What a year! While Rishi Sunak held true to his January commitment to hold the election in the second half of the year - the spectacle that followed couldn't have been predicted as 2024 dawned. Nish and Coco are joined by Sky News’ political correspondent Liz Bates and comedian Desiree Burch to chew over the gristle of the year that was. From racist Tory donors, to milkshaked MPs, creative political stunts and Rishi Sunak’s D-Day disaster - the first half of the year had plenty to keep us entertained. But once Labour took power - optimism quickly turned to gloom. The seven week garm-drama saga took the sheen off Keir Starmer’s newly minted cabinet, while the endless don't-call-it-austerity chat has jaded people across the country.As 2024 draws to a close - there’s still plenty to laugh about - including the best of the worst political pop songs of the year. Prepare to cringe. Useful Links: https://choose.love/ - make a donation now! Ed Davey and the Bath Philharmonic Carer’s Choir - Love is Enough https://linktr.ee/love.is.enoughGuests: Liz BatesDesiree Burch Audio credits: Sky NewsBBCITVChannel 4 Tiktok / Dawn ButlerLiberal DemocratsTalk TVFox News Via Channel 10 Australia Pod Save the UK is a Reduced Listening production for Crooked Media.Contact us via email: [email protected]: https://instagram.com/podsavetheukTwitter: https://twitter.com/podsavetheukTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@podsavetheukFacebook: https://facebook.com/podsavetheukYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@PodSavetheUK
Ooh, what a year. What a year.
I guess you could say time flies when you're having fun, no?
Or time moves at a glacial pace as you watch the collapse of your country.
It's a bit like if fun was an Aldi knock-off, like time flies when you're having enjoyment. Time flies when you're having food. That's the UK. Anyway, did you think we'd be sitting here with a new government?
I honestly thought Richard Sunak would be hanging on for dear life until the last possible second.
Which is better or worse?
Hard to say at this point. Anyway, this is Pod Save the UK. I'm Nish Kumar.
And I'm Coco Karn. And today we're looking back on the year that was. Pod Save the UK wrapped, if you will.
And we've got some very special guests along for the ride. Let's go.
Joining us now to recap this wild year is Sky News' Liz Bates and comedian Desiree Burge.
Hello.
Hi. Welcome, welcome. Thank you for having us.
Thanks for coming in. Thanks for coming back, Liz.
Yeah, no props.
The return of Liz Bates to the podcast.
She has risen.
Very festive. It's the wrong Christmas festival.
She has risen. I'm trying my best, yeah.
And Desiree, first appearance, birthed in the barn.
Yeah, well, thank you so... Yes. Yes. I was just one of the animals that was like, what the hell is this? We don't have enough weird things happening in here. You see, there's a camel. What? No, this is, thank you so much for making me remember this terrible, terrible year. I was just trying to race to the end, but yeah, let's look back because we got to do that.
How's it? This is like a form of therapy, isn't it? You know, you blacked out parts of it and we're here in a friendly way to remind you. It's like exposure therapy.
After enough spiders crawling up my nose, I won't be afraid of spiders anymore. I'll just be complacent with my imminent demise.
Now, for our podcast listeners, the... The studio is, I enjoy using this word, so I will, festooned with holiday tat. And I'm assured by our producers that they actually got all of this from a charity shop. No way. I believe so.
It looks so nice. Is it tensile? I guess it would have come in a bag, but like, I didn't know you could just be like, hey, I didn't use my Christmas decorations here, charity shop. Like, that seems like a... I don't know.
I don't know if the tinsel is charity shop or not, but certainly, certainly the Christmas hats are charity shop.
I know what you mean though. At what point in your life do your Christmas decorations go to the charity shop? Is it when you die?
Yeah. Or was it when you stopped believing in Santa because everything is destroyed? When you're like, that's it, I've given up on life. Yep.
So anyway. So we're sat in a studio with, let's face it, a dead guy's Christmas decorations and an equally dead person's Christmas hat. So we've got a range of them.
And you are forced to wear them. So please choose one, whichever you would like. I'll take this modest one.
Is this an elf one?
For listeners, Coco has what I think we would call a fairly traditional Father Christmas hat. A little glam. It's a little glam. It's a little Mark Bolan. Desiree has a sort of spring on top of her head with little things in it. Liz has an actual effigy. Is that the right word of Father Christmas? Visual representation.
You haven't lit it on fire yet.
And I have got the Grinch hat.
Yes, it works.
It feels relatively appropriate.
Liz, we've not actually seen you since the UK election happened. How has it been covering it on Sky News? It's been an interesting first few months for the Labour Party.
Yeah, it has. So I was here, I was on maternity leave when we were talking about the actual general election. So I was watching that as a viewer. There were just so many beautiful images, like, you know, Rishi Sunak in the rain. I think that was a defining image of this kind of conservative era. And it was just quite funny, just him getting soggy.
And then going back to work, covering the Labour government. I don't know. I mean, it's quite, it's in some ways interesting. It's quite, in some ways, quite a boring government, I think. Definitely more boring. A lot more policy-based stuff. And I think there's a sense of kind of mild disappointment.
Yeah.
Not kind of rage, but yeah, a bit of mild disappointment. But not things coming at you from all sides.
Yeah.
The last government I felt was a kind of political bukkake in that sense.
Absolutely. It was overwhelming. It was a bit much. Like after you get that much spaff in your eye, you're like, I get the point. Why are we still doing this now? Like this is still happening. Yeah.
