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The Week in Westminster

Factual: Politics

Radio 4's weekly assessment of developments at Westminster

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Week in Westminster

The Week in Westminster: 27/03/2010

27/03/2010

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Peter Oborne of the Daily Mail presents half an hour of topical political discussion.

Peter Oborne of the Daily Mail presents half an hour of topical political discussion. What does this week's Budget tell us about the battlelines for the general election?

Peter Oborne of the Daily Mail reviews a hectic political week as this parliament enters its closing days.

To review Alistair Darling's pre-election budget, he turns to Charles Lewington - once press secretary to the Conservative Prime Minister, John Major - and to Paul Richards, who was a special adviser to Hazel Blears when she sat in the Cabinet.

What is their take on the budget? And how far does it reveal the battlelines of the general election which is expected to be called in just a few days time? 

Also in the programme:

* The week has been marked by the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat from London after fake British passports were used by the Israeli assassins of a Hamas leader in Dubai.

Here, the former Conservative foreign secretary, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, and the former Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Cambell, weigh the state of relations between Israel and the UK.

* Three former ministers have been suspended from the Labour Party after being caught in a TV 'sting'. They were filmed discussing how they might work for an American lobbying company. 

Here, the Liberal Democrat's shadow leader of the Commons, David Heath, and lobbyist Mark Adams ask what the three did wrong.

* Finally, two veterans reflect on the closing days of this parliament - and look ahead to the next. The Conservative, Sir Peter Tapsell, will become the oldest member of the Commons if, at 80 , he is re-elected as an MP. Labour's Bob Marshall-Andrews is stepping down. Why do they think this has been 'the saddest parliament'. 

Editor: Peter Mulligan.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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27/03/2010

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