EMQs: Can we really fund everything in the NHS?

Political Currency

Persephonica

Business, Economy, George Osborne, Westminster, Politics, News, Money, Ed Balls

4 • 855 Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What should the NHS pay for, and what should it not? In this week’s episode, Ed Balls and George Osborne tackle one of the toughest political questions: how do you decide what’s “reasonable” for the state to fund when it comes to healthcare? As medical advances multiply and the public expects more from the NHS, is a national conversation about rationing unavoidable?

Then, what happens when politicians leave office? A listener asks how Ed and George’s lives outside Westminster - from Wall Street and museums to breakfast TV and Strictly Come Dancing - have changed how they see politics. Would they govern differently if they ever returned?

Also this week: do the markets now have more power than elected governments? What should we expect from ministers on annual leave? And is there ever a good reason to read self-help books such as The 48 Laws of Power?

Plus, what really happened in that lift in China with George Osborne and Boris Johnson?

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Producer: Miriam Hall

Senior Producer: Silvia Maresca

Video Editor: Danny Pape

Executive Producer: Ellie Clifford

Political Currency is a Persephonica Production and is part of the Acast Creator Network.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Joe Wiley. And I'm Soie Ball. Digit is all about the things that Joe and I love. From the kids to the
0:08.1	parents and all the stuff in between. There's a lot going on when you get to this age. Should I be taking
0:13.2	this supplement? What do I do about my Bocytus? And how are you a strand here? Joe, if I wanted to
0:20.8	listen to this, where would I find it?
0:23.1	Wherever you get your podcast, that's exactly where you'd find it. You can also watch on YouTube.
0:27.1	I need to go to Turkey, quick. Dig it. Every week. Every week. For the rest of time. Yes. Okay, good.
0:38.2	The Chancellor of the Exchequer.
0:40.7	Getting a lesson from the Shadow Chancellor and how to balance the books,
0:43.6	it's like getting a lesson from Dracula and how to look after a blood back.
0:47.1	It balls.
0:48.5	As steady as she goes, budget.
0:51.6	What kind of ship does he think he's on, the Titanic?
0:57.6	Themary, Celeste. Welcome to EMQ's from political currency with Ed Balls and George Osborne. So hello and welcome to EMQ's ex-minister's
1:10.0	questions and the moment has come.
1:12.3	We've been building up to this for a couple of weeks since I mentioned Kipling's cakes on our boat in the Solent.
1:19.9	And Kipling's of Centres, Breakfast Bakes, Blueberry, eight French fancies and some rich and gooey salted caramel brownie bites.
1:29.4	And I think they arrived a week or so ago,
1:32.6	but the great thing about Kipling's cakes is that they taste perfect for ages.
1:36.4	Hundreds of years.
1:37.9	Actually, this is best before 7th of July.
1:40.0	What's going on?
1:40.8	Well, they haven't sent us an out of date, Kate.
	...

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