Is Rishi fuelling discontent?

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 25 March 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After Rishi Sunak's spring statement was met with a barrage of bruising headlines, we crunch the numbers and assess what the chancellor announced - and what he didn't say - with guest John Rentoul, the Independent's chief political commentator. Who authorised an airlift of animals in the midst of the UK's chaotic evacuation from Kabul? That was the subject of an excruciating select committee session this week, but what does it say about how well the Foreign Office is functioning? And what's up with WhatsApp? Westminster's favourite way to communicate may not be great for good government - and a new IfG paper sets out the problems, and what could be done to fix them. Bronwen Maddox presents. With Jill Rutter, Tim Durrant, Tom Pope and guest John Rentoul. Produced by Candice McKenzie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.0	I'm Bronwyn Maddox. Spring has burst on the country this week, so has the spring statement.
0:20.0	With a looming cost of living crisis and the uncertain impact of the war this week, so has the Spring Statement. With a looming cost of living crisis
0:21.6	and the uncertain impact of the war in Ukraine, the Chancellor took to the dispatch box.
0:26.6	We're going to crunch the numbers and weigh up Rishi Sunak's big moment.
0:30.6	The Treasury wasn't the only department in the news this week.
0:33.6	For the Foreign Office, the headlines were really grim reading. We'll look at an excruciating
0:38.9	select committee hearing about last year's Kabul evacuation and dig a bit deeper into what may be
0:44.4	some rather wider problems at the FCDO, problems which are going to lead fixing as the Ukraine crisis
0:50.2	unfolds. A heart of government is always the question of who said what, to whom, when,
0:55.9	where. And that is harder to pin down with the advent of WhatsApp, Westminster's favourite way of
1:00.8	communicating. Is there a problem there? If so, can it be fixed? That's the subject of a new
1:06.0	IFG paper and we're going to take a look at that too. I'm joined today by Top IFG Duo, Associate Director Tim
1:12.7	Duranters here. Hi Tim. Hi, Bronwyn. Great to be here. Great to have you with us and we're joined again
1:16.6	by senior fellow Jill Rutter. Hi, Jill. Hi, Jill. Great to have you. And I'm delighted to be
1:22.6	joined as well by John Rental, Chief Political Commentator at the Independent. Hi, John. Hello, Bronwyn.
1:27.9	Great. Thank you for joining us. Right. Well, let's begin with our first subject, the spring statement.
1:34.3	Yesterday's big Parliament set piece event. We're joined now just for this section by our Deputy Chief
1:40.2	Economist Tom Pope, who heroically rose from his COVID sickbed yesterday to watch it all
1:44.6	remotely, and he's been leading the IFG's response. Tom, how are you? I've been better,
1:51.7	Bronwyn, but not too bad. Thank you. Great. Well, an extra thanks for having you with us. So,
1:56.9	how do you think the Chancellor did? I think diplomatically maybe how he did depends on what he
	...

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