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BBC Radio 4


Programme examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad, presented by distinguished writers, journalists and academics.


Analysis

What have the Book of Genesis and the movie Fight Club got to do with GDP? According to the radical Czech economist, Tomas Sedlacek, quite a lot. He believes notions of sin and belief recorded in ancient texts should influence our thinking about the contemporary economy - and he describes the biblical story of the 7 fat cows and 7 lean cows as "the first macro-economic forecast". He argues passionately that we need to make the economy work for us, rather than us working for the state of the economy. And he condemns the way most nations have got themselves hooked on debt, in a never-ending cycle. 

Evan Davis interviewed Sedlacek,at University College London as part of the 100th anniversary celebrations for the School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

Producer: Hugh Levinson.

Tomas Sedlacek: The Economics of Good and Evil

Jackanory Politics: Frances Stonor examines the increasingly popular method of delivering a political message by telling a story.

Jackanory Politics

Michael Blastland asks if 'group-think' is distancing policy from the public and asks if our political elite have forgotten how most voters live. People measure their behaviour and beliefs by those around them, so MPs might have thought that the expenses system was reasonable. Might it also mean they have lost touch with what Britain is really like?

Are Politicians Out of Touch?

What would happen if Britain chose to leave the European Union? The new Lisbon Treaty contains a clause whch sets out the exit process for the first time. But, as Chris Bowlby reports, the final deal between Britain and its former EU partners would depend a lot on the mood of their 'divorce' - amicable or acrimonious.

Divorcing Europe

In the past decade, Britain has experienced mass immigration on an unprecedented scale. A former government aide recently suggested this was a deliberate policy, motivated in part by a desire to increase racial diversity. David Goodhart investigates the ideological forces behind one of the most significant social changes to have affected the UK.

Andrew Neather, a former Number 10 speechwriter, recently wrote a much-discussed article in the Evening Standard in praise of multicultural London, but suggesting that those who have influenced immigration policy under Labour were politically-programmed to be relaxed about such numbers. His article was immediately seized upon by anti-immigration campaigners as evidence of a conspiracy to make Britain a more racially diverse society. 

In this programme, David Goodhart investigates the truth about reasons for recent increases in migration to Britain. Political insiders, including former home secretary David Blunkett, talk candidly about the real influences behind the scenes. None of them give credence to the accusation that there was a plan to create a more multicultural Britain. An unexpected increase in asylum applications and the demand for cheap labour from employers were the main motivators, according to those who influenced policy. But, admits former Home Office special adviser Ed Owen, a nervousness about discussing immigration policy meant that New Labour was, in its first years in office, poorly prepared to deal with the issue.

We may not have witnessed a grand act of social engineering, concludes David Goodhart, but New Labour's combination of economic liberalism and cultural liberalism led it to regard mass immigration as a trend which would bring great social benefits and few disadvantages.

Interviewees include:

Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, former home secretary

Tim Finch, head of migration, equalities and citizenship, and director of strategic communications at the Institute for Public Policy Research

Andrew Neather, Comment editor at The Evening Standard and former Number 10 speechwriter.

Sir Andrew Green, Migrationwatch

Sarah Spencer, deputy director, Centre on Migration Policy and Society

John Tincey, Immigration Services Union

Ed Owen, former Home Office special adviser

Claude Moraes MEP.

Foreigner Policy

What is childhood for? 

It is commonly seen as a time for play and learning, but should employment play a more important part?

Fran Abrams examines the subject of children at work in the UK, and asks why it is a phenomenon so little talked about.

She traces the history of child labour in this country, and explores modern-day notions of the 'priceless child' who ought to be immersed in education and shielded from harsh economic reality. 

In protecting our children, she asks, are we causing them harm? And might the youth of Britain benefit from a revival of child labour?

What's Wrong with Child Labour?

