The History of Bad Ideas: Deliverism

The History of Bad Ideas: Deliverism

July 15, 2026 · 57 min · Season 5 · Episode 309

About this episode

The episode discusses the controversial idea of deliverism in politics and its implications for elections.

Today’s episode is about a bad idea with a very recent history: David talks to political historian David Klemperer about the dangers of deliverism. When did the view that delivering for the voters is a good idea become so controversial? What does it get right and what does it get wrong about how elections are decided? Has politics become more about telling the right story than about delivering the right benefits? And is Andy Burnham a deliverist, a post-deliverist or something else? Out now on PPF+ a bonus episode to accompany this series: David talks about what’s wrong with the idea of ‘the news’ and how it corrupts us all. To get this and all our bonus episodes plus ad-free listening sign up to PPF+ now https://www.ppfideas.com/join-ppf-plus You can find out everything you need to know about this podcast – who we are, what we do, plus merch, events and full lists of all episodes including PPF+ bonus episodes on our website https://www.ppfideas.com Next Time in The History of Bad Ideas: Celebrity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: David Runciman

Guest: David Klemperer

Topics covered

Keywords

More episodes of Past Present Future

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Past Present Future podcast page.