EMQs: Could PMQs save America?

Could a weekly grilling like Prime Minister’s Questions fix US politics? In the wake of Original Sin - Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s damning account of Joe Biden’s final days in office - Ed Balls and George Osborne ask whether a PMQs-style showdown could bring more accountability to American democracy. And are there any American political customs they’d import to the UK in return?

The pair then flick open their ministerial boxes: what’s it like to carry one, what can one find inside and why has it never been replaced in the digital age for something more user-friendly? A red tablet perhaps? Speaking of opening up, George responds to Michael Gove’s ex-wife Sarah Vine’s claims in her recent memoir “How not to be a Political Wife”  - did he really tell her to borrow some money from her father when she was in a financial bind?

Plus - Giles Winn, Special Advisor to the Treasury under Philip Hammond, asks about soft diplomacy in an era of ramped-up military spending. With UCL, he just released a report, The Soft Power impact of The BBC World Service’  - and he wants Ed and George to weigh in. And Christine Farquharson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies asks about the politics of the rise of Sure Start, which she recently evaluated alongside co-authors in this report.

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