Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak
Rock & Roll Politics with Steve Richards
Podmasters
4.7 • 909 Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2022
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Both Boris Johnson and Theresa May half-wanted to move their party on from Thatcherism… and yet they both appointed Thatcherite Chancellors. Why did they do so? What were the consequences? Plus brilliant questions ranging from how Labour can oppose Brexit, to why Prime Ministers make terrible mistakes, and on to a new favourite theme of listeners: tuition fees. Good or bad?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm I'm going to be. Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics, the weekly podcast with me, Steve Richards. |
| 0:35.3 | Thanks so much for tuning in wherever you are around the world and in the UK, |
| 0:41.6 | because we're global these days. And as ever, we've got tons to get through during our time together. |
| 0:48.5 | If it's okay with all of you, I will be reflecting on a theme that I think explains quite a lot. |
| 0:56.4 | The relationship between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, but in a wider context, |
| 1:02.1 | looking at Theresa May's relationship with Philip Hammond and posing this question. |
| 1:07.8 | We've had two prime ministers, Boris Johnson and Theresa May, who half recognise the need |
| 1:15.3 | to move on from pure Thatcherism. Incidentally, a ideology that was framed very much in the late |
| 1:24.3 | 1970s as a response to the political and economic challenges of that specific time. |
| 1:31.3 | But the Conservative Party has not been able to let go. She has held it in her thrall even since |
| 1:39.4 | her death. But Theresa May and Boris Johnson, two very different characters have sort of recognised that |
| 1:47.9 | the times now demand different responses and have kind of attempted to move their party on. But in |
| 1:55.3 | each case, they appointed a chancellor with entirely different economic approaches to them. Philip Hammond was known as |
| 2:02.9 | spreadsheet Phil looking at the figures very much from a Thatcherite point of view. And now Rishi |
| 2:09.1 | Sunak, this self-declared fiscal conservative, who overtly openly looks to the 1980s, has a photo |
| 2:16.4 | of Nigel Lawson next to him in his treasury office |
| 2:19.8 | and so on. Anyway, that's what I'm going to be exploring a bit, because it says so much about |
| 2:25.1 | the modern Conservative Party. And if it's okay with you, I'll be looking at that. Then we'll |
| 2:30.9 | be hearing from your brilliant questions questions a whole range of different questions |
| 2:35.3 | this week as ever, all urgently topical, all putting into context the great dramas we're |
| 2:41.8 | living through. Before all of that, one quick announcement, and that is for those of you on |
| 2:47.9 | the Patreon version of rock and roll politics, and thank you if you've subscribed. |
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