S7 EP18: Ed Balls

WEBVTT
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Hello I'm Rob Beckett and I'm Josh Willicombe. Welcome to
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Parenting Hell the show in which Josh and I discuss
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what it's really like to be a parent which I
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would say can be a little tricky.
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So to make ourselves and hopefully you feel better about
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the trials and tribulations of modern day parenting each week
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we'll be chatting to a famous parent about how they're.
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Coping or hopefully how they're not coping.
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And we'll also be hearing from you the listener with
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your tips advice and of course tales of parenting.
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Woe because let's be honest there are plenty of times
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where none of us know what we're doing Hello, you're
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listening to Parenting Hell with... Lucas, can you say Rob Beckett?
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Rob Beckett. And can you say Josh Widdicombe? Josh Widdicombe.
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Well done, darling. lovely who's that josh.
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Hi josh and rob i was late to the party
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and now almost caught up i usually listen on the
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way home when lucas is asleep in the car thinking
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that way he won't pick up bad words however when
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i got him to do this intro i said josh
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and he said widdicombe so it seems to be listening
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subconsciously love the podcast keep it being sexy relatable abby
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two three nine two months from chester lucas two and.
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A half years Lovely stuff. Chester, nice place. Oh, it's glorious,
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isn't it, Chester?
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Did you ever do that gig up there?
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It's Chester... Alexander's. No, the laugh, the laughing. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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It's got the laughing, as in laughing. Yeah, yeah. I
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don't think it's there anymore, is it? No, it's good,
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that gig. Right by the station. You love a train.
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Love a train. Josh, how are you? How's life? Life
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is good. Can I ask a question? Yeah.
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Has your daughter, son's probably a bit young, tried to
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be on roadblocks yet?
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No, but her friend, who's got older siblings, does it. Yeah,
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so my daughter.
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Well, it's weird, though, because they both got shown Roblox
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by older kids, our friends, and my oldest doesn't care less.
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The youngest is banging to it. So talk me through
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what Roblox is.
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Roblox, you create a little character, looks like a little
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Lego person, and you run around, you basically buy Robux
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with real money, and that opens access to buying clothes...
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houses and you can create your own little world it's
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like an open world where you can build a house
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you can build but you have to buy it all
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so you have to unlock different part different software packages
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to build and then you can make friends on it
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it's almost like a social media sort of platform where
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your friends can hang out with you in your house
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you've built right and it's all online as online world
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she was on it and then we deleted it and
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then she wanted to go back on it so i
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tried to log in like to set up a new
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profile for it and when you have a profile you
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have to have like a unique profile name yeah you're
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not allowed to use your own name so it gives
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a bit of yeah like an online avatar alias thing
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so i said what name do you want and she
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was like can i be called emma and i said
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well you know probably about 20 billion people play roblox
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like emma's been taken She was like, I want to
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be called Violet. I was like, yeah, that's gone as well.
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She was like, what about Violet, Violet? I went, yeah,
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that's gone. She went, what about Violet123? I was like, yeah,
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you wish. I think her name's like, I won't say
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it on here because it's weird, but it's something like VioletEmma12308!
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But she was crying so much going, I just want
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to be called Emma.
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I was like, I don't know if fucking Emma's got it. Oh,
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Emma's a fucking dweeb, isn't she? She's the first Emma. Oh,
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the nerdiest Emma. The nerdiest Emma in the world. The
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person who's got Emma on their Roblox. It's like, have
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you had your phone? My phone consistently suggests secure passwords
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to me that are fucking mental.
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And then it makes it really hard to just put
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your own.
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Come on.
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I can't live like this with passwords anymore. There's a
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password for everything. And now you buy something in a shop.
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Do you want me to email the receipt to you?
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No.
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I don't want to sign up to another email because
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you're not saving the planet by not printing off. You
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just want my fucking details, you little data harvesting scum. Fuck,
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I bought a pair of pants. I don't want to
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give my email address over.
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I hate it. Do you know what I had the
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other day, Rob? What's that? It was a real blast
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from the past. Oh, fuck. This felt like the old days.
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I needed to get a receipt for my taxi journey. Yeah.
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Because the train terminated in Reading. And so I couldn't
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get home. And the TV company said, just get a
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taxi and bill it back to us.
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Yeah. I'd forgotten about this. I said, can I have
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a receipt? He gave me a paper receipt. And he said,
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put whatever you want on it. I love the way
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they say that to you.
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Cause it's like, they don't, these taxi receipts, they never like,
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they've never got their name, address and VAT number on.
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No. It's literally like taxi.com. Not just like taxi cab. Yeah.
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It's a post-it note with taxi cab written on it.
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And you write 400 pound on it.
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Yeah. And he thinks he's doing you a massive favor.
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I know.
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I was thinking about this because I was trying to think,
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because I was listening to an interview with Damon Albarn, unsurprisingly.
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He doesn't have a phone. And they said, how did
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you do it? And he said, I just started leaving
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it at home. And eventually, but you're like, but maybe
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he just lives a life where he doesn't have to
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do these things.
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Do you know what I mean?
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Yeah, because you, so like if I, if I tried
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to go out for the day without my phone, the
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main problems would be paying for parking.
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Yep.
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If I want to get it, so if I was
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going to the gym, all my gym's now on a
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phone thing.
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Yeah.
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I don't really go to the gym and the park
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is free there anyway, so it's absolutely pointless.
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Maps, driving.
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Driving, yeah, I wouldn't know where to get, I wouldn't
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be able to get anywhere or park when I got there.
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But if you just want to go cashless and phone-less,
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you've got no chance.
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Do you know, though, Rob, do you know who would
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be an expert in this? Who? The former Shadow Chancellor,
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Ed Balls.
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That is lovely stuff. Can we ask, I'll tell you what,
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we should ask him. Yeah, let's chat about your kids.
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But also, why is everything digital?
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Yeah. Yeah. What are you trying to get from us? Yeah,
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you watch us.
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What are you guys up to up in government?
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Yeah. But, yeah, Ed Balls now. We're going to ask
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Ed Balls, can't we? Is he the full-time host of
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that show?
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No, it sort of splits. So you've got, you know,
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Piers Morgan's gone kaput.
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Yeah. Madeley's on there a lot.
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Ed Balls.
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Adil Ray. Adil Ray. He pops up.
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Ben Shepard.
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Ben Shepard. Who else? It's a tough gig, that. I
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can't do. I was thinking it's our day, right? I'd
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rather just. Just work a normal hour job, please.
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So our kids now, my daughter now does swimming at 7.45 a.m.
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We have to drop her off before school to do
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swimming at this swimming club thing. It's so early. I
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was speaking to my mate about it. His mate's mate,
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his kids go to that big old posh, old school
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sort of posh school where they do water polo. And
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his water polo... He's on at.
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6.20am in the morning. Oh, fuck that. And they do
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water polo.
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Three times a week. And they have to go to
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West London to do water polo at 9 o'clock.
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You're not going to be a water polo player. And
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even if you are, there's no money in it.
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But I was like, why have they got to go
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to West London to do water polo? I was like, oh,
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because they've made the county team. But they fucking have.
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What?
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Out of a, excuse the pun, pool of 15 people,
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they made the top 12. No one's playing water polo, mate.
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Of course you're in the county team.
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Oh, my God. I am not getting up at 6.20
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for that.
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If comedy gigs were at 6 a.m., I wouldn't be
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a comedian. I can't operate.
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I'm so lucky that comedy's in the evening. I just
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couldn't do it. My dream tour, though, Rob, would be
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gigs at 3 p.m. No. Yeah.
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No, for me, perfect would be 20-minute drive from my house, 11.30 a.m. start,
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And then the hour and hour, yeah, finished about two o'clock.
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That's me done. Yeah, yeah. That's me at my best. Yeah.
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I am better in the morning. I'm better in the morning,
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but not early morning. Yeah, yeah.
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But my morning's about 10, 11. That's when I start
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to really start firing. But I'm at, it's 10, 37 hours.
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I'm really sticking in.
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I reckon you.
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Should just, I reckon your fans are loyal enough. Book
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your next tour for 11 a.m.
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Every theatre. And just do Bromley. Just do Bromley. Just
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do a residency at the Bromley Churchill.
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If I did a residency at Bromley Churchill, 11am Monday
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to Friday, how many tickets do you think I'd sell?
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I don't think you'd sell as many as you'd hope.
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I don't think I'd sell as many as if I
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traveled around. I'm not, you know, the Peter Kay level.
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No.
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Shuffling out to 20 people in a 700 seat.
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Well, do you know who'd know about the economics of that?
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You keep trying to get into it balls, aren't you? Yeah.
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I want to ask him as well.
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How they answer questions at 6am on the radio and
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on Good Morning Britain when the politicians are getting asked questions.
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Because now he's on the other side of it.
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Yeah.
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So he must know the things to do to annoy them.
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Yeah.
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And why can't they just go, you're lying about that?
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That's a lie.
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Rob, I want to eat something before we interview Ed Balls.
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It's 22 minutes to interview Ed Balls.
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Okay, right. Let me go and eat something. Right, here's
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Ed Balls. Can I just say, I just had a text.
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You'll love this. Tom O'Hara, who is the publisher of
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our new podcast. My son has just started school, where
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Josh Whittakin was the quiz martyr at a parent's pub
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quiz recently. I spent the entire evening being delighted at
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how funny my son's reception teacher was. Ah, there we go.
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There you are. So he thought that you were the teacher.
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He thought you were the teacher. I'm not sure what
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that says about him. That is a real kick in
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the teeth.
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So let's get this straight. Your friends thought that Josh
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Whittakin was quite a funny teacher.
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They thought he was surprisingly funny for a reception teacher.
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I'm not sure what they thought he was doing. I mean,
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quite why he was kind of chairing the pub quiz
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in such a sort of, you know, ebullient fashion, I've
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no idea. Yeah, I'll take that. I'll take that as
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a good review. Definitely take it. It was a good quiz.
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Tell him I'm doing another one just before Christmas. I
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will tell him. You love that, Josh.
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Ed, how involved were you? First of all, how old
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are your kids and how involved were you with the schooling?
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So I think when they were at primary school, I
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took them to school and picked them up. Any quizzes? Actually,
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I took them to school more in the mornings, which
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generally went well. Yeah. Although I had one... really bad experience,
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which I think probably quite a lot of parents will understand.
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It was a Monday morning and my oldest daughter was five.
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And we did the whole school walk and she had
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a lunch and a bag and we arrived there and
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we got to the gate. Yeah. And it was locked.
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And we stand outside for a bit thinking, what's gone wrong?
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And then a guy comes around and says, I'm really sorry,
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it's half term. We had absolutely no idea. So it
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was shut. But the thing which is bad about this
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story is the following Monday. Yeah. A week later, I
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went confident that, you know, you could only make that
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mistake once. We arrived on the second Monday. This is
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totally true. And again, and this time I didn't believe it.
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So I'm rattling the gates thinking they've shut the gates early.
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And the same guy comes out and says, inset day. Unbelievable.
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And my daughter, honestly, age five, said to me, Dad,
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she said. Could mum take us to school next week?
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I was sacked. But you're a details man, aren't you?
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I thought I was, but it turns out not about that. Yeah,
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that was bad. How old are your kids, Ed? Our
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kids now are 24, 21 and 19. Girl, boy, girl.
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So I imagine, though, 20 years ago, the shared Google
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calendar wasn't really happening, was it? It's a bit more
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like the emails and stuff coming in.
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How much was online?
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Because now I've got about five different apps about when
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my kids are in school, off school. You can download
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calendars to your phone and stuff like that. But that
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weren't happening then, was it?
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This was well before any of that. I didn't get
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a iPhone until our oldest daughter was 16. And back then,
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I think I probably had got a BlackBerry. But BlackBerrys
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you use for messaging. or for texts, or if you
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were a drug dealer for arranging your meetings, because there
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was a whole sort of BBM thing, wasn't there? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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But I never worked out how to use the calendar.
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So we never used an online calendar any time I
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was in politics. It was always paper-based. Was it? Because
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Tony Blair didn't have a mobile phone, did he? He
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didn't have a mobile phone. Gordon Brown didn't do emails
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until later. When Gordon Brown discovered the email was a
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catastrophic moment in the life of the nation, because he
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suddenly realised, you know, if you woke up early... He
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could share his thoughts more widely. Yeah. But this is
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honest with you. When we arrived in government in 1997,
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so the beginning of the Blair government, none of us
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had ever used email for anything. Yeah. We didn't use
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any email because it was so early on in email.
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And also, we had this view that if you wrote
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something down in the email and then sent it into
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the interweb, then somebody might get it and expose you.
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And that would be a disaster. So we did everything
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on paper. So when we got to the Treasury in 97,
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the Treasury had moved over to doing everything electronically a
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couple of years before they were early. And I had
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this box of papers, which I was given, and you're
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supposed to work on them and send back comments. And
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I had, for the first three months, a tape recorder.
