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A weekly look inside British politics from the BBC

*** This programme is no longer on-air, but please listen to our archive of available episodes ***

Issues affecting British social and political life.

*** This programme is no longer on-air, but please listen to our archive of available episodes ***

Politics UK is the weekly programme that covers British political and policy issues, economic and cultural change and Britain’s standing in Europe and the rest of the world in a way that is relevant to an international audience.  
It's the flagship programme for UK political analysis and debate on the BBC World Service.  
Leading politicians, commentators and intellectuals take part each week to discuss and reflect on the main events shaping British politics.

Politics UK

Politics UK Archive: 19/11/2010 Ireland in crisis | Cabinet Government revived

Factual: Politics

19/11/2010

19/11/2010 Ireland in crisis | Cabinet Government revived

BBC World Service - Politics UK Archive, 19/11/2010 Ireland in crisis | Cabinet Government revived

The Irish financial crisis calls the future of the Euro into question, with Susan Hulme.

How the Celtic Tiger became an endangered species as Ireland struggles with a renewed financial crisis...we look at the future for Ireland. Presented by Susan Hulme.

The Irish financial crisis calls the future of the Euro into question. But the failure of the currency would affect countries outside the eurozone, including Britain. Is pouring good money after bad really going to save the day? David Cameron's Downing Street is staffed by the friends and colleagues of the opposition years.  How different is his Government from the Blair/Brown version? And yes minister: Cabinet Government revived and why some members of the Civil Service have a spring in their step, inspite of the cuts. All that in Politics UK presented by Susan Hulme.


This week has seen Ireland, a member of the Eurozone, increasingly backed into a financial corner, with its European partners pressing on it a big loan, to restore confidence in Irish banks. Ireland has borrowed eyewatering sums and not surprisingly, her creditors have been taking fright about whether they'll ever see their money again. To discuss how Ireland's reached its predicament, we spoke to Allister Heath, Editor of the financial newspaper, City AM, and we began by asking him about the scale of the problem.

The United Kingdom, of course, is not a member of the Eurozone - but it's taking an intense interest in the fortunes of its Irish cousin - given the close economic, trading and, indeed, personal links between the two. The UK's border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, sees people passing between the two countries every day for business, work and pleasure. Hence - a Conservative MP, Peter Bone, this week demanded an urgent statement from the British government on the situation.  We brought him into our studios together with Wayne David, the Opposition Labour spokesman on Europe, to discuss the implications of these loans and the future sovereignty of Ireland.

The outcry last week about David Cameron enrolling his own photographer and film maker onto the public pay roll as Civil Servants, been assuaged by the latest announcement that this will not now happen. The pair will now be paid once again, out of his Conservative Party's funds. We discussed the make up of civil servant and special advisors who surround the Prime Minister and his family. Sue Cameron writes for the Financial Times and Melissa Kite, for the Sunday Telegraph.

The civil service is critical to any government being able to achieve anything it wants to do.  That's nothing new, as the Director of the British Museum, Neil McGregor, explained in his recent BBC radio series, "A History of the World in a Hundred Objects".  One of the objects he chose was a document -  a stamp of state from the Ottoman Empire -  to be used as a symbol of authority by a senior bureaucrat in a far-flung part of the empire. 

Lord Butler had a 37 year career as a Civil Servent and was Head of the Civil Service under three Prime Ministers. He came into the studio and started by explaining how the British Civil Service was created.

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