Off Air... with Jane and Fi - "The lady's not for turning...UP!"

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

Jane and Fi review the day's big political news which forced them to throw out their entire show and start again.They are joined by Times Radio chief political commentator, Lucy Fisher, and Red Box podcast host Matt Chorley live from the press gallery in Westminster to discuss the infamous governmental U-turn.Also, were Jane's daughter's student digs as horrific as she feared and will Fi become the recipient of the key to the town of Slough?If you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: [e-mail] Radio Producer: Rosie CutlerPodcast Executive Producer: Ben Mitchell Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

VoiceOver describes what's happening on your iPhone screen. VoiceOver on. Settings. So you can navigate it just by listening. Books. Contacts. Calendar. Double tap to open. Breakfast with Anna from 10 to 11. And get on with your day. Accessibility. There's more to iPhone. Hello and welcome to Off Air with me, Jane Garvey.

And me, Fee Glover. And we are fresh from our brand new Times Radio show, but we just cannot be contained by two hours of live broadcasting. So we've kept the microphones on, grabbed a cuppa and are ready to say what we really think, unencumbered and off air. Well, it's another working week in our increasingly frantic lives. Welcome aboard. It's lovely to have you here with us for another edition of Off Air with me, Jane Garvey. And me, Fee Glover. Do you like that? I'm trying to be a bit more professional.

I was just laughing because it's ever so, ever so. Hello and welcome to Geography A-Levels. I'm sitting upright. I've got a decent supportive bra on. I'm really trying to get with the plan. Oh, no, it definitely worked for me. Thank you very much. It roused me from my stupor. And yet you appear to be taking the piss.

I can't understand it. I'm not taking the piss. Both of us are in a slight stupor only because we've had to, we basically had to watch television for the last hour of the programme because we were following the Chancellor's mini statement in the House of Commons and an urgent question as well, what I shall now refer to forever as a UQ. A UQ as Penny Mordaunt referred to it, a UQ which was new to us wasn't it? much so. But I feel down with the cool kids now. No, we know that.

I mean, there's a lot of suspicion that Penny Mordaunt won't have been all that reluctant to take centre stage in the House of Commons this afternoon. Do you think that might be the case? Well, she definitely gave a bravura performance and seemed very, very certain and very steady on her feet. And we will not be the only people to comment on the fact that Liz Truss looked like a haunted woman when she came into the chamber and sat down, said

nothing, but was just by Jeremy Hunt's side when he made his statement. Yeah, it was deeply awkward. And I know people are now saying that the worst possible emotion you can associate with a prime minister is sympathy. It just isn't good for them. And I have to say this afternoon, that was what I felt towards her. Not a political statement, but just, oh, who'd be her? You have to feel a bit of that, don't you? Yes. And I do take that point, though, that once you've gone into sympathy, it's too close an emotion to be feeling for any person who is actually in charge of some massive planks of your life really big ones yeah yeah so we had a very nice chat with uh lucy fisher who we'd not

met before because we are the new girls at school here at times radio yes and she is times radio's chief political commentator uh she really knows her onions so um let's go and listen to what Lucy had to say to us about what was likely to unfold in the Commons. Well, at 3.30, the Labour Party has tabled an urgent question calling on the Prime Minister to come to the floor of the Commons and explain the replacement of her Chancellor, given the current economic situation. Interestingly, the Prime Minister, Liz Truss, has decided not to accept that invitation herself, or that summons almost, to the Commons floor. Instead, she'll be fielding Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader, to answer that question. So I think a pretty weak decision not to face the music herself, and indeed possibly giving an advantage to Penny Mordaunt,

who many people consider to be on manoeuvres at the moment and probably up for the idea of showing off her own credentials against Keir Starmer. Mr Speaker, with apologies to the Leader of the Opposition and the House, the PM is detained on urgent business. If I were Liz Truss, and I wouldn't want to be Liz Truss, I've got to be honest, I think I'd try and take the earliest possible opportunity to be seen, get it over with. Well, I think that's right. Otherwise, it just shifts all the attention to Wednesday Prime Minister's questions, the tension, the pressure grows. And I think there are many Tory MPs who want to hear from her directly. She's going to be addressing some of them, the 100 or

so odd MPs in the One Nation group of moderates later today to try and assuage some of their fears. And Jeremy Hunt will also be on the floor of the Commons after Penny Morden taking questions about the statement he released at 11am. So the idea of her sitting next to Jeremy Hunt as he gives the statement this afternoon, it couldn't happen, could it? Or should it have happened? Let's see, let's see. So she Or should it have happened? Let's see.

So she still might appear for that? It's possible. I mean, things are moving at warp speed these days. It's unclear. Anything could happen, really. She may want to take that decision. I think it would be quite surprising, given that she's not going to appear on the floor

to answer the urgent question from Labour. But people do want to see her out and about. That is part of the jigsaw that is now missing for many Tory MPs, even though the markets appear to, in these early days, be assuaged by the Chancellor's statement today. Does anybody, has anybody in your living memory recovered from this kind of focus on their failures? I just can't think of any analogue for someone who has campaigned on a set of policies and had to enact such a huge U-turn in such a short period of time. So I don't think there's been a sort of a set of failures so big that's happened so quickly that we can really compare

this to. And that's why MPs I've been talking to in the wake of Hunt's statement, you know, I've been asking them, look, it looks like the pound's up a bit against the dollar since he spoke, you know, the cost of government borrowing appears to be going down slightly. You know, has he steadied the ship enough for her to stagger on for some weeks more? Many of those MPs who are kind of growing more concerned over the weekend haven't had their confidence restored. Many of them are saying to me they don't think she'll last the week. It's just extraordinary. She's been in power for just over 40 days

and this is the conversation that's happening. Thank you, Mr Speaker, and thank you to the Right Honourable Member for Portsmouth North for answering the question put to the Prime Minister. I guess under this Tory government, everybody gets to be Prime Minister. I guess under this Tory government, everybody gets to be Prime Minister for 15 minutes. Do you think Tory members will ever vote on who their leader is again?

Certainly not in the short term if the MPs have their way. So that's about the rules being changed, isn't it? So that they wouldn't have to go back to the party to ask again. They would be able to make a quicker decision. Yes, I think the feeling now is that put to the membership, the membership made the wrong decision this summer. They were offered fool's gold, as one MP described it to me. And they sort of fell for it, this idea of brilliant tax cuts that would leave them with more money in their pocket, but also catalyse this big growth spurt in the economy. None of that is now going ahead. And many MPs think that they need to wrest back control, which of course, it used to be the case. It used to be

that MPs decided the leader. It's only a relatively recent innovation in the party that it's put to the membership. Lucy, thank you very much indeed. I think you're hot footing it down to Westminster. Bit of a nerdy question. How long does it take? I can get from this floor to the Commons in 12 minutes. Wow. If the tubes align. Go to it. That's amazing. I think Lucy gets to go in the special entrance

out of the tube station. Maybe I do. Oh, gosh. Never met anyone who can. So now it's time for leaders to lead. Yeah. But where is the Prime Minister? Hiding away, dodging questions, scared of her own shadow.

The lady's not for turning up. Now, I think Matt Chorley of Times Radio fame is living his best life and he joins us from the Commons now. So, your assessment. First of all any idea on the urgent business that's keeping liz truss away from parliament no so far that's a piece of information that penny board has not seen fit to share uh with the house i've just literally just nipped out the press gallery as i was watching it all in real time because that's how i like to

spend my afternoon um i'll be honest it it's quite thin on the Tory benches. There's lots of green leather on show. Not many people have turned up. Quite a lot of people have turned up. I know for a fact I think the fire minister should go because they've probably told me as much. And there was a lot of looking very busy, sucking on pens and scribbling through phones.

