Political Fix: Quizmas special

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0:24Hey, Swamp Notes listeners. Hope you're having a great holiday season. We're taking a break this week, and that gives us an opportunity to bring you a special episode of Political Fix, our sister podcast over in the UK. They, of course, cover politics and economics just like we do, plus all the latest analysis from Westminster. This episode is their Christmas quiz. It's a lot of fun, super nerdy. So if you want to learn about what actually went down across the pond this year, Stay tuned. Thanks so much, and Swamp Notes will be back with a new episode next week.

1:01So fancy wearing a hat, Robert? That would be correct. Be visited by three ghosts. Hat, tattoos, and fancy dress. Humbug. Hi, George. Hello, how are you? I'm very well, thank you. Shreemers, where's your hat? It's here, I've definitely got it. Look at these little sweeties and things. What about Shrimmers? Shrimmers is not wearing a festive hat. I'd like somebody to open that bloody wine. I want a glass of wine. OK, ready when you are behind the screen, everyone. OK, let's go. Ready to go? Ho, ho. Hello and welcome to this special Christmas quiz edition of Political Fix from the Financial Times.

1:44with me, George Parker, and the entire Political Fix panel. We've got Robert Shrimsley. Oh, good. Are they all going to be like that? Not as good as that one. Miranda Wintergreen. Poor, poor. Stephen Hollybush. Yeah. That's all right, isn't it? How about Santa Gross? Santa Gross. Really good. And our favourite, Jingle Picard. Jingle Picard sounds like it might be the name of, you know, like a foreign correspondent in the era of the British Empire. You know, like old Jingle Picard, our man in Mumbai. I'm just worried that it could all be downhill from here. Now, listen, order. The studio is bedecked in tinsel, and we've got mince pies and candy canes on hand, and the mulled wine and Prosecco is flowing.

2:30So, as Keith Faz used to say, let's get this party started. I can go party like a Keith Faz. No, exactly. Come on. Well, here we go.

2:49So listen, while everyone's unwrapping their crackers, we're going to be looking back at a pretty tumultuous year in British politics with a fiendish collection of questions. And my producer elves, Flo and Lulu, will be keeping score in the gallery. So any heckling and there won't be any chocolate coins. And we'll also look ahead to 2026 with our panellists' wildest predictions for the next 12 months. And we'll finish off with an awards ceremony evaluating everyone's political fix stock picks to see who's on the money at the end of the year. Ruthless. That's not good. Okay, so let's get started.

3:25On round one, I just want to get everyone to pick out their political highlight of 2025. Miranda. Well, thank you for coming to me first, George. So I think the most sort of telling moment of 2025 was probably Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of our United Kingdom, giving this extraordinary speech where he talked about the UK becoming an island of strangers, putting the cat among the pigeons amongst the inverted commas liberal elite, horrified by this phrase. What on earth did he mean adopting the language of such strong anti-immigration feeling that we haven't really seen here since the 1970s and now it's back?

4:06Only a few weeks later for him to sort of say, well, I didn't mean it. I know I said it, but somebody wrote it for me and it was just a piece of paper that they handed me and I read it out. It was having a bad morning, apparently, wasn't it? I mean, I don't know what to say about that. I just don't know what to say about a prime minister who thinks that speeches that you give on incredibly contentious and important issues at moments of national tension are just stuff you read out that somebody's handed to you. So, I mean, it's not a particular highlight, but I think it's a kind of revealing moment.

4:38You know, our jaws were slightly on the floor. Yeah. That was the one for me. Robert. Gosh, it's difficult. I mean, I think in terms of events that just defined the year, I'm going to mention the Reform Party conference, which I went to in Birmingham. And actually, it was completely hijacked by the fact that Angela Rayner quit about two hours into it. But just watching this conference, it was the most extraordinary mix of quite serious, well-planned communications and absolutely bonkers behavior. So on the one hand, you've got Farage coming on and there's fireworks going off and he delivers a pretty good Farage speech.

5:16And then you have Andrea Jenkins, the mayor of Lincolnshire, coming on singing a song that she wrote. And actually, I think she's probably quite a good singer, but she's not quite as good a singer as she thinks she is. So I think it was called Insomnia. And it was like, what the hell is this? And then a couple of hours later, they have their chief medical advisor who starts, what was the mad conspiracy theory he put forward that King Charles' cancer might have been caused by COVID vaccines. And you sat there and you're thinking, this is an unsustainable tension in this party. One of you sides has got to win.

5:47And it was just quite an extraordinary, particularly if you go to a lot of party conferences and they're often really quite dull. There's lots of really dull moments, really flat and no energy. This was a very high energy conference. Well, it was one of the only points in the whole year where Farage was completely overshadowed. We had editors who came up for the conference who literally just turned back and went back to London. Oh, they missed a treat. Anna, what's your highlight of the year? So my highlight is when I came back from holiday, the very start of the year, early January, just setting the scene.

6:15In December, there'd been these rumours that Elon Musk was going to make a mega donation to reform. Farage had said they'd had this conversation and it was looking like he could well make that donation. So I'd come back just from this holiday. I think it was my first day back. Elon Musk had tweeted that Nigel Farage was not fit to be leader and should be replaced. And the whole, it was just a massive sort of curveball thrown into British politics. And Farage was deeply embarrassed. It was because he disveiled Tommy Robinson, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So he'd refused to say Tommy Robinson could be in the party.

