The Year The World Stood Still: 2020 In Review

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2020

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From Barnard Castle to Brussels, from Wuhan to the White House, it has been a year of unprecedented challenges, impossible choices, huge governmental gambles and astonishing mis-steps. Will 2020 prove to be a wild aberration or a turning point for the business of British government? Our crack team of analysts returns from the (virtual) IfG Christmas Party to discuss the successes and failures of a year of crisis, from the pandemic emergency measures to the reform of the Civil service to, yes, Brexit. “We’ve seen a Prime Minister who struggles to rise to the enormity of what he’s faced with.” – Jill Rutter “The Government’s communications have been so poor that they obscured many of their own successes.” – Alex Thomas “There is a growing narrative about Keir Starmer sitting on the fence. Labour need to address that next year” – Maddy Thimont-Jack “A hard rain fell on a lot of civil servants before it fell on Dominic Cummings himself.” – Bronwen Maddox “Boris Johnson’s optimism has led him into a cycle of overpromising and under-delivering.” – Jill Rutter “To say the peak has passed and you can go out, and then see ANOTHER peak… that could be a blow that a government might not recover from.” – Alex Thomas Hosted by Bronwen Maddox with Jill Rutter, Alex Thomas and Maddy Thimont-Jack. Audio production by Alex Rees See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Emma Norris, the Director of Research at the Institute for Government.
0:05.2	The following podcast, the IFG's Year in Review, was recorded on the 17th of December.
0:10.7	The year was winding down and we were all getting ready for the five-day Christmas relaxation.
0:14.9	But 2020 wasn't done with us.
0:17.3	Over the course of the weekend, the existence of a new strain of coronavirus was confirmed.
0:21.5	Christmas was swiftly cancelled.
0:23.6	Tier 4 restrictions were announced and the port of David was shut down.
0:27.2	So, by the time you finish listening, who knows what will have happened.
0:30.6	But we've got the first 351 days of the year covered.
0:34.1	And we'll be back to catch up on the rest very soon.
0:37.1	Enjoy the show.
0:38.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing. I'm Bronwyn Maddox and this is our special
0:53.2	year-in review podcast. Back in January, Boris
0:56.8	Johnson tweeted that it was going to be a fantastic year. It hasn't quite worked out like that.
1:02.0	In fact, most of us probably can't wait for 2020 to be over. With a tragedy of COVID, the never-ending
1:07.8	sagas of Brexit and the comings and goings of Whitehall. Yes, remember him.
1:12.5	This has also been an astonishing year for people who follow the workings of government,
1:17.0	which is what the IFG does, 365 days a year. Once in a century pandemic, trying to get Brexit
1:23.4	done, reforming the entire civil service, Prime Minister raced from Downing Street to intensive
1:28.2	care, Cabinet Secretary and the Prime Minister's chief strategist booted out of Downing Street,
1:33.7	billions spent on propping up jobs and businesses, schools shut down, government departments shut down,
1:39.4	and across the Atlantic, a bitter US presidential election. And that nearly scratches the surface. So to look back on
	...

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