Bean Counters Beware
Leaders with Francine Lacqua
Bloomberg
4.6 • 64 Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2022
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Even as the UK takes a moment to reflect on the reign and passing of the Queen, new Prime Minister Liz Truss is not wasting time setting the tone for her administration. That tone? Get in line or get out. And one of the first people out is the Treasury's most senior civil servant Tom Scholar. No British finance minister in living memory has dismissed their permanent secretary immediately after moving into the role, as Kwasi Kwarteng did on his second day on the job to Scholar, who had been in the post since 2016.
To discuss the significance of the sacking, David and Francine speak with Allegra Stratton, author of Bloomberg's daily UK newsletter The Readout and former Downing Street press secretary and UK economy reporter Philip Aldrick.
Get more insights from Allegra Stratton by subscribing to her newsletter The Readout:https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/readout
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You can get the news whenever you want it with Bloomberg News Now. I'm Amy Morris. And I'm Karen |
| 0:06.3 | Moscow here to tell you about our new on-demand news report delivered right to your podcast feed. |
| 0:12.4 | Bloomberg News Now is a short five-minute audio report on the day's top stories. Episodes are |
| 0:17.9 | published throughout the day with the latest information and data to keep you informed. |
| 0:22.4 | Yes, there are other products like this from a variety of news organizations, but they usually |
| 0:27.9 | rerun their radio newscasts throughout the day. That's not what we do. We create customized |
| 0:33.8 | episodes that can only be heard on Bloomberg News Now. |
| 0:39.6 | And we don't wait an hour to publish breaking news. |
| 0:43.5 | When news breaks, we'll have an episode up in your podcast feed within minutes. So you're always getting the latest stories and developments. |
| 0:46.9 | Get the reporting and the context from Bloomberg's 3,000 journalists and analysts |
| 0:51.4 | we're all over the world. |
| 0:53.0 | Listen to the latest from Bloomberg News |
| 0:54.9 | now on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen. I think what it demonstrates is an impatience |
| 1:01.8 | on the part of the Prime Minister and the new Chancellor with what they see as orthodox |
| 1:06.8 | Treasury thinking. And I think that she is suspicious of the Treasury's reluctant to agree to spending money. |
| 1:15.6 | I think she regards the Treasury's too cautious. |
| 1:18.6 | And I think that she believes that she's going to something like a David Linington there, a former minister for the cabinet office who actually joined us in an interview a little bit earlier on this week to discuss the ousting of the Treasury's most senior civil servant. |
| 1:41.0 | That's right, Francine. And of course, we have the huge story, is still dominating the |
| 1:44.7 | news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Officially, we are in a morning period. That means |
| 1:48.6 | there should be no government business actually happening this week. However, the new prime minister |
| 1:55.4 | is doing exactly that. She's setting the tone for administration, and she's made changes. |
| 1:59.6 | That's right. She has fired, or her new chancellor, Quasi Quarteng, has in his second day on the job, he has sacked a very senior civil servant called Tom Scholar. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bloomberg, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Bloomberg and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.