Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A politician who became the leader of the Conservative Party six months ago, with a first from Oxford, and only five years as an MP.
On the island
Eight records
Tangled Up in BlueFavourite
I think this song is him at you know, his most poetic. And I've chosen the live version because he actually changes some of the lyrics in the live version. And I think the sound of the audience listening to him and responding would help me feel less alone on my desire.
Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)
Well this would really just remind me of my childhood. ... And when you're asked to sing a song, this is this is, I'm afraid, about the only song which the words I can always remember all of them.
One of my great friends in life and at university, we were in the same sort of almost next door rooms in Brasenose, called James Ferguson, and he had a guitar and he was notoriously slow at learning it. And it took him a whole term, I think, to just get to Wish You Were Here ... I'd always think of him and happy times at university.
um well this is Mendelssohn's On Wings of Song, um which was sung at our wedding um in nineteen ninety six and it was I mean it's still when I look back it's still sort of the happiest day of my life.
Radiohead's one of my favourite bands, and Fake Plastic Trees is a beautiful song. And I went to a Radiohead concert the other day, met Tom York and ... I asked I sent rather a sort of sad letter saying I'd love to come to the concert. Thank you for inviting me. P. S. Please play this my favourite song. And he did.
I probably don't agree with lead singer Morrissey about anything. He's a passionate vegetarian, and I'm a big meat-eater. But when he burst onto the scene and appeared on top of the pops with the flowers hanging out the back of his trousers and the NHS hearing aid, it was a sort of iconic moment for people of my age and generation.
Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe
when Sam and I uh first started going out with each other, we didn't share that much in the way of musical tastes and and we were living quite different lives. ... but one thing we did agree on that early R. E. M. was good and this would remind me of those days of driving down to Bristol to her student flat and um ... falling in love.
All These Things That I've Done
Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning, Mark Stoermer, Ronnie Vannucci Jr.
this is quite up to date. This is all these things I've done by the killers and this whenever I'm tired and I've got to sort of go out and do something, this song just wakes me up and lifts me and I think, yes, off we go. And I listened to it a lot during the sort of leadership election when I was sort of thinking about the next speech or ... The next idea
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:29How do you combine a high-profile job like leader of the Conservative Party with a family life?
Well, I hope it doesn't [eat you alive]. And I don't think it's, you know, impossible to combine a high-profile job and a family life. You just have to lay down some clear boundaries. Well, I try not to leave home in the morning before about quarter to eight because I help get our children up ... and I try to make sure that a couple of nights a week I'm back in decent time ... to sort of bath the kids and do that. But you've you've got to try and keep a balance, not just for the family, but also I think ... It helps you make better decisions.
Presenter asks
17:20How did you feel when you first realized something was wrong with your son Ivan?
There was a few days I mean only a few days and we went home. To Sam's parents' house in Oxfordshire, and we just noticed he was having these sort of strange movements, very sudden, jerky movements. ... initially we were told it was fine and then we took him to hospital and they ran some tests and said that he had this very rare condition which has very poor outcomes ... And so it was a sort of complete shock.
Presenter asks
18:46Was there a moment when you realized you could cope with looking after Ivan?
The keepsakes
The book
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
I love cooking and I think his books are brilliant and also he manages to make recipes out of make brilliant food out of whatever is available. A lot of offal. A lot of offal, you'd be e but everything from eel to uh a pig's trotter, which I tried to cook the other day and it was disgusting. I think it's a brilliant book and I love food. I'm very greedy and I'd sit there cooking away.
The luxury
I love a little drink late at night, reflecting on the day, and I love drinking whisky, so I thought I'd take a crate of whisky, possibly from Jura. We go there every year. Total peace, lovely sandy beaches. So I'd sit supping away, looking out to sea, and thinking of my friends and Sam and all the people I'd been missing.
It is [a surreal experience] because it it hits you like a um like almost morning. Um, the loss of something because I think you're you're mourning the gap between your expectation and and what what has happened ... But there was a sort of moment I remember driving. home from the John Rective Hospital and just thinking, you know ... We're gonna get through this. And thinking, you know, if what if we can't do a good job and look after him, you know. then we failed. And and I think, you know, we do we do our best.
Presenter asks
21:59What fundamental conservative beliefs ring big bells with you?
At the heart of everything I say and do and what the Conservative Party stands for are two big principles. The first is trusting people, is trying in everything to give more power and responsibility to people and to families. And the second is sharing responsibility, recognising that Conservatives believe that government doesn't have all the answers.
Presenter asks
27:00Do you rule out a coalition with the Liberal Democrats?
Well, I I want to win the election outright, and I don't think it's sensible to ... speculate on what might happen if there was a hung parliament. ... I'm ruling in the attempt to win the next election outright.
“I think it's fair in in life to say, you know, you're entitled to a private past that can be both private and in the past. And whereas as a politician today, people are entitled to, you know, poke around and have a look at my life, and they do, and and that's that's fine.”
“What you can do in life, I think, is work out what you think the right dividing line is. And I think the right dividing line is a past that's private when you didn't know you were going to be a politician and you probably said and did things you shouldn't have done. And the current, where you put yourself forward and you're in public life.”
“It is true the first law of politics is is sort of don't screw up. But the main thing is, do you know what needs to be done? Have we got the right ideas and right values for dealing with those things? I think we have. But it's it's tough, there will be mistakes, and as you're right, there is always the risk. That your best won't be good enough.”