All Disquiet On The Northern Front

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Who came off worse in the stand-off between Manchester’s Andy Burnham and London, and what does the confrontation say about Westminster’s real attitude to the regions? With Rishi Sunak launching yet more economic support packages, is the Government’s economic strategy in disarray? A new IfG report reveals exactly what Dominic Cummings’ reforms of Special Advisors is meaning for day-to-day government. Oh, and the Brexit talks. Yes, they’re still going. “The Treasury and No.10 are paying a price for not treating Manchester strategically.” – Jill Rutter “Yes, the Brexit talks are about brinkmanship – but it’s also about making any failure look like the other side’s fault.” – Cath Haddon “Many PMs have complained that No.10 is underpowered compared to departments – and that’s why SpAds have become so important.” – Tim Durrant “A lot of business leaders didn’t see the sunlit uplands that Michael Gove was seeing” - Jill Rutter “None of the SPADs we spoke to had anything positive to say about the management of the civil service” – Tim Durrant Presented by Emma Norris with Jill Rutter, Alex Thomas, Tim Durrant and Cath Haddon. Audio production by Alex Rees See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing. I'm Emma Norris, the Director of Research at the Institute for Government, and for this week, the guest presenter of the podcast. The government is at war with, well, pretty much everyone, it seems.
0:22.1	It's battling devolved leaders and local politicians, most notably Andy Burnham,
0:26.4	the mayor of Greater Manchester, over coronavirus restrictions. It's falling out with footballers
0:31.1	over free school meals, and it spent the first half of the week not even talking to the EU.
0:35.6	What did that standoff mean for Brexit talks?
0:43.2	We'll be taking a closer look at the tears and the tantrums of the last week. And later on in the podcast, we'll be discussing the changing role of special advisors in government, with a brand-new
0:47.4	IFG paper arguing that number 10 refills to the way that these advisors work and how they report
0:52.1	to the Prime Minister is disempowering ministers.
0:55.1	And yes, the name Dominic Cummings does feature in that paper a lot.
0:59.0	To discuss all this, I'm joined from an array of remote studios by a top line-up of guests,
1:03.9	the IFG's senior fellow, Jill Rutter. Hi, Jill. Hi, Emma.
1:08.2	By Alex Thomas, the IFT's programme director for all our work on the civil service. Yes, he is very busy at the moment. Hello, Emma. By Alex Thomas, the IFQ's programme director for all our work on the civil service.
1:12.7	Yes, he is very busy at the moment.
1:14.5	Hello, Alex.
1:15.4	Hi, Emma.
1:16.3	Good to be here.
1:17.2	And Kath Haddon, who leads our work on ministers and the constitution as well as to.
1:21.3	Hi, Kath.
1:22.2	Hi, Emma.
1:23.4	Okay, so let's start with the latest developments in Number 10's attempts to place parts of England into lockdown, and it's painful efforts to negotiate the terms of those restrictions with local politicians.
1:34.4	Alex, Andy Burnham's been very much the pin-up of this standoff. Can you tell us what the Rao's about?
1:39.5	Yes, and he has been, and it's one of the interesting factors about it in that there have been you know
	...

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