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You're listening to the Monocle Daily, first

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broadcast on 21 July 2026 on Monocle Radio.

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The United Kingdom's new cabinet meets for the first time. France's far right and far left at least appear to agree on Elon Musk. And is official encouragement of culture a help or a hindrance? I'm Andrew Muller. The Monocle Daily starts. Hello and welcome to the Monocle Daily. Coming to you from our studios here at Midori House in London. I'm Andrew Muller. My guests Mari Leconte and Jonathan Fenby will discuss today's big stories. And we'll visit West Village, an entire new district of Chengdu. Stay tuned. All that and more coming up right here on the Monocle Daily. This is the Monocle Daily. I'm Andrew Muller and I am joined today by Marie Leconte, author and journalist for titles including the New Statesman and Foreign Policy and Prospect, and Jonathan Fenby, journalist, author and former editor of the observer and the South China Morning Post. Hello to you both. Hello, Murray. First of all, you have been to St. Ande, by which I don't mean you have been to the bank. You actually went to the town of that name.

B

Yes, I did, due to a very poorly planned, very last minute holiday with my partner. But actually we ended up having a lovely, lovely time. We wanted to go somewhere and we turns out that was the only place left in Europe that was not extortionate. I would really recommend it. So there's a really beautiful museum designed by this quite grand architect whose name now escapes me and I think is essentially there, as far as I can tell, because they got jealous of Bilbao and the Guggenheim there because that's 100 kilometers down the coast. So, yeah, really good museum, fantastic food because it's where they do the albacore tuna, the quite white, the smaller tuna.

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Okay.

B

So if that's your thing, let me tell you, you can essentially eat quite cheap tuna at every single meal in Santander, which I did. My boyfriend found that a bit odd and I think slightly off putting, but that just did not. I didn't let that stop me. And yeah, be really beautiful as well. It's a fantastic place.

A

Is it akin to that thing where like you go to basically any small to medium sized town in Italy or indeed I guess in Spain and just find yourself thinking, God, this is really nice.

B

Yes. And it did make me think afterwards, gosh, I think the British economy really is not doing so well because I can't think of a single place of 150,000 people in Britain, where I could spend three days and going, gosh, I've not even done everything I wanted to do and I already have to leave.

A

Jonathan, as we were discussing earlier, you have not been anywhere exciting since you were last here. But because we will be talking about matters French later in the show, I was wondering, Jonathan, he said leadenly, is there perhaps a good single volume history of France you might recommend to listeners who would like to be brought up to speed on the comments?

C

Well, since you ask, Andrew, yeah, I did write such a book myself. A history of modern France, the history of modern France, as well as biographies of de Gaulle and a general book about my views on contemporary France.

A

Well, more on those shortly. But we start in the United Kingdom, where recently installed Prime Minister Andy Burnham is on day two. Seems to be going alright so far, though that's what they said about the Titanic, etc. He has now assembled his Cabinet, which bears little resemblance to the predictions of professional room readers. His Chancellor of the Exchequer is John Healy, whose resignation as Defence Secretary did much to hasten the demise of Burnham's predecessor in 10 Downing street his foreign his Home Secretary is Ed Miliband, who was bookmaker's favourite for Chancellor, and his Home Secretary is Shabana Mahmoud, who was already Home Secretary. Here is some of the first meeting of the first Burnham Cabinet.

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Life's hard out there, isn't it, at the moment you heard me talk about the doorstep in Makerfield. We need to every day think, well, what can we do just to take that little bit of pressure off people's shoulders, just to give them that little extra sense that help is coming so they can have that bit of hope that things are getting better. We need to be a cost of living government and getting that cost of living down and looking at all possible ways of doing that. I talked yesterday outside in Downing street about bringing back hope and that's got to be us, isn't it? We've got to do that. We can do that and we've made a start. Today we made the announcement about removing VAT from household electricity bills. It's not everything, but it shows our determination to do something about people's living standards.

A

Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, speaking earlier. Murray first of all, that was obviously the slightly painfully performative part of the Cabinet meeting done. I think in some knowledge that a camera was rolling. But what do you make of the tone he struck there?

