What on earth is the national interest?

Analysis

BBC

Government, Politics, News

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Should we be sceptical when politicians claim to act in "the national interest"? The phrase is frequently trotted out to elevate policy and actions as unimpeachably serving us all. But what does it actually mean? So far the Oxford English Dictionary has steered clear of pinning down this "slippery" term. Mark Damazer digs up its historical roots and talks to politicians, prime-ministerial speechwriters and policymakers to define a term that can obscure as much as it elucidates. Is its use just cynical high grounding or does it speak of a sincere effort to disentangle policy from personal or party interests? Is the national interest best served by a strong civic landscape where differing visions of “the national interest” are free to battle it out?

Presenter: Mark Damazer Producer: David Reid Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors: Michael Gove, Minister for Levelling up, Housing and Communities Angela Rayner, shadow deputy prime minister and shadow levelling up secretary Phil Collins, former prime-ministerial speechwriter Munira Mirza, former Director of the No10 Policy Unit Dame Linda Colley, Professor of History at Princeton Fiona McPherson, Senior Editor at the Oxford English Dictionary, specialising in new words

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.6	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.4	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable
0:14.3	experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC
0:20.4	makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Thank you for listening to this edition of Analysis, the podcast that looks at the ideas behind the news.
0:42.0	In this episode, Markizer investigates the origins and current
0:45.9	usage of the politician's favorite phrase. What on earth is the national interest. This is not a decision I've taken lightly, but I do believe it's in the national interest to have a period of stability.
1:01.0	Weeks spent tearing ourselves apart
1:03.4	will only create more division.
1:05.2	None of that would be in the national interest.
1:08.3	He's literally in hiding.
1:09.5	He's got to go.
1:10.7	And of course there's a party advantage in him going, but actually it's now in the national interest that he goes.
1:16.0	I have acted in the national interest to make sure that we have economic stability.
1:22.0	This is in our national interest.
1:23.0	This is in the national interest.
1:25.0	It's against our national interest.
1:27.0	It's everywhere.
1:28.0	Everybody is at it. You can't escape it.
	...

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