Q&A general election special | The News Agents

With now less than a week to go, we answer your General Election questions.

#generalelection2024 #rishisunak #keirstarmer #nigelfarage #conservatives #reformuk #labour #ukpolitics #ukprimeminister #ukgoverment #uk #News #Politics #NewsAgents #EmilyMaitlis #JonSopel #LewisGoodall

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Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall – three of the UK’s top journalists – host a brand-new daily news podcast: The News Agents.

They’re not just here to tell you what’s happening, but why. Expect astute analysis and explanation of the day’s news – and a healthy dose of scepticism and the ability to laugh at it all when needed!

Episodes are available every weekday afternoon.

The News Agents is a Global Player Original podcast.

the news agents it’s Friday Q&A and we want to salute all of you who’ve managed to find us to sending questions because it has occurred to us we’ve managed to make this incredibly difficult arguably much more difficult than it needed to be by not giving you our email address at all ever we like to set a challenge for people anybody anybody who actually gets their question read out actually has to overcome significant OB that’s should be we’re having a party but we’re not going to tell you where or when and on what date you know what we should have a PO Box yes I’d love to have a PO Box C number9 send your questions to PO box9 yeah yeah okay so what is our email it’s newsagents global.com newsagents global.com that’s news. don’t do it AG you don’t even know what the email is it’s just double checking it’s like a Socratic dialogue yes anyway Calvin has managed to send wait we haven’t said welcome to the news agents yes but we haven’t had the first question we do the first question first it’s all going well Calvin has managed to overcome these significant obstacles we put in place and said is there a reason why elections are not digitized would it not be easy a quicker and more efficient account votes this way rather than ticking a box with a pencil yes it would be much quicker and it would be so bloody boring what’s the point of having a totally digitized election which is efficient which means that people can vote when they need to that will fit in with their lives but what would happen is the polls would close and you’d have the result instantly what’s the fun in that of not being at some y Leisure Center at 3: in the morning waiting for the count to be declared can I just say that we have nothing against the many Leisure centers across the country which are going to be doing Sterling work in the next week wonderful returning officers who are going to and all the counters we should does anyone think it’s a good idea that we digitize no only lots of commissions have been looked into it over the years I don’t like the idea of digitizing at all because I think there is a greater chance of somebody looking over your shoulder as you’re doing it and influencing you in the wav the biggest reason is that’s when it’s been looked into is that there will be less confidence in the system and there is for two reasons one people will suppose that it’s more likely to be open to electoral fraud and or attack exactly hacked from hostile actors so when it’s been it’s been looked up many times over the years and generally speaking they’ve come backa pencil yeah little Argos pencil book his pencil behind the behind the yeah welcome to the news agents it’s John it’s Emily it’s leis and we are going to start with a voice note from James hello news agents James here so I grew up in rural Northampton share in an area that voted 65 70% Tory every election and as a labor voter essentially my vote didn’t count I may as well not have bothered I then for about 15 years lived in Tower Hamlet which is you know the reddest of the red in in Westminster elections now I live in hartfordshire and it’s an area that is probably going to flip this time round and so my vote for the first time in my life is actually going to matter to the result and I’m quite excited about it so my question is this assuming that a party needs about a 40 seat majority to govern how many voters in this election actually matter to the result James I would say um I love that question yeah I think James has painted a picture which is the one that many of us will recognize and we grew up with I feel that things have changed and this time round the kind of places that we used to be calling safe do not feel safe obviously we don’t know what’s going to happen on Thursday we don’t know which seats are actually going to turn R but if the polls are anything to go by then you’re talking about 40- seat majority some of the polling talks about a 200 seat majority which means people who are living in parts of Norfolk in parts of suffk obviously around the red wall people who are living in the Southeast people who are living in Dorset people who are living in Cornwall all places where you might not have seen things change hands for decades are suddenly going to be in that new circle of Voters who are seeing a different color at the top of their constituency and I think that means in a way that many more people will be feeling that their votes make a difference this time round because I would just say the bar for change is much lower and it is true that um I mean over the last s of 15 20 