Podcasts
Weekly Economics Podcast: Covid-19 and global capitalism
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by Dr Tobias Franz, Lecturer in Economics at SOAS and Shreya Nanda, Economist at IPPR

By
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith
14 August 2020

It’s a cliche by now to say that Covid-19 has upended our economy. Industries have ground to a halt, and are only just beginning to start up again. Just this week the UK plunged into recession, with the worst drop in GDP of any G7 nation.
But what about outside the G7? How have the effects of Covid ricocheted around the global economy?
In the last few episodes we’ve heard how

Podcasts
Weekly Economics Podcast: How do we win a green recovery?
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by NEF Head of Environment and the Green Transition, Chaitanya Kumar and Fatima Zahra-Ibrahim co-director of Green New Deal UK

By
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith
07 August 2020

We’re facing two global crises. We have scientific evidence for how to deal with both of them, but governments aren’t acting quickly enough. They both show how we are all more connected than we previously thought. And to tackle them will require massive changes in how we run our economy.
The first problem is Covid-19. The other, though it’s

Podcasts
Weekly Economics Podcast: Where does conservatism go next?
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by NEF CEO Miatta Fahnbulleh and Director of Research & Advocacy at Common Wealth Miriam Brett

By
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith
31 July 2020

For most of the last decade, the Conservative government has said they want to cut government spending to balance the books as they rolled out austerity nationwide. But since the start of lockdown, something seems to have changed. The chancellor keeps saying ​“this is not the time for ideology” as he announces new, expensive schemes to keep the economy afloat.
So — what’s

Podcasts
Weekly Economics Podcast: Can we avoid a tsunami of job losses?
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by NEF’s Alfie Stirling and Nikki Pound, TUC Policy and Campaigns Support Officer

By
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith
22 July 2020

It feels like every day there are new dire predictions of the state of the UK economy and jobs. Last week we discovered that the number of paid employees in Britain has plunged by 650,000 since the start of the pandemic. As the furlough scheme winds down, the Office for Budget Responsibility says 1.4 million furloughed people are at risk of unemployment. And almost a third of

Podcasts
Weekly Economics Podcast: Do police and prisons keep us safe?
Ayeisha is joined by Dr. Adam Elliot-Cooper, research associate in sociology at the University of Greenwich and board member of the Monitoring Group

By
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith
14 July 2020

At the end of June Keir Starmer said of Black Lives Matter protesters in an interview: ​“Nobody should be saying anything about defunding the police.” At the same time, the UK government announced four new prisons. Olympic athlete Bianca Williams has said she felt like ​“being black is a crime” after she was stopped and handcuffed by police while

Podcasts
Weekly Economics Podcast: The Hostile Environment during coronavirus
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith is joined by the JCWI’s Zoe Gardner and Akram Salhab from Migrants Organise

By
Ayeisha Thomas-Smith
03 July 2020

The end of June marked the anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush Generation in the UK, and sparked renewed conversations about the Hostile Environment. It’s been reported that UK immigration policies have stopped migrants from getting healthcare during the Covid-19 pandemic, despite a government exemption from immigration checks and fees. Just this week, MPs passed a new immigration bill