Political Currency | |
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Presentation | |
Hosted by | Ed Balls George Osborne |
Genre | talk |
Format |
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Language | English |
Length | c. 45 minutes |
Production | |
No. of episodes | 137 ![]() |
Publication | |
Original release | 14 September 2023 |
Ratings | 3.7/5 ![]() |
Related | |
Website | https://www.persephonica.com/shows/political-currency ![]() |
Political Currency is a British podcast hosted by George Osborne and Ed Balls. [1] It launched on 14 September 2023 [1] and is produced by Persephonica. [2]
George Osborne is a former chancellor of the exchequer who served in David Cameron's Conservative government. He was fired as chancellor after Theresa May became prime minister in the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Although tipped to be Cameron's successor as prime minister at one time, [3] [4] Osborne eventually left parliament in 2017. Subsequently, he was the editor of the Evening Standard and currently serves as the chair of the British Museum and joined coinbase as an advisor.
Ed Balls served in New Labour governments, first as Tony Blair's economic secretary to the treasury and later as Gordon Brown's secretary of state for children and families and served a more unofficial role as advisor both when Brown was chancellor and Prime minister. During Osborne's time in government, Balls was Ed Miliband's shadow chancellor shadowing Osborne. He lost his Morley and Outwood parliamentary seat in 2015 and retired from politics. He has since taught at Harvard and King's College, London, as well as taken part in reality TV shows. He also presents Good Morning Britain a morning talk show.
In June 2023, Persephonica announced that Osborne and Balls would host an economics-focused political podcast. [5]
Since it was announced and debuted, several commentators noted the podcast's similarity to The Rest is Politics , a successful podcast hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart. [1] [6] [7] Like Balls and Osborne, Campbell and Stewart belong to the Labour and Conservative parties respectively.
Rachel Cunliffe of the New Statesman was critical of the podcast, calling it a "howl of nostalgia for a bygone era", where Osborne and Balls were seeking political relevancy after having had their political careers ended years back. [1] Nicholas Harris noted similarly on UnHerd , quipping that the podcast has an ironic name, "a resource of which these men are utterly spent". [7]
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David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton, is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. After his premiership, he served as Foreign Secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government from 2023 to 2024. Cameron was Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016, and served as Leader of the Opposition from 2005 to 2010. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Witney from 2001 to 2016, and has been a member of the House of Lords since November 2023. Cameron identifies as a one-nation conservative and has been associated with both economically liberal and socially liberal policies.
George Gideon Oliver Osborne is a British retired politician and newspaper editor who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016 and as First Secretary of State from 2015 to 2016 in the Cameron government. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Tatton from 2001 to 2017.
11 Downing Street in London, also known colloquially in the United Kingdom as Number 11, is the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The residence, in Downing Street in London, was built alongside the official residence of the Prime Minister at Number 10 in 1682.
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Samantha Gwendoline Cameron, Baroness Cameron of Chipping Norton, is an English businesswoman. Until 2010, she was the creative director of Smythson of Bond Street. She is married to David Cameron, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Foreign Secretary from 2023 to 2024. Cameron took on a part-time consultancy role at Smythson after her husband became prime minister.
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Edward Michael Balls is a British politician, broadcaster and economist. He served as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families from 2007 to 2010, and as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2011 to 2015. A member of Labour Co-op, he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Normanton and later for Morley and Outwood between 2005 and 2015.
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David Cameron's tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom began on 11 May 2010 when he accepted an invitation of Queen Elizabeth II to form a government, succeeding Gordon Brown of the Labour Party, and ended on 13 July 2016 upon his resignation following the 2016 referendum that favoured Brexit, which he had opposed. As prime minister, Cameron also served simultaneously as First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Leader of the Conservative Party.
The events surrounding the formation of the United Kingdom's government in 2010 took place between 7 May and 12 May 2010, following the 2010 general election, which failed to produce an overall majority for either of the country's two main political parties. The election, held on 6 May, resulted in the first hung parliament in the UK in 36 years, sparking a series of negotiations which would form the first coalition government since the Second World War.
Rupert Harrison CBE is a British economist and a portfolio manager at BlackRock. He was from 2006 to 2015 the chief of staff to George Osborne, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, and chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the UK Treasury. He is currently a member of the Economic Advisory Council convened by Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt. In June 2023, he was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the Bicester & Woodstock constituency at the 2024 general election.
The Fresh Start Project or Fresh Start Group, also known as EU Fresh Start, is a moderate eurosceptic pressure group formed in the UK to examine the options for a new UK-EU relationship. It should not be confused with a previous group, also called Fresh Start, of anti-European MPs during the premiership of John Major in the 1990s.
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