Welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.

I'm Hannah White.

Now, it often seems, doesn't it, as though Kier Stama is at his happiest when he is on the global stage.

The Prime Minister has clocked up quite a lot of air miles

over the last year as he has gone on visits, tours and attended summits. But this week, he turned

host and brought the international agenda to the UK. Yes, President Macron has been in town

for a state visit, probably his last as President of France. So, what did we learn? What did

Stama get from the visit and is the Entente Cordial recovering of the bust-ups of the post-Brexit

years? We will take a look. But, like the PM, we can't avoid the Home Front and the domestic

agenda. This week has brought us a major new review of criminal courts, with Sir Brian Leverson,

a name that might sound familiar, unveiling some big recommendations to ease the court case backlog

in England and Wales. So what's the plan and will it work? And the government has published

a new bill on devolution. Our devolution expert will join us to give us

his analysis. All that to come. With me throughout is IFG's senior fellow, Jill Rutter, doing her

best to stick to thinking about RFG matters while a test match is underway and Wimbledon reaches

its final stages. Jill, are you with us in the room?

I'm actually, yeah, it's lunch at Lord, so I don't have to be quite on that.

Okay, so we have your full attention for now. Excellent. And I am delighted that we are

joined by Sir David Liddington, former Justice Secretary, Europe Minister, Minister for the Cabinet

Office and a whole lot more. Thank you for joining us, David.

Pleasure to be with you.

So let's move on to the big visit.

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