Welcome to In Conversation, the regular podcast of InCompass.

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This is Paul Adamson and I'm in conversation with George Parker.

George Parker is the political editor of the Financial Times.

So, George, it's now about seven weeks since the British election.

The government has a healthy majority.

The withdrawal agreement bill went through the House of Commons last week

without any kind of any confrontation.

Does this now mean that in Westminster Whitehall is all going to be right and calm

and none of the drama of the past three and

half years? Well the last three and a half years have been absolutely crazy and I think the whole

British political system and the British public have been exhausted by the Brexit standoff. I mean basically

I've spent the last three and a half years at the House of Commons writing about nothing happening,

which is a strange institute in my journalistic career. But we're now into a situation where things are

starting to happen slowly and we're starting to see the contours of the kind of person that Boris

Johnson wants to develop after Brexit. And obviously on the 31st of January, a page will be turned.

And Boris Johnson literally wants to stop the use of the word Brexit after the 31st of January at 11pm UK time and to move on to the kind of agenda he wants to talk about, which is turning to Britain's one more equal society. But we are entering a new phase in British politics for sure.

What are the signs? They seem quite confusing because on the one side, one could argue that with this comfortable majority that Boris Johnson has, he can afford to face

down the Brexiters and be a bit less ideological, if you like, in terms of pursuing a rather

hard Brexit. On the other hand, the signs so far came in seven weeks since the general election

that on the contrary, he's quite determined no extension of the transition, there's been hardline

on free movement of people, all that kind of stuff.

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