Podcasts about shadow chancellor

We're back! Mark is joined by John McDonnell, ex-Shadow Chancellor and Jeremy Corbyn ally. In a full-length, outspoken, no-holds barred interview, Mark quizzes John about his political passions, the Jeremy Corbyn years, life in the Labour Party under Keir Starmer – and how we go forward from here.  You can hear the second part of the interview in next week's episode – but if you can't wait, why not join us on Patreon? For £4 a month you can listen to the whole interview straight away – and you'll also be able to watch it! https://www.patreon.com/wtfisgoingonpod  For media, press & guest enquiries please email mikey@carouselstudios.co.uk Follow What The F*** Is Going On? with Mark Steel on Twitter @wtfisgoingonpod  Follow Mark Steel @mrmarksteel   Follow John McDonnell @johnmcdonnellMP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, Adam is joined by Jeremy Bowen to discuss the summit taking place in Paris, where Europe's leaders have united behind support for Ukraine and further sanctions against Russia.Plus, Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride is in the studio to give Adam and Chris his verdict on yesterday's Spring Statement. And, it wouldn't be Mel Stride on Newscast without a political sporting metaphors quiz. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://discord.gg/NbuxWnmYNew episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Miranda Slade with Shiler Mahmoudi and Nancy Geddes. The technical producer was Rohan Madison. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.

How have the Conservative party adapted to opposition? What lessons has it taken from its 14 years in power – and its big defeat at the general election? And what is it thinking about the way government should work – and could work better? Shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart was in conversation with Hannah White. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alex Burghart MP was in conversation with Dr Hannah White OBE, Director and CEO of the Institute for Government

On Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Nick talks to Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, about the National Wealth Fund, which seeks to inject 8,600 new jobs into the economy. Jones also talks to Nick about the crumbling retail industry, and Reeves heavily questioned labour budget.Reform Leader, Nigel Farage, talks to Nick about a possible Conservative-Reform deal after Suella Braverman declared the parties should consider joining forces. Farage also talks about the recent resignation of another labour minister, and his trip to the US this Friday. Mel Stride, Shadow Chancellor, also talks to Nick about the state of the UK economy. The Shadow Chancellor discusses the recent reports that inflation was falling in the UK. Stride claims, in the long run, Reeve's budget will result in a continues decline in the economy.Nick also talks about obesity, and the inaccuracy of using BMI as an indicator. All of this and more on Nick Ferrari - The Whole Show Podcast.

Alex BurghartPolitics. History. Food.What more do you want for Christmas?Alex Burghart is the Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and fills in for Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.More importantly, he has a deep fat fryer and he's keen to experiment.This is the indulgent Christmas special we all needed. FOLLOW Alex on X: @alexburghartTHE POLITICAL PARTY IS BACK ON STAGE!Get tickets for all shows here: https://nimaxtheatres.com/shows/the-political-party-with-matt-forde/SEE Matt at on tour until March 2025, including his extra date at The Bloomsbury Theatre: https://www.mattforde.com/live-shows29 January: Norwich, Playhouse - EXTRA DATE2 February: Salford, Lowry4 February: Leeds, City Varieties5 February: Sheffield, The Leadmill6 February: Chelmsford Theatre7 February: Bedford, The Quarry Theatre12 February: Bath, Komedia13 February: Southend, Palace Theatre16 February: Cambridge, The Junction20 February: Nottingham, Lakeside Arts23 February: Brighton, Komedia25 February: Cardiff, Glee Club26 February: Bury St Edmunds, Theatre Royal28 February: Chelmsford Theatre - EXTRA DATE2 March: Bristol, Tobacco Factory4 March: Colchester Arts Centre - EXTRA DATE6 March: Birmingham, Glee Club - EXTRA DATE7 March: Maidenhead, Norden Farm - EXTRA DATE11 March: Aberdeen, Lemon Tree12 March: Glasgow, Glee Club27 March: Oxford, Glee Club - EXTRA DATE28 March: Nottingham, Lakeside Arts Centre - EXTRA DATE4 April: London, Bloomsbury Theatre - EXTRA DATE Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Ordinary Elite is a Scottish podcast brought to you from Glasgow by John McGovern and Mike Dailly. Both are Solicitor Advocates - John a criminal defence lawyer and Mike a civil litigation practitioner and social justice campaigner. In our 9th episode of Season 3, we discuss the UK Government's first Labour budget with former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John McDonald MP. Will Labour's policies transform the lives of ordinary people for the better in the UK?

Robert and Steph are joined by former Shadow Chancellor of The Exchequer, John McDonnell, to discuss what he thinks Rachel Reeves should and shouldn't do in the upcoming budget, how child poverty should be Labour's number one priority, and how he feels about this Labour government in general. Sign up to our newsletter to get more stories from the world of business and finance. Email: restismoney@gmail.com X: @TheRestIsMoney Instagram: @TheRestIsMoney TikTok: @RestIsMoney goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Ross Buchanan Head of Content: Tom Whiter Exec Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, tells us about how her childhood and passion for chess have shaped her identity as a woman within male dominated environments. Producer: Florence de Schlichting Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's manifesto day again! But this time with fewer racing puns and more toolmaker father references. Camilla is joined by Kamal and Political Editor Ben Riley Smith reporting live from Labour's big launch in Manchester. Sir Keir Starmer insists all of his plans have been ‘fully costed' - so what's the final bill?We hear some of the highlights from the potential PM's speech and Kamal asks Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves where the money will come from. Plus, can Nigel Farage really unite the right?ReadNigel Farage is wrong: If the Tories move Right, they will be out for 20 years, by Kamal Ahmed: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/09/nigel-farage-wrong-if-tories-move-right-out-for-20-years/Nigel Farage has set out to destroy the Tories – and history may be on his side, by Philip Johnston: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/04/nigel-farage-destroy-tories-history-on-his-side/ Email: thedailyt@telegraph.co.ukThe Daily T Newsletter: telegraph.co.uk/dailytnewsletterSubscribe to The Telegraph: telegraph.co.uk/dailytsubProducers: Lilian Fawcett and Georgia CoanSenior Producer: John CadiganPlanning Editor: Venetia RaineyVideo Producer: Luke GoodsallStudio Operator: Meghan SearleSocial Media Producer: Ji-Min LeeExecutive Producer: Louisa WellsEditor: Camilla TomineyOriginal music by Goss Studio Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How would an incoming Labour government fund the NHS? How does Reeves and Starmer's relationship compare to Blair and Brown? What is the experience of being a woman in the world of banking and politics? Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves joins Rory and Alastair as they discuss all this and more. TRIP Plus: Become a member of The Rest Is Politics Plus to support the podcast, receive our exclusive newsletter, enjoy ad-free listening to both TRIP and Leading, benefit from discount book prices on titles mentioned on the pod, join our Discord chatroom, and receive early access to live show tickets and Question Time episodes. Just head to therestispolitics.com to sign up, or start a free trial today on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/therestispolitics. TRIP FIRST 100 DAYS TOUR: To buy tickets for our October Tour, just head to www.therestispolitics.com Instagram: @restispolitics Twitter: @RestIsPolitics Email: restispolitics@gmail.com Podcast Editor: James Hodgson Video Editor: Teo Ayodeji-Ansell Social Producer: Jess Kidson Assistant Producer: Fiona Douglas Producer: Nicole Maslen Senior Producer: Dom Johnson Head of Content: Tom Whiter Exec Producers: Tony Pastor + Jack Davenport Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has ruled out putting up income tax, or national insurance, if Labour wins power at the general election.

Today's edition of PMQS saw Rishi Sunak grilled on the progress of the Rwanda deal and criminal prosecutions, we discuss the Prime Minister's performance. Plus, yesterday the Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves delivered her big economic vision-setting Mais lecture. What did we learn? Panmure Gordon's Chief Economist Simon French joins us with more. Hosted by Caroline Hepker and James Woolcock. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves takes your calls and should the UNRWA be defunded?Joining Iain Dale on Cross Question this evening are transparency campaigner and leader of the True and Fair Party Gina Miller, Conservative MP and former defence minister Sir Alec Shelbrooke, Labour MP Kim Johnson and Sebastian Payne from the Onward think tank.

The Autumn Statement is an update on the Government's taxation and spending plans for the economy. The statement usually takes place in October or November, and is delivered by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Commons. After the Statement is delivered, the Shadow Chancellor will respond, followed by a representative for the Scottish National Party. The Chair of the Treasury Committee is often called to respond at this point too. MPs will then debate the Autumn Statement for three days.

Rishi Sunak has clocked up 365 days as Prime Minister – but is the anniversary a cause for celebration or just a moment of relief? Politico's Dan Bloom joins the podcast team to weigh up Sunak's first year in the job, assess his achievements and failures and how he has surprised us, and explore what might come next. From the man in Number 10 to a woman who might fancy a tilt at the top job… Rachel Reeves enjoyed a successful Labour conference, and this week the Shadow Chancellor launched her new book – which has already caused some controversy – at the IfG. The podcast team take a look at Reeves's ambitions and challenges, as well as an increasingly complicated party problem for Keir Starmer. With Hannah White, Cath Haddon and Giles Wilkes. Produced by Milo Hynes

If the current polls are to be believed the next chancellor of the exchequer could be a woman. That woman would be Rachel Reeves, the current shadow chancellor and the MP for Leeds West. Originally from Lewisham, South London, she attended a state school, made it to Oxford University then into the world of finance working as an economist for the Bank of England. Labour have yet to announce their manifesto and detailed costed policies to put to the electorate, but we can examine the philosophy behind Labour's economic thinking because Rachel has just published her latest book, The Women Who made Modern Economics, and hear how they have influenced her own thinking. In October 2019, Coleen Rooney posted on social media that she had been concerned by articles appearing in newspapers that could only have come from stories on her private Instagram account. So she laid a trap for the account she suspected of the leak, and then told the world ‘It was…Rebekah Vardy's account'. Immediately dubbed ‘Wagatha Christie' - Rebekah Vardy, who continues to deny she was the source of those stories, sued Coleen for libel. A High Court judge ruled in Coleen Rooney's favour last year and she is now putting her side of the story in a documentary series on Disney Plus called Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story. She speaks to Emma Barnett in a radio exclusive interview.  British poet Becky Hemsley has self-published four collections of her work and has been top of the Amazon poetry chart twice now - most recently around International Women's Day last March. Originally a primary school teacher, she now focuses solely on her poetry. She joins Emma to explain why and to perform some of her poetry live. Presented by Emma Barnett Producer: Louise Corley Studio Engineer: Bob Nettles

On Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Nick speaks with Foreign Secretary James Cleverly amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Experts answer your questions about the events in the Middle East and what they mean. Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden joins live from the Labour party conference. All of this and more on the Nick Ferrari Whole Show Podcast.

