Are we all the same?
What's Happening Now... locally.
What’s Happening Now takes a lighter look at what’s the matter, with what matters. News. Politics. The world around us. Host Sam Hampson is joined on the podcast and in the newsletter by journalist James O’Malley as well as a host of comedians, experts, friends and enemies to talk about the news we can’t ignore and some of the stories we shouldn’t.
Doubling down on your local town
Rubbish collection. Crime. How your elected representatives spend your money. Those bread things that people make chip sandwiches with and argue about on Facebook.
Where you live, and your connection to it, matters. This week at What’s Happening Now we step away from big national politics to big local… things? From buses to bins, news to Neo from the Matrix, we use two whole episodes to take quick tour across local issues.
What Else Is Happening?
We revealed how AI generated music is well and truly here, with James at the forefront of the revolution. Since discussing the new offering from Suno (www.suno.ai), have both he and Sam become addicted to making mash-ups and melodies? Perhaps. This is their first go which they dreamt up on the show.
Speaking of voices…
Ok, we weren’t speaking of voices, but you get it. On one of this week’s episodes, Sam spoke to actress and voice coach, Jessica Dennis. Fresh from a wildly successful run of the Merchant of Venice with the RSC, she’s now on WHN.
Why the US Election matters to Britain
In our last newsletter and podcast, we took a look at what was happening with the US election and why it might, should or could matter to us here in Britain. We were joined by former Obama strategist Karin Robinson and the whole episode can be found at the link below.
A few weeks on from that, our very own James O’Malley has a look at the state of play and what impact we might feel as it unfolds.
Is it really going to be Trump vs Biden again?
Yep, I’m afraid so. As of last month, both Donald Trump and Joe Biden officially secured the nomination of their respective parties to be their Presidential candidate in the election in November, following a series of mini intra-party “primary” elections in different states across the country.
While Biden was elected virtually unopposed (save for a handful of no-hopers), Trump did face what is known as a “primary challenge” from former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley– though in the end, Trump won almost every contest in which he faced her.
So it really does seem like we’re about to spend eight months watching the least wanted sequel since Space Jam: A New Legacy.
However, there is a small chance the race could suddenly become more exciting again.
For example, in recent weeks there has been a lot of debate amongst Democrats about whether Biden is too old to be President again, and whether his age might cause him to lose – as I guess there are some voters who would prefer an insane but slightly younger President to a broadly competent, if a little senile, older President.
Similarly, on the Republican side there is a chance that the many, many criminal trials Trump is facing might cause him legal problems before election day. Though it’s unlikely that most will be resolved by the time voters go to the polls, if he is convicted – or even jailed – you would think that might cause the parties to reconsider. Though who knows anymore?
In any case, the next key things to watch for are both party conventions in July and August. Though both are usually just formalities, crowning the candidate who has already won the primary election… If there are going to be any last minute changes of candidates, those are the places that any changes are going to be made.
Do we need to worry about Trump? The world survived last time around…
A second Trump term would likely be very different to the first time around – and by “different”, I mean “worse”.
Last time, Trump initially needed the help of, and tried to cooperate with, the traditional Republican establishment. This meant that you had functioning adults, like a former congressman called Reince Priebus, installed as Trump’s Chief of Staff. Sure, the ‘establishment’ Republicans were still the sorts of people who like to cut taxes and reduce social security payments and so on – but at least they could be trusted to stop Trump pressing the nuclear button just because he’s bored.
And that’s what makes the prospect of more Trump a bit scary. As next time around, he won’t even have these guardrails. It’ll be all of the real crazies, all of the time. Not to mention this time he’s going to be entering office even more bitter and angry. So at a minimum we can expect him to staff his government with the nuttiest of nutters – and abuse the powers of his office to go after his political opponents.
How would Trump winning affect Britain directly?
There’s an old saying that when America sneezes, the world catches a cold – and this remains true. When bad things happen in America, they tend to impact the rest of us.
Here in Britain, the two biggest areas of concern are on defence and the economy.
On defence, much like in his first term Trump is incredibly hostile towards NATO. Crucially, the worry is that he wouldn’t back Article 5 – the agreement that says if one member is attacked, we are all attacked. It’s a crucial part of what keeps all of Europe safe, as together we’re a big enough threat to stop Putin doing anything silly.
But a promise is only as good as the word of whoever made it – and if there’s any sign America wouldn’t stand by, say, Estonia, if Putin were to send in the tanks, then it will become worthless and make us all less safe.
And as things currently stand, even if Trump backs NATO, it’s likely that if he’s President that Ukraine will fall to Putin anyway, as Trump is extremely hostile to the idea of providing President Zelenskyy with weapons to fight back against Russia.
I know what you’re thinking – cheery stuff!
But there are also less spicy things to worry about too. For example, one of Trump’s strangest policies is to put a 10% tariff on imports across the board. That means if Americans buy anything from outside the country, they will have to pay more – which if implemented will presumably mean American consumers buy less stuff from Britain and Europe.
And given how deeply entwined our economies are – it seems impossible that if he goes through with it, that we won’t feel the negative economic effects too.
How do the current polls look and are they likely to change?
This is the mad thing. You could be forgiven for thinking that Biden can expect to cruise to victory, but over the last few years he has bled support and his approval ratings have reached record lows. So if you look at most polls now, Trump is ahead.
However, polling is just a snapshot of a moment in time, and there is still a long way to go until November. So Democrats are hoping that the polls will slowly turn, as American voters realise that – yes, really – Trump is running for President again.
And similarly, though the polls are mostly neck and neck, there is still the unknown factor of Trump being on trial. This isn’t just unprecedented, it is un-Presidented – as no major Presidential candidate has ever been in his position before. So we don’t know what effect that will have on the race.
So it’s worth watching the race closely as at the moment, it could plausibly be either of them who wins. Let’s just hope Biden doesn’t have a fall or catch a cold between now and November.
Who was happening now?
This week, Sam was joined by the local expert in nearly everything, James O’Malley, and the three pioneering panellists Michael MacLeod, Kate Knowles and Ed Jennings. Their publications can be found below and, honestly, we’ve found you don’t need to live in their neighbourhoods to enjoy their work. The full conversation will feature in a bonus episode this week.
Also joining us this week were members of the WHN team, Ben Lovell and Emmy Fyles, as well as the comedian Stella Graham. You can find more about Stella on her website; www.stellagraham.com
Last, and by no means least, was the actress and accent coach, Jessica Dennis, who (appropriately) can be found at;