Not a Liberal, and not really paid much attention to Mr Davey, but What a Brilliant interview, Such a lovely Guy, Listening to his life story, especially his childhood, caring for his mother at 12, losing both his parents while still a child, you would have understood him to end up bitter and angry, but instead he has remained compassionate, caring and decent. His parents would be so proud of him.

Glad you have started uploading on this channel again

What an extraordinary man.. 👏

Im a labour guy but Davey seems like a top bloke.

Compare this man with Boris Johnson. Unbelievable that in the UK, Ed Davey does not get more votes.

I'm a libdem since decades (mainly because of their support for PR) but have never heard Ed at length and was surprised and impressed how substantial he is. I hope they do tremendously well at the next election and can force Starmer's hand towards fairer voting. It will only ever come by force. Though a majority of labour members want reform, Starmer is as ever cautious, and as Ed says, what does he really think?

I’m only 15 minutes in, but I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised. What a remarkable life story.. I might actually consider voting Lib Dem now.

I have had a fascination with British politics ever since listening to Question Time on the BBC from my short wave radio (from Texas) in the 80s and early 90s. I absolutely love this political podcast! Greetings from Texas!

This is what politics should be. Room to explain one's position, the others listening, asking questions to clarify and then returning the favor by explaining their position without getting adversarial or bluntly confrontational. I wonder what happened to that bit of democracy and I'm so glad that this podcast shows that it can be done in good humor. Isn't that what societies have to be built upon to keep them together and make them function as a unity within an enormous abundance of diversity?

All three combine decency, intelligence, .and human warmth. A welcome break from our current political "leadership"

I'm not a Lib Dem voter but I have a lot time for Ed Davey. Went through some really hard things and still became a sensitive and very accomplished man.

Just shows how people can be civilised and nice to each other and not shouting at each other Alistair and Rory keep up the good work

Well done Ed Davey. A lifetime in politics ( to say nothing of all those personal challenges ) still not cynical and remain optimistic and hopeful. Agree with your position re The State ( & need to exert sufficient checks & restraint ) and the need for careful regulation - and that tightrope between.

I'm an absolute avid listener of both your regular pod and Leading. I can't tell you how grateful I am to see this video. Please more more more. Huge admiration to Ed, Rory and Alistair

I have never watched a politics show in 58 years, nor even a 10 minute YT clip. But I was fascinated and totally drawn by this coming together. It reinforced my view that Rory is the strategist & premier we should have had; it softened my view on that quite ghastly Alistair C; and it made me wonder - why on earth is this the first time I’ve heard policy, a driving motivation and simply unreal openness from a mega-weight politician whose career deserved better cards?

Wow ... Ed had to go through so much so young ....great respect to him ... he seems so calm and measured he will have empathy and understanding of many situations.

Another excellent interview, Ed is my local MP but i have never had the opportunity to hear him talk at length before. He is genuinely a great guy and very active in the community.

wow. commenting at 5 minutes in. I'm a Lib Dem so very happy to hear Ed get some coverage (I met him once, briefly, in 2019) - but I also have cancer in my bones (recently discovered, pain is under control), so this is difficult to process.

Great interview. I think he came across as a thoroughly decent bloke.

A pleasure to listen to you, Ed Davey

Very impressive fellow. We need more of this in politics.

The answer to the question posed by Malcolm Tucker about how are the liberals and labour different is that Labour want to continue to perpetuate the two party system, they want power in order to be able to do the same kind of shady deals the Tories have done, but with their mates rather than Rishis mates. I was incredibly impressed by Sir Ed, a real policitian who isn't in it just for himself. I thought the most telling bit was Sir Ed saying 'I don't know what Starmer stands for', join the party no-ones does not even him

Ed Davey is a good parliamentarian, excellent communicator and far more radical than Labour. Starmer has ditched all the policies he said he passionately believed in.

