Election: The Final Countdown

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 278 Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2019

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the General Election goes down to the wire, we’re joined by special guest Sebastian Payne of the Financial Times to look at campaign control freakery and the constitutional uncertainty that surrounds this unpredictable vote. What happens if there’s a hung parliament but the biggest party can’t form a government? Can the PM just stay in place? And what would happen if Boris Johnson lost his seat? Plus, the social care crisis is a pressing issue for government but why are politicians so terrified of touching it? Nick Davies of the IfG tells us why this politically radioactive issue urgently needs cross-party consensus. And with political journalism under the spotlight as seldom before, we speak to Jo Coburn, formidable presenter of the BBC’s Daily Politics show, about the challenges of fake news, unconscious bias and dealing with politicians who simply refuse to turn up to face scrutiny. “When parties attack us, I think they’re losing the argument,” she says. “It’s an easy hit to blame journalists when we bend over backwards to ensure we represent every shade of opinion.” All this plus Seb Payne coining the world “Coalitious”. Remember that one for future use. Hosted by Bronwen Maddox with Cath Haddon and Hannah White plus Gavin Freeguard and Nick Davies. Audio production by Alex Rees. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome. Just one more week to go. Everyone's eyes are on the polls, which have been closing. A bad-tempered NATO summit came and went this week, and the Conservatives can relax.
0:19.4	Air Force One has taken off again
0:20.9	with no big upset caused by President Trump. So as the campaign draws to a close, inside briefing
0:27.6	is here to guide you through the political pitfalls, constitutional quagmires and all these
0:32.7	things which are about to unfold. I'm Bronwyn Maddox. This time next week we will know who's won the election,
0:39.7	probably. And then what happens after that? How does a Prime Minister prepare for power? What to
0:45.5	the first 24 hours in office actually bring? What should the nation's civil servants be thinking
0:51.0	right now? And what an earth happens if no party emerges with a majority?
0:55.8	But what about an issue which whoever is in power must address how to solve the problem of
1:00.6	social care? We'll take a closer look. And how have the broadcasters coped with a general election campaign
1:06.9	more unpredictable and at times more poisonous than ever? We speak to Joe Coburn, the presenter of the BBC's Politics Live.
1:14.4	Joining me on today's podcast, Hannah White, the IFG's deputy director.
1:18.0	She knows Whitehall and Westminster inside out after a decade in Parliament and the Civil Service.
1:22.7	Hannah, the Conservatives tried to label the last Parliament, the dead Parliament.
1:26.0	You used to work there.
1:27.3	What do you reckon this
1:27.9	one will be called? I think in a very IFG way, I'll probably contest that. I don't think that I think
1:33.3	the last parliament was very much alive and the fact is it may have had a deadening effect on the government,
1:37.9	the minority government that couldn't get its way, but that's in a way exactly what parliaments
1:42.5	are for. So, you know, perhaps it's the next parliament that's going to be dead.
1:46.2	If we see a large majority, we might see much less excitement in parliament.
1:50.0	Much less drama.
	...

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