
Hosted by Danny Dorling · EN

If the polls are to be believed, then the situation is continuing to alter fast. Labour has lost support - not to Reform, but to progressive parties and to uncertainty itself. The Greens have doubled in popularity, while the Conservatives have somehow managed to become even less popular, largely through voters defecting to Reform. And the Prime Minister? The most unpopular ever - though he’s in familiar company. In this fast-paced and not entirely dismal talk, geographer Danny Dorling takes a clear-eyed look at the shifting sands of British politics. From who’s pulling the strings to how MPs are behaving as their personal futures grow more uncertain, he explores what these seismic movements in public opinion might tell us about the country’s mood - and where we might be headed next. Danny Dorling was speaking at the Sunday Papers Live in London on November 2nd 2025. he works at the University of Oxford. His most recent books include Seven Children, Peak Injustice, and The Next Crisis. He also works with the road crash charity RoadPeace, Heeley City Farm in Sheffield, and the education campaign group Comprehensive Future. In his spare time, he makes sandcastles.

If we found seven typical 6-year-old children to represent today’s UK, who would they be? What would their stories reveal? Amid the cost-of-living crisis, this could be a depressing story, when even the best-off of the seven is disadvantaged. Yet aspirations endure, and there are many signs that things could be getting better. What do we miss when we focus only on the super-rich and the most deprived? What kinds of lives are British children living between the extremes? And how can we reverse the trends that have in recent years been leaving most children worse off than their parents?

Social scientist and inequality expert Danny Dorling discusses his latest work, Seven Children, an immersive and highly original study of child inequality, in a conversation at Foyles with Polly Toynbee. Foyles bookshop, Charring Cross Road, London, September 12th 2024.

Donnington Doorstep is a community-based family centre delivering a range of universal and specialist services. It was set up in 1984 by local parents, who knew that caring for children can be hard. My mum was involved a little at the start, and I was one of the children that it was hard to care for (unruly, etc). Forty years on Donnington Doorstep is still a home from home drop-in for children, young people and their families as well as a hub for local community activity. It is based in a purpose-built centre in East Oxford and its activities focus on play, food, support and community development. You can read more here: https://www.donnington-doorstep.org.uk/about/about-us We wanted to hold a celebration for the centre not just in the University that now dominates Oxford (far more than it did in 1984). This celebration was held at St Peter's Collge Oxford, on Friday 21st June 2024. The recording is just of Danny Dorling's contribution.

Who are the incomers who have made the city of Oxford, England their home? Social policy scholar Elizabeth Peretz, geographer Danny Dorling, historian Maurice East and activist Jabu Nala-Hartley lead a discussion about migrants' histories and realities in a Refugee Week event organised by the Coalition To Keep Campsfield Closed. The speakers explore the stories of those who have come to Oxford over the years, and how they've managed to settle and make the town and university the place it is today. Following their comments, a number of refugees and former refugees spoke. This is an audio-only recording of an event held on 17 June 2024. This event was originally scheduled to be held at Common Ground, but when it was not available, Somerville College at the University of Oxford very kindly made the Margaret Thatcher Centre lecture theatre available. The Coalition To Keep Campsfield Closed is campaigning to stop the reopening of a detention centre on the edge of Oxford, which at one time was Europe's largest camp for the concentration and incarceration of people seeking refuge and asylum. Find out more about this important campaign: https://keepcampsfieldclosed.uk/ Read more about Danny Dorling's books, events and work: https://www.dannydorling.org/

Why is the UK so unusual – and not at all in a good way? How did the Conservative Party end up having more in common with European political parties such as Germany]s far-right AfD than with other “conservative” parties on the continent – as far back as the prime ministership of David Cameron? How did a recent Scottish government policy that most people outside of Scotland are unaware of, manage to reverse one of the harshest measures imposed on families by the UK government? From miserly state pension benefits to shrinking children and soaring child poverty, and from dwindling state spending as a proportion of GDP to the outsized influence of billionaire-owned newspapers that as far back as the 1930s, a Tory prime minister described as “engines of propaganda”, British exceptionalism is taking a toll on all who live in it as the country becomes poorer and harsher. In this election year, are there any reasons to be hopeful? This is an audio-only recording of a talk by acclaimed geographer and inequalities expert Professor Danny Dorling of the University of Oxford at the Lewes Speakers Festival on 11 May 2024. His talk draws on his recent Verso book Shattered Nation: Inequality and the Geography of a Failing State.

Danny Dorling, Liz Webster, and Willow Fisher, speaking on "Brexit is a failed project: a brighter future is possible", a Public Meeting organised by Oxford for Europe, Wesley Memorial Church, Oxford, March 20th 2024. A summary for part of the first part is here: https://www.dannydorling.org/?p=9917 and full report which that part is based on is here: https://www.dannydorling.org/?page_id=9912 a report on the failed project.

13:10-13.35 - "BRITISH CULTURE" Danny Dorling at the Sunday Papers Live, March 17th 2024 (One Marylebone, 1 Marylebone Rd, London) Is there any hope? What do we do? Join Danny Dorling, professor in the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, as he explores the options, and how Geography shows you a way out for London, England and the UK.

A public talk given by Danny Dorling at the Rudolf Agricola School for Sustainable Development, University of Groningen, House of Connections, Oude Ebbingestraat, Groningen, The Netherlands, 19 December 2023. Based on the book "Shattered Nation" and concerning recent events and more long term trends in the UK, the Netherlands, and elsehwhere. Introduced by Dimitris Ballas and Frans J. Sijtsma.

Danny Dorling, speaking after John Broughton and Peter Apps, on the housing Policies of the British Labour Party, at the Labour Housing Group Conference: Tackling London's Housing Crisis, Camden London Borough Council, December 9th 2023