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The New Statesman | UK politics and culture

Armando Iannucci: Is it time to reform parliament's arcane rules and rituals? | Westminster Reimagined

The New Statesman | UK politics and culture

The New Statesman

News & Politics, Society & Culture, News, Politics

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The legendary writer, satirist and broadcaster Armando Iannucci returns to the New Statesman podcast to co-host five more special episodes. In these shows, Iannucci explores parts of British public life he believes to be broken, and is joined by guests from both inside and outside Westminster to discuss how politics could be better.


In this episode, Armando and Ailbhe Rea examine the place we make laws: parliament. Is it an old boys’ club, designed to exclude normal people from being able to make sense of it?


They are joined by special guests Anum Qaisar, the SNP’s newest Westminster MP, who won the Airdrie and Shotts by-election in 2021, and Emma Crewe, a professor of anthropology at SOAS who has studied the workings of the House of Commons and House of Lords.


They talk about how parliament can be hard to navigate, what’s prevented it from evolving into a modern, 21st-century legislature and why it’s still a tough place for MPs from non-traditional backgrounds.


Podcast listeners can subscribe to the New Statesman for just £1 a week for 12 weeks using our special offer. Just visit newstatesman.com/podcastoffer.



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Transcript

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0:00.0

The New Statement podcast is sponsored by EDF, Britain's biggest generator of zero carbon electricity.

0:07.0

Through nuclear and renewables, EDF are working hard to keep future energy costs down for everyone

0:12.9

and cut UK carbon emissions to nothing. Now with EDF's go electric tariff,

0:18.8

you can charge your electric vehicle overnight during off-peak hours for under £10,

0:23.4

saving you cash and carbon while you sleep. Find out more at edfenergy.com.

0:29.8

Hello, it's Alva here. Westminster reimagined is back a special series that looks at

0:35.4

how politics works and how we can make it better. Over the next five weeks, we'll be joined by a very

0:41.7

special guest host. He's a legendary writer, political satirist, broadcaster, director,

0:49.0

and creator of brilliant TV comedies, including a particular favourite among our podcast listeners.

0:55.5

The thick of it, Armando and you, Qi. Hi, Armando, great to have you back on the podcast.

1:00.8

Hi, yes, it's good to be back. We did four episodes in season one trying to get to grips with politics

1:07.1

and how we can improve what isn't working and doing just four was absurd, really.

1:13.0

So we're going to see if we can do it with five this time.

1:17.2

Just up by one. Yeah, it was quite a lot to tackle. And of course, last season, we looked at certain

1:25.6

issues including one episode on the issue of accountability or a lack thereof in politics.

1:31.4

And in the past six months since we were last together, quite a lot has happened. I'm wondering

1:35.6

just briefly what you've made of the past six months. Yes, I think we did our first podcast,

1:41.0

the week that Matt Hancock resigned because he'd breached the guidelines in distancing.

1:46.9

And that seems like a sort of giddy golden age of decorum, given what's happened ever since,

1:53.8

we've had the whole of party gate, we've had the, well, actually started by the

1:58.0

Orn Patterson being found to have breached guidelines and the results being that the government

2:05.1

just tried to train, change the rules rather than enact any kind of penalty on his behavior.

...

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