Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Radio 4,11 Feb 2012,28 mins

Available for over a year

George Parker of The Financial Times looks behind the scenes at Westminster. The clamour against the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, has reached a new pitch. What's it like to be on the receiving end of anonymous briefings, as he has been? Former Labour minister Jacqui Smith gives a flavour with political journalist Paul Waugh. There's been no let-up in the war against bankers as the bonus season gets underway in The City. But is a 'truth and reconciliation commission' going too far? A subject for the Conservative, David Ruffley, and the businessman peer, Lord Levene. More than a hundred Tory MPs are imploring the Prime Minister to repatriate policing powers from the EU. Does that increase tension inside the coalition? The Conservative, Dominic Raab, and the Lib Dems' Tom Brake agree on the need to be practical. Finally, austerity stretches a long way from Whitehall. The overseas development minister Alan Duncan explains why he's imposing cuts - in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Editor : Peter Mulligan.

Programme Website
More episodes