Fantastic interview! Thanks for this :)

Wasn't a fan of Ed Davey, thought he was a bit of a wet wipe but....this interview and others I have seen have really endeared him to me. I see a man who really cares and is doing things for the right reason

I emigrated from the UK almost ten years ago now, and it's been difficult - both in a despairing and more practical sense - to follow the thread of what's been unfolding back home in that time, just as it's been near-impossible to feel part of the increasingly polarized (and still quite alien) political landscape of my adopted country (take a wild guess). It's refreshing, and reminds me of so much I miss and enjoy about British culture, to see a platform where a deliberate reconciliation of differences is attempted and the time and understanding required for nuance is actually afforded to those of differing political views. As to Ed, he seems like a genuinely lovely man and I think he represents a lot of what I've always respected so much about the Liberal Democrats: their (necessary) focus on constituency politics and that sense of place that the Andys (Burnham and Street) mentioned in their discussion, their (oft-criticized) ability to find compromise across ideology to achieve their ultimate goals, and their role in our political system - at least it seems like - of introducing nuance and a tempering force to what could otherwise be a diametrically opposed shouting match between Labour and the Conservatives. In many ways he reminds me of my State governor, Jared Polis, who I've worked with in various degrees over the years around renewables and clean transportation. Like Ed, I imagine, he receives his fair share of criticism for not adhering to standards of ideological purity, but where it matters I feel like he knows how to get things done - even if it's not the exact ideologically-driven method some voters/commentators might prefer. Particularly in respect to housing, which I think is probably the single greatest political issue of our time alongside the environment, it can be very difficult to forge a path between outright NIMBYism and the "build, build, build" mantra, but (in my opinion) he's clearly a force for good here. The UK's development landscape and decisions are absolutely dominated by an oligopoly of homebuilders with a laser focus on their bottom lines. And, as desperate as we are for housing, if we allow them to lead and dictate the development agenda it will almost certainly be an exercise in myopia and unwanted consequences. I see that all too often here: tens of thousands of single family homes constructed on any greenfield land developers can get their hands on, miles and miles away from schools, services, and jobs, absolutely devoid of community or infrastructure, and wreaking absolute devastation on land that simply will never have substantial ecological value again. The long-term public cost for this compared to the amount the developers save and make in profit (vs. infill, more considerate development, long-term neighborhood planning) is incredible. It's understandable because those costs are commuted, but I don't think the public realize quite how heavy the burden of that myopia can be: billions to expand and adapt highways, hundreds of millions to construct new schools, hundreds of millions in costs associated with declining air quality, the untold costs of social isolation, the foregone economic driver of siting people near existing economic centers like our struggling high streets. That was a long, coffee-fueled comment, but all that to say thank you for the platform and I can only hope we see real reform in the coming years after so long in the wilderness of Conservative infighting and chaos.

Ed Davey is the best of a bad bunch . Labour must do deals with Lib Dem’s for who is best to kick out the Toris , I want Lib Dem’s to be the opposition because they are more left than Labour, so it want be good to have two Tory Parties

Don't forget that whether you like us or not understand us or not we all citizens and your duty is to help us ALL! Don't be like a tory

Would love a Labour minority government with a supply and confidence agreement with The Lib Dem’s!

Thank you Ed and team rest is politics :)

