Political impressions and future episodes

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Search is doing its thing. So why do your marketing results look the same as six months ago? That's because you're fishing in the same pond as everyone else. Podcast listeners are a different audience entirely more engaged, harder to reach through traditional channels, and ready to act when someone they trust makes a recommendation We're a caste, and we put them right in front of you Bowse thousands of the world's leading podcasts, book host reads or run your own ads, and track every conversion in real time. Same skills you already have, brand new results. Acast Acast d. com slash advertise. The Chancellor of the Exchquer. Getting a lesson from the Shadow Chancellor on how to balance the books iss like getting a lesson from Dracula on how to look after a blood bank. E Ball 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 Welcome to EMQ's E Ministers Questions. We're recording this before the weekend. so if you have are our gold or kitchen cabinet subscriber you will still be anticipating Scotland's World Cup campaign starting on Sunday morning and If you get it on Monday, you'll know the result. We don't, you know I always think I want Scotland to do b but in the Wor Cup Yeah, probably you actually chaired a football club, but I think the general view, isn't it is that England fans shouldn't support Scotland. actuallyctually sorry it's the other way around, isn't it? England fans are sort of England's sort of big and It doesn't it gets just quite relaxed about things and it doesn't mind if Scotland does well. It's the Scottish fan eighteen remember nineteen seventy eight when England weren't in the World Cup. We're on the march We're Ali's army. We're going to the Argentine and we'll really shake them up when we win the World Cup Scotland are the greatest football team. I loved to supporting Scotland in that tournament. I mean they didn't win, but I loved it. No I was only seven years old, so I'm not sure I remember it. Anyway, we of course wish the teams all the home teams well Anyway, as I said, we are recording this before the weekend, George is still in his hotel room He still has a sort of Sandini Scandinavian I actually I think it's supposed to be it is a farm. It's called piglet this room. It's supposed to be like a pig sty, I think, but it's not a pig sty. It's very, very I'm actually doing this. G you were seen me it tech. I mean, shouldn't you be in like pink I mean why you pick I I think itd a smallom. I've got right next to me here a whole kind of cocktail tray. It's quite early in the morning, I've got some house martini. I could be making an old fashioned I've got all sorts of I've got some limes and lemons. This is the funny thing you put into the martini and then I think I' leave this in the room because they'll charge me if I take it home, not least There's the CBD oil that I air I could chill out to What is that Well I think's near kind of cannabis thing Is it something where you have to have two people So that one person rubs it in. I don't think so. I don't know. I've just music. I don't stand in I don't know I know what talk I don't know what you your talk give us. I is it a will You know it's yeah, you put it on your finger, I think, don't you? Anyway No, you put in your tongue, sorry. Place a few drops of we are so old fashioned here. We don't know what CBD oil is. Place a few drops of the oil on your tongue and hold for a minute before swallowing.ro is I think if I do I might sort of mildly trip on this or is may I mean, you could still do that with two people. Yes. you could, yeah. Anyway. There's no one here to do it with. I'm not gonna to do. I bet you are so pleased you decided to talk about what's in your room because you know, it's opened up vors peopleople across the world are wondering, what does George Osborne do in that hotel room? T try and set up my podcast kit so I can talk to you, and I' It's out by the side of the bed doing it.uch is my commitment to this podcast and to our audience. Talking of which we get some questions from people who listen to our podcast? Well, I mean unless you so relaxed beyond doing it. I've got some electrolytes, I've got some Vitamin C tent. I've got a magnesium pouch here What' is that for? Is that for like constipation or something? It says restest and recover, pineapple. I thought it I thought so. That might be the one thing you should take in the morning, George. What? pineapp, rest and recover. I was thinking to get you regular. Right, now you're just getting personal. I might ask you about your morning routine. We just had to get you to wipe some marmite off your face before this podcast started. My morning routine started at six AM when the te' made little. talking about nineteen seventy eight. Let us have a question from Natalie Fleet Now she is a labour member of Parlient. She's a minister She is the member of Parliament for Bolssover, the old Dennis Skinner seat, which actually went Tory after him, didn't it? So she won her seat at the last election. This is Natalie's question Hi, Edin George, Natalie Fleet here, Minister for Violence againainst Women and Girls in Sfeguarding Nine in ten pieces of online child sexual abuse material are self generated by the children themselves So it can start with a photo being sent to a boyfriend and it ends up being in the hands of organized crime and paedophiles, using it as leverage to extort and groom children Absolutely disgusting So as society, we've got to be honest, we've failed to keep pace with the changing threats faced by young people. We've got a sacred duty to protect our most vulnerable and our youngest. So, exciting news, the UK will become the first country in the world