The green games: Boris’s plan to rebrand Britain

In this week’s podcast, Katy Balls expands on her cover story, analysing Number 10’s hopes for November’s COP26 summit in Glasgow (01:10). She’s joined by Boris Johnson’s former advisor and co-author of the last Conservative election manifesto, Rachel Wolf and together, they ponder whether the much-anticipated green jamboree signposts a supercharged boost not only for global climate policy, post Covid but also the Johnson premiership?

‘We have to shift behaviour as well – but we haven’t yet had the conversation with people about what that conversation would be’ – Rachel Wolf

Meanwhile, in this issue, author Ian Williams takes a look at the startling extent to which Chinese investment in British tech and security has infiltrated our national security and tech industries (14:50). Joining him is author, political scientist and expert on China’s foreign policy ambitions, Bruno Maçães, to discuss how deep Chinese interests now run in the UK and what the consequences of decades of light-touch regulation are shaping up to be.

‘I think that policy of being China’s best friend in the West, the Golden Era in the Cameron/Osborne era, will go down in history as being one of the worst policy decisions in recent years’ – Ian Williams

Finally, in a week when the nation has been mourning the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh, whilst still reeling from a year of trauma and losses, writer Fiona Mountford wonders, (24:05) have we become any more articulate and understanding of grief? Joining her to reflect on how we process bereavement, loss and grief is the comedian and actress Cariad Lloyd, whose own experiences of losing her father at 15, inspired her to create an award-winning podcast The Griefcast, a series in which guests talk over the losses in their lives and how they came to terms with them.

‘When the worst thing that has happened – someone’s died – you saying something that might be slightly awkward actually is really quite small in the list of things that have happened that are awful’ – Cariad Lloyd

Thanks for listening and do please share this podcast with your friends and social media networks and of course, drop us a line with any comments or thoughts you’d like to share.

Presented by Lara Prendergast.

Produced by Arsalan Mohammad and Max Jeffery.