We're going to be unpacking the politics of the day with two very, very experienced people here, Alice Denby and Michael Binion.

We're going to be looking at delays to the local elections, rare media appearances from Vladimir Putin,

and all the way through to whether Christmas films

are worth playing more than once.

Obviously when these two are on a podcast

you will want to play it again and again and again and again and again Sam.

It's actually Alice Denby. Good morning.

Hello.

And Michael Binion.

Hello.

Very lovely to have you back here on your resonant deep voice there.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Let's start with local elections delay.

And Alice, what do you think is going on here?

Nearly 10 million voters in England could see their local elections delayed until 2027.

That's a year's delay, essentially, because of the government's plan to reorganise local government.

Critics, including Nigel Farage, of reform, claim the move is a blatant political attempt by Labour

and some Tory councils to limit reforms gains.

Chris Bryant defended the plans this morning, speaking on Times Radio Breakfast.

Some people will see a conspiracy in anything anybody does in government. But look, we are doing a very

important reorganisation of local government. It's one of the most important reorganisations we've done

in many, many decades. And I think it's clearing up something which I've always thought was a bit

...