College balls and cultural recommendations

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See experxperian. com for details Granger knows, when you're a procurement manager for an office park You're not managing one building. you're managing all of them And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners Light's about to fail, filters ready to clog, HVack on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind Count on Granger for quality products, easy reordering, and twenty four seven support Call one eight hundred Granger, click Ganger d. com or just stop by Granger. For the ones who get it done. The Chancellor of the Exchquer. Getting a lesson from the Shadow Chancellor on how to balance the books is like getting a lesson from Dracula and how to look after a blood back. Ed B. A steady as she goes budget. What kind of ship does he think he's on? the Titanic? Mry Celeste. Welcome to EMQs from Political Currency withith Ed Balls and George Osborne So hello and welcome to EMQ's E Ministers Questions. George, I'm gonna guess Sing Chelsea lose to Manity the Eic Cup final was not the highlight of your weekend. But there is a bit about the FK Cup final. mean It's been a few years since I've beens been a few years since Chelsea was in the final off it being a kind of big British event, you know, big English event I shouldn't say You know, like cup fininal day is a big deal. and I took my son Beau and my son Luke. who got a bit of an age difference, but they both enjoyed it. went with my dad and my nephews And you know we lost, but actually Chelsea, at least we' in the kind of game lastast fifteen minutes But you know, the day after the FAup fininal, I did something that's even more English than the cup fininal and that is I went to Diggerand and Diggerand is in Medway, near Rochester, basically on the Medway River in the sort of Thames Estuary area in Kent And I went with my kids and with the and This is where you get to basically drive Children get to drive. diggers, mini dumper trucks u mini bulldozers. mean the actual real, you know, you get to drive a real JCB, you get It is absolutely Britain's answer to Disneyland And it is about as far from Disneyland as you can possibly imagine It's enormous fun. It is like really well done. I have to say, this is the first time. I've ever been jealous of you in your fifties having young kids because all of our kids are now in their twenties and When they were little, we went to the York Railway Museum, we went to the to Halifax to the The Museum of Childhood, I think it was called, was really fun and interactive. but Digger land in Castleford opened after they were basically,, you know teenagers and therefore I've never been to Digland and the number of times I've driven past it, because I'm drive past it to buy petrol all the way to the motoray. And I've thought to myself, C I just going dig a land on my own But I never have I think you can do you can? Well, I've been to Digland twice actually. This is my second visit because I went with my son Arthur last year So you didn't go on your own? No. Could you go on your own? Could you? It's a bit of a kind of edge case this, I wouldd say. There are someome adults by themselves. I mean, sorry not by themselves, like usually even couples It's overwhelmingly children But what you do see is basically a lot of adults I don't want to be too gut of gender stereotypical. It tends to be the fathers who look like they're having more fun than the mothers, but they driving around these you know these real diggers and it's great fun.. Anyway, so I think you could go surely a better thing would be to go as the spouse of the local MP to open some new attraction at Diggerand And that would be an excuse that would be an excuse to ride all the things. Trouble is you can't enjoy yourself if you've got in an official capacity. You've got to go slightly in disguise and commit to the digger Anyway, it is greatful I'd thoroughly recommend it. But if there's anybody in West Yorkshire who's got young kids or grandkids who really want to a digg land, but they don'tancy it. I just said it to the M cu and we'll s it else. Id love. Strange man's gonna take your children to takeick a that Now we're getting weird. Let us move on to our first question. it comes from Phil Hi there, Ed and George. My name is Phil Eden and I'm just some sem retired bloke from Sheffield in South Yorkshire The other day you were discussing how Hannah Spencer, the new Green MP, had said she felt some MPs were drinking excessively while working at Parliament. I used to work for an international bank and I've always thought it' strange how even when sober there is jeering, heckling and throwing of insults in the House of Commons It makes me chuckle every time I listen to the St of EMQs when the two of you are locking horns over George's budget I couldn't imagine this type of behaviour when I worked for the bank. Of course, you don't have an opposition whose job it is to criticise and oppose in a normal company, although you would expect constructive feedback from colleagues. My question is, do you think if parliamentary sessions were run more like a meeting in a professional company without the insults jeering and heckling Would this improve the outcomes or is this behaviour key to getting good results Thanks both and take care So this is a really interesting question, Phil, and I'm going to defefend But I want to start by saying this that actually My experience with the House of Commons is that there were moments of kind of electric Unity and commonality. There are times when There's been a tragedy or somebody's telling a personal story. orr they're raising a non partisan issue or where you the national interest is in danger when A