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And I used to turn on the tape recorder and say,
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on this paper, this is what I think. And then
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I had a secretary who would then transcribe my voice
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messages into emails. And you were running the country. We
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were running the country. Into the bloody ground. I don't
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know if that's true or not. I just thought it
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was funny to put it in there. Yeah, but I
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think actually not at the time. That was later. No,
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I'm joking. I'm joking. The actual crisis was still 10
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years away at that point. So we were overachieving at
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the time. Yeah, fair enough.
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What was it like, Yvette Cooper is your wife, who's
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Shadow Home Secretary at the moment. And so are your
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diaries really intense? What's it like for parenting when you're
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ministers or when you're, you know, shadow ministers?
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I think that it's when things go wrong that it's
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a disaster. But then I think that was true for
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all parents, really, that you have a system. And our
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systems had to be quite complicated because you had to
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be able to cover votes in the evenings until, you know,
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getting home late at night. But do you remember in
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2001 when there was the train crash at Hatfield and
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all of the north-south trains, suddenly everybody went really risk-averse
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and the train time went from being like two hours
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to Yorkshire where we lived to like four, four and
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a half hours. And we had no choice. And so
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we just used to get these really, really long trains
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with young kids. So those times where it became much
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more stressful. But I think fundamentally life is about having
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a good mother-in-law. Yeah. If at key moments you can
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make the call. Yeah. So Yvette's mum was a teacher
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for head of maths for 20, 30 years, but she
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was retiring about the time our first child was born.
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And she said to us, you know, would we like
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her to do like a couple of days a week?
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And we said we didn't really because we needed to
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get some paid childcare. But if she could come one
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day a week, but instead... if we could have the
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second day in reserve so that any time when things
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went wrong, you could ring grandma. Oh, that's good. And
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I think that is, I mean, you know, a supportive mother-in-law. Yeah.
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00:15:10.690 --> 00:15:12.750
So you lived up in Yorkshire. Was that your constituency
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or Yvette's constituency? So, no, it was Yvette's constituency and
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then it became my constituency later. Mine was next door
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to Yvette's. So she was elected in 97, me not
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until 2005. By the time I was elected, we had
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all the three children. But we lived in London from
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like Sunday night until Thursday night. And then we all
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moved up and we all moved down every week. So
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all of the children went up and down every week.
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And what did they do for school? So they were
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in school in London, primary school, secondary school. But to
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begin with, they were in nursery school up there on
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a Friday. And then because, you know, we had to
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be in Parliament during the working week. Yeah. And so
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I would, you know, take small kids up to to
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Yorkshire every Friday. It was really interesting. I don't know
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whether this kind of corresponds with what you've seen with
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talking to other people. There was a real difference between
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the gendered attitude of men and women on trains to
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people doing childcare. If a vet was travelling up with
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a pushchair and a government box and two kids on
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a Friday afternoon, all of the men would look at
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her with kind of great support and sympathy, but they'd
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never offered to help. Because it was mainly men on
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the train at that time going home. You know, it
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was a mix, but it was more men than women
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back then. Whereas if it was me, you'd get to about,
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you know, somewhere north of Grantham and some guy in
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a suit who'd been away all week and was looking
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forward to getting home to be with his kids would
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lean over and say, can I help? and take the baby. Oh, really?
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So our young children were regularly kind of, you know,
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nursed by men on the train. They never offered to
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help Yvette, always offered to help me, getting the bags down. Wow,
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that's fascinating. Because I think what it was, and it
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was the same with women, women and men would offer
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to help me because actually I think I probably looked
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a bit desperate and also they didn't feel like it
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was an affront, but to offer to help Yvette might
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have been a criticism so people didn't do it. Right, yeah, yeah.
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We all went down on a Monday. nobody offered ever
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because then what they were doing was they're going back
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to work so they shut the door yeah the kids
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behind our oldest daughter had this toy telephone which you
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00:17:11.849 --> 00:17:13.549
know at a time when telephones were a big thing
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00:17:13.670 --> 00:17:15.289
actually you know you could call it a toy mobile
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phone which had this really really loud ring and she
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would have it on the trade and then her phone
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would ring and she'd be you know be mimicking a
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mum and dad and on a friday afternoon all the
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commuters would smile on a monday morning they complained hated
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it oh god this Bloody mobile phone. Shut her up.
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Is that because that's where your constituency was up there?
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Is that why you had to go back?
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00:17:35.970 --> 00:17:40.640
So Yvette was the MP for Normanton Pontefract Castleford in
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00:17:41.019 --> 00:17:43.059
West Yorkshire, just to the east of Leeds. And then
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00:17:43.140 --> 00:17:45.400
I was the MP for the next door seat, which
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00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:48.140
was called Morley and Outward. So South Leeds, North Wakefield.
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00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:50.819
And is she still the MP for that, presumably? Yeah,
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00:17:50.859 --> 00:17:52.559
she's been the MP now for... So do you still
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00:17:52.759 --> 00:17:56.309
go there every weekend? We do. It changed when two
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00:17:56.349 --> 00:17:59.009
things happened. One, I lost my seat in 2015, as
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you know. So suddenly I didn't have the same work
399
00:18:01.609 --> 00:18:03.930
reason to have to go all the time. And also
400
00:18:03.990 --> 00:18:05.990
as the kids got a bit older, their social life
401
00:18:06.009 --> 00:18:09.519
shifted a bit. And they ended up with more friends...
402
00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:13.670
From school, here. Yeah, yeah. You know, Yvette goes every
403
00:18:13.710 --> 00:18:17.529
weekend for three days, four days. I don't go every weekend.
404
00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:19.670
But we have a Ukrainian family who've lived with us
405
00:18:19.730 --> 00:18:21.950
now for a year and a half. So there's always
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somebody at home. There's always borscht or something, dumplings, about
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00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:29.279
to be provided. That's how it works. And do they
408
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have kids, the Ukrainian family? They do. Actually, it's a
409
00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:35.900
brilliant story. Yvette was doing, for Rob Burrows, a Strictly
410
00:18:35.940 --> 00:18:39.529
Come Dancing fundraiser promoting urine disease. Yeah. And it turns
411
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out there is this big network. I never really knew
412
00:18:42.150 --> 00:18:45.240
about this, a network between the north of England ballroom
413
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dancing world and Russia and Ukraine. And it sort of
414
00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:50.039
makes sense because Katya, who I dance with in Strictly,
415
00:18:50.099 --> 00:18:53.440
she's a Russian dancer from St. Petersburg who had come over.
416
00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:56.599
And we heard about this family. It was actually two
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00:18:56.660 --> 00:19:01.410
families where the 10-year-olds were, you know... the top 10-year-olds
418
00:19:01.470 --> 00:19:04.289
in Ukraine at Boreham dancing. One dad was in the military,
419
00:19:04.430 --> 00:19:07.470
one was in logistics. Both families had had to leave
420
00:19:07.589 --> 00:19:09.329
Ukraine in a real hurry because they were living in
421
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Kiev and the bombing was happening and they were separated.
422
00:19:12.839 --> 00:19:16.730
And so... They couldn't practice. Their dance partnership was shattered
423
00:19:16.750 --> 00:19:19.690
by the war. And Yvette hears this story and she
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00:19:19.750 --> 00:19:22.529
got onto it. And so one of the families, which
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00:19:22.589 --> 00:19:25.970
is the mum, the older brother and the 11-year-old who dances,
426
00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:28.240
come and live with us. Amazing. And the other family,
427
00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:30.640
which was an older daughter, the younger son, went and
428
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lived about 10 minutes away from us in Castleford. And
429
00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:35.660
they've lived there now for, what's it now, 17 months,
430
00:19:35.660 --> 00:19:40.089
18 months. Amazing. They go around the country and the world.
431
00:19:40.130 --> 00:19:43.700
They've been to Amsterdam, to Blackpool, to the south of England,
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00:19:43.839 --> 00:19:47.410
competing in dance competitions. And they practice in our back garden,
433
00:19:47.569 --> 00:19:51.599
in our sitting room, in a local church hall in Castleford. Amazing.
434
00:19:51.619 --> 00:19:56.759
But they are astonishingly good. It's amazing. And so we
435
00:19:56.779 --> 00:19:58.819
were able to put them back together again. And what
436
00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:02.099
do they make of your Gangnam style? I have showed them.
437
00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:07.380
Not on the first day. They'd go back to Kiev. No,
438
00:20:07.900 --> 00:20:10.930
I think I probably did show them the first day.
439
00:20:11.289 --> 00:20:13.450
And they were kind of like, I think, no words.
440
00:20:13.529 --> 00:20:15.869
I'm not sure what no words is in Ukrainian, but
441
00:20:15.890 --> 00:20:18.069
they said it. I told them it was a salsa
442
00:20:18.089 --> 00:20:20.579
and that was a surprise to them. Right. It wasn't
443
00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:23.819
totally obvious from the steps. So I'm sort of tolerated.
444
00:20:24.019 --> 00:20:26.019
It's quite nice because you get to a certain point.
445
00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:29.940
Our kids are now slightly at the age where Despite
446
00:20:29.980 --> 00:20:32.180
my best efforts, I'm not as embarrassing as I used
447
00:20:32.220 --> 00:20:32.420
to be.
448
00:20:32.519 --> 00:20:34.619
So how old were they when you did Strictly, though?
449
00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:35.890
How old were the kids then?
450
00:20:36.250 --> 00:20:40.490
Oh, then it was terrible. So our youngest daughter was 13. Oh,
451
00:20:40.930 --> 00:20:44.269
my God. Oh, my word. Fucking hell, Ed. So old
452
00:20:44.369 --> 00:20:47.470
is one of his... It was like 17 and 15. Oh, no.
453
00:20:47.470 --> 00:20:50.599
17 and 15-year-old ones were able to come to the show. Yeah.
454
00:20:50.710 --> 00:20:53.140
We'd been incredibly careful, you know, because we were both
455
00:20:53.180 --> 00:20:55.859
in politics, to keep them always separate from us. So
456
00:20:55.880 --> 00:20:58.380
there was never photos of them. They sat separately from
457
00:20:58.400 --> 00:21:00.819
Yvette on the live show so that nobody could have
458
00:21:00.859 --> 00:21:02.079
pictures of them. But they were able to be part
459
00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:03.859
of it. But our 13-year-old.
460
00:21:04.059 --> 00:21:05.400
Just too much shame, didn't want to come.
461
00:21:05.859 --> 00:21:07.859
No, she wasn't allowed to because they had this insurance order.
462
00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:09.619
You couldn't go until you're 14. So she was not
463
00:21:09.660 --> 00:21:13.480
allowed to come. She wasn't able. Therefore, that's like multiply
464
00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:17.099
the embarrassment of the whole thing. And, you know, dads
465
00:21:17.160 --> 00:21:19.990
are supposed to be embarrassing. I just like massively overachieve
466
00:21:20.089 --> 00:21:22.549
in that order. You did it all at once. Did
467
00:21:22.589 --> 00:21:25.309
you consult them before you did it? I don't think I...
468
00:21:25.349 --> 00:21:27.990
Not Gangnam Style, I mean the show. Like Psy. I'm
469
00:21:28.009 --> 00:21:29.869
telling him as well. No. I mean, to be honest,
470
00:21:29.910 --> 00:21:32.130
I was against it. I was against doing it, but
471
00:21:32.190 --> 00:21:33.940
Yvette was the person who said do it. So that's
472
00:21:33.980 --> 00:21:35.819
why I did it. She said, you've lost your seat,
473
00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:38.079
you've lost your job. What else is there to lose?
474
00:21:38.119 --> 00:21:42.119
You're not bringing anything into the house. She said politics
475
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is wild, go and do it. And I then rang
476
00:21:44.339 --> 00:21:47.349
Jeremy Vine, who'd been on it the year before. And
477
00:21:47.390 --> 00:21:49.410
he said it was the best thing I've ever done.
478
00:21:49.470 --> 00:21:52.170
It was the most life affirming thing. He said, Eddie said,
479
00:21:52.230 --> 00:21:53.490
if you ever want to be governor of the Bank
480
00:21:53.529 --> 00:21:55.150
of England, it might knock that on the head. But
481
00:21:55.190 --> 00:21:57.210
other than that, go and enjoy it. And he said
482
00:21:57.250 --> 00:21:59.500
his kids had enjoyed it. And I think actually, in
483
00:21:59.539 --> 00:22:01.940
the end, mine did. I was banned, though, from going
484
00:22:01.980 --> 00:22:04.299
to parents evening for two years after Strictly.
485
00:22:05.819 --> 00:22:08.180
That's actually, that's a carrot there for me to dangle.
486
00:22:08.420 --> 00:22:11.660
I know, but I'm saying, because the complication for our
487
00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:13.700
kids has been, I was Secretary of State for schools,
488
00:22:13.720 --> 00:22:16.990
you know, for education for 2007, 2010. So if I
489
00:22:17.029 --> 00:22:19.150
ever went to parents' evening, the head teacher was always
490
00:22:19.190 --> 00:22:20.890
quite keen to come and say hello, which was always
491
00:22:20.930 --> 00:22:23.480
like a bit embarrassing for 11 or 12, the Secretary
492
00:22:23.500 --> 00:22:25.559
of State's here. So I was told... But I was
493
00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:27.680
allowed to come, but never in a suit. You've got
494
00:22:27.700 --> 00:22:31.730
to come wearing casual clothes. That was fine until Strictly.
