Episode 086

For decades the national union of students in Britain served as a factory for New Labour lackeys. Generation after generation emerged from student politics into research jobs in parliament. They migrated to the green benches and even the front benches, without ever having had a real job or any connection to life outside the bubble. However, that has all changed. The personification of that change is our guest this week, a PhD student in international relations, an activist, an anti-war leader and politically a world away from the young aparatchicks of yesteryear. What caused the change? Shadia Edwards-Dashti came into the Sputnik studio to help us get to the bottom of it.

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party leadership campaign continues to attract young people’s support and packs public meetings. He has forced anti-austerity on to the agenda and created a national movement. Seumas Milne of the Guardian wrote of the Corbyn phenomenon: “A democratic explosion unprecedented in British history. That's all!” Milne joins Sputnik to discuss the unpredictability of politics and the runaway campaign, which shows little sign of flagging.

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