Conference

Where Blair is wrong, but Farage is right & why recognising Palestine is ‘politics at its worst’

48 min listen

This week, Michael and Maddie lift the lid on the strange rituals of party conference season and why the ‘goldfish bowl’ reality of a week in Birmingham (or Manchester, or Liverpool) often leaves politicians with ‘PTSD’.  They then turn to the government’s revived enthusiasm for digital ID cards. Is this a sensible fix for illegal immigration – or, as Michael puts it, ‘snake oil rubbed onto an already weak idea’? And why does Tony Blair always seem to be the ghost whispering ‘ID cards’ into Westminster’s ear? Next, Keir Starmer’s recognition of a Palestinian state: a principled step, or a political stunt designed to placate his backbenchers? Michael and Madeline

Gove starts to define ‘levelling up’

What is levelling up? One of the problems with this nebulous term is that anyone in government who has understood what it means has decided to keep this a glorious secret, rather than sharing it with others. Now that there is an entire department for Levelling Up, it’s a bit harder to take this approach. Michael Gove is the new Secretary of State for the policy and spoke last night at a ConservativeHome fringe event at the Conservative party conference. He was keen not just to offer a picture of what levelling up will look like, but also to respond to critics within his own party who think this is