Enda Brady: UK correspondent on Royals Christmas Day church service, French champagne industry down $10 billion, challenging year ahead for UK PM Keir Starmer

The Royals have attended a Christmas Day church service at Sandringham. 

The private church sits on estate land, and monarchs have completed the walk from the estate house up to St Magdalene’s Church for a Christmas Day ceremony for centuries. 

King Charles was joined by Camilla, and William, Kate and their children. 

Plus, the French Champagne industry saw a $10 billion drop in the last year. Numbers were down by 27 million bottles. 

UK correspondent Enda Brady tells Tim Beveridge a turf war between large production companies and smaller family-owned vineyards has been set off over exorbitant prices of champagne bottles compared to alternative European options such as prosecco in Italy. 

And, the honeymoon period is over for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer with a challenging 2025 ahead. 

Enda Brady says Starmer will be “pinning all his hopes on the budget in November actually filtering through and making a difference.” 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
No time to say good morning to UK correspondent. Correspondent
and the Brady joins me.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Get a da ten, very happy Christmas team and all
our listeners from my family here in Ireland.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
I was actually thinking, given what we said you talked
about at the end of our conversation on Christmas Eve,
that you'd be coming to us from Matty's Pub.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
No, so little, No, pubs are not allowed open on
Christmas Day. We're still in Christmas Day. It's just a
quarter to six, okay, So one day of the year
you're not allowed in a pub in Ireland. You will
not get thinking a pub in Ireland on Christmas Day,
for love nor money. You can walk a long long
way or lost this cross this bit of island. You
won't find a pub open on Christmas Day.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, I imagine you're stocked up. So all good now.
The King and Kate lead the Royal family to church.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yes, so we've been watching the pictures come from Sandringham
this morning. So the Royal family, as is their tradition,
they spent Christmas at Sandringham. It's the royal estate over
in Norfolk, a county in the east of England, is
beautiful over there, and they have their own private church
on the estate land, so they walk. It's about five
or six hundred meters of a walk from the Big

(01:27):
House at Sandringham up to Saint Magdalen's Church, and this
is a walk that the monarch has done for centuries.
So Charles following in his mother's footsteps, following in his
grandfather's footsteps, his great grandfather's footsteps. And today he was
joined by Camilla by his side. William and Kate, the
Princess of Wales were there, other royals as well. But

(01:49):
a really poignant Christmas Day church service given that Charles
the King has been fighting cancer tier and Kate has
also had treatment for cancer too, So a day of
flection I think really for the royal family, as was
touched upon in the King's Christmas message.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
The industry there's a big drop. There are ten billion
dollar drop in the industry in a year.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Yeah, in twelve months. This is quite staggering really, So
numbers are not good on this. They're down about twenty
seven million bottles of production. This year at the bottom
line is ten billion en z dollars less of sales.
And there seems to be a big kind of turf
war going on in the Champagne region of France. So
you've got the big big names that the brand names

(02:35):
that we see in airports in Judy Freeze and in
the big expensive shops where a bottle of fizz is
going to cost you one hundred and twenty dollars, they
seem to be wanting to push up the price and
dominate the industry and the name and the brand and
the region of Champagne at the cost of the smaller families.
But the problem the bigger names have is that a

(02:55):
lot of the Champagne greats are actually produced by the
smaller family. So there's you've got a bit of an
internal turf war going on in the Champagne region in France,
and a lot of people around Europe certainly are thinking, well,
hang on, you know, bottle of champagne. Now you're dropping
one hundred, one hundred and twenty dollars a bottle and
he spends half that on prozecco in Italy and you

(03:17):
get a really decent drob.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, it must be a bit of a play because
I never really can tell the difference too much between
prosecco and champagne. But that's probably that's on me, I
think possibly away. Look, look, Hanniman was iva pretty quickly
for Key Stamer. He's got a challenging year, he'd for
the prime minister in the UK.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Yes, so twenty twenty five will be Starmer's first full
calendar year as prime minister. Look, he's only been in
since July the fifth, that was his first working day
in office. Some figures out the other day for the
last quarter. The UK economy flatlining for the past three months,
so he's got a lot of work to do. The budgets,
you know, he will be pinning all his hopes on

(04:00):
the budget in November actually kind of filtering through and
making a difference. But I think all the economic forecasts
and outlaw for twenty twenty five are it will be, Yes,
another challenging year for the UK. I just think one
statistic to leave you with tim, nine point two million
people in the UK of adult age. It's sixteen to

(04:20):
sixty five do nothing. They're not in work, they're not
in employment, they're not in training, and they're not paying
taxes nine point two million people we are carrying. That
is a big conundrum for Starmar as he seeks to
get Britain working again.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
Wow, that is that is quite a number. Hey, Inda,
great to talk to you. Look, I'm sure you've been
because you knew you were going to be talking to
us this morning. I'm sure you've been holding off. So
I'll let you go and enjoy the rest of you
your Christmas evening with I imagine you're a French champagne sort
of guy, aren't you.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yes, So there has been a bottle consumed but shared
amongst seven people, so slim pickings here to take. But
look there's a few. There's a few bottles of larger
in the fridge which, with your permission, I'm going to
cry very very shortly.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Okay, Well, of course you have it, and thank you,
thanks very much for your time. Good on you. That's
end the Brady.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
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