I speak with UK academic Dr Daniel Pitt about his recent book on Post-liberalism and the Future of Conservatism. We discuss among other things:

• The situation in the UK today and why, despite having many erudite and interesting intellectuals, journalists, podcasters on the right, British politics is such a basket case at the moment
• How British conservatism differs from conservatism in the new world
• Whether and how liberals and conservatism should cooperate?
• Why Australia does not have the same intellectual tradition when it comes to "conservatism"
• What "national conservatism" actually means and how it differs (if at all) from past versions of conservatism
• Where "red toryism" and "blue labour" are now
• What a post-liberal and future conservative future looks like.

And much more.

My guest today is Tim Andrews is Director of Consumer Issues for Americans for Tax Reform based in Washington DC.

He was previously Executive Director of the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance is or has been on the boards of a host of free market think tanks globally including the HR Nicholls Society, and the Australian Libertarian Society. He previously ran the very successful Friedman Conferences in Sydney for many years.

We discussed:

• The current mood in Washington DC and how people are reacting
• His interpretation of Trump policy framework and whether it really differs from the previous Reagan centre-right Washington Consensus
• His views on Ukraine war
• His views on immigration and his personal experience with the Cronulla Riots in Sydney
• Our long standing argument on trade policy and why he still is in favour of free trade
• Whether if any of his policy positions have changed since Trump rise in 2015.
• How the Trump presidency could go wrong and whether the current national conservative moment could in turn followed by a more libertarian moment in due course

And much more.

Jordan and Dan catch up to discuss the US Election (with joy)!

Among other things we discuss:

• Why Gen X and Gen X swung strongly behind Trump
• How Trump 2024 differs from 2016
• What the new coalition of Tech Bros (Elon, Theil, etc), Media Bros (Rogan, Tucket, etc) , Health Bros (RFK Jr, etc), and Thinking Bros (JD Vance, Vivek, etc) make the MAGA agenda stronger and more durable
• How the Australian mainstream media and the political class still don't get it
• How the UK political class are especially clueless
• How it could all go wrong and right over the next 4 years

Interview with Hon John Ruddick MLC has been a Libertarian member of the New South Wales Legislative Council since 20 April 2023. He is the first member of that party to be elected to the NSW Parliament.

Before entering parliament Ruddick was a long-standing member of the Liberal Party and prominent proponent of reform. He is the author of a 2018 book "Make the Liberal Party Great Again". In this episode we discuss:

• How The Libertarian Party plans to influence the Liberal Party of Australia in a similar way that the Greens influence the Labor Party
• Whether open primaries for selection of leaders and representatives can work in Australia
• Where the libertarians differ and agree with the Trump programme on trade, immigration and foreign policy
• Whether libertarianism is in conflict with the nation-state

We interview noted Australian liberal economist Dr Alan Moran about his recent piece in The Spectator regarding the unprecedented demographic decline Australia and other nations are experiencing.

We discuss amongst other things:

• Causes of this decline and possible carrot and stick solutions
• What the true economic costs of raising kids is and how this should be compensated
• Why treasury forecasts with population have been so wrong and whether economics has treated demographics seriously enough
• The problems of baby bust happening at the same time as mass immigration
• Whether neoliberalism is in part responsible for the decline and whether current policy setting need to be readjusted
• What a Trump victory means for trade and liberalism generally
• The Spectator piece here: https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/10/can-subsidies-help-australians-make-more-babies/

Dan Ryan, Executive Director of NatCon Australia and Jordan Knight, Founder of Migration Watch get together for regular catch-up:

We discuss among other things:

• Thoughts on recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) event in Sydney which we both attended - pros and cons, best and worst speakers, etc.
• The high end arts and culture style of ARC - pros and cons
• The extent to which national conservative themes were touched on by speakers on stage (not much) but which were discussed at length by many attendees on sidelines
• How real threat to US and West is descent in to South American politics rather than Cold War or WWII
• How battles of the future less about ideology and more about demography
• Thoughts on upcoming US election and what it means for Australia

We speak with Isaac Stone Fish the founder and CEO of Strategy Risks - a business intelligence firm focusing on geopolitical risk.

He is the former Beijing correspondent for Newsweek and worked in China for many years. Amongst his many other current roles he serves as a contributor to CBS News, is an adjunct at NYU's Center for Global Affairs and has positions on the Atlantic Council and the Council on Foreign Relations

He is the author of America Second: How America’s Elites are Making China Stronger (Knopf) and lives in New York City.

https://www.isaacstonefish.com/

https://www.amazon.com.au/America-Second-Americas-Elites-Stronger/dp/0525657703

Among other things we discuss:

• What US-China relations would look like under President Trump or President Harris
• His book "America Second" and the history of influence peddling by former senior American officials in China
• Key issues such as Xinjiang, Taiwan, TikTok, Telsa, China and US Tech entrepreneurs
• What a more ethical and sophisticated approach for companies "engaging" with China should look like

We speak with UK academic Dr Kit Kowol about his newly released book, "Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War"

We discuss among other things:

• Why did British public vote out in a landslide Winston Churchill and the Conservative Party in 1945?
• How might the United Kingdom and the British Empire have been different if the Conservatives had won in 1945?
• Lord Beaverbrook and how his realist views were reflective of a significant part of the Conservative Party
• Other myths about WWII and the early post war period that should be discarded

Book available here:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Blue-Jerusalem-British-Conservatism-Churchill/dp/0198868499