6:50And Elon Musk seemed to have struck up this kind of relationship with Tommy Robinson, which lasts to this day. Not worrying at all. It was an embarrassing moment for reform and for Farage. And there haven't been many of those this year. Jim. So I'm going to say the welfare rebellion of the summer of 2025, because I very complacently said to anyone who would listen for ages after the last general election, the Labour Party can't lose a vote in the House of Commons. It's going to be so boring. The only circumstances where I can imagine Labour losing a vote would be something like an unnecessary war in another continent.

7:24and there was something quite incredible about how these huge numbers of Labour newcomer MPs who seemed like lobby fodder, a lot of them seemed like they didn't have any spine or backbone at all, whatever the rights and the wrongs of the welfare of Benin, and I pick no sides in the war, the fact that over 200 of them were prepared to vote against their own government at one point and then maintained that discipline in the face of Morgan McSweeney, chief of staff from Downing Street, basically threatening private leaders to take them out and metaphorically shoot them 10 at a time and stripped the whip from all of them.

7:54It was really dramatic. And it took me back to those happy days of the Brexit era where we were watching what was happening in the House of Commons and Parliament and loads of action was happening there rather than Whitehall. It was an amazing thing, wasn't it? And the rumours started to seep out that they were ripping this up and we thought, what, a bit of it? And then we came up, no, all of it. Actually, it's a really good choice. Actually, I think when we look back at it, we're probably going to say, that was the moment this government completely lost its way. Yeah, Stephen. So my moment of the year is closely related to that, which is the U-turn on the Winter Fuel Alliance, which of course was announced the year before, but the actual U-turn happened after MPs had been shellacked in the local elections in May.

8:33And I think the fact that they had got all of those MPs to go out and defend it, they'd walked them up the hill, and many MPs found out about the U-turn from journalists. I think in terms of doing permanent damage to the relationship between the Prime Minister and his MPs, that decision to go, oh actually we've made you do the difficult thing but we've u-turned anyway was such a significant moment in the life of the government fantastic you got one george well i was going to go for the rise of the parties to the left of the labour party i thought it was an interesting interview by the leader of the green party zach polanski on the vest is politics where he revealed himself to not know all that much about economics and clearly not knowing the difference between debt and deficit but particularly i'm going to choose the launch of your party in liverpool an event boycotted by one of the co-founders at least on the first day and then turning with the brilliant moment where Jeremy Corbyn was being heckled and accused of being a Zionist by protesters at the event so there we go I think we'll have to go for that one

9:33now moving swiftly on to round two with what I hope is by far the nerdiest wonkiest political quiz out there so it's going to be perfect for our listeners and I suspect also perfect for Stephen Bush in particular I'm going to shield the answers from his eyes. I feel like Stephen should operate with a handicap. Maybe I'll just like... One arm behind your bag. Take your glasses away. Yeah. I do his right to send Stephen out of the studio to get the booze in. Maybe a tighter cap to restrict his giant brain. The answer to these questions is a handicap in every other walk of life. I can't believe how many streams I'm catching.

10:06You're trying to intimidate Stephen before the quiz has even started. It's gamesmanship. It is. So this is how it's going to work. There's a question or two per month. and if you know the answer you have to ding your god stephen's already poised your ft pen on your ft cup and there'll be no shouting out because if you do we'll be awarding lumps of coal for unruly behavior okay so we're going to start uh inevitably with the month of january so the year kicked off with the return of president trump to the white house and with him the rise and subsequent fall of elon musk as already mentioned in january musk targeted the uk on his x platform calling Britain a police state run by a tyrannical government and demanding a review into grooming gangs.

10:46According to FT Analysis, how many of Musk's 616 tweets that month were about UK politics? Yes. 80 %? Give me a number. I can't do some maths. No, it's not that, Stephen. I'm going to say 320. 400. Rather?

11:08420. I'm going to say 500. I think Stephen was closest. The answer was 225. Were you closest? What did you say? I said 320. So I think Anna wins. Yay. Anna wins. Point for Anna. And for a bonus point, who around this table had a byline on the FT story? Anna Gross. Correct. Santa Gross. Two. Amazing. It's a brilliant start. Anna takes the lead in January. We're moving swiftly on to February. In February, Keir Starmer made his first trip to Washington to meet President Trump. It was just one of many international trips he took over the past year. To the nearest 10, how many foreign visits do you think the Prime Minister has undertaken since he took office?

11:50Stephen? 23. Not that close. 40. 40! Jim Pickard gets the point. We think it's between, and we're not entirely sure, between 37 and 42, so 40 on the nose. Never hear Keir. How many did you go on, Jim? God, I'm having a Liverpool-esque title defence here. No, how many did you go on? Oh, not enough. One. Jim only went on the ice. Yeah, but since he took office. Yeah, since he took office. It counts. So listen, bonus question on Keir's foreign travel. Can anyone name any of the gifts that Starmer and Trump exchanged on that first trip to DC? What does Starmer give Trump? Anyone know? I don't know if this counts as a gift, but a letter from the king.

12:28Ooh. No, I was going to do that, but it's self-censored. Fair enough, I should have self-censored. I'm afraid not. That was it. Anyone? Didn't he give him some kind of gold letter opener to open the letter from the king? No. He did it. It was all to do with golf, really. He got a golf cup and his family tartan. Do you remember that one? And some golf balls, apparently. What did Trump give Starmer? Anyone? That was a football theme, by the way. An Arsenal shirt? Yeah, it was a soccer shirt with number 10 on the back, as well as the word Starmer. It was an Arsenal shirt. We'll give that one to Robert.