I have been a LibDem supporter (and member) for some years. So it was good to see, and to listen to, Ed Davey. He is likeable, comes across well, and seems a good man. But a major problem is that this Podcast is the first time that I, a LibDem supporter, have heard Ed talk at any length about anything, let alone LibDem values and policy. Beyond Ed in this Podcast, sadly, I have scarcely seen, let alone been given the opportunity to listen to, any other LibDem potential minister talking much about anything beyond self backslapping after a local election win. A few months ago I got so fed up with not knowjng about LibDem policy, nor having any idea about how they would deal with the various problems of the day, that I sent an email with a (quite long) list of topics on which I was hoping to get, in reply, a feel for those topics which mattered most to the LibDem leaders, and what their views were about what should be done about them. I sent this to the Party, and Welsh Party, leaders. I got zilch acknowledgement, far less reply! Despite Ed’s assertion in this Podcast that “We have lots of policy” I still struggle to identify what that is and, as Alastair Campbell pointed out, to distinguish it with any real clarity from what I understand to be Labour policy. In fact I would go further and say that I am far from convinced that, with Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt in charge at the moment, there is very much difference between any of the three main UK parties, and that the Tories will lose the next general election, barring an as yet unforeseen Labour catastophe, because they are the more internally divisive and because they have been in power for too long. In the past, of course, the differences were far more stark. The Tories represented the bosses; Labour represented the workers. The Tories were better at raising money and encouraging others to do so; Labour were better at spending it and helping the poor; Tories reduced long winded laws and burdensome regulations; Labour increased them but often left loopholes. In all cases, the LibDems were somewhere in the middle and, not ever being solely in power, an unknown quantity! Now, it seems to me, what does matter is the competence of those in charge. And for that we need to know who the individuals are likely to be, what they have in mind doing, and how and over what period do they think it will take to achieve what they plan to do. I would prefer it if each party in the election were to be required to include, each time, in its Manifesto: (a) Its major objectives. and which of those it expected to achieve within (i) their first period in power; and (ii) ten years; NB 10 years rather than 15 years because 2 successive 5 year periods of government historically is the most that one party in power can reasonably anticipate. (b) An assumption of how much money annually there will be to spend (the first year amount to have been supplied by the outgoing Treasury and to be used by all parties) over the 5 years of government, and an indication of how, and how much in each category, this is to expected to be funded. We will not get it, of course. It is my belief that the most successful and effective government, since the Tories returned to power in 2010, was the first one with the LibDems. Disastrous for the LibDems, yes, but for the country, no, because of the checks and balances that the LibDems brought to many of the more controversial Tory policies. Plus, of course, if the coalition had extended into a second term, the Brexit referendum would never have happened or, at the very least, not in the disastrous way that it did, with the country changing course to its detriment, thanks to the uninformed views of only 37.4% of the electorate, a significant section of which were too old to suffer its longer term effects. One further lesson to be learnt, perhaps, is that the most effective governments in the UK over the last 50 years (and certainly those which have lasted longest) have been led by two people, largely complementing one another, ideally but not necessarily liking one another, but anyway also respecting each other and working in tandem together: viz Margaret Thatcher and Willie Whitelaw, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and David Cameron and Nick Clegg. None of the current Government (or Assembly) leaders or those who aspire to be leaders are part of such a duo. And there does not seem to be one in sight. So the chances of a second term in government for whoever wins are not good. I will probably vote LibDem again, even though it will be a punt and, quite possibly, because I know so little about the individuals that would form the Government, a disastrous punt. Because one change, that would surely come about, would be a move to proportional representation, a system which in my view is fairer, much more representative of the whole of the electorate, and by encouraging coalitions rather than hiding them within just two parties, is likely to more, rather than less, effort to co-operate than exists currently and more checks and balances than would be likely to occur otherwise. In addition, hopefully, it should give access to a wider pool of talent.

The overly kind comments about Ed Davey haven't aged well considering his utter complacency and apathy that considerably contributed to the destruction of hundreds of Postmasters lives and reputations, and the lives of four of them who committed suicide. The fact that Alan Bates wrote to Ed Davey five times only to be ignored, AND the fact that Ed Davey was paid consultancy fees by the same pit-bull lawyers who defended the Post Office against the postmasters is absolutely disgusting. This man is absolutely disgusting and the first of many things that should happen to him is the forfeiting of his totally undeserved knighthood.

I try to be a regular listener, this interview was exceptional. Very best wishes and happiness for 2024 to everyone (especially victory and peace to 🇺🇦) This remarkable interview demands a huge respect towards Ed Davey. I wish him well - personally and politically (I commit to help here 😊)

Thanks for posting.

Good discussion thank you very much!

For me the main issue with the 2019 election was that there was no coverage at all for the lib dems. Genuinely I didn't even know who the leader was. Even now to try and find out what the Lib Dems stand for or what their plans are I can't seem to find anything.

As someone who was working in the HOP during some of this time, the most notable thing was how few MP’s we saw actually in the HOP.

Ed Davey is one of the biggest inspirations on this planet. To go through what he did as a child, and to then have the anxiety of what his child will do once he goes as well as his wife being ill and to still have a smile on his face shows the true man he is. A beacon of hope for all those suffering today🙌🏽

38 min. A reason to vote Brexit was the total absence of passionate positive arguments to remain. I had a game at work in which I argued for each position on alternate days and managed to persuade colleagues of that day's position. None of the big name televised discussions contained substance - which rendered us a laughing stock to the world

Ed Davey truly is the politician of all time.

Great to see the full pod. So much more engaging that just the audio

Àll sympathy to Ed for losing both parents at such a young age

Notice how when lumping Corbyn and Johnson into the same bucket, Stewart is very specific on Johnson’s sins but very vague on Corbyn’s. I wonder why…

It wasn't the coalition that harmed you, it was your partys swiftness in voting AGAINST all your previous policy targets because of sucking up to the tory line.

Oh Rory, check our fptp voting system, most voters voted moderate, the voting system nastily skews and hands power to minority.

More respect for him now that I know about.... The fact that he can find a vein makes him one of d' Mandem. Sir David you free in the hood. Come see us in west London

Davey trousered £275,000 working for the firm that had innocent post office workers sent to prison. He MUST RESIGN from public office NOW.