It's a very peculiar atmosphere. I think Penny Maud is doing a, making a reasonable fist of a pretty bad job. And, you know, if you're being really cynical, you might say that someone who turns up and eats the you-know-what sandwich of the Prime Minister might get a bit of credit worth, hypothetically,

there to become a vacancy in Number 10 in the near future. Well, I mean, effectively, it's the Penny Morden audition show, isn't it? Exactly. Shortly followed by the Jeremy Hunt audition show. But who will go through to judges' houses, Matt? We'll simply have to wait and see. That's a big question.

Is there any chance that she rocks up for Jeremy Hunt's statement? I think that would be considered discourteous to the House. It's a bit like saying, you know, turning up after PE and suddenly you've got much better in time for your art lesson at school. I think if you're off sick saying you're not you know turning up after pe and suddenly you've got much better uh in time for your art lesson at school i think if you're off sick you're off sick um so i'd be surprised if maybe she will maybe she will but then you know i think the big thing that lots of people when i've been around the corridor this afternoon talk to tory mp uh is

they just don't know how liz chuff gets through pmqs on wednesday she's managed to dodge this and send penny morden but how does she get through pmqs with Wednesday. She's managed to dodge this and send Penny Morden. But how does she get through PMQs if Keir Starmer's got any wit about him? And as you were saying, the lady's not turning up, it's quite a good joke. You know, she stands up at PMQs.

She says, well, who are you? I'm here to talk to the Prime Minister who seems to be sitting next to you. You know, how does she, literally last week, she promised no spending cuts and boasted that her energy package was going to last two years.

Unlike Labour's, which only lasts six months. Now hers only lasts six months and they're looking at spending cuts. It's sort of impossible really for her to sort of get through that without being humiliated. Maybe she's just a robot who will suck all that up and just keep on ploughing on. But yeah, it's amazing. Given that Jeremy Hunt wasn't the most popular candidate in what two leadership elections that he went through is there something that he has managed to do over the last 24 hours to gain more popularity within the party does that simply

rest on whether the markets go up and the pound doesn't tank again. Yeah, well, actually, I was talking to a Tory MP earlier who suggested that actually Jeremy Hunt's ability to not attract any attention to himself in the most recent Tory leadership contest might actually play to his advantage. He wasn't in one of the big camps. There wasn't loads of muds. You know, he was out of the

contest so early, nobody had to throw any mud at him. So actually, you know, unlike rishi sumac and penny morton who are very clearly in different camps and people have said things about each other and all of that actually him being nobody's first choice might mean that being everybody's eighth choice might be a way through that he could he could unite but i mean you know nobody around here that i've spoken to you know talking with a straight face realistically thinks the toy is going to win the next election they just think that it's it but it's probably worth a go limiting the damage

with someone less okay so let's let's take on board nadine doris um suggestion. Do they fire up the Boris Johnson they've got in the garage there? I mean, even by what we've seen happen in politics for the last few years, the standards of madness that we've seen, I think a Boris Johnson comeback is quite unlikely, particularly given

what they really need is somebody, you know, a bit dull, which everyone can sort of get behind, given that he was so divisive that half of his government uh quit let's remember only about three months ago um i'm not quite sure what the question is to which boris johnson is the answer other than who does nadine doris really really like yeah i don't think i get a sense and i don't know this obviously

because i don't have direct links with the man, but something suggests that Boris Johnson might not want to come back at the moment. There seems to be quite a lot being made about his extensive lucrative deals that he could be getting from the insurance brokers biannual conference in America. So perhaps he'll decide his own fate. Why would he come back to this? He can forever be the aggrieved one removed in his prime who would have led the Tories to victory. Why would anybody want to inherit this

and then lead them to defeat and then he'd be the guy who lost them the election? Now he's the guy who won them a big election and was treated very badly by, you know, when the herd turds. You know, yeah. Are you sometimes the last person to leave the Houses of Parliament

back of a weekday evening? It has been known. Has it? You know, I'll Are you sometimes the last person to leave the Houses of Parliament out of a weekday evening? It has been known. Has it? You know, I'll get the next check. I'll get the next check. Or I'll just have one more check. We'll get the next check. Whether or not that'll be the same tonight, I'm not sure.

