About this episode

A chaotic discussion on political imagination, British culture, and the state of modern society.

Tonight on Fockem Hall, I was joined by Anurag, Patrick and Paul English for a gloriously unruly attempt to imagine “the political party that could never be elected” — which quickly turned into a very British debate about scones, jam-first versus cream-first doctrine, Ponce titles, border policy for the imaginary nation of Fockem, and whether government itself is beyond saving. Along the way we veered, as only we can, from Cornish cream teas and Welsh place names to funerals, transport, treason, immigration, surveillance, NATO, drones and the creeping absurdities of modern life. What really took hold, though, was a deeper conversation about education, honour and social order: whether children ought to be taught how to think rather than merely what to memorise, why Dorothy L. Sayers’ “lost tools of learning” still matter, and how trust, craftsmanship, community and moral responsibility have been hollowed out by systems of control. We also spent a fair bit of time on The Prisoner, old-world design, railways, music, ageing, poverty and the quiet civilisational loss you feel when beauty, dignity and common sense are stripped out of everyday life. In other words: chaos, philosophy…

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