Special: Summer governing, happened so fast

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2021

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This edition recorded before the emergency of Afghanistan. What is it like running the country over the Summer recess in normal times? Should certain Foreign Secretaries take account of the idea that a wise Minister never, ever goes on holiday? What happens when Foot And Mouth, floods, a sudden General Election or a pandemic blows up? What did our poor political reporters do for material? And did Blair and Cameron really share a Single Transferable Shirt for the obligatory holiday photo op? The IfG’s Alex Thomas explores the sandpits and riptides of summer governing with former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, David Cameron’s former Chief of Staff Kate Fall, Sam Coates of Sky News, and Steve Richards, host of the Rock’n’Roll Politics podcast and author of The Prime Ministers: Reflections on Leadership from Wilson to May. “Is it nice when the boss is away? Depends on the boss…” – Jacqui Smith “Quite a lot of the time ministers are miserable and neurotic… August gives them presentiments of the tense September ahead.” – Steve Richards “During the summer the media team is cut in half, but you’re still expected to fill an entire newspaper…” – Sam Coates “If you’ve got any sense as a shadow minister, you save a few choice questions to hit ministers with when the news agenda is empty.” – Jacqui Smith “Decision-making requires a hyperactive Prime Minister… You need their physical presence more than a Zoom from their holiday hideaway.” – Steve Richards Presented by Alex Thomas. Audio production by Alex Rees. Inside Briefing is a Podmasters Production for the IfG 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 and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government. I'm Alex Thomas.
0:05.7	This is one of a series of summer discussions that we've recorded to take a step back from the
0:10.3	week-by-week events that we talk about during the rest of the year. This time we're covering
0:14.3	government in summer. What happens when Parliament's in recess, the Prime Minister, his cabinet,
0:19.2	MPs and civil servants are trying to take a
0:21.6	break, and when, as we've seen in the last few weeks, serious crises are just as likely,
0:26.9	or perhaps even more likely, to erupt with unpredictable consequences. This discussion was
0:32.0	recorded in mid-July, before the fall of the Afghan government and the dramatic and disturbing
0:36.2	events in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan.
0:39.2	We did talk about how often the unexpected happens in government in August, from flooding to disease outbreaks to overseas crises,
0:46.0	though none of us predicted quite how disrupted summer 2021 would prove to be.
1:04.6	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
1:10.1	I'm Alex Thomas. It's summer. Parliament is in recess. MPs are kicking back with a glass of something cold
1:11.0	slash working hard in their constituencies delete according to preference. Civil servants are
1:15.4	slacking off at four o'clock or preparing to be ahead of the game when refreshed
1:18.6	ministers return in September, again, delete according to preference. And think tanks are,
1:23.2	well, it's probably enough of that. Just because the Prime Minister is on holiday and the House
1:27.0	of Commons isn't sitting doesn't mean that government stops. Crises at home and abroad are almost as
1:32.1	likely to erupt in July and August, or at the end of December, for that matter, as they are at any
1:36.6	other time of the year. Wars, terrorist attacks, floods and diseases, animal and human,
1:41.7	can all interrupt long-planned holidays. So how does government work in summer? What does it feel like?
1:47.0	Is it a time when people can finally attack their to-do lists or just grab a few precious moments of rest?
	...

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