The News Agents at the Labour Party Conference: Day 1The Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves joins The News Agents following her speech in Liverpool.We discuss her plans to tax tech firms, her unwillingness to tax the rich and the Labour members carrying Palestinian flags outside the conference centre.We also talk about the war that has begun formally today in Israel, after Hamas carried out a series of terror attacks this weekend.Editor: Tom HughesSenior Producer: Gabriel RadusProducer: Laura FitzPatrickPlanning Producer: Alex BarnettSocial Media Editor: Georgia FoxwellVideo Producer: Rory SymonYou can listen to this episode on Alexa - just say "Alexa, ask Global Player to play The News Agents".

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves takes your calls, Cross Question & do we need a 'Minister for Men'?Joining Iain Dale on Cross Question this evening are Conservative Party Chairman Greg Hands, Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, human rights barrister Dr Charlotte Proudman and Dan Hodges from the Mail on Sunday.

They could well win three by-elections this week, but actually it's been a tough few days for Keir Starmer's Labour Party, who have had to front up to the fact that some of what he'd hoped to offer the electorate next year just won't be possible because to coin a phrase, there's no money left. It means that in the interests of economic stability a Labour government wouldn't end the cap on benefits for families with more than two children, something a number of prominent Labour politicians have previously expressed their outrage about. So who better to ask about Labour's much more prudent approach to its spending than Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor who could be in charge of the public purse strings in just a few months time? She was speaking at a meeting in her home city of Leeds of Northern Gritstone, an organisation which invests in innovative ideas from Northern universities and aims to turn them into big, impactful businesses. Rob Parsons asks her about innovation in the North, what the new economic reality means for Labour's promises on green jobs and HS2, and what she makes of North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll quitting the party. We also hear from Leeds academic Professor Piers Forster, an expert in climate physics who's helped write some of the most globally significant reports on climate change. He's the director of the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures and as of last month he's the interim chair of the Climate Change Committee, the independent body that advises the UK government on how to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. With greenhouse gas emissions at record levels, heatwaves sweeping the globe and Rishi Sunak facing criticism for not taking the issue seriously, it feels like a critical time for this most pressing of issues. But what can we do to help in the North?   *** Don't forget you can now watch the best interviews from The Northern Agenda podcast on YouTube - check out our playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzE0rXt9oGq2nfc3VHw-Pzx1tttiLpP6z *** The Northern Agenda is a Laudable production for Reach. It is presented by Rob Parsons, and produced by Daniel J. McLaughlin. You can subscribe to the daily Northern Agenda newsletter here: http://www.thenorthernagenda.co.uk/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How to restore trust in politics by strengthening standards in public life has been in the spotlight in recent years. The Labour Party has proposed a new, independent Ethics and Integrity Commission to “stamp out corruption in government, strengthen the rules and ensure they are enforced.”   But how would that commission work in practice? If Labour forms the next government, what powers would the commission have to investigate alleged poor behaviour? How will it enforce its judgements? Who would sit on the commission and how will it work with government ministers?  To answer all these questions and set out her vision for how to make politics work better at a time of depleted trust, the Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP, Labour's Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, gave a keynote speech at the Institute for Government. The event was chaired by Tim Durrant, Programme Director at the Institute for Government. Following her speech, Angela Rayner took part in a Q&A with the in-person and online audience

How to restore trust in politics by strengthening standards in public life has been in the spotlight in recent years. The Labour Party has proposed a new, independent Ethics and Integrity Commission to “stamp out corruption in government, strengthen the rules and ensure they are enforced.” But how would that commission work in practice? If Labour forms the next government, what powers would the commission have to investigate alleged poor behaviour? How will it enforce its judgements? Who would sit on the commission and how will it work with government ministers? To answer all these questions and set out her vision for how to make politics work better at a time of depleted trust, the Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP, Labour's Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, gave a keynote speech at the Institute for Government. The event was chaired by Tim Durrant, Programme Director at the Institute for Government. Following her speech, Angela Rayner took part in a Q&A with the in-person and online audience.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves takes your calls, Cross Question and is Israel's military operation on the West Bank morally defensible?Joining Iain Dale on Cross Question this evening are former Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, Labour's Shadow Employment Minister Alison McGovern, Conservative Party vice-chair Paul Holmes and the UK director of Human Rights Watch Yasmine Ahmed.

The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates for a 13th consecutive time on Thursday as it tries to stop prices rising so quickly. On Wednesday it was revealed that UK inflation had remained much higher than expected for the fourth month in a row and Karen Ward, a member of chancellor Jeremy Hunt's economic advisory council, told Today that the Bank had "been too hesitant" in its interest rate rises so far and called on it to "create a recession" to curb soaring prices. Today's Amol Rajan spoke to the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, about what the governments immediate plans were to tackle inflation. Nick Robinson spoke to the Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, about what approach a Labour government would take to slowing the rapid rise in prices. (Image, Bank of England, Credit Yui Mok PA)

Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves has scrapped Labour's flagship pledge to spend £28 billion a year on green technology BISSELL SpotClean Pro | 750W Portable Carpet Cleaner BISSELL SpotClean | Portable Carpet Cleaner

Greece has come a long way since it stood on the brink of bankruptcy a decade ago. After years of painful austerity measures, tax hikes, pension cuts, and huge bailout checks, its post-pandemic economy is now outpacing the eurozone average. And despite a spying scandal, rising inflation and a tragic train crash that killed 57 people, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' center-right party tapped into underlying optimism, especially among young voters, to win a convincing victory on Sunday. He joins Christiane for his first interview after his party's election win.  Also on today's show: Rachel Reeves, UK Labour Party's Shadow Chancellor of Exchequer; Rich Lowry, Editor-In-Chief, National Review To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves takes your calls, Cross Question & are people being ageist to Joe Biden?Joining Iain Dale on Cross Question this evening are UNISON General Secretary Christina McAnea, former Refugees Minister Lord Harrington, Shadow Asia Minister Catherine West & Mail on Sunday columnist Dan Hodges.

A 5% pay rise has been offered to NHS staff in England, including ambulance workers and nurses. Is it enough to stop the strikes? Adam and Chris get reaction from Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who also gives her take on this week's budget. Sara Gorton, Head of Health at Unison, has been negotiating with government on the NHS strike. She explains why they're recommending their members back the deal. Today's episode was presented by Adam Fleming and Chris Mason and was made by Cordelia Hemming with Josh Jenkins and Tim Walklate. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves takes your calls, Cross Question & have you ever been falsely accused?Joining Iain Dale on LBC this evening are social activist Nimco Ali, Conservative MP and former minister Theresa Villiers, SNP MP Owen Thompson and political commentator Jonathan Lis.

This week, Paul is joined by Joe Ryle, Director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, Media and Comms Lead for the think tank Autonomy and former advisor to the Shadow Chancellor.Joe is leading the campaign for a four-day, 32-hour working week with no loss of pay, which he argues would benefit workers and employers. In this thought-provoking conversation, Joe lays out the benefits of the 4-day working week for all and then discusses how it could and if it could work in construction - particularly in the context of time-based pay (i.e. day works on site and charging per hour as a consultant).Here's the link to the report on a 4-day working week in construction.-----Are you struggling with a lack of Quantity Surveyors?A recent RICS Survey found that 54% of main contractors reported insufficient numbers of Quantity Surveyors available in the market, and at C-Link, we completed a survey that found 80% of companies find it challenging to recruit QS at the moment.Are you one of those companies?C-Link is software built by Quantity Surveyors for Main Contractors. We save 600 hours of Quantity Surveying time per project in automation. We can make your QS' so much more efficient.Book a demo to learn more by clicking here.Support the showWant to connect with Paul?Paul is on Linkedin here and would love to talk. You can also connect with Paul at paul@c-link.com.To learn more about C-Link, Watch the Video, or book a demo by clicking here.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves takes your calls, Cross Question & should we listen to Liz Truss? Joining Iain Dale on Cross Question this evening are Green MP Caroline Lucas, Conservative MP Alexander Stafford, veteran journalist and broadcaster Julia Langdon and political commentator and former Cameron adviser Mo Hussein.

Public anger is spreading in the UK as hundreds of thousands of people have participated in wage strikes. The prime minister has described the industrial action as a political battle. So, how will his government deal with the growing dissatisfaction? Join host Laura Kyle. Guests: Alex Deane - Conservative commentator and a former Conservatie Party Aide. James Meadway - Former economic adviser to the Shadow Chancellor and currently Council Member of the Progressive Economy Forum. Jonathan Portes - Professor of Economics and Public Policy at King's College London.

