EMQs: Is politics worth the family sacrifice?

Political Currency

Persephonica

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

4 • 855 Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when politics clashes with family life? Ed Balls and George Osborne take on big questions this week, starting with Michael Gove’s ex-wife, Sarah Vine, who asks whether David Cameron should have stayed on after Brexit. Her daughter Beatrice wants to know if Ed and George would still choose a political career, given its toll on family and friends.

The pair also hear from an anonymous listener fighting for answers about the Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash, and discuss why the documents have been sealed for a century and what that means for the families seeking the truth.

Plus, a listener challenges the logic of ring-fencing certain government department in the Spending Review. And fellow podcaster Jimmy McCloughlin asks how AI is really shaking up the economy, and what Ed and George have been using it for lately.

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Producer: Miriam Hall

Senior Producer: Silvia Maresca

Video Editor: Oliver Geraghty

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	I'm Jade from Siemens' new £200 million train factory in Gull, Yorkshire.
0:05.0	I used to be a warfare specialist in the Royal Navy, and now I am delivering the new Piccadilly Line trains.
0:10.0	Next I'll be working on our battery bi-mode trains.
0:13.0	Built right here in Yorkshire, they will not only help phase out diesel trains, but they could also help save the UK 3.5 billion over 35 years.
0:21.6	It's all part of Siemens' goal to transform rail, travel and transport for Britain.
0:25.9	Find out more at semenos.ukho.uk, forward slash, trains.
0:32.0	The Chancellor of the Exchequer.
0:34.4	Getting a lesson from the Shadow Chancellor in how to balance the books,
0:37.3	it's like getting a lesson from Dracula and how with how to balance the books is like getting a lesson
0:38.2	from Dracula and how to look after a blood back.
0:40.3	Ed Balls.
0:42.3	Steady as she goes budget.
0:45.3	What kind of ship does he think he's on, the Titanic?
0:48.3	Themery Celeste.
0:49.3	Welcome to EMQs from Political Currency with Ed Balls and George Osborne.
1:06.2	Hello and welcome to EMQ's ex-minister's questions, disastrously, George, we're remote.
1:27.2	And so, you know, on our special podcast recording software, we are both sitting here, drinking a cup of coffee, watching all of our team eating cake and drinking sparkling wine, probably champagne, who knows, because it is our executive producer Ellie Clifford's birthday, and we're not there.
1:29.3	We are being excluded from the party.
1:30.3	Oh, Ellie.
1:31.1	Sorry.
1:34.9	It's because I was getting this plane back from Washington.
1:39.3	In fact, thank God we are remote because my plane was very heavily,
	...

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