years I mean generally about between 50 and 60% of the seats are considered safe or saish so that you know that means about 40 to 45% aren’t so that is on paper you could feel it sort of means that your vote is less valuable and that number has been ticking up by the way with voter sorting I.E more and more the same sort of people with the same sort of voting patterns living in the same places seats both on the labor side and conservative side have been ticking or trending towards becoming safer over time but as Emily said it does feel like this election is going to break that Trend and we have of course as recent years as well had elections which have been similarly seismic in particular parts of the country Al say Scotland in 2015 or the red war in 2019 so voter so there’s this wi weird thing happening where in lots of parts of the country the seats are becoming safer but there are these moments of profound electoral volatility built into it as well which seems to be happening more and more so it’s a sort of complicated picture I reckon we’re going to see more seats change hand at this election than probably and and that’s not just because of a labor Landslide it’s also because you’re going to see like for example you know s SMP to labor at this election that but you know labor kind of only got one seat I think in in in 2019 they’re going to do a lot better in Scotland so there’s going to be a huge amount of volatility in Scottish politics you’re going to see the red wool because of the reemergence of Reform and the way they’re doing that that’s going to so I think there are going to be many more seats that are up for grabs than we’ve probably seen in a UK general election for a very long time so awful lot of people did the same thing 2019 which was an 80 seat majority which let’s not forget at the time seemed absolutely huge I mean take your mind back to what happened in those parts of kind of Yorkshire and humberside the red wall we had never seen that go Blue so there were a whole load of people who were for the first time experiencing what you think you’re going to have this time which was like we’ve done this and that was really because of the brexit vote in essence which went north to south let’s say rather than right to left right it cut through the electoral system in a totally different way it shattered our perceptions of what was safe and what wasn’t there’s another thing is well which is that I mean it doesn’t matter in terms of the result but and it is sort of C coming I’ve I think basically nearly always lived in safe seats as well but there is and so it’s sort of cold comfort in one respect but I do think you know vote share does matter it it doesn’t matter obviously in terms of the results in the sense that as long as you get past 326 you’re over the winning line you’ve got majority you’re going to govern but there is always vote share matters to parties because it does enhance your legitimacy to get a decent a good vote share if you are the governing party I mean if you go back to 2005 for example Labour win the 2005 general election they get majority of 66 which was a big reduction from the majority of 2001 they got it on a 35% vote share obviously they have authority to govern obviously they can for 5 years and they did but there was a lot of sort of discourse at the time about the idea that because the vote it was shocking I remember I remember that vote coming in and it was Tony Blair’s third you know which was majority which was historic but instead of us saying isn’t it amazing labor have won this you know it’s the first ever happened this third um historic majority all that we were looking at was questions about Tony Blair in the shadow of the Iraq War legitimacy that that was the question and legitimacy was so key because it raised questions about all the stuff that he had done in terms of foreign policy during that last term and I think that became a really really negative sort of narrative that was yeah but yeah but you play by the rules of the Parliamentary game it’s first pass the post and that’s it it turned up all I would say finally to James is you know be thankful you’re not living in America where out of the 50 states only six are in play only six are worth campaigning in only six are going to have any we think it’s about 100,000 people I mean it’s tiny the same Trend voter sorting over time states have become safer over time and it’s the same in in Britain historically the seats have become right we’ve now spent nearly the whole podcast James on your question time to move on this question has come from Sarah Kingsley she says assuming he becomes an MP do you think Nigel farage’s next campaign will be to push for proportional representation particularly if reform gets a lot of votes in the election or do you think he will focus on trying to take over the Tory party love the podcast I’ve been listening since day one thank you Sarah kind of follows on from the question we’ve just been debating vot share I mean he can push for it good luck yeah I mean if if Labour get a 200 seat majority guess which party is not going to be in favor of reforming the Electoral I mean k said just the other day despite the fact he actually been labor party policy at readon at conference for much of the time that they’ve been in opposition so I mean they could push for it and and and like I say there will be questions about legitimacy