There's a big lack of... I've seen a few Tory MPs around, but a lot of them have gone into hiding for some reason. I can't really work that out. Well, they're an urgent business. I did come in to Rishi Sunak earlier, because he owes me a quiz. He'd promised to play our quiz and then he bottled it.

And I asked him when would he play the quiz and he said not for a long time, which I think we can describe as a thinly veiled leadership bid. So Matt Chorley was our eyes and ears on the ground. He's just so happy. He's so happy. I imagine him actually to almost have a little piece of elastic. You know when you hang your gloves off when you're kids? Oh, the mitts.

The mitts, yeah. You know, one mitten off the end of a long piece of elastic around the back of the coat. I think he's basically got that between here and the Houses of Parliament. So you can just ping down a piece of elastic from Times Radio there and back again. I felt very nervy because Lucy Fisher was sitting there talking to us and we knew she had to be in the House of Commons,

but we're at London Bridge. For those of you who don't know London, we're at London Bridge. This is where we're doing the programme and the podcast from. And she had to get to the House of Commons, which is in Westminster. And I was really worried for her, but she seemed as cool as a cucumber about it and claimed she could do it in, what was it she 12 minutes. 12 minutes. Yep. And she was going to use this secret entrance, which I vaguely knew about, but that's just for people with press

passes, isn't it? It is, yep. So you don't have to go up onto the street. You can enter the Houses of Parliament from the tube station. I only know that from a James Bond film. I don't know that from IRL. It's in Skyfall, isn't it? I believe it is. Yeah, because that's what I do think about. I know it sounds funny and he'll be flattered. I think about Daniel Craig every time I go down to the Jubilee line at Westminster.

I bet everybody does. It's like, you know when you go to Baker Street on the tube? Yes. This will be really losing people. You think about Jerry Rafferty. I want to be a person of an age who doesn't start humming Baker Street to themselves when they go through Baker Street. Baker Street.

Yeah, every single time that's been an earworm for me. Sorry, what were you singing? Baker Street. Okay. Well, if you say so. say so. Voice over describes what's happening on your iPhone screen. Voice over on settings.

So you can navigate it just by listening. Books, contacts, calendar, double tap to open. Breakfast with Anna from 10 to 11. And get on with your day. Accessibility. There's more to iPhone. We've got some emails, haven't we? Yeah, we have. We're very grateful to everybody who's emailed us at janeandfee at times.radio. That's how you get in touch with this off-air podcast.

And who is this from? It is from Jackie. I wanted to comment, she said, on changing jobs in your 50s. Last year, I made a move into a new job, one that uses my experience and transferable skills, but in a new area of practice. I found I had seriously underestimated the mental energy such a move would take. And a year on, I still really miss the confidence that many years in my previous role gave me. However, meeting new people and doing new things has been interesting and it was a promotion, so no regrets. For many years, I juggled two jobs, which I found really was the best of both worlds for me, having two sets of colleagues and a variety of work. If I had a bad week in either job, I was only there for three days and that really helped.

On a final note, I wonder how you're coping with the new journey to work after years of broadcasting house. This is the kind of content we listen for. Jackie, thank you so much for that. Jackie would have found it interesting, your musings on tube stations around London. Well, there are more musings to come because Jackie, today I decided,

and I was telling our podcast producer Ben earlier about this, he did lose the will to live during the anecdote earlier. He's about to hear it again. This morning I tried a slightly different public transport route to get here. And do you know what, Fi? It wasn't quicker, but it was quieter and I got a seat. Oh, that's good to know. Which line did you choose?

Well, I don't because people will be trying to find me there, so I don't want to give it away. They really won't, though. No, there are a variety of ways of getting from my home in East West Kensington to this part of London town. And actually, the great thing about London, God, I've got to say, is the brilliant public transport. Well.

Except. Except at night. Yeah, I'm just going to. It's ever so crowded in the evening isn't it yeah i'm gonna say i'm not sure that everybody has a very good experience of london but in answer to jackie's question about changing jobs new 50s jackie no word of a lie i was asleep before 9 30 the first three days i was at times radio on thursday i stayed up until gone 10 and then conked out and slept for about 12 hours so it has a colossal impact on you it does it really does and it's and it is the the tiny things

as well but of course you're never really going to think through when you you know when you think about changing a job but it uh it took me until today uh to realize that I needed that I need a favourite stall in the toilets. Do you have one? Oh, yeah. Don't go in the same one as you, do I? No. Well, I don't know. Well, not at the same time.

Although some girls do do that. But I didn't realise last week that's what I was doing. I was working out which my favourite stall in the ladies' loos are going to be. But I've got that now, so I've nailed that one down. Yeah, which radio station is playing in the loos? Because it's always Madonna or a bit of REO. It's Virgin. It's Virgin, is it?

Okay. Yes, it's very familiar music. I wonder whether in Chris Evans' private toilet facilities they're playing Times Radio. Well, I would hope so. I would hope so too. I'd certainly feel happy on the loo listening to Matt Chorley. Yes.

Well, I think he'd be listening to Stig and Asma, wouldn't he? Oh, yes, that's true. Very first thing in the morning. I've just about got to grips with the lifts. I don't know anybody's names outside of our own little desk area, but I'm smiling a lot at people. And I find that very tiring. What, being nice?

No, meeting lots of people and trying to remember everything about them all at the same time. I like Jackie's idea of having two separate jobs. Well, you see, I was just about to say Jackie's idea of two separate sets of colleagues would be my idea of a nightmare. No, but as she points out, if you were having a bad time in one location, there was always a chance that the next one or the other one would be better. And so you didn't agonise over it.

Because for a lot of people, work can become all-encompassing. And the impact it can have on the rest of their lives, if it's bad, it's colossal, that impact, isn't it? No, very much so. I mean, I think difficult work, colleagues, can really ruin the rest of your life. Move on to another email, please. Stop, Jane.

Rachel says, I'm really enjoying listening to you on live radio. I wanted to raise one point from a programme last week, though. I have a question for you to investigate, and we are very happy to do on live radio. I wanted to raise one point from a programme last week though. I have a question for you to investigate and we are very happy to do that, Rachel. Having just had my autumn Covid booster, I'd like to know why it's possible to purchase a flu vaccine but not a Covid jab. At 48, my husband has paid for his flu jab but is unable to get a Covid booster. What's the reason that the public can't buy a COVID booster? Alternatively, are there any plans for the COVID vaccine availability to be lowered to 40 plus? So we don't know the answers to those questions, but we will. We've got an aches and pains health section coming up in the

programme, I think tomorrow. Oh, is it tomorrow? I mean, we were honestly thinking of calling that slot aches and pains. Yeah, because increasingly when i meet my female friends of my age we do have an aches and pains segment which is usually a bigger segment increasingly bigger than boasting about our kids achievements so some friends of my mum's who obviously are in their 70s and 80s they've got a timer on how long they're allowed to talk when they meet up about aches and pains so they've just got a 10 i think it's i think it's grandchildren as well it's 10 minutes on aches and pains 10 minutes on grandchildren then everyone has to talk about something else yeah yes showbiz maybe are you going to be very cross about the crown will you

watch it am i going to be cross about the crown uh it's like a national sport isn't it being outraged by the yes the liberties they take so i think i say to myself, because I know that it is a fictionalised account of events and I will not let John Major's reputation be tarnished in my memory. So now I feel free to watch it. So I think I'll probably be hypocritical, like what most people might be. And watch every single moment. Yes. And then be appalled by it.