13:00Are we keeping score behind the glass? Okay, excellent. That's a really thoughtful gift. Yeah, lovely. You seem genuinely moved. That's very thoughtful, Jim. Okay, we're moving on to March. We had Rachel Reeves' spring statement in March, a kind of amuse-bouche for the big bad budget later in the year. Following the statement, how much did the Office for Budget Responsibility, because this is a very FTA question, how much did the Office for Budget Responsibility reduce its growth forecast for 2025? Robert. 0.3%. More. I was going to say 0.5%. Half, correct. Wow. Get in there. Bonus. Which product, beloved of Robert Jenrick, did Kemi Badenok say the spring statement could have been sponsored by?

13:47A Zempik. A Zempik. She said it was so thin, it could have been sponsored by a Zempik. Now, we're moving into the springtime. April was all about what Trump termed Liberation Day, the introduction of trade tariffs. Starmer managed to secure a comparatively competitive deal of 10 % for all UK goods entering the US. But he failed to carve out the same for one important product. What was it? Steel. Correct, Jim Pickard. Nice. Bonus. In general, the EU fared far worse in the tariff war than the UK. But what food product did the EU get a much better deal on? It's a food product popular in France. Cheese!

14:27Cheese! I think Robert just got in there. He is the Grand Fromage. What did Liz Truss think about the treatments of cheese exports? She would have been... Exports. She would have thought it was a disgrace. A disgrace. A disgrace. A disgrace. Okay, everyone's poised for May. In May we had the local elections. Reform came out on top. Pens are ready for these next three questions. Number one. Reform won an historic vote in the constituency of Runcorn and Helsby. By how many votes did they win? Six. I think Miranda was first. I think I hit it before. No, I'm going to say Miranda. You did it louder and longer.

15:03No, it's true. He shouted. Yeah, he shouted. It means he's disqualified. I think for enthusiasm, we'll give Miranda a chance to answer. Yeah, but now I might be wrong. I thought it was five votes. Six. Six. Jim Pickard. Number two. Which council did reform win by a massive margin, winning six... I've started, so I'll finish. Winning 65 seats and ending decades of Labour dominance? Durham. Correct. County Durham. Number three. I can't feel any of the Stephen's holding back it because he doesn't want to be labelled a nerd in chief. Also, I'm the only one following the rules of our actual bucking.

15:35We have, like, shouting and I'm surrounded. It's just wrong, yeah. I'm feeling this one might be one for you. Who was elected inaugural mayor of Hull and East Yorkshire? Stephen. He's under pressure now. Oh, God, so he was a boxer. Yeah, he's a boxer. The boxer guy. Do I get a point for the boxer? No, I don't get a point for the boxer. You do, because that's the bonus question. So we'll give you a point for that. What was his name? Anyone know? I'm told he's not enjoying the job. Does that help? Can I have a bonus point for that? I think it's Luke McGee. You get half a point for Luke. Anyone want to get their surname?

16:07She has a name with a much-missed leader of the Liberal Democrats, who I think died this year. Luke Campbell. Campbell. Oh, I think Stephen Campbell. I think Stephen was in there. Luke Campbell. Luke Campbell. Okay, we're into June now. In June, Labour MPs launched a rebellion to stop the welfare bill. The rebellion resulted in the resignation of Vicky Foxcroft, the Labour whip. But who can name the Labour frontbenchers who resigned or were sacked over the past year? And I'll give you half a point for each one. OK, well... Sorry, can we recap all the frontbenchers who've been sacked or resigned over the past year?

16:46Half a point each year. So we'll go around the table one at a time and then I'll take them off. So Stephen, you go first. OK, resigned or sacked over the past year. Angela Rayner. Correct. Very good. OK, we'll tick her off. Miranda? Rushinara Ali. Correct, yep. Robert? Lucy Powell. Yes. Yep. Sheila Bissadik. Sheila Bissadik, yes. Johnny Reynolds becomes a witch. No, he's a different witch. I'm afraid while you're thinking, we'll go around again. Louise Haig. Last year. Last year, I'm afraid. Robert? Ian Murray was demoted. You can have him. He was demoted on the cabinet to a non-cabinet role. Yes, definitely have that one.

17:22I want to say Angie Gwynn, but I don't even know if he was a minister. You do get Andrew Gwynn. He was sacked from a job as an Under Secretary of State for Public Health. So we've got one, two, three... What about someone who resigned over cuts to her budget? Oh, Annalise Dodds. I think Robert gets that one. Annalise Dodds. Oh, my word. You're never going to get these ones. There are a couple of members... Three people in the House of Lords. One resigned for personal reasons in July. Name begin with M. Sorry, I was going for a different Lord's Minister. Poppy Gustafs. I don't know actually she's not on my list but that's not bad I think she resigned she was a trade minister wasn't she I think we can give Stephen one for that okay because these are so boring Lord Cryer Lord Hunt and Lord Morais all rocked British politics by resigning hold the front page yeah exactly okay so we're moving into the height of summer in July which is usually a quieter month as parliamentary recess starts to kick in and things start to wind down for the summer holidays but not this year We had the one-in-one-out policy as part of a UK-France migration deal.

18:26And then the FT released its scoop on the Afghan files, data leak which Lucy Fisher broke, affecting the security of more than 100 ,000 Afghans. But my question isn't about any of those important issues. Instead, I want to focus on one of Mr Shrimp's sleigh's favourite themes, Jeremy Corbyn's new party. So get ready to ding. What were the three other names in the shortlist? Jim? Your party, our party, for the many, popular alliance. Beautiful. Amazing. I thought it was your party, his party, her party. Anybody's party. Everyone's no one party. Jim Triumph. Excellent knowledge. So we're now moving into August and we have three questions related to politicians' holiday capers.

