Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics, the twice weekly podcast with me, Steve Richards.

Thanks so much for tuning in wherever you are in the UK and indeed the rest of the world.

And as ever, we've got a lot to cram in

our time together. I'm going to be having a conversation in a moment that reflects the post-budget

issues, but much bigger than that, the state of the economy, the challenges for labour in this

current context, and we'll be exploring themes and going

delving deep. Just before we do, a reminder that rock and roll politics is live next week,

live in Birmingham on Tuesday. That's sold out. Those two words sold out. Paul McCartney's

favourite words in the English

language and I can see why. And on Thursday, March the 23rd, live at King's Place, where we will be

reflecting on the consequences of words and actions and whether leaders in the end do face the

consequences of things they have said and done.

The immediate context will be Boris Johnson's appearance in front of the Privileges Committee

on Wednesday, which will be a moment of high drama and with some political significance.

So we will gather together on Thursday to reflect on that.

But we will go much wider than him in that theme. So that's live at King's Place on March the 23rd. And now, well, yeah,

the budget sort of took place and kind of had a cinematic quality about it. There was the

Chancellor saying, oh, was pretty good. And yet the tubes were on strike.

The following day, the trains weren't running.

The doctors were on strike.

If you look at the OBR, growth is anemic and with many, many other issues arising as well.

And I've invited in today for our conversation, someone who is exceptionally well

...