Majority rules: Britain’s new Parliament sits
Economist Podcasts
The Economist
4.3 • 5K Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2019
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Now that the prime minister has a thumping parliamentary majority, Brexit is assured—but on what terms? And what other legislative shake-ups are in the works? President Donald Trump has relied heavily on financial sanctions, often in place of old-fashioned diplomacy. We ask whether that is an effective avenue of foreign policy. And an attempt to peek into Asia’s illegal tiger farms.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence on Economist Radio. I'm your host, Jason Palmer. |
| 0:09.2 | Every weekday, we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:17.6 | President Donald Trump has proved to be a big fan of imposing financial sanctions as a backdoor to foreign policy without the messy business of military action. |
| 0:26.8 | But the old-fashioned front-door diplomacy might work better and spare unnecessary misery. |
| 0:34.0 | And there are just 4,000 tigers now in the wild. |
| 0:38.0 | But more than twice that number are being held in farms across Asia |
| 0:41.6 | to meet demand for illegal products like tiger bone wine, skins, and jewelry. |
| 0:47.1 | Our correspondent tries at least to visit one. |
| 0:57.0 | But first... When asked as a child what he wanted to be when he grew up, Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly replied, World King. |
| 1:06.4 | His sights have lowered, but not by much. Today, he'll retake his seat in Parliament with a vastly strengthened majority of 80. |
| 1:15.1 | Not since Margaret Thatcher's election victory in 1987, has Mr. Johnson's party had so much power, |
| 1:21.4 | and first on his agenda, to follow through on his election mantra to get Brexit done. |
| 1:26.3 | With this mandate and this majority, we will at last be able to do what? |
| 1:31.8 | Get Brexit done. |
| 1:34.0 | Paying attention. |
| 1:35.7 | Because this election means that getting Brexit done is now the irrefutable, irresistible, unarguable decision of the British people. |
| 1:49.0 | The British divorce from the European Union now looks certain to happen by the end of next month. |
| 1:54.3 | Not only that, Mr. Johnson wants to make it law that the subsequent trade negotiations |
| 1:58.8 | must be concluded by the end of next year. Such a push |
| 2:02.6 | once again raises the specter of a so-called hard Brexit. But, unlike Theresa May before him, |
| 2:08.6 | what Mr. Johnson wants, Mr. Johnson is now very likely to get. |
| 2:12.6 | I think when Parliament resumes this afternoon, the scenes will be pretty raucous. |
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