19:11A truck was spotted winding its way through the country lanes of the Cotswolds. What was on the side of it? J.D. Vance removals. No. I was going in roughly the same territory. What were you going to say, Robert? I was actually going to say J.D. Vance. Yeah. J.D. Vance. Get it? Vance. I think we get a point from Miranda for getting a pun in there. It was a satirical meme, unflattering picture of J.D. Vance who was on holiday there. Number two. Who was pictured vaping on an inflatable kayak? I think Stephen was just in there first. Angela Rayner. Correct. Whose staycation featured a pizza and an Aperol spritz?

19:46I think Stephen got in there first as well. Rachel Reeves. Correct. I can't believe Stephen is having sold everyone. Maybe I'll think he wasn't really paying attention at the start. He's gradually pulling away, hitting fifth gear. I'm blaming my early Prosecco. I'm like slow on the buzzer. Okay, September. Because I don't know the answers, which is a real... So we're now moving into party conference season. And September saw the rise of Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and the fall of the UK ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson. Andy Burnham made an impromptu leadership challenge saying that Labour have been dancing to the tune of the Tories for too long.

20:22Not being an MP currently precludes him from fulfilling that dream. Which MP said he'd give up his seat? Jim! Clive Lewis. Correct. Who's the MP for Norwich? Norwich. Norwich. South. Norwich South. And so far, he hasn't given it up. And Andy Burnham has not yet become the King of the East. So it's only a matter of time before he finds somewhere to fight, though. Bonus question. After Peter Mounderson was sacked over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, what delayed Mounderson's return to the UK? Jim? His collie dog, which I want to call Jack or something, but I don't want to get it wrong. His collie dog was poorly.

20:59That is correct. Would anyone, for an extra half a point, like to say what Peter Mounderson's dog is called? Isn't it Jock? It is Jock. Not Jack. OK. Jock. Yeah, half a point there for Stephen. OK. Always get the name of the dog. Do I get a quarter point for Jack? No, you don't, I'm afraid. It's only one letter wrong. Great best. Okay, October, where the party conference season is still in full swing. Keir Starmer's performance at the Labour conference was deemed success, but Starmer was said to look shattered on the first day. According to the Mirror, he stayed up late the previous evening doing what?

21:32Ketamine. Jim loses half a point by saying ketamine. I want to say watching the football. Watching the something is correct, but not the football. Rugby. Nope. Fuck. No. His back, no. Sands of time. Watching the sands of time run through the hourglass. I like that, but no. I'm afraid he was watching the Anthony Joshua fight. Meanwhile, at the Tory party conference, Tories came under fire for misspelling a word on their branded chocolate bars. What was it? Britain. Or Britian. Sorry, I'm sorry. I've just given up with the whole T thing. Oh, sorry, Miranda. This is a bonus question. Which FT journalist was paps during karaoke alongside Lisa Nandy and Wes...

22:18Anna? Jim Pickard. Jingle Pickard is correct. He was paps doing some singing with Lisa Nandy and Wes Streeting. What were you actually singing in one of your paps on? It was Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. Brilliant. The anthemic party anthem. Now we're moving on to November. When we moved the markets with our scoop that Rachel Reeves would not raise income tax after all. A U-turn on a U-turn. Taking the Chancellor on a full 360 back to keeping Labour's manifesto pledge. Well, sort of. How did Reeves describe that FT scoop? Partial and inaccurate. That is correct. Like our story, in fact. And a bonus question.

23:00How did the chair of the Treasury Committee, Dame McKillia, describe me? Jim. Really clever top journo guy. Close. But not enough to get a point. Esteemed? No. Respect. Overrated. Overrated. No, I'm afraid that's another point of Jim's total. Didn't she call you Steve Swimford? Did someone already say illustrious? No, there wasn't. They didn't. No, keep going. I like this round. You don't get more points there. Did she call you the longest-serving political editor in SW1? She didn't even call me that. She called me not just renowned, but highly renowned. And in fact, she didn't just call me highly renowned once.

23:38She called me twice at two separate committee hearings, promising my children to say that Meg and I should get a room. I think we have to cut this clip. Okay. I think it's to our credit that none of us knew that. Yeah, well done. Now, bonus question. Thanks to the OBR accidentally dropping the entire budget early, how many minutes before Reeves delivered her budget were we able to publish the splash, Miranda? 40 minutes. No. 45? No. No, before the speech. The splash was 20 minutes before. It was like 12-12 or something, George, 12-13. Did we actually publish it? I thought we published it about five minutes before.

24:14I don't know. I think I'm closer than these. Yeah, we were involved. I can't help thinking these questions are getting a lot about us. That's right. That's what this podcast is about. It's festive. Let's give Jim a point for that. It's super festive. Since he was blogging like crazy. Okay, we're moving to the final month of the year. December, which brings us to Christmas, which came early for reform. The party received the biggest ever single donation by a living person from a man called Christopher Harbourn. What was the figure? And where does he live? Robert? I think it was£14 million and he lives in...

24:45Oh, was it£12 million? And he lives in Monaco. No! That's right! That's terrible! He won for it. He won for it. Come on. I think Anna spends so much for the year writing about reform, we have to let her answer the question. It was£9 million and he lives in Thailand. That is correct. And a bonus question. Who and how much is the single biggest donation to a UK political party? The clue being that Harbourn was the biggest single living donor, Jim. is 10 million from David Sainsbury. Yes. When he was dead and his brother, well, cousin, another Sainsbury, gave almost as much to Labour when he was alive.