again if reform get a very high vote share and get very few seats for it as happened in 2015 with ukip yes there are questions about the legitimacy of the system but ultimately is in the gift of the government to change it the flip side is there are people you know all over the country you’re one who have been pushing pushing for proportional representation as a fairer way of measuring these elections which we get imagine if we were in PR now we would probably have reform getting 20 seats 15 20 seats more maybe uh potentially more I could get they could be a substantial rump in the UK Parliament with as we now know completely unvetted candidates I mean maybe we say as macron seems to be doing come on in you know come on into the parliament show us what you like in power let us see for ourselves like the British people see for yourselves what you like in power but right now I think the idea of PR is not looking like such an attractive one yeah but if that’s the result that’s the result I mean I I think the problem the problem is is that in our system is that the conservative and labor parties can become radicalized from within you know we’ve seen that happen over the past few years that actually happens under first pass the post because that’s what those forces have to do if under in under PR system the more radical forces exist in their own ways rather than having this endless Civil War that happens within the parties yeah I don’t think that’s necessarily an advantage I mean you look at what happened to the afd in Germany for example you know they’re inside the parliament having I think if Centrist forces cannot take these forces on in a proper electoral system then you know what they don’t deserve to be in business the system the system currently protects them and insulates them in a way they don’t deser your original point is the right one which is that you know just as Blair was in favor of some form of proportional representation until he won 179 seat majority in 1997 and betrayed Paddy Ashdown who thought that there and Roy Jenkins and who all thought there was going to be a change to the voting system and we were going to go to some form I mean look at Israel you know look at how that cabinet is together well there’s lots of okay Israel has highly highly proportional system I mean look at Scotland look I mean the thing is we’ve had PR in our own country and that hasn’t let in The Barbarians at the gates we’ve had it in Scotland we’ve had it in Wales actually crashed the system I mean they actually crashed the system by doing so well that they were the majority people wanted that completely I know I know but I’m saying that we haven’t really had the experience of PR in that sense because you know it was something that the S&P worked around let us move on to a voice note from Sally hello news agents Sally Perry from the a of white here there’s an historic change this election with the a of White Moving from one constituency to two splitting into East and West my husband and I run a news publication here and have readers ask us daily about tactical voting as they want to avoid the return of a conservative MP the National tactical voting sites say that labor will take the seat but locally a primary has been running in East White which found the Green Party candidate to be the people’s Champion as well as them winning exit polls from several hustings which advice should voters be following the polling companies or the East white primary thank you wow now we’re really getting into this is going to be for uh BBC Radio soland John soel surely this is very much your territory of white and Asia Pacific very much your by the way my my my career break in London came because of a story on the Isle of white I was covering and I got a phone call after covering it and they said come up to London so you owe the a of white I owe the they made my career the of white so you’ve got to tell them what to do you’re the patron St yeah but it was about a bloke stuck down a hole that I was covering it didn’t tell me about voting intentions a way that we hoped it would John’s going on about a bloke and a hole I mean Bob cely has been the a of white MP and uh for a long time and I think he he s he has sounded increasingly like he’s going to fight hard but he’s resigned to losing who knows polling polling blah blah blah but it does look as if both East and West are both going labor I don’t know if the greens is is your worry Sally I guess that you think that the greens are going to cut into the labor vote and allow the conservatives back in or you’re really against a green uh MP there I don’t think going to go green I me the is of white well I mean the they’ve been liberal yeah and they they’ve been doing really well locally the greens I mean thing is actually was really interesting political change going across all that bit of the South Coast which has you know as we call it yeah well you know has historically been very conservative or you know way about when liberal but with lots of kind of migration particularly post pandemic from London place like Worthing for example which never had a labor counselor before 2017 ever its history both Worthing seats probably going to go labor at this election and that kind of migration not just from London but from Brighton as well going outwards West making it increasingly Progressive and but this is a very fancy way