Danyl McLauchlan: why politicians love to invoke dystopias

Scientist and writer Danyl McLauchlan joins Kim to tackle life's big questions, ideas and thinkers. This week, he's examining the role dystopian novels play in politics. The conservative fundamentalist nightmare of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale has become a go-to analogy for liberals when criticising the right. Just recently Labour's Megan Woods accused National (via a tweeted GIF) of wanting to turn New Zealand into Gilead if they excluded contraceptives from their prescription subsidy scheme. It's not the only book to be co-opted as a political weapon. Orwell's 1984 and P D James' Children of Men have been used in similar ways by politicians of varying colours.