Preparing for Power: Ep 5 – Making Manifestos

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A general election is getting closer – and whoever forms the next government needs to be prepared. The campaign will dominate time and resources, but the job of being in government begins almost as soon as the votes have been counted. Preparing for Power, a special six-part series from the Institute for Government, takes you behind the scenes to find out how our politicians, their advisers and officials block out the noise of a general election campaign to get ready for what follows once the votes are counted. Episode 5 explores the role that manifestos play in – and after – an election campaign. How do political parties write their manifestos? What does a good manifesto look like? What are the questions that Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer will be considering when signing off on their manifestos for the 2024 general election? And how hard is it to deliver manifesto promises once a government is formed? Packed with insight and revelations from key figures behind past manifestos – including Oliver Letwin, Jonathan Powell and Polly Mackenzie – and former civil servants who were asked to turn manifesto pledges into workable policy, this episode of Preparing for Power reveals the inside story of this key part of a general election campaign. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	We had taken four priority goals, and we had put them on the front page of the manifesto on the cover.
0:14.0	And we said that whatever power we got, whatever votes we got, we would use that to try and secure progress towards those
0:21.1	four goals. I can remember in Downing Street having the hundred headlines of the manifesto
0:27.9	or whatever, we all have them essentially on our walls and we tick them off. Hello and welcome to
0:32.8	preparing for power, a special inside briefing podcast brought to you by the Institute for Government.
0:38.2	The days, weeks and months ahead are going to be dominated by opinion polls and campaign slogans,
0:42.9	policy pledges and manifesto launches. But what about the morning after election night?
0:47.6	Whoever forms the next government will need to be prepared and the job begins almost as soon as
0:51.4	the votes have been counted. So what's it like to go from opposition to government overnight?
0:56.1	How do civil servants get ready for the possibility of a transition of power or of a hung parliament?
1:01.3	And what is it like for a governing party to continue in power after a bruising campaign?
1:06.0	In this series, the Institute for Governments takes you behind the scenes to find out how our politicians, their advisors and officials block out the noise of a general election campaign to get ready
1:15.4	for being in government. We'll be speaking to former ministers, special advisors and senior civil
1:20.7	servants to discover how they prepared for that all-important election result and its aftermath,
1:25.6	to hear their secrets and to work out the lessons for
1:28.3	2024.
1:33.3	I'm Emma Norris, Deputy Director at the Institute for Government.
1:39.3	In this episode, we'll be looking at manifestos, which can play a huge part in a general election campaign.
1:45.1	They're at least a few weeks out from polling day, with the media pouring through each party's
1:49.0	pledges. Launch day coverage makes headlines, and the days that follow can see a manifesto
1:53.4	shift the narrative of a campaign. And then what? Manifestos have been described as a contract
1:58.4	between the party and the people, setting out a series
	...

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