Hello, I'm Hugo Rifkin, and now we're going to be unpacking the politics of the day,

from trade union members, increasingly loving reform,

to whether Andy Burnham could scrap Westminster's whipping system,

to politicians using sport to boost their appeal.

And joining me now to leading members of the

Amalgamated Union of Columnists. And they are Libby Purvis. Hello, Libby. Hello, I wish we did have a union. Do we not have a union? I'm sure we just have a union. And, well, I guess we're not all in it. And Patrick Kid, hello, Patrick. I'm splitting from the Amalgamated Union of Columnists, and I want to be the union of amalgamated columnists instead.

Well, we'd just become one giant columnist. kid. Hello, Patrick. I'm splitting from the amalgamated union of columnists and I want to be the union of amalgamated columnists instead.

Well, we'd just become

one giant columnist. Yeah, right. We need a schism, though. You can't have a union without a schism. We could all sort of join together. Like, I was going to say like the spaceships and thunderbirds, but I suppose actually more like AI.

You want us to be an AI columnist all mush together?

Yes, why not?

Why not?

Do you type in say, write, and Thunderbirds, but I suppose actually more like AI. You want us to be an AI columnist all mush

together? Yes, why not? Why not? Do you type and say, write this column in the style of Patrick Kidd Libby Purvis and Hugo Rifkin and see what comes out? What a work of beauty that would be. Let's crack on. I want to begin with the story on the front of today's Times, which is that a new poll has found that trade union members are just as likely to back reform as they are to support labour. The general

secretary's on the front of today's Times, which is that a new poll has found that trade union members are

just as likely to back reform as they are to support Labor. The General Secretaries of Unite and the

GMB told the paper that the working classes have abandoned the party. Libby, what do you think

about this? Is this surprising? Because I think despite everything, it kind of is a bit surprising.

It is a bit, and it's fascinating. I'm not sure that the

union leaders are right about the reasons for their members changing their views. They seem to

think it's a welfare restrictions, winter fuel allowance being taken away and all that. But I just

think a huge, huge amount of it is what everybody, almost everybody in the country is thinking is that mass immigration and its effect on things like housing and medicine and so on and also the effect of the government's current financial policies on young people's jobs.

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