Political Currency’s summer specials continue! This week, while Ed Balls is away, George Osborne is joined by one of Labour's longest-serving and most compelling figures, Dame Emily Thornberry. Thornberry takes George inside the Corbyn-era shadow cabinet and explores the tantalising 'what if' of 2017: what would a Prime Minister Corbyn really have been like, and how would the British state have coped? From her unique vantage point as a senior backbencher, Thornberry offers a frank assessment of ...
Aug 28, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 205
What are the essential skills for a life in politics? In an age of TikTok soundbites, can a single speech in Parliament still change minds and topple a government? Ed Balls and George Osborne dive into the art of political craft, taking questions on the real-world impact of parliamentary debates, the secrets to managing a ministerial diary, and the constant balancing act between cabinet duties and constituency work. They discuss historic interventions that shaped the nation, from Edward Heath’s ...
Aug 25, 2025•43 min•Season 1Ep. 204
What is it really like to go from nine years in the political wilderness to running one of the most challenging departments in government? For Wes Streeting, Labour's Secretary of State for Health, it's a challenge he has been visibly relishing this past year, after a long, frustrating period fighting from the opposition benches. With Ed Balls away interrailing, Streeting joins George Osborne to give him a candid inside look at Labour's first year in power, revealing what Keir Starmer is really ...
Aug 21, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 203
Why do the concerns of young people barely register in political debate? Ed Balls and George Osborne take questions on the widening gap between the careers young people dream of and the jobs actually available, and why debt, unaffordable housing and the loss of defined benefit pensions leave the next generation feeling shortchanged. They discuss whether the government should take more responsibility for opening up opportunities and how early aspirations are shaped by who you know and what you se...
Aug 18, 2025•40 min•Season 1Ep. 202
While George Osborne is away “stirring the pot” (this time with JD Vance),Ed Balls is joined by author and columnist Sarah Vine for a powerfully candid conversation about her explosive memoir, How Not to Be a Political Wife. Sarah gives the unfiltered story of her marriage and divorce from Michael Gove, revealing how the "toxic culture" of Westminster shattered friendships with the Camerons, took a toll on her mental health, and why she considered Dominic Cummings the true "third person" in her ...
Aug 14, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 201
Why haven’t Ed Balls or George Osborne written political memoirs? Broadcaster Iain Dale puts the question to them, asking what’s stopping them, what they’d reveal if they did, and whether political history is incomplete without their accounts. And another listener digs into a moment of political tension between Ed and Tony Blair over the Euro. Did Steve Richards’s book Turning Points get it right, and what was really said in that meeting? Plus - the political fiction and non-fiction worth readin...
Aug 11, 2025•41 min•Season 1Ep. 200
Kwasi Kwarteng reflects on what went wrong. The former Chancellor joins Ed Balls to talk through the decisions behind the Truss mini-budget - from bypassing the OBR to what he now calls its “real intellectual failing.” He explains why the Bank of England’s intervention “killed the government,” and why he believes his sacking was no coincidence. Kwarteng also looks ahead, urging the Conservative Party and Kemi Badenoch to focus on unity, and warning Rachel Reeves about the political cost of tryin...
Aug 07, 2025•58 min•Season 1Ep. 199
The future of a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine comes into question this week, as Ed Balls and George Osborne respond to a listener asking whether Israeli public opinion has shifted irreversibly after the October 7th attacks. Is peace still possible, or has that hope died with the victims? Another listener shares a devastating story about her mother’s death during the junior doctors' strikes, raising serious questions about end-of-life care and what, if anything, Wes Streeting ca...
Aug 04, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 198
The IMF has upgraded its global growth forecast - so things aren’t quite as bleak as we feared. Still bleak, though. Ed Balls and George Osborne dig into what the numbers mean for Chancellor Rachel Reeves. With spending cuts ruled out and the Autumn Budget on the horizon, the question looms: can the government afford all it has promised? George thinks Reeves is avoiding the tough calls. Ed believes tax rises may be inevitable, unless Labour is willing to flirt with more debt and borrowing. Meanw...
Jul 31, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 197
The UK’s high speed railway has been plagued with cost blowouts, delays and scale-backs - so Ed Balls and George Osborne consider: has it all just been a big waste of money? Couldn’t those funds have been put to better use? Perhaps for the NHS, for example? The pair also consider the concept of age limits on voting. We’ve got a minimum age - recently lowered by Labour to 16 years old - so why not a maximum too? A listener asks: was it fair for those over 70 to have a say in the Brexit referendum...
