The Peter McCormack Show

Sam Bowman joins me to discuss why Britain is approaching two lost decades of stagnant median wages and why the country is now far poorer than it should be. Sam argues that Britain does not lack talented people, capital or ideas; it has created a centralised political and regulatory system that makes building, investing, hiring and experimentation increasingly difficult.

At the centre of Sam’s argument is his “housing theory of everything”. Britain’s refusal to build enough homes in its most productive cities has made housing unaffordable, delayed family formation, reduced social mobility, weakened productivity and transformed property from somewhere to live into a scarce financial asset. We discuss why stamp duty locks people in place, how planning applications can cost hundreds of millions of pounds and why almost everyone has been given the power to veto growth.

We also discuss why inflation destroys social trust, how zero growth turns politics into a fight over a shrinking pie, why the civil service rewards legislation and risk avoidance, and how Britain’s “vetocracy” prevents almost anything from being built. Finally, we explore whether AI could release a new wave of productivity—or expose Britain’s inability to build the energy, infrastructure and institutions the technology requires.

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TIMESTAMPS
00:00:00 - Britain Has Stopped Building
00:00:53 - Britain’s Centralised State
00:05:20 - How Post-War Centralisation Broke Growth
00:08:25 - Two Lost Decades of Wage Stagnation
00:20:15 - Inflation Destroys Trust
00:22:03 - Zero Growth Makes Politics Zero-Sum
00:26:56 - The Housing Theory of Everything
00:30:30 - London’s Housing Misallocation
00:34:31 - Housing and Falling Birth Rates
00:38:05 - Why Homes Became Financial Assets
00:45:30 - Stamp Duty Is Britain’s Worst Tax
00:51:42 - Britain’s Broken Planning System
00:55:30 - The £297 Million Planning Application
01:00:00 - Give Local Government the Upside
01:04:23 - Can Britain Still Recover?
01:11:33 - How Quickly the Energy Debate Changed
01:29:37 - Government Rewards Risk Avoidance
01:37:03 - The Vetocracy
01:54:44 - Growth Unlocks Everything Else
01:56:02 - AI and Britain’s Future

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CONTACT PETE
› Website – http://petermccormack.com
› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact
› Email – me@petermccormack.com
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CONNECT WITH SAM BOWMAN
› Works in Progress – https://worksinprogress.co/
› X/Twitter – https://x.com/s8mb
› Substack – https://substack.com/@sambowman

SPONSORS
› IREN – https://www.iren.com/
› Arch Public – https://archpublic.com/peter
› Ledn – https://ledn.io/peter

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LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE
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FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR
› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/
› https://x.com/curttayloruk/

EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK
› https://x.com/ConorM04

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Britain did not simply leave its working class behind. Sociologist Lisa McKenzie and historian and former coal miner Keith Gildart argue that political and economic decisions deliberately dismantled the jobs, institutions, culture and communities that once gave working-class life security, identity and meaning.

They trace the destruction of Britain’s industrial economy, the decline of trade unions, Labour’s abandonment of its traditional voters and the disappearance of secure work, affordable housing and genuine social mobility. They also examine immigration and low wages, class prejudice, education, the rise of Reform and why so many people no longer believe Westminster represents them.

I question Lisa and Keith on private education, workers’ rights, taxation, inequality and whether any political party can reverse Britain’s decline. It leads to the central question of the episode: who is Britain actually for now?

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TIMESTAMPS
00:00:00 - Who Is Britain For Now?
00:00:39 - What Is the Working Class Today?
00:07:12 - Britain Deliberately Dismantled Its Working Class
00:09:42 - The End of Britain’s Industrial Economy
00:12:43 - Keith’s Life as a Coal Miner
00:16:11 - What Happens When a Pit Town Dies?
00:19:51 - The Loss of Working-Class Identity
00:23:20 - Why Labour Stopped Saying “Working Class”
00:24:20 - Class Is About More Than Income
00:28:12 - Education, Opportunity and the Working Class
00:34:13 - The Left Has Forgotten Its Purpose
00:38:16 - Has Britain Created a Dependency Class?
00:46:33 - What Working-Class Teenagers Want
00:56:37 - Britain’s Deep Class Prejudice
01:01:18 - Immigration, Low Wages and the Working Class
01:17:44 - Why Working-Class Voters Moved to Reform
01:34:30 - Britain’s Crisis of Social Democracy
01:41:00 - The Working and Middle Classes Are Being Destroyed
01:59:37 - Who Is Britain Really For?
02:05:08 - What Is Britain’s Recovery Story?

