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Hello and welcome to political thinking.

War in the Middle East, war in Europe, warnings of a possible war in the Far East if China pursues her stated goal of taking

control of Taiwan. My guest on political thinking this week is the man who was

until a few weeks ago Defence Secretary, in fact the longest serving conservative

defense secretary ever Ben Wallace who stepped down from his job in the summer

citing the cost of what he said was putting work and country ahead of my family.

A member of the government in some form ever since the Conservatives came to power in 2010,

he can now reflect on what he's learned about politics and about defense as he

prepares for a life outside Westminster. Ben Wallace welcome to

political thinking.

Thank you, Nick.

We're speaking a few hours after the Chancellor unveiled what he called his largest ever tax

cut for workers.

If you were running at the next election would you be preparing for a

spring election? No I would I'd probably be waiting for September I think I think it's

a good autumn statement I think Jeremy has gone in the right place

around national insurance and effectively rewarding effort and work and people who we need to generate wealth and pay tax receipts,

but I also recognize that I'm one of them, 42% of people who have mortgages this year,

renegotiated their mortgages.

So, you know, interest rates I think are going to be a really important factor in the election

next year or the timetable.

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