A year is a long time in the podcasting world, especially for those keeping a close eye on the highs,

lows, trials and tribulations of government, because it has been quite some year for

Kirstama and his team and for British politics more generally.

My name is Alex Thomas and welcome to Inside Briefing.

We've had reshuffles, resignations and resets, the rise of reform, the breakthrough of the Greens,

promised policy blitzes, a planned rewiring of the state, the start, supposedly, of the government's

delivery phase, and a government-defining budget, some

government-disrupting leadership challenges, real or imagined, and every now and then, perhaps

every week, every day, somebody called Donald Trump crashes into the picture. So today we're

going to look back on an eventful 12 months and pick out the IFG's big moments of 2025.

The most significant story is the big political developments, and the key appointments that

could shape the year ahead.

Some of these are made big headlines, but not all of them.

And perhaps there are things that we will pick up on that others have overlooked.

Let's see.

So joining me for one final Inside Briefing episode of the year are three energized IFG colleagues,

fueled by mince pies pies and having spent a year

enjoying feasting on government press releases, public service performance data and lots of

Mustread Institute for Government Research and Analysis.

Jill Rutter is back in the studio.

Hello, Jill.

Hi, Alex.

...