backbench MP. or the Prime Mister speaks and everybody listens and there is huge unity of And sometimes that can happen in a lighter way as well. I don't know whether you saw Now sure. The Yorkshire MP's speech. the state opening ofarliament, the debate after the King had done the King's speech A week or so ago, a brilliant powerful. unified non partisan speech and there have been Labour and conservative liiberal Democrats speeches of a similar nature. but there are other times when Prime Minister is on the back foot tried to bluster under pressure. answering Qions. when It's really important there is noise and pressure and challenge because you can't be allowed to wriggle out of accountability. and there's also times when You can use humor. and a bit of pantomime and mockery in order to expose the ridiculousness. of an opponent. and I don't think that is a bad thing. I think that's actually part of the way good parliaments work And my final point is this When parliaments have tried to design out that sense of conflict and challenge. I mean, if you think of the Scottish Parliament which is not design confrontationally between the government and the opposition benches with the speaker right close And it's much more kind of broad and's designed to be not confrontational. In fact, the Scottish Parliament, if you ever see it in operation, especially at First Wers Quions, it's even more nary and aggressive and unruly, but because it's not being just a couple of meters away with the speaker right in the middle of it. I think the speaker equivalent in Scotland finds it harder to control. and ends up being more wild and unruly. so u In the end, it's inherent in the way in which parliaments work And has times when it's an important part of the accountability process fill, but it's not The only way is and it's not often and I'd say don't knock it. Yeah, I think I mean it's a very good question from Phil. I mean, I would say first of all, you know, the idea that adults outside of Parliament are always incredibly well behaved. I mean You should have come with me to the FA Cup final. I mean, you get a bunch you get eighty thousand adults in a stadium and they're all screaming and swearing chanting and cheering and booing and whatever. I mean You know, it's not childish behavior, it's actually human behavior Um And I think there are elements of the way a bank might operate Since Phil says he operates in a bank. You know, if you look at, think of a trading floor where people are shouting at each other and so on. But all of that said, I can see why it can be quite off putting for people if they see the House of Gons. they don't really understand the context you're giving, which is You know, this is about very powerful people because government ministers, prime ministers and the like you know, they are they hold a lot of power on our behalf and they're being held to account And if you don't have that kind of rbustious environment where people are challenging and people have to think on their feet, then what happens is you get systems where there's still accountability. It's just It doesn't happen inside the Parliament. It happens on the media, or it happens in on the street It's not that it doesn't happen. It's just in the British system And indeed in systems derived from it like the Canadian system, the Australian system it's kind of in the chamber, whereereas in other countries where they've kind of taken it out of the chamber. if you think of they like, you know, American politics unbelievably you know, divisive at times, aggressive We were playing clips on our main podcast of Steve Hilton's guubernatorial debate in California But The actual House of Representatives and the Senate floor, they're quite boring. You can't really think of kind of big clashes, big moments that president is not ever put under R anythingy like the pressure a British Pime Minister is under by political opponents or by the media, or really by in any forum other than debates which happen at the very end of their term if they're standing for a second four years. Yeah. But that doesn't mean in American politics there's not legislatures aren't very powerful and there's lots of skullduggy going on. It's just it's not in the open. So I would say, you know the problem is if you got rid of if you sort of tried to take all the heat out of that madeade it really boring then people wouldn't pay much attention. It would be rather like a very quiet work. whichich is fine. I mean, people can get on where they work, but you don't get There's not much of an atmosphere. you know, I've worked in places like that U So I think yees, I will think I can conclude where you concluded, which is be careful what you wish for because it's not a bad system. However, it does favor a certain type of person who may be good in that environment and others struggle Although I think there are ways for people who aren't You know, it used to be said that women in particular would found it very noisy and aggressive and male en But you know, there's some very, very effective female politicians. and they can, you know, the really, really good politicians, male or female can kind of set the tone a bit of Parliament. They can kind of take the temperature down if they're in command and They command the respective MPs on both sides and people say this person knows what they're doing. They don't want to have a robust just debate that actually does How of Parliament responds to that and the It's not as rombustous. And the reality is of the last nine to twelve months. Badeenock's political recovery. and there has been a political recovery for her as an opposition leader, even though it's not reflected hugely in results in elections in the local elections is reflected