EXTRA: Tony Blair on Coronavirus one year on

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2021

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As we pass a year since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in the UK, the Institute for Government is delighted to welcome Tony Blair, Executive Chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to reflect on the last 12 months – and look ahead to the lasting impact of the pandemic and the challenges this poses for politicians and policy makers. What lessons have we learned over the last 12 months? How can countries adapt to the continuing existence of Covid-19? What does ‘returning to normal’ really mean in the year ahead? How will the pandemic change the UK? How will it change the world? Tony Blair is in conversation with Bronwen Maddox, Director of the Institute for Government. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome. This is an audio recording of an IFG live event.
0:07.0	Good afternoon and welcome. I'm delighted to welcome you to the Institute today for this discussion with Tony Blair on this inescapable question, coronavirus year on.
0:18.0	I'm Bronwyn Maddox, the director of the Institute. A few brief housekeeping
0:22.7	notes that we have to say. Do start sending in questions as soon as you want. That really
0:27.7	means from now onwards. Type your question into the Q&A box at the side on the right of your
0:33.2	screen and we'll get those immediately. We're going to be live tweeting from IFG events using the
0:38.0	hashtag IFG Blair. Please do join us with that. And we'll have a video and sound recording on our
0:44.1	website within 24 hours, just in case you want to see this again. As you'll hardly need reminding,
0:51.3	Tony Blair was the UK's Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, winning
0:55.7	three consecutive elections. Among many achievements, which may be relevant to our discussion
1:00.7	today about coronavirus, he secured the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, set devolution in motion,
1:07.1	and tripled the UK's aid to Africa. Since leaving office, he spent a lot of his time on improving
1:13.1	government, countering extremism, and working in the Middle East, much of that through the Tony Blair
1:18.9	Institute for Global Change. His institutes commented extensively during the coronavirus crisis
1:24.7	and has published two reports in the past week on this.
1:28.5	One last week on lessons from the lockdown and how that should inform the new roadmap,
1:33.0	and one today called the new necessary on how to prepare for pandemics of the future,
1:39.0	which it thinks will be with us.
1:41.4	I should note that the IFG has published a report as well on the roadmap, and you can find
1:45.8	it on our website. Tony Blair himself is also credited by the Telegraph with having had a good
1:51.3	pandemic, slightly unfortunate phrase, but he indeed did argue early on for many of the steps that
1:58.0	the government has later taken, such as a gap between vaccine doses.
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