Government U-turns and the blame game
Political Fix
Financial Times
4.2 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2020
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Prime Minister Boris Johnson made yet another abrupt policy change this week to get pupils in England back to school. Are the wrong people in government making these decisions, and how much is the civil service at fault? Plus, we discuss the election of Ed Davey as the new leader of the Liberal Democrats and whether the party can reclaim the centre ground of British politics.
Presented by Sebastian Payne, with Laura Hughes, Robert Shrimsley and special guest Lib Dem MP Daisy Cooper. Produced by Anna Dedhar and Josh de la Mare. The sound engineer is Breen Turner and the editor Liam Nolan. Music by Metaphor Music.
Review clips: Parliament, Times Radio, BBC Newsnight
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Boris Johnson increased his efforts to get all English peoples back to school this week, |
| 0:06.2 | but was beset by yet another government U-turn and another blame game in Whitehall. |
| 0:11.3 | You couldn't sit your exams, which you yearned to do. |
| 0:17.0 | And I'm afraid your grades were almost derailed by a mutant algorithm and I know how stressful that must have been. |
| 0:28.0 | Welcome to Payne's Politics, your essential insider guide to what's happening in British politics from the Financial Times, with me Sebastian Payne. |
| 0:40.0 | In this episode, I'll be discussing why the Johnson government is making so many changes in policy and how civil servants are taking the heat for bad decision making with political correspondent Laura Hughes and political Plaitour columnist Robert Shrimsley. |
| 0:55.7 | And later I'll be looking at the result of the Liberal Democrat leadership contest and where |
| 1:00.2 | the centre ground of British politics goes next with Laura and special guest |
| 1:04.1 | Daisy Cooper, the Libdom MP for St Albans. Laura and Robert, welcome back. |
| 1:09.2 | Hello! Hi, sir. |
| 1:12.4 | So this is rather a sad podcast for us as it's the last time we're going to be hearing from Laura in quite some time |
| 1:18.4 | as she's heading off on maternity leave. |
| 1:20.4 | But before you leave us for a while Laura I do want to ask you about the pressing |
| 1:24.7 | topic of the week which is U-turns. Boris Johnson seems to like changing his mind a lot. |
| 1:29.5 | What have you fundamentally changed your mind on? |
| 1:36.8 | Well this is a very suitable answer. I was adamant I would not have a baby before I was married, but two months after saying that I changed my mind quite dramatically and here I am ready to pop, engaged and not married. |
| 1:47.6 | Well, those are the kind of big life choices that are good to always change at a rapid rate. |
| 1:52.0 | Robert, what about you? |
| 1:53.4 | I had a period in the mid 90s where I bounced back and forward |
| 1:56.3 | between the FT and the Telegraph. |
| 1:57.9 | I went from Telegraph to the FT, |
| 1:59.5 | back to the Telegraph and then back to the FT in, and I have to say, although each of them |
... |
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