The Number 10 Podcast

Today we looked back across history to pick out the Prime Ministers who had the worst start to their careers in Number 10. This is about what they did, what they didn’t do and also what they inherited limited to the first few months of their premiership.

Sit back and relax as we talk about such PM’s as Viscount Goderich, Churchill, Thatcher, Heath and many more. We’ll even talk about Boris Johnson’s statistically terrible start to the current premiership.

To kick start this season, we’re going to be going around the world in the year 1702, setting the scene for the new century and giving some perspective as to the events that will affect the next 100 years and beyond.

In today’s episode, we discuss the events of Armistice Day, that happened 101 years ago today (11/11/1918). To really make it interesting, I teamed up with Jacob from Podcast On Germany, to give an interesting new angle to it- looking at the end of World War One from both the British and German side of the trenches.

We discuss the Armistice signing, how the soldiers were told, the last deaths of the war and beyond that to look at how the war ended- and how that potentially laid the path for WW2. We finish by looking at how the end of WW1 is remembered today in both London and Berlin.

A quick message from Chris to thank everyone, including our dear listeners for their support this season.

In today’s episode we talk about the core constitutional sources of our uncodified constitution, as well as some letters from our fans. As it’s not something that’s written down in one single document like the USA, it can be difficult to navigate, so we’ll be going through the basics.

We talk about statute law, common law, royal prerogatives, conventions, works of authority and EU law; as well as Private Member’s Bills, Donoghue vs Stevenson and AV Dicey.

The second and final episode of the chat forecasting the policies and styles of the two current leaders of the Labour and Conservative Parties in the UK.

Thanks again to Ryan for coming on for this very fun and interesting episode!

Today we talk with the international socialist of mystery, Ryan about the backgrounds of Boris Johnson, our current Prime Minister and Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party. We’ll talk about where they’ve come from, controversies and how they’re being perceived outside of Westminster.

Part one of the chat, we’ll be talking in the next part about their policy ideas and throwing a few our own thoughts in along the way.

This episode was recorded in early August before all of the prorogation and no deal vote blocking, so if you’re wondering why it’s missing- that’s why!

We talk today about the swathe of legislation through William and Mary’s reign that led to the start of our Parliamentary democracy, including the iconic Bill of Rights.

We left off with England in a strange situation. James II, England’s King had escaped to France and William had arrived in London. Before he arrived and in the absence of James who was in the middle of his first escape attempt, there had been riots in London, where every single Catholic church in London was attacked and some completely demolished. City governors and nobility were forced to become self-appointed policemen, and struggled to bring the mobs under control.

With the Hong Kong protests in full swing and escalating week on week- we talk to protesters on the front line and those who’ve fled Hong Kong when it became part of China in the 1990s.

With many Hong Kong citizens fighting against a controversial extradition bill and a wider protest for universal suffrage, the protests have seen hundreds of arrest and thousands of injuries.

All names of interviewees have been changed to protect their identity.

This week we’re delighted to be joined by historian Jack Brown for this episode discussing Number 10 Downing Street- the construction, renovations and of course, the occupants.

We’ll also be talking about the strikes over tea breaks under Macmillan, Larry the Cat and Devolution; as well as Jack’s new book “No. 10: The Geography of Power at Downing Street”.

Buy it here: https://www.hauspublishing.com/non-fiction/no-10/

You can also find Jack on Twitter at @jackwbrown.