Levelling Up or Spreading the Jam?

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2021

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Boris Johnson finally tells us what “levelling up” means – or does he? Is it about fixing up towns, enhancing job prospects or just more Boris boosterism? We look inside the PM’s big Levelling Up launch with special guest Ben Chu, Economics Editor of BBC Newsnight. Plus the Government narrowly wins its widely-denounced bid to cut the International Aid Budget. Will voters care that Johnson has broken a key manifesto promise? And a new report the Commission For Smart Government says government must reform urgently or fail. Is it right? “Even after this speech we’re still not quite clear what levelling up means.” – Gemma Tetlow “If your levelling up has a redistributive element then it’s got to be paid for. Whatever Johnson says, that means the more prosperous parts of the country.” – Ben Chu “Johnson did seem to address his appeal for ideas from local leaders only to Conservative authorities, not Labour areas…” – Alex Thomas Presented by Bronwen Maddox with Alex Thomas and Gemma Tetlow. Audio production by Alex Rees. Inside Briefing is a Podmasters Production for the IfG. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. 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.
0:14.6	I'm Bronwyn Maddox. Well, we're talking about three chunky things today. First one,
0:18.9	leveling up, two words which have done a lot of heavy
0:21.3	lifting for Boris Johnson over the last two years, but words which have seemed to mean pretty
0:25.2	much whatever people wanted them to mean. But today in one of those incredibly well-briefed
0:30.0	set piece speeches, the Prime Minister finally told us what it means to level up, or has he,
0:34.5	we're going to dig deeper. And leveling up was, of course, a promise that
0:38.4	was big in the last Conservative manifesto, as was the pledge to spend 0.7% of GDP on aid. But not all
0:45.8	promises are equal, and this week the government won a vote to slash the aid budget.
0:50.5	Temporarily, ministers say, so what does that mean and what does the saving mean for Boris Johnson for his Chancellor?
0:56.3	And then we're finally going to turn to a subject that is very familiar to fans of the IFG, how to reform government.
1:01.7	Because there's a new paper out, not by us, and it calls for all kinds of radical reforms and warns that government will fail if it doesn't embrace change.
1:10.5	We'll explore what the
1:11.8	Commission for Smart Government is saying and give it our stamp of approval or otherwise. So joining me for
1:17.1	this today in our virtual studio is Alex Thomas, who leads our civil service work and used to work
1:21.9	in the Cabinet Office. Hi Alex. Hello, Bromyn. We've also got Gemma Tetlow, our chief economist,
1:26.9	and she's back with us. Hi, Gemma.
1:28.6	Hi, Brumann.
1:29.6	And I'm delighted to be joined today by Ben Choo, News Nights Economics Editor.
1:33.6	Hi, Ben. How are you?
1:34.9	I'm very well. Hi, Bronwyn.
1:36.5	What's it like to be back in the world of broadcast after a little time in print?
	...

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