Little Atoms with Derek Pasquill

On this week's show Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy are joined by Derek
Pasquill.

Derek Pasquill worked as a civil servant at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in a unit dealing with engagement with the Islamic world. He grew increasingly concerned over the government’s tacit support for the US’s policy of extraordinary rendition, and with the Foreign Office’s policy of consulting on issues of concern to the Muslim community exclusively via extremists in the Muslim Council of Britain. Derek leaked a number of documents to The Observer newspaper, and to journalist Martin Bright, which formed the basis of a number of critical articles, and also Bright’s pamphlet for Policy Exchange, “When Progressives Treat with Reactionaries”. In January 2006 Derek was arrested and subsequently charged with six counts of breaching the Official Secrets Act. Derek lived for two years facing a possible prison sentence, until his actions were vindicated when the case was thrown out at the Old Bailey earlier this month. It had come to light that Derek’s leaks had caused a significant rethink of the government’s strategy. Support for extraordinary rendition had been quietly dropped, as had the government’s over-reliance on the MCB.

Join us this Friday 1st February at 19.00 on Resonance 104.4FM in London or worldwide at the website.

Little Atoms with Linda Grant

Tune in this friday at 19.00 on Resonance104.4FM or at the Resonance FM website to hear Richard Sanderson and Neil Denny talking to Linda Grant.

Linda Grant is a journalist and author. Her first novel, The Cast Iron Shore, won the David Higham First Novel Prize and was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize. Her second novel, When I lived in Modern Times, won the Orange Prize for Fiction. Still Here was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. She is also author of Sexing the Millennium: A Political History of the Sexual Revolution, The People on the Street: A Writer's View of Israel and Remind Me Who I am, Again a family memoir. Her latest book, The Clothes on Their Backs will be published in February 2008.

Another Download

Last week's show with Philippe Legrain is now available to download from here.

Little Atoms with Philippe Legrain

On this week's show, Neil Denny and Padraig Reidy are joined by Philippe Legrain.

Philippe Legrain is a journalist and writer, based in London but interested in the whole world. He is fascinated by how economics, politics and culture combine to form the big picture and how the world is coming together through globalisation while becoming ever more diverse through cultural mixing and individual choice. Philippe writes primarily about globalisation, migration and European issues, but through this his blog and his contributions to the Guardian's Comment is free he is now ranging more widely. Philippe is also a contributing editor to Prospect and as of September 2007, is a Visiting Fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics. He followed up his first book, Open World: The Truth about Globalisation, with a new one, Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them, making the case for freer international migration (immigration).

Join us at the usual time, this friday 18th Jan at 19.00 GMT on Resonance 104.4FM in London or worldwide via the Resonance FM website.

New Download

The interview with Claire Fox from last friday is now available to download here.

Little Atoms with Claire Fox

On this weeks show Neil Denny and Richard Sanderson are joined by Claire Fox.

Claire Fox is the director of the Institute of Ideas (IoI), which she established to create a public space where ideas can be contested without constraint. Claire initiated the IoI while co-publisher of the controversial and ground-breaking current affairs journal LM magazine (formerly Living Marxism). The IoI has since worked with a variety of prestigious institutions in Britain and abroad. Claire has a particular interest in education and social issues such as crime and mental health. She is highly critical of authoritarian developments such as New Labour's 'antisocial behaviour orders'. She is also a passionate supporter of the arts, and strongly believes that they should be valued for their own sake. She argues that efforts to dilute the arts for the benefit of 'the socially excluded' are patronising rather than democratic.

Claire is a co-convener of the yearly Battle of Ideas festival, which will next take place in London in October 2007. She is a panellist on BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze and is regularly invited to comment on developments in culture, education and the media on TV and radio programmes such as Question Time, Any Questions?, and BBC Breakfast. Claire writes regularly for national newspapers and a range of specialist journals. She has a monthly column in the MJ (municipal journal) and presents ‘Claire Fox News' on the internet TV channel 18 Doughty Street.

Join us at the usual time, this friday 11th Jan at 19.00 GMT on Resonance 104.4FM in London or the Resonance website worldwide.