The Political Editor of the Financial Times, George Parker, looks back on events in a frozen week in Westminster. He brings together Conservaive MP Simon Clarke, the former Levelling Up Secretary, and Jack Straw, the former Labour Cabinet minister and adviser to the Callaghan government, to discuss the mounting number of strikes and whether there are any parallels with the 'Winter of Discontent' in 1978-9. In a rare interview, Lord Macpherson, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury from 2005 to 2016, reflects on the tumultous economic events of the last few months and whether so-called Treasury orthodoxy has returned. Also in the programme, the Labour MP for Canterbury, Rosie Duffield, and Jack Brereton, Conservative MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, discuss migrant Channel crossings and the pressures on the asylum system. Finally, Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, reveals why she writes over 3,000 Christmas cards each year. Editor: Peter Snowdon

The Shadow Chancellor is on rollicking form in this hilarious, lively and impassioned interview. Rachel is steeped in economics, having worked for the Bank of England (at the same time Matt Hancock, more on that later). She sets out the dividing lines between herself and the Tories and explains the different decisions Labour would take if they win the next election. Rachel has only been Shadow Chancellor for a year and a half but in that time she has helped salvage Labour's economic credibility. She's also faced 4 Chancellors this year alone and gives us the inside story on how she prepares for each 'fiscal statement'. This is great fun with a politician at the top of their game. Buy tickets to The Political Party, live at The Duchess Theatre here: https://nimaxtheatres.com/shows/the-political-party-with-matt-forde/Forthcoming guests include:19 Dec: CHRISTMAS SPECIAL: Yvette Cooper, Emily Thornberry and music from MP423 Jan: Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel20 Feb: Keir Starmer6 March: Eddie Izzard Plus more to be announced! Follow @mattforde on Twitter for the latest news Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Parliament, the Opposition Parties continue to criticize Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement, saying that it will worsen the economic situation and is little more than a stealth raid on working people. It is the role of the Opposition to hold the Government to account and offer alternative policies. They seem to be succeeding in the former task but failing in the latter. The Leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer and his Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have been fiercely critical of the Conservatives, whom they accuse of driving the economy into the ground during twelve years in Government. Still, neither has offered any workable alternative to the tax rises and spending cuts announced last week. There is a row brewing between the Government and business leaders about a proposal that the UK adopt a Swiss-Style arrangement with the EU as part of Brexit. Switzerland has access to the single market and there is free movement of people. In exchange, Switzerland pays into the EU budget.

Today on The Day After, (05:09) Headlines: Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement 2022, Labour's Shadow Chancellor criticises the Autumn Statement (08:03) What You Saying? Do we need to take more accountability/responsibility when it comes to sex? (45:21) Headlines: Court finds Russia-controlled group guilty of downing airliner in 2014, Charlize Theron condemned for saying Afrikaans is dying language (49:55) Word on Road: Saweetie drops EP, bad timing or it is what it is?, Bukayo Saka pays for 120 Nigerian children's operations, Are Stormzy and Maya Jama back together? (01:00:34) The People's Journal: Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement Breakdown (01:24:46) Interview: The One About Six (02:45:10) Sis What Would You Do? (03:00:27) Headlines: Security minister Tom Tugendhat given six-month driving ban, Six out of every 10 Nigerians are in poverty, Nigeria confirm the killing of top militia leader (03:05:42) The Reaction: Qatari royal family demand a total ban on alcohol sales at World Cup stadiums, Gary Neville speaks on Ronaldo's interview with Piers Morgan, Mane is ruled out of the World Cup, Kyrie Irving could soon return from suspension (03:41:03) Outro --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thedayaftertnb/message

Whitehall Sources takes you behind the door of Number 10 Downing Street to understand life behind politics. Today, a podcast special - we're doing something slightly different to bring you snap reaction and analysis of the autumn statement from those who have advised prime ministers, cabinet secretaries and opposition leaders. Kirsty Buchanan is here throughout - PLUS we've got Ben Nunn, who was Sir Keir Starmer's Director of Communications until 2021; Simon Jones, who was an adviser in the department for transport and the No 10 business unit under Theresa May and Boris Johnson; Jake Richards who used to advise Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chancellor and Kevin Pringle who was the SNP's Director of Communications at Westminster. Do they miss being in Westminster on days like today? What's the political strategy behind the announcements? How can opposition parties respond?What does the autumn statement mean for you? Email us: hello@whitehallsources.com Support the podcast by becoming a member at: https://plus.acast.com/s/whitehallsources. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Whitehall Sources where we take you behind the scenes at Number 10 Downing Street. This week: what do we know so far about the plans Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt have for the economy? We discuss "test balloons" (also known as kite-flying) and why this strategy is effective. In Chequers and Balances - where we speak to an opposition adviser - we hear from James Meadway who advised John McDonnell who was Shadow Chancellor for Labour while Jeremy Corbyn was leader. He explains the ins and outs of Rishi Sunak's favourite attack against Sir Keir Starmer: that he supported Jeremy Corbyn. Plus, we open the doors (complete with sound effects) to The Correspondence Unit - this week, you wanted to consider Suella Braverman and immigration: does the Home Secretary speak for you on immigration policy? Also - Calum makes inappropriate jokes about Matt Hancock going on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here; Kirsty has a laughing fit and Oscar tries to make a serious point in the midst of it. We LOVE to get your analysis of what we've said, plus your questions about how things work in Whitehall. You can email us anytime: hello@whitehallsources.com. Support the podcast by becoming a member at: https://plus.acast.com/s/whitehallsources. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dispirited by pandemic lockdowns and a massive real estate crisis, today's young Chinese workers are dreaming less about becoming super-rich entrepreneurs and more about the workaday lives of bureaucrats. Their new distaste for private-sector jobs has caught the attention of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, which is trying to change opinions and recruit for private-sector manufacturing jobs that are going begging. In this week's episode of “Stephanomics,” reporter Tom Hancock discusses the unrest brewing among China's youth. Many have newly minted degrees and a growing number have embraced anti-capitalist idealism, exacerbating a mismatch between the jobs that are available and the jobs they actually want. Meantime, younger workers see the country's state-owned enterprises as more stable than privately-owned ones amid Covid-19 outbreaks and lockdowns, creating intense competition for public-sector jobs. The upshot is the jobless rate among China's youth is likely to hit 20%, which has alarmed President Xi Jinping's government. Host Stephanie Flanders talks to Bloomberg Chief Economist Tom Orlik about the outlook for the world's biggest country. He says China likely has been overstating its growth for years, giving critics reason to question how big its economy actually is right now. But China's leadership has proven it can develop that economy, and “it would be a big mistake for us to underestimate how big they will likely become in the next 10 or 20 years,” Orlik says. And, Flanders also talks worker wages with Rachel Reeves, who as the UK's Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer is the chief economic voice of the opposition Labour Party. It's a risky topic to address since Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey got lambasted last winter for suggesting workers forgo seeking pay raises because they might be inflationary. Reeves wouldn't say what a reasonable increase for workers would be, given ongoing discussions over pay by UK authorities, but suggested the trick to giving everyone a raise is boosting the economy.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Lorraine and Rosie are joined by former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ed Balls. From cooking, to his own day, this week's guest has got it all.

