On 7 June 2020, a statute of the philanthropist Edward Colston was torn off its plinth and thrown into Bristol Harbour. This was done by protestors drawing attention to how Colston’s charitable works were built on slavery, racism, and empire. It is a vivid illustration how history resonates into contemporary politics both locally and globally. Toda…

On February 21st 2022, Russian troops crossed into Ukrainian territory. It was a monumental escalation of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia which began with the Russian annexation of Crimea and the support of pro-Moscow separatists in Eastern Ukraine. As the Russo-Ukrainian War intensifies and more lives are lost or ruined, many of us have be…

On July 16th 1945 the world’s first nuclear detonation was conducted in Jornada del Muerto Desert in New Mexico ushering in a new age for humanity. Nuclear weapons became a touchstone in global politics and culture during the Cold War but have since receded into the background. However, with the Russo-Ukrainian War escalating tensions between Mosco…

In the closing months of 63 BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero stood before the Senate of Rome and confronting his enemy Catiline uttered perhaps one of the most famous lines of political oratory:Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? Thus began the first of four speeches against Catiline that turned the republic against him and saved it, at…

On 25 December 1991 the red flag of the Soviet Union was lowered for the last time over the Kremlin. More even than the fall of the Berlin Wall this marked the end of the Cold War and the ascendency of the West. Yet, in the three decades since then the West has moved from triumph to decline in the face of internal and external threats. Today we wil…

On the 31st of October, world leaders converged on Glasgow for the UN Climate Change Conference, colloquially known as COP26. Here it is hoped that an agreement can be reached to help avert the worst effects of the climate crisis. However, given the history of soft targets and inaction on climate change there is air of scepticism that COP26 will li…

In April 1914 while witnessing the Paint Creek Mine War in West Virginia, Ralph Chaplin penned the song ‘Solidarity Forever’, inspired by the collective efforts of striking workers. From these beginnings the song spread as an anthem for organised labour across the world. Solidarity is a central concept in politics animating resistance to Communism …

On May 26, 2021 Uber, one of the most prominent representatives of platform capitalism and engine of the gig economy, recognised the GMB union as representing its drivers after the UK Supreme Court ruled that they were workers and not independent contractors. This was a win for organised labour. But as COVID reshapes the workplace and platforms bec…

On June 28, 1969 The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village area of New York City, was raided by the NYPD. A crowd gathered outside the bar and tensions escalated. There are differing account of what happened next, but before long a riot broke out. For three nights members of the community fought the police in the streets of New York Cit…

On 20 January 2021, Joseph Robinette Biden placed his hand on his family’s Bible and was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. He assumed office in the immediate aftermath of the January 6th insurrection, in the midst of an ongoing pandemic that has hit America harder than many other nations, facing a polarised senate, and indeed a p…

On 28 October 2017, a user known as “Q Clearance Patriot” posted on the /pol/ board of 4Chan claiming that then President Trump was preparing for the mass arrest of a cabal of cannibalistic paedophiles that secretly run the American government. The Q-Anon conspiracy theory then metastasised across social media and the world, culminating in the Janu…

0n 21 February , 1954, American President Ike Eisenhower signed the Graeda Treaty following three rounds of negotiations with the extra-terrestrial species known as ‘the Greys’. Was the price of the Treat worth it? Or should the President have allied with the ‘Tall Whites’ in exchange for nuclear disarmament? Today we will give you the City View on…

On 4 January 2011, Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor in the Tunisian city of Ben Arous, died from injuries he incurred by setting himself on fire in protest against the confiscation of his wares by the police. His death set in motion the Arab Spring across North Africa and the Middle East. Ten years later the politics of protest have not disappeare…

On September 2nd, 2015 Alan Kurdi, a three-year-old boy fleeing the carnage of the Syrian Civil War, drowned while making the crossing between Bodrum in Western Turkey and the Greek Island of Kos. Images of the body have come to symbolise everything people are willing to risk for a better life in the face of the strict policing of borders. Although…

On February 14, snow began to fall on the state of Texas in the southern United States. As the winter storm hit, the demand for electricity rose causing the state’s power grid to fail. As Texans struggled to stay warm, many blamed decades of deregulation and a lack of investment in public infrastructure. After decades of retreat, the emerging clima…

On January 1st 2020, the world rang in the new year with few suspecting that it would see one of the most profound global crisis since the Second World War. As this year draws to a close, many of us find ourselves reflecting on what has passed and what is to come.Today we will give you the City View on 2020 and the future of democracy.Our guests ar…

The CPP crew is working on a 2020 retrospective episode and we thought why not see if our wonderful audience has any questions they want our experts to answer!If you have a question you'd like the panel to look at drop us a line at cpp@city.ac.ukDoor The City Politics Podcast

On November 3rd, 2020 Americans went to the polls. The world held its breath. And more than 48 hours later it is waiting to exhale. With counting still continuing in Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and North Carolina, we do not yet know who will be the next president of the United States.Inderjeet, Konstantin, and David reconvene to go over…

On Tuesday 3 November, 2020 the American people will go to the polls to vote in a presidential election. This in an American election that cannot be compared to any other in living memory. Occurring in the midst of the ongoing global pandemic, in the shadow of widespread protests against racial injustice and the rushed appointment of Amy Coney Barr…

On August 17th, 1917 American journalist John Reed set sail from New York City bound for Russia. His book Ten Days that Shook the World became a sensation by providing a first-hand account the Bolshevik Revolution and the birth of the Soviet Union. During the seven decades of this experiment in state socialism, journalists play a decisive role in s…

On 26 November, 1942 the British Government released a report on “Social Insurance and Allied Services”. Known to history as the Beveridge Report, it laid the foundation for the UK’s welfare state. The Beveridge Report was no isolated phenomena. From the Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society in America to the Godesberg Program in West Germany, social demo…

On May 25th, George Floyd, an African-American man, allegedly tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill while buying groceries. 20 minutes later he was killed by a white police officer. The killing of George Floyd sparked the largest protests in America since the civil rights movement. However, these protests have met with resistance from President Trum…

The coronavirus pandemic has caused the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, but some people are doing very well out of the crisis. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw his wealth increase by 12 billion dollars in a single day. Welcome to the inaugural episode of the City Politics Podcast. Today we’ll give you the City view on COVID-19 and G…

California lurches toward rent control, but the housing crisis rages on; San Francisco is closing its juvenile detention facility, but justice is still elusive. The Beacon boys discuss the pros and cons of incremental progress and count the blessings buried in the quagmire of San Francisco politics.Door Fogcast: The Bay City Beacon Politics Podcast

Sam Moss joins the Beacon team to discuss proposals in state and local government to speed up affordable housing production. Why is it so expensive to build inexpensive housing, and why are the politics of permitting so thorny? Notorious YIMBY gadfly Sonja Trauss joins the podcast to discuss the potential for building municipal social housing in li…

The Beacon boys join Diego's former boss, housing activist gadfly Sonja Trauss, to discuss recent homeless shelter proposals and transit density legislation. Along the way, they bump into issues of environmental law, Beto's prog rock destiny, and lobsters.Door Fogcast: The Bay City Beacon Politics Podcast

The Fogcast team mourns slain cyclist Tess Rothstein and examine's the city's action (or inaction) on street safety improvements. Will San Francisco ever value human life over cars? Supervisor Matt Haney has taken the lead, but he's also thrown down the gauntlet on another issue: navigation centers. If the City opens its largest homeless shelter on…