Outsourcing the Death Star: What fiction and fantasy can teach us about government

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2020

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’ve all had quite enough reality for one year. In an IfG Christmas special, we ask what fictional and fantasy worlds can teach us about governing. What does the collapse of the Republic in Star Wars tell us about Brexit? Does the Harry Potter universe need drastic democratic reform? In the real world, who nails life in government better: Borgen or The West Wing? And where’s the Public Inquiry into the murder epidemic in Midsomer? James Graham – our greatest political playwright and the pen behind This House, Quiz and Brexit: The Uncivil War – is our guest for this special holiday edition. “Dramas like The West Wing let you take an institution like the Presidency and stress-test it in a fictional environment… You get to enjoy the absurdities in a safe place.” – James Graham “What does Obi-Wan Kenobi tell Anakin? ‘Only the Sith deal in extremes’. Star Wars is a love letter to social democracy and George Lucas is the ultimate centrist dad.” – James Graham “Midsomer badly needs a place-based approach to crime prevention.” – Alice Lilly “The Death Star? That’s no moon, that’s a failed Government mega-project.” – Gavin Freeguard “The Thick Of It essentially predicted the Big Society with its ‘Fourth Sector Pathfinders’.” – Emma Norris Presented by Cath Haddon with Alice Lilly, Emma Norris and Gavin Freeguard. Audio production by Alex Rees 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, I'm Catherine Hadden, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government.
0:14.6	Thanks for joining this special IFG festive gathering for what we are hoping will be a little escape.
0:20.5	We thought, given lockdown and the horrible year it's been, it's time for us to cover something
0:24.9	a little bit lighter.
0:26.1	Now, as I'm sure you're aware, in the IFG we obsess about government, but like many of you,
0:30.4	we've also had our year dominated by watching lots of stuff.
0:34.3	TV, box sets, stream plays, you name it.
0:37.4	So, like the best IFG trips to the pub,
0:40.1	also not been possible this year, why not combine the two? So for this week only, we're going
0:45.3	to talk government and TV and possibly a few films. What shows cover government and politics
0:50.4	the best? What do they get right? What do they get wrong? What hills are our resident
0:55.1	experts prepared to die on when it comes to egregious mistakes? And what shows and films are
1:00.1	really about government, but you just don't know it? We are going to reveal a few of our favourites
1:04.6	and explore the hidden effective government angles in various drama, comedy, sci-fi and fantasy.
1:12.2	So we could have had the whole IFG on this particular podcast, but we had to limit the guests. I'm very pleased to be joined
1:17.5	by some true fictional government experts. First up is Alice Lilly. As well as being a parliamentary
1:23.5	expert, Alice also likes all the same stuff as me. So total groupthink will follow. Alice,
1:28.9	thank you for being here. Thanks, Kath. And I'm also very pleased to have back the recently
1:33.3	departed from IFG, but never truly gone Gavin Freeguard, Gavin Love Data and Digital, and films
1:40.1	about data and digital. Gavin, welcome back. Thank you very much, Kath. That's a very, very niche
1:46.1	film category. Well, you can show that off later. And also joining us is our Director of Research,
1:51.8	Emma Norris. Emma and I both agree on our assessment of the undoing. Sorry, we're not that
	...

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