of us saying we don’t really know do we shouldn’t really tell people but I think that the new red wall is called the seaw wall so that’s what you should be looking at because from Worthing West to right the way down to Dober um to Folkston Hastings right that whole yeah that whole tranch looks as if uh labor will be replacing conservatives so and that didn’t even happen in 97 can I say that my first election when when I was at Radio soland Palm yeah exactly was when I was doing the 1983 election and I had to go and do constituency profiles I volunteered for this of every constituency that there were I think there were 23 constituencies and after the election it was such a landslide I think that every constituency in the whole patch was conservative apart from the olive which was liberal there you go exactly interesting and then one more from Ben and Jen in West Ming in Kent hello when a politician takes up a senior role in government for example if K dama becomes the Prime Minister what happens to the running of the hobin and St pankas constituency does the Prime Minister have to balance nuclear deterrence with the availability of local l or does a junior Minister take in the responsibility of the local constituency in once again we have our own hobin and St panr correspondence ah yes our very own John sober he only lives in cial constituencies exactly prime minister your constituency yeah I’m a voter there um I suspect what happened has he been to your door that’s the question of course he hasn’t been to my door I tell you what no no candidate has no candidate has been to our door that is so I met the independent candidate who loved the podcast and seriously there there’s an independent standing way of you meeting your fans I just hang around on street corners hoping that someone will say hello we told you about that stop doing that what will happen is that K will have a very good local office who will run the constituency who will deal with all the correspondents um you know and and take care of people’s housing concerns or litter or crime or whatever it happens to be that does all the work and you know I’m sure from time to time K dama I mean he’s lucky in the sense that he is a prime minister who’s got a constituency which is very close to Westminster and close to Downing Street you know if you’re and actually to be fair I mean there are often family complications in that a lot of the time families want to remain where they live and they don’t like the idea of moving into Downing Street and some times it’s really hard for the kids to make that transition away from their friends or away from their school or whatever so I would be almost certain that he will keep quite a strong domestic connection to that part of the world because I think that will be important to everyone in terms of normality normaly of life it is it is a very unique system we have though I mean a Ben and Jen’s question about like having to balance nuclear deterrence with availability for local loose it is true I mean Prime Ministers still do dup surgeries so you know they won’t do them as frequently can we point you to in the loop they in the lo I was about to say in the loop C the minister who is anti-war ends up resigning over a falling he’s been in the UN one day and then has to go back and has to resign over the best example that’s what I love about British politics that there is this sort of stuff that you cannot imagine the French prime minister or the US president or whatever having to ever do anything that is sort of Parish pump stuff and yet it really does matter that they they are in touch with Parish pump issues people that vote you out yeah exactly mean you know not impossible right let’s go straight to it with a voice note from Dan hi news agents this is Dan from Liverpool currently on holiday in zanti I have a question regarding something I read over the weekend which is that labor are planning in their first 100 days to pack the House of Lords with new peers to get policies through but why would they need to do that if there is an Unwritten rule that Manifesto commitments are not blocked by the House of Lords love the show keep up with great work I’m going to have a go at this one because I had a very uh intense conversation with somebody two weeks ago and I think I reported on the news agents there very senior in the labor party who said that’s exactly what is going to go on they will pack the house um with new labor peers because frankly they don’t want to take any chances of pushing forward transformative legislation that then gets blocked or stalled or Modified by a conservative majority in the Lords now when I sort of dug into this a bit it’s very specific so they’re looking for people who have Financial experience maths experience you can imagine most of the labor Lords are of a sort of more of a type you know you can easily get human rights lawyers you can easily get NOS you for Trade union leaders all Trade union leaders You Can’t Always Get people who tell you how the city runs or tell or tell you how to sort of you know get a financial Bill through and so I think they’re going to be looking at that but I was told that a lot of names are going to be put forward people that we have forgotten about in the last 15 years were suddenly going to be there and yes of course the L the the Lords can’t ultimately block but they can slow things down and