Simon Kuper has been a journalist at the Financial Times for three decades – so he’s seen up close how Britain works, and who it works for.
In his latest book, ‘Good Chaps: How Corrupt Politicians Broke Our Law and Institutions’, Kuper chronicles changes in the instincts of Britain’s ruling class – and how corruption came to be increasingly normalised.
What do these elites believe? When did those beliefs change? And who are the people, places and policies that led to such shifts? Watch the conversation to find out.
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41 Comments
Still wishful thinking about Labour. Immediately after describing Blair's property empire you move on to how this Labour gov will be different. I'm not holding my breath. Power corrupts and people don't give it away. If they haven't launched policies by Christmas they never will.
well off person shocked to realise they are well off
Ive 100% witnessed this with the gradual death of volunteerism. Its only started to return with Gen Z.
sadly unwatchable. audio is dreadful.
what's the point in having a state to safeguard your private property if there are no businesses producing goods that make people's lives better? private enterprise first, constitutional republic at the very minimum to protect people's property (rule of law). voluntary trade with one another brought people out of the dark ages. states these days want to put people back into them.
10:22 … I would say that having London get the shit bombed out of it was a bit of a tragedy … which could have been averted. WC was a war monger and wanted war. the myth that surrounds that guy is pure fantasy…as with most politicians.
Politishians , as they could lost their position, deserve good wages, but does state employees and burocracy deserve it ? State workers are having protected jobs, gold plated pensions,, enormously hight wages, no resposibiluty for mistakes or subbotage actions…Is it not good for this country regularelly change State managers- burocrats and recrute state employees on time based contracts?
I can’t hear the interviewee. Sounds like he’s next door.
That would be good. The Houses of Parliament would be handed over to the National Trust or English Heritage, and a new legislative centre would be established somewhere, maybe in the north. I would vote for that.
If the sound is bothering you, switch your device’s audio/sound settings to “Mono”
The sound panning makes this difficult to listen to. FYI to fellow listeners: "Mono Audio" is an accessibility option on most operating systems.
They are working behind the facade of the "crown" to hide and wash the city/bank of england fraud
several billion on the Tory VIP lane , tip of the iceberg but says it all
Unlistenable due to the audio. Sounds like a 60s Beatles recording with hard panning.
happy harvest Simon
Genetally an interesting interview but the sneering about 'you're running a far-left podcast' in the business section gives away a pretty unpleasant establishment attitude
Simon Kuper is great
Tremendous Aaron thank you for putting gd stuff in my CSE brain. Ta PUP xx
The assumption that there were no disturbances for 350 years, does not take into account 1707 or the rebellions of 1715,1719, 1745. This is either lazy or proves that the privileged have a very selective memory. Which continues with the London centric focus of the media/politicians, to the detriment of everything & everybody else. This explains Brexit, and Brexit encourages corruption because there is less money to go round and less opportunities, which leads to the whole cycle repeating itself. Simon Kuper starts making interesting points about corruption but keeps getting interrupted and pulled away by Aaron Bastani to discuss the media. I am afraid I didn’t make it to the end.
And the debt slaves keep dying for the rich bankers
The look of bemusement on Kuper's face as Bastiani develops his bright ideas about Labour politicians getting involved in private business ventures was quite amusing
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Compras una finca muy grande y crea una nueva economía por tú. Mucho dinero con producción de comida económico.
Why would an individual or a group in another country donate a large sum of money to any of this country's political parties unless it was to gain an influence in one of our governmental policies? They would not donate anything to our political parties unless they got something in return. That is corruption.
Interesting, informative guest & always impressed with Aaron's interviews & research. Amazing to get through a whole interview on corruption in British politics without mentioning the Israel Lobby.
Very disappointed with this journalist and his lack of knowledge of MP renumeration. If he had properly researched, he would know that the basic salary starts from £91,000 per annum. This is just a tip of the iceberg. Then you take into account they basically live off expenses And get a pension for life, believe me it’s not a final salary scheme. you cannot put a value on the amount of connections and influence they get to business and the establishment and line their pockets for the rest of their life.
Sounds to me like Blair wants to create an international American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).
We are watching this, but haven’t change my mind, but really enjoyed it.
10:09 Sorry, your claims about Germany knowing not to let things go wrong is just nonsense. It’s going very wrong right now.
So am I wrong in thinking Thatcher was your Reagan. Because damn it seems like so much that is wrong on our side of the pond as well as yours seems too.
I have read and enjoyed various of Kuper's books on football but outside of that I don't like him. He has every right to call out the corruption nature of the Tories,B and I bow to no one in m contempt for Boris Johnson. ut Labour under Blair were just as bad and he doesn't talk about that. The UK has been utterly corrupt since 1997, and possibly earlier.
GB News is not really 'far right'. And if it is, all it does is offer an alternative to the far left bias of the rest of the mainstream media. Kuper is right about the fact that the UK is totally corrupt, but he is such a leftie, and this undermines his arguments.
The idea of Labour politicians starting a business is just laughable. For a start, they hate business. Secondly, they tend to be completely useless people and any business they started would collapse within weeks. The same applies to most Tory politicians.
Actually quite a few politicians have been arrested over the last 15 years, usually for traffic and expenses offences, low level corruption etc. But it is certainly true to say that the high level corruption always goes unpunished.
It started with Blair and then was fine tuned by Cameron… and has developed from there. There is no doubt Cameron was and is crooked….
I really like this show but this time you screwed the audio mix. Don't early Beatles stereo, please – it's uncomfortable for listeners of speech.
When Ray Crock died – the McDonald's guy – his widow donated 400 million USD to NPR and … it almost destroyed the American public radio because it created a habid of simply spending money that almost got NPR bankrupt.
Migration isn't an issue? What planet are you on? You win from the centre, really? Margaret Thatcher said if you walk in the middle of the road, you get run over. And there really isn't a far right convention in UK that has have any influence. In fact "wings" are a bit old fashioned. It is basically national v global. Fun interview but your bias is ruling you.
His comments on migration in the last two minutes were just 24 hours from being demolished by events, sadly.
There is a threshold to corruption in the UK and its unobtainable to working-class scum like me.
omg Tony Blair…….is it just me, or is he like a horrible ghost that keeps popping up in a bad movie
What about our own oligarchs