Jul 28, 2025•36 min•Season 1Ep. 196
Parliament has broken up for summer, but politics shows no sign of cooling down. Ed Balls and George Osborne run through the latest from every party - the Tories’ frontbench reshuffle, Labour’s mounting tensions over Gaza, Reform’s approach to protests worries - all while the Greens and Lib Democrats make their moves. What’s really going on as MPs head off for the break? Meanwhile, the crisis in Gaza is becoming impossible to ignore across the country. With heartbreaking images and rising calls ...
Jul 24, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 195
What should the NHS pay for, and what should it not? In this week’s episode, Ed Balls and George Osborne tackle one of the toughest political questions: how do you decide what’s “reasonable” for the state to fund when it comes to healthcare? As medical advances multiply and the public expects more from the NHS, is a national conversation about rationing unavoidable? Then, what happens when politicians leave office? A listener asks how Ed and George’s lives outside Westminster - from Wall Street ...
Jul 21, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 194
Donald Trump wants to know why everyone won’t just forget about the Epstein files already. As he keeps pointing out, the disgraced financier has been dead for years. But Trump himself stirred up fresh interest in a trove of documents that many hoped would reveal explosive new details. Now it looks like they won’t be released after all - and the MAGA world isn’t happy. Ed Balls and George Osborne ask: could this be the thing that finally turns Trump’s base against him? And Andrew Bailey has sound...
Jul 17, 2025•59 min•Season 1Ep. 193
Which side of politics loves the monarchy more? Conventional wisdom says Conservatives are the monarchy’s biggest fans. But are Ed Balls and George Osborne the exceptions to that rule? The pair explore how royalist sentiment plays out across the political spectrum, how long this current reign might last, and whether we’ll ever see a King George. Then, it’s onto a different question of longevity: what will it take for the Conservative Party to survive? Is the future in rebuilding the 2015 voter c...
Jul 14, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 192
There was a lot of ceremony and back-patting this week as Emmanuel Macron visited the UK. But behind the smiles, thorny issues like migration and post-Brexit power dynamics are back on the table. George and Ed ask what this renewed Franco-British ‘friendship’ really means, and whether it signals a serious reset or just more political theatre. Also this week, the pressure is piling on Rachel Reeves. With the UK’s finances looking shakier and the OBR sounding the alarm, the debate over a wealth ta...
Jul 10, 2025•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 191
What is a fair way to govern? In response to a long time listener who feels a victim of his own success – disproportionately hit by taxes and ineligible for certain benefits – Ed Balls explains three different philosophical concepts of ‘fairness’. George Osborne meanwhile dismisses wealth tax as a catch all solution, underlining how the Labour government must look to the broader population. Listeners are reflecting on Keir Starmer a year into his premiership, with some wondering about his core s...
Jul 07, 2025•38 min•Season 1Ep. 190
Some incredible scenes in PMQs this week - in which Chancellor Rachel Reeves was openly crying - has Ed Balls and George Osborne considering just how bad things have got for the Labour government. Mere days after a dramatic climbdown over welfare reform, when the watered-down bill inched over the finish line amid threats of MP rebellion, the bond market slumped over speculation Reeves was facing the sack. Ed thinks it’s been the worst week for Labour governments for a long time, and George think...
Jul 03, 2025•56 min•Season 1Ep. 189
Is the G20 still a force for peace and diplomacy, or just a stage for political performance? Ed Balls and George Osborne kick off this week’s EMQs with a question about nuclear non-proliferation and whether South Africa should push it up the agenda this year. The pair then turns to a question from regular listener Douglas Alexander, Minister of State for Trade Policy and Economic Security. Fresh off publishing the new trade strategy, he asks for George and Ed’s take on what it gets right and whe...
Jun 30, 2025•43 min•Season 1Ep. 188
Daddy’s back in the (White) House! Ed Balls and George Osborne go over the major event of the week - starting with the NATO meeting in The Hague. Allies have agreed to up defence spending to 5 percent, but that’s not what’s grabbing the headlines. More attention has been on new Secretary General Mark Rutte referring to Donald Trump as “Daddy.” The pair consider what’s really at play here, and what Trump’s return to the world stage could mean for the UK. Back home, the government is refusing to s...
Jun 26, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 187
What happens when politics clashes with family life? Ed Balls and George Osborne take on big questions this week, starting with Michael Gove’s ex-wife, Sarah Vine, who asks whether David Cameron should have stayed on after Brexit. Her daughter Beatrice wants to know if Ed and George would still choose a political career, given its toll on family and friends. The pair also hear from an anonymous listener fighting for answers about the Mull of Kintyre Chinook crash, and discuss why the documents h...
