Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University looks at the party conference season. The Labour event was particularly bizarre. Amplifying the Reform message showed they are in serious trouble and indeed the latest polls show Reform at 35%, their highest yet. The public is at the end of its tether with the major parties and isn't buying the change in Labour or Tory rhetoric. Tim expects a wave of Tory defections to coincide with May's elections. Although no sports fan, he finds it sad that the BBC no longer has exclusive rights to any of the sporting events that are part of the fabric of the nation. The Corporation is spread too thinly and floundering and should have the confidence to make itself financially sustainable.
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson raves about #1, Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn. At times baffling, it's bravura film-making which you can't stop thinking about and which seems destined for Oscar glory. Not so #7 The Strangers: Chapter 2, a nonsensical horror sequel. More interesting is #25 Brides, a low budget production about two naive teenage girls who want to flee the UK. It's very realistic and you don't want to tear your eyes away. Disney+'s The Man In My Basement is a psychological thriller with Willem Dafoe. Scuppered by an unlikeable protagonist, it might have made a better play.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin says that northern train passengers can soon trial a ticketless system which will automatically find the cheapest fare. A new hypersonic plane has an engine with no moving parts. New weapons have been developed to shoot down drones. There's a wireless microphone which Steve has already ordered. An electric jet ski can take 3 people and tow a water skier. Mining trucks could soon have money-saving steel tyres. There's a clever, crowd-funded guitar amp. Meta is launching an ad-free version. And a British company has produced an AI actress – and real actors are not happy.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Chloe Wong Yun Shing of Edison Group highlights the cards, gifts and party essentials company Card Factory. Recent results show store revenue up 1.5% like for like. Costs have risen 4.4% but the company is mitigating this and is shifting focus online. Mobile payment company Boku were made Company of the Year at the AIM Awards. They're a good example of how fintechs are growing. Boku, capitalised over £600m, are working with some very large international businesses. Revenue is up 27% like for like, they are delivering growth, improving profitability and have plenty of cash to keep investing. Edison believe there's a 60% upside. Notes for both companies are on the website.
Guests: Chloe Wong Yun Shing
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson wished he liked #6, the fantasy A Big, Bold, Beautiful Journey with Colin Farrell & Margot Robbie. It looks good but there's no chemistry, just whimsy. He does recommend #8, the thought-provoking NT Live production Inter Alia. He found Wrack & Ruin, a box set of post-war DEFA films on Blu-Ray aimed at de-Nazifying Germany, particularly Somewhere in Berlin, an eye-opening education and a must for film lovers. And out next week on Apple TV+ is The Lost Bus, a true story with Matthew McConaughey a bus driver trying to save schoolchildren from a wildfire. Deftly directed by Paul Greengrass it's a prime example of the new panic attack genre.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin celebrates some of the bonkers research that has won scientists this year's Ignobel Prizes. A Denver designer thinks he can reinvent the wheel. Austin have a very neat-looking open-top EV roadster. There's a cyberpunk digital candle. Amazon Fresh are closing all their UK stores. Waymo are to launch driverless taxis in London next year. Northumbrian Water have found a way to catch sewer-clogging wet wipes. And Kent scientists believe that tea can be grown on the Moon.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Political commentator Mike indian thinks that it would be a big mistake for Andy Burnham to challenge Keir Starmer's leadership of Labour. He can't see what Burnham would bring to the table and feels it would be opportunistic in-fighting. He finds the American administration's criticism regarding free speech in the UK highly hypocritical. And he reckons Trump's speech at the UN is akin to a man standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign, someone we'd normally ignore. Trump is a danger to the modern world and we risk forgetting why we have become the societies we are.
Guests: Mike Indian
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Russ Mould of A J Bell remarks on the Bank of England slowing down its gilt sales. The 10-year gilt, currently 4.7%, is seen as the risk-free rate against which other bonds are rated, the risks with them being inflation, interest rates, credit risk and liquidity. With equities, there's a mysterious turning point where institutions feel it's safer to be in gilts. After its rise, the UK market isn't as attractive as it was. The cash yield on the FTSE is a little north of 6%. 19 of its companies offer more than the risk-free rate. The old rule of thumb was that if it's double, as one company is, it's "too good to be true". Where do we go from here, though, with a moribund economy and the UK still adding to its debts?
Guests: Russ Mould
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
With box office takings on the rise, James Cameron-Wilson celebrates the arrival of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, an exquisitely packaged production with most of the regulars that rounds the trilogy off nicely. He finds #4 The Long Walk, based on a Stephen King novel about boys forced onto a deadly march, to be so compelling you didn't worry about its illogicalities. #7 Spinal Tap II: The End Continues plays on a nostalgic yearning. Often too silly, it still has a high chuckle quotient. James also pays tribute to Robert Redford.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University believes that the defection of the talented Danny Kruger to Reform has demoralised the Tories. Will other defections mean they don't have enough numbers to be the official Opposition? He states why he believes that the most stable mixed economies are often those with monarchs, not presidents, especially in north-west Europe. Turning to Brexit, he feels that it is a process we are perhaps only halfway through, though he doesn't know where it will end up.
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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