In partnership with the LRB
David and Helen catch up with the European election results and the Tory leadership race - there's lots to talk about. How can the Tories compete with the Brexit Party? Are the Liberal Democrats a real threat to Labour? What does it all mean for Ireland? And for Scotland? Plus, is the surge in support for Greens across Europe a signal that it's time to take environmental politics seriously?
We try to draw some wider lessons from the nightmare that the Brexit process has now become. What have we learned about the relationship between parliament and the executive? Is there any way that the Article 50 process could have worked? And what conclusions will other countries reach about how hard it is to leave the EU? Plus we talk about the recent report from the Hansard Society indicating that the British public is more open than ever to the idea of a 'strong leader'. With Helen Thompson and Kenneth Armstrong.
We discuss the challenge posed by the Independent Group and by Tom Watson inside Labour to conventional two party-politics in Britain. Can the system hold together? If not, what might replace it? And where are the new ideas going to come from? Plus we talk about what the ERG wants on the Tory side: is it simply Boris? With Helen Thompson and Mike Kenny.
Back to Brexit: as decision-day approaches we try to work out what might happen next. Did Labour patch up its differences? Can anyone really start the negotiations again? And what would it take to get the EU to deviate from its script? Plus we explore some of the ideological roots of Tory opposition to Chequers and we ask what happened to the good old British by-election. With Helen Thompson, Chris Bickerton and Wassem Yaqoob.
Read MoreSummer's over: politics is back! This week we return to the mystery inside the enigma that is Brexit to ask where Labour now stands. What is the big divide in the Labour movement: Is it MPs vs leader? Members vs voters? Young vs old? And what could a second referendum achieve anyway? Plus we try to make sense of the fraught fight over the definition of anti-Semitism. With Helen Thompson, Chris Bickerton and Waseem Yaqoob.
The Conservative Party now has barely 70,000 members, most of them aged over 60. Meanwhile Labour has over half a million, many of them young. What does this mean for the future of British politics? Can a party survive without members? Can Labour negotiate the divisions within its ranks? And what room is there for a new party of the centre? With Helen Thompson and Chris Bickerton.