Advice for aspiring parliamentary candidates

Still waiting in line? Again, That's time you'll never get back. Save time and money with stamps dot comot Over four million businesses have skipped the line with stamps dot comot 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 taxes and fees apply 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 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 on how to look after a blood bank. Ed Balls. A steady as she goes budget. What kind of ship does he think he's on? the Titanic? Mry Celest. Welcome to EMQ's from Political Currency. withith Ed Balls and George Osborne Hello and welcome to EMQ's Ex Mis' questQuions, and we're going to start with a shout out to the new statesman. and this is relevant to You George because they are on a storming run of brilliant covers Last week they had a superb David Hockney Beef in the week of his death. I was like it was K Aarmer standing at the edge of the swimming pool watching Andy Burnham sw him up and we're sting just underwater. This week they've done a Bayout tapestry spoof. Northern conquest. It's a piece by Alvaree Andy burred him on a horse Kissed armor taking the arrow out of his y it's gone through his glasses and there's arrows in the shield is so good. And you know The tapestry is coming to Bit in soon. Well, it's literally about to arrive in the next couple of weeks at the British Museum. Then it has to be very carefully unpacked and you know put on the display hast al reready. Don't lose it Honestly I don't want to kind of cause you any concerns but don't damage it on the way. What would a manual say? There is a quite big insurance bill, which you'd have to pay becausecause it's insured by the British people. C can ask a question, how does he insurance help There's only one bayout tapestry. I mean, if you lose it or you break it, what do you do? I mean I'm really sorry, Imanuel Here is the payment in lieu. It's not going to work Let Let me be serious. I'vely realized as Ch chairm of the British Museum I need to reach all the French, I'll take it very seriously. Thank. I tell you what, if you travel around on the London Tube at the moment, you'll have seen, I think now the ads have gone up. tickets are about to go on sale. In fact, when this episode comes out, they'll be on sale in this coming week. public, there's going to be a huge demand. and I hope the French government will appreciate, I think they will. Emanuel Macaron has been instrumentals in making this happen. on the adverts in the tube There's a specific reference in the ad to the French government and thanks to the French goovernment for this to happen. but there are going to be so many cartoons and parodies and whatever of the tapestry. It is the most kind of identifiable bit of iconography in British history. So I think the new statesmen should be congratulated for getting in there first Tking of major cultural moments of great significance in a few days of time Centristown to play the waterater Rts for the Joe Cox Foundation and we had a competition for our kitchen cabinet members to win two water rats tickets for the show and it's been won by Kitchen cabinet member Douglas Lw Welll, Douglas. S see you on Thursday if George shows You can poo with him. I'm on the C VIP list th. or the VVIP or the VVVVP. You're on the guest list, you get a t shirt and and a tea towel in a bag. F of the b Toat bags, te toels and friends of the band and caps Is it only blue M andMs in your green room? it do you have like a bottle of Jack Daniels have ye Jack Daniels. actually to be honest, you have to buy drinks of the bar and that includes the band Do not have your well, what's it called the list, you know, pop styars insist on rider their' riders, you know, the thing that they the agents insist are in their dressing room. have We have a sound guy. you show me a picture of your dressing room the other day in Good morning Britain and allough I could see there was an enormous picture of Richard Madeley. And it' a very beautiful watercolor of Richard Madeley which is hg. And every morning at four thirty I reflect with Richard on the day ahead Yeah but not in person. Yeah. Not in person Now listen, we're going to crack on aren't we? The first I should say we were doing our pre meeting in my because I was in the dressing room going off to an event and there I am on my phone having a kind of Google, whatever you call it chat with you, but Richard was there with us staring over us, yes on the wall. So our first question today comes from a serving civil servant. And for that reason, they have been kept anonymous and we're not going to say who they are, but we have checked them out. and their voice is being voiced by one of our producers. Hi, Edan George I've been a civil servant for coming up to twelve years this autumn. asssuming that this change in Prime Mister results in a somewhat inevitable reshuffle across the ministerial roles I will be serving my seventeenth Secretary of State in twelve years While five of those changes have been a result of my own job mobs, the remaining eleven including four in my current job are the result of leadership changes, elections, reshuffles, and machinery of government changes. So my question is, How can governments create longevity in their senior leaders who are not the prrime Minister to ensure ongoing delivery is consistent and to avoid the slowdown in productivity that occurs in government departments when ministers change. Who would you say to the new PM should stay in their current job in the coming reshuffle I think