Interested in who John Healey is & what he thinks. Listen to his recent interview on Political Thinking bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002z8…

“We’ve got a plan. We’ve been working on it for a year. Andy can take & has already taken difficult decisions.”. That is the message coming from the woman who looks set to be the next PM’s fixer. Listen to Louise Haigh in conversation with me on Political Thinking now bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002yv…

Morgan McSweeney - the “most powerful unelected official in the country” & “a latter-day Thomas Cromwell” - has never given an interview. He has now. Coming up on Political Thinking on @bbcsounds the man credited with securing Labour’s landslide & blamed for the failures of Starmer’s government.

In these globally turbulent times one man has regularly acted as a wise, thoughtful and witty guide for listeners of @BBCr4today. The former Head of MI6 Sir Alex Younger has analysed, explained and contextualised the actions of Trump, Putin, Xi and the Ayatollahs. After he first appeared in the programme I was lucky enough to get to know Alex and call him my friend. I’m desperately sad to hear the news I’ve long feared was coming. Alex has died after months trying to cheat the prognosis he was given whe. They discovered the tumour he nicknamed “Putin”. We’re always told not to speak of a fight with cancer because it risks implying that only those strong enough survive. I understand that. I really do but sod it. Alex fought so hard to find a treatment to give him a little longer to be with Sarah and their lovely children. And he used every last minute of the short time he did have to be with family and friends and to do what he spent a lifetime in the shadows doing - using his intelligence to understand the world, to explain it but, above all, to keep us all safe.