in her ratings with the public That is Tirely based, I would say on her performances in Parliament. Yes, I agree. I mean, it's not, I don't think it's other things, particularly She's got a way to kind of get under kiss on the skin. although it would be interesting to see You know, because K St is frankly not very good. I don't think in countering her There are ways you could take her on I would do to her in government, what I tried to do to you across the dispatch box, which was to say, you are responsible for this because you were in the cabinet. and you were in the treasury. And I don't hear Kir Star saying every week which is what I'd be doing if I was in Hold on, Kemmy Bedock, you were in the cabinet two years ago and you are responsible for the high immigration numbers and you are responsible for Yeah, the inflation in the economy or whatever happens to be. you know, and youd just be relentless at pursuing that And maybe an Andy Burnham or a West Street or whatever I think are frankly more effective performers than Kestama has turned out to be, although he's pretty effective opposition leader but it turned out not to be a very effective Primeinister P Vforma We'll do that. Anyway, we'll see. I think the one thing I would say, I mentioned the design of the Parliament and I don't think the physical design has a big impact the Scotland ves that But that's hemispherical isn't it? That's what everyone Everyone keeps saying you should move away from this It was all because it was a sort of old church, originally wasn't it? peopleople faced each other in pews. But the speaker has a great responsibility. I think Parliament works when the speaker allows the cutton thrust but it's very tough on people who break with the rules and that includes barricking from the benches. So if the speakerers really got grip, then Parliament works if the spepeaker loses control. that I've experienced all types of speakers. What the parties do is they put their loudest shoutters, the people who are going to put the other side off They get them to and they're often whips. and get them to sit on the stairs between the benches that kind of teer down. The benches are tiered, of course, and there's a set of stairs in the middle of the two benches. two banks of benches. And if you sit there in Prime Minister's questions The speaker can't see you because you're sat down lower than the benches And that is where you put your most aggressive hecklers. Although some of the heckling not because it's loud and aggressive because it's funny. Did you see? I think I can't remember the name of the MP, I think it was a Labour MP who in the state openping of Parliament when Everybody's in the pack chamber and the doors are shut and there is a big rapping on the door and this is the black rod coming into Parliament to invite everybody down to the King's speech as the door knocked bunch yells out not now, Andy Yes, I do remember that Very good. It was actually the kind of this was the role that Dennis Skinner used to play, wasn't it? Absolutely That is going used to spend hours rehearsing those lines All about timing brilliant. Thank you, much indeed, Phil for I'm afraid, we've not totally agreed with you, but we've not disagreed with you either. Our next question is from Ashley and her question has been voiced by one of our producers Hi, Eden Gege Would you go on question time as a retired politician I was never a fan of Michael Gove, but he showed willpower and sense on there Maybe he could be an asset to Kemy and the Tories going forward Keep up the great work. And it's still a better podcast than the rest is politics by So I'm going to say I feel I'm a little bit cowardly here. Because questestion time have regularly asked me to go on indeed asked me to go on in the last couple of weeks. And I just don't really want to do it. and I don't really want to do it partly because I'm not sure what I'm trying to achieve. I mean, obviously I used to go on politician. you suddenly are in this bear pit and the public will have a go and then You know, someone's going to say from the others side, Well, you know what? George Osman,'re responsible for the austerity whatever and they're all to scream and shout. And I'm like, why do I need all that? frankly, you know, and what am I trying to achieve? But I always think to myself, well, yeah, but I alsoll say it's a bit I mean used to to go out up there and So I currently say no to them What I don't know and I you know, apologies to the people who put the programme together is I just don't know how much sort of bite it has still with the job. It used to be a big, big show that lots of people watched and of people watched in Westminster T I don't know now in our very diffuse media age whether it matters, whether you go on it and and the like. I mean it used to be a sort of trialess trre, and I have lots of sort of stories and anecdotes from going on question time over the years I remember going on Charlie Kennedy once. I think I've to var stories about going on with Charlie Kennedy. He absolutely murdered me. I mean I made some cheap point about labour divisions on the Iraq War and he said, You you know what, George, you had' ved for theri war it wouldn't have happened and brought the house down. But before you went on, I remember we were all waiting in the kind of green room When I say the greenvie, you sort of it's like in a school or someway usually and you're in the kind of staff commoner room waiting to go on And he did down a pint of spirits before going on. He literally necked a pint of spirits. And then I was like, Jesus. And then he went on and performed brilliantly and cut me down to size. Isn't the truth, George, we could do a whole episode of EMQs or a whole podcast in