Show 209 - Alan Milburn
Matt Forde's Political Party
The Political Party
4.7 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2021
⏱️ 73 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stop what you're doing, find a quiet space and immerse yourself in this impressively candid recollection of the new Labour government from one of its leading lights. This has it all - an insight into the principles behind controversial policies, what it was like behind-the-scenes during the fuel protests, the tensions between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown - as well as a frank assessment of the things that new Labour got wrong. Alan is remarkably open about his own upbringing and the effect that it may, or may not have had, on some of the decisions he took.
Get comfy, this is a real classic.
Follow Alan on Twitter: @alanmilburn1958
Email the show: politicalpartypodcast@gmail.com
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Follow Matt on Twitter: @mattforde
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Political Party. This episode features Alan Milburn and this is an |
| 0:14.7 | absolute corka all because of the way Alan is, which is disarmingly honest, totally frank, |
| 0:22.4 | totally open about anything I asked him about, whether that's his upbringing, his family |
| 0:28.8 | situation as a child or big recollections about big figures in the Blair cabinet. I will |
| 0:36.3 | issue no spoilers at this stage, but you can probably infer where this is going to go. And it's just |
| 0:41.1 | a brilliant conversation for loads of different things. So the great anecdotes about his time at the |
| 0:47.8 | heart of government, really good insights about new labor and the shortcomings of new labor and |
| 0:54.9 | the things that he noticed at the time that perhaps weren't functioning properly, as well as |
| 1:00.1 | great stuff about public sector reform, particularly foundation hospitals, why he agreed with him, |
| 1:04.3 | why they were desirable, the nature of policymaking and change the realities of being a |
| 1:09.2 | labour hell secretary dealing with the trade union, so many different things that all into weave, |
| 1:14.7 | but the one thing that links them all is that Alan talked about them so well. |
| 1:19.5 | And it's just so open and honest, it's an absolute treat. So you're going to love this. |
| 1:26.1 | Don't forget you can email the show, politicalpartypodcast.gmail.com. Now I never like to trail who I've |
| 1:31.5 | got coming up because sometimes I have to reschedule interviews or guests have to reschedule them. |
| 1:36.7 | So I never want to say, oh, the next episode is this, if then that person can't do it on that |
| 1:41.9 | particular day or whatever. So I have some amazing guests lined up, which I'm very excited about, |
| 1:48.0 | but email me politicalpartypodcast.gmail.com with any suggestions, any feedback. |
| 1:52.4 | And it doesn't necessarily have to be a specific guest. It could just be a type of guest. |
| 1:56.9 | And Mark Knight gets in touch and makes a very good point. He says, I'd love to hear you talk |
| 2:01.0 | some historians to give historical context to current events. Mark, that's a great suggestion. |
| 2:05.9 | And I'm already talking to a particular historian about coming on the show. So it's things like that. |
... |
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