Absolutely outraged. You've got to watch every single moment. Yes. And then be appalled by it. Absolutely outraged. You've got to watch it for work. I'm amazed that you've already got the download password and you haven't watched it all already. No, I was just busy yesterday. I find it, because we were away doing one of our book shows at the weekend. And so, you know when you've only got one day of the weekend

properly at home? Because I went from our book show in Harrogate to see my student daughter in the northeast of England. And I mentioned last week I was going to visit her student property for the first time. And good news is there wasn't a fork on the floor, like covered in carpet fluff, which was a sight that just revolted me in my older daughter's student property but i can say that the kitchen sink in this establishment was absolutely full of food what the actual mesh yes nobody had been prepared to take responsibility for it and i said my daughter and i were on our own in the house i I said, look, just give me the rubber gloves and I'll see to it. Because I can't really go back to London knowing that this is the ongoing scene in this sink. But she wouldn't let me because she said everybody else would laugh at her.

But I did, before I left, I'm afraid, I did sweep the kitchen floor. Oh, good God. Well, I just couldn't look at it. I just couldn't look at the bits and the bobs. Did it slightly squeak when you walked on it? And it was sticky. And there were bin bags everywhere. It just needed one person to take control.

And that person was? Jane Garvey. Well, I only made that small gesture of sweeping the kitchen floor. I wasn't prepared to do anything else. I don't know what age you get to. Perhaps some people never get to the age where there's the level of mess is simply intolerable and you have to act and you don't care that it's not your responsibility you'll act because you don't want to see it again at what age does that occur well i think it depends

whether you get married or not doesn't it well what i was also going to say was when you've only got one proper day at home the weekend so, my bloody feet didn't touch the ground. It was just one long load of washing, sorting. I'm with you on that. I did four loads of washing yesterday. That's what I mean. Sheets, towels. Got to get it all tidy for the week.

Got to get my systems in place. Well, I feel I did. Now, do you want to read the email that's a compliment to you? Well, I can do that. Yes, it's in bold. Thank you very much for that, Ben. It's from Mark, who says, I'm loving the new show. I've listened to Fee Glover since the early evening London local radio show in 1994.

I thought that at that time she had the delivery style of a stand-up comic. You haven't lost it. Not for me, anyway. So that's very kind. Thank you for digging out that memory. And I'm going to make you the inaugural member, Mark, of the Slough Cooperative. Willing to take more. By the way, I was only born in Slough. Just, you know, just in case they're thinking of giving me the keys to the city.

Then I have to say, I've been here for a while, actually. You just couldn't be arsed going to the ceremony, could you? So that's the last thing you want. So make sure out there in Slough that you have paid full attention and you want to honor one of your most famous people someone who'd be forever honored to be connected with your borough now we do love hearing from you i think this is likely to be quite what we call in the trade a busy news week but nevertheless it was lovely today during the live show to get lots of interaction from people i mean it always takes a little while to get going when you start a new programme, doesn't it?

It does. But things were quite lively this afternoon. We're very, very grateful. So keep it coming. You can tweet at Times Radio or you can email us at any time you like. Jane and Fee at Times.Radio. We look forward to hearing from you and you can choose the topic. You don't have to wait for it to come up in our slightly weird middle-aged minds because you might be waiting a long time so anything that you'd like to talk to us about we're very happy

to hear from you and our big guest tomorrow we're both really looking forward to this is elizabeth day who's a lovely woman she's a little bit of a showbiz pal of both of ours but we won't let that in any way cloud our judgment or will we uh that's tomorrow on the live radio show and i dare say on off air as well. Shuffle papers, go home! You have been listening to Off Air with Jane Garvey and Fee Glover. Our Times Radio producer is Rosie Cutler and the podcast executive producer is Ben Mitchell.

Now you can listen to us on the free Times Radio app or you can download every episode from wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget that if you like what you heard and thought, hey, I want to listen to this, but live, then you can, Monday to Thursday, 3 till 5 on Times Radio. Embrace the live radio jeopardy. Thank you for listening and hope you can join us off air very soon.

Goodbye. screen voiceover on settings so you can navigate it just by listening books contacts calendar double tap to open breakfast with anna from 10 to 11 and get on with your day accessibility there's more to iphone