What on earth happened to Morgan McSweeney’s phone?
Political Currency
Persephonica
4.1 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nearly a month into the war in Iran, and the White House’s objectives are no clearer. Donald Trump is sending conflicting signals - peace overtures in one moment, threats of further escalation in the next. The consequences of this instability is rippling far beyond the Middle East. Ed Balls and
George Osborne examine what Trump actually wants, and what his mixed messages might mean for allies like Britain, struggling to keep track.
At home, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are on the backfoot. With the local elections just weeks away, and both Reform and the Greens on the rise, is the Prime Minister facing down an electoral battering at the polls? Is this the moment Labour's difficulties harden into something more lasting - could the May elections be a dress rehearsal for the next general election? Oh, and what on earth happened to Morgan McSweeney’s phone?
Finally, from political vulnerability, to political victory. Ed and George reflect on the one year anniversary of Mark Carney’s premiership. How has he managed to turn around the fortunes of the Liberal Party in remarkably difficult circumstances - and what lessons Starmer and other leaders facing similar headwinds might take from his playbook.
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Research: Sam Burton
Production: Caillin McDaid & Caitlin Caitlin Hanrahan
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is political currency with Ed Balls and George Osbourne. |
| 0:29.1 | So it's Thursday morning. |
| 0:31.5 | We are in the studio in Hoxton, and we need to get on with this podcast |
| 0:34.2 | because we've got a very important guest arriving in just over an hour. |
| 0:38.9 | We have the former head of MI6, John Sawyers. He's coming to record for us. Our Inside the |
| 0:46.2 | Room series were doing on the Libyan conflict in 2011 when I was in government, you were in |
| 0:51.6 | Parliament and John was running SIS, as the insiders call it, |
| 0:56.1 | the Secret Intelligence Service. I mean, he might be coming here because, you know, it's about |
| 1:00.7 | time you were unmasked as the sixth man with your Trotskyite tendencies and your dodgy |
| 1:05.8 | connections and the Oxford Labor Club and all of that. So it might be that he's killing two birds |
| 1:10.3 | with one stone. |
| 1:11.1 | But it's also the case, isn't it, that is the intelligence on the ground as to what's going |
| 1:16.2 | on in particular Middle East countries when initiatives are launched by NATO allies, whether |
| 1:23.6 | it's France, Britain or America, is the goal regime change? |
| 1:27.8 | What happens when it gets a bit chaotic on the ground? |
| 1:30.8 | How do you pull back? |
| 1:32.1 | Do you make things better or worse? |
| 1:33.9 | I think Donald Trump in 26 ought to listen to our inside the room with John Sawyers |
| 1:39.8 | because maybe there's some things to learn from Libya and its aftermath, which is, let's be |
| 1:45.9 | honest, not brilliant. And is Donald Trump on track to the same outcome? |
| 1:52.0 | I think you've swerved the question about whether you were a Trotsky agent, which I guess you |
| 1:55.6 | would deny, wouldn't you? Because you can't. |
... |
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