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I think it was very good politics. So, you know, removing the 80 off electricity bills is only going to save, I think the average household around 45 pounds a year. So it's not a massive thing, but politically. Exactly. But also I think politically is very wise. I think one of the big mistakes Keir Starmer made when he came in, and that was kind of that wave of optimism, of thinking, oh, gosh, finally we have a government who's going to help and do things. And they just cut winter fuel allowance very quickly for all the pensioners. And there was that sense of going, oh, okay. They didn't even bother to really explain what was going on. They just said, oh, well, there's no money, so we're going to have to start cutting things immediately. Entirely predictably, that did not go down well at all with voters. So I think coming in and saying so on the very first day, he said, I want to end homelessness. That was the first thing. The second thing is the electricity bills, these things which are actually not massive, but I still, I think, signal that he actually wants things to be better. He's someone who's at least trying, and I think that was a fault of the stalwart government. I think Burnham is someone who's going to at least try to make things better, may fail, but at least is giving it an honest go.

A

Jonathan, is there a deliberate attempt here to try to put some distance between, whether in style or content, between himself and his predecessor, which he sort of has to do, I guess, because otherwise voters are going to be asking the reasonable question, well, what was the point of changing Prime Minister?

C

Yeah, absolutely. So he comes in with hope and this is going to be a circuit breaker and we're going to change everything. The trouble, of course, is that, can he deliver?

A

Well, indeed. I mean, the three big Cabinet appointments, the other three great Offices of state, Murray, all three of them were surprising in one way or another. But do we glean anything from that about what kind of government he intends to run?

B

Oh, so I think the most significant appointment, by some distance, was John Healey at the Treasury. So he's someone I've interviewed a number of times. I really rate him for what it's worth. I know I'm only one political journalist, but I've always really respected him and I think a lot of people do as well. He's someone who's very liked in the parliamentary Labour Party, which is kind of what you want. I think, as a Chancellor, you want a chancellor who is personally liked and respected, because they will be the, you know, the person kind of essentially saying no to everyone for quite a long time. So I think that that was a really Good one. It doesn't feel very political either, that we don't. We know obviously what he makes Defence, because he was Defence Secretary. But he's not someone who seems to be incredibly kind of ideological. He's not going to be someone with a very political base at the treasury, which I think is what number 10 wants now. Number 10 wants to be able to kind of do its own thing without having the treasury kind of swanning in saying yes to this and no to that. I think keeping Shabana Mahmoud at the Home Office is a decision that I understand a bit less. She proved to be a very, very controversial part of the Starmer government. And I think what Burnham's task is to reg all the voters, it's shed, you know, his predecessor, shed to the Green Party, to the Lib Dems, to just people who don't want to vote anymore because they're very disappointed by the Labour Party. Shabana Mahmoud is one of the people who I think made those people leave. So it'll be quite interesting to watch him trying to get them back, you know, while keeping her in post. Edmidiband, I think, is the mystery box out of all three. He's not actually someone who, I think always struck me as someone who was particularly interested in foreign affairs. I think the Syria vote for the real politics nerds 2013, I believe when he was Labour leader proved to be very controversial. He's not someone I think people necessarily think of as a great kind of foreign policy mind. But, yeah, so that one remains to be seen, I think what will happen. But yes, I will say interesting appointments. I'm not kind of coming at this saying, oh, gosh, this is it, this is Britain is on the right track again. I don't think it's a disaster either, but, yeah, let's wait and see. She says slightly boringly on the Ed

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Miliband appointment as Foreign Secretary, Jonathan, which is, as Mari says, was a bit of a surprise. It would not be the first time perhaps, that an incoming leader has made Foreign Secretary somebody he would just rather was out of the country. Or is that. Is that being overly cynical?

C

No, I think that is absolutely right. I think parking Miliband on at London Airport is the best thing that Burnham can do in his own book.

A

And the other two appointments, someone like Mahmoud, does that signal that the. And as Mari also pointed out, she was much criticised by a lot of labor voters for embodying and enforcing a hard line on immigration. I mean, Burnham is clearly telling us here that that is there to stay, like it or not.

C

Yeah, but Burnham is talking here to the right, the hard right, if you like, the voters whom Labour has lost to Reform, who can be happy with Mahmud's policies in general. And as for Healy, I think he will do what he's told. And once he's looked at the figures, and the danger is that having looked at the figures, he will find that he can't do very much.

