{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"In Solidarity - by openDemocracy","title":"Abolish Westminster | With Adam Ramsay","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/bc850cbe\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1808,"description":"In this episode, longtime openDemocracy contributor Adam Ramsay discusses his book Abolish Westminster, arguing that “Westminster” is a metonym for Britain’s whole constitutional order parliament, Whitehall, the judiciary, the monarchy, the Lords, and the union and that it was built to run an empire rather than democratically govern today’s UK. Drawing on Scotland’s experience, he says progressive politics are repeatedly thwarted by an English electoral pattern that has long delivered Conservative rule, despite similar issue preferences across nations; devolution has mitigated harms in Scotland, including lower child poverty and a less punitive benefits system. Ramsay contends devolution is temporary and easily overridden, critiques Britain’s unresolved post-imperial identity and racialized Englishness, and reads Reform’s rise as nostalgia for an imagined pre-decline state.\nHe proposes breaking up the UK so its nations can pursue democratic renewal, with England forced into constitutional reform.","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/swGGhP8cZAkHBfFYG8ZeSUimQx84CLBSBdyjunfg4-I/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hMmM2/OTgyZjRiMTBiMGQ0/MDMxOTg1YTAyNDVl/OWVjYS5qcGVn.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}