YouSaid · the spoken record

Andy Street

lines on the record: 48
first: 2020-01-30
most recent: 2020-01-30
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“No brown sauce. That's really the difference between Manstrom Burma. But faggots and peas, you would get in the black country, and I'd be there for that.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm sorry. It would have to be the avocado on toast. And you'd say, Where is your brummy roots there? I'd be stoned in the boring for that.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That said, I'd love to do that. I see that in my retirement. I'm quite sociable oddly enough. I love sort of throwing places open and being the mine host bit. So yeah, I'd quite like to do that. It sounds bonkers, but there's a part of it. The”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I would do this. I would love just immediately to go and have a few days at my place in Wales or a few weeks. I love the escaping from it all in the Welsh Hills. But to be clear, I don't want that to happen. I want to win again in May and carry on.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I honestly don't know, and that is that might sound completely ridiculous, Nick, but it's something I've always believed concentrate on today and tomorrow will look after itself. You've talked to Brilliant.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's probably the way I'll go. Interestingly, lots of the Labour mayors have been MPs before and have stepped out, so it's going reverse at the moment. But I think in time that will turn fully around. But there's also an interesting question, isn't there, about whether you have to be an MP to be really in that top influential team? I mean, we've seen capable people who've been brought into cabinet roles, that said before. I know there's a whole issue of scrutiny, but I do think this notion that Gordon Brown had as the, what did he call it, the goats of all the towns. There was something really important behind that, actually.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that is exactly what I'm talking about, Nick. It happens in most advanced countries. It hasn't happened here for at least 100 years. So I hope it will. This is a proving ground for people to come through to draw people of different talent into the political world. How did it?”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I hope so. But I think, to be honest, there's not that much evidence of it yet. I don't want to go on too much about HS2, but I think that's been a really interesting example where it might have started to have an influence, actually. So if you were to ask, well, this was said on Andrew Maher last Sunday morning, who's been the ringleader, his word, the advocate of HS2, it was me as a regional mayor. It wasn't a member of the Tory cabinet. And I think there's something there about no one put in my election box go and do that, but you step forward into it, you champion something. So I think that has been influential, actually. What I really hope will happen in time is we'll get to the sort of French or US model where mayors from around the country then come into London to influence the national debate. We just haven't had that yet. I hope it will come.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's two interesting things about this. Yes is the answer. I am not the conservative mayor, servant of the conservative party. I'm the mayor. Servant of the region cross party, cross communities. And I think this is really important, actually. You're there to champion the region. Labour Party, to be honest, would love to position me as Boris's man in Solahill. Not true. You're there to champion the region. And on occasion, you with your Labour colleagues locally will challenge your party and national government. It's very important that you're willing to do that. And also, the mayors work together as a team as well. Cross-party. So I hope Andy Burnham would say the same. When we've got Common Cause, we work together.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is true. There is a biases probably a bit of an emotive word, but it's true. If the calculation is simply about the economic upside, it is bound to be an easier calculation if you've got a bigger economy that's growing faster in London. So you put more money into that, and lo and behold, it grows faster and other areas get left behind. And I had this debate head-to-head with Philip Hammond, secured funding for some of our big housing developments, and it was quite tough to persuade him. In the end, he saw the logic, he came on board, but it's quite hard. So I would like those rules to change.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it's actually probably means retaining some of the taxes that are already paid. You think of lots of taxes are paid locally. We know how much vehicle excise duty, stamp duty, local VAT is raised in Manchester, is raised in the West Midlands. Let's retain some of that. But it does also mean some of those things about borrowing against future investments. And actually one thing that's already happened, which is a bit technical, but both Birmingham and Manchester are trialling this, is keeping the business rates, the increase in business rates that we drive through improved activity in the regions. That's a lovely closed loop and it rewards success. So we could have more of that as well.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We want more power. Now that might sound begging bowl the Oliver thing, but let me just explain. At the moment, any financial decision that we take, we're really asking London for the money. We don't really have a tax raising or retaining power. Now that's in complete contrast if you think to the lender in Germany, big cities in the US, that can't be right. So the next real moment here is let's actually put some financial responsibility with these areas of the country, enable them to build their own economies that way.