Michael Portillo is joined by both Americans and Britons to discuss the legacy of George W Bush as his presidency neared its end. After 9/11, when the Bush declared a War on Terror, the champion of neo-conservatives and the religious right enjoyed all-time high approval ratings. But five years later, with two and a half thousand American soldiers killed in Iraq and criticism at home of his response to Katrina, the polls showed he had lost huge support.
Michael Portillo hosts a dinner party with a cross-section of guests including Rosie Boycott, Gerald Kaufman, Kenneth Clarke, Angela Rumbold, Dave Nellist, Francis Wheen and Lord Robert Skidelsky. The topic for discussion is the political and cultural impact of 1973, a time when trade union leaders were household names, Tories were socialists, and weeks were sometimes three days long. As the wine flows, the conversational sparks are set to fly.
Michael Portillo hosts a dinner party with a cross-section of guests, including Baroness Shirley Williams, Lord Rees-Mogg and Lionel Shriver. They explore the early years of Margaret Thatcher's political career and ask if she was a feminist role model, why the Left has not produced a successful female equivalent and whether women in politics have an easier time now.
In New York, Michael Portillo and seven guests explore the enduring conflict between America's liberal Hollywood dream factory and its conservative heartland values. In the absence of a successful Democrat for the last decade, Hollywood invented virtual liberal Presidents, as in The West Wing and Air Force One. Over dinner, the guests discuss the impact on the voting public and politicians, why Hollywood is such a haven for liberal values and how the relationship between Hollywood glamour and gritty politics is playing out in the current presidential race. Guests include Primary Colours author, Joe Klein.
By his own admission, Michael Portillo finds it difficult to get worked up either way about Scottish independence. But is he, and the English, too complacent? Would England suffer a crisis of identity without Scotland and could Scotland cope on its own? Should Scottish demands for independence be taken seriously? These are some of the questions that Michael Portillo and guests chew over in this edition of Dinner With Portillo. At the table are columnist and broadcaster Rod Liddle, Scottish historian Michael Fry, former First Minister of Scotland Henry McLeish, broadcaster and writer Hardeep Singh Kohli, Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government at the University of Oxford, Tom Clougherty, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute, and Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford.
Michael Portillo and his guests discuss whether it is fair for politicians to profit from their years in power by betraying the confidences of their colleagues. Is the modern diarist motivated by money, fame or revenge, rather than the public interest? Or do political diaries serve an important purpose by throwing light on the inner workings of government? Guests include Gyles Brandreth, Oona King, Chris Mullin MP and Lord Hattersley.
Over dinner, Michael Portillo and seven guests discuss whether scientists can be morally neutral in their pursuit of scientific knowledge. Should scientists take an ethical stand on how science is used? Should there be limits on what scientists are allowed to discover? What ethical dilemmas will be thrown up by the science of the future? Guests include Baroness Susan Greenfield, Mark Henderson and Bryan Appleyard.
