A Mucky Business with Tim Farron
Oct 14, 2026 · 30 min · 18 segments
This week, Tim kicks off a brand-new mini-series on Burnhamism: the ideas and policies behind Andy Burnham's speech at the Labour Conference. Over the coming weeks, Tim will be unpacking some of…
Tim FarronHostRob HuttonGuest
Can Christians keep the peace? Well, this week, the Prime Minister told the House of Commons it would be, and I quote, "A dereliction of duty if the UK isn't open to a closer relationship with the European Union." His recent party conference speech set out his views on Brexit's failures, and he told the BBC that a future Labour manifesto might pledge a new referendum.
The general consensus among those who crunch the numbers is our economy is up to 8% smaller than it would've been if Brexit had not happened.
So perhaps Brexit is the one big factor harming the economy that we can actually directly affect.
There's some evidence that we've struggled to control small boat crossings partly because we're no longer part of EU-wide returns agreements and cannot send back asylum seekers, though that is not, of course, the only reason.
But rejoining would probably mean a worse deal than the one we had before we left the EU, and we would need to seriously reengage with issues of sovereignty and self-government, which were so important when we discussed this matter last time.
And also, do we really want to reopen the Brexit wounds? Are we capable of having a sensible debate without also reigniting the division, rancor, and frankly, psychodrama that characterized the referendum and its aftermath? Remember, if you do, I was the Liberal Democrat leader during the referendum and it, I took part in endless and chaotic parliamentary debates leading up to our final exit from the EU in early 2020.
There's nothing wrong with passionately defending your position, but somehow we lost the ability to disagree well, and we stopped trying to understand alternative points of view.
Online political discourse began to spill over into physical threats and violence, culminating in the murder of Jo Cox MP.
Within our churches, we will sometimes hold opposing views on this issue and on others.
We're not immune from being caught up in these debates that try to convince us that political conquest holds the key to salvation, and that we're fighting for the soul of our nation or something.
But Christianity isn't a political position to be defended against malign cultural forces.
Can Christians keep the peace? Well, this week, the Prime Minister told the House of Commons it would be, and I quote, "A dereliction of duty if the UK isn't open to a closer relationship with the European Union." His recent party conference speech set out his views on Brexit's failures, and he told the BBC that a future Labour manifesto might pledge a new referendum.
The general consensus among those who crunch the numbers is our economy is up to 8% smaller than it would've been if Brexit had not happened.
So perhaps Brexit is the one big factor harming the economy that we can actually directly affect.
There's some evidence that we've struggled to control small boat crossings partly because we're no longer part of EU-wide returns agreements and cannot send back asylum seekers, though that is not, of course, the only reason.
But rejoining would probably mean a worse deal than the one we had before we left the EU, and we would need to seriously reengage with issues of sovereignty and self-government, which were so important when we discussed this matter last time.
And also, do we really want to reopen the Brexit wounds? Are we capable of having a sensible debate without also reigniting the division, rancor, and frankly, psychodrama that characterized the referendum and its aftermath? Remember, if you do, I was the Liberal Democrat leader during the referendum and it, I took part in endless and chaotic parliamentary debates leading up to our final exit from the EU in early 2020.
There's nothing wrong with passionately defending your position, but somehow we lost the ability to disagree well, and we stopped trying to understand alternative points of view.
Online political discourse began to spill over into physical threats and violence, culminating in the murder of Jo Cox MP.
Within our churches, we will sometimes hold opposing views on this issue and on others.
We're not immune from being caught up in these debates that try to convince us that political conquest holds the key to salvation, and that we're fighting for the soul of our nation or something.
But Christianity isn't a political position to be defended against malign cultural forces.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.