310. Gordon Brown: ‘I’d tell Trump he’s unpopular’
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What is the overall premise of Gordon Brown’s new book “The Future Starts With Us”?
Global cohesion's been shattered by Trump's America and she's China. Our communities have been broken by the destruction of local organizations and stagnating living standards. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has a plan to address both crises, doesn't he, Steph?
He does, yeah. The former Prime Minister rarely gives interviews. So this is our chance to find out as the man who gave independence to the Bank of England whether he still thinks it's fit for purpose. Plus, if broken communities are the biggest barrier to economic revival, how do we fix them? Would wealth taxes work? Plus, if he were Prime Minister now, how would he deal with Trump? I don't think Trump's gonna like his answer. Here is our interview with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, all about his new book, The Future Starts With Us. We're proud to say that the rest is money, is powered by Octopus Energy this year, and Greg Jackson, the founder and CEO, is with us. Greg, I wanted to ask you about heat pumps.
Octopus Energy, now make them. Why not just import them from China?
You know what? We wanted to make heat pumps that work that are designed for British homes, uh and um that are cheaper to run, cheaper to install, and actually cheaper for the hardware. And that's what we did. So uh for example, octopus created heat pumps that run at up to seventy degrees C, as hot as a gas boiler, so you don't necessarily need to worry about having, you know, excess insulation and changing a heating system. That's This sort of thing makes it much cheaper for British homes.
Nice one, Greg. Thanks for explaining that. Right, we're gonna go to the episode.
Thank you so much for joining us today. Now we're gonna jump straight into the book. Big focus of it is on the importance of rebuilding communities. You know, you talk about civic renewal should go hand in hand with economic revival. Do you wanna just tell us a bit about what you mean by that?
Well, I've been looking at what's been happening to civic life uh right across the West, and indeed beyond the West as well.
How does Octopus Energy’s heat‑pump technology fit into the discussion on rebuilding communities?
And we've done a poll of about a hundred thousand people in thirty-four different countries, uh, and there's a remarkable similarity in the results. About half the adult population are no longer involved as members of any civic group, any organization, any local uh group at all, whether it's a sports club or a Church or a faith group, or whether it's a trade union or a political party, or just a cultural group. And so there is a weakening of the civic bonds that used to hold us together. There's a hollowing out of all these organizations, which were the focal point for our civic life, is partly as a result of suburbanization, deindustrialization, partly as a result of the rise of television and then the internet.
There's all sorts of causes. But the problem is. is it means that people feel they've got nobody to turn to when they're in need. People don't have as many friends as they used to have. There is, as you know, a loneliness epidemic. Uh twelve percent in our survey say they don't have any friends at all. And I think it's really important that we address this because If the physical infrastructure of our country, the roads, the rails, and the train stations, were collapsing, there would be immediate uh demands for action. Uh and that's what happened in the last few weeks when roads and uh railways were closed. Uh, if the um financial infrastructure, that's the banks, ATM machines, uh, the holes in the wall, were not working, there'd be panic.
We've got a collapse of our civic infrastructure over many. Many years, and we've really got to give attention to what this means. Because what I can show as a result of what's happening is that those people are not involved in community life, and particularly those people who don't interact with people across ethnic and religious uh divides, uh, they're least likely to support international cooperation. And therefore they give fuel uh to the fire of the populist nationalist politicians who want to. separate them and us and who want to exploit division and who want to exploit prejudice.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the overall premise of Gordon Brown’s new book “The Future Starts With Us”?
0:01–2:10
2
How does Octopus Energy’s heat‑pump technology fit into the discussion on rebuilding communities?
2:10–6:40
3
Why does Gordon Brown describe broken civic organisations as an economic emergency?
6:40–12:52
4
What solutions does he propose for reviving local community groups and youth centres?
12:52–21:01
5
How could a wealth‑tax or reform of existing taxes help fund social cohesion?
21:01–30:18
6
What role should the Bank of England play in tackling unemployment and inflation?
30:18–39:11
7
How does Gordon Brown say the UK should respond to the fractured global order?
39:11–43:26
Speakers
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