EMQs: Should PMs be youthful or experienced?
Political Currency
Persephonica
4.1 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2026
⏱️ 46 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Fresh off the back of our latest episodes Ed Balls and George Osborne get an answer to their queries around the curate eggs and a follow up to the Libya crisis series on age in politics. In politics, particularly the Tories, you’re considered young at 40 or 50 while in tech it makes you ancient. Why is this? Youth is often seen as a negative in politics, but is there value to not being weighed down by your experiences?
Then the pair answer a question from the Barclays Brief podcast on the gilt markets, and options open to Rachel Reeves should higher energy prices limit her fiscal headroom. They explain why her options are severely limited coming into the second half of this the parliament and what options are still available for her.
Baroness Jo Valentine then asks a question around rail development at Heathrow should the third runway be developed. They point to past projects like the Millennium Dome and Olympic Park as pointers on what you should and shouldn’t do, while exploring why planning often takes so long in Britain.
Finally, they address a question on many people’s minds: what happens if we’re plunged into active war? They discuss whether the government should better prepare the public for this event, and what areas of weakness the government should address to better protect the public in future.
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Credits:
Research: Sam Burton
Production: Caillin McDaid & Nasreen Arain
Video Editor: Carla Mercer
Executive Producer: Ellie Clifford & Henrietta Harrison
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Chancellor of the Exchequer. |
| 0:02.0 | Getting a lesson from the Shadow Chancellor |
| 0:04.0 | and how to balance the books, |
| 0:05.0 | it's like getting a lesson from Dracula |
| 0:07.0 | and how to look after a blood pack. |
| 0:09.0 | Ed Balls. |
| 0:10.0 | As steady as she goes, budget. |
| 0:13.0 | What kind of ship does he think he's on, the Titanic? |
| 0:15.0 | Themary Celeste. |
| 0:17.0 | Welcome to EMQs from Political Currency |
| 0:20.0 | with Ed Balls and George Osborne. |
| 0:27.4 | Hello and welcome to ex-minister's questions, EMQs. |
| 0:31.8 | This is actually our first EMQs that we've recorded since Easter. |
| 0:36.7 | And for officials of our podcast, you will know we've recorded since Easter. And for |
| 0:37.5 | aficionados of our podcast, you will know we've been debating like |
| 0:41.2 | Easter egg hunts and |
| 0:43.2 | what you do, all the chocolate that the kids get on |
| 0:47.0 | Easter. Essentially, it was revealed that Ed is the |
| 0:50.5 | Easter bunny thief. He's the sort of |
| 0:53.2 | bad bunny, I think, is the pop parallel here, isn't it? |
| 0:58.0 | Because you go around kind of basically stealing the kids' chocolates. |
| 1:02.4 | I mean, I say kids, your kids are all grown up, but you go and steal their chocolates |
... |
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