25:19I think that's probably correct. I've got John Sainsbury written down on my screen. I was going to say, isn't it John Sainsbury to the Conservatives? John Sainsbury is the dead guy. John Sainsbury is dead and gives to the Conservatives. David Sainsbury is alive and still gives to the Conservatives. I think it's... Oh, well, close enough. We're still the Sainsbury in 10 million. I think we give Jim half a point for saying Sainsbury and another half point to Stephen there for guessing who was dead and who wasn't. Yeah. Yeah.

25:47We got to the end of the year, but now we're going to move on to round three. Oh, wow. There's more. Yeah, I'm afraid there's more because we've come to the fill in the missing word. Okay, good. Have we had any liquid nourishment for this third round? Do you want the scores on the doors? Yeah, why not? Anna is on six Jim is on eleven What? Miranda is on two Robert's on seven and Stephen is also on eleven Oh! Okay, ready to carry on Can we just stop now? Before he pulls it out There is plenty of time for Stephen to be sent out of the room to refill our glasses if he's doing too well because we move now on to the next round which is fill in the missing word round you get a point if you can say what the missing word is and another point for saying who said it.

26:40Right, the quote was, one long, a laundry list of excuses. And this was to describe Rachel Reeves' speech. Whinge. No. Oh, damn it. Go on, Stephen. No, Robert. I'm going to say it's Kimmy Badenock. It is Kimmy Badenock, yeah. What did she call the budget? It was one long something. It was a word that... Laundry list. Excuse. No, it was too popular in Belgium. Oh, of course. Waffle. Waffle, but not just a one long waffle. Waffle fest. Close. A waffle bomb. I think we give a point to Robert for that. I've never heard that expression in my life. One long waffle bomb. She's actually come up with some quite good tomatoes.

27:23Question two. He asked me to send his best wishes and his best regards, but he also asked me to bear this and bring it to you. I think that's the invitation to the state visit, and that's from Keir Starmer. It was. That's very good. Yes, it was the letter delivered by Keir Starmer on his knees to Donald Trump in the White House. Probably. From the king. From the king. Yeah. From the king. A message from the king. A message from the king. Windsor Castle, I've heard that's really special. Wow, here with 2008's cutting edge cultural references, aren't you? Okay. Yes, I am. This is a quote from February.

28:00is more of a threat to the US than Russia. This comment was made at the Munich Security Festival, by the way, or conference or other. Europe? Yes. By J.D. Vance. Yes, Europe is more of a threat to the US than Russia. I said J.D. Vance subsequently a position elaborated on the US national security strategy this month. That's good. Question four. That's nice. You are a coward. This is a message delivered to Ed Davey by Elon Musk. Can you get the word? You're a something coward. I want to say craven. That's correct. Thank you. Amazing. What other type of coward are they? I think that was really hard.

28:38I think we give Anna two points for that because that is so difficult. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I'll take it. Okay, number five. We've got to get beyond this thing of being to the bond market. Anna, again. That's in hock and that was Andy Burnham. Correct. Yes. What do I mean? Five. Don't we all? Seven or six. Anna's... She's on her toes. I know. She's got a pen. The Grand National. Six. Taco stands for... Miranda. Trump always chickens out. Who said it? Our columnist, Robert Armstrong. Brilliant. A brilliant column which has now entered the Mexican. Made history. Made history there, Taco. Number seven.

29:18Three words here. Nigel Farage is a mm-mm-mm of British politics. It's said by Keir Starmer. Robert. Pound shop Trump? No. He might have said that as well at some point. Putin loving apologist or something? No. Maybe give us one of the words. Okay, one of the words is snake. Snake or salesman. Correct, Stephen. Good. Number eight. What you've seen overnight is probably the worst attack on a mmm since Joe Marler was banished in the celebrity... Faithful. And that was Wes Streeting. Correct. Brilliant, Anna. Very good. Number nine. It's an FT obsession. And frankly, you can all... F off. Peter Manesson talking about our coverage of his very deep friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

30:06To your good self, George. To George Parker. In a train carriage. Carriage F with a train to Manchester, indeed.

30:17So that's the end of that round. Now we're moving. I love this round, actually. It's round four. Links. I'm going to give you a list of three things. and you have to tell me what they have in common. So, what links? Bolton, Grimsby and Stoke-on-Trent. I think it was Jim. They all have Reform UK political representatives now. I think we can give you that. There were defections to reform by local MPs there. So we'll give that. Oh, actually, bonus point. Can you name the three people we're talking about there? Leah Nishi. Yes. Jonathan Gullis. Yeah, Stoke-on-Trent. What about the Bolton MP? Chris Green.

30:53Correct. That's amazing. I'm tempted to give you two points, Stephen, for that, but I'm not going to because you're too good. Number two. What links James Cleverley, Edward Agar and Stuart Andrew? They were all promoted in the reshuffle by Kenny Bairnock in the summer. They were, correct. Number three. What links Gary Oldman, Penny Mordaunt and Roger Daltrey? Stephen. Paul Thomas. No. Robert. I think they've all been honoured. They have been given honours in 2025. Number four. What links Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Shropshire? Anna. They all went Lib Dem at the local elections. Did? I was going to also say...