jam things up and make things much harder and kmer is actually sounding at the moment like a man in a hurry right to to sort of get get things changed it’s very simple I mean um the labor party has not had the keys to the patronage machine for 14 years and K dama the reason the House of Lords stays in its current form which is borderline corrupt in all sorts of ways but the reason it basically stays unreformed is because Prime Ministers find it very very helpful to be able to reward political uh allies to have the expediency of occasionally putting someone in the legislature and it can be helpful it can be politically useful and as I say labor have not had access to that for 14 years and there’s going to be a lot of people that starm in one way or the other is going to want to reward and I understand all of that and the absolute absurdity of it as well there are more Lords than there are members of parliament why is the revising chamber bigger than the house of Commerce than the primary principal lower house it is nuts because he’s going to put an age limit on it he’s going to say 75 and you go he’s 80 I think but also a man who I think just a year ago said abolish the House of Lords right do away with the House of Lords now suddenly finally could be quite useful for the first com I mean there is a conservative plurality in there you know they’ve had a lot longer to pack it so you know labor are far behind in total total numbers of PE so they are going to and this is why it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and SW and swells up I think having a cut off is not a bad thing actually have to say no the age cutof is a good idea oh maybe someone should tell American politics that would be a well that brings us very neatly onto our next question from Adam green who says hi news agents greetings from Hong Kong we really are going around your personal histories today aren’t we my question dates back to a conversation I had with my dad prior to the brexit referendum where I offended him by suggesting there’s a legitimate case for a maximum vote age I can understand why he might be a little offended I would maintain there is a case on this for gener on generational issues especially where the impact will mainly be fought by those two young to vote I.E brexit my question is in spite of the fact that reducing the franchise is fundamentally undemocratic can it be argued for in general elections and how would this impact a campaign I think Adams answered his own question it is fundamentally undemocratic I don’t like the idea I don’t think it’s probably very good at fostering good interfamilial relation no I don’t like the idea of cutting off people’s vote do you no you can’t I mean you know there are times when you say for God’s sake these people you know they have got no stake in the future why are they determining whether we stay in the European Union or I mean we haven’t even solved the West loan question yet we which is the one about where the Scots can vote on Westminster issues I mean that’s also people are living longer and longer so you know people living to 110 or 15 you could be going decades without getting to vote yeah but also you could be kind of you could have dare I say gagar views at 50 or great views at 90 and that doesn’t really have any Gaga yeah yeah well I think maybe if they have putting an upper age limit and even that will be controversial of how long you can sit in the House of Lords because who is to say you know can you be an elected MP and in your 80s but you can’t sit in the House of Lords yeah but I think that’s fine because you go through the democratic system every five years so voters get the chance to say yes then you may you can’t be a high court judge above 75 I mean it’s not in public life they have for we’re just talking about being a voter we do want to be a voter maybe there should be time limits on how long you can be a lord time limits on news agents questions oh sorry are you trying to say we’re being long no no not at all I was just just just a thought no but I mean maybe you know like Boris Johnson appointed you know two people to the House of Lords who were kind of you know barely 30 years old um you know maybe they should have have a 20-year time limit on how long you can serve in the House of Lords for I think we’re agreed it’s not a good idea okay okay sorry Adam sorry Adam but we love H Kong but but I would love to have been in room when your dad you told your dad maybe you talking to your dad yeah o old o old Cod Christmas dinners must be an absolute laugh at Adam’s house anyway a voice note from Robert hi there so my question is almost a Counterpoint to this idea of a suit of majority what would an optimal majority be for a democracy and also for labor is there a point that they would consider a majority too large large in terms of opening the floor for dissenting voices within their own party and also the obliteration of the Tories potentially leading to a vacuum which could let in factions that they maybe don’t want such as Nigel farage and reform oh great question robt really good set of questions okay L Lewis was listening to the question and as Robert you were reading it he wasting oh I love this go on then um well two separate questions on the the size of majority I think uh in terms of parliament working well probably a majority of between 50 to 60 basically is quite a sweet SP