Is The Erasmus Student Scheme Worth The Money?
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, the UK government announced it is set to rejoin the Erasmus study scheme.
Victoria is joined Joe Pike to discuss - and they speak to Nick Thomas-Symonds, minister for EU relations about whether it’s worth the £570m cost.
Plus, Andrea Egan becomes the new secretary general of the UK’s biggest union - Unison. We explain what that could mean for the Labour party and Keir Starmer’s leadership.
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New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenters were Victoria Derbyshire and Joe Pike. It was made by Jem Westgate and Laura Cain. The social producer was Beth Pritchard. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.3 | If American politics is leaving you with a lot of questions, you're not alone. |
| 0:12.3 | On America's, we chat through what's really going on. |
| 0:15.3 | Make sense of what's happening in the US, with new podcast episodes arriving throughout the week. |
| 0:20.6 | America's, listen on BBC Sounds arriving throughout the week. America. |
| 0:21.4 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:23.8 | It was the last PMQs of the year. |
| 0:26.3 | And Joe, there were some pretty unfunny jokes there today, weren't there? |
| 0:31.2 | And some barbed ones as well, some Christmas-themed critiques. |
| 0:34.8 | Cammy Bader Nock and Kirstama in particular, going at each other with a festive theme, trying to attack each other and other rival parties. |
| 0:43.6 | And how much thought, how much effort goes into writing those gags? |
| 0:47.2 | A lot. A lot of different people in different parties feed in jokes. It's probably a little bit easier when there's an obvious theme. |
| 0:53.8 | And certainly in terms of Kemi Bade, |
| 0:55.4 | I'm told some of those |
| 0:57.2 | that help her out are pretty prominent. |
| 0:58.6 | He's not going to ban Doctor Strikes. |
| 1:00.5 | He doesn't have the bobbles. |
| 1:03.8 | And a little festive advice |
| 1:05.4 | to those in reform. |
| 1:07.3 | If mysterious men from the East |
| 1:10.2 | appear bearing gifts, this time, report it to the police. |
| 1:24.0 | Mr Speaker, he said his main mission was economic growth, but the economy is shrinking. |
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