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Politics Unpacked

The Art of Political Drinking

Politics Unpacked

Anna Covell

News, Politics, News & Politics

4.11.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Join Matt for a pint in Westminster's Red Lion pub. He talks to Gordon Brown's former spin doctor Charlie Whelan about how he inadvertently killed Tony Blair's dream of Britain joining the Euro with a spritzer in his hand, while Ben Wright talks us through which prime minister loved a drink the best.


Plus: Alice Thomson and Robert Crampton eat some insects and discuss the plastic bag taxwild camping in Dartmoor, and debate brown sauce vs ketchup.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, this is the Redbox Podcast. I'm Matt Jolli still bringing you food week on the

0:07.7

podcast and on my Times Radio show you can listen live Monday to Friday, 10 to 1 on your

0:12.2

DB radio on your smart speaker and on the Times Radio app. Our food fight today is Red

0:18.4

Sauce versus Brown Sauce turns out older people 40% of older over 65 like the Brown

0:24.6

Sauce, only 37% like the Red Sauce, yet amongst young people 71% prefer to mark the catch-up,

0:30.6

only 11% like Brown Sauce, Leavers, like the Brown Sauce, Remainers, like the Red Sauce,

0:35.6

all those stats on my Twitter account at Matt Jolli or X or if it's called. Coming up

0:40.1

with today's episode, quite a lot of booze actually. I've been to the Red Line, speak to

0:43.1

Charlie Whelan who used to pop up the bar a lot when he was a spin doctor for Gordon Brown.

0:47.7

I was in the Red Line, he was actually in the Highlands of Scotland and he tells me lots of

0:50.3

great stories including the night he was in the pub when he got a call from a very cross-tony

0:54.4

player. We'll also take a look at the history of politics and alcohol with Ben Light, the

0:59.0

author and journalist that's coming up in a moment. Rather, the columnist in Justicek

1:02.3

on the subject of booze, Rishi Sunak, who is actually T-Total, he went down to the

1:07.2

Great British Beer Festival this week where when it didn't go particularly well he ended

1:12.0

up pulling a pint but got heckled. But this is what happened.

1:15.0

So I'm joined by Laura Emson, who's the awards director for Camber. So Laura, quite the

1:33.6

day, who's been teaching the Prime Minister how to pull a pint. What sort of student was

1:38.9

he? Actually, I was very impressed because he listened. He did actually follow instructions

1:44.6

and he did pour a perfect pint. And what is the trick? The people who don't know, what

1:48.6

is the trick to pull a perfect pint? So the trick is to make sure you've got the glass

1:53.3

at the right angle and you've got the right depth of pour to get a little bit of head

...

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