the summer. just talking about question time, stories and anecdotes because I mean it's such a fascinating bear pit I mean to answer the question first of all from Ashley. I think if you're Michael Gove you are liberated from the party line. You can finally go out there and say what you want to say. You can see why having the chance to speak your mind is great from his point of view. But I would say for you and me, we have those chances all the time. We do this podcast. I'm on Good Morning Britain three times a week. I if you and I went back onto question time, people would say, o, well, you know, what does this mean are they Are they making a comeack? Is it a rel launch? And I don't think personally either of us need that. It's also, as you said, it's just even though It doesn't have the scale of audience. Back in the day when I first did it or it was in the two thousands, If you were on question time, then you had far more face recognition in the supermarket or on the trade or in the street the next day and the day after than you would in a normal week because the audience was huge and people see you in that way. I think these days, if it goes well Probably nobody notices,. but if it goes wrong, social media would then transmitt it all around everywhere. I'm not sure I think pre social media You had a firer run onQion timeim. I'm not sure whether social media makes it such a enjoyable and forgiving thing to do and do. all sorts of stories of flooding back, so maybe we'll save them for a special on questuestion timeim and any questions as well. But have you ever asked a question on question Time? Be I have asked a question on Question Time No, I've never asked a question. I was a young Fy research you who asked John Prescott a question on question time. Oh my go. wasasn't my best question? The very first time I went on question time I had to then travel from Devon up to Yorkshire the next day And I got up really early in the morning. and this was two thousand I think. And so very early days of the Internet Qestion time we're just starting to put Viewer comments on the website And I looked at five in the morning having got back from Devin before going up these viewer comments and there was no mention of me at all. It was all about Robert Kilway' silk or whoever it would else was on, other than this one comment which said Congratulations to Ed Balls for getting this far against such adversity And I thought What is this about? And it was signed by a guy from Preston called Bob Nipple And I realized he was just taking the Mickey out of my name. And I thought no one would ever do that. thought This is my launchpad is what I thought. Bob Nipple from Preston praising Ed Balls from Cuserford. Thank you very much indndeed. We'll be back shortly after this break. Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old fashioned way Mail and ship when you want, how you want with stamps dot comot Print postage on demand twenty four seven and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to ninety percent with automated rate shopping. That's why over one million small businesses trust stamps dot comot Go to stamps dot com and use code podcasts to try stamps dot com risk free for sixty days Granger knows, when you're a procurement manager for an office park You're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners Lights about to fail, filters ready to clog, HVac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind Count on Granger for quality products, easy reordering, and twenty four seven support Call one eight hundred Granger, click Ganger d. com or just stop by Granger. For the ones who get it done. Your team just added its sixty seventh AI tool And also your sixty seven security blind spot The good news, the Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you Avanta is the platform used by over sixteen thousand fast moving companies like RampP, Cursor, and Harvey who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk Get started at Vanta. com Now our next question is from Paul And unlike the previous two questions, which were good fun, this is actually to the heart of the conversation being had in British politics right now. Hi George. This is Paul from Stockport. I've been a big fan of the podcast since the very beginning, Keep up the goodood W work I was reading Adam Toz's substack this week and he argued that our relatively recent fiscal and political paralysis is driven by fear of another gilt market crisis like that of the truss era and that this fear is reinforced by the Bank of England's relatively hardline post inflation stance and ongoing quantitative tightening He suggested that the bank could instead take a more draggy era ECB approach acting more clearly as a backstop to guilt markets and giving governments more room to pursue investment led growth policies What I would like to ask you guys is is that a realistic option for us, or would it risk in undermining confidence in sterling, fueling inflation and damaging the bank's credibility and independence? Keep up the good work and I look forward to hearing your response Thank you, Paul, and I have to admit I've not read the Adam T's sububstack and I will go and do so, but I think I fundamentally disagree with them this analysis, and I just think it's the wrong way to think about it. The fact is there is a big fiscal challenge for Britain because having had the financial crisis and then the pandemic and then the energy bailout We have a high level of national debt in our country and a large part of our budget taken up by debt interest payments much higher than it was in nineteen ninety seven or two thousand five And we've also had a period where in key moments in the pandemic and then with the energy price