Getting Away With It? How to scrutinise an all-powerful Government

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2020

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Where has all the scrutiny gone, long time passing…? As the Government wields its apparently unassailable majority, who will be the thorn on the Government’s otherwise impenetrable hide this year? Plus special guest PAUL HARRISON – Theresa May’s former press spokesman – explains what this week’s spat between lobby journalists and government advisors really means. And can the Government pull off its proposed more stringent sentencing guidelines in the wake of the Streatham attacks? GINA MILLER explains why she’s staying in the fight to reform the British constitution. (Watch your feed for the full-length unedited interview). And Paul tells us what it’s like to lose your government job at an hour’s notice. “Most of us went straight to the pub,” he reveals. “Big restrictions on the lobby are a terrible look for the government... most journalists are as public spirited as the politicians they cover.” – PAUL HARRISON “Politicians often agree with the way Tom Stoppard put it: ‘I’m with you on the free press. It’s the newspapers I can’t stand’.” – PAUL HARRISON Hosted by Bronwen Maddox with Cath Haddon and Hannah White. 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, welcome to this week's episode of Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:15.4	I'm Bronwen Maddox. When a Prime Minister revels in a working majority of 87, who holds the government to account?
0:22.8	The opposition labours on a long, very long journey to pick its next leader.
0:27.6	Parliament, well, select committee chairs have been elected but the committees aren't up and running yet.
0:31.9	The media, well, this week's bust up between No. 10 and the Parliamentary Press Corps signals trouble ahead,
0:37.0	and so does the
0:37.8	government's musing about whether to decriminalise a failure to pay your BBC license fee.
0:43.3	We're taking a look at the whole question of scrutiny and whether the government's managing
0:46.9	to get away without any at the moment. We'll also be exploring the government's plans for big
0:52.5	constitutional reform. Gina Miller, who famously won two legal battles over Brexit, has been talking to us on this, her next battlefront.
1:00.0	That's coming up later.
1:01.1	And we've got a great panel in the studio today.
1:03.2	Hannah White is the IFG's deputy director and oversees our work on Parliament and the Civil Service.
1:07.8	Hannah, welcome back.
1:09.0	Thank you. You usually keep your Twitter feed firmly work-based, but I saw that you cheered some plans to
1:13.8	pedestrianise Parliament Square just now that all the demonstrators have gone home.
1:17.5	What have you got against the number three bus?
1:19.6	I'm a great fan of the number three bus.
1:21.1	I'm also a believer that we need to make our cities less car-centric.
1:26.6	And I think when I saw that on Twitter, I had a big
1:29.7	flashback to 10 years ago when I was working in Parliament and these plans for pedestrianising
1:34.0	the square first came up. So about time they were realised, I think. MPs may not be quite so
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