this is a really, really important question and we should throw it forward to the choices Andy Burnham is going to be making in a few weeks time just to say I realize this and Somebody pointed this out to me. Kiss ar a reshuffle in the autumn of last year more than half. the whole government Cabinet ministers and junior ministers change jobs in that reshuffle, more than half just over a year into government And I don't think anybody on the outside properly understands how much anger and upset that cause because All these not just cabinet miniss but junior ministers, they are just getting into their briefs just getting on top of the issues. They're just starting to really drive their agenda, having in almost all cases not be ministers before. And then suddenly for reasons which nobody understood and which were I I think they were driven by a search for headlines, but below that, why And so when you express your frustration as a civil servant about the churn, I think that is also felt by Misters and cabinet ministers often look, Pime ministers have the right to choose their government H about the turmoil you cause when you just decide to do a res shuff like that. And I don't Kis arma was well advised at all to do that reshuffle. I guess the second thing I'd say is that if you're an effective government, then the direction which is being set by your treasury or your home office or your education department They ought to be bigger. than the individual cabinet Mister And of course, if in a reshuffle, you change the actual minister and there'll be nuance and detail But if your government is a government where if you change the cabinet minister, the whole approach changes. kind of says to me, you don't really know what you're about as a government in the first place and you're not really being properly driven and led from the center So then that raises the question of Andy Burnham, what does Andy Burnham do? I mean, Andy Burnam could come in and say I'm going to have the second massive disruptive reshuffle of the Parliament even though it's not even two years in, barely two years in. But is that wise? Of course he needs to stamp his authority and he needs to make some senior changes the junior ministerial ranks, cabinet ministers, I mean Isn't he better at this point to do what our question is asking for and give stability And then at a certain point down the track When he's got a sense of what he really wants and who's really delivering, you know, that's when he does this big reshuffle. If I was Andy Burnham and I wanted to do a big reshuffle this Parliament, I would think I should do that six or nine months or a year into my time as Prime Minister when I really know what I want But if he does it now much harder to redo it in six or nine months time. So I think probably I would be thinking, look some big symbolic and important changes at the top. But I would be thinking actually, is my interest to start with continuity in the junior rank, certainly. Yeah, I think that's all very sensible advice. I think there's a kind of interesting question. I mean, this question from our civil servant friend is striking because It has been utterly chaotic the last ten years. You've had a new Secretary of state for Education on average every year, new housing minister. I mean' The list of housy winners is astonishing. I mean, you know I mean didn' And no when do we haven't built any houses And you know, and even with the best one in the world, even if you're both as a sort of civil service private office and as a new minister. trying to get on top of everything and work out the best way of Working together, that takes some months and familiarity with the policy issues familiarity with the stakeholder groups I mean, the best continuity is when you've won an election and your shadow cabinet become your cabinet because they're already very on top of the issues. they've thought about what they want to do They know all the stakeholders, they've been kind of engaging with them, probably more so, in fact than Cabinet ministers have time to do And I think if you pick it'd be invidious to choose the kind of early Cameron government, but I think there was a lot of stability in those posts. I think if you look at the early Blair government one of its great strengths was, you know, Gordon Brown, Robin Cook, Donald Der, David Blankket, Jack Straw you know, these characters were in their posts for a number of years at the start of that government And you could argue things all start to sort of unwind a bit when people start to move like Robin Cook, but There's just an enormous kind of strength in the continuity, the civil service You know, they know what to expect. They therefore they're not worrying about some new person and their new preferences and whatever. they They're just getting on with the developing the policy. and delivering it. So yes, but the question is then why the only thing I'd say to both of us in answering this question is So we agree with each other. So why is it that these prime ministers are making all these changes and why have there been so many irritations? Politics there's been a lot of prime mininisters But why would Kstalma undertake such a big reshuffle? Is it just, you know He hadn' thought strategic about I think it actually speaks to a weakness he has and it'll be a kind of challenge for Andy Burnham His weakness is he never had allies in the cabinet. There was never a starmer team. I mean even Rachel Reeves who was abound to him was You know, I don't think you really think of her as sort of core