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Left To Burn

Brussels" best left listen, in English.

Conversations about politics and culture in Europe and beyond. Made by The Battleground. thebattleground.substack.com

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All Episodes

20:10

Climate Populism

Left To Burn ·

2022/09/02

By Left To BurnComing to the end of one of the hottest and most destructive summers on record, politics on both sides of the Atlantic are heating up as well. In the UK, the Tories look certain to select Liz Truss, with her latter-day Thatcherite politics to be its new leader. Meanwhile, politics in the United States still spirals in the malign orbit of Donald Trump.In the latest episode of the Left To Burn podcast, Josh White and John Foster discuss the unfortunate synergies being created by the

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21:27

Conservatives in Crisis

Left To Burn ·

2022/08/06

By Left To BurnThe Tory leadership contest is hotting up, with Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak failing to pitch themselves as Thatcher 2.0.Given Keir Starmer’s jihad against leftists in the Labour Party, Truss and Sunak are left to root out growing socialist tendencies amongst the Conservatives.Meanwhile, in the United States, the logjam in the Democratic Party that has been holding back Joe Biden’s agenda is on the point of breaking. Fossil fuel champion Joe Manchin is now ready to support Biden’s

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21:47

Getting Rid of Boris

Left To Burn ·

2022/07/15

By Left To BurnBoris Johnson has resigned. He’s still premier until September, so it’s not time to start singing “Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead” just yet.These should be good times. But Britain’s Labour Party is mired in institutional and political malaise, with Keir Starmer unable to do anything other than imitate the Liberal Democrats and the Tories.Starmer will do anything, or so it seems, to find a constituency to replace his party’s one-time working class, centre-left base. Preferably affluent,

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17:03

Elected by Macron

Left To Burn ·

2022/06/28

By Left To BurnFew French politicians are as loathsome as Marine Le Pen. Patiently waiting her turn for the presidency, she’s spent decades on the sidelines, preparing to take over.Thanks to centre-right politicians like arch-enemy Emanuel Macron copping her nationalist ideas and pushing France rightwards, Le Pen finally has her shot.Coming in second in this year’s parliamentary elections, her Rassemblement National party (formerly the Front National) earned its highest number of seats in the French

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23:40

The Northern Ireland Crisis

Left To Burn ·

2022/06/19

By Left To BurnBoris Johnson is facing a crisis of confidence, but not in himself sadly. The discontent in the country over Partygate and the cost-of-living crisis is matched by anger from Tory backbenchers.Many Conservative MPs are angry about lockdowns. They’re also angry about the lack of tax cuts and market reforms. They’re angry about the level of public spending. They’re angry about the fact that they’ve been had.Boris Johnson conned the Tory Party, not just the country. It’s just another

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26:18

The Fascist Ideological Complex

Left To Burn ·

2022/05/20

By Left To BurnPerhaps it’s an expression of our collective fear. But the perception that fascism is making a comeback is much in evidence, both on the left and elsewhere.No idea is so bad that it is ever truly dead. With the political fortunes of the populist right on the rise, it’s natural to think in terms of worst-case scenarios.But being alert to threats is one thing and claiming that the sky is falling is another. If everything on the right is fascism, the term tends to lose its meaning. What

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15:44

Quagmire Now

Left To Burn ·

2022/05/07

By Left To BurnAs the Russian invasion of Ukraine looks more and more like a quagmire, the broader consequences of Vladimir Putin’s aggressive policy come increasingly into view.Far from splitting the EU or slowing the expansion of NATO, the Ukraine invasion appears to be having precisely the opposite consequences.With Sweden and Finland preparing to join, and Switzerland seriously considering signing up, Russia has never been more isolated militarily. Their protestations to the contrary

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18:48

New Politics Needed

Left To Burn ·

2022/05/03

By Left To BurnVoting is so yesterday. That is if you want to elect a political party that’s neither far-right nor neoliberal. The results of the 2022 French presidential election bear this out.Fought out in the second and final round, by two rightist parties purporting to be ideologically distinct, leftist parties had earned enough votes in the first round that they could have made it to the final if they’d been tied up together from the start.Though there are many reasons why this did not happen –