bailout when under pressure, politically, governments have spent large amounts of money to solve political problems and borrowed the money. So there is a skecepticism and a worry in financial markets about whether governments are going to pay the way, whether they will actually get debt on a downward path rather on a rising path. And what is the thing they're worried about? And what is the guarantee What financial markets are worried about is that governments will basically use inflation to inflate their way out of a problem. The easiest way to deal with the high level of national debt is to have Big inflation. which essentially makes the value of that debt less in today's prices. And that's what kind of irresponsible governments always used to do in the past And what is the guarantor against inflating yourself out have a debt crisis, it's having an independent central bank which says we are committed to meeting the inflation target and a government which backs the independent central bank in order to meet the inflation target. And if there was a doubt as to whether the Monetary Policy Committee and Andrew Bailey and the Bank of England going to stand by the inflation target then it would make it much, much harder for governments to manage fiscal policy, to manage the national debt to sensibly borrow for investment as the government is doing at the moment So far from the Bank of England and its stance making Gilt market challenge harder I think the credibility of the Bank of England is essential in order to allow in a challenging environment the government to carry on managing the public finances in a sensible way and meeting its fiscal rules So if we were to weaken that bank of England commitment, that is what would undermine confidence in stterling, fuel inflation damage and the credibility of the government and its fiscal policy. So I say in this environment, The Bank of England needs to carry on doing his job in a tough and credible and symmetric way, and they are and that's a good thing Yeah, I mean, again, I I think that's right. I think you the problem is Paul, I think everyone's looking for free money And here, you know, it's on the on the right, you say, well, if we cut taxes They'll pay for themselves. and on the left, you say, well if you spend a load of money, that will pay for itself because you'll have a more productive economy. So your investment led growth policies is basically spending money that in theory, creates a bigger economy, but there's absolutely no agreement on what those might be. frankly So you know, should you be investing in old world infrastructure or new digital infrastructure or who know or skills or training? I mean, there's a big debate about these things Quion. first of all, I mean, I think the Bankank of England has acted as a backstop on the gilt market in the truss era. I mean, it was actually Andrew Bailey's intervention that kind of put a lid on Gilt market starting to go haywire after the mini budget And so there was enough room for the government to kind of hang itself politically, but the Bank of Englands in ultimately as the backstop. And my recollection of the Drug era, and of course, it was different it' the European central backank. F of all, Drauggy, you was trying to invent the rules as he was going along because This was the first time the eurozone had confronted a crisis like this and certain members of the eurozone like the particularly the Germans, but also the Dutch and the Finns and others were saying, hold on, you know, you can't just you know, allow countries to borrow whatever they like and stand behind German taxpayers. There's got to be some discipline on the Greeks and the Italians and so on And what Dragy did was, you, he ultimately did, ye, you're right, He was a sort of backstop in the sense he said will'll do whatever it takes to save the e That did provide a backstop that sort of made the market thing. There's no point betting on the breakup of the euro But he provided enough room for governments to hang themselves and there you know there's not incredible argument that essentially the UCB allowed Berusconi government to fall or kind of prompted the Berusconei government into falling because it didn't And she act as a sufficient backstop on Italian government bond yields And it got to the point where Berusconei was forced out because of the higher rates of interest that Italy was paying for its debt compared to Germany So you know, I'm even kind of questioning, I maybe being unfair to the argument in the substpect, but I think I'll fundamentally, you know, What markets want is a coherent plan to pay away It was actually a very good quote from someone we both know really well, Nick McPerson perermanent seecreary of the Treasury when I was Chancellor for most of the diamond P seory when or and principal private sector where you were that. And you know he's in the paper today quoted on the Andy Burnham story about Gil Market saying fundamentally markarkets don't care whether you'll sort of seent to left or send a right or you know, conservative or labor. What they want is a clear plan that you can coherently articulate and that is what's been missing and I think it's perfectly possible that a new Labour Prime Minister will be able to articulate a plan may be the plan I support, but It could be a plan that the bond market supports. And why have we had a recent fiscal and political paralysis? It's not because the bank of England has been too dracodian. it is not because governments in this period have been too austere. It's because in the end, if the economy is not growing And people feel they're not getting better off And the public financers are also under pressure. and governments are constrained in doing what it