Team starmer He didn't have his, you know, David Cameron and me and he had William Haig and Tony Blair had actually Gordon Brown in those early years, but you know also there's other characters around him like Alan Milbourne and Stephen Byers who were sort outred for him strall There was never kind of a call senior cabinet team for Starmer And so he didn't really notice either that he was sort of moving these people around Maybe he didn't think that mattered. and it was all about him I wonder if Burnham, you knows because he's been out. He knows, you know, he obviously knows these people very well. But you know, who is the sort of core loyal Burnham team in the cabinet? He can't really pick it because he's just arrived and he It's going to be a challenge, I think he's going to have to sort of build it as he goes along. It's such an unusual situation. mean he's unique in Brit hory actually to come in straight intoarliament o, I know he was there before. He's coming straight intoarliament to be the Pime minis. And I think you yeah, okay, get all the junior ministerial posts Right. Remember that if you fire anyone, there'll be enemies for life. Try and I think, construct a kind of four or five strong senior cabinet team people think are very predictable And then ultimately, you know go you're taking into your general election is your kind of call team I agree. I think the point with kiss armor It was it didn't work poll ratings were falling. He went from the civil servants being brillant, the civil servs being the problem. we went from his new team to bllaming his team. I think there was just always a tendency to lash out and I think that reshuffle was just like a big lashing out. But if you take housing, because we mentioned it a moment ago, Matthew Penny Cook has been the housing minister since the start. He didn't change when Angela Rna went and Steve re tookoa. Government is struggling to deliver the housing numbers. But you've got a guy who's been in there who's competent and can do good interviews for two years I let him get on and do it. And if in the end he's the problem Get rid of him. Is Andy Burnham going to know on day one whether the Matthew Pennyicook is the reason why housing numbers aren't being delivered And actually, is Matthew Penney Cook probably better placeac than anybody else to tell him why it's not working? Yes. So that's what I'd do Very good. Thank you for that question. Whever you are because you are anonymous, but it's good to know we've been listened to My senior civil servants and that made us think and we appreciate it. Our next question is from Mark and he hearts back to an conversations we were having earlier in the year Hi, Edan George In January, I asked you whether you agreed with me Tractically, K Starmer should allow Andy Burnham to stand in Gordon and Denton At that point, he had the opportunity potentially to see him lose or if he won to keep an eye on him from the House of Commons. He chose not to do that and you found better questions to answer at the time In hindsight, was I right? And if he had let him stand, would the events of the twenty second of June still have happened? Thanks. So you know what, Mark? I was thinking exactly this. few days ag. my mind went to the Gordon and Denton viollection. I was thinking What if he'd let Burnham stand in that Because you said Yes, not to let him. Now And I said let him. But before you get all smug, I'm just saying. yeah, but let's not dwell Bedo But you haven't heard me out. My advice would have been stop him fighting the Makerfield by election, right? The moment you let him in. You're finished And so good stopping him in, you know, earlier in there and then letting him in and maybe you know, by that point he couldn't have So did the NEC, but I have it from a very senior source in the loate bodyy that he still had the numbers on the NEC to stop Bernam being a candidate in Makerfield. Even despite S Baramamouved the chair clearly working with Andy Burdam via Josh Simons to make it happen you know probably more about the I don't. Anyway, I h it has proved fatal. So the question is given given that he was going to stand in Makorfield. So I'm not using my scenario where you block him in G than and dentend any block him in Makerfield where where I think if that had happened, there'd still be oh, well, Berham can't get in and is West Streeting better than Kissed Armor Is Angela Rayer better than kiss Amor. But yes, knowing knowing that he was going to stay in Makerfield, it clearly would have been better to let him stand in Galton and Denton Because I think there would have been less of a kind of coronation in that contest. It would have been potentially a harder contest for him to win with the Greens, you know, eating into a lot of his vote and ultimately of course they won the seat. So it wouldn't have been him versus Reform would have been him versus Greens, which might have been harder I still think he probably would have won There would have been more jeopardy and you know, who knows? he wouldn't have kind of arrived and immediately challenged potentially in the way that he has Yeah, I mean he's did she's got off the train and I' reside. I mean, look, very good question. Yeah. Go back to that conversation I think he would have won and makeake afield suggests he'd have won it bigger rather than less big. I at the time said, then give him a serious big job, you know where you've got some challenging stakeholders like farming where he can show his skills in action, but you know, if you kissed armor, say, come on, then, you