What is it?: A decade ago, they were fierce political rivals. George Osborne was the Tory Chancellor who presided over austerity, while Ed Balls, the then Shadow Chancellor was his staunchest opponent. Today, both men are out of parliament and get on reasonably well. Here, they discuss politics in an hourlong weekly podcast released every Thursday. A shorter EMQ (Ex-Minister’s Questions) version of the podcast appears every Monday, in which the two men answer listener questions. Occasional extra podcasts will appear in the event of something interesting happening such as Osborne’s old friend and ally, David Cameron being appointed Foreign Secretary or a Budget. Balls’ and Osborne’s backgrounds ensure there is a strong economic focus to the programme.
History: Political Currency was launched in September 2023 by Acast. As of March 2024, there have been over forty episodes released. I have listened to roughly half of them.
Format: Although it has not yet succeeded in toppling Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart from the top of the UK podcast tree, Political Currency actually scores over The Rest is Politics in a number of ways:
1) It has a kickass theme tune with extracts from Balls and Osborne’s more colourful political exchanges played over the top of it.
2) Balls and Osborne really were political rivals back in the day. They actually genuinely seemed to dislike each other. In contrast, The RIP team were never truly rivals: Stewart’s career as an MP only really began after Campbell’s heyday was over.
3) Although both opposed Brexit and are reasonably sane and centrist on most things, Osborne really is still a bit of a Tory (he claims to personally like Liz Truss, amongst other odd things). A common criticism of TRP is that there is not enough genuine political difference between the two men as while Campbell (like Balls) is still clearly in the Labour camp, Stewart is clearly no longer a Tory. This is not the case here.
I currently listen to both TRIP and this regularly, but I suspect TRIP still has the edge. This is probably partly because Osborne basically isn’t as likeable as Rory Stewart is. While there are certainly many far more horrifying beasts walking around the Tory jungle, it’s difficult to feel as much warmth towards Osborne, a man spent the Cameron years, cutting budgets and closing libraries as it is for Stewart, a man whose decade in politics really did seem to be a based around a frustrating and ultimately unsuccessful campaign to really make a positive difference.
The Rest is Politics perhaps covers international affairs more thoroughly than Political Currency which tends to focus more heavily on financial matters. Focusing on economics certainly isn’t a bad thing at all. But personally, I am less interested in those bits, so from my point of view the fixation on economics does slightly count against them.
There is usually one dominant partner in any podcast double-act and Osborne always feels like the main man here. Ultimately, both he and Balls are interesting and intelligent men with genuinely interesting political careers behind them. There is a threat to the future, however. Balls is married to Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper. Would Cooper’s appointment to a senior position in a future Labour government render Balls’ position on the podcast unsustainable?
Only time will tell.
Chris Hallam's World View 