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Hello and welcome to The Spectator Podcast. I'm Lara Brendagast. We often complain that our politicians are all bluffers who know very little about a lot,

but is the very structure of our political institutions at fault for this,

and is the bluffocracy taking over the civil service.

Speaking of bluffers, Theresa May is fudging her way through the Brexit negotiations,

but can she survive after March 2019?

And finally, perhaps all this political turmoil has made you long for the good old days of monarchy.

With Prince Charles' art collection currently on exhibition, we ask, what can be gleaned about our

future king from his paintings?

PPE is the notorious Oxford degree that ostensibly teaches its students philosophy, politics and economics, and apparently how to govern a country, or at least how to sound like you're governing.

In this week's cover story, James Ball and Andrew Greenway, who are both PPE graduates themselves, lift the lid on the bluffocracy that pervades British politics,

the media, and even the civil service.

Are our institutions at fault for rewarding bluffers rather than experts?

James and Anne, you join me now, together with Ayesha Hazareka,

stand-up comic and former Labour Advisor.

So James, can you start by telling us what exactly is this bluffocracy?

The bluffocracy is kind of the habit of Britain to be run by, frankly, people like me and

Andrew, who can talk quite quickly, try and persuade you with something, can usually get two

or three sentences on any topic, you know, sound like we know what we're

talking about, and then no depth, no actual expertise, no sort of subject matter stuff, and often

really no sort of sticking around. It's sort of not so much about getting the job done as getting

to the next job. So it kind of starts with things like, you know, the Oxford course PPE,

...