B

So my one slight worry on your point is that actually, you know, the data does show that. I think the reason why Reform is doing so well in the polls is because they've picked up a lot of votes from the Conservative Party. They've not actually, you know, there's not this kind of massive bloc of people going from the Labour Party to Reform, so that they've been chasing. And again, that's what Starmer did as well. Morgan McSweeney, his chief of staff, that's kind of what they did, trying to chase that kind of nearly mythical Reform vote. Not unreasonably, in a way, because historically, politics was about Labour, you know, Labour governments trying to chase Tory voters and vice versa. But I think in this case, they need to shore up the left vote, because that is the one that really has hemorrhaged out of the party.

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Jonathan, a couple of other little details which have come up, or I guess this is probably not that little a detail if you are living in Scotland. He has reportedly said a fairly firm no to the prospect of another referendum on Scottish independence.

C

I mean, evolution has its limits.

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Well, indeed. But that is not surprising given the recent record of referendums in this country.

C

Absolutely. He realizes, I think, Burnham, as most other politicians do, or political leaders do, that having another referendum would be very disruptive and open up all kinds of doors they don't want to open up.

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I mean, he's not coming to this position entirely cold, Murray. He has had nearly a decade in charge of a big city, whereas being Prime Minister was sort of Keir Starmer's first job in government. So he does have experience of being at the top of a thing, though. This is obviously a step up. How difficult is it going to be, though, or more difficult, for opposition to land a glove on him? Is he going to be a faster moving and more slippery target than Starmer was?

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I'm not sure. And generally I'm not sure. And I'm excited to see what happens, because I think Burnham, as you rightly pointed out, I think was mayor of Greater Manchester for a very long time and did a good job there. But before that, he was an mp. He was a minister. He was a special advisor. He'd been in Westminster for a very long time. In politics, I think the problem is that the more time you spend in it, the more enemies you gather. And even, you know, over the past few days, there's already been quite a lot of briefing, you know, slightly arch briefing about o', Burnham, you know, already over. He's already made his last.

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He's made plenty of enemies with the Starmerites. He's dropped.

B

Exactly. So I think, yeah, I think he's actually managing to create himself a honeymoon. And I've certainly spoken to left wing people who don't necessarily love Andy Burton, but who are saying, as we see it, it's probably at this stage, him or Nigel Farage. So we're going to try and play nice for now. How long that lasts for, I think

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remains to be just finally on this, Jonathan, because Nigel Farage has already been up on his hind legs calling this a coup d' etat and insisting that a general election be called. Assuming, of course, that Farage is still in a position to make these demands a month from now. And this is assuming he does win a by election against a man dressed as a rubbish bin or bin face could win. Yes, exactly. But should. Should Burnham be at all tempted at any point in the next three years to seek his own mandate?

C

No. Straightforward answer. No. I think he has to get on with the job he has set himself and prove that there can be hope. And stop talking about a return to the 1980s when hope was pretty thin on the ground.

A

Well, to France now, which is now just nine months from its quinquennial game of will we or won't we? Vis a vis electing a Le Pen to its highest office, it does seem that Marine Le Pen will enjoy the enthusiastic support of Elon Musk, proprietor of online Bear Pit X, who recently swooned that Le Pen was, quote, France's last hope. It also appears, however, that the affection is unrequited. Requited. Requited was the word I wanted. Several officials of National Rally Le Pen's party have reacted downright right insouciantly to Musk's endorsement. We didn't ask.

C

At the same time, she is indeed the last hope.

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Indeed. But we didn't ask for any of this, said one. And the average French person doesn't care. Mari, you are the closest we have at this table to the average French person.

B

Oh, God.

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Do you care?

B

Not massively. I mean, there's a bit of an alien predator kind of thing from our understanding when it comes to Elon Musk and Marine Le Pen, if I'm being honest. No, it's. I don't know. I think, I think what's interesting is that in the same week this happened, it was also announced that Jordan Bardella, who is Marine Le Pen's right hand man, would be speaking at Reforms party conference over in the fall in Britain. So they're very much, I think, you know, the French far right is very much about creating links with different far right parties, but.

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But not with Mosque, so.