31:34Have you been revising? No. Can I do another one? They also have mayor elections which have been delayed. That would also be incorrect answer. I'm going to give Jim an extra half a point for that. Can I also add, there are also much better places to go for a weekend away than Bolton, Stoke-on-Trent and whatever the other one. I'm afraid because my wife's family come from Bolton, I'm going to have to eliminate that answer, Robert. Actually, I won't dock you halfway. Please address your complaints to Robert directly, not to the rest of us. Exactly. Question five, what links, and by the way, the answer isn't that they're all Labour MPs, what links Rachel Reeves, Angela Eagle and Torsten Bell?

32:14Robert. Chess. No. Siblings. They are siblings, yeah. They will have siblings in politics, Westminster, or in the case of Torsten Bell, Whitehall. Is there a bonus point maybe for naming the siblings? The next thing on my piece of paper says, bonus, can you name them?

32:34Ellie Reeves. Let's give Miranda a chance here because we need to get some extra points. Yeah, I'm in desperate situations. Maria Eagle and Ellie Reeves, and I've no idea about Torsten Bell. Olaf. Olaf. Olaf, good name. So Torsten Bellis, the pensions minister, his brother, until recently, was the head of the number 10 policy unit. So, oh, I love this round as well. Round five is trip up your neighbour. Oh, yeah. Robert's looking very misguided, Grinch-like, despite wearing a festive hat. Right, not surprising, because actually the first element of this round is for Miranda to try to trip up Robert with a fiendishly hard question.

33:12It's not very hard. I don't know. That makes it worse. I've done. What is interesting about the family background of Zoran Mamdani, who is the incoming mayor of New York City and the great hope of people on the left? His parentage. Can I narrow it down for you? Yeah. His mum. Why is his mum interesting? Andrew Jenkins. Yes. Zoran Mamdani, we can reveal exclusively on this podcast. You can't have that.

33:48No, it's her work Her body of work No, I don't know the answer to that She is a producer on No Film mate, writer No, no Anyone know? A director Yes Incredibly famous Famous Monsoon Wedding Yes Yeah Zora Mamdani's mum is Myron Nair The award winning and amazing film director who made Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala, all sorts of amazing... I think we give Stephen a point for that. You're allowed to steal, but yeah. Yeah, you can do. I've only asked to give the intended recipient time to answer. Robert, what's your question for Stephen? Okay, it's a two-part question. The first part is, if Keir Starmer survives till the end of next year as Prime Minister, who will then be the shortest-serving Labour Prime Minister?

34:40It will be Ramsay MacDonald, the 24-time. No. Oh. Jim Callaghan? Will it be well said? Oh, God, oh, this is so embarrassing. Is it Gordon Brown? Is it well said? If it's still Keir Starmer, I swear. It is still Keir Starmer. Which is going to lead me to the second part of the question, which is that the person next to him... Hang on, can you back up a minute? It was a trick question. Yes. It's still Keir Starmer, even if he survives to the end of 2026. Yes. but to cease to be Labour's shortest serving Prime Minister he would have to catch Gordon Brown so when would he have to be Prime Minister until in order to no longer be Labour's shortest ever serving Prime Minister?

35:25He would have to last so Gordon lasted a month shy of three years so he would have to be Prime Minister until the 29th of July 27th? No. Go on. Is it June 27th? I'm prepared to give a monthly way either way, but none of you have got that yet. August 27th? August 27th? I think you've... May 27th, Robert. May 27th is within... It's April. Okay. Well, I have written repeatedly that Rishi was right about maths to 18, so... You're right overall. I'm not sure there's any... That question got unnecessarily no rang. Who actually got closest to the answer? Well, I think nobody got the first part, but I think Jim just about got the second.

36:12Yeah, do you point for Jim? I feel bad taking that point, but I'll take it. Stephen, you've got a question for Anna. Okay. So, Anna, of the seven constituencies to have had a Reform MP, what are they? Oh, my God. Runcorn. We've got one. Don't help her! I'm so bad on constituencies. What about Farage? What I said, Farage is Runcorn. Oh, sorry, Clacton. Clacton. Where's Richard Tice? Great Yarmouth. Richard Tice is Skigness. I think this should be a team effort. Yeah, this should be a team effort. Isn't Tyson Dubai most of the time? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. That's what I didn't know. Rupert Lowe's Yarmouth, Great Yarmouth.

37:01Oh, yeah, Ashfield. Kruger Devizes, Kruger Devizes. He is divisors. Yeah, very good. I mean, they've now given it another terrible name because of woke. But, you know, we don't have to accept the 2024 boundary and their silly names. OK, I'll tell you what, we'll give Anna half a point for getting at least one of those. OK, I'll take it. Anna, your question for Jim. OK, how did Peter Mandelson refer to Jeffrey Epstein in his infamous birthday message? And bonus point for any other detail. He described him as his best pal. he said he was this intelligent guy who'd parachuted into his life very good very good and Jim finally one for Miranda I think because Shrim was allowed two questions I'm allowed to give Miranda two questions the first of which is do you know anything about the Lib Dems I actually had one for Robert you give more points for Miranda and gifting you potential to it so I believe you know a little about Lib Dems what is Sir Ed Davies middle name I have no idea can anyone else answer this question John Mark George, you're really close, but I need a bit more definition around this name.

38:08Jonathan. Yeah, correct, it's Jonathan. Point for George. Excellent. The other one is, what three former Tory cabinet ministers are now in the reform UK? Three former Tory cabinet ministers. Three former cabinet level ministers. One woman, two men. Okay, team effort. Don't say Gullis was ever the cabinet. Lee Anderson. Oh, yeah, Doreen. Okay, Nadine Doreen. It's Nadine. It's Nadine. Nadine was Culture Secretary. Jake Berry was Chairman of the Party. And the third one that you will struggle with. David Jones. Frizzly. Yes, David Jones. Welsh Secretary. David Cameron. And all three of them are now...