495
00:22:32.089 --> 00:22:35.130
On Strictly, you're suddenly not in a suit. So I
496
00:22:35.150 --> 00:22:37.500
was just entirely banned. You just can't come at all.
497
00:22:38.259 --> 00:22:40.000
So a vet had to go and then make notes.
498
00:22:41.329 --> 00:22:42.849
I think the only reason I'd end up going on
499
00:22:42.869 --> 00:22:44.670
Strictly would be my children demanding it.
500
00:22:44.730 --> 00:22:46.710
Do you know what I mean? Well... I can't see
501
00:22:46.750 --> 00:22:49.890
that happening. No, I can't see that happening. Not at 13,
502
00:22:49.890 --> 00:22:52.589
15 and 17. But I think it's what started your
503
00:22:52.730 --> 00:22:55.150
next career in a way, is it? What do you say? Well,
504
00:22:55.210 --> 00:22:58.430
it definitely changes things. It definitely does. But in a
505
00:22:58.470 --> 00:23:02.690
way which is simultaneously good and worrying. Because the thing
506
00:23:02.829 --> 00:23:05.599
people would always say to me is, after Strictly... I mean,
507
00:23:06.039 --> 00:23:07.490
in the street, I even get it now. People come
508
00:23:07.539 --> 00:23:09.289
up to me and say, are you Ed Balls? And
509
00:23:09.309 --> 00:23:11.259
I'll say, yes. And they'll say, I used to really,
510
00:23:11.410 --> 00:23:14.579
really hate you. They say, but I don't anymore. And
511
00:23:14.619 --> 00:23:17.759
you sort of think, okay, I know you mean that nicely.
512
00:23:18.079 --> 00:23:20.440
But the other thing is that they'd say, we always
513
00:23:20.480 --> 00:23:21.849
knew you were a politician. It's good to see you've
514
00:23:21.869 --> 00:23:24.650
now become a human being. And actually, the idea of
515
00:23:24.690 --> 00:23:26.109
politician as not being a human being is kind of
516
00:23:26.150 --> 00:23:28.990
like a dangerous thing, you know, because in a democracy...
517
00:23:29.430 --> 00:23:31.119
If the non-human people are the only ones who are
518
00:23:31.140 --> 00:23:33.099
willing to be politicians, what kind of democracy do you
519
00:23:33.140 --> 00:23:35.200
end up with? So it's always worried me a bit. Well,
520
00:23:35.279 --> 00:23:36.720
the one we've got at the moment, I think. Well,
521
00:23:36.759 --> 00:23:39.220
I know. There's this two prism of glass, which is
522
00:23:39.259 --> 00:23:41.880
really thick, called being a politician. And what Strictly let
523
00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:43.859
me do was step outside of it for a bit.
524
00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:46.319
And so people see you in a different way, maybe
525
00:23:46.339 --> 00:23:49.640
in a more clear way. I don't know. The other
526
00:23:49.660 --> 00:23:52.299
thing I learned was that you had to put yourself
527
00:23:52.380 --> 00:23:55.059
aside and just go into character. And that's the bit
528
00:23:55.079 --> 00:23:56.759
I really liked about it. I learned something I'd never
529
00:23:56.779 --> 00:23:59.329
done in my life. If you're a politician... In some ways,
530
00:23:59.349 --> 00:24:01.390
it's the same for you guys. It's always you on stage.
531
00:24:01.569 --> 00:24:03.730
Do you know what I mean? Whereas if you're an actor,
532
00:24:03.910 --> 00:24:06.730
you put yourself to one side and play a character,
533
00:24:06.759 --> 00:24:10.019
a role with a costume and everything else. Yeah. You
534
00:24:10.039 --> 00:24:12.359
don't take it too personally because you're one step away.
535
00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:14.000
And I'd never done that before in my life. So
536
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:15.920
I realized this is what I had to do. So
537
00:24:15.940 --> 00:24:18.710
they said to me third week. Actually, we had a problem.
538
00:24:19.170 --> 00:24:20.930
In the third week, I was supposed to do Great
539
00:24:20.950 --> 00:24:24.690
Balls of Fire for movie week. But the trouble was,
540
00:24:24.849 --> 00:24:26.519
on the way home on the Saturday night, about one
541
00:24:26.539 --> 00:24:28.200
in the morning, she wrote on Wikipedia, she said, you
542
00:24:28.220 --> 00:24:31.019
do realise you're supposed to play Great Balls of Fire.
543
00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:33.400
They wanted it because of Flaming Piano. She said, but
544
00:24:33.420 --> 00:24:36.359
that means you're Jerry Lee Lewis. And he, in the film,
545
00:24:36.420 --> 00:24:39.519
marries his 12-year-old cousin. So I think that makes you
546
00:24:39.539 --> 00:24:42.480
the paedophile and catcher the 12-year-old. And I'm not sure
547
00:24:42.509 --> 00:24:45.259
this is a good look. LAUGHTER So we decided it
548
00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:47.559
was a bad idea. So I rang them and said,
549
00:24:47.579 --> 00:24:49.119
I don't think I can do pretty balls of fire.
550
00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:51.299
So then they said, in that case, how about doing
551
00:24:51.319 --> 00:24:53.180
the mask? And I thought, well, only if I can
552
00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:55.549
have a green face. And it was the best thing
553
00:24:55.569 --> 00:24:59.150
I ever did. The following week was Paso Doble, where
554
00:24:59.630 --> 00:25:01.470
they asked me, I mean, I was basically dressed as
555
00:25:01.509 --> 00:25:03.910
a pearly queen and I couldn't work out because they'd
556
00:25:03.930 --> 00:25:05.569
said to me, you've got to be macho because Paso
557
00:25:05.589 --> 00:25:07.769
Doble is really macho. But when I did it in rehearsal,
558
00:25:07.950 --> 00:25:09.410
you know, in front of all the producers, they just
559
00:25:09.430 --> 00:25:10.779
all fell about laughing and said it was the most
560
00:25:10.819 --> 00:25:13.240
camp Paso Doble anybody's ever done. So I kept trying
561
00:25:13.259 --> 00:25:15.779
to think, what is the macho camp figure? So I said,
562
00:25:15.799 --> 00:25:19.049
can I be Adamant with those copyright issues? So then
563
00:25:19.069 --> 00:25:20.910
I said, can I be the dad from The Incredibles?
564
00:25:21.349 --> 00:25:24.059
Because he's sort of camp and macho. Yeah, yeah. I
565
00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:26.839
never got it right. It was a catastrophe. It was
566
00:25:26.920 --> 00:25:28.339
a total disaster.
567
00:25:28.420 --> 00:25:30.660
You sound like you was really into it. I imagine
568
00:25:30.700 --> 00:25:32.240
I'd just turn up and be told what to do
569
00:25:32.289 --> 00:25:33.910
and got dressed and sent out, but it feels like
570
00:25:33.930 --> 00:25:34.869
you were involved in it.
571
00:25:34.930 --> 00:25:37.470
You have to rehearse for 40 hours a week. Oh,
572
00:25:37.509 --> 00:25:40.009
that's too much. If you don't do the rehearsal, you
573
00:25:40.049 --> 00:25:42.109
just collapse because it's really hard to get it all
574
00:25:42.130 --> 00:25:44.950
in your head. Yeah. Anyway, the kids thought it was
575
00:25:44.990 --> 00:25:45.549
really embarrassing.
576
00:25:46.009 --> 00:25:47.970
They've gone from like super serious dad where you're in
577
00:25:48.009 --> 00:25:49.980
the broadsheets and people will be going, I hate you,
578
00:25:50.019 --> 00:25:52.539
I love you, that's right, that's wrong. And like you say,
579
00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:54.640
you're being Ed Balls when you're interviewed. Ed Balls is
580
00:25:54.660 --> 00:25:56.619
a politician, but it is you. It's you at work
581
00:25:56.680 --> 00:25:58.480
and what you think and you're trying to get your
582
00:25:58.579 --> 00:26:00.460
ideals into policies and stuff.
583
00:26:00.809 --> 00:26:01.460
So that is you.
584
00:26:01.509 --> 00:26:03.589
And then all of a sudden they see you in Strictly.
585
00:26:03.849 --> 00:26:04.670
How did they feel when.
586
00:26:05.259 --> 00:26:08.680
they saw you being this sort of super serious politician person.
587
00:26:08.940 --> 00:26:11.099
Was it quite a stressful household or, you know, because
588
00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:13.500
it feels like you're going off to be interviewed on.
589
00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:14.660
The news and it's all.
590
00:26:15.089 --> 00:26:17.130
I'd be worried for my parents if they're going on
591
00:26:17.170 --> 00:26:18.369
to be questioned and, you know.
592
00:26:18.390 --> 00:26:20.130
I think it's partly because, I mean, see, for them,
593
00:26:20.230 --> 00:26:22.269
this was all they knew. I mean, Yvette was the
594
00:26:22.329 --> 00:26:26.450
first ever government minister to have a baby while a minister.
595
00:26:26.710 --> 00:26:29.170
So all the rules about maternity leave and all of that,
596
00:26:29.289 --> 00:26:32.230
she just had to make up because... The civil service said,
597
00:26:32.250 --> 00:26:34.190
you know, I'm afraid your employer is the queen and
598
00:26:34.410 --> 00:26:36.230
I don't think we should ask her because, you know,
599
00:26:36.250 --> 00:26:37.769
we can't really get her involved. But there's nobody else
600
00:26:37.789 --> 00:26:39.730
who has the authority to tell you because you are
601
00:26:39.769 --> 00:26:42.369
just like a crown minister. How is she the first
602
00:26:42.430 --> 00:26:44.609
minister to have a baby? That's mad. There had never,
603
00:26:44.730 --> 00:26:47.950
ever been a minister. Nobody had ever had maternity leave.
604
00:26:48.170 --> 00:26:50.039
All the issues about how do you work out how
605
00:26:50.079 --> 00:26:52.160
to go away for a period and then come back
606
00:26:52.220 --> 00:26:54.319
again when you then could be responsible for all the
607
00:26:54.359 --> 00:26:57.279
things which happened in the intervening period because you always are.
608
00:26:57.579 --> 00:26:59.019
She had to work it all out themselves. But on
609
00:26:59.039 --> 00:27:00.859
the other hand, what it meant was... You know, I
610
00:27:00.859 --> 00:27:04.619
remember the children being really little and, you know, two-year-old saying,
611
00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:06.619
where's mum? And I'd say, there she is, just point
612
00:27:06.660 --> 00:27:09.460
at the TV. She's on breakfast TV. She said, oh, fine.
613
00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:10.890
She'll be home in a bit. And so they just
614
00:27:10.970 --> 00:27:13.190
knew that that is what we did. You know, the
615
00:27:13.210 --> 00:27:15.589
mum went on TV. We travelled in this way. And
616
00:27:16.230 --> 00:27:18.210
I think obviously that changes as they get older and
617
00:27:18.250 --> 00:27:20.789
become more aware. But it was on the one hand,
618
00:27:21.289 --> 00:27:24.240
we totally shielded them from it. because we just made
619
00:27:24.259 --> 00:27:26.740
this decision from the beginning that other than the baby photo,
620
00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:29.880
they could never become part of our political story. So
621
00:27:29.900 --> 00:27:34.309
there's no election materials. You know, our oldest daughter put
622
00:27:34.329 --> 00:27:36.529
it incredibly powerfully when she went to secondary school. I
623
00:27:36.569 --> 00:27:38.869
must remember her saying this. She said, when I walk
624
00:27:38.910 --> 00:27:42.269
across the playground, I want to be me first. not
625
00:27:42.730 --> 00:27:45.809
the daughter of cabinet ministers. And we had a duty
626
00:27:45.869 --> 00:27:48.250
to find a way to allow her to be herself
627
00:27:48.289 --> 00:27:50.349
in that way. On the other hand, she'd always been
628
00:27:50.410 --> 00:27:53.670
part of it. So she always knew the conversation at home,
629
00:27:53.750 --> 00:27:57.029
when things went wrong. Often there would be TV cameras
630
00:27:57.069 --> 00:27:59.849
outside the house. You'd have to get arrangements to... get
631
00:27:59.869 --> 00:28:02.680
them out to go to school without kind of... So
632
00:28:02.720 --> 00:28:03.279
how does that work?
633
00:28:03.299 --> 00:28:06.279
Then if you're the paparazzi outside a politician's house, because
634
00:28:06.299 --> 00:28:08.369
there's a big story breaking and you're going, right, I've
635
00:28:08.380 --> 00:28:10.430
got to get the kids to school. So does someone
636
00:28:10.470 --> 00:28:11.710
go out and say to them, look, the kids are
637
00:28:11.730 --> 00:28:13.250
coming out now, don't film this.
