EMQs: What does 'fairness' actually mean in politics?
Political Currency
Persephonica
4.1 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What political rival would you share a 12-hour flight with? Ed Balls and George Osborne dive into this very question, revealing the old foes and opposite numbers who would make the best long-haul companions.
And can an unpopular leader tank a popular policy? The pair debate how a leader’s image affects a government, and whether an unpopular messenger will derail a popular message no matter what. They also examine the meaning of 'fairness' in politics, and whether Labour or the Tories can truly lay claim to the term.
Finally, Ed’s new title as a "Lifelong Learning Ambassador" sparks a discussion on the 'Cinderella service' of adult skills and why no government can seem to get it right.
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Credits:
Assistant Producer: Caillin McDaid
Senior Producer: Silvia Maresca
Video Editor: Maha Al-Badrawi
Executive Producer: Ellie Clifford
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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 in how to balance the books, |
| 0:05.0 | it's like getting a lesson from Dracula and how to look after a blood back. |
| 0:08.0 | 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? |
| 0:16.0 | Themery, Celeste. |
| 0:17.0 | Welcome to EMQs from Political Currency. |
| 0:20.0 | With Ed Balls and George Osborne. |
| 0:27.7 | Welcome to EMQ's, ex-minister's questions. |
| 0:32.6 | You know, I was in one of your old haunts this week because I went to the Almeida Theatre just off Upper Street |
| 0:39.2 | in Islington and I went to see a very good adaptation of the famous Alan Hollinghurst novel, |
| 0:44.9 | The Line of Beauty, which is really a kind of commentary on Thatcher's Britain in the middle |
| 0:50.9 | of the 1980s. I think it's set in like 1983. So it's set in the household of a Tory MP. |
| 0:56.6 | It's set in Notting Hill. |
| 0:58.3 | And it's about also the kind of gay subculture. |
| 1:01.9 | And to some degree underworld, because even though homosexuality is legal, |
| 1:06.1 | people can't really talk about it or it's much harder to talk about it than it would be today. |
| 1:10.1 | So maybe not the kind |
| 1:11.5 | of gay subculture, but the Notting Hill and Tory MP bits struck a resonance with me. And there's |
| 1:18.4 | a great scene, which I was wondering how they're going to do in the book, the kind of hero of the book, |
| 1:23.6 | who's sort of outsider, he's a bit like Charles Ryder and Bride's Head. He's called Nick Guest and he's |
... |
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