Electioncast: What’s Happening In England?
5/1/202631 min
Today, we look at the local authority elections in England.
Adam, Chris and Alex explore the geography of the elections and who might do well where, the race for London’s councils and the challenges facing each of the parties as the campaigns enter their final week.
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New 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://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Anna Harris with Shiler Mahmoudi. The social producer was Gabriel Purcell-Davis. The technical producers were Mike Regaard and Stephen Bailey. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsAdam Fleming· Host0:00
Chris, welcome to Electioncast.
Chris Mason· Host0:01
Well, thank you for having me. This is, uh, this is great to be back on a pod called Electioncast. [chuckles] What a great idea.
Adam Fleming· Host0:06
I mean, you've been on every episode of Newscast for, like, the last 200 episodes. [laughs] So it's not really that different, but...
Chris Mason· Host0:11
It's good to be back.
Adam Fleming· Host0:12
Um, it means you get to hear Remoter Voter.
Chris Mason· Host0:14
Yes, my favorite.
Adam Fleming· Host0:16
Um, so the most recent Remoter Voter we had was somebody in Geelong in Australia.
Chris Mason· Host0:21
Excellent.
Adam Fleming· Host0:22
And I said, "Well, you know what? You don't have to be tens of thousands of kilometers or miles away from the UK to be part of it. You can be just d- down the end of the road." Uh, it's just about interesting reasons that mean people can't vote in person. And Joe has answered this call spectacularly, and he says, "I filled in my postal vote for the May elections today. I'll be posting it tomorrow in the box just over the road from my house. I will be at home on the 7th of May, but I work nights, so I'll be asleep for most of the day and then working all evening."
Chris Mason· Host0:48
Well, that's fair enough, isn't it? And that saves the body clock taking even more of a, you know, a hit than, than- Mm ... those kind of shifts, uh, those kind of shifts do. Very good, Joe.
Adam Fleming· Host0:57
And then Joe reveals a bit more about their life. He says, "My job is making podcasts about boring IT stuff," which I find really interesting, "and it involves working with lots of Americans, so it's just easier to work at night and sleep during the day. I listen to Newscast every day, so thanks for all the effort that you put into it. Maybe one day I'll be as good as Adam at presenting my shows." Dare to dream.
Chris Mason· Host1:17
Joe, I, I reckon you're a rival for Adam already. I can sense it. I can feel it. With that kind of level of organization about sorting out a postal vote so it doesn't interrupt your sleeping patterns, yeah, you're streets ahead of us.
Adam Fleming· Host1:29
And also,