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Episode
The Master of Tory Secrets: What MPs Really Get Up To... (Simon Hart)
Views
62K
0.3× the show’s average
Episode62K
Show avg212K
Published
17mo ago
Apr 7, 2025
Length
58m
show avg 1h 04m
From the show
Chapters
Why do the wrong people become MPs? How can we transform Westminster into a modern day workplace? How did Simon Hart’s time at The Countryside Alliance inform his politics? Rory and Alastair are joined by the ex-Tory Chief Whip, Simon Hart, to discuss all this and more. Just head to therestispolitics.com to sign up, or start a free trial today on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/therestispolitics.
- 0:00Intro
- 1:28Political background: from Countryside Alliance to Welsh Secretary and Chief Whip.
- 2:06Fox hunting and House of Lords reform
- 6:08The decline of rural farming and political neglect of upland farms and smallholders.
- 9:26Brexit discussion
- 12:27Hart’s accidental rise into politics and rural roots
- 14:05“Being a Tory meant you could have a sense of humor”—Hart’s ideological shift explained
- 15:11What does a Chief Whip actually do?
- 18:40Parliament’s lack of pastoral care for new MPs
- 21:03Why Hart titled his book Ungovernable
- 24:00Why politics resists reform
- 25:19Rory’s rise was slow—was it a talent issue or the system? How reshuffles really work
Mentioned
Names dropped
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