wants to do to support families or public spending, you end up with political crisis and backlash. it all comes down to the credible plan growth in the economy and that is the culprit here low growth, blaming the Bank of England is the wrong thing to do. I don't think Paul's doing that, but I know people who do and that would be the wrong thing to do Andrew Bailey calling me, he's obviously agreeing with us. Or that other key bond market participant, Andrew Balls. It was Andrew Bailey, not Andrew Balls Actually it wasn't, it was an unknown number. Surely Andrew Bay would call him an unknown number though. So it could been him I'm actually going up to Scotland in a couple of weeks ago with Stephanie Flanders who the chief economist at Bloomberg used to be the BBC economics editor and Stephanie and I At the Adam Smith Festival in Fife, we are interviewing Andrew Bailey on the state of the world and the state of the British economy I'm looking forward to that. I'll give you reports of that. Don't you have a bit of a history of Stephanie Well I'm just trying to just try it' such the distant past Are you sure you' not getting me mixed with a bit of them You are We'll just leaveving. I think we should move on. I think we should move on I think we should take a that break stillill waiting in line Aain That's time you will never get backack. Save time and money with stamps dot comot Over four million businesses have skipped the line with stamps dot com. Join them to save up to ninety percent off carrier rates from your computer or phone right now. Print postage for certified mail, registered mail, and packages in seconds, then schedule a pickup right from your home or office. For a limited time, go to stamps dot com and use code podcast for a free welcome gift Teaxas app is a fun. Hi, it's Paage from Giggly Squad, and this episode is sponsored by Experian Boost Summer Glow U up, check glow up even better Boost your credit scores instantly by getting credit for bills you're already paying, your phone, utilities, rent, and insurance. I wish dating kind of worked like that. Connect your bank account, add those on time payments to your Experian credit file, and your FICO score updates right away You could instantly raise your FICO score by an average of fourteen points with Experian Boost. Download the Experian app for free today. Results will vary. Users who received a boost improved their FIicO score eight from Experian by an average of fourteen points. See appstore or Eperian. com for details Results will vary, not all payments are boost eligible. Users who received a boost improve their FIicO score rate from Experian by an average of fourteen points, someome may not see improved scores or approval ods. Not all lenders use Experiian credit files, and not all lenders use scores impacted by Experiian boost. See experxperian. com for details Your team just added its sixty seventh A tool And also your sixty sevenh security blind spot good news, the Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background. every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you Avanta is the platform used by over sixteen thousand fast moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risks. Get started at Vanta. com Welcome back. Our final question is from Luke Hi Id and George love the podcast. I'm a first year PPE at Trinity College Oxford. Trinity has its commemoration ball in June, and I've noticed on Instagram that the ball account follows Centrist Dad, which has started some rumours. My question to Ed is, can he confirm or deny these rumors And I'd like to extend an invite to George to be my plus one for the evening. Many thanks. Okay, so here's the big question Everyone wants to know the answer to. Our centrist Dad, the headline act Trity College B Soad look, we get a lot of invites. and we love playing kind of for charity or for events and you know, birthday parties, street parties work events, weddings. I mean we ha't done a weddinget. a birthday a bit of a birthday party. What do you mean a bir? We've done couple of birthday parties we've been the guest band But unfortunately, it wasn't possible to do the Trinity Ball U because we couldn't make the dates stack up. N they were invited. you were asked, I mean, They tried to bug you. Unfortunately, we couldn't do it, but we would have loved to And part of the reason was we're actually on Thursday the second of July at the W Rats We are doing a summer gig and it's for all the funds go to the Joe Cox Foundation. tenth anniversary of the Joe Cox Foundation being set up after Joe's tragic murder during the Brexit campaign. And they came to us and said would we do a gig? to help raise money for the very important work they do And so our pre summer gig is for Jo Cos Foundation, Second of July tickets on sale. We are doing Madonna and the Clash and the Beatles as well as of course Py club course Taberon. U surely he can do more than one gig before the summer. I mean, your excuse is that's how free sumer gig. That's why the next three months you're doing one night. It's a busy time We always like getting these invites and we never say no unless we really have to, but on occasion, it just wasn't possible So unfortunately, Luke, You can invite George to be your plus one But you'll have to see another band. Yeah So when when I was at Mudel in College Oxford, the kinks were The headadline Act You know, so the Kinks, Centrist Dad, all the top bands. When I was at Kebor College in nineteen eighty five, we had Katrina and the waves. walking on sunshine. The big dilemma of organising a summer or event like this is you either spend your money on a really good meal or loads of free drink or a decent band. but I don't think you can have all three of them