U-Turn When You Don’t Want To

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2020

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How did the Government end up completely wrong-footed by a footballer in the issue of extending free school meals? Are ministers getting broad enough – and sufficiently independent – scientific advice when it comes to quarantine and the 2m Rule? Will the folding of the “world-beating development agency” DFiD into the Foreign Office mean damage British soft power? And will insourcing probation reverse the “total disaster” of outsourcing? “The Marcus Rashford episode shows a lack of political antenna in Downing Street.” – Jill Rutter “A government with an 80-strong majority is now being pulled around by its backbenchers.” – Cath Haddon “What we’re seeing now is that the attitude that the private sector is ALWAYS best was wrong.” – Tom Sasse “The Government says it has diversity of thought. But they don’t have a lot of diversity of experience.” – Jill Rutter Presented by Bronwen Maddox with Cath Haddon, Jill Rutter, Tim Durrant and Tom Sasse. 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

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for Government.
0:14.5	I'm Bronwyn Maddox. Shops are open, pubs are serving, takeaway beer and the football
0:19.5	is back without the fans,
0:21.2	but this hasn't been a week of back-to-normal headlines for the government.
0:24.6	Instead, it's been forced into a U-turn on its policy towards free school meals by a 22-year-old
0:29.7	Manchester United Footballer.
0:32.1	How did No.10 find itself outplayed, and is a U-turn always a bad move?
0:36.8	In an effort to get on the front foot, the Prime Minister
0:39.1	announced the merger of the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth
0:43.0	office. He says this is a logical move, but why now? And what will scrapping diffid, as it's called,
0:48.8	mean for Britain's place in the world? Back at home, we'll be taking a look at another big change
0:52.8	in decades of government practice. This government has just announced that it will take the much-criticized private probation
0:58.7	services back into its own hands. Will more follow? Joining me in our virtual studio today are the
1:04.9	IFG's constitutional expert, Kath Haddon. Hi, Kath. Hello, hi. Tim Durant, who leads our ministerial
1:10.2	work and the creation and demolition of vital departments. Hi, Tim. Hi, Tim. Hello, hi. Tim Durant, who leads our ministerial work and the creation and demolition
1:11.9	of vital departments. Hi, Tim. Hi, good to be back. And we've got with us, Jill Rutter, IFG senior
1:17.5	fellow and veteran of number 10 and the Treasury. Hi, Jill. Good morning. Great, well, let's kick off,
1:23.4	as it's been a week where we are spoiled for choice, what to talk about, but let's start with these U-turns. The meta, some tweets, a lot of broadcast interviews, front pages, nervous
1:32.4	MPs, and suddenly an 80-strong Tory majority didn't look enough. The Prime Minister's decision
1:38.0	to make an abrupt U-turn on free school meals and extend the voucher scheme over the summer
1:43.0	holidays looks embarrassing. However
1:44.7	much, it says it now welcomes the intervention from England and Manchester United forward,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Institute for Government, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Institute for Government and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.