Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics, the twice weekly podcast with me, Steve Richards.

Thanks so much for tuning in, wherever you are, in the UK and indeed around the rest of the world.

And if it's okay with all of you, I thought we'd do

something different, it being a kind of half-term, bank holiday, depending on where you are and when

you're listening, and all that kind of thing. So a slight change of pace with this. Very recently,

I went to the Lewis Book Festival to give a talk on a book I wrote

about 18 months ago actually, the prime ministers we never had from Rab Butler to Jeremy Corbyn.

And over that 18 month period, as some of you will know and some of you will have kindly

been to the festivals, I've given talks on the book, and this will be the last one. I've got a new book

coming out in September. So this will be probably the last one ever I give on the prime ministers

we never had. And as I reflect at the beginning of the talk, what's interesting is how the talks themselves have changed over the 18 months to reflect the dramatically changing political context.

Indeed, some of the arguments around the book have changed.

And I don't want to repeat myself myself because I say this at the beginning,

but it is really a classic case of history being a dialogue between the present and the past,

as I explain. So even if some of you've been to festivals where I've given a talk on this book,

it's different now compared to then because of the changing context and says, as it's the last time, I'll ever do a talk on this book, I suspect.

I thought we could put it out now for the rock and roll politics podcast during this half-term week.

Now, at the end of the talk, there were questions.

You won't hear that, I'm afraid, sorry, if you kind of yearn for more as you're baking and running and drinking whilst listening.

Because I haven't yet worked out to record questions in quality.

I know how to record me in quality giving talks.

But I haven't worked out.

...