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Hello and welcome to this edition of The Westminster Hour with me, Ben Wright, and my guests.

Coming up, another year is almost at an end, and with Parliament heading off on its Christmas break,

we'll assess the state of politics and the prospects for the main parties with insurgents on every side of them.

We'll discuss whether Sekeir Stama

has lost sight of his missions for government

and catch up on progress with his manifesto pledge

to reform the House of Lords.

Plus, MPs are getting savvy

with their social media videos,

but can they really help us understand

the national debt with a packet of biscuits?

First, let's meet my panel.

Angela Smith is the leader of the House of Lords. She was the Labour MP for Basilden in the Blair Brown era and served as a minister for Northern Ireland and local government.

She was Gordon Brown's parliamentary private secretary when he was Prime Minister and now has the job of steering Sir Kirst Armour's agenda through the

Lords, which isn't the easiest gig at the moment, is it, Angela? It's a few long nights and

long debates, but some good things being done. John Glenn has been the Conservative MP for Salisbury for the past 15 years.

He's a former Treasury Minister and was recently drafted into Kemi Badenox's top team as her parliamentary aid.

Welcome back, John.

Thank you for having me.

Miranda Green is a very familiar presence around our table, the Deputy Opinion Editor for the Financial Times.

Before jumping into journalism, Miranda was press secretary to the late Paddy Ashdown when he was the Liberal Democrat leader.

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