Before we get started… Writing elsewhereI have recently written about modern Russian literature for CapX, as well Victorian YIMBYs and Katherine Mansfield and 1922, for The Critic.Tours of LondonSign up here to get updates when we add new tour dates. There will be three tours a month, covering the Great Fire, Barbican, Samuel Johnson and more!Helen Lewis is a splendid infovore, which is how she has come to be one of the most interesting journalists of her generation. You will see in this conversation some of her range. We chatted before we recorded and she was full of references that reflect her broad reading. She reminded me of Samuel Johnson saying that in order to write a book you must turn over half a library. I recommend her book Difficult Women to you all, perhaps especially if you are not generally interested in “feminist” books. Helen is also working on a new book called The Selfish Genius. There's an acuity to Helen, often characterised by self-editing. She has the precision — and the keenness to be precise — of the well-informed. She was also, for someone who claims to be a difficult woman, remarkably amiable. That seeming paradox was one of the things we discussed, as well as biography, late bloomers, menopause, Barbara Castle, failure, Habsburgs and so on... I had not realised she was such a royal biography enthusiast, always a good sign. Helen's newsletter, by the way, has excellent links every week. It's a very good, and free, way to have someone intelligent and interesting curate the internet for you. Her latest Atlantic feature is about defunct European royals who are not occupying their throne. Let's hope one of Helen's screenplays gets produced…(I do not know, by the way, if Tyler Cowen would endorse the reference I made to him. I was riffing on something he said.)[This transcript is too long for email so either click the title above to read online or click at the bottom to go to the full email…]Henry: Is Difficult Women a collective biography, a book of connected essays, feminist history or something else?Helen Lewis: Start nice and simple. It was designed as the biography of a movement. It was designed as a history of feminism. But I knew from the start I had this huge problem, which is that anyone who writes about feminism, the first thing that everybody does is absolutely sharpens their pencils and axes about the fact that you inevitably missed stuff out. And so I thought what I need to do is really own the fact that this can only ever be a partial history. And its working subtitle was An Imperfect History of Feminism, and so the thematic idea then came about because of that.And the idea of doing it through fights, I think, is quite useful because that means that there was a collision of ideas and that something changed. You know, there were lots and lots of subjects that I thought were really interesting, but there wasn't a change, a specific "We used to be like this, and now we're like this," that I could tie it to. So I don't think it is a collective biography because I think there's no connection between the women except for the fact that they were all feminists, and to that extent, they were all change makers. And I've read some really great collective biographies, but I think they work best when they give you a sense of a milieu, which this doesn't really. There's not a lot that links Jayaben Desai in 1970s North London and Emmeline Pankhurst in 1900s Manchester. They're very disparate people.Henry: Some people make a distinction between a group biography, which is they all knew each other or they were in the same place or whatever, and a collective biography, which is where, as you say, they have no connection other than feminism or science or whatever it is. Were you trying to write a collective biography in that sense? Or was it just useful to use, as a sort of launching off point, a woman for each of the fights you wanted to describe?Helen Lewis: I think the latter because I felt, again, with the subject being so huge, that what you needed to do was bring it down to a human scale. And I always feel it's easier to follow one person through a period of history. And weirdly, by becoming ever more specific, I think you'll have a better chance of making universal points, right? And one of the things that when I'm reading non-fiction, I want to feel the granularity of somebody's research which, weirdly, I think then helps you understand the bigger picture better. And so if you take it down all the way to one person, or sometimes it's more... So Constance Lytton and Annie Kenney, that's sort of two people. I think probably Constance is bigger in that mix. It helps you to understand what it's like to be a person moving through time, which is what I wanted to kind of bring it back. Particularly, I think, with feminism where one of the problems, I think, is when you get progress made, it seems like common sense.And it's one of the things I find I love about Hilary Mantel's, the first two of that Thomas Cromwell trilogy, is there is a real sense that you don't know what's going to happen. Like the moment, the hinge moment, of Anne Boleyn's star appears to be falling. It's very hard not to read it now and think, "Well, obviously that was destined to happen. You'd obviously jumped ship to Jane Seymour." But she manages to recreate that sense of living through history without knowing the ending yet, right? And so maybe you should stick with Anne Boleyn. Maybe this has all just been a temporary blip. Maybe she'll have a son next year. And that's sort of what I wanted to recreate with feminism, is to put you back in the sensation of what it is to be like making those arguments about women having a vote at a time when that's seen as a kind of crackpot thing to be arguing for because obviously women are like this, obviously women are delicate, and they need to be protected. And when all of those arguments... Again, to go back to what it's like to just to live in a time where people's mindsets were completely different to... Which is to me, is the point of writing history, is to say... And the same thing about travel writing, is to say, "Here are people whose very basis, maybe even the way that they think, is completely different to all of your assumptions." All your assumptions that are so wired so deeply into you, you don't even know they're assumptions. You just think that's what consciousness is or what it is to be alive. And that's, I think, why I try to focus it on that human level.Henry: How do you do your research?Helen Lewis: Badly, with lots of procrastination in between it, I think is the only honest answer to that. I went and cast my net out for primary sources quite wide. And there was some... The number of fights kept expanding. I think it started off with eight fights, and then just more and more fights kept getting added. But I went to, for example, the LSC Women's Library has got a suffragette collection. And I just read lots and lots of suffragette letters on microfiche. And that was a really good way into it because you've got a sense of who was a personality and who had left enough records behind. And I write about this in the book, about the fact that it's much easier to write a biography of a writer because they'll fundamentally, probably, give you lots of clues as to what they were thinking and doing in any particular time. But I also find things that I found really moving, like the last letter from Constance Lytton before she has a stroke, which has been effected by being force fed and having starved herself. And then you can see the jump, and then she learns to write again with her other hand, and her handwriting's changed.And stuff like that, I just don't think you would get if you didn't allow yourself to be... Just sort of wade through some stuff. Someone volunteered to be my research assistant, I mean I would have paid them, I did pay them, to do reports of books, which apparently some authors do, right? They will get someone to go and read a load of books for them, and then come back. And I thought, "Well, this is interesting. Maybe I'll try this. I've got a lot of ground to cover here." And she wrote a report on a book about… I think it was about environmental feminism. And it was really interesting, but I just hadn't had the experience of living through reading a book. And all of the stuff you do when you're reading a book you don't even think about, where you kind of go, "Oh, that's interesting. Oh, and actually, that reminds me of this thing that's happened in this other book that's... Well, I wonder if there's more of that as I go along." I don't think if you're going try and write a book, there is any shortcut.I thought this would be a very... I'm sure you could write a very shallow... One of those books I think of where they're a bit Wikipedia. You know what I mean. You know sometimes when you find those very 50 inspirational women books, those were the books I was writing against. And it's like, you've basically written 50 potted biographies of people. And you've not tried to find anything that is off the beaten track or against the conventional way of reading these lives. It's just some facts.Henry: So biographically, you were perhaps more inspired by what you didn't want to write than what you did.Helen Lewis: Yeah, I think that's very true. I think writing about feminism was an interesting first book to pick because there's so much of it, it's like half the human race. It's really not a new subject. And to do the whole of British feminism really was a mad undertaking. But I knew that I didn't want to write, "You go girl, here's some amazing ladies in history." And I wanted to actually lean into the fact that they could be weird or nasty or mad. And my editor said to me at one point, and I said, "I'm really worried about writing some of this stuff." She said, "I think you can be more extreme in a book," which I thought was really interesting.Which I think is also very true in that I also feel like this about doing podcasts is that I very rarely get in trouble for things I've said on podcasts because it's quite hard to lazily clip a bit of them out and put them on Twitter and toss the chum into the water. Right? And I think that's the same thing about if you write something on page 390 of a book, yeah, occasionally, someone might take a screen-grab of it, but people hopefully will have read pages 1-389 and know where you're coming from, by that point.Henry: Maybe trolls don't read.Helen Lewis: Well, I think a lot of the stuff that annoys me is a shallow engagement with complexity, and an attempt to go through books and harvest them for their talking points, which is just not how... It's just such a sad, weathered way of approaching the experience of reading, isn't it? Do I agree with this author or not? I like reading people I disagree with. And so for example, the fact that I call the suffragettes terrorists, and I write about that, I think people are reluctant to engage with the fact that people you agree with did terrible things in the pursuit of a goal that you agree with. And I think it's very true about other sectors. I always think about the fact that Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for terrorism. And that gets pushed down in the mix, doesn't it? When it all turns out that actually, he was a great man. And that incredibly long imprisonment in Robben Island is its own totemic piece of the history of modern South Africa, that you don't wanna sit with the awkward bits of the story too.Henry: You've had a lot of difficult experiences on Twitter? Would you have written this book if you hadn't lived through that?Helen Lewis: I think that's a hard question to answer. I tried not to make it a “Here is the cutting of all my enemies.” And actually, my friend, Rob read this book in draft and he insisted that everyone I knew that I was going to argue with had to be of sufficient stature to be worth arguing with. He's like, You cannot argue with, I think I put it in my drawing piece, a piece like Princess Sparklehorse 420. Right? That's quite hard when you're writing about modern feminism, because actually if you think about what I think of as the very social justice end of it, right? The end of it, that is very pro sex work, very pro self-identification of gender, very pro prison abolition, police abolition, it's actually quite hard to find the people who were the theorists of that. It's more of a vibe that you will find in social media spaces on Tumblr, and Twitter and other places like that. So trying to find who is the person who has actually codified all that and put that down to then say, "Well, let's look at it from all sides", can be really difficult. So I did find myself slightly arguing with people on Twitter.Henry: I'm wondering more, like one way I read your book, it's very thought-provoking on feminism, but it's also very thought-provoking just on what is a difficult person. And there's a real thing now about if you're low in agreeableness, that might mean you're a genius, like Steve Jobs, or it might mean you're a Twitter troll. And we have a very basic binary way of thinking about being difficult. And it's actually very nuanced, and you have to be very clever about how to be difficult. And in a way, I wondered if one of the things you were thinking about was, well, everyone's doing difficult in a really poor way. And what we need, especially on the left, is smart difficult, and here is a book about that, and please improve. [chuckle]Helen Lewis: Yeah, there was a lot of that and it's part of the sort of bro-ey end of philosophy is about maybe women have been less brilliant through history because they're less willing to be disagreeable, they have a higher need to be liked, which I think is kind of interesting. I don't entirely buy it. But I think there's an interesting thing there about whether or not you have to be willing to be iconoclastic. The thing that I find interesting about that is, again, there's another way in which you can refer to it, which is the idea that if you're a heretic, you're automatically right.Henry: Yes.Helen Lewis: And there's a lot of...Henry: Or brave.Helen Lewis: Or brave, right? And I think it's... You can see it in some of the work that I'm doing at the moment about the intellectual dark web being a really interesting example. Some of them stayed true to the kind of idea that you were a skeptic. And some of them disbelieved the mainstream to the extent that they ended up falling down the rabbit holes of thinking Ivermectin was a really great treatment for COVID, or that the vaccines were going to microchip you or whatever it might be. And so I'm always interested in how personality affects politics, I guess. And yeah, how you can be self-contained and insist on being right and not cow-tow to other people without being an a*****e is a perpetually interesting question. It's coming up in my second book a lot, which is about genius. Which is sort-of the similar thing is, how do you insist when everybody tells you that you're wrong, that you're right. And the thing that we don't talk about enough in that context, I think Newton is a very good example is that, obviously, he made these incredible breakthroughs with gravity and mathematics, and then spends literally decades doing biblical chronology and everyone tells him that he's wrong, and he is wrong. And we don't really talk about that side of it very much.All the people who spent all their time studying phlogiston and mesmerism, or that's more complicated because I think that does lead to interesting insights. A lot of people who the world told was wrong, were wrong. And we're over-indexing, always writing about the ones who were the one Galileo saying the Earth still moves, and they turned out to be correct.Henry: Yes. There are good books about biographies of failures, but they're less popular.Helen Lewis: Which is tough because most of us are going to be failures.Henry: Yes. Well, you're not gonna buy a book to reinforce that.Helen Lewis: No, but maybe there could be some deep spiritual learning from it, which is that a life spent in pursuit of a goal that turns out to be illusory is still a noble one.Henry: That's a fundamentally religious opinion that I think a secular