In the three weeks since the first allegations of sexual harassment and assault were made against Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, the floodgates have opened. From film to journalism, politics to law, women have come forward with horrific stories of assault and everyday harassment. No industry is immune.
 
It feels as if something might have changed, as if we’ve reached—or are reaching towards—a tipping point. But are we? What, if anything, will actually change? What can we do—both men and women—to make sure that things change. And what do we mean by that? What does change look like?
 
In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by:
·      Rosamund Urwin, a columnist for the Evening Standard Berlin

·      Musa Okwonga, writer and poet

Get in touch
Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ
Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland
 
Further reading
Read Musa Okwonga on what men must do to fight back against the Weinsteins
 
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/life/as-men-its-our-job-to-challenge-the-culture-that-enables-people-like-harvey-weinstein
 
Rosamund Urwin has written frequently on how to end sexual assault and help support women’s rights in her Evening Standard Column (we love this piece on Donald Trump inauguration)
 
https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/rosamund-urwin-a-brave-new-world-you-must-be-joking-a3444416.html
 
Steph Boland has written on how informal whisper networks help women avoid predatory colleagues—and explains why harassment is not a party political issue in this piece on Jared O’Mara
 
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-jared-omara-story-isnt-about-the-internet-its-about-how-we-decide-who-should-be-in-politics

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...Sexual Harassment

Right now, there are 65.6 million people around the world who have been forcibly displaced. That’s roughly equivalent to the population of Britain. Of those, 22.5 million are refugees. Of those, less than 200,000 were resettled last year in another country. So what about the rest? Well, many of them are in camps. We think of the refugee camp as a temporary structure. A place of tents and well-meaning aid workers in white t-shirts handing out food and medicine. And at first, they can be. But as the weeks turn into months and the months into years and the years into decades, and refugees still can’t go home, they are left in limbo. The aid often dries up. The camps become dangerous. Solutions are thin on the ground.
 
In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by:

·      Kilian Kleinschmidt, former director of the Zaatari refuge camp

·      Ben Rawlence, author of City of Thorns

 

Get in touch
Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ
Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland
 
Further reading
 
Here’s a review of Ben’s brilliant book, City of Thorns: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/books/review/city-of-thorns-by-ben-rawlence.html
 
Here’s a profile of Kilian Kleinschmidt from his time as the director of Zaatari: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/25/world/middleeast/kilian-kleinschmidt-calm-boss-at-center-of-a-syrian-refugee-camps-chaos.html

...Refugee Camps

Think of a city with an air pollution problem and, a few years ago, Beijing probably would have sprung to mind. Dense smog, citizens in face masks, this was a problem that cities like London had left behind after the Clean Air Act of 1956 dealt with the problems caused by the great Smog of 1952. But while London and other cities in the UK don’t suffer from a Great Smog today, they are feeling the effects of air pollution in far greater ways than many of us have realised. An estimated 40,000 deaths each year are attributable in some way to air pollution. Too many cars, of which too many of those are diesel, are causing serious health problems.
 
the mayor of greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, from the chair of the transport select committee, Lilian Greenwood; Sarah Macfadyen at the British Lung Foundation, and the science editor of Buzzfeed News, Kelly Oakes
 
In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by:

·      Lilian Greenwood, chair of the transport select committee

·      Kelly Oakes, science editor, Buzzfeed UK

·      Sarah Macfadyen, policy manager, British Lung Foundation

 

Get in touch
Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ
Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland
 
Further reading
Here’s Kelly’s piece on Brixton Road and its air pollution: https://www.buzzfeed.com/kellyoakes/this-london-road-has-breached-its-annual-air-pollution-limit?utm_term=.wgXP2vEK9#.utDYk4ryz
 
Here’s the British Lung Foundation’s very useful explainer on air pollution: https://www.blf.org.uk/support-for-you/air-pollution
 
