Revolution Number Ten

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 10 January 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dominic Cummings wants to make “seismic” changes to the way government works. Can the PM’s supreme advisor pull off such radical transformations in short order? And are his reforms really all that radical, or just designed to look that way? Special guest James Kirkup of the Social Market Foundation joins us to discuss what levelling up government” really means – and whether proper scrutiny is a thing of the past in an age of massive majorities. Plus, secrets of how new MPs look busy. Can Boris Johnson really ban the word Brexit? The march of the “misfits and weirdos”. And the undiscovered political power of the English-not-British. And we talk to Tony Blair’s former Chief of Staff Jonathan Powell about the limits of power and the bear-traps hidden in the heart of Whitehall. Watch out for a special extended version of the interview in your podcast feed. “These are the beginning of the lean years for lobby journalists who have for three years feasted on huge fatted corpses.” - James Kirkup Hosted by Bronwen Maddox with Cath Haddon and Hannah White. Audio production by Alex Rees. 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, happy New Year and welcome back to Inside Briefing, the Institute for Government podcast.
0:14.0	Boris Johnson squaring up to Jeremy Corbyn at Prime Minister's questions, the EU and the UK clashing over what Brexit really means,
0:21.6	almost the same faces around the Cabinet table as before Christmas, and a Labour Party arguing about its leader.
0:27.6	You could be forgiven for thinking that nothing had changed.
0:31.6	But everything is different.
0:32.6	A huge government majority means the Prime Minister and his chief advisor, Dominic Cummings,
0:37.9	more about him later, can do as they please or can they.
0:42.0	We'll give you our view on what they seem to have planned, details still emerging,
0:45.7	but one of their early passions, a blast of reforming zeal directed at Whitehall,
0:49.8	really feels like an unexpected Christmas present for the IFG because that's our favourite subject. Someone who knows all about the opportunities that come with a government
0:56.9	majority and the challenges involved in trying to overhaul the way government works is
1:01.3	Jonathan Powell. He was at Tony Blair's side as his chief of staff throughout Blair's time as
1:06.5	Prime Minister. Later in the podcast, we talked to him about the challenges of running a new government
1:11.7	with a long to-do list and a civil service used to doing things differently. I'm joined by some of
1:17.8	our regulars to help me work out what's going to happen in the new political year. Kath Haddon is our senior
1:22.8	fellow. Hi, Kath. Hello. Happy New Year. And to you? You've been watching the BBC's The Trial of Christine Keeler on Sunday nights.
1:30.3	Escape into the 60s or is it totally relevant?
1:32.5	I think, you know, some of it is still quite relevant.
1:35.0	I mean, look, the main story is about a senior minister having an affair and then getting caught out about it.
1:41.1	And it was a sex scandal, which scandalised.
1:42.9	And that would not be quite as scandalous today but it would be if you then lied to the house which is the thing that
1:50.2	actually caused john profumo to lose his job so as we saw with amber rudd when she uh albeit
	...

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