where it's impossible for children to take, share, view and receive nude images on their devices compomanies have got three months to activate their technology and if they don't, we'll legislate to force them. So with George at the heart of the tech ecosystem, what does he make of the move? And as parents Do you feel more comfortable handing your children their phone for the first time? I know I do Thanks bye. So Natalie, the safeguarding minister, she is undoubtedly a rising star of the government You could think of her as being in the Angela Rayna mold, being very kind of authentic, straight talking, reaches out across all sides of politics in her in her style She also has a very, very difficult backstory, which like Angela Rna in a different way. She's spoken about a lot. She was probably abused as a a girl. groomed by by a man and without going to the details. It's an awful story, but a story which she is channneeling into the work she's doing. as the minister championing action against violence against women and girls And and I think she's right to be enthusiastic about this policy. I was a bit surprised that Kir Stahmer having given the impression there was going to be action he laid down a challenge to the tech industry, but I think the issue here, and George, you'll know more than me The technology exists so that if under sixteen is taking a photo of themselves um with a um, you know, a naked image that the phone can automatically choose to blur that or to block it or to prevent it being sent And when Jess Phillips resigned as a minister with that excoliating letter few weeks ago, what she was complaining about was that the government had been so slow to engage with the tech industry demanding that this technology is used universally in phones. Now it's complicated I think, because You need age verification. So it's not only about the technology, but I think I'm right in saying that some phone manufacturers and providers D this technology in and others, particular Apple have been dragging their feet. and so therefore K Stam is saying if some can do it, all could do it. get on with it because the, um, the way in which boys and adult males have u used u Naked images in particular of girls to then bully and control. is a terrible aspect of violence against women and girls, but also a new aspect because it's happened of this technology Yeah. that's right. mean I think the It' the sort of bedrock of all the sort of tech policy around how young people engage with technology, whether it's social media, obviously there's lots of talk of social media bans or indeed AI chat box and so on All of it starts with this technology that can verify whether someone's a child or not And that is now technically posossible So the technology exists and and enables Governments like the British government to pass laws like the one that or rules the one Natalie is describing, or indeed to fair the Sunac G government pass the law on You know, that you had to verify you were an adult before accessing a pornographic website in the UK. None of that would be possible without the age verification technology, which is now very, very strong. and you know, uses a combination of identity cards and stuff like that, but they can easily be faked and then facial recognition technology, which is so powerful And all the sort of policy thinking going forward is sort of based on that sort of bedrock of technology. The question then is like what do you do with that technology? So in this case There's just an outright ban So there's no consent to. It's not like you can get parental consent to share an image of you nude orthough I imagine that'd be qu an awkward conversation at home here it's just been banned. And the same is true with access to pornography in the UK. The kind of social media ban which is the one that's being speculated about is more complicated where I noticed when I was u visiting the House of Houses of Parliament this week. to appear before the House of Lords Economic Committee which talks about the main podcast. I came by Tube and there's a tube entrance at the House of Commons. and you pass these big posters from YouTube now which are saying, look, we'll verify this as a child and give the a parent control on how many hours they can use a phone and it can be zero U so so the technology doesn't just enables a set of policy decisions, which is Okay you verified this as a child now what do you want to do So I think that's all that is all quite interesting. and in this case, obviously the decision is you just want to ban it. alogher. Of course, you know, the technology is going to adapt and evolve and you're going to have to and the bad actors are going to try and find ways around it. So you've just got to stay technologically on top of it. And I think there's a kind of general thing I see from my job, which is it's going to be an interesting kind of feature for policymakers in this whole space. So the technology is rapidly changing You know, even in the six months since I joined openpenAI, the power of these modeles has like dramatically improved And the things they can do is like dramatically expanded But lawmaking is often quite static. You know, you pass a law, It takes a year to consult on it. It takes a year to pass it through Parliament. you set up a regulator So you're going to have to have flexibility to kind of make sure that you don't fall way behind where the technology is going U which is often what we do when we create kind of powerful regulators. I think That will turn out to be a more effective way to generally regulate technology trying to put into kind of primary legislation u the rules around it But anyway, that's just a sort of broader observation. But the agge verification software makes this