638
00:28:13.289 --> 00:28:15.509
And then Ed or Yvette will come out in a minute.
639
00:28:16.059 --> 00:28:19.400
It's all about not having double standards. Because if we
640
00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:23.359
had ever posed as politicians with our children or put
641
00:28:23.380 --> 00:28:26.279
them on our election leaflets, then it's much harder then
642
00:28:26.759 --> 00:28:29.299
to be hardline about it. I think it's really difficult
643
00:28:29.339 --> 00:28:31.339
if you are, you know, the royal family or if
644
00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:33.339
you're the prime minister, because then there is a public
645
00:28:33.400 --> 00:28:36.440
expectation to see your family. But I think for everybody else,
646
00:28:36.779 --> 00:28:37.759
there's a real cost.
647
00:28:38.019 --> 00:28:40.140
So if you'd become chancellor, do you think you'd have
648
00:28:40.180 --> 00:28:42.279
had to show your family at that point?
649
00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:43.759
I think we would not have done that. Because I
650
00:28:43.759 --> 00:28:46.309
think that's how we had done things all the way through.
651
00:28:46.410 --> 00:28:48.670
So we wouldn't have done the photos with us outside
652
00:28:49.250 --> 00:28:51.990
the house and we wouldn't now. What that then means
653
00:28:52.089 --> 00:28:54.329
is if you've got a big scandal happening or a
654
00:28:54.329 --> 00:28:56.970
big problem or whatever it is, and the cameras are outside,
655
00:28:57.069 --> 00:28:59.190
it's happened lots and lots of times. You could have
656
00:28:59.230 --> 00:29:01.650
somebody go outside. Often we'd have to ring to get
657
00:29:01.710 --> 00:29:04.329
somebody to travel over from wherever they were to come
658
00:29:04.349 --> 00:29:06.519
into the house. Then they would then go out again
659
00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:09.039
and they'd say to the media, whoever was there, that
660
00:29:09.299 --> 00:29:10.539
the children are going to come out to go to
661
00:29:10.579 --> 00:29:12.920
school and can you not film that? And I would
662
00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:17.640
say 100% of the time, full cooperation. That's fascinating. There's
663
00:29:17.720 --> 00:29:20.049
never been a photo of our kids. There was one
664
00:29:20.109 --> 00:29:22.769
time where we had a huge problem. I think I
665
00:29:22.809 --> 00:29:29.250
can say this. A vet's driver was arrested. for child
666
00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:31.900
sex offenses on his computer oh my god and so
667
00:29:31.940 --> 00:29:33.799
we find out about this they get a phone call
668
00:29:33.839 --> 00:29:35.420
to a vet's office first of all to say this
669
00:29:35.460 --> 00:29:38.069
had happened and they wanted to talk to the children
670
00:29:38.109 --> 00:29:40.700
because had the children been in the car yeah of
671
00:29:40.779 --> 00:29:43.000
course with this guy when a vet or i had
672
00:29:43.039 --> 00:29:44.259
not been in the car with them so we had
673
00:29:44.279 --> 00:29:46.000
to kind of go through this whole kind of complex
674
00:29:46.039 --> 00:29:49.220
process talking to them about it and then three or
675
00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:51.539
four days later we get a call from um one
676
00:29:51.559 --> 00:29:54.119
of the papers to say we have reason to believe
677
00:29:54.200 --> 00:29:56.920
that this has happened that a vet's driver your children
678
00:29:56.940 --> 00:29:59.809
were involved and So I immediately ring Daily Mirror, that's
679
00:29:59.829 --> 00:30:01.809
who it was, and say, just so you know, there's
680
00:30:01.849 --> 00:30:04.430
no public interest in this. Kids are not involved. They're
681
00:30:04.470 --> 00:30:06.789
only little. They're primary school. You've got to protect them.
682
00:30:07.049 --> 00:30:10.549
And they say, absolutely. And it was never written in
683
00:30:10.589 --> 00:30:13.490
any newspapers. But on the Saturday, three days later, again,
684
00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:15.420
we get it. It was even worse the second time.
685
00:30:15.460 --> 00:30:18.500
It was actually the Mail on Sunday saying that, you know,
686
00:30:18.660 --> 00:30:22.099
pictures of your children have been in, which was ridiculous.
687
00:30:22.759 --> 00:30:26.480
So we kick in this whole process. Lawyers talk to
688
00:30:26.500 --> 00:30:28.779
the Mail on Sunday. telling them what they can and
689
00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:32.140
can't do. Big argument. The Mail on Sunday saying there
690
00:30:32.180 --> 00:30:34.309
is a public interest. In the end, they wrote a
691
00:30:34.349 --> 00:30:37.190
story on page 10 about the driver and the car.
692
00:30:37.609 --> 00:30:40.480
They never mentioned the children or their names. They played
693
00:30:40.500 --> 00:30:43.230
by the rules. And the front page splash of the
694
00:30:43.259 --> 00:30:46.980
Mail on Sunday, that Saturday night, Sunday morning, was Charles Clark,
695
00:30:47.099 --> 00:30:49.660
Ed Balls must be sacked. Where did that come from?
696
00:30:49.740 --> 00:30:51.839
I said, to a vet. How has that happened? And
697
00:30:51.880 --> 00:30:54.329
she said, I think you've just taken one for the kids. Basically,
698
00:30:54.369 --> 00:30:57.170
to get their revenge, they wrote the story straight on
699
00:30:57.190 --> 00:30:59.329
our kids and did me in instead, which was, you know...
700
00:31:00.009 --> 00:31:03.569
In politics, that's kind of what happens. But even in
701
00:31:03.630 --> 00:31:07.230
that one, which is our most difficult occasion, we managed
702
00:31:07.259 --> 00:31:10.059
to stop the children and their names and their photos
703
00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:12.940
being in the papers. That's fascinating. But you can't do
704
00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:16.920
that if you have... If in an easy time, you
705
00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:19.259
pose the picture. Yeah, yeah. You can't in a difficult
706
00:31:19.299 --> 00:31:22.240
time and suddenly say, their privacy, there's no public interest,
707
00:31:22.259 --> 00:31:25.630
because people say, well, you know, that's what you've... So
708
00:31:25.670 --> 00:31:29.630
we've always been very careful about that. And they also... Obviously,
709
00:31:29.650 --> 00:31:33.369
for that reason, their surname's Cooper. There's no other reason.
710
00:31:36.819 --> 00:31:39.039
There's no other reason. You don't need the balls following
711
00:31:39.059 --> 00:31:41.000
you around here. Oh, my God. Can you imagine? No,
712
00:31:41.059 --> 00:31:44.240
you know, that was the easiest decision of my life.
713
00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:47.599
I think we should go for, you know, a common surname,
714
00:31:47.619 --> 00:31:50.119
don't you? I think we should. Yeah, I think we should.
715
00:31:50.799 --> 00:31:52.940
When did you have that conversation then? Was it like
716
00:31:53.049 --> 00:31:55.190
before you had kids or when they arrived? Like, how
717
00:31:55.230 --> 00:31:55.789
did it come up?
718
00:31:56.390 --> 00:31:58.849
Oh, I think, I mean, like well before there was
719
00:31:58.869 --> 00:32:01.210
even any prospect of kids, I think to be very,
720
00:32:01.289 --> 00:32:04.710
very early on. I grew up in Norwich, where we had...
721
00:32:04.490 --> 00:32:06.470
You're a big Norwich fan, aren't you? Yeah, big Norwich.
722
00:32:06.509 --> 00:32:09.910
I had a page in the phone directory, whole page, balls.
723
00:32:10.509 --> 00:32:13.920
I mean, thousands of them. Thousands. And the thousands, we
724
00:32:13.960 --> 00:32:16.319
were actually related to another family called Balls in the
725
00:32:16.359 --> 00:32:17.640
same village. In Norwich?
726
00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:18.079
Never.
727
00:32:18.539 --> 00:32:20.700
No, no, no, no. We were unrelated. What am I saying?
728
00:32:20.740 --> 00:32:23.779
I'm playing with the blood. Six fingers, three balls. Oh, yeah,
729
00:32:23.940 --> 00:32:26.509
come on. There was another family called Balls. We were
730
00:32:26.529 --> 00:32:29.809
totally unrelated to them. It's totally unrelated. We move to Nottingham.
731
00:32:30.230 --> 00:32:33.869
We go from a whole page to two names. Disaster. Yeah.
732
00:32:33.950 --> 00:32:36.509
I've never heard it before or since. So what is
733
00:32:36.529 --> 00:32:39.400
this Norfolk name of balls? Every three times you pick
734
00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:42.940
up the phone, there'll be somebody there going, balls! Ah!
735
00:32:43.160 --> 00:32:47.240
Hang on. Oh, because they've seen it in a firework.
736
00:32:47.319 --> 00:32:48.900
How many times can you put up with that? There
737
00:32:48.920 --> 00:32:51.410
was one time, though. It was like semi-final of World
738
00:32:51.430 --> 00:32:56.170
Cup game. I'm going to guess 1984. Six, probably. I
739
00:32:56.230 --> 00:32:58.529
know 82. It was a semi-final, and there'd just been
740
00:32:58.549 --> 00:33:01.990
this terrible foul of the goalkeeper against the striker. Oh, yeah.
741
00:33:02.009 --> 00:33:04.250
You remember that one? He kind of sides him out.
742
00:33:04.269 --> 00:33:06.450
The phone rings. I pick it up. Somebody says, is
743
00:33:06.490 --> 00:33:09.759
your name Balls? I said, for God's sake. There's just
744
00:33:09.799 --> 00:33:12.240
been this foul. What are you doing? We've got a
745
00:33:12.279 --> 00:33:14.430
life and watch it. I hung up. And I think
746
00:33:14.450 --> 00:33:15.910
from that moment on, I never felt so bad about it.
747
00:33:16.349 --> 00:33:20.049
The earning point. But did Yvette ever discuss taking your
748
00:33:20.069 --> 00:33:23.670
name at marriage? No. No. I mean, to be quite honest,
749
00:33:23.990 --> 00:33:25.970
if my name had been Smith, I don't think she'd
750
00:33:25.990 --> 00:33:28.720
have taken it. Yeah. But I mean, this was like
751
00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:31.220
out of the park, obviously. He can't take the balls.
752
00:33:31.299 --> 00:33:34.720
I mean, no, no, no, no, definitely not. No, never,
753
00:33:34.859 --> 00:33:36.559
never going to happen. I never, I never would have
754
00:33:36.759 --> 00:33:40.700
proposed it either, you know. It's fine. You're quite an enforcer, Ed.
755
00:33:41.130 --> 00:33:44.170
You've got, you know, I've read up on a lot
756
00:33:44.210 --> 00:33:47.730
on politics and there's periods where you are. you're considered
757
00:33:47.910 --> 00:33:50.210
someone who you wouldn't want to take on would that
758
00:33:50.230 --> 00:33:52.440
be the same as a father oh no.
759
00:33:52.299 --> 00:33:54.140
I don't think so i mean the thing is there's
760
00:33:54.200 --> 00:33:56.559
always a bit of caricature in politics and you know
761
00:33:56.579 --> 00:34:00.000
if you're bigger or you know bulkier in the house
762
00:34:00.039 --> 00:34:03.259
of commons cartoon's important but you know there's also some
763
00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:05.339
truth in it i mean i look back on my
764
00:34:05.400 --> 00:34:07.259
time in politics there were times when we were definitely
765
00:34:07.279 --> 00:34:08.960
too macho when we were younger and i sort of
766
00:34:09.000 --> 00:34:12.730
regret that and I'm doing this podcast with George Osborne,
767
00:34:12.750 --> 00:34:14.829
which we're just about to start, which I'm sure you'll
768
00:34:14.849 --> 00:34:17.170
mention a bit. But we both say to each other,
769
00:34:17.190 --> 00:34:19.449
we look back, we were too macho, too bruiserish. And
770
00:34:19.590 --> 00:34:22.519
we both feel as though that's something that you regret.
771
00:34:22.539 --> 00:34:24.619
But I don't think I ever was at home with
772
00:34:24.639 --> 00:34:27.519
the kids at all. You never brought her home? No.
773
00:34:27.719 --> 00:34:29.539
I don't think I've ever looked at George Osborne and thought,
774
00:34:29.579 --> 00:34:31.179
he's too macho for me.
775
00:34:31.219 --> 00:34:31.429
Really?
776
00:34:32.309 --> 00:34:36.090
I think maybe you, but Osborne, I've never looked at
777
00:34:36.110 --> 00:34:38.789
him and thought, that guy's just too macho. The problem is,
778
00:34:38.829 --> 00:34:40.610
I can't connect with a tough guy like that.
779
00:34:40.630 --> 00:34:42.050
He said he was too macho, and I sort of
780
00:34:42.090 --> 00:34:44.719
went along with it. Do you remember that time when
781
00:34:44.739 --> 00:34:45.980
he stood in that macho way?
782
00:34:46.159 --> 00:34:48.940
Yeah, with his legs really far apart.
