Will Mandelson be sacrificial or a catalyst?

Mandelson has provided a political scandal for the ages but, amid the salacious detail and schadenfreude, what are the implications for Starmer, Labour and Westminster?

Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell race to keep up with all the developments and also zoom out to look at the other power networks with tentacles spread throughout our political landscape.

And they are joined by planet-brained author, Britain’s most popular Substacker and senior fellow at the Institute for Government, Sam Freedman, to look at the gathering storm around Government plans for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities policy.

All that plus your regular Wokeydokey and a historical Grin And Share It!

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“I look at all the performative hand-wringing from all quarters and I think I’m in a parallel universe. Everyone saying ‘OMG, can’t believe Starmer appointed him despite all this!’ Starmer appointed because of all this - not despite it - to be our interface with a corrupt White House that operates in precisely the same way.”

“It feels like this has sped up something that was happening anyway. The question is, does it happen very fast, are we talking about a delegation going to Starmer in the next week to say ‘time is up’, or does it drag on for a few more moths?”

“There’s a large amount of trust that the govt’s reforms to the provision of support for children with special educational needs require of parents - and that just isn’t there at the moment, because they’ve had so many difficulties with the current system.”

"You don't want to be trying to do this kind of deep, long term education reform, sitting on 16% popularity in the polls, and with a Prime Minister who might be about to resign. That is not ideal."

CALLS TO ACTION

Find out more about  NAPAC, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood

Now Foster, the charity that reimagines fostering

More on Provident Hospital, Chicago's history-making Black medical facility

The IFS report on SEND

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Brought to you by Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell. Quiet Riot is a Cooler Heads production.

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