all possible Look, it's brilliant that Natalie's driving this work forward and that Jess Phillips came out and endorsed. this move. Of course The reality is behind encrypted chatroom walls, theseese pictures are being shared around the world and there was a philosophical question. which is Are these simply platforms And the responsibility is the user Oh It is actually Facebook and which metac contontrols a place where things are being published and shouldould they be taking editorial responsibility? And I think that is a big fight still to come. We had a We had a kind of amazing exposure this week from trading standards around fraud in advertising forty four percent or then fraudent adverts about finance in the UK have Martin Lewis's face on them. Martin Lewis, the ITV H champion of consumers and finance, does no advertising The Fancial Conduct authority say that fifty eight percent of the fraudulent ads on Facebook Meta They have already sent a warning to Facebook meta. to say this is a fraudulent ad and it it's still up. And when it comes to people being compensated, all the financial burden is borne by the banks, not borne by the tech companies. So I think you I hear what you're saying about technology, but there are some big questions about who should be responsible. Who is publishing? And who should if it was if it was the ITV or the BBC or the Times or the Sun and you published an ad in your paper which was a lie. You'vere in trouble becausecause you're the pubisher And I'm not sure why Meta gets away with it. I get what. I mean, the literal reason why they get away with it because was a really significant legal decision in the United States about twenty years ago that they wouldn't be treated as publishers that they were platforms and that you know, they're not exercising editorial judgment on what you see. it's, you know, It's Ed Balls who puts up a post or me who puts up a post rather than some editor at Facebook U But of course you're right, that of course the legislation on this is all evolving and changing. There's a very, very lively debate. and not least in the UK, which we will keep coming back to. Anyway, great to hear Natalie that you are Listening to Vodcast. Thankk you for your question. Congratulations on the legal changes you made. We'd love to know what you think about the Labour leadership Guntas, but Maybe you're keeping stum about that for the moment. Her question was sent over by Sylvia. He's now working with her in the department, but used to work on this podcast. so ye Natie had an inside track to that question, then. Hello Slvia. Nice Glad to hear you doing well. So our next question is from Anisa. Hi, Eden Gege. Hope're both doing well. Lve the podcast So my question is, before nineteen seventy nine, governments treated low unemployment as a moral priority Since then, controlling inflation has taken precedence With today's high living costs and global pressures, as well as rising unemployment, especially amongst young people, can the government realistically tackle inflation while still keeping unemployment low and perhaps once again, see it as a moral priority Thank you. So look, this is a really interesting question. A little bit of economics for a second. There was a view in the nineteen fifties and the nineteen sixties into the nineteen seventies that it was possible to trade bit more inflation for lower unemployment. And therefore, when people said morally unemployment is the big thing pump the economy up a bit more and pay a little bit more inflation, we can get lower unemployment. and I think that was all exploded by the nineteen seventies and also academically. The very famous nineteen sixty six Milton Friedman American Economic Association presidential lecture in which he basically said, This is a fool's game and that you just end up with higher inflation and unemployment doesn't come down at all. And that has been the experience. And I think part of this is the Phillips curve, isn't it? The Phillips curve was basically debunked and we realized that actually you just ended up u By trying to go after low unemployment, you ended up unemployment ending up in the same place but inflation being higher. Of course, we then went into a period where unemployment was lower in the end two thousands and the twenty tenens into this decade. and so down the political agenda a little bit And we've just gone through big inflation shocks U after COVID and u and all the disruption which has flown from that. And so therefore, inflation has been higher up the political agenda, but I think Eisa that you are right. And I think because we talked about Evan and the Labour Lehip election on our main podcast, but also with Natalie just then. if I was Andy Burnham And I was thinking about a big moral economic issue drive. through the next two years, I think I would choose Youth unemployment And I would say that there's a huge problem with youth unemployment short term but also potentially long term because of what's happening with technology And I would say we've got to make sure that we are equipping young people for jobs of the future, work out what those jobs are going to be, but also say let's remove unnecessary barriers and that might mean whether you're talking about welfare reform or the way in which regulations of the minimum wage are working, making sure that you're putting jobs for young people first, that might give him a bit of differentiation as well. for the first two years. So my advice to Andy Burnham is if you're thinking of the three big things to champion, I think youth unemployment and youth jobs be a good mole mission. I think that's sensible advice. And it's a kind of hidden and growing problem in Britain, I would say becausecause so we've got so used to as