Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics, the podcast with me, Steve Richards,

and all of you in the rock and roll politics cooperative.

So thank you very much for tuning in, taking part

or just being engaged with our attempts to delve deep in the world of British politics.

We are kind of deep into the summer recess and I'm about to head up to Edinburgh for the Edinburgh

Festival. I can't kind of believe

it's come round again. There are certain fixtures of the year like, you know, after the party

conferences, Christmas races towards you in a rather frightening way. And somehow, I don't know,

from kind of May onwards, the sort of Edinburgh thing kind of

hurtles towards you. But I know some of you are coming to the show and I hope more of you will do so.

Yeah, I'm starting the shows on next Sunday, August the 10th, at the usual venue, the beautiful theatre in the Symposium

hall, Hill Square in Edinburgh, and I'll leave you the link to get tickets to the shows.

There's going to be a different show every day.

There are so many different ways of exploring British politics at the moment.

And more this year than last, actually, which just followed a general election,

which had led to the first election of a Labour government for many, many years.

But somehow this year, the rise of the smaller parties, and now Jeremy Corbyn has announced a new party, the battle for Scotland, which has suddenly become, not suddenly, but over the last year, become very complex and nuanced with the election next year for the Scottish Parliament. A big, big moment,

arguably the most significant election since the establishment of that parliament. So much going on.

Yeah, so there'll be a different show every day. And also I've got a book coming out in September,

a short biography of Tony Blair that, you know, there's been this really great series of books

about British Prime Ministers. Alan Johnson did the first on Harold Wilson, which was terrific.

Ian Dale has got one out at the moment on Margaret Thatcher,

...