783
00:34:48.960 --> 00:34:50.579
He just looked like he'd got the wrong underwear on.
784
00:34:51.280 --> 00:34:55.539
My favourite politician photos, Ed, are the sleeves rolled up
785
00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:58.989
around a table. Jacket off, sleeves rolled up, like even
786
00:34:59.010 --> 00:35:01.150
though you know it's an air conditioned office, the sleeves
787
00:35:01.210 --> 00:35:02.940
are rolled up just to show that they're cracking up.
788
00:35:03.190 --> 00:35:05.409
So when you are doing that, are you thinking, they
789
00:35:05.469 --> 00:35:06.510
must know what we're doing here?
790
00:35:06.989 --> 00:35:10.090
Surely. Don't you think that in life you can tell
791
00:35:10.110 --> 00:35:13.110
the people who are posing and the people who are real? Yeah. Yeah.
792
00:35:13.510 --> 00:35:15.880
So in politics, there's often the cameras in for the
793
00:35:15.909 --> 00:35:18.159
first five minutes and they go out. And you can
794
00:35:18.199 --> 00:35:21.079
tell the people who sort of roll their sleeves up
795
00:35:21.159 --> 00:35:23.360
and kind of try and do it for the cameras.
796
00:35:23.659 --> 00:35:26.539
But they always look a bit awkward and a bit weird. Yeah.
797
00:35:26.579 --> 00:35:29.980
Whereas I think the people who are... Matt Hancock, basically. Yeah.
798
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:33.050
Whereas if you think the people who actually are relaxed
799
00:35:33.070 --> 00:35:35.230
to their own skin tend to look relaxed when they're
800
00:35:35.250 --> 00:35:38.119
being photographed as well. Yes. Go back to the Kennedys
801
00:35:38.139 --> 00:35:39.840
in the 60s. They were like the first people who
802
00:35:39.889 --> 00:35:42.699
had this sort of that sort of informal style of
803
00:35:42.780 --> 00:35:46.469
photography around him, the family, the White House. And it
804
00:35:46.510 --> 00:35:49.449
looks really natural, because I think it was. Yeah. Whereas
805
00:35:49.489 --> 00:35:51.170
Gordon Brown always looked... He didn't like.
806
00:35:51.329 --> 00:35:51.510
Yeah.
807
00:35:52.150 --> 00:35:53.670
He hated having his photograph taken.
808
00:35:54.230 --> 00:35:57.849
Sunak looks like he's desperately trying to be a normal person. Like,
809
00:35:57.969 --> 00:36:00.630
how would a normal person stand? How would a normal
810
00:36:00.710 --> 00:36:01.590
family go on this?
811
00:36:01.639 --> 00:36:01.860
Yeah.
812
00:36:01.949 --> 00:36:04.539
Because obviously they live a mad life. It's difficult for
813
00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:06.440
them to try and pretend to be normal, I suppose.
814
00:36:06.460 --> 00:36:09.260
It is. It is hard. I mean... The other problem
815
00:36:09.300 --> 00:36:12.219
with photography and politics is that these days you can
816
00:36:12.239 --> 00:36:15.139
have so many options and you choose one. I played
817
00:36:15.179 --> 00:36:18.940
football every Monday at a party conference in the kind
818
00:36:18.960 --> 00:36:21.909
of MPs versus the journalists. Oh, I've seen the photos
819
00:36:21.949 --> 00:36:24.929
of you playing football. And you'd have five snappers behind
820
00:36:24.969 --> 00:36:27.550
the goal and they would take like 5,000 photos. And
821
00:36:27.570 --> 00:36:29.469
what you know is if it was Wayne Rooney playing,
822
00:36:29.489 --> 00:36:32.409
you know, at Man United, of the 5,000 pictures, they
823
00:36:32.429 --> 00:36:35.170
would think, what is the best photo which would most
824
00:36:35.210 --> 00:36:39.389
capture his athletic excellence? Oh, they've done you in. It's
825
00:36:39.469 --> 00:36:42.449
politicians of the 5,000, which is the one which makes
826
00:36:42.489 --> 00:36:47.139
you look the biggest twat. And it was just... Every year.
827
00:36:47.239 --> 00:36:48.500
And you just have to sort of, you know, take
828
00:36:48.519 --> 00:36:50.739
it on the chin. I mean, the warm-ups were always
829
00:36:50.800 --> 00:36:51.340
a nightmare.
830
00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:52.639
You cut someone's eye, didn't you?
831
00:36:52.920 --> 00:36:55.019
No, he... You elbowed someone. No, I did not actually.
832
00:36:55.059 --> 00:36:57.599
In the head. No, no, no. He threw himself at
833
00:36:57.699 --> 00:37:00.119
my elbow. Honestly, it was that way around. I was
834
00:37:00.139 --> 00:37:02.239
turning to shoot... And as I put my arm out
835
00:37:02.280 --> 00:37:05.409
to shoot, I didn't realise it had stitches until after half-time.
836
00:37:05.469 --> 00:37:07.269
I mean, I felt bad about it in retrospect. But
837
00:37:07.309 --> 00:37:09.010
at the time, I just thought, why did he block
838
00:37:09.030 --> 00:37:12.969
my shot? It was totally undeliberate. Ed, these photos, they
839
00:37:12.989 --> 00:37:15.590
have done you so dirty. There's not even one of
840
00:37:15.630 --> 00:37:17.230
you just stood still waiting for the ball.
841
00:37:17.409 --> 00:37:19.500
Every photo is like a mad action shot.
842
00:37:19.519 --> 00:37:21.699
There must have been loads of them, but they all
843
00:37:21.760 --> 00:37:26.840
got cut. You must have stood still once. Honestly, the athletic,
844
00:37:27.139 --> 00:37:30.150
brilliant ones... They never make the papers. They're not the
845
00:37:30.210 --> 00:37:30.829
ones we sell.
846
00:37:30.929 --> 00:37:31.130
No.
847
00:37:31.230 --> 00:37:34.349
It's just life. Yeah, that is life, isn't it? So
848
00:37:34.369 --> 00:37:37.030
for Rishi Sunak, it's hard because they're always, you know, actually,
849
00:37:37.869 --> 00:37:39.449
of course the editors are always looking for the worst
850
00:37:39.489 --> 00:37:42.179
photo if it's politics. Yeah. Which prime minister would you
851
00:37:42.219 --> 00:37:47.980
prefer as your parent? As my parent? That is a really.
852
00:37:48.019 --> 00:37:50.280
Oh, no, let's just do it another way. You've got
853
00:37:50.300 --> 00:37:52.679
to leave your kids with one of our prime ministers
854
00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:54.579
for the week. Who do you think is going to
855
00:37:54.619 --> 00:37:55.380
be the biggest laugh?
856
00:37:55.780 --> 00:37:59.900
Biggest laugh? No, laugh. Or just the best parent? I
857
00:37:59.920 --> 00:38:03.739
think Gordon Brown would have been very focused on my
858
00:38:03.800 --> 00:38:07.469
mould direction. But I'm not sure if I would say
859
00:38:07.630 --> 00:38:09.090
that necessarily makes him the most fun.
860
00:38:09.630 --> 00:38:12.239
But if you had to leave your kids at 8,
861
00:38:12.239 --> 00:38:14.750
9 and 12 for the week with one of the
862
00:38:14.769 --> 00:38:15.369
prime ministers?
863
00:38:15.829 --> 00:38:18.030
I mean, I would have said David Cameron might be
864
00:38:18.050 --> 00:38:19.630
quite fun, but he left his kids in a pub.
865
00:38:19.650 --> 00:38:21.750
Do you remember? Did he leave his daughter in a
866
00:38:21.789 --> 00:38:24.570
pub to get off with a Chinese prime minister? So
867
00:38:25.090 --> 00:38:31.829
he's out. Boris? Boris? He'll just think there is. There's
868
00:38:31.889 --> 00:38:34.429
a few of them. I mean, I don't think that's true.
869
00:38:34.489 --> 00:38:38.260
I don't think they are his. No, definitely not Boris.
870
00:38:38.300 --> 00:38:40.199
Can you imagine? Think how much damage could be done
871
00:38:40.219 --> 00:38:42.760
in that short period of time? Tony? Tony Blair? I
872
00:38:42.820 --> 00:38:46.199
think Tony Blair would be... Liz Truss. Let's not forget
873
00:38:46.219 --> 00:38:48.690
Liz Truss. She was the Prime Minister for a bit.
874
00:38:48.719 --> 00:38:52.099
Liz Truss. Oh, she's just done an interview about how
875
00:38:52.420 --> 00:38:56.239
she failed because of a left-wing establishment conspiracy. And the
876
00:38:56.260 --> 00:38:59.360
left-wing establishment includes the Bank of England and the Office
877
00:38:59.380 --> 00:39:04.260
for Budget Responsibility. You think, if that's left-wing, oh, my God. So, no,
878
00:39:04.300 --> 00:39:06.750
she's out. I'm actually struggling a bit here. I think
879
00:39:06.789 --> 00:39:10.210
I might go Tony Blair. I might go Rishi.
880
00:39:10.389 --> 00:39:12.730
I'd argue, though, anyone that gets to that level of
881
00:39:12.750 --> 00:39:16.260
their job, surely being a parent's not high in the priority.
882
00:39:16.429 --> 00:39:19.219
You've got to be completely obsessed with that position and
883
00:39:19.280 --> 00:39:21.380
progress to get there. Surely you've got to put yourself
884
00:39:21.619 --> 00:39:24.039
before being a parent to get to that highest level.
885
00:39:24.510 --> 00:39:26.070
Or can you do both? I don't think you would
886
00:39:26.269 --> 00:39:29.789
ever speak to anybody who's done politics who doesn't say,
887
00:39:29.860 --> 00:39:33.280
I look back and regret that I didn't spend more
888
00:39:33.320 --> 00:39:36.260
time with my kids and there's times when Alistair Campbell
889
00:39:36.280 --> 00:39:38.579
said that to us well that's exactly right and that
890
00:39:38.619 --> 00:39:41.820
the priority the imperative I think one of the really
891
00:39:41.860 --> 00:39:43.840
important things that Yvette and I had because we were
892
00:39:43.880 --> 00:39:46.260
both in it was we were both really good at
893
00:39:46.360 --> 00:39:49.050
understanding when the other person had to deal with a
894
00:39:49.070 --> 00:39:51.530
real problem and so you just say you've got to
895
00:39:51.570 --> 00:39:53.329
do that and i'm taking the kids to pizza express
896
00:39:53.349 --> 00:39:56.670
or whatever but also calling out bullshit so if it
897
00:39:56.710 --> 00:39:59.769
was actually not real and you could say you don't
898
00:39:59.809 --> 00:40:02.150
need to do that that's not a priority we should
899
00:40:02.170 --> 00:40:03.670
put the family first and we were kind of good
900
00:40:03.710 --> 00:40:06.739
at policing ourselves to try and make sure we put
901
00:40:06.760 --> 00:40:10.059
the family right but i think that um all the
902
00:40:10.119 --> 00:40:12.500
prime ministers i've known have really worried about it and
903
00:40:12.539 --> 00:40:15.480
cared about it. Gordon Brown totally devoted to his kids.
904
00:40:15.519 --> 00:40:18.039
I think the same is true with David Cameron, with
905
00:40:18.159 --> 00:40:20.559
Tony Blair as well. I'm sure it's true of Rishi Sunak.
906
00:40:20.679 --> 00:40:23.619
And because of the fact that they will be worrying
907
00:40:23.639 --> 00:40:28.480
about getting it wrong. Just skip Boris. He doesn't even
908
00:40:28.519 --> 00:40:34.320
know who his kids are. George Osborne is saying to me,
909
00:40:34.360 --> 00:40:36.239
he and David Cameron tried to get Boris Johnson to
910
00:40:36.280 --> 00:40:38.820
come back into the cabinet, but he couldn't afford it.
911
00:40:39.619 --> 00:40:42.829
His alimony. His child support list was so big. It
912
00:40:42.849 --> 00:40:45.570
was so expensive. I mean, I don't think anybody knows it.
913
00:40:47.179 --> 00:40:49.340
Maybe he's doing the ultimate what you're doing. You have
914
00:40:49.380 --> 00:40:51.590
never named your kids or photographed them. If he doesn't
915
00:40:51.610 --> 00:40:53.650
know who they are, then they can never be in
916
00:40:53.670 --> 00:40:55.190
the paper. Maybe he's doing it right.
917
00:40:55.230 --> 00:40:56.849
Let's take it to another level. I know, but at
918
00:40:56.869 --> 00:41:00.469
least I do know who our kids are. I've definitely
919
00:41:00.510 --> 00:41:03.190
got a handle on that. If we get him on this,
920
00:41:03.210 --> 00:41:04.369
it'll be a short start.
921
00:41:05.429 --> 00:41:09.030
On George Osborne, you and George Osborne have parked your
922
00:41:09.110 --> 00:41:11.880
tanks on Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart's lawn.
