Just fill up as normal, continue as you are. That's the advice of Education Secretary

Bridget Philipson as the ongoing conflict in Iran continues to hit oil and energy prices

across the world. But is she right? I'm Alex Thomas and this is Inside Briefing,

the podcast from the Institute for Government. Quite where the conflict in the Middle East goes

from here is anyone's guest. Donald Trump, smarting at an absence of European support for his

military endeavours, has said in a truth social post, the country is worried about the price of oil

like the UK, should build up some delayed courage, go to the straight and just take it. Given that option seems unlikely to be high on

Kier-Starmer's list, what can the government actually do to respond to rising prices?

The message to consumers so far is keep calm and carry on as usual, but will that hold,

and if not, how bad could things get and how quickly? And finally, it's a very long time since we first

heard the words universal and credit. But this major government project has, albeit somewhat

late, reached its completion. We'll take a look at a troubled but ultimately successful,

arguably, journey. With me for all of that is senior fellow Jill Rutter,

cycling everywhere as usual and no doubt feeling quite pleased that you don't own a car.

Hi, Jill. Hi, totally smug. And I'm delighted that we're joined again by economist, journalist,

author and more, someone who's written a book about the economics of conflict and another

on two centuries of Britain muddling through. So you can guide us through this troubled moment. Duncan Weldon. Hi, Duncan. Hello. Thank you for having me. It's a slightly glib question, Duncan, at the start of the podcast, so don't think about it too hard. But on a scale of 1 to 10, how big is this economic crisis now and how big might it get? It's currently quite big. I think it's either going to end up being a five or it's going

to end up being a nine. Let's start with the situation in Iran and what the government can do

about it. Duncan, what did you make of that Trump, Truth, Social Post and everything else he's

been saying? Yeah, I mean, you know, it's unusual. You don't usually get people encouraging the British

to go and take natural resources if they want it. You're so, you know, Americans in the

250th anniversary of independence were in a very serious situation and also a one open to a wide

...