Do you want to explain this turn of conversation this or shall I?
There was a discussion had before the record started. Someone learned a new word today, kids. Can you tell? Someone learned a new word today and has managed to shoehorn it, which also sounds like a sexual act. Someone has managed to shoehorn a word that she learned. I'm not going to give away any names. Someone learned a word in the pre-record chat and has managed to get it into the podcast.
I'm proud of myself. I feel like I'm hanging out with people that are a couple of years above me in school because you're all like, Christmas decorations, lame. Let's make porn jokes. And I'm like,
I'm happy. It's sparkly in the studio. I might sing later. What are they talking about? I'll ask my older brother.
Back to politics. Desiree, you had two elections this year. Yeah, sadly.
It was hard to watch a slow-mo train crash. Although this one was a bit better, at least the earlier one, because, you know, we kind of swing the other way. But was there ever any doubt that we weren't going to be complaining about this government in a matter of months?
No. It's what we do.
So let's cast our eyes back to the start of the year. On the 4th of January, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, should I say? Enjoyed it. I'm having a great time. He declared that it was his working assumption that the election would happen in the second half of the year. It turned out he did keep his word, but only just.
Yeah, that's right. Like a lot of the things about this government, the assumption wasn't actually working properly. He was talking a big game, but he didn't really have any policies to back it up, apart from his favourite catchphrase of stopping the boats.
So the Tories' planned Rwanda deportation scheme dominated a lot of the political conversation for months, as it had done in the previous year. And looking back on it, Sunak's confident posturing aged like milk. Here he is making a bet with a man who I'm reliably informed is a journalist, Piers Morgan.
LAUGHTER I'll bet you £1,000 to a refugee charity, you don't get anybody on those planes before the election. Will you take that bet?
£1,000.
Right? I want to get the people on the planes.
So, Liz, if there was one policy that defined the end of 14 years of Conservative rule, it's got to be this one, right? Rwanda, the Rwanda plan. Callous, incompetent, cost the UK an estimated £700 million. What do you think? Does it summarise the end of the Tories?
Yeah, I think it does. And I think the reason that it kind of encapsulates, particularly the final throws of the Conservative government, is because it just didn't work. You know, people in this studio are very left wing. The country is much more centrist and right wing. But the problem with the end for the Conservatives was nobody believed that they could do anything.
They just did not believe them. When Rishi Sunak stood up and said, I'm going to stop the boats, people were like, no, you're not. No, you're not, because you can't even get your flagship policy to work. And I think that is, in the end, why they called the election so early, because they just stopped being able to do anything. It became a government of incompetence from the top to the bottom.
The Conservative Party also couldn't escape the stench of former Prime Minister Liz Truss. She actually headed to your country, Desiree, to the US.
As most stinky things do. LAUGHTER
to attend a sort of Republican Party's equivalent of Glastonbury that they call CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference. Here's a clip.
I face the most almighty backlash for those Conservative policies that I tried to put in place. From the usual suspects in the media, from the usual suspects in the corporate world, but also from people that were meant to work for the government.
So she definitely didn't do Rishi Sunak any favours, but that wasn't her only awkward moment of the year. She also stormed off the stage after activists unfurled a banner of letters behind her. And perhaps her best moment was when she popped up on Fox News to sell her book. Great to see you. Your thoughts.
Great to see you. And here's my new book. I'll just get it up.
Imagine being the strangest person on Fox News at any one time.
We should probably just tell the listeners the clip that we just played. Liz Truss comes across as being, I'm just going to say it's slightly inebriated. I'm not saying she is. Maybe that's just her giddy personality.
She seems like she wakes up every day and like huffs something. And it's like, they got mad at me for tanking the economy. Imagine that.
But she's on camera and she says, oh, look, this is my new book. She holds it up. It's back to front. Then she flips it around, but it's upside down. There's just a little bit of sort of slapstick there.
But I have to say that level of self-esteem is something that I really sometimes think I'd just like to try it out for a day. Incredible. You aim for a job. You get it. You fuck it up. Just so spectacularly. Historically. It's just, it's humiliation on the biggest scale possible. And at the end of it, you're like, God, well, I did great. I did so great. Well done me.
I guess everyone else was against me, but that's fine. I'm going to write a book about how great I did.
Called 10 Years to Save the West. And Liz Truss may be the biggest threat to the West since Al-Qaeda shut up, shall bet. Anyway, Charles Spiegel weirdo was hardly the biggest conservative scandal. In March, The Guardian reported that Frank Hester, the Tory party's biggest donor, had told colleagues in 2019 that Diane Abbott makes you want to hate all black women and that she should be shot.
He did apologise, and this is an incredible quote, for being rude, but denied that any of his rudeness was anything to do with her race or gender. Wow.
rude, did he throw a bukkake in there somewhere that I missed in the quote where he said you want to shoot all black women because of, sounds like someone who just wanted to kill black women and needed to find a famous one to point to to be mad at because bleh.
Liz, did that make any difference in terms of the Conservative Party or was the Conservative Party already doomed? And is it like the Rwanda plan, a thing that sort of reinforced the idea that this government was a combination of sort of incompetent and just plain racist?
Look, I think at that point we were living in the shadow of the kind of Boris Johnson era, right? There was so much incompetence, so much lying, party gate, all of that. And I think that by the time we got to Frank Hester, under normal circumstances, that would have been a much bigger scandal. Yeah.
