The Expert Factor

Why is the social care challenge so complicated? Why can’t the nation’s politicians find a way forward? What is a possible solution? And what could Baroness Casey do to succeed when nobody else has managed to do so?   This week’s Expert Factor sees Hannah and Paul joined by Andrew Dilnot, who chaired the Commission on Funding of Care and Support, to explore three decades of disagreement and delay, look at how social care currently works – or doesn’t, and discuss what Louise Casey should do to deliver lasting change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’ve had missions. We’ve got foundations. We had some first steps. And now we have milestones.   So what are they? Are targets a sensible way to go about governing? How do they change the way civil servants work? Whose heads roll if targets aren’t met? And has Keir Starmer even chosen the type of targets that the voters care about.   Anand, Paul and Hannah have read every word (probably) in Keir Starmer’s Plan for Change, and are here to tell you exactly what the targets say, whether they can be reached, and what they mean for Starmer and his Labour government. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the assisted dying bill dominating discussions and debates in Westminster, former House of Commons clerk David Natzler joins Hannah and Paul to explain how private members’ bills work – and why they sometimes don’t.   The bill to legislate for assisted dying isn’t a government bill. It hasn’t emerged from a Whitehall department. And it isn’t being steered through parliament by a minister. It is a private member’s bill, introduced by a Labour backbencher – Kim Leadbetter – whose name was drawn from a ballot.   So why might that be an issue? Has this particular bill exposed the disadvantages of this way of legislating? And what might be a better way of allowing backbenchers to make law? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What does Donald Trump’s plan to make America great again mean for everyone else? What do tariffs actually achieve and who feels the pain or reaps the benefits? Will Trump’s America First vision push the UK towards the EU? Could the UK’s defence spending rise - and what might that mean for public services? Is there any chance of a US/UK trade deal happening? And does the US result tell us what voters might be looking for here at the next general election here?   Hannah, Paul and Anand assemble in the podcast studio to make sense of some of the many questions facing the UK – and Keir Starmer – since Donald Trump’s election triumph confirmed his return to the White House. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices