Show Notes
John Healey has delivered a ‘steady as she goes’ budget, with help for the cost of living a big theme. The chancellor promised a £100 energy payment for some households, extended the VAT suspension on electricity bills to next July and confirmed the scrapping of gas standing charges. But after months of the same old message of ‘hope in difficult times’, and many of the big decisions on tax and spending delayed until next year, what should we take away from today?. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod
More from Politics Weekly UK
Andy Burnham claims revising Brexit would ‘bring people together’. The PM wants to look again at issues such as free movement but rules out joining the euro or Schengen. Would rejoining the EU open old wounds and risk further division? Plus, as the chancellor, John Healey, gears up for a tricky budget, what should you be looking out for?. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod
Are we doomscrolling our way into a democratic crisis? That’s what the playwright James Graham fears may be happening, as he suggests that our algorithms have led us into ‘a massive crisis of the new’ and are preventing us from imagining a different future. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod
The government has given the go-ahead for the Jackdaw gasfield, but that was the easy part. The next big headache is the Rosebank oilfield. The energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, has indicated she might reject this licence because of the project’s expected environmental impact, but could Andy Burnham overrule her to help the chancellor, John Healey?. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod
As young people take to the streets across the world to protest over living standards, Andy Burnham is hoping the former health secretary Alan Milburn has the answers to prevent similar unrest in Britain. The long-awaited Milburn review will recommend investing in jobs and apprenticeships for under-25s by taking money from the welfare budget. It sounds very Blairite, so how does it fit with the prime minister’s overall plans – and will Labour MPs like it?. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod
For more than three decades, Michael Gove has been a leading figure in British Conservatism. As a journalist, government minister and now editor of the Tory bible, the Spectator, he has helped shape the right even as it has moved further rightwards. In the latest episode of Radical Thinking, Gove joins Aditya Chakrabortty to discuss the future of the right, his record on Brexit and austerity, and the Spectator’s position on Islam. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/politicspod