know If you're the Messiah let's see you deliver. and I think he, you know and I think that that term would have been a good call for Kistara. I don't think it would have made any difference at all. Stahmer was, I'm afraid, on a rapidly downward trajectory from, you know for the beginning of this year And it was going to happen in the end. Well, I wouldould he have accepted a job in the cabinet? He would have just waited for the local election results and challenged then, wouldn't he? It's really hard to know, isn't it? because Things unfolded over these weeks through the local election result I think it would have been hard for Andy Burnham at that point earlier in the year to say no, he may have tried. It certainly would have made him look could be less loyal to the wider cause Kistar, though, I'mfraid just in hu trouble And it was going to get worse and it did get worse Where you're right is this that the particular way in which it worked through Makerfield made the coronation then you know, inevitable. It was like it was it was an unusual moment. that wouldn't have happened in the same way Gordon and Dentonast because they wouldn't have lost the Gordon and Denton by election, which set up Makerfield. as the you know, amazing Burnham win when they couldn't win in a similar seat. Andddy Burnnam would have been in Parliament for some months and I think it's more likely that there would have been challenge and a contest rather than a correlation. So I don't think I'm not sure it would have saved Kist arma. could have changed the course of political history Very good question, Mark. We love those questions, don't we? thoseose sort of what ifs. Professional historians hate what if questions. I've never answered why. I think it's a very good way of trying to really analye the situation Look, if this was called political history rather than political currency, then you know, this is not a history podcast. What are this is a podcast which makes you think about how politics and economics work And I think the what ifs are really interesting, notot because they are telling you something about history or something which is an objective but they force you to think through. So how do I think about that? And what does that tell me about my underlying assumptions? So as long as you understand what they're about, I like them. We're going to take a break and then we're back Do anything. Still waiting in line Again That's time you'll never get back. Save time and money with stamps dot comot Over four million businesses have skipped the line with stamps dot comot 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 Taxes and fees apply. team just added its sixty seventh AI tool And also your sixty seven security blind spot Good news, the Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background everyvery 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 Before I switched to Wealthfront, my API was probably zero point one. Once I switched switching. With the wealthfront cash account, earn up to four point two percent API on your cash. I can trust Wealthfront is taking care of me. Make your money earn more. Get started at wealthfront. com. Clients paid thousand dollars for their testimonial creating a conflic of interest. Howc comeome s. point three percent, AfPy as of juary thirtieth, twenty six is repentative variable and earned funds swet to programs. point six fivecent new clent boost for three months and up to one hundred fifty thousand dollars. Direct deposit one thousand dollars a month fund an invest account for point five percent incase Cash account offered by Wealthfront broer LC member forer IC not a Welcome back. H's a question from Ola Hi, Eden George, it's Ola here. H hope you're managing okay in this heat There was an EMQ a little while ago about the government's role in preparing the country for significant events or emergencies This reminded me of being in primary school in early two thousand three and practicing evacuations to a nearby secondary school in case of attacks on us following the Iraq invasion I wonder whether this is something the government had advised, and if so, how else were the public prepared for possible consequences of the invasion The metessage certainly landed with my friend who prepared a bag in case of having to evacuate home, although I'm glad she didn't need to use it in the end Thanks, looking forward to your response I have to say, Ola. absolutely no memory of this at all. The idea that schools in early two thousand three were genuinely preparing for and Iraq invasion. look, I don't know. I mean No, I don' think was it was a attackax it' not an Iraqi invasion of Britain. it was As we invaded Iraq, whether there'd be retaliation, I think Ola possibly in the mind of Alistair Campbell, you know, maybe Alisair Campbell having, you know, we were only thirty minutes away from destruction, weren't we? And maybe an Iraq invasion or maybe in an Iraq attack. so maybe maybe in the particular primary school he was involved in, I think more generally, I am not sure and it surprises me that you're pre. However, when I was a child and You may be sight too young for this there was a period where there was a genuine public conversation, which the government got involved in about preparing for a nuclear war and what you should do and what you should have stored and how you should take shelter And you know it totally supercharged the CND movement because all this conversation about civil contingency, made people think, well, hang on a second. I'm not sure we want to have this