B

Exactly. Not with Moscow, not with Trump. But I think it's partially a European thing where, you know, like you can be on the French far right, but you're still French. I think there's still an amount of doubting America, not quite trusting America, but also just they have eyes and I don't, you know, I would never vote for Marine Le Pen. I can't deny the fact that she's a very clever politician. She's a very clever woman. She's good at what she does. And I think she can see that the wind is absolutely turning when it comes to Donald Trump. And also that French people, as pointed out by the Raison blement Nationale sources, is not. Elon Musk and Donald Trump are not popular in France at all. Even among the far right. Even among, you know, their voters. All the voters they're kind of trying to gain. They'll be trying to gain in nine months. These are not the people you want.

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Well, I mean, is the French far right different in that respect, Jonathan? Because obviously Musk has certainly endorsed and enthused about the AfD in Germany, who have seemed generally delighted by the attention. He was a big fan of Reform UK here in the uk, but has since seemed to have fallen out with them and is now keener on Rasool

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further to the right.

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Yeah, but is the French far right different in that respect?

C

I think the French far right, and you can say this about other far right movements too, is basically nationalistic. And where Musk is bad news is that he's seen as challenging French identity, French individualism.

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So might they be more willing to listen to this from a French Elon Musk? Even the thought, God help us,

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a

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French Elon Musk equivalent remain.

C

There is none. There isn't one. And for a very good reason. I mean, Le Pen has moved the party and her movement back, if you can say, somewhat towards the center giving up on the Frexit movement current, which was strong after the time of Brexit that France should get out of the EU because the EU is basically popular with a lot of the voters the rally will go for.

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I mean, I wonder, at risk of splitting heads, I don't really want to split if there's a slight difference between a kind of grown up far right and a kind of like stirring far right. Because I think it's worth remembering that Giorgio Meloni in Italy has also rebuked Trump, I think quite forcefully over the past few months. And she's very clear about kind of putting water between herself and Trump. And I think what they have in common is that, see, like the raison le mond national is a really big presence at the National Assembly. Marine Le Pen, as you mentioned, has stood in 75 Elections in France and obviously Meloni is in power in Italy. So you've got those to one side, but then to the other side, when you talk about the AfD, you talk about reform, restore, etc. These are, you know, these are parties which are nowhere near power right now. So I wonder if that's not where that kind of difference lies also of the kind of distance you have from power. Because if you're still essentially a protest vote, you will kind of welcome any attention you can get. Whether, you know, if you're actively governing or within kind of a few hairs of governing, then you probably do not want anything as destabilizing as a Kneelon Musk endorsement.

C

And Musk is having Musk as a friend is your worst enemy.

A

Well, just on that, Jonathan, I mean, it is also the case that X and Elon Musk are being investigated in France on suspicions of manipulating the algorithm. Perish the thought, obviously. But should more countries be doing more or less exactly that, I. E. Taking a long hard look one at the influence that this and other platforms are playing in their politics and to actually looking into are you in fact breaking the law?

C

Are you interfering in our domestic political processes? That is something which is legitimate, I would say, for governments to involve themselves with.

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But does it surprise you that more of them aren't doing it?

C

Yes.

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What do you attribute that to?

C

They're afraid. They're afraid as they are afraid of most tech broth.

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Do you think that fear is justified?

C

No. Stand up to them, Stand up to the bullies and you see where you get.

A

Because on that thought, Murray, like why we are playing fantasy governments as we are entitled to do, you know, early in a new government, is that not a statement that this or some other government can make? Because it remains unclear to me why any European Democracy is not only tolerating the presence in its online realm of X, but actually engaging with it, using it, and therefore driving business to it.

B

Oh, no, absolutely. And I'm nearly in two minds on it, because I know that Lisa Nandi, who's allegedly Cultural Secretary in Britain, although no one's seen her in years, technically, you know, while not on a silent retreat in Tibet, Lisa Nandy announced that her department would be leaving X a few weeks ago. In which, you know, on the one hand I obviously welcome, because as you mentioned, I think it sends a message, but on the other, I kind of wanted to think, to say, well, you're the government, you can surely you can go further than that. You know, you can at the very least maybe get the entire government off X, or you can legislate that. Here's a thought. As the government, why not do some policymaking and actually go that step further? I think it's not. Not quite enough to just say, oh, we probably shouldn't post. If you really think Twitter is that nauseous, which I believe it is, and hopefully they believe it is, then do something more about it.

