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Arts & Ideas

Political Visions

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2598 Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What is the role of vision in politics? Must politicians have a vision of what kind of society they’re working towards, ultimately? What kind of role does this vision play in the day-to-day practice of working politicians? Or is this a misunderstanding of the nature of politics? We mark the anniversary of the landmark text of modern libertarianism, Anarchy, State & Utopia, by Robert Nozick. Anne McElvoy is joined by the politician Gisela Stuart, General Secretary of the Fabian Society Joe Dromey, and political philosophers Thomas Simpson and Jeffrey Howard. Plus, writer and lecturer Sarah Jilani on the case for revolution.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Transcript

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Can I just say?

0:01.5

You're about to listen to a BBC podcast.

0:04.0

It's such a wonderful listen.

0:05.6

So nice.

0:06.5

There are loads more like it on BBC sounds.

0:08.8

Different paces, different heights.

0:10.6

The roof is buckling.

0:11.9

Where you can also listen to live sports commentary.

0:14.2

It's right foot goes for goal.

0:16.7

And then enjoy even more podcasts full of analysis and reaction to the big stories.

0:21.7

The stat that is astonishing is they ended with the lowest amount of possession.

0:25.2

And she's had to live with that.

0:26.8

So if you love sport, a passion, it's almost like a religion.

0:29.7

Listen on BBC Sounds.

0:31.7

Sort of expecting that every week now.

0:35.8

BBC Sounds, music, Radio, podcasts.

0:39.8

Hello. Before I headed to Broadcasting House this evening to the Friday luxury zone of

0:45.6

the free-thinking studio, I'd spent the week in Poland at a gathering of business folk,

0:49.9

politicians and thinkers, all trying to figure out what a brighter future might look like

0:54.7

when the political news from Ukraine to many European capitals, and here in nervy, old

1:00.7

blighty, can feel like a dreary cycle. I'd been interviewing the star architect Rem Koolhaas

1:06.6

and something that he said struck me. He said that since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when there had been optimism and purpose, we had lost something along the way.

...

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