Maybe 30 or 20 years ago, a Saudi might have said, I'm Muslim and I'm Arab and I'm Saudi.

Now they might say, I'm Saudi and I'm Arab and I'm Muslim.

You know, they're trying to radically refashion their country and they need help from the best experts in the world

Do you want to have your country's people be disqualified from that because of some essentially antiquated point of view about how countries work together?

In recent months it can feel like Saudi Arabia is intent on buying the world.

It's bought up much of golf, sports teams, many of the globe's best soccer players to its own domestic league and it owns huge chunks of many of the biggest companies on the planet.

But Saudi Arabia is not just on a shopping spree.

The once insular oil-rich Kingdom is transforming into a major diplomatic and military

player, a pivotal actor in the energy transition and looks set to post high-end cultural events like the

FIFA World Cup.

You know, they know that buying a football club immediately brings you a

billboard into a global game that allows you to completely reposition yourself

or rebrand yourself.

It feels like we're entering the era of the Saudi project.

But what exactly is the kingdom trying to achieve and will it succeed?

Coming soon from Intelligence Squared, the Saudi Project is a new podcast series seeking to answer some of these questions and more.

Britain does have choices. It's not either-or situation. We either indulge Mohammed bin Salman or boycott of Mohammed

bin Salman. There is a third choice.

Search the Saudi project wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, I'm Daniel. Welcome to this episode of the Intelligence Square Podcast.

In this episode we are joined by Michael Cashman, the co-founder of Stonewall, former MEP and ex-EastEnders

star on his new book, One of them, From Albert Square to Parliament Square, which is a memoir

...