Show Notes
David and Helen talk to Nick Timothy, former chief of staff in Downing Street under Theresa May, about the future for Boris Johnson's government. Is he now safe from leadership challenges? Can he hold together the coalition that won the 2019 election? Is Keir Starmer the one under pressure? Plus we discuss where the next big destabilising threat to this government might come from: Scotland, Northern Ireland, the EU, China?
Talking Points:
Is Johnson’s political position more secure now? If the government can end on a high note with the vaccine rollout, that might be what people remember.
Boris probably doesn’t want to be an austerity prime minister. Sunak wants to get the economy moving and send some signals to the market that there’s fiscal responsibility. Sunak may also want to create a fiscal dividing line with Labour. But without financial market pressure, it’s hard to see how Sunak is going to win this argument about fiscal probity. Political reality, and new voters, may push the Tories toward more spending against the instincts of many MPs.
Starmer still faces serious structural problems: Labour is in trouble in Scotland and the increasing importance of cultural issues create problems for Labour in the Red Wall. Although the government has made mistakes with the pandemic, public opinion has been fairly understanding. Starmer hasn’t really been able to talk about anything other than the pandemic.
Who is in the biggest trouble in Scotland? Johnson faces big issues around the union, but in terms of electoral outcomes, it’s probably Starmer. What would happen if a government without an English majority has to act as an English government again due to a crisis? Johnson is particularly unpopular in Scotland.
The Tories are worried about the union, but there aren’t obvious solutions. Northern Ireland is at the center of these problems.
Mentioned in this Episode: Tom McTague in the Atlantic, ‘Britain’s pandemic story can still be rewritten’ Nick Timothy in The Telegraph
Further Learning: Are MPs out of sync with their voters? What is the Union? On Johnson’s unpopularity in Scotland More on the Northern Irish Protocol
And as ever, recommended reading curated by our friends at the LRB can be found here: lrb.co.uk/talking Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from TALKING POLITICS
UnHerd political editor Tom McTague and Cambridge professor Helen Thompson team up to investigate the history of today’s politics — and what it means for our future. Each week they will explore the great forces, ideas and events that led us to where we are, whether in Britain, the United States, Europe or beyond. It’s a politics podcast for those who want a deeper, historical understanding of the news, to understand what has really shaped our world and why. We hope you enjoy!
Talking Politics producer Catherine Carr returns to her role as mic-wielder in 'Where Are You Going?' a unique storytelling podcast, delivered in bite-size episodes.
Past Present Future is a new weekly podcast with David Runciman, host of Talking Politics, exploring the history of ideas from politics to philosophy, culture to technology. David talks to historians, novelists, scientists and many others about where the most interesting ideas come from, what they mean, and why they matter. Ideas from the past, questions about the present, shaping the future.
David, Helen and Catherine get together for our final episode, to reflect on podcasting through six extraordinary years of politics, and what it means to be ending at the beginning of a war. We talk about the current crisis, how it connects to the crises of the past, and where it might fit in to the crises of the future. This episode is dedicated to Finbarr Livesey and Aaron Rapport.
For our penultimate episode, David talks to Helen about her new book Disorder: Hard Times in the Twenty-First Century. It’s a conversation about many of the themes Helen has explored on Talking Politics over the years, from the energy transition to the perils of QE, from the travails of the Eurozone to the crisis of democracy, from China to America, from the past to the present to the future. In this book, she brings all these themes together to help make sense of the world we’re in. Talking Points: