EMQs: Our Keir Year, modern Machiavellis and fairness in politics

What is a fair way to govern? In response to a long time listener who feels a victim of his own success – disproportionately hit by taxes and ineligible for certain benefits – Ed Balls explains three different philosophical concepts of ‘fairness’. George Osborne meanwhile dismisses wealth tax as a catch all solution, underlining how the Labour government must look to the broader population. 

Listeners are reflecting on Keir Starmer a year into his premiership, with some wondering about his core set of beliefs (or lack thereof) and others questioning their decision to lend him their vote. What can the PM do to inspire these wavering voters?

Ed and George also note institutional differences in the role academics play in government. Why is an economic academic more likely to find a role in the US government or the Bank of England then in the UK cabinet? 

And who are the UK’s Machiavelli-like politicians of recent times? Boris Johnson is dismissed as a candidate but Ed Balls nominates someone closer to home, suggesting that George Osborne may have pulled more strings in the Cameron government than we appreciated. 

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Producers: Miriam Hall and Jarek Zaba

Video Editor: Danny Pape

Executive Producer: Ellie Clifford

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