society is not very good at handling.Helen Lewis: Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I've been doing lots of work for Radio 4 about the link between politics and religion, and whether or not religion has to some extent replaced politics as Western societies become more secular. And I think there is some truth in that. And one of the big problems is, yes, it doesn't have that sort of spirit of self-abnegation or the idea of kind of forgiveness in it, or the idea of just desserts happening over the horizon of death. Like everything's got be settled now in politics here, which I think is a bad fit for religious impulses and ideas.Henry: What is the role of humour in being difficult?Helen Lewis: I think it's really important because it does sweeten the pill of trying to make people be on your side. And so I had a long discussion with myself about how much I should put those jokes in the footnotes of the book, and how much I should kind of be funny, generally. Because I think the problem is, if you're funny, people don't think you're serious. And I think it's a big problem, particularly for women writers, that actually I think sometimes, and this happens in journalism too, that women writers often play up their seriousness, a sort of uber-serious persona, because they want to be taken seriously. If you see what I mean, it's very hard to be a foreign policy expert and also have a kind of lively, cheeky side, right? We think that certain things demand a kind of humourlessness to them.But the other thing that I think humour is very important, is it creates complicity with the audience. If you laugh at someone's joke, you've aligned yourself with them, right? Which is why we now have such a taboo and a prohibition on racist jokes, sexist jokes, whatever they might be, because it's everyone in the audience against that minority. But that can, again, if you use your powers for good, be quite powerful. I think it is quite powerful to see... There's one of the suffragettes where someone throws a cabbage at her, and she says something like, “I must return this to the man in the audience who's lost his head.” And given that all the attacks on the suffragettes were that they were these sort of mad, radical, weird, un-feminine, inhuman people, then that was a very good way of instantly saying that you weren't taking it too seriously.One of the big problems with activism is obviously that people, normal people who don't spend every moment of their life thinking about politics, find it a bit repellent because it is so monomaniacal and all-consuming. And therefore, being able to puncture your pomposity in that way, I think is quite useful.Henry: So if there are people who want to learn from Helen Lewis, “How can I be difficult at work and not be cast aside,” you would say, “Tell more low-grade jokes, get people to like you, and then land them with some difficult remark.”Helen Lewis: Use your powers for good after that. It's tricky, isn't it? I think the real answer to how to be difficult at work is decide what level of compromise you're willing to entertain to get into positions of power. Which is the same question any activist should ask themselves, “How much do I need to engage with the current flawed system in order to change it?” And people can be more or less open with themselves, I guess, about that. I think the recent Obama memoir is quite open about, for example on the financial relief in 2008, about how much he should have tried to be more radical and change stuff, and how much he... Did he actually let himself think he was being this great consensualist working with the Republican Party and therefore not get stuff done?And then the other end, I think you have the criticism I made of the Corbyn project, which was that it was better to have kind of clean hands than get things done. There's a great essay by Matt Bruenig called Purity Politics, which says... No, what is it called? Purity Leftism. And it said, “the purity leftist's approach is not so much that they're worried about that oppression is happening but that they should have no part of it.” And I think that's part of the question of being difficult, too, is actually how much do you have to work with and compromise yourself by working with people with whom you're opposed? And it's a big question in feminism. There are people who will now say, “Well, how could feminists possibly work with the Conservative Party?” Entirely forgetting that Emmeline Pankhurst ran as a Conservative candidate.Henry: She was very conservative.Helen Lewis: Right. And there were members of the suffragettes who went on to join the British Union of Fascists. That actually... Some of the core tenets of feminism have been won by people who didn't at all see themselves on the left.Henry: If I was the devil's advocate, I'd say that well-behaved women, for want of a better phrase, do make a lot of history. Not just suffragists but factory workers, political wives, political mistresses. What's the balance between needing difficult women and needing not exactly compliant women but people who are going to change it by, as you say, completely engaging with the system and almost just getting on with it?Helen Lewis: There's a scale, isn't there? Because if you make yourself too unbelievably difficult, then no one wants to work with you and it's... I think the suffragettes is a really good example of that actually. The intervention of the First World War makes that story impossible to play out without it.But had they continued on that course of becoming ever more militant, ever more bombings, and pouring acid on greens, and snipping telephone wires... The criticism that was made of them was, “Are they actually turning people off this cause?” And you get people saying that, that actually the suffragettes set back the cause of women's suffrage, which I'm not entirely sure I buy. I think I certainly don't buy it in the terms of the situation in 1905. Fawcett writes about the fact that there were loads of all these articles decrying the suffragettes, whereas previously they'd just been... The cause of suffrage, which had been going on for 70-80 years, quite in earnest, in legal form, had just been completely ignored. So there was definitely a moment where what it really needed was attention. But then, can you make the same argument in 1914 about whether or not the suffragettes were still doing an equal amount of good? I think then it's much more tenuous.And there was a really good article saying that, essentially your point, well-behaved women do make history, saying that a lot of boring legal heavy-lifting... And it's one of the things I find very interesting about where modern feminism in Britain is. A lot of the work that's most interesting is being done through things like judicial reviews, which is a lot of very boring pulling together large amounts of court bundles, and people saying, “Is this obiter?” This word which I once understood, and now don't anymore. But it's not people chaining themselves to railings or throwing themselves under horses. It's people getting up in the morning and putting another day shift in at quite boring admin. And I do think that maybe that's something that I underplayed in the book because it's not so narratively captivating. Brenda Hale made that point to me that she would have been a suffragist because she just believed in playing things by the book. You won it by the book.And I do think now I find I don't agree with throwing paint and pies and milkshakes and stuff like that at people whose political persuasions I disagree with, right? I fundamentally don't believe in punching Nazis, which was a great debate... Do you remember the great Twitter debate of a couple of years ago about whether it's okay to punch a Nazi? I think if you live in America or the UK, and there are democratic ways and a free press in which to make your political case, you don't need to resort to a riot. And that's not the case all over the world, obviously. But I do think that I am... I think difficulty takes many, many forms.Henry: A question about Margaret Thatcher.Helen Lewis: Yes.Henry: Was she good for women, even though she wasn't good for feminism? So millions of women joined the labour force in the 1980s, more than before or since. It was the first time that women got their own personal allowance for income tax, rather than being taxed as an extension of their husband's income.Helen Lewis: I'm trying to remember. Was that a Tory policy?Henry: That was 1988 budget, and it came into effect in 1990. And she also publicly supported. She said, “You should be nice to mothers who go out to work. They're just earning money for their families.” So even though she definitely did not, consciously I think, help the cause of feminism, you would probably rather be a woman in the '80s than the '70s...Helen Lewis: Oh yeah, definitely.Henry: But because of her. That's my challenge to you.Helen Lewis: No, it's a good challenge. And I think it's one that has a lot of merit. I'm not sure whether or not she would be grateful to you for positioning her as Margaret Thatcher, feminist hero. And it's really into having... I wrote a screenplay last year about the women in politics in the years before Margaret Thatcher, and it's very... And I cover this a bit in the book. That women have always struggled in Labour, a collective movement, where it's like if you let one woman through, you've got to let them all. Like, “I'm the vanguard” versus the Thatcher route, which was like, “I'm just me, a person. Judge me on who I am,” and not making such a kind of radical collective claim. So that's the bit that holds me back from endorsing her as a kind of good thing for women, is I think she was Elizabeth I in the sense where she was like, “I'm good like a man,” rather than saying, “Women are good, and I'm a woman,” which I think are two different propositions. But it's definitely true that... I think that growing up in a society that had a female prime minister was a huge deal. America still hasn't had a female president. It's just not... If you're a girl growing up there, it's just... That's something that you've never seen. And the other half of it is, I think it was incredibly powerful to see Denis Thatcher. The true feminist hero that is Denis Thatcher. But genuinely, that's somebody who was older than her, who was willing to take a back seat. And he found a role for men that was not being the alpha. It was kind of the, “I don't have anything left to prove. And I like playing golf. Haven't I got a great life while the little woman runs around with her red boxes. All a bit much.” I think that was almost a more radical thing for people to see.And it's interesting to me that he was somebody who had fought in the Second World War because I think the '70s and the feminist revolution, I think in some ways depends on there being a generation of men who didn't have anything to prove, in terms of masculinity. And it's really interesting to me that... So Barbara Castle's husband Ted was also, I think, a little bit older than her. But he was also very much in that Denis Thatcher mould of, “Woman! Right, you're exhausting.” And Maureen Colquhoun, who I also write about in the book, her husband Keith was, by all accounts, a very decent guy who was totally accepting of her ambitions. And then he conducted himself with incredible dignity after she left him for a woman. And I think that's a story that I'm interested in hearing a bit more about, is of the men who weren't threatened. So I do think that's a big challenge that the Thatchers did present to orthodox values. But let's not underplay them as conservatives.Henry: Oh no, hugely conservative.Helen Lewis: And also the fact that, to some extent, Margaret Thatcher was reacting to an economic tide that was very useful to her. More women in the workforce meant more productivity, meant higher GDP. And I think it was at that point a train that was just not... Why would you throw yourself in front of it to try and reverse it and get women back into the home?Henry: Her advisors wanted a tax break for marriage.Helen Lewis: Oh, that's a classic Conservative policy.Henry: Because they said, “We're in office, and this is what we're here for.” And she said, “I can't do it to the mill girls in Bolton. I can't give a tax break to wives in Surrey playing bridge.” And in a way, I think she was very quietly, and as you say for political reasons not entirely openly, quite on the side of the working woman for moral reasons that we would usually call feminist. But which because it's her and because of everything else she believes, it doesn't really make sense to call them feminist, but it's difficult to think of another Prime Minister who has had so much rhetoric saying “Yes, women should go to work, that's a good thing. Don't yell at them about it.” And who has implemented economic policies that's giving them tax breaks and trying to level the playing field a bit. So it's a sort of conundrum for me that she didn't want to be called a feminist, but she did a lot of things that quotes, if you were that sort of person would say “undermined” the traditional family or whatever.Helen Lewis: Yeah. And she found a way to be a powerful woman and an archetype of what that was, which I think again, is based enormously on Barbara Castle, I think Barbara Castle is the template for her.Henry: Oh yeah. Down to the hair. Yeah.Helen Lewis: With the big hair and the fluttering the eyelashes, and that kind of, what I think of as kind of “Iron Fem” right? Which is where you're very, very feminine, but it's in a steely ball-crushing kind of way. Although interestingly, Barbara Castle cried a lot. She would have frequently burst into tears about stuff, which again was, I think kept the men around her slightly off balance, they didn't know how to... Which I think any good politician uses what they've got. But the thing that struck me when I read more about Thatcher last year, was about the fact that if she hadn't been the first female Prime Minister, I think we would write a lot more about her lower-middle middle class background and what a challenge that was. And the fact that that really, in some ways, I think the Tory Party really loved having a female leader once they got over the initial shock because it was kind of like, “Well, aren't we modern. And now Labor can't have a go at us about all this kind of stuff, 'cause look at our woman leader.” What I think was more of a profound challenge for a long time, was the kind of arriviste sort of idea that she was, as you say, a representative of working people, upwardly mobile, or from right to buy being an example of one of these policies. I think that was a big challenge to the kind of men in smoky rooms.Henry: I don't think they ever got over it. Carrington called her “a f*****g stupid petit-bourgeois woman.”Helen Lewis: Petit-bourgeois is exactly the right, I think the right term of abuse. And there was a... And I think that's why... I mean, I think it came out as misogyny but actually it was also driven by class as well, the fact that she was no better than she ought to be, right?But that's about... I think that's how you see, and honestly I think Ted Heath experiences as a great... Leading to the incredible sulk, one of my favorite phrases, [chuckle] that he just never kind of got over that he had been beaten by a woman. I think that was an extra kind of poisoned pill for him, of the ingratitude of the party, that they would replace him with a woman.Henry: And a woman of his own class.Helen Lewis: Right. And exactly, it's not like she... So she wasn't sort of Lady Aster wafting in a cloud of diamonds and violet scent. It was, “Hang on a minute, you're saying this person is better than me.”Henry: Now, before Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Tory Party, almost nobody thought that she was going anywhere, right up to say a week before the leadership election. People would have meetings about who the candidates were and they wouldn't even discuss her. Who are the people in politics today that no one's really sort of gathered actually have got this big potential?Helen Lewis: Yeah, I think that's really interesting isn't it, that essentially she goes into that leadership