Has Burnham wasted his honeymoon?
The budget crunch is on for Andy Burnham’s new government, with Ed Balls and George Osborne warning that the economic outlook has got much worse from when the new PM entered No. 10. The Fed raising interest rates, and the Bank of England likely to follow this autumn, create a stark picture for Burnham and John Healey. George reports a lack of confidence internationally, and wonders if the honeymoon period has been wasted.
George is just back from Canada, and reports on the confidence stirred up by their PM Mark Carney. Carney has just met Burnham, and is in talks to join the EU as a new associate member. What lessons should Burnham draw from Carney? Will closer ties to the EU place pressure on Burnham to follow?
And finally, are we heading for an AI apocalypse? Warning shots were fired last week, from an ex-Anthropic employee, with a 10% chance of humanity being extinct in a decade. George pours some cold water on this, but the pair agree the pressure is on to regulate this rapidly accelerating tech. How can governments regulate without losing their edge to China? Should Burnham follow in Sunak’s footsteps as a leader in this area? Is AI the biggest threat to humanity since the atomic bomb?
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 or send a question to our social media handles:
👉 X
👉 TikTok
Thanks for listening. To get episodes early and ad- free join Political Currency Gold or our Kitchen Cabinet. If you want even more perks including our exclusive newsletter, join our Kitchen Cabinet today:
👉 patreon.com/politicalcurrency
Please note: Kitchen Cabinet is only available via Patreon.
Credits:
Production: Sam Burton
Producer: Caillin McDaid
Video Editor: Sam Gruet
Executive Producer: Henrietta Harrison
Political Currency is a Persephonica Production and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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.
Send your messages or voice notes to [email protected]
Find us on social media @polcurrency
Political Currency is a Persephonica production.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Where can you listen?