Jun 23, 2025•50 min•Season 1Ep. 186
Donald Trump is keeping everyone guessing on Iran. After Israel’s surprise strike and Tehran’s retaliation, George Osborne brings fresh insight from Washington on how far Trump might really go - and what it means for Britain if he does. Ed Balls asks whether Starmer’s government could say no if the US wants to use British bases for strikes, and the pair unpack the real choices facing UK leaders caught between an unpredictable White House and deepening conflict in the Middle East. Back home, Keir...
Jun 19, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 185
Could a weekly grilling like Prime Minister’s Questions fix US politics? In the wake of Original Sin - Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s damning account of Joe Biden’s final days in office - Ed Balls and George Osborne ask whether a PMQs-style showdown could bring more accountability to American democracy. And are there any American political customs they’d import to the UK in return? The pair then flick open their ministerial boxes: what’s it like to carry one, what can one find inside and why ha...
Jun 16, 2025•45 min•Season 1Ep. 184
Rachel Reeves has finally delivered her much-anticipated Spending Review, but has it done anything to shift Labour’s story? George Osborne calls it “continuity Sunak,” arguing that the big spending pledges are less a break from the past and more a continuation of Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak’s economic path. Ed Balls says Reeves is taking ‘a real gamble’ without ‘any insurance’, boxing herself in with big promises, uncertain growth, and no room to manoeuvre. With defence and the NHS coming out ...
Jun 12, 2025•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 183
Two Members of Parliament (and a former too!) are seeking Ed Balls’ and George Osborne’s counsel this week. The pair consider the impact of AI, courtesy of a question from Alan Mak, the MP for Havant and the Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology - who has rung in to ask how emerging technologies can help governments run better. Meanwhile, Jake Richards, a newly elected Labour member, wants their views on immigration policy. And Ed and George are live, unscripted, and f...
Jun 09, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 182
With just days to go before Rachel Reeves delivers her first Spending Review, Labour is facing an uncomfortable squeeze. NATO wants defence spending ramped up to 3.5% of GDP, but Reeves is sticking to her strict fiscal rules. Can Starmer keep both Washington and voters at home on side - or will the sums simply stop adding up? Meanwhile, Donald Trump is reigniting the trade war - with a 25% steel tariff sending markets wobbling. The UK may have a temporary exemption, but there are warning signs e...
Jun 05, 2025•59 min•Season 1Ep. 181
When things go wrong - very badly wrong, as with the case of the infected blood and the sub-postmasters scandals - why can’t the state act quickly to compensate victims? Ed Balls and George Osborne consider how the government should best respond, and balance the interests of innocent people as well as taxpayers. Harvard is the latest American university to feel the full force of Donald Trump’s ire, with the US president trying to stop the storied institution from bringing on international studen...
Jun 02, 2025•30 min•Season 1Ep. 180
If Labour was hoping for one of those quick and easy policy U-turns, they certainly haven’t got it. With Rachel Reeves’ spending review a scant two weeks away, the government is still having trouble explaining the details - or providing any detail, really - on how winter fuel payments are now going to work. Now that cutting the two-child benefit cap is in the mix, who is going to explain what is playing out to the general public, and when? Ed Balls thinks it’s all pretty messy, while George Osbo...
May 29, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 179
Can a quick political win keep the public on side while the hard work happens behind the scenes? This week on Ex-Ministers’ Questions , Ed Balls and George Osborne debate whether Labour's lack of early symbolic moves has cost them public goodwill - and whether a bit of political theatre can actually make or break a government. They also tackle questions from across the UK and the US: how can Kemi Badenoch rebuild morale in a bruised Conservative Party? What’s the right way to pitch bold economic...
May 26, 2025•48 min•Season 1Ep. 178
Did someone say U-turn? Ed Balls and George Osborne have been saying it for a while, actually, when it comes to the matter of the controversial winter fuel tax cut. Now that the government has walked it back, will it do the trick and soothe voters and ease tensions with Labour MPs? Ed thinks the approach is “politically and technically messy”. George, for his part, thinks it’s nothing short of a damaging “fiasco” for Labour. Meanwhile, David Lammy announced this week the suspension of trade talk...
May 22, 2025•59 min•Season 1Ep. 177
California Governor hopeful Steve Hilton has a question for Ed Balls and George Osborne this week: which American state would they choose to live in, and would they rather be a senator or a governor? A trip down fantasy lane has the pair questioning the best path to political glory, based on previous presidents’ CVs. Ed Balls for 2032? Seems… far fetched. Back in the real world, the pair debate whether cutting Employer National Insurance Contributions could help get people back into work - and w...
May 19, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 176