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CONTACT PETE
› Website – http://petermccormack.com
› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact
› Email – me@petermccormack.com
› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/
› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/

CONNECT WITH LISA MCKENZIE
› University of Bedfordshire – https://www.beds.ac.uk/howtoapply/departments/school-of-society-community-and-health/staff/lisa-mckenzie/
› Research Portal – https://researchportal.beds.ac.uk/en/persons/lisa-mckenzie/
› Getting By – https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/getting-by

CONNECT WITH KEITH GILDART
› University of Wolverhampton – https://researchers.wlv.ac.uk/Keith.Gildart
› Keeping The Faith – https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719097102/

SPONSORS
› IREN – https://www.iren.com/
› Arch Public – https://archpublic.com/peter

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LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE
› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K
› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu
› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM
› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM
› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePM

FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR
› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/
› https://x.com/curttayloruk/

EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK
› https://x.com/ConorM04

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Charles Goodhart joins me to discuss why Britain’s decline did not start in 2008, why the post-war economic boom may have been a temporary lucky era and why the next 30 to 40 years could be far harder than people expect.

Charles explains how ageing populations, falling birth rates, rising dependency ratios, public debt, defence spending, climate costs and political short-termism are creating a fiscal crisis that governments do not want to admit. We discuss why central banks may struggle to keep inflation under control, why politicians cannot win elections by telling voters the truth, and why democracy itself may block the long-term planning the country needs.

We also get into immigration, housing, land tax, AI, the forgotten working class, white-collar job risk, the triple lock, why GDP does not equal welfare or happiness, why Britain struggles to build, and why the Western world may never return to the conditions that made the years from 1950 to 2020 so unusually prosperous.

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 - Massive Inflation Is Coming
00:00:54 - Britain’s Decline
00:03:57 - The Post-War Boom
00:05:09 - Decades Of Decline
00:07:14 - What Keeps Britain Afloat?
00:09:11 - Immigration And Dependency
00:11:55 - The Fiscal Trap
00:13:34 - Government Does Too Much
00:14:28 - Why Politicians Can’t Tell The Truth
00:16:39 - Are We Heading For Bankruptcy?
00:20:05 - Higher Inflation Is Coming
00:22:39 - The Temporary Lucky Era
00:25:39 - Tax Land, Not Work
00:28:08 - Housing And Fertility
00:31:30 - The Forgotten Working Class
00:32:41 - AI And White-Collar Jobs
00:36:01 - The Middle Ground Failed?
00:44:08 - Democracy Blocks The Fix
00:50:49 - GDP Is Not Happiness
00:56:35 - We Didn’t Know How Lucky We Were

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CONTACT PETE
› Website – http://petermccormack.com
› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact
› Email – me@petermccormack.com
› Instagram – /mccormack555
› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/

CONNECT WITH CHARLES GOODHART
› LSE / Financial Markets Group – https://www.fmg.ac.uk/people/charles-goodhart
› The Unanchored Central Banker – https://unanchoredcentralbanker.com/
› The Great Demographic Reversal – https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-42657-6

SPONSORS
› IREN - https://www.iren.com/
› Plaud - https://www.plaud.ai/mccormack
› Ledn - https://ledn.io/peter

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LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE
› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K
› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu
› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM
› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM
› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePM

FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR
› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/
› https://x.com/curttayloruk/

EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK
› https://x.com/ConorM04

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Goodhart joins me to discuss whether AI is about to do to the graduate class what globalisation did to factory workers, and why Britain’s political settlement may be breaking apart.

David explains why Britain has overproduced people with generalist academic skills, how the “anywheres” came to dominate politics, culture and the economy, and why the “somewheres” have increasingly turned to Brexit, populism, Reform and Restore as a reaction against a country they no longer feel represents them.

We also discuss whether anything has actually got better in Britain over the last 15 years, why the state seems unable to get things done, immigration, multiculturalism, deindustrialisation, care work, the collapse of trust in politicians, and why David still believes Britain has the ingredients to recover.

