What just happened in the UK? General Election Special Episode

The UK just held a General Election that resulted in a historic win for the Labour Party.

Despite the unnerving shift in power towards the far-right happening in Europe as a whole, in the UK the Conservative Party has been definitely rejected from power after 14 long years.

Live coverage showing vote counting, candidates in waiting, and pundits debating through the night.

The very first episode of this podcast was about how democracy works in the UK, so I thought it would be interesting to go back and find out what the mood is on the ground.

I recorded a brief special one-off bonus episode with John, one of my guests from that very first episode, on the 7th of July, so about 4 days after the election.

In it I start telling him about an idea I'm mulling over as this podcast develops about the difference between "white collar corruption" in democracies and plain old dirty corruption.

We also spend time reflecting on why political parties veer into culture wars. Specifically I get to ask him about something that has puzzled and upset me for a long time: why the heck is the UK infested with TERFy transphobic nonsense? As the parent of a transgender kid, John has some surprising answers. He gave me an on-the-ground perspective that I couldn't see or know about, viewing my country from afar.

That's why I like this project. Because you learn that no matter how closely you follow the news from abroad, you don't really know how that news or those political battles are being read and received on the ground. Even when it is your own country.

Info graphics from The Guardian that show the proportional size of each constituency and the share of the vote that went to Labour (red) versus Conservative (blue).