Armando Iannucci, Anna Soubry and Paul Mason on how to disagree | Westminster Reimagined

Daily Politics from the New Statesman

The New Statesman

News & Politics, Society & Culture, News, Politics

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2021

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

The legendary writer, satirist and broadcaster Armando Iannucci joins the New Statesman Podcast to co-host four special episodes. In these shows, Iannucci explores areas of British politics that he believes are broken, and is joined by guests from inside and outside Westminster to discuss how politics could be better.

In episode four, Iannucci and Ailbhe Rea examine consensus: Why do we find it so hard to disagree with each other without hating each other?

Iannucci and Rea are joined by special guests Paul Mason, the campaigning journalist, and Anna Soubry, a former Conservative MP who co-founded the centrist breakaway party Change-UK. They talk about whether there could ever be a pact between the centre and the left, and if it really is much harder to get along in politics these days.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Alfa, and I'm Arbando.
0:06.9	And in this fourth and final special episode of The New Statesman Podcast, we'll be joined
0:11.6	by the former Conservative MP, Taren's Change UK Founding Member, Amasubri, and journalist
0:17.1	and broadcaster Paul Mason to discuss consensus in British politics.
0:30.0	Now, Armando, why do you think it's important to talk about this right now?
0:40.1	Well, I think this is the summation of all the special podcasts we've been doing, because
0:45.1	the thing that has worried me really over the last five or six years is, yes, more and
0:49.9	more people have become, I think, vocal about their political beliefs and opinions.
0:53.7	A lot of people have become committed, but it's very much more to single campaign issues
0:59.2	within parties, things have got more fragmented.
1:03.3	I think not just the power of the Prime Minister, but the power of any party leader has become
1:08.7	so dominant that it becomes a case of, you're either with me or you're against me.
1:14.3	There's nothing in between.
1:15.8	And in all these pockets of opinions on, I just worry that we're losing that habit of
1:21.3	being able to debate, of being able to connect with people who do have opinions different
1:26.4	from us.
1:27.4	I'm trying to establish whether there is anything that we have in common.
1:31.1	Are you worried about free speech as an issue in particular?
1:34.8	Well, that's behind it.
1:35.8	I think it's right that people are passionate about the beliefs that want to defend them.
1:39.4	What worries me is that we've lost that sense of being able to tolerate hearing something
1:45.3	that we disagree with and coming up with an argument that we can engage with that person
	...

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