How to handle a national emergency – a special podcast

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2020

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

COVID-19 is developing into the biggest threat to public health in a generation. How does government move through the gears when a crisis of this magnitude strikes? What is it like to sit in COBRA? How crucial is clear motivational communication? Three experienced firefighters – former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, advisor to Gordon Brown Lord Stewart Wood and ex-DEFRA communications director Steve Morris – join the IfG’s Bronwen Maddox and Cath Haddon for a riveting explanation what it’s like to handle a true crisis up close. “If you announce a bail-out at 6pm it’s panic. If you announce it at 7am it’s strategy.” – Steve Morris “It’s extraordinary how few leaders, Macron excepted maybe, have made international coordination part of the Corona response. The ‘your country first’ approach is being replicated and that’s really regrettable.” – Stewart Wood “Late one Friday Gordon Brown grabbed me and said ‘There’s a serious chance the police will be on the streets on Monday to stop people taking money out of the banks. Oh and probably the army as well. Have a nice weekend.’” – Steve Morris Presented by Bronwen Maddox. 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 back to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.3	In normal times, a week is a long time in politics, but these are suddenly not normal times.
0:19.8	As the coronavirus outbreak grips the world,
0:22.2	ordinary life is changing at an extraordinary pace. Governments around the world are reacting in
0:26.8	different ways as confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the deaths from it continue to rise. Borders are
0:33.0	closing, flights are being grounded, supermarket shelves are being emptied and whole cities and regions are being locked down.
0:39.3	But that's not happening in the UK, or at least not yet.
0:43.3	Boris Johnson describes the coronavirus outbreak as the greatest public health crisis this country has faced in a generation.
0:50.2	But the UK has yet to follow France, Italy, Ireland and of course China,
0:54.2	in shutting schools, banning large-scale public gatherings
0:56.9	and preventing people from moving across the country.
1:00.1	So we've gathered today, perhaps the last time we do this face-to-face,
1:03.6	a trio have been at the heart of government as previous crises broke.
1:07.9	Stuart Wood, Lord Wood, was an advisor to Gordon Brown,
1:12.0	whose Labour Prime Minister led the global response to the financial crisis in 2008. Stuart, hi.
1:16.6	Hello there.
1:17.4	What's it like in Parliament at the moment?
1:19.8	It's slightly eerie. I mean, there's a determination for everyone to carry on and kind of
1:25.3	be the last people who have normal life.
1:28.5	But at the same time, at the House of Lords,
1:30.2	there are a lot of people over 70 who know that very soon they're going to be told to self-isolate.
1:34.7	And so, yeah, it's a very strange combination of sort of resolution and nervousness,
	...

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