I'm Zanni Minton-Bettos, the Economist's Editor-in-Chief.
Welcome back to The Insider.
This week, we are focusing on a topic close to home, the state of Britain,
because this country is in many ways a case study for how the political centre deals with an insurgent populist right.
And to discuss this, as always, is my deputy editor and partner in crime, Ed Carl.
Very nice to see you.
Hi, Zanni.
And our Britain editor, Sasha Nauter, back on the show.
Nice to see you, Sasha.
Hi, Zanni.
And for the first time, our budget columnist Duncan Robinson.
Very nice to see you, Duncan.
Thanks for having me.
So yesterday, as you know, because you were there with me,
I went to Downing Street to speak to our prime minister, our beleaguered prime minister, Kia Stama.
And we're going to unpack during today's show some of what he told me.
But I really want to focus this discussion, I think, on three separate issues.
The first is the stakes.
Is it really true, as I suspect, that this is the kind of last chance saloon for mainstream?
politics across many countries in Europe, including the UK.