Playing Chicken With Kyiv

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Ukraine Crisis is still unresolved. What exactly does Putin want, is he determined to use force to achieve it – and can Britain do anything about it? Plus, Boris Johnson plans to create a new ‘Office of the Prime Minister’. But what exactly is the Cabinet Office, how does this “odds and sods department” work – and is the idea of creating a whole new department wise, Prime Minister? Ex-Cabinet Office minister and Justice Secretary David Lidington and former (founding) head of the National Cyber Security Centre Ciaran Martin are our special guests. “Any Ukrainian will tell you they’ve been at war with Russia since 2014… They’ve been under severe cyber-harassment from Russia ever since.” – Ciaran Martin “If Ukraine makes a success of democracy and a Euro-Atlantic way of looking at the world, that’s a mortal threat to Putin and his regime.” – David Lidington “When you’re doing civil service reform, don’t hide behind jargon because that might be the thing that sinks it.” – Cath Haddon “Ukraine is Russia’s cyber playground… The Russians constantly use it to undermine Ukrainians’ faith in their society and their government.” – Ciaran Martin Presented by Alex Thomas and Cath Haddon. Audio production by Alex Rees. Inside Briefing is a Podmasters Production for the IfG. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk 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.
0:15.2	I'm Alex Thomas, IFG Program Director for All Things Civil Service and this week's stand-in chair.
0:22.2	It's recess and the Commons is on a break, but that doesn't mean things have stopped happening. Tensions over Ukraine
0:26.8	hit a new level this week as the US and UK warned that a Russian invasion could be imminent
0:31.2	and that their citizens should leave immediately. At home, it's royal scandals rather than
0:36.3	number 10 parties leading the front pages, but the
0:38.8	Met Investigation into lockdown gatherings is now at questionnaire stage. And meanwhile, inflation is at
0:44.7	new highs. Enjoy your half-term holiday. We'll talk today about the latest Ukraine developments. What are the
0:50.7	risks? What's the latest and how do decisions made in the Kremlin play out in Whitehall and Westminster. And meanwhile, this is the Institute for Government podcast,
0:59.3	so we'll bring you a very insidery inside briefing and dig into the Cabinet Office. What is this
1:04.8	obliquely named, oddly shaped central department that normally prefers to operate by stealth,
1:09.9	and in troubled times gets plenty of blame
1:11.7	and none of the glory. I'm very glad to have with me two people who understand the Cabinet
1:15.6	Office and matters of national security all too well. Sir David Liddington, having been
1:19.7	Justice Secretary, Europe Minister and Leader of the Commons was Theresa May's Minister for the Cabinet
1:24.0	Office between January 2018 and July 2019. Hello, David. Hi, Alex.
1:29.7	And Kieran Martin, now a professor at the Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford, as well as
1:33.8	heading the National Cyber Security Centre, has held several senior posts in the Cabinet Office,
1:38.4	including Declaration of Interest Alert being my boss when he led its Constitution Group. Hello,
1:43.6	Kieran. Hello, Alex.
1:45.2	I'm very good you were too. That's enough incestuousness. And to complete our line-up,
1:51.0	I'm pleased to be joined by someone who's very proud of never having worked in the Cabinet
	...

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