38:48Okay. Has anyone got a question for me? No, but I have got a present for you. Yes, I have. I'm being bribed. Amazing. Yes, that's right. Can we double Miranda's points? If you double my points, you can have the present. which I need them to be doubled. This, George, is a house and we need to build 1.5 million of them, I think. So I hand this over to you and it's only 1.499999999999999. Are you going to tell the listeners what it is? It's a lovely, it's a build-your-own gingerbread house. So it's one of these prefabricated houses of the kind of Labour Party, modular housing. Is that what it's called?

39:25I believe it is. So Steve Reid will be listening to this podcast and saying, build baby builds, George. He will. and I can put this house down the desk without planning permission and despite the fact there's some micro snails and some noots lurking there. Thank you very much, Miranda. We'll look forward to tucking into that later. Excellent. Thank you. So we'll give Miranda a bonus point for giving me a present. One. That's okay, yep. One point for that. Now, as is customary at this time of year, I'm going to ask everyone to make their predictions for 2026, which we'll write down and bring back to haunt you in 12 months' time.

39:59Anna, what's your prediction for 2026. Okay, I predict that Jeremy Corbyn is going to break off from your party and join, formally or informally, with the Greens. Oh, don't say someone else's party. No. It's the breakaway. It's pretty out there, but I'm going to go with it. That's brilliant. Robert? Well, actually, I was going to go with it. I was going to predict that your party is going to break with Jeremy Corbyn and that there will be two or three more leadership splits within your party over the course of the next year. But the thing is that there is actually no leadership at the moment. So if you've multiplied a collective leadership, it could be hundreds of them.

40:39Listen, the state will provide leadership when leadership is required. Everyone can be leader for 15 minutes. That was Andy Warhol. Miranda, what is your crystal ball telling you for 2026? Well, it's not really crystal ball, but I think that there will be more defections from the Conservative benches to the Reform Party. but Nigel Farage will also fall out with so many people, as is his won't, that the kind of net effect, it will net out. It'll always be five. Yeah, and this could be a prediction forever, actually, not just this coming year but any coming year, that Nigel Farage's tendency to fall out with people will mean that he ends up with the same number of MPs in whatever his party's called that year as the year before because he'll fall out of as many as he gains.

41:24The extraordinary thing about all this, there's been a lot of defections from the Conservative Party's reform and yet amazing they've strengthened both parties. Stephen, what are you going to predict? I'm going to go for a potentially stupid one, which is this time next year, both Keir Starmer and Kemi Baden-Ock will still be leading their respective parties. Neither of them will have significantly improved, but there's enough reluctance on the Conservative side to make a change and enough willingness to seize any green shoots, so she will survive. On the Labour side, the fact that none of the alternatives in Parliament are obvious upgrades and the plan to get Andy Burnham is like, oh, well, a friend of a friend is going to give his seat.

42:03I just think that what will happen is Labour MPs will go, well, this is bad, we should make a change at some point, but does some point have to be now? And then they will both therefore survive the local elections next year. I think that's a good shout. Jim? I predict that Nigel Farage is going to start running marathons for charity and he's going to give the proceeds to refugee charities. That's my prediction for 2026, George. can we refill your glass I don't know why that's funny George what's your prediction my prediction is that inspired by Liz Truss's plan to set up an exclusive members club in Mayfair that I think that Jeremy Corbyn's going to follow suit and establish his own exclusive club called Your Club in the city of London exclusively for plutocrats and billionaires imagine being the Rubens Brothers and you pick up your copy of the FT and you're like oh, I wonder how that money I laid down.

42:56Oh, he plans to pay me back with the proceeds of a Liz Trust.

43:04It's a hell of a way to find out you're not getting your money back. So Stephen, are you not paying half a million pounds for it to be a founder member of this? Just because three of us have picked your party, which seems an over-representation of it in terms of this one. I want to do one other prediction, a slightly more serious one, which is I think that we've talked a lot about how Labour is going to get hammered in Scotland and Wales. I also think one of the things that's going to happen next year is they're going to get hammered in London. They're going to have absolutely disastrous elections in London.

43:29And although I'm inclined to agree with Stephen that somehow Stummer will muddle through, I think that level of shock hasn't been factored in enough in consideration of what's going to happen next year. Very good. Do you have one, George? Oh, yeah, you did yours. That was very kind. So good. We should talk about your party.

43:49OK, now as the year and the show draws to a close, we've just time to announce the winner of our political fix, Stock Picks, for the year. So let's see how your portfolios are looking. Stephen, as last year's winner, let's start with you. Your end-of-year portfolio is particularly strong in regional stock, having bought both Scottish nationalism and Plaid Cymru, which has done you in good stead for the local elections next May. And you had a couple of very prescient buys with both Zach Polanski and Lucy Powell ahead of their respective victories. in the deputy leaders' contest. But they were all pretty safe bets.

44:24It was all a bit risk-averse, so no massive windfalls, according to our judges. Sorry about that. Jim, I'm afraid your end-of-year portfolio isn't looking quite so healthy. Oh, my gosh. Like Stephen, you do have some strong stock in Plaid, but you sold off Ed Miliband, potential future Labour leader, who knows, and you're left with shares in both Angela Rayner and Peter Mandelson. Wow, why did you invite Peter Mandelson? I could just tell they were going to get to the end of the year with no scandals. Okay, interesting. I guess it's worth holding on to that Rainer stock in case she comes good next year, but I'm not quite so sure about Peter.

