Pod Save The UK

May 8, 2023 3:44 PM

Pod Save The UK is an American-style political chat and humor show that just launched. Hosted by comedian Nish Kumar and journalist Coco Khan, their premiere episode Is the UK Ready to Ditch the Monarchy? [1h2m] brings in Amelia Hadfield from Surry University and Labour MP Clive Lewis to discuss the role of the monarchy in the UK in the 21st Century and how, if at all possible, they might get rid of the crown.

I have no idea how this is skirting UK's libel laws, but I assume careful host instruction, talented editors, and a strong legal team are all working together.

posted by hippybear (24 comments total)

See also: Frankie Boyle's Farewell to the Monarchy.

Frankie is hilarious and does not pull punches.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 3:49 PM on May 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

Years later, I still can’t forgive calling a podcast “the pod”.
posted by Sunflowers Beneath the Snow at 4:28 PM on May 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

Seems to me that the monarchy shouldn't necessarily be abolished, but it's absurd that taxpayer money goes to these billionaires. Keep the royals but stop giving them money. Make them "pay their own way." (Actually, that just brings up questions for me: does the royal family actually own, say, Buckingham Palace, or is that owned by the British government? Or are those synonymous?)
posted by zardoz at 4:41 PM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Zardoz: my understanding is that a lot of the palaces are owned by the monarch in his/her capacity as the state but that a few are privately owned.
posted by Whale Oil at 4:50 PM on May 8, 2023

The royals own a huge percentage of British land, about 15 billion pounds worth.

citation
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 4:52 PM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Nish is great, he does a great job on The Bugle
posted by jazon at 4:56 PM on May 8, 2023 [10 favorites]

(Actually, that just brings up questions for me: does the royal family actually own, say, Buckingham Palace, or is that owned by the British government? Or are those synonymous?)

Buckingham Palace in particular is owned by The Crown™. The Crown can basically be thought of as a corporation and its sole shareholder is the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom who holds the possessions in trust for future generations. Should the monarchy be abolished those assets would be part of the successor state for the crown as a corporation sole, not returned to the sovereign.

The royals own a huge percentage of British land, about 15 billion pounds worth.

Crown Estates aren't the sovereign's personal property. When you buy land from the state in a Commonwealth realm like the UK, Australia, or Canada you would have it taken from either the Crown Estate (for the UK) or Crown land (Australia/Canada). It doesn't mean the sovereign personally owns the land, but the state that's administered derives its power from the crown as a corporation sole.

The monarch does have some personal properties. Sandringham House and Balmoral Castle for instance are owned by the sovereign personally rather than the crown. If Liz wanted to piss off Charles she had every right to will them to her corgis instead of him.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 4:57 PM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

The French are masters at eliminating monarchy.
posted by nofundy at 5:06 PM on May 8, 2023 [8 favorites]

To be fair they've done it three times already so they have the most experience.
posted by Your Childhood Pet Rock at 5:09 PM on May 8, 2023 [13 favorites]

I love nish too, and have a fair amount of time for projects he's involved with. But Jesus that man has a laugh that is irritating. Made for print opposed to audio. Jesus it's terrible. He's awesome though, so on balance if the worst thing you can say about someone is the laugh is grating, well that's pretty good then.
posted by Keith Talent at 6:28 PM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

As a person who laughs like Mozart, I'd like to hope that's true....
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:58 PM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

But Jesus that man has a laugh that is irritating. Made for print opposed to audio. Jesus it's terrible.

It's literally been a talking point on The Bugle. Something about "You should probably check on your neighbours" after he's had a howl. His laugh is great.

All of which is to say he's amazing on The Bugle, and has had bread thrown at him for making jokes about Brexit.

cf. Nish Kumar talks to Andy Zaltzman and Alice Fraser on The Bugle podcast about his recent set at the Lord’s Taverners charity luncheon, where he was booed off stage and had a bread roll thrown at him.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:09 PM on May 8, 2023 [4 favorites]

"It's dangerous to perform for a room full of people largely descended from people who colonized my ancestors."
[...]
"Why is this the rowdiest gig I've ever done?"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:25 PM on May 8, 2023 [3 favorites]

I had originally started to compose this post with "Crooked Media launches their first podcast that isn't white people complaining about their nation"...
posted by hippybear at 7:27 PM on May 8, 2023 [2 favorites]

Gah. Botched that link with previously-existing clipboard content.

