Heart Yoga Radio

DEATH OF THE NHS? -GE 19

Another podcast in our on-going UK General Election 2019 series: in this series we investigate the argument between the Tories who claim that they have no plans to privatise the NHS and Labour who contend that the Tories are hell-bent on selling it to American corporations in a no-deal Brexit future. This is quite detailed, examining the ideology underpinning Tory-ism, recent events and the history of the NHS. We incorporate a lived-experience testimony from a friend who had a harrowing experience looking after her aged mother as she succumbed to dementia. [Free. 50 minutes.]

THE INTERNET & ELECTORAL POLITICS - GE 19

This podcast deals with the role that the internet is likely to play in the outcome of the UK General Election to be held on December 12th, 2019. We note that the internet is bound to be a site of struggle, that it presents many deep challenges to democracy, but that it has great possibilities, particularly for citizen journalism and the exposure of lies and propaganda. [Free. 53 minutes.]

BREXIT - GE 19

This is the second in our series of podcasts relating to the UK General Election to be held on 12/12/19. This one focuses on Brexit and explains the Labour policy as well as elucidating the context of the phenomenon. [Free. 48 minutes.]

THE CASE FOR LABOUR - GE 2019

This podcast is the first of several we will be doing in the run up to the general election to be held in the UK on December 12th 2019. It makes the general case for Labour as being the only party addressing the stark fact that 'business as usual is not an option'. It ranges quite far and wide, but with some focus on 'The Green Industrial Revolution'. [Free. 58 minutes.]

OPERATION YELLOWHAMMER - WHAT IT SAYS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

This is another current affairs podcast in which we go through the UK Government's plans for the eventuality of a no deal Brexit as outlined in the Operation Yellowhammer document. We include all items discussed in the document but expand particularly on items relating to possible social unrest (item 13), the impact of probable price rises on 'low income groups' (item 13) and the impact on adult social care which is deemed already threatened by 'market fragility'. We note that the government had to be pressured by Parliament to release this document and that a leaked, earlier but very similar version was considered a base scenario rather than a worst case scenario. The document can be downloaded here. (Opens in new window/tab.) [Free. 23 minutes.]

MISLEADING SLOGANS [2] "#SURRENDER BILL"

In this podcast we deconstruct the hashtag "surrender bill" which Prime Minister Johnson has been repeating at every opportunity. This hashtag attempts to spin the bill which recently passed through parliament making it illegal for the government to allow a no deal brexit or a brexit with a new deal without parliamentary consent on 31st October as somehow a surrender in an imagined war. We trace how this framing attempts to resonate with myths and fantasies around World War 2. [Free.  26 minutes.]

MISLEADING SLOGANS [1] "TAKE BACK CONTROL"

In this podcast, we unpack the slogan 'Take Back Control' which was employed by Vote Leave in the 2016 referendum which resulted in the Brexit chaos the UK is currently living through. As an information source, we go right to the 'horses mouth', a YouTube video of Dominic Cummings, [Campaign Director, Vote Leave] explaining to an audience how the leave campaign came to win the referendum. [Available here - https://youtu.be/CDbRxH9Kiy4.] We argue that the manipulation of people's thought and actions en mass, which is propaganda, erodes the possibility of a flourishing democratic society and a culture of reasoned argument and careful evaluation urgently needs to be built. [Free. 33 minutes.]

THE WORLD BURNS

This podcast briefly outlines the political, economic and ecological contexts and ramifications of the unprecedented  fires in the Amazon rain forest that have hit the news this week. [Free. 32 minutes.]

THATCHERISM REVISITED

In this podcast, I read a short essay I wrote in 1989 describing and analysing the previous ten years of Thatcherism. [Margaret Thatcher became PM of the UK in 1979.] I offer it here to illustrate how the Thatcher electoral victory of 1979 gave rise to ideological and practical dominance by neoliberalism which still has momentum, though now running down. [Free. 13 minutes.]

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME, PLENTY AND SCARCITY

This podcast is an abstract consideration of universal basic income which relates it to plenty, scarcity, money in general and political power. I explore both dystopian and utopian possibilities. [Free. 26 minutes.]