Here are those adverts about air pollution that Steph mentioned: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hardhitting-air-pollution-posters-to-go-on-display-on-londons-tube-network-a3661891.html

…Air Pollution

For the tenth episode of How to Fix we decided to hand the reins over to you, dear listener. What do you think needs fixing? We’ve whittled down your suggestions to half a dozen and have parcelled out your queries to a handful of prospect editors, including myself and Steph. So in the next twenty minutes or so you’ll hear Tom Clark discuss the state of the United Kingdom, Sameer Rahim will wax lyrical on English curriculums at universities, Steph will tell us all about children’s health and I’ll have a minor rant about sports administration. We’ll also talk about the age bias in the arts and discuss the growing distrust in the media.
 
In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by:
·      Tom Clark

·      Sameer Rahim

Get in touch
Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ
Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland
 
Further reading
Here’s that bizarre piece about children spending less time outside than prison inmates: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/25/three-quarters-of-uk-children-spend-less-time-outdoors-than-prison-inmates-survey
 
Here’s a good overview of the ‘decolonising Cambridge’ row: http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cambridge-university-decolonisation-lola-olufemi-13831287
 
The moment when FIFA executives were arrested: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/03/sports/fifa-scandal-arrests-in-switzerland.html?_r=0

How to fix… listener special!

How do you fix Brexit? Well, for a start it depends on whether you want us to leave or remain. Next week we’ll work out how to fix leaving. Today, we’re going to see if there’s a way to remain. Despite the vote, is it possible for the UK to remain in the European Union after all? It is, and we’ll explain how.
 
In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by:
·      Alison McGovern, Labour MP

·      Alex Dean, Prospect’s Brexit expert

Get in touch
Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ
Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland
 
Further reading
The inside story of how David Cameron drove Britain to Brexit, by Ivan Rogers: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-inside-story-of-how-david-cameron-drove-britain-to-brexit
 
Alison McGovern on why free movement doesn’t affect wages: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-evidence-is-clear-ending-free-movement-wont-raise-british-wages
 
Ian Dunt on how Brexit negotiations are going to get worse: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/think-brexit-negotiations-are-going-badly-its-about-to-get-a-whole-lot-worse
 
Dominic Cummings fears Brexit will fail: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/peering-over-the-cliff-edge-why-dominic-cummings-fears-brexit-will-fail

...Remaining in the EU

Leaving the EU, despite what the Leave campaign claimed last year, is turning out to be rather complicated. We were supposed to save money—£350m a week—but now it seems we’re paying tens of billions first. We were supposed to quickly sign a trade deal with the rest of the EU—the German car manufacturer would insist on it, remember—but we haven’t even started talks about talks yet. And all those concerns about what this meant for Northern Ireland and the border were pretty straight-forward to deal with, really—but, well, we know where we are with that…

 

So, was there—is there—another way?

 

In this week’s show, Steve Bloomfield and Stephanie Boland are joined by:

·      Asa Bennet, Brexit commissioning editor

·      Chris Bickerton, Cambridge academic

·      Alex Dean, Prospect’s Brexit expert

 

Get in touch
Steve: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldSJ

Steph: https://twitter.com/stephanieboland

 

Further reading

The case for a slow-motion Brexit: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/the-case-for-a-slow-motion-brexit

 

The EFTA Court piece we mentioned: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/in-future-britain-may-have-a-judge-on-the-efta-court-bench-says-its-president

 

And since Chris talked about the productivity, here’s Diane Coyle’s recent piece for the mag: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/how-to-have-a-productive-brexit

…Leaving the EU

Too much coverage of politics focuses on personalities not policies. It’s time to fix that.

Join Steve Bloomfield every week for How to Fix, the new podcast from Prospect that brings you in-depth coverage of some of the most pressing issues of our time. No soundbites; no political pundits; just experts and politicians from the UK and around the world outlining the arguments and proposing genuine solutions.

How To Fix...

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