Political Currency

In this policy focused edition of EMQs, Ed Balls and George Osborne are thinking about the big ideas to help solve Britain’s big issues. They first consider whether steps should be taken to offer tax incentives for having children, as countries like Hungary have done. Ed and George explain why this is an ineffective measure, but an important debate governments must get on top of sooner rather than later.

Fellow podcaster Emily Dean and actor Sarah Hadland then ask the biggest questions: should there be dogs in Parliament? Should they have the vote? If yes, then what about cats!? This sends Ed and George down memory lane about various MPs and their own pets over the years within Westminster.

They then consider whether Andy Burnham should revive Rishi Sunak’s national service scheme, as a way of contending with the NEETs crisis brewing. They look at the pros and cons of national service, and other ways previous governments have addressed this issue.

A Scottish listener queries whether the individual Secretaries of State for Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are necessary given each nation has devolved parliaments. The pair explain this idea has been previously explored, but abandoned for very good reasons.

We love hearing from you, so please don’t forget to send all your EMQs to questions@politicalcurrency and make sure to include a voice note of your question or send a question to our social media handles:

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Please note: Kitchen Cabinet is only available via Patreon.

Credits:

Production: Sam Burton
Producer: Caillin McDaid
Video Editor: Sam Gruet
Executive Producer: Henrietta Harrison

Political Currency is a Persephonica Production and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In our final special summer interview, George Osborne sits down with Amol Rajan as he leaves the Today Programme for a new venture. Amol gives George the scoop on his latest endeavour on YouTube and how he sees the media landscape shifting from his old stomping grounds of newspapers, radio, and television.

They reflect over his career, touching on rumours of feuds among the Today Programme hosts, to his upcoming role on Celebrity Traitors, and what it's like editing a newspaper in the age of social media.

Amol gets into the very meaning of life with George, as they debate the impact AI will have on jobs, relationships, and podcasts like this one. They take it all the way back to Marx, before reflecting on the value of connections, which Amol will carry forward into his next undertaking.

Next week we’re back to our regular schedule, but with a twist. Ed and George will be back covering politics, but not from our Hoxton studio. We’ll be broadcasting from the British Museum with the Bayeux Tapestry. Stay tuned for that, you won’t want to miss it.

We love hearing from you, so please don’t forget to send all your EMQs to questions@politicalcurrency and make sure to include a voice note of your question or send a question to our social media handles:

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Thanks for listening. To get episodes early and ad- free join Political Currency Gold or our Kitchen Cabinet. If you want even more perks including our exclusive newsletter, join our Kitchen Cabinet today:

👉 patreon.com/politicalcurrency
👉 Apple Podcasts

Please note: Kitchen Cabinet is only available via Patreon.

Credits:
Production: Sam Burton & Nasreen Arain
Producer: Caillin McDaid
Video Editor: Oliver Geraghty
Executive Producer: Henrietta Harrison

Political Currency is a Persephonica Production and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For our third summer EMQs we’re returning to our What Ifs. Ed Balls and George Osborne first consider how Britain would change had they never entered politics? Would the Bank of England become independent? Would there be a Manchester mayoralty? Or, would it have had no impact?

What if George got the US Ambassador gig over Peter Mandelson? The pair consider how George would approach the job differently, blowback from within Labour, and whether Keir Starmer would still be in post without the controversy of Mandelson.

They then go back in time to February 1974, where a hung Parliament saw Labour form a minority government. What if negotiations between the Conservatives and Liberals panned out? How long would this coalition survive? Would it stop Margaret Thatcher becoming PM? Who leads Labour after Harold Wilson?

Finally, what if Labour were the largest party in 2015? If it’s a hung Parliament who do they go into coalition with? Can they work with the SNP? Does it stop Brexit? What happens with the Tories and UKIP?

We love hearing from you, so please don’t forget to send all your EMQs to questions@politicalcurrency and make sure to include a voice note of your question or send a question to our social media handles:

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👉 Instagram
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Thanks for listening. To get episodes early and ad- free join Political Currency Gold or our Kitchen Cabinet. If you want even more perks including our exclusive newsletter, join our Kitchen Cabinet today:

👉 patreon.com/politicalcurrency
👉 Apple Podcasts

Please note: Kitchen Cabinet is only available via Patreon.

Credits:

Production: Sam Burton
Producer: Caillin McDaid
Video Editor: Sam Gruet
Executive Producer: Henrietta Harrison

Political Currency is a Persephonica Production and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The third of our exclusive summer interviews sees Ed Balls sit down with the former Chief of Staff for No. 10 Sue Gray. In her first major interview since her dramatic split from Keir Starmer’s team, she details the lead up to entering Downing Street and just where things went wrong.

Gray explains how she tried to prepare Starmer’s team for government in 2023, where things went wrong at the beginning, and what it’s like to be on the receiving end of an internal briefing war. In this tense and emotional conversation, she shares her raw reflections two years on and why things were not working at the top of government.

Born in Tottenham to immigrant Irish parents, they also discuss her background, her meteoric rise through the civil service and what went on behind the scenes with her report into Partygate and the end of Boris Johnson.

We love hearing from you, so please don’t forget to send all your EMQs to questions@politicalcurrency and make sure to include a voice note of your question or send a question to our social media handles:

👉 X
👉 Instagram
👉 TikTok

Thanks for listening. To get episodes early and ad- free join Political Currency Gold or our Kitchen Cabinet. If you want even more perks including our exclusive newsletter, join our Kitchen Cabinet today:

👉 patreon.com/politicalcurrency
👉 Apple Podcasts

Please note: Kitchen Cabinet is only available via Patreon.

Credits:

Production: Sam Burton & Nasreen Arain
Producer: Caillin McDaid
Video Editor: Sam Gruet
Executive Producer: Henrietta Harrison

Political Currency is a Persephonica Production and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week’s themed EMQs is all about America. Ed Balls and George Osborne reflect on their memories of the US from the Founding Fathers right through to Trump. They first consider whether the MAGA worldview is baked into American politics, particularly on an international level, and will affect things like NATO for decades to come.

Amol Rajan, from the Today Programme, then poses an idea for Andy Burnham to borrow from the sitting President: Trump Accounts. This harkens back to New Labour’s child trust funds, which George cut whilst chancellor. Could this idea work again in Britain? Or was there a reason it was disbanded under Cameron.

Finally, they delve into the What If realm: who is the best President there never was? From the Kennedys, to Gore, to Hamilton, the pair reflect on the people who could have made the best impact in the White House. They also reflect on which previous Democratic President would have had the best chance of beating Trump in an election.

We love hearing from you, so please don’t forget to send all your EMQs to questions@politicalcurrency and make sure to include a voice note of your question or send a question to our social media handles:

👉 X
👉 Instagram
👉 TikTok

Thanks for listening. To get episodes early and ad- free join Political Currency Gold or our Kitchen Cabinet. If you want even more perks including our exclusive newsletter, join our Kitchen Cabinet today:

👉 patreon.com/politicalcurrency
👉 Apple Podcasts

Please note: Kitchen Cabinet is only available via Patreon.

Credits:

Production: Sam Burton & Nasreen Arain
Producer: Caillin McDaid
Video Editor: Sam Gruet
Executive Producer: Henrietta Harrison

Political Currency is a Persephonica Production and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.