But, you know, we went through this bizarre period where you had ministers going on TV saying the comment wasn't about race or gender when he literally said black women. He literally pointed out her race and gender. That's what it was about. Over and over.
So we were in the twilight zone where you're sitting, you know, you're sitting across from a minister and you're like, but you're just saying something that is...
total nonsense it's wrong and and I think by that time there was just so much frustration around the government the reason that they didn't give the money back I think they probably would have liked to give the money back but they couldn't because he's such a massive donor um side note he's a massive lot of things he's a I won't say it But side note, he made his money from NHS contracts.
So it all goes round in a big circle.
So he's like literally is killing your grandparents so he can hate black women and say they should be shot.
It's like, it works like this, right? The government oversees a structure via which there is privatisation in the NHS. People like... This total wanker, Frank Hester, I think I can say that with complete impartiality. That's objectively true based on what he says. He makes loads of money, then he sends it right back to the government so they stay in power so that he can keep making money.
And, you know, in between that, he just says, like, loads of random racist, sexist shit in meetings. I mean, that's... And that is the world that we live in. But again, it's like... Happy Christmas, everyone. LAUGHTER
Now, this is a time of year when a lot of us are feeling a bit warm and fuzzy. We're going to be spending time with loved ones, gathering with family and generally enjoying the festive season. And we should celebrate and be grateful if we feel safe and healthy. And two things can be true at the same time.
We can enjoy time with those we hold dear whilst knowing that there are a lot of people who have been dealt a different hand. People who won't have a roof over their heads or a hot meal or a cosy pair of slipper socks.
We always try to give tangible solutions on this podcast. And even though a lot of the issues that we face today sometimes can feel insurmountable, we do want to give a shout out to the charity Choose Love. Choose Love supports refugees and displaced people globally in the UK, the Middle East, at the Mexico-US border, across Europe, via a network of refugee and community-run organisations.
They provide everything from nutritious food to warm clothes, safe spaces for women,
Over the winter months, the need for those services and support increases exponentially. And Choose Love relies on the public to help them meet the needs of displaced communities. So we'd love to invite you to visit the Choose Love shop today. You can browse items like hot food, kids coats and the emergency response bundle. Choose what you'd like to buy.
And when you pay for it, Choose Love will make sure it gets to someone who truly needs it over the winter months.
100% of what you give goes to buying that item or something similar. If you're doing any gifting, you can also buy in the name of a loved one and send them over an e-card to let them know what you bought on their behalf.
Yeah, absolutely. But listen, the shop is amazing. If you're in London, it's a great place to go and visit. If you're not in London because you don't live there and have no interest in visiting London during Christmas, which is... I would say quite a correct and sane perspective to have on things.
What I would recommend you do is go to the online shop because you can buy everything that's in the shop on the website. So that's www.choose.love and you can find links in our show notes.
Earlier today, I spoke with His Majesty the King to request the dissolution of Parliament. The King has granted this request and we will have a general election on the 4th of July.
So that was the 22nd of May, Rishi Sunak calling the general election. Without a doubt, the standout political moment of the year. A journalist at the time described it as like watching his soul leave his body and watching the lights go out in his eyes. And that journalist was, of course, Liz Bates on this show. Liz, it couldn't have started... It couldn't have started worse.
No, I mean, we were all hit. We sort of watched it all happen. And yeah, it was just a mess. It was just a mess. And I think it was, when you look back on it now, you can see the drizzle was sort of perfect because the whole government just felt soggy. And he just seemed knackered. And the people that I was talking to that were working behind the scenes were just looking for jobs.
You know, they were spending their time like genuinely job searching. because everyone just felt like it was done. And then it was one thing after another.
Can I just say, that clip gets talked about all the time about like, oh, and he's just getting rained on and rained out and how embarrassing it is. As an American, we're all like, that's what we expect this country is. It's just a sad little man in a suit talking about boring, depressing things while getting what looks like fraternity hazed with water. And they're like... He's the prime minister.
They can't afford an awning to go over him. Like, what the hell's going on with this country? Like, it's so hard to look at it without being like, yeah, that's kind of what we imagine you all do, just make speeches in the rain on a random street.
Labour, of course, seemed very excited about the announcement, but they also seemed like they were, I believe the official term is shitting themselves. We often talk on this podcast about whether they were truly ready. Their strategy seemed to involve just going to spectacles Spectacular lengths to say nothing at all. You say it best when you say nothing at all.
Oh, I'm feeling the pop music references coming. It will not be the last in this episode. So yeah, they said nothing apart from the word change. Should you change? Oh no, stop me. Anyway, the Lib Dems took a different approach to campaigning. Leader Ed Davey took himself to every available campaign podium and the Tories focused on churning out red meat.
Yeah, the classic policies that got thrown out to rally the Conservative base included tougher sentences for offences including knife crime, grooming and assaults against retail workers, all of which was completely undermined by the fact that there was no plan to deal with chronic overcrowding in prisons.
And who can forget the return of mandatory national service, which would have required every 18-year-old to spend a year in military service or one weekend a month volunteering.
But at the same time that Sunak was trying to inspire the younger generation, he was pissing off the older generation by leaving the 80th anniversary of D-Day early to record an ITV interview where he spoke about the things he had to go without as a child.
So what sort of things had to be sacrificed? Lots of things. Can you give me an example of something? All sorts of things. Like lots of people, there'll be all sorts of things that I would have wanted as a kid that I couldn't have, right? Famously, Sky TV. So that was something that we never had growing up, actually.