nuclear war. It was very scary indeed and so It's interesting. For this to work It has to be a genuine, real and credible threat We said a few weeks ago that Unlike America, we don't have schools preparing drills for gun attacks by kind of lone on people coming to schools. Tomorrow Finkelstein for purposeculate D corcted us to say that it may be true in general in schools, but in the Jewish community kind of preparedness for attack is something which is very real as part of people's lived experience and I totally understand that. We were corrected by that. But right now M generally, if you're thinking about the possibility of a big power outage or flooding or a sustained period Very, very hot weather. I mean, you would think at the moment, that is the kind of thing that the government should be suggesting we think about and prepare for because I'm not sure as far as I can see that our schools or any of us were particularly prepared for these kind of historic Cord succession of days massively high temperatures over thirty six, thirty seven degrees. So you remember maybe there is a conversation we ought be having I remember the nineteen seventy six heat wave, which I think we were just how old were you? I was five. Yeah I do remember. Is that one of my In't it's my earliest memory but I think it's my earliest sort of sustained period of memory Who was the mininistter of the drought? I' I was' I was five years, I think it was Dennis House. in the Wilson Government. And mean I think it was one degree lower temperature than we've seen in the last few days.. But it came after some very dry a very long dry period. It was a drought. people getting water from stamp pipes. You couldn't water your garden My dad riggged to stay up in the backarden. we would take baths because you know back in then this will shock our younger listeners. I mean, I'd never had a shower in my life other than at school after football Until I was You should be remember of the Starmer goovernment. as they're all falling over themselves to say, what a tough upbringing they. No, no, ex. houses didn't have show. I described it today as the hole in you know the four Yorkshireman government where they all compete to say how miserable their upbringing is. Houses didn't have showers. We had baths.. And on you know the upper floor in our house, there was a bath Yeah And and probably su somedly had a bath, I mean, look, it's kind of once a week really. I mean, that was the nature of life in the seventies, but when he had a bath you'd pull out the plug and the water go down the plug hole. My dad rigged up this draay So when the water came down, rather than going down the drain, it then came down this big pipe onto the garden he would ro and he would move the thing r, so he would water his las And then my mum bought us these little ducks And we had a duck each and me and my brother and sister would have our ducks ready. Somebody upstairs would say pulling out the bath plug now, the bath plug would come out, the water would come down and we would see which duck won the race to get all the way down the pipe onto the watered lawn. That was my rather romantic and rosy view. were chucking eggs. You were chucking eggs over the roof at the same time. That was at Easter, but I mean, this was the summer. It was the same house, the same roof. He for those today he drew those eccentric pictures of comp. Did he throw ducks? No over the roof, live or plastic? Nice, I need to answer Ola's question. So first of all, I'm very surprised you're primary school conducted this drill and I have to say, I mean, I was an MB at the time And you know my constituency, there were a load of primary schools, I think more than fifty or something, but they I don't remember any school I think you have to direct your questions, Ola. I'm afraid to your head teacher at that school. But I'm being a bit flip. to an underground shelter in their back garden and it against an alien attack Um, But there was civil contingencies, I think is in his sort of interesting, rather dry space in goovernment because politics is all the here and now in the, you know What you're going to do tomorrow And so sort of preparing for eventualities that may or may not happen quite sort of draining on people's time and patience. Of course when things then go wrong, you say, well why didn't you prepare for it? and that's what the COVID inquiry, for example, has been looking at and the contingencies around that The truth is it's just very hard to get the senior members of the government to focus on all sorts of potentially different and things that might happen in the world But there is a civil contingencies unit in the Cabinet offffice and there was role playing and exercises within government while I was there. particularly for things like terrorist attacks. one of the things I did a lot of role playing on was you know, what you do if there's a passenger plane flying into the UK you know, nine eleven star that you can't get a hold of you can't contact with the pilot. And you know, what do you do? Do you ultimately shoot down a plane that might be entirely innocent in the sense it hasn't been hijacked and it's his radio is broken And we did lots of contingency planning around that in real live exercises with fighter jets in the air you know, the RAF control center And ultimately it's a political decision. It's ultimately the Prime Minister or someone that the Prime Mister chooses if they can't be caught hold of. who has to make the final call So there was lots of that kind of drills, but The problem is