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 - Graduates Are Next
00:00:50 - AI and the Graduate Class
00:05:42 - A New Class System
00:07:45 - Anywheres and Somewheres
00:10:20 - Why Populism Appeals
00:15:03 - Brexit and Anywhere Dominance
00:16:05 - Britain’s Political Confusion
00:22:28 - Did Populism Fail?
00:27:19 - Bridging Britain’s Divide
00:31:54 - Losing Trust in Politicians
00:34:07 - Britain’s Tax Burden
00:35:39 - Why Business Feels Impossible
00:38:42 - Two Experiences of Multiculturalism
00:40:41 - The Care Dilemma
00:49:53 - Has Anything Got Better?
00:53:30 - Free Speech and Online Safety
00:55:45 - Productive vs Unproductive Wealth
01:00:33 - Why The State Can’t Act
01:07:21 - The Graduate Elite Is Crumbling
01:10:40 - Britain’s Good Ingredients
01:15:31 - Politics Needs More Than Economics
01:20:36 - Can Britain Still Recover?
01:34:06 - David’s Books

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CONTACT PETE
› Website – http://petermccormack.com
› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact
› Email – me@petermccormack.com
› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/
› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/

CONNECT WITH DAVID GOODHART
› Website – https://davidgoodhart.com/
› Substack – https://davidgoodhart.substack.com/
› Policy Exchange – https://policyexchange.org.uk/

SPONSORS
› IREN - https://www.iren.com/
› Ledn - https://ledn.io/peter
› OneSkin - https://www.oneskin.co/mccormack

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LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE
› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K
› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu
› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM
› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM
› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePM

FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR
› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/
› https://x.com/curttayloruk/

EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK
› https://x.com/ConorM04

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amy Webb joins me to discuss why artificial intelligence is not just another technology shift, but a civilisation-level reordering of work, power, wealth, biology and society.

Amy explains why the real AI question is not simply which jobs disappear, but which people become vulnerable. We discuss thinkers vs think-nots, why human capital may stop being the main driver of productivity and wealth, how GDP and unemployment could rise together, and why the economy may thrive while having less use for human labour.

We also get into China’s AI strategy, why governments are failing to plan for the transition, whether AI companies owe people for the data and knowledge they have absorbed, Amy’s idea of contribution credit, the limits of UBI, the future of synthetic biology and longevity, and why the current structures of regulation, politics and economics no longer make sense for the world we are entering.

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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 - The Economy May Not Need You
00:01:13 - Humanity-Scale Reordering
00:04:25 - Show Us Receipts
00:07:10 - Peter’s AI Assistant
00:08:00 - Three Years In Six Weeks
00:08:46 - AI Is Not One Technology
00:12:00 - Self-Improving Technology
00:13:30 - Thinkers And Think-Nots
00:16:44 - How To Become A Thinker
00:21:23 - Failed Transition Planning
00:23:58 - China’s AI Strategy
00:28:31 - What Happens Without Labour?
00:30:56 - Lights Out Industrialism
00:33:47 - AI Collapsing The Pyramid
00:35:12 - We Are Gen T
00:41:39 - Contribution Credit
00:52:43 - Should AI Be Regulated?
00:58:52 - What Futurists Actually Do
01:03:54 - AI And Biology
01:30:16 - Regulation Can’t Keep Up

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CONTACT PETE
› Website – http://petermccormack.com
› Feedback – https://www.petermccormack.com/contact
› Email – me@petermccormack.com
› Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/mccormack555/
› X/Twitter – https://x.com/petermccormack/

CONNECT WITH AMY WEBB
› Website – https://substack.com/@amywebbfuturist
› Future Today Strategy Group – https://ftsg.com/
› Amy at FTSG – https://ftsg.com/member/amy-webb/
› X/Twitter – https://x.com/amywebb

SPONSORS
› IREN - https://www.iren.com/
› Plaud - https://www.plaud.ai/mccormack
› Ledn - https://ledn.io/peter

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LISTEN / SUBSCRIBE
› Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/40ruY9K
› Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3Wc94Vu
› Fountain: https://bit.ly/FountainPM
› YouTube: https://bit.ly/YouTube_PM
› Rumble: https://bit.ly/RumblePM

FILMED BY CURTIS TAYLOR
› https://www.curttaylor.co.uk/
› https://x.com/curttayloruk/

EDITED BY CONOR MCCORMACK
› https://x.com/ConorM04

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.