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The Lowdown from Nick Cohen

Nick Cohen
The Lowdown from Nick Cohen
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  • Rights in retreat?
    Nick Cohen talks about defending values and rights against a resurgent culture of intolerance & extremism as exemplified by the Trump White House with leading philosopher & author professor A.C.Grayling @acgrayling How do do we defend those values and rights in a new world of social media and culture warfare?This is the 2nd part of a 2-part interview with Professor Grayling.Rights retreat with resurgence of radicalised right How do we defend our rights against an aggressive authoritarian radicalised right? For years, it seemed that long term issues such as racism, and discrimination had been in retreat - bit sadly no longer. How do we all stand up for our values while avoiding the obvious so-called "Woke" booby traps?Rights versus interestsA.C. Grayling discusses the battle as being between rights and interests, summarising, "The culture wars are between people who are demanding the rights that would result in their having full inclusion of full acceptance in society on an equitable basis on the one hand and on the other hand, people who were defending their interests, which historically have been interests of privilege... this is a fight between rights and interests. And we all have interests. and interest in not being offended by other people, but we don't have a right not to be offended."We all have an interest in being able to have our say, but we also have a right to have our say. So, you know, here again, we see how important it is to distinguish between what counts as a right and what is, as it were only an interest because it is the people who are defending their interests. who have to do the hard work of accepting that other people are genuinely owed their rights."Finding the right language to defend valuesA.C.Grayling stresses the importance of finding the right language to make our values heard above the heat and smoke of battle, adding, "Finding some way to discuss these things and to navigate them is tremendously important. And that only comes if there is goodwill and clear understanding on both sides and in the fevered state of the debate at the moment, particularly in view of the fact that it is really the language and and the perceptions of people on the further wings of both sides of this debate, which seem to be constitutive of the debate that makes it impossible to get real progress going on the substance of the debate."Read all about it!Nick Cohen's @NichCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond.A.C. Grayling's book Discriminations: Making peace in the culture wars is now out as paperback. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • In denial over Trump's treachery
    Whither or wither NATO?Nick Cohen and Phillips P.O'Brien, the academic, author & military historian, discuss the current state of NATO and the Western alliance, with a focus on the US security guarantee to Europe and the impact of the American right's ideology on international relations. They also explored the potential trust between Trump and Putin, the implications of reduced American aid to Ukraine, and the implications of the US pivoting from Europe to face China's aggression. They also discuss the dilemma faced by an isolated Brexit Britain, hopelessly trying to face towards a Trumpist US and the European Union at the same time,Trump is selling out its allies - bigly!Phillips says Europe cannot accept the evidence of its own eyes and ears: that Trump is completely selling out its allies: "I despair. As you probably know from reading my stuff at times, I've been trying to scream about this for over a year. Europe had to get ready and Britain had to get ready for this."An isolated UK trying to ride 2 horses at once faces irrelevancePhillips urged the UK to stop tying to ride 2 horses at once and plots its future with Europe. He says, "The old system is gone. It's not coming back. And I would start with almost a blank sheet of paper and re-assume what Britain needs for its own security and that will be European focused... if Britain doesn't, it'll get left behind by the European states that do. I mean, Britain won't actually instantly collapse, but it will just become more irrelevant .. it always like to think it could have a, a foot in both camps, but it might end up with a foot in neither." Trump doesn't give a **** about Europe or the UKPhillips says the The Trump White House isn't interested in some kind of special relationship with Brexit Britain where the UK plays an important role, adding, "This really seems to be all, maybe Trump will change his mind or maybe, you know, he'll have too many Big Mac and the Republican party will reverse revert to what it was. But it's astonishing 'cause it is a wilful inability to look after your own interests."And Trumpist Tories have a big image problem says Phillips: "you can't be pro-Trump, unless you're pro Putin as well ... which is maybe a position that many in the conservative party are trying to circle."Trump wants populists to take over EuropePhillips says the MAGA White House has a sinister objective: it wants populists to take over Europe. He adds, This is their goal to have a populist takeover in Europe. So they would like Europe to be sort of different populist states not working in action, but being basically a bunch of, populist cutthroats, corrupt cutthroats making deals with Trump in the United States... Their plan is to break European Union unity."Read all about it!Read Phillips' own regular Substack column - Phillips's Newsletter. Phillips is also professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews.Nick Cohen's @NichCohen4 regular Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond is another must-read. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • The Cancel Culture Club
    1st part of 2-part interview with Professor A.C. GraylingNick Cohen talks about cancel culture with leading philosopher & author Professor A.C.Grayling @acgrayling This is the first part of a 2-part interview with Professor Grayling.Radicalised Right labels all opponents as "Woke"Emboldened by Trump, Brexit & Trump, a Radical Right on-the-rampage seeks to justify its own prejudices and failures by labelling its opponents as "woke". A.C. Grayling tells Nick, "the term political correctness was a pejorative term as woke has become now in the vocabulary of the right..."Pogroms, oppression, discrimination - cancelling has a long and sorry historyA.C. Grayling says there's nothing new about discriminatory cancelling, adding cancellation is really one of the major forces of recent history, saying "one group trying to cancel another...By means of wars or pogroms or, you know, exclusions or, or oppressive laws and so on...it is just the story of history."We look for example, at the phenomenon of caste in India, and we see that as a massive systematic and systemic is history long cancellation of whole groups of people."The online Cancel Culture Club is threatening free speechSocial media has made it easier for the authoritarians of both left and right to cancel & penalise people for expressing their views. He adds, "apart from all the other reasons why allowing free expression is so important. Without it, you can't have a process at law. You can't recuse and defend, you can't have politics. You can't propose policies or, or analyse them and challenge them."You can't have an education system if you can't freely pass on information and analyse it and discuss it."Read all about it!Nick Cohen's @NichCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond.A.C. Grayling's book Discriminations: Making peace in the culture wars is now out as paperback. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • Is Starmer the right stuff to handle Trump crisis?