when you start kind of giving general advice to the public, It can look a bit ridiculous. I remember during one of the sort of I can't remember exactly I think it was a sort of strike of ananker drivers And Francis Maud, I think is, by the way, a very good thing. So this is a bit of an unfair story, about him, but Gen's You know, he was a very good force inside the government. I remember telling people to fill up a jerry can in the garage of petrol and everyone thought that was such an unusual word to use. Jerry Can he got kind of lambasted for it. Civil you also the guy who talked about kitchen suppppers Maybe I I think was. He was also the guy who in nineteen ninety eight declared a recession made in downing Street. And it turned out there wasn't. But he was generally a good thing. It was his modernization of government was good thing. Actually there's a story. we're talking about reshuffles He was in line for a big promotion into the cabinet before that Jerry can comment And he got absolutely sort of lampooned and lambasted It was sort of politically impossible to go ahead with the promotion As said politics can be very, very unfair Anyway that was all around civil contingencies. France's Morde's contribion has been recognized on political currency today and's good. Yet she goes around advising governments around the world now on things.. And I think he's advised D did not do some piece of work for the Stalmer governmentment? Maybe he'll send us in the EMQ next week and we can discuss it. could hear from Let uss get another question. This one iss from Jen Hi, Eden George, Jen here from North Warwickshire As a new kitchen cabinet member, I thought I would send in my first question. I am lucky enough to live near a non selective state school that teaches classical civilization. Our eldest daughter loved this subject so much that she is about to start a PhD in this area after already achieving a bachelor's and Master's degree questestion is Why doesn't the government place a greater emphasis on this subject being taught in state schools instead of leaving it as a preserve for mainly grammar and private school students? And secondly, if I may, With all the political inighting from both the previous Torory government and the current Labour government, are modern day politicians any different to the scheming and backstabbing politicians from ancient Rome and Greece? Thanks, look forward to hearing your thoughts. Yeah, why did it come on you with the education secretary? Why didn't you reintroduce the classics into our comprehensive Well, I mean, it was because it was up for individual schools to decide what they wanted to teach and the national curricul was already kind of quite directive S schools did really dodging. the question is. Mary Beard always said that after glladiators, there was a lot more discussion of classics in schools But you know She's on my boarder at the British Museum and a brilliant member all it. I think look I did medieval history A level. I think actually learning medieval or classical history is great because it' It tells you about politics about power and you learn to write and synthesize and Latin is helpful ot a pitting for lang. Wen't doing this podcast if we'd lived in medieval times A because the technology wouldn't have existed and B, I would have had you executed as Chancellor because you were a bit of a threat. So let me test your classical civilization knowledge, given that you you know are trying to chastise me What the excU. What What are the three best classical civilization analogies politically for what Andy Burnhams just done to Kiss ara O, well, there's is it Cincinnatus who returns from his field? Summoned back from his farm. Yeah to deal with the cr. I had no advance warning of this, right? There is Caesar. Well Caesar returning from Gaul. Crossing the Rubican? Yes Although that leads for a civil warar Yeah, billy winster. But, you know, Andy Boomen't want theivil warar The other one Actually the best one was the Scipio Africanus record to save Rome O youin bst J in Spain and Africa He returns to rescue the Republic from crisis, having spent ages building his reputation, you know at a distance, he comes back in and sorts all out. Isn't Andy B I'm going to jump forward to the kind of seventeenth and eighteenth century? Isn't he more like the king over the water? The Jacobites, the You know, things were better under the old monarchy though, you know, It was always the toast of the king over the water. Or you can just go to contemporary. There's no water between Manchester and London Scipio returns from the provinces Crossing the old Scipio Africanas. I'm surprised you don't know this is. Anyway mayaybe at school you didn't study classics as the way I did I did do Latin O level Um I this Aa Rasarat, Arama Seratis Sant. Sum Sest Sum as Estis Sund Yes But I tell you the if you want to give a speech The way that Cicero constructed his speeches, which is essentially three points. is still the best structure for any speech That sounds like jxtraw Although Jack stay in the cabinet, he always had three points. He never knew what the third point was when he started. He would always have got three points to make him with thinking honestly, Jack doing the reverse order, you' have no idea. first point and we know he's racking his brain. He's read his Cicero, he's got to have three points but he's only thought of the first two That was always my view. But in the end, His third qu was always interesting. If sometimes of subject Let's answer the question. Well, of all, modern