&lt;p&gt;To kick off the new year David and Helen are joined by historian Robert Saunders to talk about two possible trends for the next twelve months.&amp;nbsp;Could Labour and the Lib Dem’s really find electoral common ground to defeat the Tories? And is Netzero scepticism about to become a serious force on the British right?&amp;nbsp;A conversation about history, coalitions, energy prices, populism and the return of Nigel Farage. Coming up on Talking Politics: Biden one year on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;Talking Points:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;p&gt;By-elections and opinion polls suggest that the Conservative Party might be in trouble.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Labour did badly in the by-elections but it is doing better in the polls.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Is there a way of getting the Tories out without some combination of Lib Dem and Labour opposition?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The Lib Dems can win in seats where Labour is not competitive.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;There are no prospects for the Labour Party becoming the largest party, given the situation in Scotland, without the Lib Dems taking seats from the Conservatives.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The Lib Dems struggle when Labour is perceived as being too far to the left.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;What complicates things now is the Scottish question.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;The prospect of a Labour-SNP coalition presents a different type of problem.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Should the parties stand down candidates? Can you compel tactical voting? Should you?&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there potential for serious opposition to climate-centric politics in the coming years?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;There is a growing, although still constrained, opposition to net zero politics on the right. Farage wants to stoke this.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;It’s not exactly climate skepticism, but rather skepticism over the policies put forward to tackle it.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;This is already happening in Australia and the United States, but these are countries where fossil fuel producers have a lot of power.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;This is emerging now because of what is happening with energy prices.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is there an unoccupied political space between techno-utopianism and net zero skepticism?&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Johnson is keen on the green-growth strategy, but so far, the evidence on green jobs is not that convincing.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Covid showed us that the public can take more realism than politicians often assume.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Mentioned in this Episode:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llq-WvonlL0" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Keir Starmer’s new year speech&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/One-Party-After-Another/Michael-Crick/9781471192296" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Michael Crick’s forthcoming biography of Nigel Farage&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://twitter.com/redhistorian?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Robert’s Twitter account&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Further Learning:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/climate-change-skeptics-united-kingdom-science-deniers-rebrand/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;More on Conservative opposition to Net Zero&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2021/07/why-britain-s-timid-green-politics-shows-it-not-taking-energy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Helen on the timid political debate over green energy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-newsletter-17" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;Adam Tooze on realism, progressivism, and Net Zero&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a href="http://lrb.co.uk/talking" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;lrb.co.uk/talking&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;hr&gt;&lt;p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'&gt; See &lt;a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'&gt;acast.com/privacy&lt;/a&gt; for privacy and opt-out information.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Become a member at &lt;a target="_blank" rel="payment" href="https://plus.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics"&gt;https://plus.acast.com/s/talkingpolitics&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

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TALKING POLITICS