EMQs: Is Wes Streeting a good health secretary?
3/30/202636 min
Fellow ex-MP and former health minister Steve Brine sends in a question asking Ed Balls and George Osborne how we judge the performance of a health secretary, and in particular Wes Streeting. They lay out the historical challenges of the role, and where Streeting has risen or succumbed to them thus far.
A colleague of Ed’s from King’s College then asks how useful it is for benefits to be so conditional, in particular for care leavers. They debate the fairness in having conditional benefits systems, and why people are more sympathetic to care leavers than other disadvantaged groups.
They then discuss the perks of pedestrianising Bruton, George’s stomping ground, in a manner similar to Paris. Would George lead the campaign to see this through? Or is it an enticing but unrealistic idea?
Finally, a former Tory parliamentary candidate raises his concerns around Nick Timothy’s controversial comments on a Ramadan event in London. They discuss the dangerous direction these comments represent for both the Tories, and British politics more widely.
We love hearing from you, so please don’t forget to send all your EMQs to questions@politicalcurrency and make sure to include a voice note of your question.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsGeorge Osborne· Host0:00
The Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Ed Balls· Host0:01
[cheering] Getting a lesson from the Shadow Chancellor on how to balance the books is like getting a lesson from Dracula on how to look after a blood bank. [laughing] Ed Balls. [upbeat music] A steady as she goes budget. What kind of ship does he think he's on? The Titanic? The Marie Celeste?
George Osborne· Host0:16
[laughing] Welcome to EMQ's From Political Currency. With Ed Balls and George Osborne.
Ed Balls· Host0:21
[upbeat music] So hello and welcome to EMQ's Ex-Ministers Questions, and this is our final pre-Easter- Mm. -question session before your Parliament will be going into recess, and so is Political Currency. But we're not, George, denying our listeners the Easter delights of our podcast. It's just gonna be changing somewhat.
George Osborne· Host0:47
Yeah, that's right, 'cause we are gonna do one of our Inside the Rooms, which is often over several episodes, and I think we'll be over this. We haven't recorded it yet, [laughs] but we are about to. And it's, um, gonna be about the campaign in Libya in twenty eleven. So we're gonna be speaking to some of the key participants in that. And of course, there's some echoes with what's going on in the world at the moment in the Middle East. But for those who've listened before to, for example, our Inside the Room on the Scottish referendum with Nicola Sturgeon or the Brexit referendum with Michael Gove or the first few months of the Cameron premiership with, uh, David Cameron, you know, you'll know we go through it in some detail so that people really understand what it's like to make decisions