Ed Davey and Keir Starmer are the real deal.

Ed's out here in these streets fighting against the opps

More video versions please!

We shall see.

This is proof that we do have smart, reasonable and intelligent politicians they are just drowned out by the lunatics, Mr Davy is the best leader of a political party in the UK as far as I am concerned.

Fgjhing hell fire, Ty Ed Davey 26 min in timestamp, We want cost of living, NHS,

Ed went very quickly from talking about limiting the state's power to demonstrating the success of not allowing developers to lead the charge on new housing stock.

who will rid us of these turbulent tories?

22:04 This is the problem with the whole system.... Winning power and winning seats! Winning has nothing to do with improving lives overall. Winning is a selfish endeavour within itself that doesn't benefit anyone but those at the top. Until we as a people start working together is when we will see improvement and growth. Local level is where it's at. A more local approach and equalising each area is where you get results.

The incoming government needs to focus on health and getting people away the cars and onto other forms of transport especially by cycling for local journeys. Local and national cycle ways across the whole of the country would contribute immensely!

Ed Davey complaining that he doesn't know what Keir Starmer stands for is pretty funny tbh 😂.

45:51 Straight question about being back in EU.... 45:57 question avoided.... Then drones on with no clear message. This is Politics!!!!

In 2019, the LibDems basically made it seem like they were equally likely to partake in a coalition with either of the two major parties. This made it fairly unclear what a vote for them would materialize in!

We need the Lib dems in coalition to push through STV/PR and more ambitiously to rejoin the single market.

Message A public meeting on the environment in Wirral yesterday evening . There was not one single candidate from Labour or Conservative present. Clearly neither of these parties are bothered about sewage in rivers or harm to the environment in general.

Fear of Jeremy Corbyn, possibly, but they did vote LD in May 2019, and the LDs won 16 out of the 73 seats, more than Labour and the Tories put together. But it's true, that one was sort-of-PR.

The busiest office was the expenses office

Can we ask him why he accepted a knighthood for inflicting austerity and the fixed term parliament act on the country?

It’s cute listening to Lib Dem’s talking policy. They put forward a wish list, but with no tangible plan to achieve it. Great to have on the opposition benches, but absolutely no use in power..

The forum provided here with gentle challenges which are serious and fun, but not personal, gives us an opportunity to see past sound bites and slogans. I do wish that LibDems could have a bigger impact as their moderate view is so much better for the running of a nation that the radical right or left. Tribal politics means that the impact of the few is exaggerated. When most seats change on a swing of 2-5%, the few can determine everything for the majority. Without a balanced challenge from media and protection of the judiciary, this becomes dangerous.

Interesting hearing Ed talk about accountability. The first ever general election I voted in I voted Lib Dem almost solely on their promise not to raise university tuition fees. Once in coalition it seemed the Lib Dems completely backed down on this stance and I felt like I'd been subject to false advertising. That was my first delve into anything political and clearly I'm still bitter towards the Lib Dems over it. But since, it's clear to me that they are not unique in what they did. Ed talking about accountability being key really speaks to me strongly, but I'm very conflicted on trust, particularly with the likelihood of it being another coalition.

The way in which he tried to dodge the question and answer a slightly different question at 45:56 really grated on me.

Ever since Starmer, Labour has been B lining towards the right, so honestly the Lib Dems are looking like the least terrible mainstream option atm

Just because politicians get a ridiculously long summer break doesn't mean that podcasters should!

They will disappear at GE time like melting snow in the sunshine. Irrelevant.

He’d make the perfect Labour Prime Minister.

Labour wilderness years and Conservative Party in government for so long... so much due to Blair-Brown betraying Ashdown, not reforming electoral system, not reworking all those tiny Scottish constituencies for which they did very little. B-B blew it despite some good but, ultimately, superficial work that was vulnerable to Tory FPTP win (eg, SureStart, NHS working well)

Seriously hoping might not be. Still Labour.

Great fan of TRIP. But will Alastair ever get the EU thing? The EU is changing a la macron and Germany and there are other joiners queuing for the reformed structures of the EU to come. Our 'old EU' has gone. There is nothing to rejoin. If there was, the EU wouldn't think of negotiating. It is a matter of sectoral partnerships. Good for both parties.