context and they sort of think, “Well, someone's gonna shake it up a bit, someone's gonna represent the right to the party.” And then they go round... And it was Airey Neave who was running her campaign, going around sort of saying, “Well, you know, vote for her, it'll give Ted a shock.” And then the first ballot result comes in and they go, “Oh God, it's given us a shock as well.” And then I think at that point, Willy Whitelaw piles in, doesn't he? But it's too late and the train's already moving. And the other one who's... It's Hugh Fraser is the other... And he runs very much from the sort patrician candidate background. I love that, that leadership election, it symbolizes what I like about politics, which is just that sometimes there is a moment, that is a hinge when a force that's been bubbling away suddenly pops up. And not to get too much into the great man or in this case, a great woman theory history, but someone makes a big decision that is either going to be the right call or the wrong call.And for Margaret Thatcher is almost insanely ambitious, and she could have ended up looking incredibly stupid, and because the life didn't take that fork in the road, we'll never look back on that. But there are many people who have made that gamble, and again, go back to failures point, have crashed. You have to have that kind of instinct in politics. Who's good now? I was just thinking this morning that Bridget Phillipson of Labor, who is now currently shadow education, I think has been underrated for a long time. Finally less so, given that she's made it to the Shadow Cabinet, who knows if she can make an impression there, but she is smart. So I'll give you an example, she was asked the inevitable question that all labor politicians are now asked, like, “What is a woman?” And she said, “The correct... “ This is Richard Madeley asked her this. She said, “What to my mind is the correct legal ounce that would also makes sense to normal human beings who don't follow politics all the time, which is, ‘It's an adult human female or anybody with a gender recognition certificate. And there are difficulties in how you might sometimes put that into practice, but those are the two categories of people.'”And it was like this moment, I was like, Why? Why has it taken you so long to work out an answer to this question that is both correct and explicable. And I think that is an underrated gift in politicians, is actually deciding what issues you're going to fudge around and which issues you actually have to come out and say what you think even if people disagree with it. It was one of Thatcher's great strengths, was that she made decisions and she stuck to them. I mean, obviously then you get to the poll tax and it becomes a problem. But I think there's... One of the problems I felt with the Ed Miliband era of Labor was that he didn't want to annoy anybody and ended up annoying everybody. Wes Streeting, I think is also... No, I won't say underrated, I will say he's now rated and clearly has got his eye on the leadership next.Bridget Phillipson has a much more marginal seat than you'd like to see from somebody who's going to be a leader. Wes is an interesting character. Grew up on free school meals, has been through cancer in the last couple of years, is gay, has a genuinely kind of... But is also on scene as being on the right to the party. So he's got lots of different identity factors and political factors that will make people very hard to know where to put him, I think, or how to brand him, I guess. But those are two of the ones who you make me think that there's some interesting stuff happening. On the Tory side, there are some people who are quietly competent. So Michael Gove, I think, whatever you think about his persona or anything like that, is the person they put in when they want stuff actually to happen. I think Nadhim Zahawi did very well as Vaccines Minister without anyone really noticing, which is probably not what you want when you're a minister, but it's probably what you want from the public.Henry: Why are so many women late bloomers? Well, obviously, the constraints of having a family or whatever.Helen Lewis: I think the answer is children, I think is the answer to that one.Henry: But there must be other reasons.Helen Lewis: I think... I mean, who knows? I may be straying into territory which is pseudo-science here, but I do also think that menopause is quite important. When you lose all your caring for others, nicely, softly, softly hormones and your hormone profile becomes much more male, I think that makes it easier to not care what people think about you, to some extent. As does the fact that you can no longer be beautiful and play that card. And I don't know, I think also... Again, this is... I don't know if this is supported by the evidence, I think there's more of... I think more of the men fall away. I don't know, I think if you're a guy who's found it very hard to form personal relationships, then maybe your 50s and 60s can be quite lonely, whereas I think that's often the time in which women kind of find a sort of a second wind. Does that make sense? This is all... I mean, none of this is... There's no evidential basis for this, this is just based on my sort of anecdotal reading of people that I'm thinking of.Henry: Camille Paglia once wrote, she put it in very strict terms, she said something like, when the menopause happens, the wife becomes this sort of tyrant and starts flourishing.Helen Lewis: Yeah. No, I'm very much looking forward to that, yeah. Oh yeah.Henry: And the husband becomes this kind of wet rag and his testosterone level drops and the whole power balance just flips. And you're sort of, you're saying that, but not in quite that... Not as quite an aggressive way as she's phrased it.Helen Lewis: Yeah, and it's not a universal truth.Henry: No, no, not at all.Helen Lewis: I just think for the people for whom that happens, that is quite an arresting thing that often gives them the liberation. I also do think there's a kind of mindset change. I don't have kids, but I know from women that I know whose kids have gone off to university, that if you have been the primary caregiver, there is suddenly a great, big hole in your life, and what do you fill it with? And actually, do you have to find a new focus and direction and purpose, because you don't want to be sort of turning up at their halls of residence going, “Hello, just thought I check in, see if you're alright.” And whereas for men, who've maintained a sort of career focus throughout, whilst also adding on a family, that's not such a kind of big realignment of their day and their life and what they feel the focus of their life is.Henry: I spoke to Tyler Cowen about this and he wondered if there's something about women become more acceptable in their looks. So you think about Angela Merkel and Margaret Thatcher as... I think you were sort of implying this, when a woman reaches middle age, the public or the people around them are less likely to judge them on whether they're good-looking, and so some of that sexism slightly falls away, because when you are a woman in your 20s or 30s, you're very susceptible to being looked at or rated or whatever, whereas Margaret Thatcher had a sort of, I don't know, a motherly quality that no one would... There was a kind of cult of finding her attractive and Alan Clark said disgusting things about her.Helen Lewis: Yeah, and also we've had a queen for 70 years, right? So we do have that sort of idea of what female power looks like, which is icy and so it's non-emotional, but yeah.Henry: But I've seen that in the office, that women in their 20s have a difficult time if they're good looking because there are a certain type of men...Helen Lewis: Well, people assume you're stupid as well.Henry: Well, and also it's just what men go to. They talk about you being that, whereas once a woman gets slightly past that, men don't automatically sort of go, “Oh, how would you rate her out of 10” or whatever? And that creates a space to see them as the person.Helen Lewis: And see them as actual human. I think that's a really interesting thesis. I also think that there's a... I think being a young woman is a particular kind of problem. So I think there's definitely a form of ageism against women, where it's silly old bat, right? Which I do think you get silly old duffer as well, but there is some extra level as well about women, it's like, “Why are you still talking? No one wants to hear from you? Your... “ This is a phrase they use in the internet now, “You're dusty, you and your dusty opinions.” But I think you get the contrary version of that as a young woman, whereas I think we find... The phrase Young Turk implies man, doesn't it?It's like, thrusting young guy, on his way up, super ambitious, he's the new generation, whereas I don't think you necessarily have that whole sort of coalition of positive stereotypes about young women. It's untested, learner, still needs to learn the ropes, that kind of... I'm eternally grateful to my boss in my 20s, Jason Cowley of the New Statesman, for making me deputy editor of the Statesman when I was 28, which I think was a pretty radical thing to do. When I don't think it would have necessarily felt so radical to make a 28-year-old guy.Although I say that, but then Ian Hislop became editor of Private Eye when he was 26, and there was like a revolution among the old guard. And he had to metaphorically execute a few of them outside the woodshed. So I do think that... I also think people begin to... There's... Now, this is really straying to some dangerous, choppy feminist waters. Competition between women can be very fierce, obviously. I write about this in the book in the terms of Smurfette Syndrome. The idea that there's only one place for a woman, and by God, I've got to have it. But I do think that there can be some jealousy that maybe recedes. And I think it's probably true for men and women. As you get older, people don't see you as a threat because they think, “Well, by the time I'm 40, maybe I'll have all the stuff you have.” But if you've got that stuff at 28, I think there's a real feeling from other people in the generation that those, the stars are peeling away, and there's a real resentment of them. So one of the things I do is I provide kind of counselling services to young journalists who've just suddenly had like a really big promotion or career lift or whatever it is. And I feel indebted to go and say to them, “By the way, this is amazing, but people will hate you because of it.”Henry: It's very striking to me that we've had a period of very young politicians being leaders, but they're men. And the women who've either competed with them or become leaders afterwards are in their 50s. And I do think there's something about what's an acceptable public woman.Helen Lewis: And the idea of authority, I think that's the thing. I think as you get older as a woman, it's easier to seem authoritative.Henry: Someone like Stella Creasy, I think, has had a much more difficult time just because she happens to be under a certain age.Helen Lewis: Yeah, I think that's interesting. And I think the fact that she's now got very young children at a relatively older age. I know that's... Sorry. Apologies to Stella, if you're listening. But it is comparatively old to have children after 40, still. That that will be interesting of how that complicates her next decade in politics.And I do think those super top jobs… There was a really brilliant piece of research which I put in the book about the sort of so-called demanding jobs, the kind of lawyers, the top lawyers, and I think journalists and politicians. Greedy jobs, they're called. And the fact is that they have become more demanding in terms of hours as women have entered the workforce. And now the thing has become fetishized as can you do the 14-hour days? And it becomes a soft way of excluding women with young kids.The problem, I think, will come with all of this when both men and women end up needing to look after elderly parents, as we're having more and more of that extension, those decades at the end of life when you're alive but maybe you're not as mobile as you were. Maybe you need more help from your family. And I think there is a lot of anger among certain types of women that they just feel like they're finally free from their caring responsibilities, and then they get landed with another one. But I know, I've been to some feminist conferences recently where... There's a famous saying which women are the only minority that get more radical with age, which I think is probably true. You can meet some groups of 50-something women, and they are fuming, really fuming. And they've now got the time and the sort of social capital with which to exercise that fuming-dom, as it were.Henry: Is Roy Jenkins overrated?Helen Lewis: [laughter] That's the most random question. He's not my favourite politician, mainly because I'm Team Castle for life, right? And I think she was treated very badly by the men in that Wilson cabinet, the first, the '66 to '70 one, of whom he was one, right? I think that, yeah. I think... Do you know what? I haven't got very strong opinions on him compared with my strong opinions on James Callaghan, who I am anti. And I know there are some Callaghan-stans out there. But I think the utterly cynical way in which he sucked up to the unions in order to get the leadership at the cost, ultimately, of then Margaret Thatcher in '79, out-strikes me as one of the most sort of cynical pieces of politicking.Henry: You are sailing very close to being a Thatcherite.Helen Lewis: I'm not a Thatcherite. I'm not.Henry: No, I know.Helen Lewis: But I can see... I think you... And I think Rachel Reeves has basically written about this, who's now Labour's Shadow Chancellor, that if Barbara Castle had succeeded with In Place of Strife on what were, now, to us, very mild measures, right? A conciliation pause where you have negotiations, strike ballots, no wildcat strikes. If she'd managed to push through some of those, then some of the excesses of the '70s would not have happened. Or at least, Labour would have been able to show that it had a grip of them. But you have a situation where the teachers were asking for something like 25% pay rise in the run up to the '79 election. And the Labour government just looked completely out of control. And so yeah, that's my Callaghan beef. What's your Roy Jenkins beef, then?Henry: I don't have beef. I can't remember why I wrote that question. I read about him in your book. I suppose I think that he did implement some good progressive measures, but that he was essentially a sort of patrician wannabe. And that his whole career in politics is much more middling and establishment, and his radicalism was... I don't know. Perhaps overrated, when we look back.Helen Lewis: Well, I will go away and read some more. I read quite a lot of the... The mad thing about the cabinet, particularly in that Wilson government, is that they were all obviously sitting there writing copious amounts of... To the extent that Barbara Castle would actually write literal notes in cabinet, save it for diary later on. But Tony Benn was writing notes. Crossman was writing notes. Jenkins essentially wrote lots of... A very full memoir. Harold Wilson wrote one of the most boring memoirs that the world has ever seen. The trade union leaders wrote memoirs. Jack Jones wrote a memoir. It was an astonishingly literate and writerly sort of set of people. And yet the cabinet was, in some respects, kind of utterly dysfunctional, but with Wilson still running a sort of... You know, sort of like who was kind of currently had been nice to me. And he went... And of course in his second term, he became incredibly paranoid.It was not a model of good government really. And again, Callaghan is one of the greatest political resurrections ever, right, when he completely screws up the Treasury and then uses Northern Ireland's Home Secretary in order to kind of make himself back into a respectful mainstream figure. But before we go and fight Roy Jenkins-stans, we should both go and find out what our beef is with him.Henry: I'm gonna say her name, well, Colquhoun?Helen Lewis: Colquhoun.Henry: Colquhoun. She said, “Labor would rather fight Powell than solve poverty.” Is that still true?Helen Lewis: What read it out there is a phrase that I think Maureen Colquhoun said after not “the rivers of blood” speech, but another Enoch Powell speech in the '70s, which got her in enormous trouble. Would you like to endorse this sentiment that got her called a racist? And it was used as a pretext for drumming her out of the Labor party. So what happened to Maureen after that is that she... Her local party tried to de-select her, it then went to an appeal at the NEC. She eventually ended up holding on to her candidacy and then she lost in '79 to a guy called Tony Marlow, who's one of the most... Talk about Thatcher, I mean... He was bristly, to the extent that his nickname was Tony von Marlow. But yeah, he has some terrible quote about Harriet Harman as well, which is something like, “These bra burners have got a chip on their shoulder,” or something. It was something terrible mixed metaphor involving how you couldn't wear a bra if you also had a chip on your shoulder. Anyway, I digress.Henry: I'm not trying to endorse her quote, but if you replace Powell with Boris.Helen Lewis: I think it's a really interesting quote about... It comes back to purity leftism, what we were talking about before, is actually, “Do you want the win or do you want the fight?” And there is, I think, more of a tendency on the left than the right, to want to be on the right side of history, to want to be pure, to want to be fighting, and that sort of sense that... The perpetual struggle is the bit that you want to be in, that's the bit that's exciting, rather than the win. I think one of the really interesting sounds to me is gay marriage. I was just reading this Jonathan Rauch piece this morning about the fact that... His argument being, that there was a coalition of kind of right-wingers and centrists and liberals in America who fought with the radical left, who wanted gay rights to be predicated on the idea of sort of smashing the nuclear family and everything like that, to say, “Let's make gay rights really boring, and let's talk a lot about how much we want to get married. And maybe we wanna adopt. Let's recruit all the people who happen to have been born gay, but are also Tories or Republicans.”And I think a similar thing happened to him here, where you have David Cameron saying, “I support gay marriage not in spite of being a conservative, but because I'm conservative.” And you frame it as essentially a very norm-y, boring thing. And I think that has been really interesting to watch in the sense of... I think that's why gender is now come much more to the fore because it's a sense that, “Well, if even Tories are okay with people being gay, it's not... Like what's left? How is that interesting anymore?” And so, I think the criticism that she was trying to make there is very true in the sense that sometimes Labor wants to look right more than it wants to win a halfway victory.Henry: What are some of the best or most underrated biographies of women?Helen Lewis: That's a really interesting question. I read a lot of royal biographies, so I very much like Leonie Frieda's biography of Catherine de' Medici, for example. There is also... You're gonna think this is terrible, Princess Michael of Kent wrote a joint biography of Catherine de Medici and Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II, which is called The Serpent and the Moon, which is a really... I think it's... Actually, it's not a bad biography, but I think it's quite interesting to write a biography of the wife and the mistress together.Henry: Yeah, I think that's a great idea.Helen Lewis: Because the story of them is obviously so intertwined and their power relationship obviously changes, right? Because Catherine is the dowdy wife who bears the 10 children, Diane is the kind of unbelievably gorgeous, older woman. But then of course, the king dies and it's like, “Oh, nice chateau you've got there. Shame, one of us is the dowager queen and one of us is now just some woman,” and makes her hand back her Chenonceau to her. So I enjoyed that very much. I'm trying to think what the best political women biographies are. Do you have a favourite Elizabeth I biography? I think there must be a really great one out there but I can't... I don't know which one actually is best.Henry: Well, I like the one by Elizabeth Jenkins, but it's now quite out of date and I don't know how true it is anymore. But it's, just as a piece of writing and a piece of advocacy for Elizabeth, it's an excellent book. And it sold, it was sort of a big best seller in 1956, which I find a very compelling argument for reading a book, but I appreciate that a lot of other people might not.Helen Lewis: No, that's not to everyone's taste. That's interesting. I like Antonia Fraser as a biographer. I don't know if you'‘e got a strong feelings, pro or anti. Her Mary Queen of Scots book is very good. Her Mari Antoinette book is very good. And I actually, I interviewed her once about how she felt about the Sofia Coppola film, which is basically like a two-and a half hour music video. She was totally relaxed, she was like, “It's a film, I wrote a book.”She didn't say it like that, she didn't go, “Film innit,” sucking on a roll-up, she said it in a very lofty, Antonia Fraser kind of way. But I think that's a good thing if you're an author, to kind of go, “What works in a biography is not what works in a film,” so...But yeah, I grew up reading those Jean Plaidy historical novels, so I guess I read a lot of biographies of Queens. I'm trying to think whether or not I read any biographies of modern women. I haven't read... I have on my shelf the, Red Comet, the Sylvia Plath biography. And I also, which is on my to-read pile, as is the biography of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas by Janet Malcom, which I one day, will treat myself to. Henry: What are the best or most underrated biographies by women?Helen Lewis: By women? Well, again, then we go back to...Henry: I mean, you've named some of them, maybe.Helen Lewis: The interesting thing is, I remember when I did Great Lives, they said... The Radio 4 program about history. That they said, the one thing that they have tried to encourage more of, is men nominating women. Because they found there was no problem with getting women to nominate men and men to nominate men, but they found there weren't that many men who picked women, which I think is interesting. I really wanted, when Difficult Women came out, I wanted a man to review it.Henry: Did that not happen?Helen Lewis: No, it didn't happen. And I think everybody would've... I think, from the point of view of your male reviewers, why would you review a book on feminism when you're gonna get loads of people going, “Ew, what are you doing?mansplaining feminism?” But it's an intellectual project, right? It's not a... It should be open to criticism by absolutely anyone, not on... You don't have to pass an identity test. It's an ideology and a school of history. And so I would... What's the best biography of woman written by a man, is kind of a question I'm interested in.Henry: Yes. That's very difficult to think of.Helen Lewis: And how many of them are there? Because it just strikes me that when I'm naming all my women, biographies of women, that they're all by women.Henry: Yes. It's difficult to think... It'‘ easy to think of biographies of men written by women.Helen Lewis: Right. Hermoine Lee's out there repping for Tom Stoppard biography recently. But yeah, people can send in answers on a postcard for that one.Henry: Should there be less credentialism in journalism?Helen Lewis: Yes. I started as a sub-editor on the Daily Mail. And I worked alongside lots of older guys who had come up through local papers at the time when the trade unions were so strong that you had to do two years on local paper before you got to Fleet Street. And therefore, I worked with quite a lot of people who had left school at either 16 or 18 and were better at subbing than people who'd... than recent university graduates. And so, the way that journalism has become first of all, a graduate profession and now a postgraduate profession, I don't think it's got any real relationship to the quality of journalism. There are a sort of set of skills that you need to learn, but a lot of them are more about things like critical thinking than they are about literature, if you see what I mean?That's the thing. That is what I find very interesting about journalism, is the interesting marriage of... You have to have the personal relationships, you have to be able to find people and make them want to be interviewed by you and get the best out of them. Then you have to be able to write it up in prose that other humans can understand. But then there is also a level of rigour underneath it that you have to have, in terms of your note-keeping and record-keeping and knowledge of the law and all that kind of stuff. But none of that maps onto any kind of degree course that you might be able to take. And so, I think that's... And the other huge problem, I think in journalism is that, everyone in the world wants to do it, or at least that's how it seems when you're advertising for an entry level position in journalism.When I was at the New Statesman, we used to recruit for editorial assistants and I once had 250 applications for a single post, which was paid a fine amount, you could live on it just about in London, but was not... It was a plum job in intellectual terms, but not in economic terms. And I think that's a real problem because I could have filled every position that we had, with only people who'd got Firsts from Oxford or whatever it might be. But it wouldn't have been the best selection of journalists.Henry: No. Quite the opposite.[laughter]Helen Lewis: Yes. I enjoy your anti-Oxford prejudice. [chuckle] But you know what I mean is that I... But the fact that you had to have at least a degree to even get through the door, is sort of wrong in some profound way. And actually, some of the places have been... I think Sky did a non-graduate traineeship for people who were school leavers. And I think that there are profound problems in lots of those creative arts, publishing is the same, academia is the same, where you could fill every job which is low paid, and in London, with middle-class people whose parents are willing to fund them through. And the credentialism just is a further problem in that it just knocks out bright people from perfectly normal economic backgrounds.Henry: Do you think as well, that in a way, the main criteria for a good journalist, whether they're a sub-editor, or writing leaders or whatever, is common sense? And that a good English degree is really no guarantee that you have common sense.[laughter]Helen Lewis: Yeah. I couldn't put my hand in my heart and say that everybody I know with an English degree demonstrates common sense. I think that is actually not a bad... The famous thing is about you need a rat-like cunning, don't you? Which I think is also pretty true. But yeah, you do need to come back to that kind of idea about heresy and you do need to have a sort of sniffometer, not to be... I think you need to be fundamentally cynical, but not to a point where it poisons you.The right amount of cynicism is probably the thing you need in journalism. Because my husband's a journalist and quite often, there'll be a story where we just go, “I don't believe that. I just don't believe that.”And it really troubles me that that's become harder and harder to say. So I wrote a piece a while ago, about TikTok and people who claim to have Tourette's on there and actually quite a lot of them might have something else, might have functional neurological disorder. But there are whole genres of that all across journalism, where people will talk very personally and very painfully about their personal experiences. And the other half of that is that, we are not... It's mean, to question that. But they're often making political claims on the basis of those experiences. And you therefore can't put them in a realm beyond scrutiny. And so it's interesting to me, having been a teenager in the '90s when journalism was incredibly cruel. I'm talking about the height of bad tabloid, going through people's bins, hate campaigns against people. And a lot of this “be kind” rhetoric is a response to that and a necessary correction, but I do think there are now, lots of situations in which journalists need to be a bit less kind. That's a terrible quote. [laughter] But do you know what I mean?Henry: I do know exactly what you mean.Helen Lewis: When you have to say, “I know you think you've got this illness, but you haven't.” That's tough.Henry: People need to be more difficult.Helen Lewis: That's always my marketing strategy, yes.Henry: I want to ask if you think that you are yourself a late bloomer? In the tone of voice that you write in, you very often... You write like an Atlantic journalist and there are these moments, I think, of real wit. I don't mean jokey. I mean, clever. And so, a line like, “Your vagina is not a democracy,” is very funny but it's also very...Helen Lewis: It's true.Henry: Sort of Alexander Pope-ish.[laughter]Helen Lewis: That's the best possible reference. Yes, I hope to write very mean epigrams about people, one day.Henry: Please do. But you can also be very jokey like when you said, I think in a footnote, that you don't watch porn because the sofas are so bad.Helen Lewis: True.Henry: Now, there is something in those moments of wit that I think suggest that you could, if you wanted to, go and do something other than what you've already done. Maybe like Charles Moore, you'd become a biographer, or maybe you'd become a novelist, or maybe you'll run a think tank, or maybe you'll set up a newspaper and only employ 16-year-old school leavers, or... I don't know. Is that how you think about yourself or am I...Helen Lewis: You are trying to tell me I need to just grow up.[laughter]Henry: Not at all.Helen Lewis: Stop clowning around like a sea lion for applause after throwing fish.Henry: My theory on Helen Lewis is, you've got all the accolades that someone could want from a journalistic career.Helen Lewis: Not true. I've only ever won one award for journalism and you'll love this, it was Mainstream Video Games Writer of the Year.Henry: Oh my god.Helen Lewis: That's it. From the Games Awards in 2013, which I only remember this because every so often my publisher will put award-winning journalist as a merit that I have. Not really gov, not if I'm honest. You're right though. I have one of the plum jobs in journalism which is I work three days a week at the Atlantic, and then I make radio documentaries on the side and write books, and that is a position which is enormously enviable. But I have also... So I've moved away from column writing, in the last couple of years — I used to write a regular op-ed column — because I found it a deeply unsatisfying form. And I think, when you do jokes, you begin to realize that you can actually just say stupid, easy clap lines and with sufficient confidence, and people will respond to them, and after a while, you begin to hate yourself for doing that.[laughter]Well, that's one of the reasons I again... Like getting off Twitter. You know what I mean? You see some of those accounts that just exists to do lazy little dunks about the people that are appointed, that are sort of designated hate subjects. So if someone gets designated as a hate subject, then you can say nasty things about them and then everybody will applaud you. And I fundamentally revolt from that and I don't like it.I think that as a journalist, you should always try and be at right angles to whatever the prevailing opinion is. And actually as I've got older, I value the sort of... The people I think of as contrarians who I think really believe it rather than the people who are doing it for effect. Someone like a Peter Hitchens. He's got a whole ideology that's very much not mine and a set of interesting opinions and he believes them, and he truly argues them, and although they... Whether or not they're popular or unpopular is of no interest to hi

