
Sunak’s Weapons of Maths Distraction
Explicit content warning
01/06/23 • 57 min
2 Listeners
Ah, a new year. A time to reflect and make changes. And here comes Sunak with his five pledges... Well, I guess there’s always next year (thanks very much, fixed-term parliaments act). With the NHS in crisis, strikes never ending and the cost of living spiralling out of control – surely we need more than more maths lessons? Plus, after Christmas drew charity into focus – has the state simply offloaded its responsibilities to Good Samaritans?
- “The crisis is the result of nearly 13 years of Tory Government and it will take a really long time to fix the damage that they’ve done.” – Naomi Smith
- “Sunak’s speech was a pretty mealy-mouthed set of pledges with a maths lesson thrown in.” – Arthur Snell
- “It felt like Sunak was saying. ‘I became a millionaire with maths, you can too.’” – Naomi Smith
Presented by Ros Taylor, Arthur Snell, Naomi Smith and Seth Thévoz. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jet Gerbertson and Alex Rees. Assistant Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.
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Ah, a new year. A time to reflect and make changes. And here comes Sunak with his five pledges... Well, I guess there’s always next year (thanks very much, fixed-term parliaments act). With the NHS in crisis, strikes never ending and the cost of living spiralling out of control – surely we need more than more maths lessons? Plus, after Christmas drew charity into focus – has the state simply offloaded its responsibilities to Good Samaritans?
- “The crisis is the result of nearly 13 years of Tory Government and it will take a really long time to fix the damage that they’ve done.” – Naomi Smith
- “Sunak’s speech was a pretty mealy-mouthed set of pledges with a maths lesson thrown in.” – Arthur Snell
- “It felt like Sunak was saying. ‘I became a millionaire with maths, you can too.’” – Naomi Smith
Presented by Ros Taylor, Arthur Snell, Naomi Smith and Seth Thévoz. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jet Gerbertson and Alex Rees. Assistant Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Previous Episode

The 20 Worst Moments of 2022 – Our Top Ten
Good will to all men and all that but first, join us for a final airing of grievances. What are the top 10 most infuriating, baffling and rage inducing events of the past year? Our panel counts down to number one in the second half of our 20 worst moments from 2022. They unpack everything from record temperatures, tyrannical leaders to unprecedented sewage spills – and that’s not a metaphor for Boris Johnson or Liz Truss, they get mentions of their own...
- “Trump didn’t realise that you can’t just declassify materials by thinking it. This is not a telepathic presidency.” – Arthur Snell
- "Is the Royal Family now just a conduit of unhappiness of how Britain has treated its colonies?” – Ros Taylor
- “The Government basically cold-called countries like a double glazing salesman and the first country to say sure, we’ll take your money was Rwanda.” – Alex Andreou
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Presented by Dorian Lynskey with Arthur Snell, Ros Taylor and Alex Andreou. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jet Gerbertson and Alex Rees. Assistant Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.
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Next Episode

Resting Pitch Face
Sunak and Starmer's battle of the speeches marked this year’s first blue on red ding dong. What are their respective pitches? The panel plays a game of spot the difference between the pair’s positions and policies. Plus, as the PM tries to hibernate through the new Winter of Discontent – is he sleepwalking towards a General Strike? And, finally, we unpack the pros and cons of tea-spilling biographies. Anybody heard about one of those recently?
- “None of these policies mean anything. There’s no time given for debt falling.” – Ian Dunt
- “It’s not about what the people want, it’s about wavering target voters.” – Ian Dunt
- “I can’t see a world where Sunak doesn’t lead the Conservatives into the next election, so now Labour knows who the opponent is.” – Marie Le Conte
- “The Government assumed the usual dynamics around strikes would prevail, and they have not prevailed.” – Ian Dunt
- “We have a bunch of not very talented people shunted into ministerial positions saying what they think they’re meant to say.” – Gavin Esler
Presented by Alex Andreou with Gavin Esler, Ian Dunt and Marie Le Conte . Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Lead Producer: Jacob Jarvis. Producers: Jet Gerbertson and Alex Rees. Assistant Producer: Kasia Tomasiewicz. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production.
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