Oh for goodness sake dont join with labour you cant trust starmer or the labour party with their past record,

I think the issue of unpaid carers is really important. Carers allowance is a pittance and needs to be at least equalised with the rate of job seekers allowance, it needs to be tax free, the income threshold before it is removed needs to be raised to at least 16 hours at the Real Living Wage and pensioners need to be entitled to carers allowance because it’s so unfair that they are not currently.

Interestingly, this comes over as more ‘tribal’ than any other of your excellent podcasts. I wonder if this reflects that Lib dems are not viewed kindly by either of the two main parties. At local political level, dislike of Lib Dem’s is often something that unites both cons and Labour. Why is this? Because they are often excellent local activists and campaigners who can split the vote. I think this almost innate dislike is pervading this podcast. A shame.

What grade did Rory get at Oxford?

🎉

If we have a LibDem-labor coalition next election it's our best chance for getting an PR-based system which means more of a balanced swing between labor and Tories taking power with more parties I can actually want to vote for making a difference being the greens in my case. So kind of joined the labor party this year just to increase the chances of me having a say in PR and trying to contribute in a more proactive way to make it happen. Like if you historically track elections not only do Tories mostly benefit from First past the post and win the majority of elections because of this despite the fact that many of the ones where they do they get only the minority share of the vote. Meaning we get a party that primarily attracts members who are self-interested in their own profit with a few good apples who legitimately are ideologically aligned with right-wing principles that I disagree with but hey at least they believe they are doing good and are not there to line their own profits. So having a politics that actually reflects the people and can have more diverse views on both sides should be better for everyone overall even if compromise becomes more of the norm. But it would help people who feel that a certain party or heck even both mainstream parties are corrupt like they have a way to actively feel like it would matter if they vote against the big two parties meaning those who go into politics only for the interest in their own power have to tread way more softly when it comes to screwing the people over to line their own pockets. So corruption will be still a thing, but at least via the vote we have an increased chance to reduce its effects on policy. I would prefer a lottery-based system but I know that's unlikely where people are picked at random to serve as a politician for a certain area. Which would nearly erase that corruption and have it be like a public service that's salaried similar to that of how court duty is aligned. But I know that is less likely to happen any time soon so this is the next best thing.

The LibDem economic policy doc has just come out and there is hardly a fag paper between it and Starmer's Labour.ON tax and Business Rates reform, Green energy and getting back into the Single market, LibDems are more radical.

For the return to the European Union, we would need to show to the rest of the EU member countries that the people of the British Isles (i.e. Wales, Scotland and England) have rejected Brexit, the causes of brexit and the political climate that caused this extremist situation is no more. The whole constitution in the UK would need to be reformed into an open democratic and federal type of system. The centralised government must be opened up to input from the regions. and the cause the Tories would need to buried and new political parties created for our modern age. The may take too long for our combined economy to hold up as it would need virtually a new identity for the nations of the UK. It may be better for the UK to break up into its independent nations just as the other centralised regimes in East Europe did in the 1990s. For Wales and Scotland to become independent nations, Northern Ireland to be re-united into the Irish Republic, and for England to become a Federal Republic. A Republic of Wales and Scotland could both apply to join the EU as newly independent European nations just as the Baltic states did. Ireland will remain as a EU member. Then England will eventually join the EU after it gets over this Tory extremism crap. Each 3 new members will have their own represetatives in the Council of Europe. Problem solved.

31:09 let's face it, they got outnumbered and bullied

The engineers know how to achieve net zero but folk like Mr Putin have a different view

Wef

Did PPE, does that mean your useless at everything else?

Nick Clegg - good or bad?

Flippin eck, I think Ed Davey could have done with some more personal loss and pressure really.

lol and it gets worse Campbell the man behind Blair and his war that cost millions of lives ,someone ask Campbell what really happened to Dr Kelly ?

Reminder that Ed Davey made. £275,000 working for the legal firm that fought hundreds of innocent sub-postmasters accused of fraud.

I don't understand all this Jeremy Corbyn fear nonsense. What were people so afraid of?

Damn right the coalition harmed you, the damage done by enabling the Tories and then not holding them in check, will never vote LD again

This guy has had pretty bad luck with family health

Poor mans Nick Clegg. Got the flexible morality but not the charisma.

It harmed the whole country at Meta criminal Clegg is at Meta still spinning his lies

Can't trust them after 2010-15

Alastair.not.a.nice.man🤫🇬🇧 10:34

The coalition was going pretty well until Cameron called sn election and shafted the Lib Dems.