The

The Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics with me, Steve Richards.

Thank you so much for tuning in wherever you are in the UK and the rest of the world. And as ever,

we have got so much to cram in in our time together. Yeah, big, big issues lurking. So if it's

okay with all of you, what I would like to do, actually, normally as you know, although you

might not, if you've just tuned in for the first time, I reflect on

one theme and then open it up to all of you and we range quite widely, or urgently topical,

but range quite widely. If it's okay with all of you, I would like to address more than one

theme today, all related to brilliant questions, but also to what's

happening. So this is what I'm going to do. It's pegged to questions. I'm going to reflect more

speedily than usual when I have one theme on, I'm going to return briefly to the Labour Party

just for what Rishi Sunat might call some clarification on what I'm going to return briefly to the Labour Party just for what Rishi Sunak might call some clarification on what I said last week.

Then we're going to go to the French elections.

Then we are going to go to Rishi Sunak and that drama.

And finally I'm going to reflect on the BBC's search for a political editor and what that tells us

about the current state of the BBC. So those are the kind of four themes. What an ego, choosing four

themes to reflect on in our time together. And then we'll go more widely to some questions. So, yeah, as I said,

we've got tons to cram in. Oh, yeah, next week is a bank holiday Monday, but you're still going

to get a rock and roll politics. But the best way to make sure you get it, do subscribe, please,

on whatever platform you use, because then it just arrives. Like, do you remember when

newspapers used to be delivered? Yeah, they just

arrive. I get really excited when my podcast just arrive as if by magic. And, oh yeah, please leave a

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