Crawford School of Public Policy

On this week’s Second Serve, we catch up with Sophia Gaston for the latest on Britain’s devastating coronavirus toll.

With limited testing, struggles to get protective equipment for health workers, and a high death toll, Britain is still in the grip of its coronavirus crisis. But with the British public throwing its support behind the National Health Service, and a high compliance rate with lockdown measures, has the UK put the measures in place to turn the corner? And does the new Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s performance in holding the government to account for its mistakes early in the crisis signal that the country’s democracy is repairing after the damage of the Brexit years? On this Democracy Sausage Second Serve, Mark Kenny chats again to Sophia Gaston to talk about the change from the Corbyn years, whether concerns over government performance extend beyond Westminster, and what kind of prime minister the country might have when Boris Johnson resumes the position. Listen here.

Sophia Gaston is Director of the British Foreign Policy Group, an independent think tank focusing on advancing knowledge and debate around Britain’s international affairs. She is also a Research Fellow in the Institute for Global Affairs at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an Academic Fellow at the European Policy Centre in Brussels.

Professor Mark Kenny is a Senior Fellow in the ANU Australian Studies Institute. He came to the university after a high-profile journalistic career including six years as chief political correspondent and national affairs editor for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and The Canberra Times.

Democracy Sausage with Mark Kenny is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We’d love to hear your feedback for this podcast series! Send in your questions, comments, or suggestions for future episodes to podcast@policyforum.net. You can also Tweet us @APPSPolicyForum or join us on the Facebook group.

This podcast is produced in partnership with The Australian National University.