our generation not talking about unemployment. And I think that kind of goes to the heart of Anes' question. I think this question has been the core question of sort of domestic politics throughout much of the twentieth century, which is the trade off between inflation and unemployment. Thats. And you know, John Maynard Kynes' response to the sort of anti inflationary austerity nineteen twenty nine response You know, it was obviously sort of shaped a lot of post war thinking and And as you say, it all sort of came crashing down in the nineteen seventies. and then you got the Thatcher governments and unemployment was a price worth paying to get inflation down. was what they said, and that was seen as callous and so on But but it became the doctrine and then was enshrined in inflation targeting and ultimately in this country in the Independent Bank of England U And the Bank of India doesn't a dual mandate unlike the Federal Reserve, which is supposed to keep an eye on. employment and growth. The Bank of England is just designed It's just supposed to target inflation, although in practice, I think at times it can looks through that Um, And you say, that's because in the end, high inflation is the really pernicious thing that doesn't solve your employment problem And the interesting thing as well is that You know, during recent periods of high inflation, when people have been expecting unemployment to really rocket, That hasn't happened. and that may be due to all sorts of things like labour shortages and aging society et soa. But I think that all of this points to the sort of missing ingredient. The thing way you get low inflationary growth and high employment is productivity. improvements And you know, that is what's been lacking in Britain and in many other western economies Um And we're much less good, I think, at really understanding how to drive productivity growth. because people talk about it a lot and there's lots of talk about, know investing infrastructure and capital spending and so on. but I'm not sure people have the Yet the kind of magic answer. Although interesting in the US, there is evidence now that productivity growth is picking up. Maybe things to learn from there. But yeah, this question, I've tell you, this question had been asked in nineteen eighty one This would have been the defining political question of the day That is completely right. I would slightly take issue with you. In the Bank of England's mandate, it's not a dual mandate. It's not inflation and unemployment The inflation target is symmetric, which means that If the Bank of England was trying to get lower inflation at the cost of rising unemployment in the short term, that would be the wrong thing for them to do because they aren't allowed to get inflation to be too low or too high And secondly, their mandate says to meet the inflation target subject to that to support the government's wider economic objectives, which includes growth and employment. And if you have a big shock pushes inflation up. As you say, when you say see through that what they have to do is make sure they get inflation down in a way which doesn't pay some drastic cost in terms of high and then potentially permanent unemployment. So It's more It's not only inflation and nothing else. Would you say the indndependent Bank of England has never really been tested? since its independence by having to kind of really push up rates in a way that pull out of work which was what happened in the early nineteen nineties. We've never had that real test of an independent bank where you get the prime Minister of the day screaming at the independent governor saying, this is you are putting people out of work. I mean you get a version of it actually with Trump in the United States and the Federal Reserve. I don't know whet it's good luck or good judgment You know, ever since nineteen ninety seven, we haven't had those. moments where Interest rates have to squeeze out inflation and cause highemployment See, in a way there was a version of that test with List Trust in the Bank of England refusing to carry on supporting Um, with, you know with monetary policy. the financial markets when they were destabilised by the pension fund problems during her premership. but that was a bit of a test. But actually the best parallel and I agree with you, it's not like the nineteen seventies or nineteen eighty one In the autumn of nineteen ninety eight Interest rates had gone up a lot. Unemployment was goingoing up Eddie George, as govern of the Bank of England, made a reference to Um, uh who I think to a regional newspaper to unemployment being something you had to bear in some parts of the country get inflation down in other parts of the country, it caused a bit of a of an outcry and he ended up going to the TUC conference in seeptember nineteen ninety eight to explain that actually it wasn't the case that he thought unemployment in the North was a price worth paying for low inflation. in the south. We talked to Andrew Bailey about this me and Stephanie when we were up in Kakodi the other day. I think that was a vulnerable moment. but as you say, because in the end, I'm We moved to a low inflation, low growth higher growth, low unemployment environment in the years which followed in that early year, we got through that challenging moment. That is the closest moment, but it was nowhere near as serious as nineteen eighty one or nineteen ninety one That very good question from you, Anisa. Thank you very much. We will be back shortly after this break stillill 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 com. Join them to save up to ninety percent of carrier rates from your computer or phone right now Print posted 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 