Sweet Spot between allowing parliamentary descent ensuring the government has a decent Prospect of being defeated so it takes in oppositional views but have a big enough cushion to get through the business and not to be fundamentally unstable so I think that that’s roughly I think where the majority on the on the question of whether the majority could be too big I do think I mean look no part is ever going to say no I’d like a bit of small majority please actually but in reality I think there are a so-called super majority which does not exist in the British system it’s an American concept we don’t there’s no such thing in Britain but a really massive majority it could pose problems in a couple of ways one is you can have a coalition which is just too big you know it’s very difficult to keep because our because our system is geographically territorially Focus focused sometimes if you’re the Parliamentary labor party in this case if it is so vast and so brawling it can become difficult to kind of Corral those MPS so a really good example for that that you can see coming down the track is planning reform right so one of the most only really big radical things labor is proposing is a proper proper transformation of planning reform imagine suddenly labor is not just representing its normal seats or normal seats plus but then representing a load of seats in kind of the home counties around the green belt that it doesn’t normally represent suddenly it finds they’re the ones with the political problems because they’re trying to think about which Coalition do we try and protect which group of P do we try try and protect so yeah there can be problems and I think um if everyone is on the inside you end up creating the potential of an internal opposition where you break into factions within the party the other thing is a question of jobs quite frankly because if you have a majority of 40 or 50 then the people that you probably want to give jobs to is much easier it’s a much simpler question I was um asking somebody in the labor party if they imagined the re-entry of sort of Blair ey peers you know around the table getting some of the top jobs and this person said I’m I’m actually going to laugh at that can you imagine you’ve got 300 or something labor MPS all coming in they all think they’re the next few you know the big thing that you know the what the future looks like they all want those jobs can you imagine the kind of infighting that that will create if it goes outside and I think that is a problem for any leader if you’ve got lots and lots of people who all think they’re the future and they want the job yeah you’ve got a problem if we end up in a situation and again um Robert alluded to this in the question if if the conservative party is reduced to the point where it cannot actually adequately oppose like it’s reduced to a rump a super rump let’s put it that way a super rump always nice to see then you are uh not in this office um then you are in a situation where you do open the door as we’ve talked about before to the radicalization of the party that could actually in the longer run destabilize Parliament democracy you know the conservative and labor parties for all of their faults have been the anchors of British parliamentary democracy for a century they alternate in office usually conservatives in government but they alternate in the office and they do provide a solidity and a stability to parliamentary democracy we’ve not really been in a situation since the national governments of the 1920s and 1930s when one of the parties was reduced to a sort of nugatory status and so we would be in terms of how Parliament works and how parliamentary democracy works we would be in in Uncharted Territory that could lead us to a dangerous place a difficult place look the you know I can hear labor saying all of these are nice problems to have right is nry anything to do with nouar um possibly possibly do you like nouar John not really sticky in your teeth okay we Sally dear my favorite news agents please can you explain how being an independent candidate works if elected as an MP with no party backing do they have a weaker voice in Parliament if trying to raise an issue on behalf of their constituents and when voting in Parliament are they free to decide which way to vote I’m asking this out of curiosity as my constituency has an independent candidate standing I think you know which one I would love to have it explain how their role as in independent Works within Parliament if elected many thingss I hope I’ve been clear well we don’t know which one because there are quite a few Independents up and down the country it might be JY Corbin she might be from East London Northeast London where we were last week Emily made this well it might be fiser Sheen and chingford and Woodford green it might be Jeremy Corbin it might be and you can get a full list of candidates for PO Box address P Bo on cax on cax um well look I think a if you are voting in an independent who is offering to do something particular as was the case with the wi Valley seat where in kidderminster actually where there was a Doctor Richard Taylor Taylor who said I’m going to save the hospital and he just made that his thing and he I think he did and he got voted in twice more so it was an incredibly effective very local issue based around something that he wanted to do specifically for the