    Nick Cohen talks with Guardian political columnist and author Rafael Behr, @rafelbehr, a Lowdown regular, about Sir Keir Starmer, and asks Raf can the prime minister face down an erratic and increasingly unhinged US president?Labour's Comms issues and a hazardous future aheadRafael says Sir Keir Starmer needs to communicate properly with the British public about how it negotiates the dangerous future ahead, "They seem completely unable just to narrate what they're doing and why they're doing it in a way that would lead people to accept. and get on board with and be patient with ... And that is true of the fiscal situation, and it's true of the geo-strategic situation."Is Starmer the Right Stuff to handle Trump & the Radical Right?Raf says many Brits understand the predicament that Starmer finds himself in with a hostile Trump, adding "They understand he's the prime minister. He can't just go and, and sort of piss all over the American president on live television. But no one seriously intuits that they are kindred spirits or alike..."Starmer best PM we've gotRaf thinks Starmer is the best prime minister we've got adding "Constitutionally the alternative is Kemi Badenoch and the per, and if it's not her, it would've been Robert Jenrick with Farage in the wngs. And you look at most countries in the world, and he wouldn't swap him out for anyone who's actually there available. So from that point of view, he is the right leader for the times."Bye bye Badenoch!Raf & Nick discuss the state of UK politics, include the current dire Tory leadership. Raf says he's "pretty confident" than Kemi Badenoch will. not be leading the Tories into the next general election.Read all about itRafael's recent book Politics: A Survivor's Guide: How to stay engaged without getting enraged is published by W.F.Howes Ltd and available at Amazon and in all good bookshops.Support the show You can also read his wonderful columns in the Guardian. His X handle is @rafaelbehrNick Cohen's @NichCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • Farage's treason choice - King Don or the UK?
    The jig is up for serial bull-shit merchant Nigel FarageNick Cohen talks to Chris Grey @chrisgreybrexit - author, brexit expert and emeritus professor of organisation studies about where the madness of Donald Trump and his MAGA cult have left their supporters among Britain's Radical Right con artists, such as Nigel Farage, leader of Reform.By continuing their slavish obeisance to the US's crazed would be emperor Donald Trump, the UK's Radical Right and its leaders including Farage risk alienating those of his supporters who support Ukraine's existential fight against Putin and are coming to loath Trump and his reckless clown car administration.Even tricksy Farage can't carry on riding 2 horses at once!Chris Grey, one of the UK's leading experts on Brexit, says Nigel Farage and his radical right fellow-travellers have been badly caught out by Donald Trump's full fledged assault on the West. Farage's always far-fetched strategy of a brexit Brtiain forming some anglo-centric alliance with the US lies in tatters; Brexit has only further isolated the UK as the US turns its face away from Europe and throws its support behind the UK's enemies such as Putin's Russia. The UK is also now dangerously stranded between 2 stools.Read all about itChris Grey is Emeritus Prof of Organisation Studies @RoyalHolloway, ex-Prof @Cambridge_Uni & @Warwickuni. Mainly analysis of Brexit (& related). @chrisgrey on BSky. Chris is also the author of Brexit Unfolded: How no one got what they wanted (and why they were never going to)Nick Cohen's @NickCohen4 latest Substack column Writing from London on politics and culture from the UK and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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About The Lowdown from Nick Cohen

Get The Lowdown from Nick Cohen as he investigates a world that seems to get ever more crazy, with leading commentators, columnists and politicians.Each week, leading commentator Nick Cohen talks to the country's leading movers and shakers - to cut the through much of the noise and commentary that passes for so much political discourse these days. Nick - a long-term columnist for The Observer and The Spectator - teams up with other commentators, journalists, authors and politicians to make sense of our ever stranger and troubling world. Nick aims to help keep you sane! So please get The Lowdown from Nick Cohen and subscribe to his Substack column - Writing from London. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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