923
00:41:12.079 --> 00:41:16.099
No. No. course we have everybody says you know to
924
00:41:16.139 --> 00:41:19.889
use economics terms the podcast market is not saturated There's
925
00:41:19.929 --> 00:41:22.269
room for more podcasts for people who listen to one
926
00:41:22.730 --> 00:41:25.130
or listen to two or three or four and people
927
00:41:25.170 --> 00:41:28.210
who listen to yours then go on to another one
928
00:41:28.230 --> 00:41:30.829
which you talk about. And Alistair Campbell and Rory's is
929
00:41:30.869 --> 00:41:34.079
really popular. They talk a lot about foreign affairs. Has
930
00:41:34.099 --> 00:41:37.199
he sent you any abuse yet? Because he doesn't like competition.
931
00:41:37.239 --> 00:41:40.239
He got quite abusive towards us. Yeah. Well, in that case,
932
00:41:40.280 --> 00:41:42.019
I should be worried. He's not sending me enough abuse
933
00:41:42.320 --> 00:41:43.800
because maybe he's not thinking we're going to be big
934
00:41:43.860 --> 00:41:46.099
enough competition. He sent me a message last Friday saying,
935
00:41:46.119 --> 00:41:48.239
when is it launching? Good luck with it. And Give
936
00:41:48.260 --> 00:41:49.860
me a couple of tips. That was very kind of him.
937
00:41:50.139 --> 00:41:51.010
What were his tips?
938
00:41:51.070 --> 00:41:52.949
Because we could double check to see if he's not
939
00:41:52.989 --> 00:41:56.530
throwing you under a bus here as seasoned podcasters ourselves.
940
00:41:56.789 --> 00:41:58.150
Did he say don't post regularly?
941
00:41:58.190 --> 00:42:00.789
No, he didn't. Do it very slapdash. Don't mention it
942
00:42:00.829 --> 00:42:02.630
on Twitter. He said there's no need to get on
943
00:42:02.670 --> 00:42:05.619
with your podcast person you're doing it with because nobody
944
00:42:05.639 --> 00:42:09.019
cares about that. Agree. Yeah. He said don't worry about
945
00:42:09.039 --> 00:42:13.820
the listeners. Take them for granted. I'm actually trying to
946
00:42:14.019 --> 00:42:17.059
find his text. But it was basically, I think you've
947
00:42:17.079 --> 00:42:18.559
always got to try and keep it fresh and keep
948
00:42:18.599 --> 00:42:20.119
it new and be thinking of the next thing you
949
00:42:20.139 --> 00:42:22.980
go on to do. And I think the thing which
950
00:42:23.079 --> 00:42:24.619
we will do, which he actually said to me.
951
00:42:24.840 --> 00:42:27.440
So it's you and George Osborne chatting about politics and
952
00:42:27.719 --> 00:42:29.429
what's been going on. So is it weekly or is
953
00:42:29.489 --> 00:42:30.929
it you take certain things?
954
00:42:31.170 --> 00:42:34.369
It's weekly every Thursday and starts this week. And it
955
00:42:34.409 --> 00:42:36.769
will have, you know, we'll do a bit more economics
956
00:42:36.789 --> 00:42:39.400
than Alistair and Rory do because we were both, In
957
00:42:39.420 --> 00:42:42.260
the Treasury, he was Chancellor, I was Economic Advisor, I
958
00:42:42.300 --> 00:42:45.929
was Shadow Chancellor. But we'll also still be quite about politics.
959
00:42:46.050 --> 00:42:48.230
And I think that compared to the Alistair Rory one,
960
00:42:48.269 --> 00:42:51.110
we'll probably be a bit more insider because George and
961
00:42:51.150 --> 00:42:53.449
I were there a lot longer than Rory was kind
962
00:42:53.489 --> 00:42:56.739
of on the inside of decision making. And we'll talk about,
963
00:42:56.760 --> 00:42:59.380
you know, what's big in politics, what's the big thing happening,
964
00:42:59.400 --> 00:43:01.340
which is going to affect the next election and the economy.
965
00:43:01.739 --> 00:43:04.599
And then maybe the thing which people haven't spotted is
966
00:43:04.619 --> 00:43:06.719
going to be a big deal, which we'll try and highlight.
967
00:43:06.969 --> 00:43:07.369
What's that?
968
00:43:07.389 --> 00:43:08.949
Can we have a little inside scoop of what that
969
00:43:08.989 --> 00:43:11.130
might be? And then they can listen to it in
970
00:43:11.170 --> 00:43:12.260
more detail in your pod.
971
00:43:12.280 --> 00:43:15.079
You can. We might talk about what's happening in.
972
00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:18.440
Should I invest in AI companies, Ed? Is that what's
973
00:43:18.460 --> 00:43:19.059
going to.
974
00:43:19.079 --> 00:43:20.659
I don't think... I mean, George Osborne, maybe. I'm not
975
00:43:20.699 --> 00:43:23.119
really the right person to give you advice on investing,
976
00:43:23.159 --> 00:43:26.280
although I'd be quite careful about crypto if I were you. But,
977
00:43:26.300 --> 00:43:28.480
you know, there's been a big rise in oil prices
978
00:43:28.519 --> 00:43:29.860
at the minute. What does that mean? How's that going
979
00:43:29.889 --> 00:43:32.809
to affect inflation? What will that mean to fuel duty prices?
980
00:43:33.090 --> 00:43:34.550
Is it going to be more expensive for the government
981
00:43:34.590 --> 00:43:36.929
next year? Will they make a commitment to keep fuel
982
00:43:36.949 --> 00:43:40.230
duty down? They're gone, aren't they, Ed? They're gone, this government.
983
00:43:40.510 --> 00:43:43.190
It's over. I think it's really hard to recover from
984
00:43:43.510 --> 00:43:45.530
what happened with Liz Trust last year. Do you remember
985
00:43:45.550 --> 00:43:48.289
in 1992, I'm not sure you do remember, you're probably
986
00:43:48.469 --> 00:43:51.280
too young, but 1992, Black Wednesday, when interest rates went
987
00:43:51.440 --> 00:43:54.139
up to 15% in one day when we left the
988
00:43:54.179 --> 00:43:56.980
exchange rate mechanism. It was like a catastrophic day. I
989
00:43:57.000 --> 00:43:59.880
don't think the John Major government ever recovered from that.
990
00:43:59.920 --> 00:44:02.340
And for three or four more years, it felt like
991
00:44:02.789 --> 00:44:04.489
there was going to change, it was going to happen.
992
00:44:04.530 --> 00:44:07.650
And that moment a year ago, when they did a
993
00:44:07.690 --> 00:44:09.789
budget and they had to reverse it all, and suddenly
994
00:44:09.849 --> 00:44:14.190
interest rates started surging up, the markets went wild. People
995
00:44:14.230 --> 00:44:17.570
who were renegotiating fixed-term mortgages were suddenly finding their mortgage
996
00:44:17.590 --> 00:44:20.599
rate was going up 1%, 2%. three percentage points, that hit.
997
00:44:21.239 --> 00:44:21.679
And that continues.
998
00:44:21.699 --> 00:44:23.880
It's going to continue this year, isn't it? And actually
999
00:44:23.940 --> 00:44:25.380
real-time impact as opposed to.
1000
00:44:25.420 --> 00:44:27.409
Yeah, and it's really hard to... Well, the difference is
1001
00:44:27.489 --> 00:44:31.250
back in 30 years ago, everybody had floating variable mortgages.
1002
00:44:31.289 --> 00:44:33.869
So your mortgage rate changed day to day. Whereas once
1003
00:44:33.909 --> 00:44:36.719
you go to like now, lots of people have their
1004
00:44:36.739 --> 00:44:40.340
mortgage fixed for one, two, three years. People are renegotiating
1005
00:44:40.360 --> 00:44:43.119
the mortgage like every week. There's new people getting a
1006
00:44:43.179 --> 00:44:45.920
new mortgage and they suddenly find out that the rates
1007
00:44:45.940 --> 00:44:48.260
have jumped up. So it may be your three-year deal
1008
00:44:48.280 --> 00:44:51.030
doesn't end until November. On November, you're finding out you're
1009
00:44:51.050 --> 00:44:53.690
paying a lot more or next January or next March.
1010
00:44:53.789 --> 00:44:55.929
So the impact of what happened a year ago with
1011
00:44:55.949 --> 00:44:58.170
the rise in interest rates, people are going to feel
1012
00:44:58.210 --> 00:45:00.809
that economically over the next year. And if they're feeling
1013
00:45:00.829 --> 00:45:04.719
it economically, they feel it politically too. So- We'll see.
1014
00:45:04.900 --> 00:45:07.239
I think it's really, really hard for the Conservatives to
1015
00:45:07.460 --> 00:45:09.900
be re-elected. I think it's unlikely Rishi Sunak could be
1016
00:45:09.920 --> 00:45:12.460
the Prime Minister. I think it's more likely now Keir
1017
00:45:12.480 --> 00:45:14.260
Starmer's going to be... And is he a laugh? Is
1018
00:45:14.300 --> 00:45:18.150
he a laugh? Well... OK, that's the end of that.
1019
00:45:18.750 --> 00:45:21.909
If he hosted a quiz, would they go, this new
1020
00:45:21.949 --> 00:45:25.349
reception teacher's really quite surprisingly funny, like they did with
1021
00:45:25.369 --> 00:45:25.989
Josh Whitaker?
1022
00:45:26.090 --> 00:45:29.510
So I actually saw him yesterday. Yesterday we had the
1023
00:45:29.570 --> 00:45:31.900
launch of one of my new, you know, One of
1024
00:45:31.920 --> 00:45:33.320
the things about being a father is you have to
1025
00:45:33.400 --> 00:45:36.300
find new ways to embarrass your kids. Yeah. And so
1026
00:45:36.320 --> 00:45:39.300
we decided to form, it was Robert Peston's idea, a
1027
00:45:39.489 --> 00:45:43.550
post-punk band. Oh, my word. For Centrist Dad. Oh, my
1028
00:45:43.590 --> 00:45:45.769
head's hurt. No, don't do it to your children. I'm
1029
00:45:45.789 --> 00:45:48.289
getting stressed just hearing about this. Go on. It's you
1030
00:45:48.329 --> 00:45:51.260
and Peston. Yeah, we only started three months ago. John Wilson,
1031
00:45:51.699 --> 00:45:54.840
Our Cultural Life, son of Bob Wilson on bass, Chris
1032
00:45:54.860 --> 00:45:59.010
Taylor on guitar. We start with The Ramones, Clash. What's
1033
00:45:59.030 --> 00:46:00.909
your role in the band, sorry? I'm the drummer. You're
1034
00:46:00.929 --> 00:46:04.130
the drummer? I'm the drummer. We ended with our last
1035
00:46:04.150 --> 00:46:07.750
song with Teenage Kicks, Undertones. But before that, our penultimate
1036
00:46:07.769 --> 00:46:10.710
song was The Sex Pistols. Oh, my gosh. Robert Peston singing,
1037
00:46:10.730 --> 00:46:14.010
I am an anarchist. Robert Peston singing. I am the antichrist.
1038
00:46:14.389 --> 00:46:17.739
Robert Peston's a singer at the York Rise Street Party.
1039
00:46:18.250 --> 00:46:21.369
And as we're looking out onto the crowd of the hundreds,
1040
00:46:21.670 --> 00:46:24.869
the throng who had come to see his dad in
1041
00:46:24.889 --> 00:46:28.159
their lodge, standing together was Ed Miliband and Keir Starmer. Oh,
1042
00:46:28.179 --> 00:46:32.460
my God. Both bopping away because they both live basically
1043
00:46:32.500 --> 00:46:34.420
in this street. And Keir Starmer sent me a text
1044
00:46:34.480 --> 00:46:37.159
after to say, you're brilliant. But I watched very carefully.
1045
00:46:37.219 --> 00:46:39.800
He did not sing the words to Anarchy in the UK.
1046
00:46:40.030 --> 00:46:43.289
Did he not? He's very careful. Very, very wise, if
1047
00:46:43.570 --> 00:46:46.920
you ask me. Very wise. And so what's he like
1048
00:46:46.960 --> 00:46:49.030
as a dad? I think he will make a lot
1049
00:46:49.070 --> 00:46:51.550
of time to make sure that his kids have time
1050
00:46:51.610 --> 00:46:53.949
and come first. And I think one of the hardest
1051
00:46:53.969 --> 00:46:55.489
things to do is carve out that time, but you've
1052
00:46:55.530 --> 00:46:58.090
got to. And I think he does. And I know
1053
00:46:58.130 --> 00:47:00.449
his wife pretty well as well, Vic, and I think
1054
00:47:00.469 --> 00:47:03.090
they really think hard about making sure that they support
1055
00:47:03.110 --> 00:47:03.440
their kids.
1056
00:47:04.019 --> 00:47:05.619
Do you think Centro's dad are going to go on
1057
00:47:05.659 --> 00:47:08.039
to some bigger gigs, or is that it, one gig
1058
00:47:08.079 --> 00:47:08.400
and done?
