Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago

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I recently joined Manda Scott on her Accidental Gods podcast alongside Clive Lewis MP, for a conversation asking whether Andy Burnham can deliver a future that actually works. We recorded against the backdrop of yet another brutal heatwave: the kind of summer that's now dwarfing even 1976's "long hot summer" in the shade, and bringing home to ordinary people, not just people like us, just how far things have shifted. That context set the tone for everything that followed: what Andy Burnham as PM might mean, and in particular whether we're finally going to see the serious pivot towards emergency resilience and strategic adaptation that I think British politics is still, frustratingly, barely talking about.

I'm doing fine personally, but I recorded this with real underlying concern about where we're at, and real urgency about the need for UK politics to move urgently from talk to comprehensive action.

This edited excerpt courtesy of Manda Scott. Watch the full podcast here. youtube.com/watch?v=B7QrZf7mOK4

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