Reclaiming the Centre: Is the Old Political Order Dead? (Adrian Wooldridge)
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2026
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, the columnist and author Adrian Wooldridge joins Amol to argue that liberalism is not only the best ideology for the future, but that it’s also under serious threat. Wooldridge sees populist movements on the right and identity-focused politics on the left as potentially fatal to liberal principles. The once dominant post-war philosophy has had a bad rap recently, so why should we bring it back? Has liberalism itself grown complacent? Is it now an out-of-touch establishment, failing to address modern challenges like social cohesion and corporate power? To survive, Wooldridge says, we must take radical steps to renew liberalism for the modern age and embrace the political centre again.
GET IN TOUCH * WhatsApp: 0330 123 9480 * Email: radical@bbc.co.uk Episodes of Radical with Amol Rajan are released every Thursday and Monday.
Amol Rajan presents the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 and hosts University Challenge on BBC One. Before that, Amol was the BBC’s media editor and the editor of The Independent newspaper.
Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Rufus Gray and Oscar Pearson. Digital production was by Gabriel Purcell-Davies. Technical production was by Jonny Baker. The editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts |
| 0:04.5 | Newscast is on the face of it, a podcast about the news. |
| 0:11.2 | But it's also perhaps the world's most athletic podcast, |
| 0:14.0 | we have BBC correspondents dashing in and out, |
| 0:16.3 | ready to give us a deeper understanding of the biggest stories of the day. |
| 0:19.9 | Thankfully, we let them catch their breath before we actually start recording the podcast. |
| 0:24.2 | Listen to Newscast every day on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:27.8 | Now then, before we get on to this week's episode, I wanted to let you know about a magnificent |
| 0:32.1 | guest that we've got coming up on this podcast. |
| 0:34.6 | He is someone who says he wants to make Britain wealthy again. He is a hugely |
| 0:40.6 | influential voice in Whitehall and Britain's tech and science scene. And he's one of the most |
| 0:45.4 | influential entrepreneurs in our country. He is Matt Clifford, the co-founder of entrepreneurs first, |
| 0:51.5 | which has helped lots of very, very big companies and some small ones |
| 0:54.3 | get going. He was also the AI Opportunities Advisor to Prime Minister Kirstama, and he is all |
| 1:00.6 | about embracing innovation, embracing science and technology, and yes, making Britain a global |
| 1:05.6 | leader in artificial intelligence. How do you make Britain wealthy again? He's got some ideas. |
| 1:11.7 | He's a big champion of Britain's scientific heritage. He's had a few clips go viral talking about that. And he thinks |
| 1:16.8 | that Britain's best days can be ahead of us. He wants to fight decline and he is a perfect guest for |
| 1:23.2 | Radical. And for your questions. If you've got a question for Matt Clifford, send them to us on WhatsApp 0-330-123-948O. |
| 1:31.2 | Maybe you've got ideas yourself for how to make Britain wealthy again, which we could put to him. |
| 1:35.3 | You can also send us a voice note that way, or you can email us on Radical at BBC.co.uk. |
| 1:41.7 | Now, on to this week's episode. |
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