community there are other Independents who tend to have been people inside the party who’ve let’s say fallen out and I think then it becomes a little bit more murky as to whether they will be voting with the party or or what but yes of course their votes still count can I just relate the question to uh the previous one that we were talking about about what is the sweet spot for a majority if you are an independent MP by yourself you know and the government has got a huge majority you’re not going to get much attention from anybody really you’re going to try and make your voice heard with you know a prime minister’s question every now and then uh press releases sitting maybe on a select committee but that’s going to be the extent of it if it’s a hung Parliament yeah you’ve suddenly got you’re quite powerful and you’re going to be courted by both sides to be you know obviously you’re free to vote you don’t take the whip from any particular party you’re free to vote exactly how you want to on whatever the given issue is but you might there’s only 18 seats and one of them’s independent lady Sylvia Herman last time around who was sty as an independent in previous times that’s quite an important voice you know look at the dup they weren’t an independent party but they they literally propped up yeah TOA May’s government when it became minority government so I think it is a lonely life though being an independent MP in Parliament I mean Caroline Lucas has talked about this I mean I’m not an independent you know it’s a green but she’s didn’t mean to be an independent no she would have liked more friends she she wanted more greens but she was the only one right from 2010 to 2024 she’s standing down this cycle um but she you know even in things like you know she would talk about and other Independents talks about you know when The Division Bell Rings what are we voting on yeah so for labor and T MPS or libm or S&P or whatever their whips will say yeah very often they don’t even know what they’re voting on they just say right we’re voting I we’re voting nay you know go to the voting lobbies off you go whereas like if you’re an independent you’ve got you have none of that party infrastructure you don’t have the whips office have a WhatsApp chat it’s bit like doing a podcast on your own yeah you have none of the Pastoral support you have none of sounds nice I do a podcast by myself that’ be great but you have none of those things that just kind of basically make your parliamentary life easier it’s all down to you so is it is although the whipping system is much is much criticized in all sorts of ways it does provide a kind of like level of support to your work as an MP which an independent MP can be CED I mean particularly you know in the US when somebody goes independent they will be CED like nothing else because everyone needs that vote to you know make or break but it’s interesting but even in US system with the Senate like when you have someone like Bernie Sanders who’s technically independent they’re still caucusing with Democrats partly for that reason right you want that sort of body together whereas we don’t have that kind of system in in Britain no but it’s still Bernie can still be awkward if he wants that’s the point yes and that and has leverage because of it I mean when Joe mansion in West Virginia said I’m not going to be part of the Democrats anymore or chrisan Cinema I mean those two were always people who were wh and D more than anyone else but the Senate’s different isn’t the senate in the commment lonely life depends on the size of the majority so this is our last one from Andy stilp Middleton Wisconsin greetings from Wisconsin question for you assuming the polls are largely right on the morning of July the 5th is any newspaper going to run a headline other than starma for 10 I don’t get that starter for 10 your starter for 10 University challenge d f she find University challenge University challenges is a bit low rate forem she finds it it’s too easy I’ve never seen it you’ve never seen University never watch I don’t believe what okay we got scoop here no way I don’t believe that thanks for your work I just carry on anyway Andy listening for America it’s great to hear election commentary that’s about insights and issues and voters I think Andy is British but living in Wisconsin because he’s talking about this election not the US One Middleton just around the corner from um Madison Wisconsin is that right yeah Madison count The Bridges of Madison County exactly exactly in the middle like Lake M so okay let’s do it what’s going to be the best headline for I for rishy wins or for starma WIS let’s do it they’ll have to they W know what to rise richy it’s out well there’ll be a lot of crying pollsters I mean God that will be the picture of the day and if it’s starma it’ll say something like K we are K yeah k go here we go oh the KE to the house to number 10 yeah ke to number 10 yeah uh what else St through the khole Nole look there’s a reason there’s a reason we went into broadcasting journalism let’s be honest next Hallmark we are coming to Hmart to write your birthday cards oh can you imagine doing the cloying messages on your birthday or queen made this I don’t even understand that you obviously do cuz you laughed at byebye another lie bye-bye byebye another lie bye-bye the news agents this is a global player original podcast [Music]