Hello and welcome to the political party. Today's guest is Margaret Beckett and this is just as

wonderful as you might have imagined. In fact, more so because this is not being transported

into a different world. Margaret was first elected in 1974 in Lincoln almost 50 years ago and has

played a prominent part in Labour and British politics since then. Obviously, she's been the MP

for Derby North for 40 years and in that time, she served under Wilson, Callahan and Blair, so for

three Labour Prime Ministers and so many different leaders, so many different phases of British politics

and just the broad use she can take from a senior position is really unrivaled in the House of

Commons and we talk about what politics was like as a woman in 1974, how it compares to now, what sort

political changes and changes within the Labour Party. Of course, Labour has still never elected

a female leader when we talk about that, but it's also just the personal recollections of,

I mean, the John Smith conversation is very emotional and I mean, that leads to other reflections

about friendships and relationships and politics, but also just about Tony Ben and other individuals

that are popular members of Labour history, but also polarising figures and Margaret just brings

them to life in a more nuanced way and there's a really interesting discussion about if John Smith

hadn't have died and Labour went in 1997, what sort of government that would have been, but also

dealing with the Americans and dealing with George W. Bush, I mean, this is just phenomenal stories

from an amazing career, which also includes some hilarious stories about going camping with special

branch when she was foreign secretary and just to let you know some future guests at the show on

the 3rd of July, which is the next show at the Duchess Theatre, my guest is Joe Lyset, the phenomenal

comedian and political activist, two weeks later on the 17th of July, my guest is Marie Black from

the S.M.P. Now you remember, Marie's maiden speech in 2015 swept the world, it's one of the most

impassioned and compelling maiden speeches ever made on the floor of the House of Commons,

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