Hello and welcome to Politics Theory Other, a podcast from Tribune magazine.

Over the coming weeks, the show will be putting out some special episodes on the UK

general election, covering issues such as the manifestos of the parties, the digital war,

Tory party strategy, and what a Labour or Conservative victory might mean for British foreign policy,

migration, the climate crisis and of course

Brexit. If you find these episodes interesting and useful, please do consider becoming a supporter

of the show. You can become a supporter for $3 a month, which is just over £2, and by becoming

a patron, you'll get access to extended versions of PTO episodes, including today's

show. You can find the Patreon page at patreon.com forward slash poll theory other.

My guest today is Eleanor Penny. Eleanor is a writer, journalist, editor, poet, teacher and

broadcaster. Her work has appeared in numerous outlets, including the new statesman,

the Independent, the Verso Books blog, in these times, and the London Review of Books.

The first thing I wanted to ask was, I mean, it's not going to be a great surprise, I think,

to listeners to know that I'm going to be voting Labour and I'm sure you will be as well. And, you know,

I'm very much sort of plugged into the social media world of Labor Party activists and

people writing from the left. And one of the very striking things about the last couple of days

has been the reaction of people to the announcement

that we're finally going to have a general election. And it's mostly been one of qualified

euphoria. It seems like most people are pretty excited, more optimistic than I think people

outside of the Labour movement would expect, I mean, with the obvious

exception of the parliamentary Labour Party. And it's very different to the situation in 2017,

where I think many of us went into that election with quite a sense of dread. So what was your

...