Famously, Sky TV. Famously.
Leaving the D-Day celebrations early to talk about the sacrifice of not having Sky TV.
Yeah, and if he had any comic acumen, he would have been like, I had to sacrifice having working class friends. It would have been like, actually, we're missing out.
That would have been better. Can I just say, though, as somebody who works for Sky, I don't think there's anything sadder. than a child growing up without Sky. Shout out to my bosses.
You would have been unable to watch my stand-up comedy special, Your Power, Your Control, available now on Sky TV. Or Hold the Front Page, starring me and Joshua Dickham, available on Sky TV. It truly is the tragedy to end all tragedies.
Why did he have to leave a D-Day commemoration to do that? Like he was the prime minister. They couldn't bump it back at all?
What? It's completely inexplicable. He also, he sort of left, leaving Keir Starmer essentially there, greeting all the world leaders, essentially already looking like he was there. Cameron was there. Farage was there, presumably because they have to invite people to represent the side that lost on D-Day. So, like, they presumably, like, they needed everybody in there. Liz...
Was this, I know that we're talking about all of this chaos and all of the missteps. Was all of it ultimately irrelevant? Was this like just an unwinnable election?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it was. And I think the other thing is when a narrative starts around you, it's very hard to get away from it. So it was like, they're doing badly. Somebody said to me at the time, imagine if Zelensky had stood in the rain and made an announcement about something. Everyone would have, you know, in his kind of army,
gear everyone would have been like he's so tough he doesn't need a fucking umbrella there's a very famous picture of Obama like giving a campaign speech I think in the absolutely pouring rain that's sort of used as an example of his like bravery to I guess brave water but yeah I know exactly what you mean it's like
If you're cool and you've got it going on and you've got the momentum, then you can kind of get away with anything. And if you stand in the rain, everyone's like, OK, that's cool. He doesn't even need an umbrella. He doesn't give a shit about the rain. But because it's Rishi Sunak, everything just suddenly became about what is he going to fuck up next? And that was the entire narrative.
And so everything that he said, you know, we picked out all the funny bits and it was, the government was so done.
And on top of everything, we don't even have time to go into... the scandal of one of his closest aides having to resign because he had placed a bet on the date of the election. But in any case, five short weeks after the election was called, it was all over. And even the commentators couldn't quite believe it. Here is Sky News' reaction to the exit polls.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
Hang on.
Yeah. Does that sound like a bukkake?
It does. I'm sorry to steal that from you. I can see the little delight. You're like, huh?
I only learned about them half an hour ago, but that is a bukkake, if ever I've heard one. Ah!
Coco and my mothers listen to this podcast and it's just dawning on me that in two days I'm going to get a text from my mum saying, so what is a bukkake? What is a bukkake?
And you're like, you do not need to know, mother.
It is fine. I'm giving my mum your number list, okay?
Well, look, I think it's fair to say that many of us on the left have complicated feelings towards Labour under Keir Starmer. But watching their landslide 412 seats come through one by one on election night, I mean, it was quite enjoyable. Let's just take a little moment to just remember that feeling.
Yeah. And I guess in some ways, the biggest story is that Liz Truss lost her seat. I mean, that's kind of unprecedented in recent political history that the most recent prime minister, apart from the one actually running in the election, would lose their seat. But there was Penny Morden, Grant Shapps losing their seat.
Most delightfully for those of us with a slightly longer term view of British political history, Jacob Rees-Mogg losing his seat whilst stood next to a man dressed as baked beans.
And we know how y'all feel about them baked beans. You want them everywhere, any place, any time.
Just to be clear, the man dressed as baked beans did not win. Rhys Mogg lost to his Labour opponent. It wasn't just the Labour Party that had a great night. The Liberal Democrats won their most number of seats ever with 72. The Green Party took four seats and six seats went to independents, including the former Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
Yeah, I think, like, if you are progressive, whether you were supporting the Greens or independents, there was lots to be happy about. I had a Jaeger bomb for every Tory MP that I really particularly hated losing their seat.
Did you really?
Well, I tried to. I don't really remember a lot of it.
You had 412 Jaeger bombs?
No, I didn't. I didn't. Just the most loathsome leader. Just the most loathsome one. Which is, like, 419 Jaeger bombs. So...
Presumably Rees-Mogg Trust. Surely they were Jagerbomb, Jagerbomb.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure, for sure. And when the exit poll first came in, I had a Jagerbomb.
Oh, really?
Just to see the Tories decimated.
I do actually remember the next day, you were, I would say, a little fragile.
Oh, yeah, for sure.
There was another electoral success story that we absolutely should not overlook because it could be one that continues to shape the narrative of politics in this country for years to come. We obviously have to mention the reform success in the election. But before we do that, let's just revisit Nigel Farage getting milkshaked while campaigning in Clacton.
You got what seems like a milkshake thrown at you. Was that what it was? I don't know what was thrown at me, but it hit me in the face, fair and square. Quite frightening.
Fair and square is the right phrase, actually.
Would you like to go ahead and take that? I don't know what it is, but it hit me right in the face, Liz. I feel like it's Christmas.
No, I can't think of anything that that reminds me of.
Yes, so that's right. That was Nigel Farage talking about getting milkshaked for a second time, sort of presenting it like it was his own personal Donald Trump ear bandage moment. Unfortunately, Farage went on to win his seat in Clacton.