politicians are no different from the backstabbing politicians of the past. Although as I say the stakes are somewhat low because in the past you would lose your head or be executed. I think ito foric Carist did a good And I think it is I think what Mary Beard has done and actually Tom Holland, who's also on the British Museum Board, know, they've reminded people that you can make classics accessible. And it seems like a different obviously a different planet, but it's not These are human beings struggling with real world situations and I think that period of Roman history around Julius Caesar, a bit like the Tudors There's something about it. you know, it still resonates today I think it will continue to be taught and Schools will probably be better off if they do teach it. Very good question from Jen. We'll take a break. Time for one more question E Still waiting in line? Again That's time you will never get back. Save time and money with stamps dot comot Over four million businesses have skipped the line with stamps dot comot Join them to save up to ninety percent of carrier rates from your computer or phone right now posted for certified mail, registered mail, and packages in seconds. thenen schedule a pickup right from your home or office. For a limited time, go to stamps. com and use code podcast for a free welcome gift. Taxes and peace upine 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 Welcome back. Our final question is from Tom and he is Pondering the kind of thing prospective parliamentary candidates ponder Hey guys, how are we today? Tom from London here, huge fan of the podcast, day one listener if ever there was one. Now my first question name I would is for one, George Osborne and one Edward Bools, which is, if you were an ambitious young conservative Pning to enter Parliament at the next election, which could be as soon as September How likely do you think it is that the Conservatives will remain His Majesty's official opposition? My second question is from where do you buy your suits, shirts and shoes I mean, first of all, yeah Will the Conservatives be the official opposition by the time we get to the nextion It's after the election. A after the election. They're going to stay the official opposition until the e That's right after the election therefore, I I think what he's saying is should he stand for the Cervatives or reform? Well I think it'sertain true that quite a lot of people on the right if theyre kind of want to get into Parliament are weighing up who on earth do you stand for? And what is a safe conserv deceit these days, you know, that's like a challenge I personally, if I was Tom, I'd stick you know, you want to get in the you want to buy in at the bottom of the market. I'm not saying it's actually the bottom of the market quite in the moment. thingsings have risen a bit, but it was a huge help to me and David Cameron Amy Boris that we all came into Bom in two thousand one can blare landslide wind because You know, we were in at the bottom and then as fortunes of the party recovered we were able to ride that wave. And as we said on the main podcast, these tough times for reform and it's not clear which way it's going to go for Nigel Farage in the coming months. Now the suits and shirts well first piece of advice, don't get Lord Aly to pay for them That is a very good one. ks other theood G by thirty. Yeah, get by your own would be my advice. and Um, I've just got right know I'll tell you one thing. I went when I was I think I was Shadow Choancellor, might have been Chancellor. I went to Rickitts and Joneses shoe factory in Northampton. And I was sometimes when you went on factory visits, you came away and go Well, I'm never eating that again in my life. I now see how it's made And other places you'd go and you were so impressed. you'd go, o wow, I had no idea the kind of love and care and went it. So I went and I went to the Crocket and Jones. they make kind of gentlemen's shoes, basically there And they I saw them make how they made the shoes from Leather and I was so impressed by the kind of care and the sort of old style way they did it. everver since then I've worn Crocket and Jones' shoes and last week I went to buy because my pair finally gave up on me, I went to buy a new pair of Crocket and Jones is Cock Janes. Crocket and Janes She'es from Northampton, Abot Ss. definite we' giving advice to Romeia. Suits I used to I used to back then I was I don't really wear suits these days, but Timothy Everest was a guy who made suits in London brillianta So when I was an advisor I think I' bought suits from Marks and Spensers of the Pig. Although when we got married, I did have a Hugo boss suit, alth slightly hang off me. It wasn't if it didn't really fit. But then Gordon Brown said, Br I was going be a candidate. He said, you've got to get yourself sorted out on suits. And I've got this guy or Martin Prke who will come to your office, measure you up Goes away Bespoke several times Taylor. Bings you back. Well, the thing was he didn't have a shop or any of overheads. It was that grand. But he worked with tailors. And so it was much, much better value for money And and for the next ten years or so even more like twenty years Until I started doing Good Morning Brit, it's kind of slightly different kind of sartorial look, although mainly from the Wte up. U But I assum you are wearing trousers under the desk. Nobody would know. And but I bought basically a suit a year or eighteen months from Martin, who was utterly brilliant. But I realized early on few u years in,