C

Governments have abdicated far too much there and Musk will and co will take maximum advantage of that.

A

What do you attribute it to, just finally on this, Mari, is it actual fear of what a platform like that could do when roused? I don't buy at all the idea that they often disingenuously trot out that this is the best way of keeping touch with our constituents. It isn't. Most of the population of this country does not have an X account. Are they just kind of addicted to it?

B

Yes, I think it's addiction. I think it's complacency as well. And I think. And that's a big problem in Westminster anyway. I think it's a place where entropy is incredibly strong, when nothing ever meaningfully changes. And that's why, you know, the building looks like Hogwarts. Everything is always falling apart. And so many of the conventions are completely sort of like silly from the outside, is because it's a place that very stubbornly refuses to change. And I think X is kind of part of that as well. There's just. Yeah, that movement is very hard, I think, in Westminster.

C

Well, Musk and his algorithms will make the most of that.

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Well, to. To the European Union, which has signed its first ever Declaration on culture. In short, it's in favour of it. However, the accompanying statistical analyses reveal a startlingly small quantity of people actually employed by the sector, a mere 8.9 million people, or about 4.3% of the total EU workforce. If we are measuring the percentage of folk employed by culture as indicator of a nation's cultural health, the EU's highest browed citizens are the Dutch, the Estonians and the Maltese, while the bloc's most obdurate Philistines are the Romanians, the Slovakians and the Irish. Don't write in. It's all here in the figures. Jonathan, does that total number seem surprisingly low?

C

Yes, because I would be very interested to know exactly how cultural involvement in cultural jobs is defined.

A

Even so, even if you're taking the

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broadcast, say that culture is much, far, far wider to include advertising, media, etc. Etc.

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But even if you're taking the broadest possible view, Mari, I was astonished by that.

B

It was very, very small. It was, you know, I think at most saying, you know, the, the glory of Estonia were, you know, everything is culture. The number there being 5% was just a bit, a bit depressing.

A

I mean, what do, again, what do we attribute this to? Do we think it's always been the way and we haven't realized because people pay more attention to culture, because it's culture than they do to more, I guess, humble and anonymous sectors? Or is it actually just getting more difficult to make a living doing this?

B

I'm not sure. So actually, to echo Jonathan's point a bit like, I question a survey that says that Ireland doesn't really have a cultural landscape. It doesn't have enough people working in cultural life. If you look at, they punch, you know, Ireland as a republic punches so far above its weight in terms of films, actors, obviously books. You know, the literary scene in Ireland is incredible. So I slightly question the idea, or it might be that, you know, there's only seven of them doing the arts, but they're really, really good at it. But if it's not that, then it shows that, you know, the data may be. Obviously I would never dream of, you know, questioning the numbers in any way, but yeah, it may be that actually there's more to culture than that, but

C

I think you should question the numbers because they're misleading.

B

So, yeah, we are rebelling, Andrew. This is a mutiny. But no more. Seriously. I do think as a broader point, it has absolutely lot harder, I think, to work to work in the cultural sector and in any kind of way. And I say that as someone who writes and who works in the art to an extent. And it's, it's essentially something and you see it more and more. I think the sign that an industry is collapsing is when everyone working their wrist posh and doing it as a bit of a hobby. And I can only really speak for Britain, but That is absolutely 100 something you see a lot more of in London now than you did 10 or 15 years ago?

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There has been an accompanying amount of highfalutin talk from some politicians. Jonathan Emma Rafovic, MEP from French MEP from the Socialist Party, says, when we defend European cultural sovereignty, we defend culture and democracy, we defend artists, and ultimately we defend European citizens who have the right to be free. Does that make an awful lot of sense?

C

It does, it does. Vis a vis the Trumpian approach to culture, which is to make culture part of politics.

A

Because my concern here, maybe it always

C

has been part of politics somehow, some would argue. But I think the MAGA kind of approach to culture wars, the very fact the word is used culture wars, says quite a lot.

A

My concern is always at moments like this, Mari, that slightly contrarian view. Is there an argument the best way that any government can encourage culture is either to ignore it or perhaps be vaguely hostile to to it?

B

So I agree with this. As long as you get GDP growth year on year, it's my point, I think if the economy is really good and the government goes purr, we don't care about the artists, that's fine. The artists can be on the door, very comfortable.

