Political Currency

George Osborne is a former chancellor of the exchequer who served in David Cameron's Conservative government. He was fired as chancellor after Theresa May became prime minister in the aftermath of the 2016 Brexit referendum. Although tipped to be Cameron's successor as prime minister at one time,{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/analysis-george-osborne-inspired-the-tory-faithful-but-will-he-ever-be-leader-9763459.html |title=Analysis: George Osborne inspired the Tory faithful, but will he ever be leader? |author=Andrew Grice |date=29 September 2014 |access-date=16 September 2023 |newspaper=The Independent |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402111226/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/analysis-george-osborne-inspired-the-tory-faithful-but-will-he-ever-be-leader-9763459.html |archive-date=2 April 2015 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |url=http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/60665/osborne-may-or-johnson-who-is-winning-the-leadership-race |title=Tory leader race: Osborne's defeat boosts rival Boris |date=1 October 2014 |work=The Week |access-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402163724/http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/60665/osborne-may-or-johnson-who-is-winning-the-leadership-race |archive-date=2 April 2015 |url-status=live}} Osborne eventually left parliament in 2017. Subsequently, he was the editor of the Evening Standard and currently serves as the chair of the British Museum and joined coinbase as an advisor.

Ed Balls served in New Labour governments, first as Tony Blair's economic secretary to the treasury and later as Gordon Brown's secretary of state for children and families and served a more unofficial role as advisor both when Brown was chancellor and Prime minister. During Osborne's time in government, Balls was Ed Miliband's shadow chancellor shadowing Osborne. He lost his Morley and Outwood parliamentary seat in 2015 and retired from politics. He has since taught at Harvard and King's College, London, as well as taken part in reality TV shows. He also presents Good Morning Britain a morning talk show.

In June 2023, Persephonica announced that Osborne and Balls would host an economics-focused political podcast.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/jun/29/were-frenemies-george-osborne-and-ed-balls-to-launch-economics-podcast |title='We're frenemies': George Osborne and Ed Balls to launch economics podcast |date=29 June 2023 |author=Jim Waterson |work=The Guardian |access-date=16 September 2023}}

Since it was announced and debuted, several commentators noted the podcast's similarity to The Rest is Politics, a successful podcast hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart.{{cite news |title=Best of frenemies: do centrist podcasts mark end of political divide? |author=Chas Newkey-Burden |url=https://theweek.com/politics/best-of-frenemies-do-centrist-podcasts-mark-end-of-political-divide |date=12 September 2023 |website=The Week |access-date=16 September 2023}}{{cite news |title=George Osborne and Ed Balls have no political currency |author=Nicholas Harris |url=https://unherd.com/thepost/george-osborne-and-ed-balls-have-no-political-currency/ |date=15 September 2023 |website=UnHerd |access-date=16 September 2023}} Like Balls and Osborne, Campbell and Stewart belong to the Labour and Conservative parties respectively.

Rachel Cunliffe of the New Statesman was critical of the podcast, calling it a "howl of nostalgia for a bygone era", where Osborne and Balls were seeking political relevancy after having had their political careers ended years back. Nicholas Harris noted similarly on UnHerd, quipping that the podcast has an ironic name, "a resource of which these men are utterly spent".

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Category:2023 podcast debuts

Category:British podcasts

Category:Political podcasts