The CapX Podcast CapX

How did an NHS clinic end up prescribing young people potential dangerous medical treatment with next to no data on the long-term effects? And why did that same clinic fail to respond to the concerns not just of outsiders, but its own staff?
 
These are just some of the many questions posed by BBC journalist Hannah Barnes in her new book 'Time To Think', which details the rise and fall of the Tavistock and Portman Trust's Gender Identity Development Service, commonly known as GIDS.
 
The clinic will shut its doors later this year after a series of damning reports and reviews, and an 'inadequate' rating from the Care Quality Commissions. The story of how what was once considered a ground-breaking medical service became mired in infamy is a fascinating tale of managerial failure, groupthink and a failure to observe basic clinical practice - a story Hannah sets out in painstaking and at times very moving detail in her book.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's that special time of year again when the Chancellor delivers a Budget, before commentators, policy wonks and political opponents rush to tear it apart in the ensuing days.
In that noblest of British traditions, we invited our editor-in-chief, Robert Colvile and the Centre for Policy Studies tax and policy guru, Tom Clougherty, for a special Budget edition podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How bad was the British Empire? That's the question Nigel Biggar, Emeritus Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford, has attempted to answer in his book Colonialism a Moral Reckoning. But in doing so, he has confronted those who don’t just want to tell a one-sided story of an imperial project motivated solely by racism and exploitation, but who want to silence alternative narratives – and who almost succeeded in preventing his book being published.
I was delighted to have the chance to talk to him, not just about his own personal battle with the culture warriors, but about the deeper philosophical issues at play. How do you make a moral assessment of a vast sweep of history, with multiple actors each with their own motivations – one which includes both enthusiastic participation in the slave trade and being instrumental in its abolition? And what happens if we allow shame about the past dictate how we do things today?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Government's Net Zero target is nothing if not ambitious - to decarbonise the British economy - energy, manufacturing, transport and agriculture included - all in the space of just a few decades.
But while there is a glut of potentially exciting new low-carbon technologies, and some encouraging signs that renewables are getting a lot cheaper, there's still a huge question mark over how feasible the 2050 target is.
 
In his new book 'Not Zero', journalist Ross Clark suggests the Government has bitten off far more than it can chew, with a policy agenda that threatens to make Brits a lot worse off, with almost no benefit to the environment.
I sat down with Ross to talk about just what Net Zero entails, how far the Government is from its target and if we aren't going to make it to Net Zero, what we should do instead.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're talking about moola, lolly, dough or dosh - the thing that makes the world go round...Money. 
In his recent book Money in One Lesson the economic journalist Gavin Jackson tries to answer a seemingly basic but very tricky question: what is money and how does it work? It's a grand tour of the monetary world, from pigs in Papua New Guina to sea shells in West Africa, the foundation of the world's first central bank and the links between currency and nationhood – all of which gave us plenty to talk about on this week's episode.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nicola Sturgeon's resignation on Wednesday morning was a slightly puzzling political event – 'shocking', in the sense that it heralds the departure of a politician who has occupied the highest perch in Scottish politics for so long, but also not all that surprising, given both the First Minister's recent political travails and the fact she had started to openly discuss how long she'd be in the top job.
So what comes next? Who will succeed Sturgeon and how will her exit affect the cause of independence?
To run the rule over Sturgeon's record and the shape of the succession, we were delighted to welcome one of Scottish journalism's leading lights to this week's CapX Podcast.
Alex Massie is the Scotland Editor of The Spectator, a Times and Sunday Times columnist and, of course, has been a regular contributor to CapX down the years. He joined our editors John Ashmore and Alys Denby down the line from his home in Scotland to discuss the 'surface finery' of Sturgeon's politics, the SNP's dire domestic record and who the runners and riders are to success her as First Minister.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.