Pyramid of piffle
Planet Normal
Louisa Wells
4.7 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 3 February 2022
⏱️ 60 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Another week on Planet Normal poses more questions over the future of our Prime Minister. But do our co-pilots think Mr Johnson is a dead man walking or, to borrow a phrase from PM himself, that the Partygate storm is merely a 'pyramid of piffle'?
Allison's done defending Boris Johnson for good, but Liam's advice for the PM? The economy, stupid. Co-pilot Halligan thinks he should channel Bill Clinton, by using proven economic policies to overcome his personal scandals.
Plus, Liam weighs in on the Government's 'levelling up' white paper. Is it just a canny slogan? Or will the plan mean real change?
Also boarding the rocket of right thinking this week is Dr Steve James, who beams in to tell our co-pilots why he confronted Sajid Javid about compulsory vaccines for NHS staff - and the overwhelming support he received after the incident went viral. Steve also shares his insights from working in ICU during the pandemic, and what he would do if he could wave his magic wand over the NHS.
And, a nostalgic delve into the Planet Normal mailbag this week, as listeners share their childhood memories from the 70s.
Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/allison-pearson/ |
Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ |
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telugu... |
| 0:02.0 | The Telugu... |
| 0:03.0 | ...podcasts. |
| 0:09.0 | Five. |
| 0:10.0 | I don't think Boris Johnson will ever actually fully recover |
| 0:15.0 | from this righteous sense of public anger for... |
| 0:20.0 | Will she buy that it was a work event or will she see it as illegal? |
| 0:26.0 | Stop doing Covid, theatre, vaccine passports, masks, stuff that doesn't work... |
| 0:33.0 | ...and focus on what does work. |
| 0:36.0 | The true tragedy at the heart of this, which is how is Carrie going to peel off 112,000 pounds worth of gold and wallpaper from number ten? |
| 0:47.0 | We have left off. |
| 0:53.0 | Welcome once again to Planet Normal, the Telugu off podcast with Alison Pearson. |
| 0:57.0 | Hello. |
| 0:58.0 | And me, Liam Halligan. |
| 1:00.0 | Keen to divert us all from questions about Downing Street parties and birthday cakes, the government's decided this is levelling up week. |
| 1:08.0 | On cue, this co-pilot's decamped to the north. |
| 1:11.0 | I'm blasting off for today's trip to Planet Normal from the proud Lancashire town of Burnley. |
| 1:16.0 | Before going on to Blackpool as soon as we touched down back on Planet Earth. |
| 1:21.0 | Amidst a slew of policy announcements, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for levelling up no less, says the Tories really do want to tackle the UK's vast regional wealth imbalances. |
| 1:32.0 | Britain's certainly the most regionally unequal developed economy on Earth. |
| 1:37.0 | And countless studies show lockdowns made these regional imbalances even worse, in terms of both wealth and health. |
| 1:44.0 | Unless this Johnson government can appeal to voters across Labour's former Red Wall, in the North and Midlands, those who switched to the Tories in 2019, handing the Prime Minister his 80 seat majority, it could be all change Alison at the next general election. |
... |
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