Hello, hello, I'm Hugo Rifkin, and now we're going to be unpacking the politics of the day

and the stuff that's even more important than politics too.

And joining me are two of the cleverest of clever clogs from The Times and the Sunday Times.

And they are the host of the story podcast, Manvine Rana. Hello, Manveen.

Hello.

Here on time.

Yes.

He says in a not at all passive-aggressive way.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You know, I'd rather have Manveen than cake. Manvine and cake, a bonus.

And also, our economist Fraser Nelson, hello Fraser. Good morning. How are you?

Very well, thank you. I think very trim. Haircuts. Works well on radio. It works well on radio. It works every couple of months. Right, yeah. But I wanted to look the part talking to you.

That's very important.

I mean, haircuts on radio.

Just vital, vital, yeah.

You should see the state of mine.

Look, let's crack on this.

An awful lot I want to cover with you guys while I've got you.

Growth.

The UK economy grew by 0.1% in the last quarter of 2024, which is better than expected, if we can believe that.

It's Rachel Reeves' birthday today, lucky, lucky her, but she won't necessarily feel like celebrating. Here she was speaking to reporters earlier.

I'm still not satisfied with the level of growth that our economy is achieving, and that's

why I am determined to go further and faster in delivering the economic

...