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves takes your calls, NATO leaders meet in Brussels & 'Britain's toughest headmistress'

Dr James Meadway is an economist whose work has focused on developing viable alternatives to neoliberalism, and has published widely on democratic ownership, environmental economics, and automation and the digital economy.He was previously economic advisor to John McDonnell when he was Shadow Chancellor, and was chief economist at the New Economics Foundation. He is currently writing a book on the British economy after the 2008 crisis, and appears regularly on broadcast media as a commentator on UK politics.James holds a PhD in economics from the University of London, masters degrees in economics and economic history, and a BSc in economics and economic history from LSE. He has taught at SOAS, City, Cambridge and Sussex Universities.In this episode, we explore the repercussions of the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow and how the world might respond - in particular, how we might respond as individuals, and as communities. LinksJames in the New Statesman: Why a green state is not enough to compensate for bad capitalists: https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2021/11/is-a-green-state-the-answer-to-the-climate-crisisJames just after the 2019 election: https://novaramedia.com/2019/12/17/labours-economic-plans-what-went-wrong/Aditya Chakrobortty in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/11/green-new-deal-bad-idea-policy-left-joe-biden-john-mcdonnell

Ed Balls is a broadcaster, former Labour Politician and Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer and the winner of Celebrity Best Home Cook 2021. He talks openly to Rachel and Alice about his time in government, how he overcame the bullying he faced as a child and why he kept his lifelong stammer a secret.Get The Times free for a month: thetimes.co.uk/pastimperfectBullies Out: www.bulliesout.comYoung Minds: www.youngminds.org.ukThe Brittish Stammering Associtation: www.stamma.orgProducer: Ben Mitchell Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John McDonnell was Shadow Chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, and the driving force of the party's transformative economic agenda. A year after Labour's shattering defeat, I spoke to him just after the suspension of the man who stood to be Labour Prime Minister from his own party; about antisemitism on the left; whether Keir Starmer will keep to his policy promises; the climate emergency; and what lessons can be learned from the US left.Help us take on the right wing media!: https://patreon.com/owenjones84Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-owen-jones-podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We kick off the week by interviewing new Shadow Chancellor to the Exchequer Anneliese Dodds. Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens joins Mike for an interesting discussion. And how does our memory work? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We catch up with John McDonnell for the last time before he steps down as Shadow Chancellor and cross live to the Nightingale Hospital for its opening. Plus, we ask Chair of the Treasury Committee Mel Stride about help for businesses. And Susie Dent joins us on our homeschooling segment. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As we head into Conservative Party Conference, Theresa May has never looked more alone. We talk to Iain Duncan Smith and James Forsyth about a Prime Minister abandoned (1:25). And while chaos reigns in the Conservative Party, Labour is gearing up, led by a pragmatic but radical Shadow Chancellor. Just who is John McDonnell (18:50)? And last, why is Tesco's new discount retailer so Brexity (38:10)? With Iain Duncan Smith, James Forsyth, Fraser Nelson, Paul Mason, Lewis Goodall, and Olivia Potts. Produced by Cindy Yu and Alastair Thomas.