflict resolution stuff. It's really relevant at the moment, partly because he talks about why desalination plants happen, how climate change affected Syria and how unless we think about climate change, we can't really understand geopolitics. This is a theme we've raised before. Another book, Sebastian Maliby's written a book called The Infinity Machine, which is about Sir Demas Hussabis, the Nobel Prize winning amazing AI, Google DeepMind founder. And I've interviewed him on our Restless Politics AI miniseries. And I think people should listen.

46:24Rory Stewart:I mean, firstly, Demacis Abbott is mesmerizing, but Sebastian is an incredible analyst of these tech titans. He talks so well about, if you compare it, the culture of Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Trump, and the risks of AI and the ways in which it's not being regulated, and the odd combination of good intention, recklessness, and hubris that are driving us to the edge of some real challenges. So that interview, which I've done with Sebastian Malaby on Demis, the Sabbath and AI, is out on Friday. And if you want to listen, go to the rest of this politics.com to sign up. And final thing, Ditchly, which does those conferences, has got a great new series of walking around the lake, talking to the director about geopolitical issues.

47:10Rory Stewart:So people on the more geeky side of geopolitics may include, and may enjoy a walk around the lake with by Ditchley. My last plug is the book I mentioned last week by Liam Byrne, Labour MP, Why the Populists are Winning and How We Defeat Them, which we're going to do a little mini-series on because it really, it doesn't have all the answers, but maybe if we chat about it, we can maybe get to some more. But it's a brilliant analysis of this whole populist. And are you going to be able to weave in my new hero who I've never actually met, or I've only met briefly, Peter Hyman, who's been traveling around looking at populists in the States.

47:45Definitely weave him in. Great, great. So hold on, you've gone from Alan Bilburn to Pedro Sanchez and now you're with Peter Hyman. Yeah, yeah. I've never given up on Corbyn along the way, have I? With his ears, his beautiful ears. His beautiful ears. Oh, another plug, my final plug. What do you think this might be? It's a badge. I went to a UEFA conference last week. Oh my goodness. Which was really interesting. It was really interesting. And remind us UEFA is. What? uefa is the union of european football associations it's like fifa for europe correct that's right that's absolutely right so all i was there to sort of talk to all the fa's all the football associations of europe's england scotland wales northern ireland ireland so it's really but so there was armenia and azerbaijan yeah and there was ukraine and russia oh well uefa's not kicked out russia russia is banned from competing right but they can go to conferences so there was russia anyway the guy from the ukrainian fa came up and he said i want you to he listens to our podcast he likes our discussions on ukraine he said i want you to have our new badge and the badge is a it's a stadium and it's called chernyhev stadium and it says destroyed by russia that's the stadium i mean why are they bombing stadiums why are they doing that that's just hitting civilian infrastructure isn't it so that's my

49:03Rory Stewart:new badge it's very good i was thinking of you recently in football because i was watching spartacus with the kids so you guys i was watching sparta prague no the czech league um no the original the original spartacus and and yeah and that's i suddenly realized there are like 80 different football teams called after spartacus called spartac because that legend of the slave revolt inspired the communists and they all called their football team spartac as a result and what happened to your plans you were talking about your boys wanted to go to a game i hadn't got my head around how much Chelsea tickets cost.

49:33Rory Stewart:I'm afraid I was too mean to take them. Oh, you should give me a call. I know people are in a bit. Yeah, exactly. Brilliant. Now, final one for me. I know I said a final one, but this is really the final one. Myve, where did Alistair get that dashing red coat? Chloe, Alistair, where'd you get that coat? Kind of want one. Hashtag style icon. And Victoria Davidson, talk us through the jacket choice. Well, I have to tell viewers and listeners, it was a present from Rory Stewart. And it's a very nice present. And I actually do love it. I've got it here. I was wearing it today. I gave you a nice present, though.

50:10You did. I wrote a tune for you and played it on the back post. Yes, it was lovely. You gave me a lovely. So that, dear listener and viewer, is a Stewart tartan. Now, whoever made this...

50:19Rory Stewart:It's a real tribute to you because actually as a gift, it was quite a risky gift. There was a strong likelihood you might never wear it. No, I love it. Great. I wear it all the time. But I want a Campbell tartan one. so whoever made it it's made by gloverall if we want to well i tried to get hold of them and i sent them a message i've got this very difficult to get hold of gloverall i really like things my paddington bear coats made by them too but i can never get hold of them to get any answers out of them they've got different things on the website and i just want to ask simple questions like is this the same coat and they'll never pick up so gloverall if you're listening you make good coats but you need to sort out your customer relations but i'd like this in campbell tartan if I may yeah and I'll happily wear it my um Sasha's just been reading kidnaps and he was like the Stuart Campbell thing I the Stuarts really don't like the Campbells no it's more that the Campbells don't like the Stuarts you know I mean what was the dictum he was trying domination I sent him a I sent him a picture of the massacre of Glencoe which I I saw recently good all right thank you all very much thank you see you next week bye bye bye

51:51Rory Stewart:We'll be right back. Limited time offer for new clients on federal returns. Participating locations only. Terms at jacksonnewitt.com slash 149.

From the publisher

Are the UK government’s aid cuts more extreme than those made under austerity and Trump? What can Britain learn from South Australia's landslide against the far-right? Have the Tories & Reform adopted a strategy of Islamophobia?

Join Rory and Alastair as they answer all these questions and more.

__________

Go deeper into the world of The Rest Is Politics by signing up for our free newsletter HERE, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis and weekend reads from Alastair and Rory.

Join The Rest Is Politics Plus: Start your free trial at therestispolitics.com to unlock exclusive bonus content – including Rory and Alastair’s miniseries – plus ad-free listening, early access to episodes and live show tickets, exclusive newsletters, discounted book prices, and a private chatroom on Discord.

The Rest Is Politics is powered by Fuse Energy. To sign up and for terms and conditions, visit fuseenergy.com/politics.

Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ nordvpn.com/restispolitics It's risk-free with Nord's 30 day money back guarantee ✅

__________

Instagram: @restispolitics

Twitter: @restispolitics

Email: therestispolitics@goalhanger.com

__________

Social Producer: Celine Charles

Video Editors: Josh Smith, Lorcan Moullier

Assistant Producer: Daisy Alston-Horne

Producer: Evan Green

Exec Producer: Chris Sawyer

General Manager: Tom Whiter
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

More from The Rest Is Politics

All 501 episodes
515. Starmer’s Foreign Aid Betrayal, Islamophobia & Australia’s Far Right (Question Time)The Rest Is Politics · 52 min
Listen in VO