We've also just heard the confirmation overnight that the undisputed villain of the year, Elon Musk, is backing reform with speculation of a donation in sort of millions of pounds after there was a meeting between him, Nigel Farage, and the new party treasurer, Nick Candy, at Donald Trump's Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. That is fairly concerning, right?
Like, Reform won the third largest share of the popular vote, 14.3%. And it's striking that that's about 2% more than the Liberal Democrats, but because of our screwy electoral system, the Lib Dems won more than 14 times the number of seats as reform.
At least in the midst of it being obviously profoundly funny that the Conservative Party suffered so badly, it potentially is a concern that reform did so well. And I only say that because reform seems to be inviting further political influence from Elon Musk into this country, which I don't think is necessarily something that is beneficial for our democracy.
I mean, it's a pretty strange type of scenario where there's really nothing that we can do about it. But the richest man in the world might decide to bankroll what is still, you know, they did get a big share and they do well in the opinion polls. in UK politics, but they're not hugely represented in Parliament and he's going to funnel cash into them.
I mean, usually I'm old enough to remember when people used to do this kind of behind the scenes because it wasn't considered legit to just throw money at a political party and try to swing an election. But apparently now it is. I think it will have a huge, huge sway on the next election. It's still a long way away. I could see a scenario where, you know, reform...
breakthrough in a big way in the UK. Like seriously. And the money that Elon Musk and people like him, I mean, Nick Candy is a big donor as well. that they will provide will be decisive in that. And so we're basically at the whim of billionaires and whatever they feel like, you know, I mean, Elon Musk feels like he's just in his kind of, I want to fuck with the world era.
And this is the way that I'm going to do it today.
Well, I'm going to fuck with the world because it means I'll get whatever I want for my, you know, like, you know, he makes money off of, you know, working different government deals and whatever to just rake up more money for like the things that he wants to create. And like, literally whatever millions he's giving to reform is like the equivalent of Rishi Sunak's 1,000 pound charity donation.
But what he gets for that is just carte blanche to walk in and be like, here's what you need to do. Because like, there were a lot of things that I'm coming to understand as someone who's only been here for a decade now that are like, you know, common practice, but not written down anywhere as law.
And it's very easy for all of the stuff that like, you know, MAGA wants to do in America to start coming over here. There are plenty of people who want that. Although, MAGA is not as good a acronym.
Last week, Saudi Arabia was named the host of the 2034 World Cup. And it's no coincidence in season two of World Corrupt, Roger Bennett and Tommy Vitor uncover how an oil-rich nation with a grim human rights record bought its way to global influence from wooing soccer stars to Silicon Valley investors.
.
Once the debris from the election parties had been cleared in Keir Starmer and packed all his boxes of Arsenal scarves, free suits and glasses into number 10, what did Labour do next?
Starmer assembled his ministerial A-team on his first full day as Prime Minister, confirmed the Rwanda plan was dead and buried and that the money saved from it would be redirected to the government's proposed Border and Security Command, which sounds slightly like it belongs as the name of ITV's next gritty police drama. Exactly.
Anyway, things turned out quite badly. In the summer, we had the horrible attack in Southport, followed by devastating riots, spurred on in part by newly elected MP Nigel Farage, who amplified fake news reports that the man involved in the Southport attack was known to British security services.
Starmer condemned the rioters, but wouldn't explicitly call out their racism, opting for the vaguer phrase, whatever the apparent motivation.
By September, we've been treated to the first sort of scandal of this Labour government. You always remember your first. When it came to light that ministers had accepted thousands of pounds worth of gifts that they'd failed to declare. And it did seem for a point like every government minister had spent some time at the Taylor Swift era's tour. Here's Education Secretary Bridget Philipson.
Look, I'll be honest, it was a hard one to turn down. I appreciate there was big demand for the tickets. It was a privilege to be there. One of my children, you know, was keen to go along. It's hard to say no if you're offered tickets in those circumstances, but it was declared.
Liz, in comparison to previous scandals from the last decade and a half, it was sort of broadly chump change. But does it matter more because Starmer's made such a play about, you know, the Labour Party... dotting all the I's and crossing all the T's in terms of following regulations?
No, I mean, look, not really. I mean, it won't hang over this government, I don't think. That's not the sense that I get. And I think what was going on was we were so used to constantly looking for scandals that this became the kind of Labour government scandal for... a few weeks, they took free tickets, they registered them.
You might think, as I do, our politicians need to stop taking so much free shit. I would really like to see less free shit taken.
But it's also the kind of corruption you expect. Like, that puts the average voter at ease. Like, oh, they're just taking free shit. They're not, like, having a party in the middle of a plague or, like, doing weird sex stuff, you know? Like, I mean, it's wrong and it's messed up and there's a scale of, like... Taking free shit leads up to like, you know, and here's Elon Musk.
But, you know, on the other hand, you're just kind of like, yeah, that's what politicians do.
But also, look, because I want to say, I love free shit. Like, I love free stuff so much.
They call you Liz Swagbag, bitch.
Yes. Like literally, if there's like some free sandwiches going, I'm like, yes, I'll take, I'll eat 10 and take some home with me. But I just think the problem was there was a lot of false equivalence going on between what happened to Boris Johnson was it was all, he never declared anything. That was the problem.
So journalists were finding out like, hang on, like where did this money come from to redo the flat? Some fucking Lord that we never heard of. Like it wasn't all properly declared. And so there was this kind of, you know, There was a feeling that it was still going on, but it was actually a different thing. Maybe they shouldn't be taking so many Taylor Swift tickets.
