Jam 1st
Political podcasting from Cornwall, UK. We say:
Democracy is not a spectator sport!
Jam1st is not associated with any other businesses using the same name.
Jam1st is dedicated to propagating the understanding of and preservation of democracy in Cornwall and UK generally.
Jam1st is not affiliated to any political party, think tank or lobby group.
Jam1st is a not-for-profit operation and the contributors to Jam1st receive no remuneration in connection with their participation in this site.
Jam1st is not associated with any of the links on this site.
Episodes
39 episodes
Why don't the Cornish put sugar in their tea?
A lighter-hearted mini-episode this week, where Robert looks back to the eighteenth-century Methodist John Wesley and his effect on culture in Cornwall.
Political donations by billionaires
Reform UK had just received two very large donations, meaning that since the last general election they have raised twice as much money as the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats combined over the same period.What do the billiona...
Feedback please!
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The Blackshirts return?
A young woman protestor is assaulted at a populist party conference, and an MP defends the assault on TV.Groups of black-clad, black-masked men march in English south coast towns.Is there a connection with American right-wing mone...
The Prime Minister's visit to Cornwall, devolution, and debt
Andy Burnham visited Cornwall in August.Cornwall Council is deep in debt. How can they dig us out? How can we reduce the vast adult social care bill? Has the new PM any suggestions?And what happened in the Lorien...
Exporting MAGA to the UK
MAGA is spending $millions to spread their ideas to the UK. Are these UK-USA shared values, or an attempt to stimulate division and rewrite history?And why is the American Bar Association suing the Trump administration?
AI - will it help the people, or with the tech bros control all the information?
Garth has a few things to say in his usual trenchant style. Robert talks about science fiction (again). And what did Peter Thiel say about the coming of the Antichrist?
Signs of Fascism - Part 2
Garth and Robert discuss the last seven of the fourteen warning signs of fascism, and come up with a scorecard for where USA and UK are right now.
Is Andy Burnham missing the point?
UK has a new Prime Minister. We ask:- does he control the Labour Party?- what will he do differently to Sir Keir Starmer?- can he have any meaningful effect?
Racism 1 - Katherine's story
What does racism look like on each side of the Atlantic?In part one of a two-part series Garth interviews Katherine, a White American, about the challenges her Black daughters faces at school and the wider challenges presented to h...
Why don't people vote LibDem?
Is the centre ground dead or are the LibDems an option?
Signs of Fascism (part one of two)
F is for FASCISM. Garth and Robert look at the famous poster of the Warning Signs of Fascism and discuss to what extent they are coming true in UK and USA.
What has gone wrong with Britain?
In this short episode, Garth looks back over the last fifteen or so years, summarising how a happy country has tuned angry and disheartened.
Moths, Woodlice, and the May 2026 UK elections
To commemorate Sir David Attenborough's centenary, Garth and Robert have a tongue-in-cheek discussion about clothes moths and woodlice!Then they really stretch the metaphor of how these varmints relate to the May 2026 elections in the We...
Is The Reform Party a British version of MAGA?
Garth and Robert discuss the Hartland Institute, a UK right-wing thinktank which appears to be following the same ideology as the Heritage Foundation and Project 25 in the USA.
Retail, shoplifting and the Squeezed Middle
Garth interviews a senior retail manager about how supermarket shopping habits are changing as price rises take hold on most of us.
Iran War! What is it good for? Absolutely no clue....
Garth and Robert muse on the Iran War. What is Trump's objective? Has he got stuck in a quagmire? What will this do the world's economy?
What the Gorton and Denton bi-election says about UK politics
A grassroots win by the Green Party against oligarch politics? Garth and Robert discuss.We also talk about Council elections in Cornwall. Who is winning and why?
Liberalism - why we need it!
In this episode, Robert examines the intellectual argument for liberalism: its tenets, its history, what it has done for ordinary folk, and how it can resist the current rise of populis...
Strengthening democratic institutions
Garth interviews Christine Leisner about her work to build the institutions which underpin democracy in many nations round the world.
Populism - the rise of Reform in Cornwall
It's time Garth and I spoke about Reform. Why have they done well in Cornwall Council elections? What do they plan to to on a national level regarding migrants? Do recent developments in American politics - with DOGE and ICE -...
Populism - an introduction
A three-minute explainer on what populism means in our politics. Can it affect Cornwall?
In the DOGE house - could it happen in UK?
Garth has some old mates from His Majesty's Civil Service. Given what Musk's DOGE did to their American counterparts, we wonder if it could happen in UK too.
