EMQs solutions special: Burnham reviving Sunak’s national service plan?
In this policy focused edition of EMQs, Ed Balls and George Osborne are thinking about the big ideas to help solve Britain’s big issues. They first consider whether steps should be taken to offer tax incentives for having children, as countries like Hungary have done. Ed and George explain why this is an ineffective measure, but an important debate governments must get on top of sooner rather than later.
Fellow podcaster Emily Dean and actor Sarah Hadland then ask the biggest questions: should there be dogs in Parliament? Should they have the vote? If yes, then what about cats!? This sends Ed and George down memory lane about various MPs and their own pets over the years within Westminster.
They then consider whether Andy Burnham should revive Rishi Sunak’s national service scheme, as a way of contending with the NEETs crisis brewing. They look at the pros and cons of national service, and other ways previous governments have addressed this issue.
A Scottish listener queries whether the individual Secretaries of State for Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are necessary given each nation has devolved parliaments. The pair explain this idea has been previously explored, but abandoned for very good reasons.
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Credits:
Production: Sam Burton
Producer: Caillin McDaid
Video Editor: Sam Gruet
Executive Producer: Henrietta Harrison
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Political Currency
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.
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