1059
00:47:08.539 --> 00:47:10.400
I think I set the bar low, but our kids
1060
00:47:10.440 --> 00:47:14.250
were slightly surprised on the upside. I found a photo.
1061
00:47:14.269 --> 00:47:16.650
If you type in Robert Peston singing, it's actually worse
1062
00:47:16.690 --> 00:47:19.070
than you playing football.
1063
00:47:19.170 --> 00:47:22.170
Which is hard to say, Ed. No offence. But how
1064
00:47:22.210 --> 00:47:22.949
tight was the drumming?
1065
00:47:23.670 --> 00:47:25.269
The drumming looks great. I can see you there.
1066
00:47:25.469 --> 00:47:25.869
I'm in there.
1067
00:47:26.230 --> 00:47:28.309
You're drumming under a gazebo behind Peston.
1068
00:47:28.590 --> 00:47:30.309
Oh, my God. I drummed so hard I got a
1069
00:47:30.309 --> 00:47:34.050
blister on my left finger. Did you? Yeah, I did actually. No,
1070
00:47:34.110 --> 00:47:36.409
it was, it was, I don't know. I mean, maybe
1071
00:47:36.429 --> 00:47:39.019
the end and the beginning, but who knows? We may get,
1072
00:47:39.500 --> 00:47:40.380
we may get rebooked.
1073
00:47:40.539 --> 00:47:41.940
What did your kids think of this, Ed?
1074
00:47:42.619 --> 00:47:45.579
They are totally against the name Centrist Dad. Yeah. I
1075
00:47:45.659 --> 00:47:49.650
think it's like really, really embarrassing and ridiculous. Yeah. They
1076
00:47:49.690 --> 00:47:52.409
weren't totally sure of the song list. I said, look,
1077
00:47:52.469 --> 00:47:56.239
I wanted to do Dua Lipa or Lizzo, but unfortunately,
1078
00:47:56.260 --> 00:48:01.000
Peston couldn't do it. It wasn't in his range. So
1079
00:48:01.019 --> 00:48:02.800
we had to return to the Smiths, because that was
1080
00:48:02.820 --> 00:48:04.400
a bit more comfortable for us. Did he do the Smiths?
1081
00:48:04.460 --> 00:48:04.840
Yeah.
1082
00:48:05.159 --> 00:48:08.139
He did Morrissey. He did Heaven Knows I'm Visible Now. Oh,
1083
00:48:08.219 --> 00:48:10.179
my word. With a bit of syncopation on the drums.
1084
00:48:10.199 --> 00:48:13.000
Imagine if you were just walking past and you saw
1085
00:48:13.039 --> 00:48:15.320
this happening. No, this is what happened. Yvette said she
1086
00:48:15.340 --> 00:48:17.440
was standing like three-quarters of the way back, and she said...
1087
00:48:17.800 --> 00:48:21.389
All the time we're playing, people get walking past and saying,
1088
00:48:21.829 --> 00:48:28.690
is that Robert Pesky? Is that a person? Genuinely mystified.
1089
00:48:29.070 --> 00:48:32.269
It was surreal. How can this possibly? There's a video, Ed.
1090
00:48:32.269 --> 00:48:33.829
Do you know there's a video? There's a video. There's
1091
00:48:33.849 --> 00:48:36.550
loads of videos. It was on Good Morning Britain this morning. Oh, right. Yes.
1092
00:48:36.750 --> 00:48:38.289
We never talked about that as well. We had a
1093
00:48:38.329 --> 00:48:40.289
discussion on Good Morning Britain this morning about should there
1094
00:48:40.309 --> 00:48:43.510
be etiquette at gigs? Should you, if you're a performer,
1095
00:48:43.869 --> 00:48:46.329
you're singing or whatever, should you be able to say
1096
00:48:46.349 --> 00:48:48.840
that you want the audience to be quiet, not talk,
1097
00:48:48.960 --> 00:48:49.659
not sing along?
1098
00:48:49.739 --> 00:48:51.780
No, I think at that point you've lost the crowd.
1099
00:48:51.820 --> 00:48:53.960
If you're having to tell them to sing along or
1100
00:48:54.000 --> 00:48:54.500
be quiet.
1101
00:48:54.539 --> 00:48:58.159
That was the argument. We had this brilliant response from,
1102
00:48:58.860 --> 00:49:02.750
she was absolutely, called Rowetta. Oh yeah, from Happy Mondays.
1103
00:49:03.190 --> 00:49:06.150
Oh my God, she totally laid into it. Our other
1104
00:49:06.309 --> 00:49:09.260
guest who had done the etiquette thing, Lucy May Walker.
1105
00:49:09.679 --> 00:49:11.739
I can say to you, there was no worries about
1106
00:49:11.800 --> 00:49:16.730
etiquette during Centrist Dad's set. Sing, talk, dance, anything went.
1107
00:49:16.849 --> 00:49:18.610
Well, it looked like it went pretty well, to be honest, Ed,
1108
00:49:18.630 --> 00:49:20.659
from the videos. camden new journal if you want to
1109
00:49:20.679 --> 00:49:23.179
see a zoomed in shot of ed milliband front and
1110
00:49:23.239 --> 00:49:26.380
center as he always is as i said i keep.
1111
00:49:26.239 --> 00:49:29.250
Trying to kind of up it my until this moment
1112
00:49:29.449 --> 00:49:32.969
i think my best one was climbing kilimanjaro with little mix.
1113
00:49:33.710 --> 00:49:35.730
So that wasn't embarrassing they would love that wouldn't they.
1114
00:49:35.769 --> 00:49:39.730
Well no actually my son said just um Don't not
1115
00:49:39.789 --> 00:49:41.050
get to the top of Little Mix, do you?
1116
00:49:41.070 --> 00:49:41.320
Oh, yeah.
1117
00:49:41.659 --> 00:49:43.500
Because do you think how embarrassing that would be in school?
1118
00:49:43.960 --> 00:49:45.239
I said to him, what are you talking about? They're
1119
00:49:45.280 --> 00:49:48.579
trained athletes. They're the fittest 20-year-old women in the world.
1120
00:49:48.659 --> 00:49:49.989
What are you on about? He said, please don't let
1121
00:49:50.030 --> 00:49:52.590
me down. Did you also say to Yvette, I'm just
1122
00:49:52.610 --> 00:49:54.750
going away to climb a mountain with the fittest 20-year-old
1123
00:49:54.789 --> 00:49:59.909
women in the world? And there's a cherry attached, is there?
1124
00:50:00.030 --> 00:50:03.030
Don't care. I said Little Mix and Danny Dyer. Little
1125
00:50:03.050 --> 00:50:05.590
Mix and Danny Dyer, of course. As my daughter says,
1126
00:50:06.150 --> 00:50:09.070
the Danny Dyer, not the old guy, the Danny Dyer
1127
00:50:09.090 --> 00:50:11.909
from Love Island. The proper Danny Dyer. Oh, it was her,
1128
00:50:11.949 --> 00:50:14.309
not the dad. The Danny Dyer, not the old guy.
1129
00:50:14.349 --> 00:50:16.090
So it's just you and 20-year-old women, Ed.
1130
00:50:16.170 --> 00:50:20.449
And a few, Alexander Armstrong, Dan Walker. So there's a
1131
00:50:20.449 --> 00:50:21.889
few of us. It was for comic relief. So that
1132
00:50:21.929 --> 00:50:24.380
was cool. And the other thing I've done, which is
1133
00:50:24.400 --> 00:50:28.519
in the same category, is I played the banjo live
1134
00:50:28.619 --> 00:50:30.739
at the Royal Albert Hall on BBC One in front
1135
00:50:30.760 --> 00:50:33.219
of Her Majesty the Queen with Harry Hill and Frank
1136
00:50:33.260 --> 00:50:36.280
Skinner and 30 members of the George Formey Society for
1137
00:50:36.300 --> 00:50:40.280
the Queen's 92nd birthday concert. We played When I'm Cleaning Windows.
1138
00:50:40.619 --> 00:50:43.159
You've had a weird life, haven't you, Ed? Ed, did
1139
00:50:43.199 --> 00:50:45.730
you want to be a politician, really? Think down. You
1140
00:50:45.750 --> 00:50:47.610
wanted to be a musician, didn't you? Let's be honest.
1141
00:50:47.630 --> 00:50:49.070
We came off afterwards. We were waiting to go on
1142
00:50:49.090 --> 00:50:51.090
for the encore. Prince Charles says to me, because I
1143
00:50:51.130 --> 00:50:52.849
knew him quite well when I was in education, He
1144
00:50:52.889 --> 00:50:55.869
says to me, what has happened to your life? What
1145
00:50:55.889 --> 00:50:58.530
have you done? And I had no answer. I didn't
1146
00:50:58.550 --> 00:50:59.050
know what to say.
1147
00:50:59.070 --> 00:51:01.409
I think it's better now, Ed. Isn't this more fun
1148
00:51:01.429 --> 00:51:02.349
than being a politician?
1149
00:51:02.369 --> 00:51:05.679
Oh, it's definitely more fun and with less stress. But,
1150
00:51:05.699 --> 00:51:08.599
you know, politics is really important. And are any of
1151
00:51:08.639 --> 00:51:11.719
your kids going into it? I don't think so at
1152
00:51:11.739 --> 00:51:13.579
the moment, but, you know, I would like them to.
1153
00:51:14.119 --> 00:51:15.840
But I think it's a hard thing to do in
1154
00:51:15.900 --> 00:51:19.000
modern society because it's so exposed and so harsh. But,
1155
00:51:19.019 --> 00:51:21.099
you know, you want the next generation to be inspired
1156
00:51:21.119 --> 00:51:22.920
to make the world a better place. And that's what
1157
00:51:22.960 --> 00:51:25.059
politicians are supposed to do. And if the people who
1158
00:51:25.539 --> 00:51:27.159
aspire to make the world a better place don't go
1159
00:51:27.199 --> 00:51:29.389
and be politicians, who are the people who are going
1160
00:51:29.409 --> 00:51:31.030
to be the politicians? Because in a democracy, you have
1161
00:51:31.050 --> 00:51:33.110
to have somebody. If it's the bad guys or the
1162
00:51:33.130 --> 00:51:34.909
people who are out for themselves, well, where will we
1163
00:51:34.929 --> 00:51:36.789
be as a country? So if I could inspire them
1164
00:51:36.829 --> 00:51:38.949
to do it, I'd love to. But, you know, they've
1165
00:51:38.969 --> 00:51:40.900
seen it from the inside, so they know how tough
1166
00:51:40.940 --> 00:51:43.260
it can be. Yeah, they know how bad it can be.
1167
00:51:43.380 --> 00:51:45.780
Did you ever, like when you were one of the
1168
00:51:46.039 --> 00:51:48.960
secretaries of state, have security with you when you were
1169
00:51:48.980 --> 00:51:50.960
with the kids? And say, if you went to parents' evening,
1170
00:51:50.980 --> 00:51:52.400
could you do that on your own? Or was there
1171
00:51:52.440 --> 00:51:54.860
always some sort of security or people around you?
1172
00:51:55.059 --> 00:51:58.219
No, we never had any security. In fact, all the
1173
00:51:58.260 --> 00:52:00.760
time Gordon Brown was Chancellor, he had no security at all.
1174
00:52:00.780 --> 00:52:02.949
There was only security at the very end of the
1175
00:52:02.989 --> 00:52:04.789
Labour government when Alistair Darling was the Chancellor after the
1176
00:52:04.829 --> 00:52:07.300
financial crisis. But we've had lots of kind of issues
1177
00:52:07.340 --> 00:52:10.960
we've dealt with. So Yvette has had two different people
1178
00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:14.559
who've kind of been convicted and served sentences for threats
1179
00:52:14.599 --> 00:52:16.519
against her. So we've had to have a lot of
1180
00:52:16.659 --> 00:52:19.159
security in the home and we have banks behind the
1181
00:52:19.199 --> 00:52:21.480
door to make sure if somebody tries to pour something
1182
00:52:21.500 --> 00:52:23.090
in the letterbox. And so the children have had to
1183
00:52:23.119 --> 00:52:27.010
learn about, you know, that more intense security, much stronger windows,
1184
00:52:27.170 --> 00:52:29.110
knowing how to be careful. But we've never had any
1185
00:52:29.329 --> 00:52:32.670
kind of actually people doing security. That's really expensive and
1186
00:52:32.710 --> 00:52:35.750
it's really only the prime minister and defense the home
1187
00:52:35.789 --> 00:52:38.050
office who have that so no we never did and
1188
00:52:38.070 --> 00:52:40.469
to be honest um that's a huge relief because i
1189
00:52:40.489 --> 00:52:42.849
think it would be i think it's pretty miserable having
1190
00:52:42.869 --> 00:52:45.010
to spend your whole time being accompanied by other people
1191
00:52:45.070 --> 00:52:47.289
and getting in and out of cars and so we
1192
00:52:47.329 --> 00:52:48.630
haven't we haven't ever had that.