I don't know why Keir Starmer's taking so many clothes from Lord Ali, but it was different. It's different.
Then, of course, in October, we got to the first Labour budget in 14 years. Nish is actually wearing a Grinch hat.
I will say, for listeners of the podcast, I'm struggling to keep up. I have a massive head. and I also have... He means it literally, not in a metaphorical way. Well, I have that as well.
I have a massive head both metaphorically... Not a surface area on that head for a bukkake if you wanted one. Oh my goodness me.
See, now this is going into harassment. This is now going into HR.
This is now going to be used as evidence.
Felt like we hadn't said it for like five minutes. You can see how it happens. You have a sort of ongoing blue joke and then, oh, now it's turned. Now it's turned about the moment. I just feel like, you know, if we're going to chat about the budget, the Grinch hat is very nice.
I've got a large head and large hair and I'm struggling to, which I imagine would be a nightmare scenario cleaning up after it.
Yeah, it would.
one of those. But yeah, I'm trying to keep the hat as visible as possible. We did go into the first Labour budget in 14 years detailing £40 billion in tax rises. It pissed a lot of people off. But even on the Tory benches, and I can't lie, it does still feel good to say this, the opposition were arguing with each other about how to rebuild their party and reverse the disastrous election results.
For the Labour government, there was a huge advantage in that the Conservative Party was all over the place because they were still trying to deal with their leadership contest. And as the race proceeded into its penultimate round, Conservative MPs managed to do the funniest thing imaginable and accidentally tactically vote out
Their favourite candidate, the former Foreign Secretary, James Cleverley. Here's Cleverley's advisor describing what happened on LBC.
To be honest, it's an almighty cock-up.
Was that the condescension? Good luck. This might be the dirtiest PSUK of all time. It was an almighty cock-up. Liz, it's pretty funny. funny that they tried to tactically engineer the person who would be up against James Cleverley and ended up voting out James Cleverley yeah so the supporters of James Cleverley were trying to guarantee that he was in a run off with Robert Jenrick, I think.
Yes.
And instead they managed to accidentally overcompensate the other way and end up with him not having enough votes to get through to the final two. So the final two was Jenrick and Kemi Badenov.
So they lent their votes to the person that they wanted to see him go against in the final round, basically, and they lent too many votes.
Who were all the people who voted for Kemi then if they were leaning their votes over to Like, they were genuine people who wanted Kemi Baden. Oh, there's definitely people who wanted Kemi, yeah.
Yes, exactly. The problem is, it's such a small party now that they'd sort of miscalculated in terms of numbers. And so... Yeah, that went badly for them.
Is this not basic politics? I mean, you know what I mean? It's something Nancy Pelosi always talks about because I know how to count. And I walk around and I'm counting things and I figure out what needs to happen because I know how to count. What are these guys doing where they don't know how to count?
Doesn't make you feel good about the sort of control of the budget they held for many years.
Doesn't make you feel great about it. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah.
So, look, in the end, of course, Kemi Bader-Dock did win with just over 56% of members' votes and became the first ever black person to lead the Conservative Party.
Now, as the day started to get colder and shorter, there was one massive, overwhelming, terrifying news event that seemed to overshadow all others, and it's, of course, the US election. Convicted felon and sexual abuser Donald Trump won the White House again, beating Kamala Harris across all swing states and won the popular vote for the first time. Now the dust has settled, Desiree.
How are you feeling?
I mean... It's hard to feel any more hopeless than I did in 2016, except for the fact that everybody I know who is liberal feels that way. There was a very stark sort of reaction to like, let's get back in there and fight because it's like, it doesn't work. Please stop telling us to do the same thing that has clearly been proven not to work. Kamala did have one thing right. We're not going back.
And in terms of we're not going back to politics the way they used to work. Like, you know, and ultimately we were the establishment in this case. I mean, Brian Eno called this right after the 2020 election and saying, basically, I don't know why people are celebrating.
You know, the Democrats are going to have to take the heat for everything the Republicans did, because that's just like, you know, Trump was like, oh, look what I did for the economy. No, Obama did that. But nobody's going to give him any credit for that thing. Everyone's just going to be like, forget that guy. This guy's great. He leaves. There's a bunch of mess to clean up.
You spend four years cleaning up the mess and everyone's like, how come everything's messy and expensive? No one in America knows that the American economy is the envy of the world because everybody went through the plague and also corporate greed. Full stop. You know, and like nobody was able to point that out. I mean, Starmer and the Labor Party and Trump did the same thing of say nothing.
Trump is exceptionally good at saying nothing very loudly over it and just look there, look anywhere. But essentially, it's just like say nothing and let everybody be mad at the people who are standing behind the podium right now and then come back into power. I mean, the people in my life that I know who are like, but what about the price of gas? Don't know how much gas costs everywhere else.
But what about the price of cereal? Well, I mean, we don't need that much cereal. But the president doesn't wake up every morning going, hey, let's make eggs eight bucks and cereal nine bucks today. Because it's like, no, those are the corporate overlords that are now in the cabinet in America.
Liz, just purely looking at this from a. British perspective, the first wave of economic conversations around the budget was it was all going to be about growth.
That obviously now feels completely compromised because we don't know what Trump's tariffs are going to be and what impact that will have on global trade, which again has a direct impact on the economic growth that's supposed to raise all this extra money for the Treasury to fund our public services. Do you think the Labour Party has figured out how it approaches Donald Trump now.
