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Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University says the Autumn Statement has no vision, will make a difficult situation worse and will be hated by Conservative voters. He predicts that Labour will outflank the Tories as a moderate, pro-business party and that there will be no more than 100-150 conservative MPs. He feels the NHS, with falling output and productivity despite extra funding, is in uncharted waters with Labour calling for greater partnership with the private sector. And he admires Gordon Brown's insights on nationalism, which is weaponising trade to the detriment of us all.

James Cameron-Wilson looks at the UK box office where a 119% jump is entirely down to the release of Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever with Letitia Wright in the lead. Despite good performances, he found it OTT and overlong. Other films suffered heavily from its amazing £12.4m weekend take. On Netflix, James enjoyed the rollicking yarn that is Enola Holmes 2 with Millie Bobby Brown. He found Christmas Carol knockoff Spirited, with Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds (both paid $20m), squirm-inducing, mawkish and crude.

Victoria Scholar of Interactive Investor takes Simon Rose through the main points of the Chancellor's Autumn Statement. Investors will want to take note of the changes to dividends and Capital Gains Tax. She points out that market reaction was fairly muted although the electricity companies' shares were incredibly volatile. As so often, these days, of course, much of what Jeremy Hunt had to say had already been well signposted in advance.

Steve Caplin discusses the latest tech news with Simon Rose. As well as some bizarre Twitter blue ticks, there are Japanese robotic spiders to check sewers, cameras strapped to sharks to map seagrass meadows off the Bahamas, rats dancing to Mozart, the Ministry of Defence firing the first-ever real laser weapon, a Swedish wooden choir, a desk to facilitate using a laptop outdoors, a Japanese mission to collect moon dust and crowdfunding the monitoring of the modal frequencies of bridges to warn of possible collapse.

Adam Cox is joined by Dr Max Gowland, from SmarterNaturally, to discuss why type 2 diabetes is such a growing concern within the UK, and the discovery of a nutrient within broccoli which could revolutionise prediabetic treatment in the UK. Max explains SmarterNaturally's super soup and how it can help. https://smarternaturally.com/

Adam Cox is joined by James Wilson, sleep expert known as the ‘Sleep Geek', to discuss new research from OTO CBD that has discovered that 88% of women find that everyday stresses are negatively affecting their sleep. They discuss the disparity between how stress is affecting men and women's sleep, and the habits that need to be kicked out of the bedroom. https://otocbd.com/

Adam Cox is joined by toy experts, Suzie Howes and Nicola Bergot from Magicbox Toy Company, to discuss new research from the brand which reveals the perceptions of children using digital devices. They look at why children have moved towards digital devices for entertainment, and how more traditional toys can help children learn to be more imaginative and to express themselves. https://www.kookyloos.com/uk and https://www.magicboxint.com/

Several factors in the Big Macro pushed stocks higher at week's end. Jason Moser and Ron Gross discuss how the Consumer Price Index report fueled an historic rise on Thursday, China's potential for pulling back Covid restrictions, the role layoffs will play in the coming months, Disney's parks division being the lone bright spot in an otherwise disappointing 4th-quarter report, and the latest from The Trade Desk, Lyft, and Marqeta. At 19 minutes in, Rachel Warren talks with Anjee Solanki, National Retail Director at Colliers, about the top retail trends this holiday season and how consumer spending continues to change. Then at 32 minutes in, Jason and Ron return to talk about Carnival Cruise's intriguing strategy to battle rising food costs and two stocks on their radar: Outset Medical and Titan International. Stocks mentioned: META, RDFN, AAPL, DIS, TTD, LYFT, MQ, CCL, AMZN, TJX, DLTR, YUM, WMT, OM, TWI. Host - Chris Hill; Guests - Ron Gross, Jason Moser, Rachel Warren, Anjee Solanki

‘If they could tax the air you breathe they’d do it.’ That age-old moan about taxes going up has sprung to mind over the past week, as rumours about pretty much any tax you can think of being hiked were spread about. So many kites were flown about potential tax rises that even taxing selling your own home and bringing back the 50p rate were floated as potential Autumn Statement ideas troubling Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak’s minds. If all this came to pass it would surely become known as ‘the everything tax raid’. But will it come to pass? Probably not. You get the sense this is a massive exercise in softening up the nation, so that when some but not all taxes go up on Thursday, people breathe a sigh of relief. Yet could this bout of not-officially-encouraged-but-definitely-not-discouraged speculation do lasting harm to the economy? Simon Lambert argues that case, when he says with sentiment already heavily depressed going into a recession, striking the financial fear of God into the population might not be the best move. Simon, Georgie Frost and Tanya Jefferies discuss the tax hikes that have been rumoured and how likely they are to happen: one gets a minus two in five chance of occurring but others seem more likely. Also, will Hunt stage a raid on pension, either via tax relief or the triple lock? Plus, the story of how Tanya helped a podcast listener win back money after paying over the odds for her mother’s care home. And finally — if among all this gloom you’ve still got room to save, should you save or invest the money, or overpay your mortgage?

The greatest challenges facing humanity - climate change, economic injustice and peaceful coexistence - are global and long-term in character. The United Nations talks about them, but lacks authority — which can only come from democratic legitimacy. We propose a country-by-country transition to directly-elected UN representatives in order to enable global long-term solutions to take precedence. Background music: 'World's Sunrise' by Jimena Contreras