1193
00:52:49.269 --> 00:52:51.070
Josh would you like to ask the final question to
1194
00:52:51.090 --> 00:52:53.869
ed yeah we always end on the same question oh
1195
00:52:53.909 --> 00:52:56.219
do you this is quite a juicy one because we
1196
00:52:56.239 --> 00:52:57.920
will know your other half right.
1197
00:52:57.800 --> 00:53:00.420
Yeah particularly because we know you know your other half's
1198
00:53:01.110 --> 00:53:04.059
well in a year possibly with the home secretary almost
1199
00:53:04.119 --> 00:53:07.519
certainly uh is there one thing that your partner does
1200
00:53:07.960 --> 00:53:10.840
parenting wise that takes your breath away you could never
1201
00:53:10.880 --> 00:53:13.159
do it yourself shows you what an amazing parent they
1202
00:53:13.289 --> 00:53:15.590
are and the second half of the question is what
1203
00:53:15.730 --> 00:53:17.610
one thing do they do as a parent that really
1204
00:53:17.650 --> 00:53:19.750
annoys you but you've never brought it out with them
1205
00:53:19.989 --> 00:53:22.010
but were they to listen to this that'd be your
1206
00:53:22.050 --> 00:53:25.280
way of communicating don't do that anymore Please.
1207
00:53:25.880 --> 00:53:29.320
I think that even when she's really tired and there's
1208
00:53:29.340 --> 00:53:31.739
been loads of other things going on, whether it's on
1209
00:53:31.780 --> 00:53:36.599
Christmas Eve or on the kids' birthdays, she'll always be
1210
00:53:36.800 --> 00:53:41.219
up much, much later than me. She'll decorate the room downstairs,
1211
00:53:41.239 --> 00:53:43.969
sort of making sure that everything is right. She thinks
1212
00:53:44.010 --> 00:53:46.750
birthdays are really important. And I think there was one
1213
00:53:46.789 --> 00:53:48.570
year when her dad didn't come to her birthday when
1214
00:53:48.590 --> 00:53:50.170
she was little. And ever since then, it's been a
1215
00:53:50.230 --> 00:53:53.500
total three-land whip. Me and her were always there. She
1216
00:53:53.539 --> 00:53:56.559
just wants to make sure that it's always a special day.
1217
00:53:56.860 --> 00:53:58.940
And so Christmas night, she'll be up to two or
1218
00:53:58.960 --> 00:54:01.239
three in the morning. I'm just thinking, they're not going
1219
00:54:01.260 --> 00:54:03.150
to care. They'll sleep in. But she doesn't see it
1220
00:54:03.170 --> 00:54:05.570
that way. I'm trying to think in terms of things
1221
00:54:05.590 --> 00:54:07.579
which I haven't told her. If I'm honest with you,
1222
00:54:07.590 --> 00:54:09.469
you see, we have the kind of relationship where we
1223
00:54:09.489 --> 00:54:11.929
tell each other. So, I mean, she sets a bad
1224
00:54:11.949 --> 00:54:15.820
example on so many fronts in terms of just trivial things.
1225
00:54:15.880 --> 00:54:17.780
So the thing I have told her a lot before
1226
00:54:17.880 --> 00:54:20.780
is she's the worst person at putting anything away. If
1227
00:54:20.800 --> 00:54:23.469
you go into the kitchen, you can see Yvette's I
1228
00:54:23.489 --> 00:54:25.570
made a cup of tea and made toast because you
1229
00:54:25.590 --> 00:54:28.809
can see the open tea thing where the tea is
1230
00:54:28.829 --> 00:54:30.530
and you can see the milk's out and then the
1231
00:54:30.750 --> 00:54:32.269
butter's off. That's what Lou says about you.
1232
00:54:32.309 --> 00:54:34.309
That's exactly what I do. Does she leave cupboards open?
1233
00:54:34.510 --> 00:54:37.449
It's like a snail. You can basically see a trail
1234
00:54:37.769 --> 00:54:39.389
going around. And the other thing is you know if
1235
00:54:39.409 --> 00:54:41.219
a vet's had a shower because there'll be wet towels
1236
00:54:41.260 --> 00:54:43.179
on the floor. And I think one of the things
1237
00:54:43.199 --> 00:54:46.199
I learned about relationships is that there's a certain point
1238
00:54:46.239 --> 00:54:49.039
where if you keep mentioning it, it becomes really annoying.
1239
00:54:49.519 --> 00:54:51.400
Because it's never going to change. And therefore, you just
1240
00:54:51.440 --> 00:54:54.440
have to just absorb and smile. So I love Yvette
1241
00:54:54.460 --> 00:54:56.880
for very many reasons. And every day, I pick up
1242
00:54:56.920 --> 00:54:59.929
her towels and hang them up. And I've done that
1243
00:55:00.230 --> 00:55:03.429
every day now for 30 years. And I never mention it.
1244
00:55:04.610 --> 00:55:07.349
And if she was watching this podcast, I'd love it
1245
00:55:07.389 --> 00:55:09.489
if she picked up her towel and put it away. Oh, yeah.
1246
00:55:11.360 --> 00:55:13.340
But I'm never going to mention it because it's just
1247
00:55:13.400 --> 00:55:14.880
part of... Never going to mention it, no.
1248
00:55:15.179 --> 00:55:17.239
But now if she listens to this or if a
1249
00:55:17.260 --> 00:55:19.079
journalist picks it up and it gets in the paper,
1250
00:55:19.280 --> 00:55:19.599
she might.
1251
00:55:19.760 --> 00:55:21.539
Well, I know, but it's just part of the deal.
1252
00:55:21.559 --> 00:55:24.230
There's certain things where you just have to think that's
1253
00:55:24.250 --> 00:55:26.090
who they are and this is who I am. And
1254
00:55:26.190 --> 00:55:28.710
so the thing which really annoys her about me is
1255
00:55:28.949 --> 00:55:31.469
every three months I'll say, we've got to tidy the house. Yeah,
1256
00:55:31.510 --> 00:55:33.190
my wife does that. I go all the way around
1257
00:55:33.230 --> 00:55:35.530
the house and put everything into a big box and
1258
00:55:35.550 --> 00:55:37.579
I dump it on the kitchen table and... And then say,
1259
00:55:37.760 --> 00:55:40.119
we've got to sort it out. And then Yvette thinks
1260
00:55:40.199 --> 00:55:42.440
it can then sit there for weeks. No, no, no,
1261
00:55:42.480 --> 00:55:44.360
it's got to be sorted out now. So we have
1262
00:55:44.480 --> 00:55:47.320
under our kitchen table is eight bags of things that
1263
00:55:47.340 --> 00:55:49.280
Yvette's promised she'll sort out in due course. And they've
1264
00:55:49.300 --> 00:55:52.269
been there since before Christmas. Nightmare.
1265
00:55:52.610 --> 00:55:56.269
I'm looking forward to having to cover on Good Morning Britain.
1266
00:55:56.309 --> 00:56:00.389
Shadow Home Secretary leaves towels on floor as a news story.
1267
00:56:00.690 --> 00:56:03.969
Just don't tell her. No, we won't. Because I'm not
1268
00:56:04.010 --> 00:56:05.159
going to tell her, because I just sort of think
1269
00:56:05.199 --> 00:56:07.079
in the end, you know, it's what I do.
1270
00:56:07.099 --> 00:56:09.139
Okay, we won't mention it to her. And also, let's
1271
00:56:09.179 --> 00:56:12.239
see the power of the podcast. If you don't tell her,
1272
00:56:12.360 --> 00:56:13.739
we don't tell her, and she comes over and goes,
1273
00:56:13.800 --> 00:56:14.840
what's this tail problem?
1274
00:56:14.980 --> 00:56:19.260
And see if it gets back to her. Your podcast,
1275
00:56:19.300 --> 00:56:22.590
Political Currency, with George Osborne and Ed Balls, out.
1276
00:56:23.119 --> 00:56:25.460
Well, it's out now. Tell your mate to come up
1277
00:56:25.500 --> 00:56:28.780
to me at pick-up and apologise. No, all he wants
1278
00:56:28.820 --> 00:56:31.179
you to do is do the next pub quiz. I'm
1279
00:56:31.199 --> 00:56:34.340
doing it. I'm doing it. The best reception teacher comedy
1280
00:56:34.389 --> 00:56:40.670
guy he's ever known. Thanks, Ed. Brilliant. Cheers, mate. See
1281
00:56:40.690 --> 00:56:45.230
you later. Thanks, mate. Good luck with it. Ed Balls.
1282
00:56:45.570 --> 00:56:47.730
Ed Balls, there we go. I don't know who that
1283
00:56:47.789 --> 00:56:49.190
guy is at the school, Rob.
1284
00:56:49.329 --> 00:56:51.789
Also, I felt like I started that interview badly when
1285
00:56:51.949 --> 00:56:54.260
he said we were, and I said running the country
1286
00:56:54.280 --> 00:56:55.429
into the ground. It was a bit of banter, but
1287
00:56:55.449 --> 00:56:56.980
because he's a politician, I don't think he sort of.
1288
00:56:57.280 --> 00:56:59.559
Oh, no, but I don't... That kind of thing is
1289
00:56:59.599 --> 00:57:01.699
water off a duck's back with a politician, isn't it?
1290
00:57:01.800 --> 00:57:05.699
Duck's back, aren't they? Duck's back. That's like water off
1291
00:57:05.860 --> 00:57:08.960
a duck's back, that is. What happened there?
1292
00:57:09.159 --> 00:57:11.219
Also, as well, is it OK, Josh, if I admit
1293
00:57:11.260 --> 00:57:13.199
this now? You know that I'm not a major prepper.
1294
00:57:13.340 --> 00:57:14.039
You don't know who he is.
1295
00:57:14.940 --> 00:57:17.000
I didn't realise his wife was still a politician. And
1296
00:57:17.019 --> 00:57:18.719
I didn't really know he was in politics. I literally
1297
00:57:18.739 --> 00:57:22.429
just thought it was like a news person that did streaming.
1298
00:57:23.010 --> 00:57:25.530
And I was really, really working backwards in that episode.
1299
00:57:25.690 --> 00:57:27.550
I know. But I think I covered for you.
1300
00:57:27.590 --> 00:57:30.050
We're like, you know, like when you've got a midfielder
1301
00:57:30.369 --> 00:57:31.690
who's making runs forward.
1302
00:57:31.769 --> 00:57:35.119
I was... I was covering all your runs, Rob. I
1303
00:57:35.139 --> 00:57:36.760
was there. The first 10 minutes, I was a bit
1304
00:57:36.800 --> 00:57:38.280
quiet as I tried to work out. Oh, so it
1305
00:57:38.300 --> 00:57:38.760
was actually.
1306
00:57:38.940 --> 00:57:41.059
Because it's different if someone's like, oh, they were in
1307
00:57:41.079 --> 00:57:41.920
a band or whatever.
1308
00:57:42.199 --> 00:57:42.420
Yeah.
1309
00:57:42.500 --> 00:57:44.750
But with politics, it's always so loaded because you don't
1310
00:57:44.769 --> 00:57:46.030
really know who to bring up or not bring up
1311
00:57:46.050 --> 00:57:48.409
because you don't know what was what, you know, what
1312
00:57:48.429 --> 00:57:49.110
they can take.
1313
00:57:49.130 --> 00:57:49.630
You know what I mean?
1314
00:57:49.869 --> 00:57:51.730
But yeah, anyway, good to know now. That's the Ed
1315
00:57:51.769 --> 00:57:56.820
Balls outro. Listen to their podcast.
1316
00:57:56.940 --> 00:57:59.019
Probably could have done that before he came on tour
1317
00:57:59.059 --> 00:58:00.739
about that, Josh. Yeah, it doesn't matter. We were doing
1318
00:58:00.780 --> 00:58:02.079
our own podcast.
1319
00:58:02.340 --> 00:58:04.460
For me, he's just the gang name guy.
1320
00:58:04.619 --> 00:58:05.420
Exactly, Rob.
1321
00:58:05.579 --> 00:58:07.039
But he knows his stuff, doesn't he?
1322
00:58:07.059 --> 00:58:10.280
Rob, if you were, if you'd done research for that,
1323
00:58:10.789 --> 00:58:14.130
you wouldn't be being you. Be you. I wouldn't have
1324
00:58:14.150 --> 00:58:16.889
been being me, would I? Be you, Rob.
1325
00:58:17.150 --> 00:58:18.829
I tell you what, when he said Peston was singing,
1326
00:58:18.989 --> 00:58:19.789
I'm back in now.
1327
00:58:19.809 --> 00:58:20.789
There we go.
1328
00:58:24.550 --> 00:58:27.090
Alright he's a lovely bloke I do like him I'm
1329
00:58:27.130 --> 00:58:28.710
a big fan of his work on Good Morning Britain
1330
00:58:28.750 --> 00:58:30.849
and Strictly but I didn't know about his previous career
1331
00:58:30.889 --> 00:58:31.090
really
1332
00:58:31.309 --> 00:58:32.869
Oh there you go there we go you win some
1333
00:58:32.889 --> 00:58:36.449
you lose some right see you on Tuesday bye bye