Here's the link to the actual bread-throwing performance, i.e., "It's dangerous to perform for a room full of people..."
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:16 PM on May 8, 2023 [1 favorite]

Like many people from outside Britain, my introduction to Nish Kumar was The Bugle. I'll say that he's not as funny as I was expecting on Pod Save the UK, but it's a different kind of product, not as scripted as The Bugle. I will say that the biggest laughs so far have been Coco Khan. I'm still chuckling at her quip that they call that political party Labour because it's such hard work.
posted by Kattullus at 1:41 AM on May 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Big fan of Nish so looking forward to listening to this.

The French are masters at eliminating monarchy.

Haha. As Your Childhood Pet Rock says, they've done it three times already. If they were that good they'd have done it just once. And the fifth republic is basically an elective monarchy.

The fundamental problem with all centrist (i.e. non-revolutionary) approaches to getting rid of the monarchy is that the UK is already an effectively managed dictatorship of the bourgeoisie just like other liberal democracies. Like the other constitutional monarchies, there is a completely powerless figurehead role with pretty jewels and ceremonies, obviously we can get rid of that but... why exactly? It's one thing if you're overturning the whole mess and replacing it with something radically different - it would be quite weird to have a complete revolution, nationalise the means of production, but keep a monarch around even symbolically - but in the absence of that it just sounds like the same dreary system with the only visually appealing part removed.

(Actually, that just brings up questions for me: does the royal family actually own, say, Buckingham Palace, or is that owned by the British government? Or are those synonymous?)

There's basically:

Buckingham Palace: owned by "The Crown" and mostly funded by the government. This is mostly offices and for that reason pretty unappealing to live in. St James Palace is similar and mostly used for diplomatic functions.

Clarence House, Windsor Castle, Bagshot, Kensington Palace: Owned by The Crown and used as residences.

Sandringham, Balmoral, Gatcombe, Highgrove: Privately owned, Gatcombe belongs to Anne so will pass to her heirs and out of the royal family. The others belong to Charles personally.

Charles has indicated that he intends to get rid of quite a lot of this stuff, slim down the number of working royals as the current lot retire to make it more like the Danish or Dutch royal families so I would imagine a lot of these will go from museums that you can sometimes visit parts of to just fully museums over the coming years.
posted by atrazine at 4:29 AM on May 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Will we never get to see 'Nude with Nish'?
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 5:34 AM on May 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

I had originally started to compose this post with "Crooked Media launches their first podcast that isn't white people complaining about their nation"...

These are a sampling of Crooked Media podcasts with PoC hosts. Pod Save the People for example is hosted by DeRay Mckesson and has been running for years:
Pod Save the People
Keep It
Dare We Say
America Dissected
Stuck with Damon Young
posted by mcstayinskool at 6:23 AM on May 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

As Your Childhood Pet Rock says, they've done it three times already. If they were that good they'd have done it just once.

*laughs*
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:35 AM on May 9, 2023

Um....I'm mostly through this video and I haven't noticed his horrible laugh as standing out. What is so bad? Is there a specific spot I should be watching for the horribleness?
posted by jenfullmoon at 12:59 PM on May 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I was sort of hoping Crooked Media and Podmasters (OGWN, The Bunker, Doomesday Watch and others) would get together. I mean they are standing on each other's turf now (Pod Save the UK and The Bunker: USA episodes). I'll continue to listen to the current flagship pods from both.

I'd definitely love an Alex Andreou / Jon Lovett crossover podcast. I would add in Ian Dunt but he may be just a little too sweary even for Crooked...but I would totally stan an Ian Dunt & Ros Taylor cross-over with the Strict Scrutiny team.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:54 PM on May 9, 2023

If Jon Lovett could rein himself in a bit, he's make a good late night host.
posted by hippybear at 7:15 PM on May 9, 2023

Well, Pod Save The UK was the #1 podcast in the UK last week. So, launch successful!
posted by hippybear at 3:17 PM on May 11, 2023