I'm Ed Vasey and we're going to be unpacking the politics of the day from Kirstarmer's latest U-turn to whether we should move Parliament onto a barge in the Thames.

Joining me is Jonathan Maitland.

He's a former broadcaster and he's now a playwright and we're going to talk about his new play in a minute.

Welcome to the show, Jonathan.

Hello, Ed.

And Times Radio's political correspondent, Theo Usherwood, is also joining us to talk about the news of the day.

How are you, Theo?

Very well, Ed. I'd love to be with you.

It's so nice to be with you both.

Let's talk a bit about welfare. We've been talking about it all day.

This is the U-turn by Kier Stama. I've made my feelings clear about this. I think it's a big

reversal for the government. Jonathan Maitland. Let's bring your vast political experience to bear on this.

Well, I've got a semantic issue with you, Ed, to start with, it's not a U-turn.

Okay, this is an unscheduled stop at a motorway service station. It is not a U-turn. It's a

climb down and it's interesting listening to the broadcasters this morning, some of whom were

making a point of calling it a climb down. So I don't think you should call it a U-turn because it isn't one. However, I do think it was an

accident waiting to happen because if you're a party whose founding principles are based on helping

the poor and then you have a bit of legislation which hurts the poor, then of course, you know,

it's an accident waiting to happen and this was inevitable. So

I'm not surprised it's happened and unfortunately only adds fuel to the argument that Starman

doesn't know whether he's coming or going. It's absolutely right, isn't it? Thea Oshwood and

Marcus texted in to make the point that all the rebels that haven't put forward an alternative

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