Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.

I'm Hannah White. Parliament is back, but with more of a whimper than a bang. The King's speech on Tuesday meant a day of dashing uniforms and

galloping horses, but was there really anything of substance behind the pomp and ceremony?

We'll break down the legislative agenda on offer from Rishi Sunak. The Home Secretary is in the

news. Well, when isn't she? And this time it's due to a disagreement with the country's top

police officer over whether or not to allow pro-Palestinian demonstrations to take place and a controversial piece in the Times that may or may not have been signed off by number 10, partially signed off.

We'll explain what's going on and look at what happens next.

And the COVID inquiry is in the news.

Again, we'll catch up on this week's evidence sessions.

Alex Thomas, who heads our civil service work, is here. Hi, Alex. Hello, Hannah. And I'm joined by

Kath Haddon. Hi, Kath. Hi, Hannah. And I'm delighted that we're joined this week for her

IFG podcast debut by Noah Hoffman, political correspondent at the Sun. Hi, Noah. Thank you for having me.

And I think we have congratulations in order because you've just been promoted to your new job,

is that right? Yes, that's correct. I've moved up on the big lobby ladder, so very delighted by

that, thank you. Very quiet year for you to be covering the politics. Indeed.

Okay, let's start with the King's speech.

Noah, it's a pretty bizarre spectacle, isn't it?

Yes, particularly as someone who grew up in Australia where all these weird old people wearing robes is not something we see in our parliament often, if ever.

It's very fun to watch from the sort of pomp and pageantry perspective, but personally,

I'm far more interested in what comes out of the king's mouth than all the fun traditions that

happen before it. But I think I'm a bit of an outlier in the sun in that respect, because they do

very much love all the ceremonial bits, whereas I'm like, right, come on, let's get to the speech now.

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