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14:40

Making Excuses for War

Left To Burn ·

2022/04/22

By Left To BurnRussia’s military incursion into Ukraine has lasted nearly two months now. But the focus of the fighting has recently shifted. The Russians no longer seem intent on the capture of Kyiv and other cities in the north of the country. Rather, they have shifted to a concentration on the Donetsk Basin. There are some fairly obvious reasons why they should be interested in this particular part of the country. It’s proximate to the Russian border, thus simplifying supply chain and other

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18:13

The Illusion of Choice

Left To Burn ·

2022/04/13

By Left To BurnA French topic has to have global significance to appear above the fold. Even then, it’s mostly European media that pay attention, not North American.Even though France has been in the midst of an intense election season the last few months, it’s mostly been second and third-page equivalent news.If there’s been a big story, it’s been the presidential campaign of outspoken racist Eric Zemmour and his Identitarian politics. That is, until Ukraine.Mainstream media concerns began rising

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25:31

Labour After COVID-19

Left To Burn ·

2022/04/08

By Left To BurnThe “great resignation” may have been blown out of proportion by media fears and progressive dreams, but the increasing dysfunction of neoliberalism is creating spaces for long-dormant labour movements to find a place in the sun.At the same time, the upcoming elections in France highlight the enduring power of populism.Claiming traditionally socialist concerns about increases in the cost of living under Emmanuel Macron, Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen has been able to

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27:04

The War for Everybody

Left To Burn ·

2022/03/19

By Left To BurnThe Russian invasion of Ukraine shambles into its fifth week. With estimates of combat fatalities topping 7000, Moscow has now lost as many men as the U.S. Marines lost in the Battle of Guadalcanal.Civilian casualties are hard to estimate, but are certainly large and growing fast. The United Nations reported approximately 1900 between 21 February and 15 March. In the latest episode of Left To Burn, Josh White and John Foster discuss the Ukraine invasion’s reception in the United

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24:05

Endless War

Left To Burn ·

2022/02/18

By Left To BurnFor two decades, Vladimir Putin has doggedly pursued the goal of recouping the fortunes of the USSR, brought low by the end of the Cold War and the chaotic transition to neoliberalism. From Chechnya to Crimea, Putin has used the Russian military as a tool to remake Russia's Near Abroad in his own interest and image.With Russian forces massing on the eastern border of Ukraine, the European Union looks to be facing its most serious military crisis since the Kosovo War started, in

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32:41

The Centre-Left Void

Left To Burn ·

2022/02/04

By Left To BurnWhat happened to social democracy? For most of the post-war era, it occupied a stable place between reactionary liberalism and repressive communism. But recent years have seen a fundamental change in the status of social democratic parties in Europe. From deindustrialisation to far-right populism, their electoral strength has dramatically declined.In the first 2022 episode of The Battleground’s Left to Burn podcast, UK Editor Josh White and Books Editor John Foster discuss

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23:31

This is What Truth Sounds Like

Left To Burn ·

2021/12/17

By Joel SchalitIt’s the most popular idiom in broadcast news. But few, if any listeners know what to call it.“Field recording,” as British music publications like The Wire and The Quietus call it, connotes natural sounds, associated with wilderness and sound art.Whatever the actual subject matter of the recording, the aesthetics are usually minimalist and standalone, either to be listened to as an isolated object, or something meant to enhance or complement music.In newsrooms, field recordings have

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17:18

Rescuing Soldiers From the Right

Left To Burn ·

2021/12/07

Military means caricature. At least when the left criticises it. Not every soldier is a killer, and not every army agrees where it gets sent. Ireland, Afghanistan. Joe Glenton demystifies it all. In the second part of this interview, Josh White talks to Glenton about the politics of the British military and whether it can be saved from the right. Joe Glenton is an Afghan war veteran turned peace activist. His latest book is Veteranhood: Rage and Hope in an Ex-Military Life (Repeater). Veteranhood

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21:35

A Military Education

Left To Burn ·

2021/11/24

Soldiers get politicised by war. But few live to write about it like British journalist Joe Glenton. Josh White talks to Glenton about his new book Veteranhood: Rage and Hope in British Ex-Military Life. Glenton is a peace activist who served as a British soldier in Afghanistan until he turned against the war and decided to walk. Veteranhood is the follow-up to his first book, Soldier Box: Why I Won’t Return to the War on Terror (2013). Soldier Box looks at how former soldiers are used by

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