The Expert Factor

Back by popular demand, Hannah White, Paul Johnson and Anand Menon reunited on stage to record a special live episode of The Expert Factor – the podcast for people who haven’t had enough of experts.  

Nine years to the day since the UK voted to leave the EU, as the directors of three of the UK’s leading think tanks – the Institute for Government, the Institute for Fiscal Studies and UK in a Changing Europe – got together to discuss, explore and explain the big questions facing Keir Starmer’s Labour government and Britain’s opposition parties in an increasingly unpredictable world.

The event was held in partnership with UK in a Changing Europe.

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A week is a long time in politics, but it is even longer in international relations. Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the US and Americas programme at Chatham House, joins Paul and Anand to work out what the complex combination of Trump, tariffs and trade negotiations means for Keir Starmer and the UK.

What will Donald Trump’s tariffs mean for the US’s closest trading partners – and the EU and the UK? How should Keir Starmer approach relations with the unpredictable US president? Can the PM improve the UK’s deal with the EU, and if so then what might the ‘reset’ look like? And is the UK actually facing a choice between Trump’s America and the EU – and, if so, what does he do…

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To mark the fifth anniversary of the UK’s departure from the EU, Anand, Paul and Hannah took a trip to Oxford of the Expert Factor. So how has the Brexit worked out for the UK? What questions are still being asked – and unanswered? And how might Keir Starmer and the Labour government approach the UK’s ever-evolving relationship with the EU?

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The robots are taking our jobs, we’re going to be a nation run by chatbots, and an all-seeing, all-powerful computer is set to know everything about all of us.

Well, not really.

But Keir Starmer says AI is poised to generate “incredible change in our country”

So what exactly is he talking about? 

Helen Margetts, professor of Society and the Internet at the University of Oxford and director of the Alan Turing Institute’s public policy programme, joins Hannah and Paul to explore what AI could mean for the private sector, for the public sector, and whether there are good reasons to be worried about what the future might hold...

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Why is the social care challenge so complicated? Why can’t the nation’s politicians find a way forward? What is a possible solution? And what could Baroness Casey do to succeed when nobody else has managed to do so?

This week’s Expert Factor sees Hannah and Paul joined by Andrew Dilnot, who chaired the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, to explore three decades of disagreement and delay, look at how social care currently works – or doesn’t, and discuss what Louise Casey should do to deliver lasting change.

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We’ve had missions. We’ve got foundations. We had some first steps. And now we have milestones.

So what are they? Are targets a sensible way to go about governing? How do they change the way civil servants work? Whose heads roll if targets aren’t met? And has Keir Starmer even chosen the type of targets that the voters care about.

Anand, Paul and Hannah have read every word (probably) in Keir Starmer’s Plan for Change, and are here to tell you exactly what the targets say, whether they can be reached, and what they mean for Starmer and his Labour government.

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With the assisted dying bill dominating discussions and debates in Westminster, former House of Commons clerk David Natzler joins Hannah and Paul to explain how private members’ bills work – and why they sometimes don’t.

The bill to legislate for assisted dying isn’t a government bill. It hasn’t emerged from a Whitehall department. And it isn’t being steered through parliament by a minister. It is a private member’s bill, introduced by a Labour backbencher – Kim Leadbetter – whose name was drawn from a ballot.

So why might that be an issue? Has this particular bill exposed the disadvantages of this way of legislating? And what might be a better way of allowing backbenchers to make law?

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What does Donald Trump’s plan to make America great again mean for everyone else? What do tariffs actually achieve and who feels the pain or reaps the benefits? Will Trump’s America First vision push the UK towards the EU? Could the UK’s defence spending rise - and what might that mean for public services? Is there any chance of a US/UK trade deal happening? And does the US result tell us what voters might be looking for here at the next general election here?

Hannah, Paul and Anand assemble in the podcast studio to make sense of some of the many questions facing the UK – and Keir Starmer – since Donald Trump’s election triumph confirmed his return to the White House.

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It is nearly a week since Rachel Reeves set out her Halloween Budget – the first from a Labour government in 14 years. So who are the winners? Who are the losers? Do the numbers add up? How big are the numbers? And have manifesto promises been broken along the way?

Former Treasury special adviser Sonia Khan joins Paul and Anand to crunch the budget sums, dig into the chancellor’s plans and strategies, and explain what it all means for the government, for the economy, and for everyone who listens to the Expert Factor.

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Remember the days when Keir Starmer used to campaign for a second Brexit referendum? Since the general election we hear rather more about the Labour government wanting to reset the UK’s relations with the EU.

So have there been any substantial changes in the relationship so far? How likely is it that the government will be able to successfully negotiate on any trade barriers? What about Labour's plan for a security pact with the EU - what could this look like? And from the EU's perspective, is there even any appetite for closer relations?

Brexit expert Jill Rutter, of both UKICE and the IfG, dials in from Madrid to join Anand and Paul for am expert tour across the UK’s post-Brexit landscape

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