C

You need a prosperous state for culture to survive, I think, and prosper.

B

Yeah, I think it's all. Annoyingly, it's all about economics, I think.

C

Yeah.

A

Oh, God, wasn't that depressing thought?

B

What a conclusion. What an awful conclusion.

A

Murray Leconte and Jonathan Fenby, thank you. Thank you both for joining us. Finally on today's program, Monocle contributor Thomas Panheiro takes us to West Village in Chengdu to see how local vernacular and modern day needs go hand in hand in this new megaproject.

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On a recent trip to Chengdu, I made time to get acquainted with a local celebrity. Not the giant penguin Commander, despite the stiff competition, but architect Liu Jiakun. His standing in the city has only grown since taking home the Pritzke Bronze Medallion in 2025. Rather than a defined style, Jakun favors belonging in architecture and is deeply attuned to local life, history and memory. This perhaps explains why, unlike most of his fellow laureates, he practices almost exclusively close to home with many of his best known projects in Chengdu. I'm particularly interested in what's widely considered Jakung's masterpiece, the West Village complex within a single city block. In a residential area, the project combines sports facilities, cultural venues, commerce and offices, all wrapped around a vast courtyard. It's nothing short of a megastructure, approaching from the west on foot, though there's little sense of its full mass. A relatively low concrete structure with a Corbusian air emerges among the trees. It sits comfortably within the neighborhood, with ground level shops preserving the street flow as I climb the stairs. Fitness studios, gyms and martial arts schools lend the building a distinctly wellness oriented character, very much in step with broader trends in urban China. Warm ups, stretches and push ups spill into the open air corridors where generous ventilation comes courtesy of the elements. It's only from above, looking out across the courtyard, that I grasp the true scale of the complex. Its footprint alone is roughly equivalent to six football pitches, three of which are in fact integrated into the scheme. Five to six stories up, the rooftops are given into a running track. Locals refer to it rather poetically, as Road in the Sky. It seems only right that I follow it. The track traces the silhouette of the courtyard in a continuous multi level loop stretching 1.6km and allowing residents to jog or cycle an impressive distance within a single city block. On the northern edge of the site, the track transitions into monumental ramps that zigzag down towards the courtyard. By the looks of it, the spot is a popular hangout for the city's alternative tribes. Teenagers in chains, black clothing and combat boots prove that the site's appeal extends well beyond sports. The ramps touch the ground where a pre existing indoor swimming pool remains a trace of the socialist era that Jakun intentionally preserves. Shelter Sheltered from the city, the courtyard is not wide open like a traditional plaza, but is subdivided into multiple sections and planted with bamboo groves. This is the project's heart, a place to slow down. I do so from a small bamboo chair at one of the many tea houses, nursing a pot of tea and a bowl of sunflower seeds. It's not long before locals strike up a conversation. First comes a father in his mid-40s who often plays in a rock band on site with a handful of other dads. Then the tea house owner herself joins in. Fixtures of Jacun's courtyard, they point to some of the building's defining traits, including the use of rebirth bricks recycled from the rubble left behind by the tragic 2008 Sichuan earthquake. They serve as a memorial and they embody a sense of resilience. But my fellow tea drinkers are quick to note that Jakun's work also evokes more pleasant memories in Chinese tradition. The courtyard itself is associated with domestic life, sociability and also leisure. It's an elemental architectural feature woven into everyday life. For countless generations, at least until recently, this feature has been steadily disappearing from Chinese admiration. Urban landscapes as modern towers like those surrounding the West Village, have come to dominate. Sitting here, between cups of tea, I can see how architecture can preserve traditions not through cliched recreations that appeal to nostalgia, but through thoughtful design that recasts their underlying wisdom for modern life. With that in mind, I make my way back into the neighborhood. All that walking and chatting has has worked up an appetite. And there's only one thing left on the agenda. A bowl of richly spiced dandan noodles.

A

That was Thomas Pinero in West Village, Chengdu. And that is all for this edition of the Monocle Daily. Thanks to our panelists today, Jonathan Fenby and Mari Leconte. Today's show was produced by Anita Riota and researched by Nkale Martin. Our sound engineer was Elliot Greenfield. I'm Andrew Muller here in London. The Daily is back at the same time tomorrow. Thanks for listening.