I mean, last week we had them sort of deploying the royal family. Does anyone within the government have any sense of how to manage the special relationship?
I think what you've seen with this government so far is there was a long period of time, and we did the podcast during that period, where we thought maybe they've got a plan and they're just keeping it a secret. And then during the election campaign, we were like, well, they seem like they're not really ready, but they'll obviously be ready for the election. Ready for government.
And then they got into government and we were like, oh, they're just not ready and they actually don't have a plan. So I think when it comes to lots of things, they're figuring it out.
Yeah.
And I think when it comes to how to approach America, they're doing that as well.
But there has been a bit of a... sort of re-nosing of Labour strategy. Like, I think they have learnt a lesson from the American election results where they have understood that it's not enough to say that our economy is buoyant. If people don't feel it in their pocket, they will disregard it. Living standards in the UK are very, very low and are getting lower.
So when, after five months in office, Starmer finally declared that the government had a plan and the plan is change, maybe now is the time we believe it? Or what do you think, Liz?
Does he mean literal change? Like is the plan now for there to be more coins? Guys, you've got to fill them jars. Just reverse pickpocketing every person in Britain and putting like two pound coins in everyone's pocket.
I think we should suggest policies to them and they would probably go for it at this point.
I thought there was a certain elegance to the way that you summarised the year in our perception, especially on this podcast, of the Labour Party, which is assuming that there'll be a plan, then finding out there wasn't really a plan, but assuming there'd be a plan for once they were in government, then once they're in government going...
The thing that I keep returning to is when West Street announced that there would be a consultation on how to deal with the NHS, and a part of me did go, hold on, why have you not... Not just a consultation, a consultation with the public.
I know. With the public.
Is it a consultation with experts?
No, no, no.
It's anyone. We're running a competition, guys.
Literally anyone.
Who's got the best ideas for the NHS? Yeah. Are you going to keep it to people in the UK? No, literally anyone.
Just anyone.
Anyone. It's like they're opening the windows in Whitehall and going, has anyone got any policy ideas out here?
Am I being naive to assume that there should have been a plan and should there not have been a plan that they were rolling out for the NHS?
Yes. Yes, I know it sounds like an obvious question, but yes. Yes is the answer. Shame you weren't at any of their meetings before the election. A lot of UK government and how it rolls out is about the character of the person at the centre of it and that is Keir Starmer.
And I think the sense that I have got from him and what has come across is he basically, he managed a big organisation in the CPS and he was like, I'm really great at managing things. I think I should manage the country. And so that's it. He thinks, surely let's just manage this better. And so their plan is like, make the NHS better, make the education system better.
He's not really a political strategist and he hasn't brought in any political strategists. And they've been out of office in opposition for 14 years. And so they've all got into Whitehall and been like, Jesus Christ, this doesn't work very well. And how do we sort it all out?
And also you can't manage that into success. Like it is broken. You need someone with a new idea. And is the problem that any new idea is going to be pissing off the billionaires who are profiting off of the NHS not working as well so that things can get privatized? Like, I mean, who has ideas?
that aren't going to be like, and someone's going to get rich off of this because that's part of the problem.
And I think as well, I mean, going back to that initial thought of, okay, five months later when he says change, he was saying change all along. Do we finally believe it? Well, that's the crucial word, change. Is it change? Is anything changing or is it just managed better? And do we need managed better?
I think, look, one of the things is when you look at the 14 years of the Conservative government, it was kind of overshadowed by Brexit and Boris Johnson. And that was genuinely chaotic for the way that just the country runs. And so having a consistent government that is just trying to get departments to run things better is actually not a bad idea because we weren't doing it.
So that is a good idea. Separately from that. I think there's disappointment within the Labour ranks and probably amongst Labour voters now as well, that there's no broader vision for shifting the way that the economy works in a way that feels fairer. So taking on things like water privatisation, right? You would think a Labour government will come in and say, OK, we'll sort that out.
But their approach to that is, oh, we'll make the regulator better.
Yes. So it's the same. The polls have put Labour behind Reform and the Conservatives, well, some of the polls anyway, despite the new leader, Kemi Badenoch, having nothing to say beyond picking fights with bread, if the latest story is to be believed. Last week, she declared that sandwiches aren't real food. The polls are in the gutter. The tabloids are having a field day.
This week, the Daily Star rejoiced in the headline, saying that Keir Starmer is the worst prime minister in recent history... according to Brits. Who else would it be according to? According to Brits. So it sounds like, you know, we have these rogue operators on the outside promising change.
And of course, when you scrutinise it, you know, that's not going to change anything unless making richer and poorer even more stark is the change you're looking for. But the fact remains, the people are not happy with Mr Starmer.
It sounds like What you're saying is Starmer's focus has been dealing on with 2017 to 2024, which is a period post Brexit of administrative chaos, elections, chaotic government, corruption in some cases, mismanagement, but not actually handling structural problems that have been much more deep seated and are also at the roots of some of this political instability.
Yeah, exactly that. And because, and it's basically because he's not a great thinker. When you look back on some of the transformative governments, whether you liked them or not in this country, so, you know, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, they had a central kind of political and economic thesis.
Yeah.
At least 1945. Exactly. Exactly. Right. So they they spend time, you know, in some ways it feels quite separate from politics day to day, but it's intellectual. It's thinking about the future, a vision of a country and a world that is different from the one that you're in now that has never been done before. So, you know, look at Thatcher and the way that she privatised everything.