d. com and use code podcast for a free welcome gift. Taxes and pease upine When you're a maintenance engineer in a beverage manufacturing plant You keep production lines moving and quality on track because there is no room for slowdowns. With Granger's vast selection of high quality motors, sensors, belts, and hard to find parts, you can get what you need fast and all in one place, so nothing gets in the way of getting the job done Call one eight hundred ranger, click ranger. com or just stop by Ranger for the ones who get it done. Quick question, When was the last time a display ad changed your mind Now think about the last time a friend told you about something they loved. Different feeling, right? That's how podcast advertising works. A host who's built real trust with their audience talks about your brand in their own words in their own voice. It doesn't interrupt the experience. It's part of it. With ACast, you can access the world's largest podcast marketplace Choose the right shows, the right audiences, the right format. Then watch the data tell you it worked. You're not buying impressions. You're buying influence Learn more by visiting aast d. com slash advertise Welcome back. Now we've got a question from Anthony U Well I say this question is actually It's a statement, which is which we invited. We did ask Someone to tell us what was going on um So is this is Athony's question and response to our inquiry Hello E and George. I love the Pod. On a recent episode of EMQs about resignations, George said he never understood why government ministers weren't affected ban on MPs having an office for profit under the crown of setettlement seventeen oh one brought in the ban on offices for profit to stop the monarch buying MP's votes. But there was an exception if you were a minister at the time of election This led to ministerial by elections taking place every time an MP was appointed to a new job With some modifications, that system largely stayed in place until it was suspended during World War I and abolished a few years later But I have a question for you History becomes optional for English students at the age of fourteen which is an unusually early time to stop learning it both by international standards and compared to other parts of the UK. Do you think English students would benefit from learning more history during secondary school So Anthony, thank you for kind of clearing that up. And on the history point, look I think it is And u I worked with a Golden Brown. as chancellor, a historian And I talked to him a lot about the economics I'd learned. He talked a lot to me about the history he'd learned I don't think you can be a good politician or good policymaker unless you understand economics and history. And I guess George, as a Chancellor who was also a historian and pretty learned your economics under the job you'd probably agree you need both. Yeah, well I absolutely think having a sense of history or how, you know people in the past have faced similar situations to the ones you face and how they've responded and the lessons from that are really important, even if history doesn't repeat itself Um, and economic histories is a proper discipline and partart of that. So I agree. I mean, Anntony Let me just make an observation about the office Office for prorofit under the crown he remind yes, he reminded me of my history, which was used to be the case that if you became if you accepted a ministerial job, you had to trigger a by election in order to tellell the constituents that you were now going to be a minister and they had a chance essentially to reassess whether they still wanted you as the MP. And so people like Winston Churchill, mean it was quite current as Anthony's explaining until just after the First World War peopleeople would have to sort of trigger these by elections And that's why you have this old distinction between the payroll. And yet people resign from the House of Commons like Josh Simmons did create the Maker Vill Bialection, he accepted an one of these sort of medieval offices, the the Chilteron hundredundreds and the Mor of Norsteed But maybe it's coming back, Anthony. is a version of history Repeating itselfuff because could say that Andy Burnham is in order to ome Prime Minister has put himself up for election in a by election And so the first choice of whether they want Andy Burnham to be the Prime Minister of this country goes to the people of Makerfield and they will make this decision, I would suggest on behalf of the rest of us So So the people in Makerfield probably for the one and only time in Macerfield's history U get the chance to choose the Prime Minister of Britain Very interesting. I also hope that Andy was listening to our main podcast where we were drawing up History of Jim Callahghan and John Major, Gordon Brown Tony Blair Tresa made Boris Johnson to help him think about how to form an administration. As you know, I teach a class with former Pan Scretary Nit Mchers and Profor John Davis at Kingingss and treasury and economic policy since nineteen forty five, we all believe that history and including contemporary history is really important in educating policymakers and we've had T two hundred fifty treasury civil servants do that course as part of their job as well as full time master's students. And you are right. It's both about understanding when history is repeating itself but also looking out for when it's not repeating itself and why? And if you don't learn the right lessons from history and you learn the wrong lessons, then you also could make very bigger mistakes. I am I did a lecture in two thousand two or two, three called Y the fiveive Economic tests Well I went back to nineteen twenty five, nineteen forty nine, nineteen sixty seven