Bigging It Up

The Coalition claims its Big Society is more than a slogan and its ideas are shaping key policies. Anne McElvoy investigates the little-known genesis of David Cameron's big idea and examines what its roots reveal about how the government will go about doing less - and ensuring society does more.

Presenter Anne McElvoy
Producer Simon Coates
Editor Innes Bowen.

The Big Society

Women will be hit disproportionately by the Budget cuts already announced by the government: A new study suggests that they will shoulder nearly three quarters of the burden, because they rely more on the state for benefits and are more likely to work in the public sector than men.

The state has reduced women's dependency on men, only to install itself as the new patriarch. If the state shrinks, it will be women who will feel the difference 

Is this what generations of feminists have fought for? Where is the sisterhood now, marching on the treasury?
Jo Fidgen goes in search of modern feminism in the rubble of the economy and asks whether being a woman is no longer a political state.

Whatever Happened to the Sisterhood?

The Spirit Level is a book that aims to change the way you see the world.

It has impressed politicians on both sides of politics, with David Cameron and Ed Milliband taking note of its message. 

Packed with scattergrams and statistics, the book argues for more equal societies. The authors, epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, make the case that countries with higher income inequality tend to have more health and social problems. Equality, they say, is better for everyone.

But The Spirit Level has been accused of imbalance itself.

Critics from the right have launched a scathing attack, saying the books methods and arguments are flawed.

So who is correct? Mukul Devichand examines the evidence.

He speaks to: Professors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, authors of The Spirit Level; Professor Peter Saunders, author of Beware False Prophets; Professor John Goldthorpe of Nuffield College, Oxford; Professor George Kaplan of Michigan University; Professor Angela Clow, of the University of Westminster.

Producer: Ruth Alexander.

The Spirit Level: the theory of everything?

Turkey's increased economic and political importance makes it a place which outsiders need to understand. 

Since 2002, the nation has been governed by the AKP, a political party with Islamist roots. The AKP's time in power has coincided with improvements in Turkey's economic management, the rise of its international influence and a dramatic decline amongst its citizens of support for sharia law. 

Outsiders tend to see Turkey as wrestling with a choice between Islamism and secularism. However the nation seems able to live with - even prosper under - the apparent contradiction of a government with Islamist origins and a secular constitution. 

Edward Stourton attempts to unravel the complicated reality of Turkish politics and get beyond the usual Western obsession with whether Turkey's loyalties lie with the West or the Islamic world. He investigates the new elites that are shaping the country's future. Will they help Turkey fulfil its dream of becoming a global power and the West's dream of a model Muslim democracy? 

The featured contributors in the programme are:

Firdevs Robinson, an editor and Turkey specialist at the BBC World Service

Ziya Meral, a Turkish academic at Cambridge University 

Ceren Coskun, a British-Turkish academic at the London School of Economics 

Professor Henri Barkey from the Canegie Endowment for International Peace

Dr Soner Cagaptay from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy 

Professor Binnaz Toprak, a social scientist at BoğaziÃi University in Istabul

Producer: Helen Grady.

Turkey: Staying Secular Insha'Allah

Are the champions of the capitalist system now turning against the super-rich? And if they are, what will they now do about it? In this week's Analysis, we meet leading figures of the centre right who suddenly seem to have something in common with the political left: a moral aversion to the an era of high finance that saw huge payouts to a few, and bailouts funded by the rest. Prime Minster David Cameron opened 2011 with a speech criticising a system where "a few at the top get rewards that seem to have nothing to do with the risks they take or the effort they put in." He promises change, but how can that be achieved without undermining the logic of capitalism? Edward Stourton meets influential defenders of market forces who say they can keep the best of free trade but exclude the undeserving rich. 

Interviewees:

Jesse Norman MP
Matthew Hancock MP
Nadhim Zahawi MP
Charles Moore, former editor of The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator
Donald Winch, Emeritus Professor of Intellectual History at Sussex University
Raghuram Rajan, Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business

Producer: Mukul Devichand.

Capitalists Against the Super Rich

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