44:57I'm going to stock up on Angela Rainer, yeah. Yeah. Miranda, you definitely get the prize for the kookiest collection of end-of-year holdings. Oh, dear. You bought all 16 and 17-year-olds. That show wasn't bad. That was very expensive. Anyone over 90 in the House of Lords. And you also bought Lin-Manuel Miranda. Was that just because you share a name? Yeah, maybe. I don't remember, but I'm actually sticking by all those picks because even though the government's threatening to chuck out... You're excited for the live-action Moana. Yeah. There's a nice little risk of it. Yeah, no, I think, you know, young people, if they're going to give the vote, and with the rise of the Greens and all, are going to be incredibly important in the next few years.

45:37And I think that it's wrong of the government to try and kick people out when they reach a certain age in the House of Lords because these are true experts with a lifetime of institutional knowledge of government. Well, they're setting up a committee of House of Lords members to look at what to do with the over-80s. And given the committee, you'll probably be stuffed full of people, octogenarians. Yes, genius. One might vote for them to suspect they're going to... I'm afraid, Miranda, the black mark on you, you actually sold Peter Kyle's black T-shirt during the course of the year. Why is that a black mark?

46:04Well, I don't know. It's a very stylish... Peter Kyle's a very stylish man. Sorry about that. And he also listens to the podcast, by the way. Hello, Peter. We do like you, but we don't like your T-shirt, so I'm afraid to say. Anna you've made some very shrewd trades selling off Elon Musk just before he went crazy okay maybe it was all that ketamine he was taking called Susie Wiles who knows as well as Richard Tice who disappeared from the public eye for a while but you have left yourself a bit exposed holding on to a lot of Rachel Reeves who ends up with the year of I think a minus 71 or something approval rating according to YouGov you also bought Andy Burnham whose star may well be fading as well as some very expensive stocks in Nick Candy and the Rothermirs.

46:46Okay, yeah. Which brings me to Robert. Robert, your portfolio closes well. You sold off Jeremy Corbyn and your party twice. What do you want to get to your party? You're obsessed. It's unhealthy. I don't even want to discuss them. And you end the year with the trio of Nigel Farage, Wes Streeting and George Osborne as assets. But it's at this point that I'd like to point out that I too bought George Osborne not once but twice before he became very expensive. Which would lead me, I'm only reading this off a script here, but it would lead me to crown myself the 2025 stock pick winner. If it wasn't for the fact that Albert had one other incredibly prophetic moment back in May when he bought one, George Parker.

47:31Did you? Yeah, I thought you'd win the quiz. I thought you'd win the stock picks, therefore I thought I'd better buy you. So for that reason, and for that reason alone, I don't know what's going on here. I bought him. I do remember this. I bought you out of a suspicion that you were going to take over the podcast while Lucy was on maternity leave. Well, now's a good time to sell me because I'm only going to be presenting the podcast for a few more editions before Lucy returns from her maternity leave in the new year and puts the show back on the road. You'll be glad to know. But anyway, because of Robert's generosity in buying me earlier in the year, and for that reason alone, I award Robert Shrimmslay this year's Political Fix Stock Pick winner.

48:13silver coins there's 40 pieces of silver in there very well done and now round 8 the moment everyone's been waiting for while everyone is tucking into Robert's silver coinage the moment everyone's been waiting for the announcement of the quiz results Flo and Lulu can you come in and give us the results please shall we do a big drum roll for you yeah yeah let's have a big tinsel drum roll so okay I'm afraid we're going bottom up So just to say, this is Flo, and I'm about to announce the results. Flo is normally on the other side of the glass, but she's come forward for this very... Also, can I also just say to Lulu as well, who helped compile so much to that quiz, it's been a great triumph, but only one person can triumph in the quiz.

48:55And we're about to find out who it is, Flo. OK. In fifth position, we have Miranda. Sorry to be the bearer of that news. In fourth place, we have Robert rolling up. Anna in third place with 15 points. It's very tight at the top. In second place, we have... Hang on.

49:16Jim! At 17 points, which means for the second year in a row, Stephen Bush's Christmas Cunning Winner! How many points did he get? Oh, sorry. 18. 18. That's a heavy rotter. It's a clear win. As Tom Stoppard once said, I'm interested in politics, but not obsessed by it. Yes! No, it's my skin! A good winner! In an interview many years ago. I thought that was Margaret Sager, but good quote. Well, not that we're bitter, but Stephen can now go away comfortable with his Christmas pudding to read lots of political biographies over Christmas. I'm not even going to pretend I'm not very smug about this. I'm not going to pretend I'm not furious.

50:04Angry. I'd say Jim has been doing a lot of revision for this, so a lot of disappointment. But anyway, that is it for this bumper episode and for this year of the FT's Political Fix. But before you go, we've been nominated for a People's Choice Award at the Political Podcast Awards. So please vote for us. There is a link in the show notes. Political Fix was presented by me, George Parker, and produced by Lulu Smith. Flo Phillips is the executive producer. Original music and sound engineering by Breen Turner. The broadcast engineers are Andrew George-Yardis and Bianca Waitman. Manuela Saragossa is the FG's acting co-head of audio.

50:41I hope we'll meet you again in the new year. Until then, goodbye and happy holidays.

50:51Political Fix was presented by me, George, highly renowned Parker. I'm not doing that. I don't think you can do that. I'm going to start again. They'll need anything. They will.

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