It’s election week!
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 917 Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2024
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
With just a few days to go before people go to the polls, Amol and Nick reflect on the strategies behind the parties’ get-out-the-vote messages.
And they reflect on the shift to the far right in the French elections with Justin Webb, who joins them from the Paris café he presented Radio 4’s Today from.
Plus Amol and Nick answer a listener question – how do they prepare for political interviews?
Episodes of The Today Podcast land twice a week during the election campaign – and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme. If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
You can listen to the latest episode of The Today Podcast anytime on your smart speaker by saying “Alexa, Ask BBC Sounds for The Today Podcast.”
The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the researcher and digital producer is Joe Wilkinson, the producer is Hazel Morgan. The editor is Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Jack Graysmark.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.8 | Hello, it's Amol. |
| 0:06.0 | And it's Nick. |
| 0:06.9 | And Nick, are you ready for the big day on Thursday? |
| 0:09.1 | Something going on? |
| 0:10.1 | Yes. |
| 0:10.6 | It's my birthday. |
| 0:12.1 | Have you got me my present yet? |
| 0:14.3 | Well, not just precisely yet, but... |
| 0:16.3 | You've been distracted by an election, I think. |
| 0:18.8 | Today is obviously July the 1st when we're recording this. That means Rishi Sunak has upheld his promise to go to the polls in the second half of the year. We have made it. This is your election week and your election week Monday podcast. It may feel like you can't remember a time when it wasn't the election, but we're almost there. Thursday's the big day. And it's the moment where the parties focus on. The core message. If you're Rishi Sunak, you tell people that you've got just four days to save yourself from a Labour government. Labor, of course, are saying, you don't vote for a Labour government. You won't get it. And all the other parties are saying, you know the result already. Why don't you vote for us? |
| 0:55.1 | You know it'll make you feel better. |
| 1:05.0 | Tell you one place they have voted already is France. Extraordinary results overnight, which suggests that there is a fundamental change going on in European politics and possibly beyond as well. |
| 1:10.3 | Marine Le Pence, national rally, the hard right party, has won the parliamentary elections. |
| 1:13.1 | Exactly what the French parliament is going to look like is unclear. |
| 1:16.2 | But Justin has been in France for us doing some fantastic reporting. |
| 1:21.7 | And we're going to be speaking to him up next to put our own election into a broader context. |
| 1:24.3 | It is just stage one of the French elections. |
| 1:28.8 | Unlike in the UK, they do two rounds of voting. What happens between one and the other, as no doubt we'll hear in a second, is absolutely crucial. But it reminds us |
| 1:35.3 | that our vote here is part of a much wider global change in politics. So let's do it. Well, well, well, well, a big week for all of us. We've all got a big decision to make, |
| 2:00.3 | as someone I know says at the start of his long-form interviews of the political leaders. |
| 2:03.9 | We're doing four episodes this week. There's going to be another episode landing tomorrow, a bonus question and answer episode. |
... |
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