And then you look at Blair and the kind of third way we're living with the consequences of both of those things. kind of political theories now, but they pushed those through and made them into policies day to day. Keir Starmer's not that guy. Like he is not that guy.
He did not sit around for 10 years talking to his friends and talking to his political associates about political vision and political theory. He literally just managed a big organization and now he's like, I'm going to manage another one that's even bigger.
But like legitimate question, because I don't know the answer, but do we think those kinds of leaders could get elected in this time? Because it does seem like it is sort of just populist leaders who come to the fore and complain about the status quo long enough to get into office and to make things worse for everyone and better for themselves.
And it does feel like this particular government might be priming everybody for a big swing back to something like reform when they're in the middle of cleaning up a mess but not actually progressing anything forward. Yeah.
Absolutely, yeah. And look, I mean, it sounds like I'm kind of shitbagging here. You know, the war I'm talking about is really kind of the perfect idea... of a leader, which is somebody who has a great vision and then can also make that happen day to day. That's a really difficult thing to do. He's a middle manager and maybe we do need that.
I don't know what that means for the next phase of British politics.
To close us off with something a little more silly, it's my favourite bit, the song bit, where politicians, we recap on how the politicians around the country have been using some songs to make their voices heard this year. So, for example, we had Paul Thomas candidate for a reform with his rendition of The Spice Girls.
I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want. I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want. I want a reform win. Oh, my God.
I guess nobody likes a try hard, but, like, could you try it all?
That was...
I mean, how much it's trickled down. He's like, oh, he hears that at the gym two times a year when he goes. And he's like, oh, I know what they'll want, what they'll really, really want.
Of every song in the canon of popular music in the West, that song is one of the hardest to deliver without any rhythm just because of the vowel sounds. Like it's very naturally. The fact that he has managed to completely extract the rhythm from that is actually genuinely quite impressive. We also had Labour MP Dawn Butler trying her hand at this belter from the So Solid crew.
If you like me, let me know. Let me add a shadow. Got 21 days before they gotta go. 21 days to go. 21 days to go. I mean, genuinely. Come on, that's good.
It's good.
It's actually good. I don't always approve of it, but Dawn Butler definitely has bars. I sometimes think it would be patronising to the electorate, but I will say Dawn Butler definitely has bars.
Wow.
So I was like, oh, I'm reading way too much political content.
Prosecco does sound like an Italian dissident.
And then I had another incident recently where I was listening to Beyonce's Irreplaceable, to the left, to the left. And you know, the chorus is, you must not know what I mean. I could get another you in a minute. And I thought, I was like, this is the song about Keir Starmer. Oh, my God.
If anyone could kill that song, it would be Kim Starmer. Can you imagine? You must not know about me. Don't do it.
I feel actually that's us as disenfranchised Labour voters. We're singing that to him. We could get another you in a minute. You'll be here in a minute. To the left.
Everyone should hear that a little bit more, I think.
Beyonce's got bigger problems than mine.
She does, she does. But anyway, in the spirit of just far too much political content, in his final show of electoral spectacle for the year, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey is vying for Christmas number one. He's performing alongside the Bath Philharmonic Young Carers Choir with their song Love Is Enough.
Was that him Googling at the end how to sing?
Yeah, for the benefit of podcast listeners, the last shot we saw from that music video was Ed Davey looking at something very intently on his phone. We think it was the song lyrics.
He got bored of lip syncing the song. Every time, we know he's not singing it.
Yeah, he's clever because he knows we can't take the piss. I know. Because it's full of young carers. And we have to be like, that's really cute.
No one's going to be playing that from a pedicab in Soho this Christmas season.
The track is actually in the top 40 right now. If you're feeling particularly liberal, do go and give it a spin. Desiree Birch, Liz Bates, thank you so much for joining us on this show.
Oh my God, it's been a bukkake of joy. Of holiday cheer. Thank you so much.
Once again, please, Desiree is a fellow stand-up comedian, one of our country's finest stand-up comedians. And I would say operates on a similar level of juvenilia to me and Coco.
But once again.
I'm thrilled that we have dragged professional journalist Liz Bates down to that level.
I would just like to thank you guys because I felt like I started off with the bukkake thinking maybe that's going to be a bit rude and inappropriate, but you just went with it. You were like, no.
I'm like, wait, where's the line? Not anymore!
And that's it. Thanks for listening to Pod Save the UK. We want to hear your thoughts. Email us at psuk at reducedlistening.co.uk.
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Nish and I are taking a little holiday break for the next two weeks. Not together, but it would be fun, wouldn't it? We'll be back with you in early January.
I didn't like how quickly you went to not together. I think we'd have had a lovely old Christmas. Pod Save the UK is a reduced listening production for Crooked Media.
Thanks to senior producer James Tindow and assistant producers Mae Robson, Nadas Miljanic and Artemis Irvin, with extra research from Adam Wright.
Our theme music is by Vasilis Fotopoulos.
Thanks to our engineers, Jeet Vasani and Ryan McBeath. The head of production is Dan Jackson.
The executive producers are Anishka Sharma, Madeleine Herringer, with additional support from Ari Schwartz.
And remember to hit subscribe for new shows on Thursdays on Amazon, Spotify or Apple or wherever you get your podcasts. Have a great non-denominational holiday. See you in the new year, guys.