Whether it’s online, print, radio or broadcast, it seems we can’t get enough of politics these days. And not content with traditional forms of media, an ever-expanding number of MPs are branching out into podcasts to share their thoughts with the wider world. Around half-a-dozen have launched their own shows in recent months, following in the footsteps of perhaps the most high-profile parliamentary podcaster: Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has hosted his fortnightly Moggcast show for ConservativeHome since 2018, often providing news lines which Mr S is only too keen to follow up.
The latest ambitious MP to launch such a project is the chisel-jawed Luke Evans, whose career reads like a Tory mother’s dream: a qualified GP who married a fellow doctor, he was selected for a Conservative safe seat at 36 and now lives in Bosworth happily with his two dogs, having been elected there in 2019. In Parliament he’s devoted most of his efforts to body image, with Evans calling for digitally altered body proportions to be labelled in advertising. To further this goal, he launched his own, podcast last month – titled, unsurprisingly, ‘Dr in the House’ – in which he discusses ‘mental health, body image and life as an MP’ with ‘fellow MPs, famous faces, and just some of the extraordinary people he comes across in his job.’ Worthy stuff.
Evans is just following in the footsteps of other members of the 2019-intake. Jo Gideon, the Stoke-on-Trent MP, runs one called ‘People before Politics’ in which she simply lists her various achievements that month in the style of a local newsletter. Fellow backbencher Dean Russell hosts a regular podcast titled, originally, ‘Watford Matters with Dean Russell’ where he ‘interviews local leaders from across our community’ while Jack Brereton has one based around ‘fantastic Stoke South.’
Across the House, others getting in on the act include SNP Drew Hendry with (quelle surprise) ‘Scotland’s Choice’ which mostly consists of leading Scottish nationalists embarrassing themselves on the pensions question. And no self-promoting platform would be complete without Jess Phillips whose ‘Yours Sincerely’ podcast gives her guests a chance to ‘celebrate three people that mean the world to them.’ Presumably ‘me, myself and I’ were the chosen three for the Have I Got News For You host?
As for those MPs without a platform, not to worry: there will likely soon be a taxpayer-funded alternative run by the Houses of Parliament themselves. For a Freedom of Information request by Mr S found that there will shortly be a parliamentary archives-themed series while ‘two potential podcast pilots… are still at concept’ with one focussing on parliamentary procedure and the other looking at Select Committee business. And of course, there’s already the House of Lords show for anyone who needs a fix.
Who needs Joe Rogan’s shows when such podcast gold is in abundance elsewhere?
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