How To Tell Who's Really In Charge
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 February 2025
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week the political masterminds (and Hugo) are joined by Theo Bertram, who worked in Downing Street for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
After a new book by Times journalists Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund sheds light on the inner workings of Keir Starmer's government, is chief of staff Morgan McSweeney actually in charge? And should a new YouGov/Times poll showing Reform UK ahead of Labour for the first time cause everyone to panic?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is sponsored by Womble Bond Dickinson, an international law firm of more than |
| 0:05.3 | 1,300 lawyers across 37 offices in the United States and United Kingdom. In today's |
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| 0:44.0 | Discover more at Womblebondickinson.com. |
| 0:46.9 | A family celebration descends into chaos. |
| 0:51.0 | A dark past is revealed. |
| 0:53.8 | Feston, a piercing new opera adapted from Thomas Winterberg's |
| 0:57.6 | cult film. From librettist Lee Hall, nine-time Olivier Award-winning director Richard Jones, |
| 1:03.7 | and acclaimed composer Mark Anthony Turnich. Feston. From the 11th to the 27th of February at the Royal Opera House. |
| 1:12.2 | Tickets from just £8, book now at rbo.org.uk. |
| 1:21.0 | Hello, Luke here. This weekend, we thought you might want to hear from one of our sister podcasts to get a sense of what The Times is doing right across the board. We'll be back as usual on Monday. I hope you enjoy. |
| 1:55.9 | Thank you. King of the World race car driver Polly McKenzie. |
| 1:57.9 | We called it the washing line because everything hung off it. |
| 2:00.6 | We've got to avoid being all washing line and washing. |
| 2:01.4 | Polly, read my mind. |
| 2:02.3 | What am I thinking right now? |
... |
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