Welcome to our first edition of EMQs - Ex-Ministers' Questions... see what we did there?. Every Monday, our ex-ministers will take your questions. Ed Balls and George Osborne will also hear from some influential and famous voices.
In our first episode: did the Lib Dems agree to ditch their pledge on tuition fees during the coalition talks? What is the Barnett formula and is it fair? And why are Special Advisers such as Dominic Cummings so influential?
To send in your questions for next week's episode, email questions@politicalcurrency.co.uk - we love to get your voice notes!
Follow us on social media: @polcurrency Producers: Rachel Balmer and Rosie Stopher Production Manager: Flick Heath Executive Producers: Dino Sofos and Ellie Clifford
Political Currency is a Persephonica Production and part of the Acast Creator Network Subscribe now on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

EMQs: Special Advisers, tuition fees and is the Barnett formula fair?

Ed Balls and George Osborne take us behind closed doors into the rooms where decisions are made. Having battled it out across the despatch box, the former Chancellor and shadow chancellor now meet in the studio to discuss the decisions that affect the nation’s pockets. Our frenemies have the knowledge and experience to explain how good politics follows the economics - and expose how the powerful become powerless when faced with market forces and political currents they can’t control. Join us every Thursday.
Send your messages or voice notes to questions@politicalcurrency.co.uk
Find us on social media @polcurrency
Political Currency is a Persephonica production. Subscribe now on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

News

Politics

A snap election! Not quite George Osborne’s prediction of 14th November, Ed Balls is struggling to understand the logic that led Rishi Sunak to surprise, well, literally everybody with 4th July as the date of the next general election. Are good inflation numbers really enough to see the Conservatives to a better result than the formerly predicted disaster? George reveals Number 10’s thinking. 
As the battle is drawn, Ed and George discuss the seats to watch and the issues on the table - and of course, the ones that aren’t. And, they draw back the curtain on how Westminster will be preparing in the wake of the prime minister’s bombshell. 

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Things Can Only Get Worse: Sunak’s Snap Election

Why doesn’t Bristol have a mayor anymore? What do treasury officials actually do? And is there a reason we’re losing so many bright young tech experts to the West Coast of America?
Plus, author Will Hutton wants to know if Ed Balls and George Osborne will take responsibility for their involvement in the economic crises of the twenty-first century, and in a podcast crossover, Sascha O’Sullivan of POLITICO’s Westminster Insider wants to know if we should be trying to find silver linings in Truss’s attempt to be different. 
Remember to send us your questions to questions@politicalcurrency.co.uk
Producer: Rosie Stopher  Production support: Miriam Hall Technical Producer: Will Gibson Smith Executive Producers: Dino Sofos and Ellie Clifford
Political Currency is a Persephonica Production and is part of the Acast Creator Network.  Subscribe now on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

EMQs: Truss, treasury officials and techxit?

Keir Starmer, poster boy. The Labour leader’s new pledge card is here, with six key policies and a black and white photoshoot to woo the public. Is it all a bit retro? Well that depends who you ask: George Osborne would prefer a new approach, whereas Ed Balls reckons some solid Labour '97 nostalgia might just be what the party needs.
Meanwhile, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy is working hard to get himself out there on the world stage - and back in the good books of a certain former (and possibly future) US President, of whom he’s rarely been complimentary before. If he’s after an invitation to Mar-a-Lago, the good news is that George has the inside scoop from the current Foreign Secretary on how an evening at Donald Trump’s dinner table plays out. 
And, with George on the ground at Stanford University, what are the challenges of the campus protests sweeping the world - and what does it mean for politics in a globally important election year? 
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Protests, Presidents and Politics like it's 97!

Ed Balls and George Osborne are pleased to have been asked for book recommendations. Is this the start of a book club to compete with the likes of Richard and Judy? If so, George is bagsying his role in the duo now - and no, it’s not Richard. 
MP Greg Clark asks about the future of local mayoralties, and Sunday Times interviewer Decca Aitkenhead wants to know whether George is doing anything about his, ahem, selective memory. Plus, what on earth did the Cameron government see in Liz Truss all those years ago, and what’s changed?
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EMQs: Political Book Club

Rishi Sunak lives to fight another day after some terrible local election results. But as he loses yet another MP to Labour, Ed Balls and George Osborne ask whether it might be time to play a new strategy and try acting the underdog.
Meanwhile, whilst Labour had a markedly better weekend, it didn’t quite indicate the 1997-style landslide they might be hoping for in the next general election. Is Keir Starmer on track for a small majority? And if so, how should he manage it?
And in foreign affairs, the UK is notably absent from President Xi Jinping’s European itinerary this week. How did Sino-UK relations end up here, and how would a prime minister - current or future - get back on track?
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EMQs: Special Advisers, tuition fees and is the Barnett formula fair?

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