"... the Mafia was not just a criminal endeavour committed by street thugs, or ordinary criminals. It was a state within the state, that could only thrive because of a commonality and intersectionality of interests between the power, the politics, and the financial-economic system. [Falcone and Borsellino] had exposed this, and they had been isolated, silenced, smeared. Eventually they were killed"
#FrancescaAlbanese, 2025
Rory Stewart on #TheRestIsPolitics:
"Quit playing Trump's game. Stop it. #Trump could not have been clearer, for more than a decade, that he believes Putin's line on #Ukraine. We are humiliating ourselves again and again, bending over backwards, begging, giving him exactly what he wants, which is that he just feels he can demand anything at the moment from people. We're abandoning #Canada and not stepping up for what should be one of our closest allies in the world."
https://www.youtube.com/live/7GQZqPo_Ke4?si=Czoimo4EEYR8FoL2&t=2395
Former #Conservative MP Rory Stewart:
"We should ban X/Twitter completely in the United Kingdom and in #Europe. It is clearly now a mechanism being used to undermine our democratically elected governments and support far-right parties."
I look forward to the day Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart join #Mastodon
"... We've come now into a period when I think the great trends are the rise of distrust, the rise of inequality and the rise of [digital] tech, and somehow, all of us have got to work out ... am I gaining or losing trust for what we're doing? Am I really dealing with the causes of inequality, and not adding to them? And am I using the tech, or am I being used by it?"
#TomFletcher, 2025
Recently my podcast listening has swung away from #TheRestIsPolitics and more to #TheRestIsHiatory. Really enjoying the recent series on the Frankish kingdoms and the rise of Charlemagne.
Despite all of my criticisms above, there's a reason I bother with The Rest is Politics. As well as being fun to listen to, Both Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell come across as principled men, who care deeply about democracy and its potential to make the world a better place.
Case in point, they both make some passionate arguments for campaign finance reform;
(1/2)
Some more shibboleths Alistair and Rory are attached to;
"The whole post-war system believes that the way that you stop wars [like WW1 and WW2] was based on 4 things; ... making sure there was open trade so economies were interlinked ... generous international assistance to rebuild economies ... this rule-based international order ... and the final thing was [US]American hegemony that put this whole thing together"
#RoryStuart, 2025
(1/?)
Rory and Alistair once again banging on about growth. Maybe they're just showing their age, old dog, new tricks, and all that. Because from what they're saying, it seems like UK Labour have moved on, to talking about stuff like raising living standards, which is what most people really care about.
When Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart interviewed Kate Raworth just over a year ago, they seemed to accept that the growth dogma was leading us down a blind ally;
https://alastaircampbell.org/2023/06/22-kate-raworth-doughnut-economics-and-thriving-in-balance/
A year later, they're right back to singing the growth is good song, in their discussion of UK Labour's attempts not to look like the centrist lame duck it is;
https://alastaircampbell.org/2024/12/346-the-battle-for-syria/
(1/2)
#podcasts #Leading #TheRestIsPolitics
#growth #DeGrowth #KateRaworth #AlistairCampbell #RoryStewart
Highly recommend this live discussion by multiple "The Rest Of" podcast speakers:
Alistair Campbell
Rory Stewart
Anthony Scaramucci
Marina Hyde
Dominic Sandbrook
#US #USelection #USpol #TRIP #TheRestIsPolitics
#TheRestIsPoliticsUS #TheRestIsHistory #TheRestIsEntertainment #USA #UK #democracy
Rory and Alastair, having enthused about a citizen-centric approach to transformation in their recent Leading interview with Audrey Tang, fail to mention her ideas when they discuss the radical reform of the NHS less than two weeks later.
They seem to agree that a flagship piece of legislation hatched in government is what’s needed.
I don’t see how that changes the game
#TheRestIsPolitics #NHS @digitalminister.one
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5FigIAHpDBvvs1EZ0I9rZN
Wow! Looks like Govcamp/Gov 2.0 really took off in Taiwan
#TheRestIsPolitics
@timoreilly @au
https://youtu.be/EcY50R3IAPA
Oh my #Channel4 #Therestispolitics with Kwarteng and Dorries so annoying, Anne there too, you must be joking 
#unbearable
"In the interests of my children I'd be quite keen to shut off TikTok" - Rory Stewart
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6BG0pcvfdIVtoq8F4mKiWrt=940
Erm.... Rory you can. See here https://support.apple.com/en-us/105121
This discussion with previous MI5 and MI6 heads is worth an hour
#TheRestIsPolitics
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ZChm6queYC15Vfaoj5MQv
"What's gone wrong, in a nutshell, is the rise of populism ... that's our No 1 defining issue [and] social media plays a big part" - Sajid Javid
Yet he - and many others saying the same thing about social media - continue to use Twitter as though it is a political given.
It’s another opioid crisis. Politicians could do much to ease it by addressing their own addictions.
#UKPolitics #SocialMedia #Populism #TheRestIsPolitics
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6WXyqZdGLfDVNae8nRvn2Q?t=500
Scaramucci on Trump. Fascinating. And encouraging.
#Trump #TheRestIsPolitics
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4MkZdVG2pZ3Pzir8wp0X7q
"The problem with a lot of these PFIs ... is that in the end the government has to carry the can. Because we've still got to run the schools, we've got to run the hospitals, so there's no risk for these companies. They can get the contracts by underbidding, they can underperform and ... if it all goes wrong we have to take over" - Rory Stewart on outsourcing to the private sector (20 mins in)
It is (simply) not possible to contract away complexity
#TheRestIsPolitics
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4MVjNjiCcKqsR5bd281SNJ
In the last ten minutes of this Guy Verhofstadt makes a convincing economies-of-scale case for European defence cooperation. I don't see how this would happen or how its governance would work when things get fighty. But (hey) the world is changing...
#TheRestIsPolitics https://open.spotify.com/episode/5umFfyIlMLob4HBNpeRpgI
Alastair Campbell: "How times a day do you think about the Roman Empire?"
Rory Stewart: "Five or six"
Matthew McConaughey: "You gotta pump those numbers up Rory. Those are rookie numbers"
#TheRestIsPolitics meets #TheWolfOfWallStreet
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3aH2Y7bsFVhvr9HCbZhJ4I?t=783
