Hi, I'm Anouche, and I'm Alfa.

Stephen's out on a reporting trip today.

On today's New Statesman podcast, we discuss.

On today's New Statesman podcast, we discuss the A-level and GCSE results.

And you ask us, will the environment be the most important issue at the next general

election?

So GCSE students are receiving their results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland today.

And again, it's a record set of top grades, which are sevens or a's and above rows by

2.7 percentage points on last year.

This is basically a repeat of what happened with A-level results yesterday, which is

being described as grade inflation, although that's probably not quite accurate, it's just

that there's no benchmark for the grading this year, because teachers are providing

the grades for the students.

And there's been a lot of political fallout from this, but it's not quite the same as

the scandal last year, is it, from the mutant algorithm.

First of all, what are the conservatives saying about it, Alfa, they're kind of basically

accepting that it's sort of the lesser of two evils of the two systems, aren't they?

Yeah, I think so, which makes it in a way last year look worse.

I mean, my feeling is, this was because Westminster is so quiet at the moment, everyone

is on holiday.

So even though Keir Starmer has called for Gavin Williams and to be sat next today,

it doesn't really feel like a very urgent burning issue for people in politics, and certainly

...