‘What would Thatcher do?’ Iran, Islam, Trump and Reform with Charles Moore

Watch the full uncut interview HERE: https://open.substack.com/pub/thebrinkpodcast/p/what-would-thatcher-do-iran-islam?r=63dafp&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

In this episode of The Brink, we sit down with Charles Moore, former editor of The Daily Telegraph and The Spectator, and the definitive biographer of Margaret Thatcher, to examine a West in crisis.

With geopolitical tensions rising, the transatlantic alliance under strain, and Britain facing deep internal divisions, Moore offers a sweeping diagnosis of where things have gone wrong and what might come next.

The conversation begins with one of the most difficult and urgent questions facing Europe today: how Islam fits within Western societies. Moore reflects on decades of thought on the subject, arguing that the challenge is not simply demographic, but philosophical, rooted in unresolved tensions between religion, state, and pluralism. From integration and extremism to the failures of government policy, he lays out why current approaches may be empowering the wrong voices.

We then turn to British politics, where the collapse of trust in the main parties has given rise to insurgent movements on both left and right. Moore explains why this fragmentation is both understandable and dangerous, and why populist parties often diagnose problems better than they solve them.

The discussion also explores the weakening of the transatlantic relationship in the age of Trump, the rise of ideological extremes in American politics, and the growing confusion in the information age, where truth, propaganda, and narrative increasingly blur together.

This is a wide-ranging and deeply thought-provoking conversation about identity, leadership, and the future of the West.

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Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:42 Why the Public No Longer Believes the Establishment 03:58 The Rise of Ideology Over Evidence 06:12 How Elite Institutions Became Politicised 08:47 The Media’s Role in Shaping Public Narrative 11:05 Truth vs Narrative: What Changed? 13:26 Social Media, Censorship and Information Control 15:52 The Expert Class and the Illusion of Authority 18:34 Covid, Groupthink and Institutional Failure 21:06 The Incentives That Drive Bad Decisions 23:41 Why Dissent Is Shut Down 26:12 Identity Politics and Institutional Capture 29:05 How Bureaucracies Protect Themselves 32:18 Political Leadership and Failure of Accountability 35:44 The Consequences for Democracy 39:12 Immigration, Culture and Social Fragmentation 42:36 Economic Stagnation and Policy Failure 46:18 Britain vs the United States: A Growing Divide Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.