and nineteen ninety two and in every stage looked at why governments screwed up economic policy decisions to get back to the gold standard, the devaluations, the ERM. And normally it was because There wass a cross party consensus in advance saying this is a really good thing to do. Let's join the ERM. Let's go back to gold. So I've always felt that history teaches you when there's a cross party consensus on something in economic policy You should be very, very suspicious And that's why we fought so hard to make sure there wasn't one over the euro. In the Chancellor's small dining room in number eleven, which is a beautiful room, arguably, I think the nicest room in the whole of the Dining street complex I got put up on the wall two paintings from which was sort of lent from the national collllections. One was of Winston Churchill, who was Chancellor at the time of the return to the gold standard And the other was of John Maynard Kenes. who was at the dinner arguing against that he held Winstster Church's Chancellor had a dinner in that room with the bankers and things to make a decision on the gold standard, and John Mno Cones was the only person in the room saying, That's a bad idea So we had a picture we had a painting of Maynard Kynes and a painting of Churchill in that room. And Maynard Keynes was in a really bad mood because he felt he had a cold. and didn't perform well. And much of the things which drove him the next twenty years of his career tried to make right the fact that in that dinner in ' twenty five, he didn't feel as though he made the argument effectively to Churchill. He thought Churchill was sympathetic But the governor of Bank of England was on the other side of the argument and I think that was the peran secretary the Treasur And Cavees didn't didn't didn't win the argument and he never forgave himself. for that when Winstton Churchill died, many decades later, obviously was a great national hero. and Harold Wilson gave the A's Prime Mister at the time gave the kind of speech in Parliament, which is a brilliant speech. mayaybe we'll come back in talk about that on another occasion He noted that in the one place where you know they didn't celebrate Churchill was the South Wales mining communities, which were crushed by the decision to return to the gold standard in the late twenties when he was Chancellor., but it was recommended by the Cudliff Committee and it was supported by the Times and the economist, Labour and Cervative, and what an error That was beware when a consensus forms. Join the ERM. It will be the solution It was a catastrophe. Let's take a break and we'll have one more question. 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. thenen 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. 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Learn more by visiting Acast dot com slash advertise. Welcome back. Our final quest is from Gareth Heo gentlem My first interest in politics came as a teenager watching spitting image in Rory Bremner I didn't really understand it at all at that age, but I love the impressions and whilst I now hope to understand the world of politics better, I still do love to hear a good imppressionist with Matt Ford in my opinion, one of the best out there I don't recall having heard many if any impressions of either of you, so I have a couple of questions. Firstly How do you feel about the fact you're not widely impersonated compared to the likes of Michael Gove, Boris, or even Le Anderson And secondly and most importantly Can you do any good impressions yourselves Ed, we've been treated to your Gordon Brown on many occasions, so anyone else in your repertoire And George, who can you do I hope you keep doing this great podcast for many years to come. It's a great listen Now, George. I think this is slightly unfair because I remember you doing, you know, Gareth says you don't do impressions, you do a really good William Haagig William Hig Come with me to the Rher Valley the communities that I grew up with It's a bit like Harold Wilson,. They've got very similar. they grew up very, very close to each other And if you listen to Harow Wilson and William Hay next to each other, they're unbelievably Similar I used to do a Tony Blare. I kind of likeked Tony Blare when I was prepping Paris Torory leaders for Prime Mister's questions against him Um And one that I can't do anymore, you know, it's just not loud as the Peter Mandelsen impression I used to do G on G give me Pet M Anderson. Oh, come on, George. Why are you talking to Ed Edward is not your friend. You know that, George I have to say George I think you're actually quite a good chap, but you may be good at the jokes, but you're not so good at the policy. Yeah. Ed, he calls himself a blairright? I don't think so Yeah, we're going to stick to our day jobs or our part time jobs. And Mattford does a I watched them Matt I saw a clip of it on my phone the other day, which was Matt forall doing the impressions of A Kia Starmer and Nigel Farage talking about the World Cup. and I have to say Matt, they were really, really good. They were very, very funny impressions that he does. Matt Ford also does a brilliant Donald Trump. But just to get he' qu easy to do Trp though, I feel, isn't he justust to get to Gallas's question, you know, what is the The reason Um why I don't remember seeing lots of people doing impressions of you or me.. Now that might be because we weren't Prime Minister And I think prime ministers are kind of different because they have such a status. But I think there's also something about If you are somebody whose style, is almost already a caricature. if you think of Roy Hattersley or Norman Tbott or Jacob Reese Mg or John Prescott, they are you know already so verbally