Hello and welcome to the political party. May the sick is getting closer by the second polling day up and down the UK for a number of different officers and today we talked to an elected mayor Marvin Reese, the Labour elected mayor of Bristol standing for re-election on the 6th of May.

This is a jewel of a conversation, a jewel as in like a shiny, I just realised I made it something like a duel, like it was a fight.

What I mean more is that it is a diamond of a conversation, a rare treat, a gem which I hope you'll enjoy. Before I come on to what Marvin and I discuss, just in case you're not aware now.

I'm saying this at the start of every podcast and all over social media, but live shows are returning and I'm delighted that I'm doing three nights at the beautiful Garick Theatre in London's West End with some amazing lineups.

So these are happening live with an audience you can get tickets now, but the tickets are going fast. So here are the lineups, the 24th of May.

Monday the 24th of May is Peter Mandelson and Sainte de Vasse, on Tuesday the 25th of May, it's Keir Starmer and Andrea Ledson and on Wednesday the 2nd of June, it's Estimate Vay and Jess Phillips, three phenomenal lineups at a beautiful venue.

I went to see this house there, the brilliant James Graham play. So to be able to take some political entertainment there than myself is a real honour.

And this Thursday, the 22nd of April, the first ever political party streaming event where my guest will be Tony Blair tickets are just a ten out you can get them now by clicking on the link.

I've never done a streaming event before I cannot wait for that. I'm so delighted to be doing a political party stream and to have Tony Blair as a guest as the guest is a real, real treat.

So you can get those tickets now for all those wonderful events and well, hopefully I'll see you 39 to 8 o'clock with Tony Blair.

For now, of course, I'm joined by Marvin Reese. Now Marvin has been getting more national attention in the last couple of years and then perhaps he might have bargained for for obvious reasons that we talk about about the events that been going on in Bristol.

This is a brilliant conversation about what brought him to politics about the values that guide him about defending politics as a pursuit as an industry about the danger of not doing that.

There are so and his reaction to those major news flashpoints that have happened in Bristol to the to the protest at the Colston statue and the pulling down of that and the kill the bill protests and the way that he's handled the delicate politics around those things.

This is just a fantastic conversation about what politics really is and about what being an individual in politics is and about what power really means.

I began by asking Marvin just because I'm quite assuming that this quite mundane starts the conversation.

But given that I don't know the streets on a few weeks ago, the Metro mayor for the Westman and I think it is quite handy. I know a lot of people listen to this show who don't necessarily work in politics or know what different types of officers are.

So I began by asking Marvin specifically about what roles about what powers his role as a lectern mayor of Bristol has.

So I think that's the executive power within the local authority and that covers the traditional functions of a local authority all the services we run.

Many of those service are not in the Metro mayor role so adult social care, for example, or children's services. So our metro mayor is the model is basically around education and skills transport and homes.

That's the that's the remit, but clearly there's an overlap because we're the planning authorities, I hope it's going to happen without us anyway.

So in short, I mean, we got a billion pound budget a year or Metro mayor has a billion pound budget over 30 years and has to work with us.

So there's a lot of overlap, but there's a distinction so we're much more in the nuts and bolts of everyday lives of people.

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