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's a long, long way to go. So I jumped into this because I thought it was the right solution for our region and other regions as well. And we think the scorecard is looking okay. And now bluntly, I'm looking to Boris to go the next step because we've been treading water. His own background as mayor of London, he knows how big economies can be driven by local decision making. We've seen that work in London. Can you imagine London now without a mayor? Probably not. It's exactly the same in other areas of the country. So I think he will enable us to go further.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I haven't, well, no, that's not true. Obviously, the Brexit debate is quite simple. Hazel time was anything but a Brexiteer. Boris was a clear Brexiteer, but Hester believed in... Two things. He believed in huge infrastructure investment. We probably wouldn't have had Canary Wharf without him. We all look back and say, brilliant, Boris will find his equivalents to that. And he also believed in lots of the supply side piece of the economy, improving skills, improving transport. And that's, I think, what Boris means as well. And we're going to see that come through. This HS2 decision, I would say, is an example of Zreza de Heser.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I think you're right. I was a remainer. I was not a right-winger Eve been. I've always been a very moderate conservative. If you ask me for a hero, I guess it would have to be Michael Hesseltine, who really delivered the conservative message brilliantly, but my goodness, he was very moderate. Now, to Boris, he was a very moderate mayor of London. I was very proud, pleased with his mayoralty in London, and I suspect we are going to see the same moderate Conservative leader emerge. And that's what I'm looking forward to. It's interesting.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Nonsense, nonsense. You take yourself to Birmingham. We have two of the best stores in the world, the biggest Primark at one end of the world, biggest Prime Mark department store in the world is there, very successful and an incredibly successful Selfridges business as well. Opposite ends of the spectrum, both thriving on the high street, almost no online presence, and it tells you the story. You've got to be distinct.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Depend that's for them to judge not me, but to be in a market that's falling, you've got to do something different is my point.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was lucky. Our timing was great. But do you know, you do make your own luck in a sense. So this is the other thing I learned from business. You don't get good returns by just doing the same as everybody else. And our big thought was we're going to get on the online train before anybody else. I remember where we sat around as a board deciding to do it. And the word I used was we're going to put our chip down on red. And red was we're going to be a great online retailer. That was 08 in the teeth of the crash. And other people said, you're...”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The first one, the breakthrough one, was, of course, the Billy Joel soundtrack, Always A Woman, The Woman Maturing through the Years, and John Lewis is there for you ever. But the interesting story behind that was the brief to the agency was advertise trust. Now, that's a lot more difficult than advertise the fact that Lawn Mowers are 50% off in a conventional Easter ad or something. So it was this sort of emotional concept we want to get across because we understood that that was John Lewis's difference. So it was all designed to make you think these people are very trustworthy. I want to do the special things in my life there. So yeah, but they used to bring me the ad the night before it screened in this what I wouldn't actually looking back on it describe as a charade of approval and they were just sort of patting the MD on the head saying, you know, he's had a look. But that's okay. I trusted the people and that's how you run businesses. You get great people around you, let them do their stuff.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“that we all teared up at. Well, I'm a great believer that the leader only does one thing, and that's recruit somebody else who's going to do it brilliantly. So I chose the marketing director and chose the ad agency. They did the creative stuff. I'm not that creative. It would have been a disaster if I'd done that. But I think there's a sort of principle there, choose good people and let them loose.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I hope they are. And please, I'm not saying that we should move wholesale away. You think of how conventionally owned companies, particularly in the health industry, the drugs industry, have driven some incredible innovation. They've changed society for the better. So I'm not sitting here saying that's all bad, but I do genuinely believe that in some sectors, that idea of communities coming together, particularly where the service piece is huge or where there's got to be a lot of people committed to working in unison, there's an opportunity there. So I hope we'll look more at that.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Social enterprise, it exists basically, it exists for social good and its success is shared back with its owners in some form. It can be a mutual or co-ownership, whatever, rather than give the success to the shareholders.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So you're right. I think it was the general election 2010 just after the financial crash. Everybody wanted to be a John Lewis economy. And Nick Clegg, I mean, he genuinely believed it, or full correct him. He really led this. But they were all talking about. And I sat there thinking, oh, gold. This is all too simplistic, really. So John Lewis worked because of a detailed structure where every bit of it had to fit together. You think of the approach to pensions, you think the approach to pay. It was all fitting together. And you can't just have a bit of it and bolt it onto a conventional company. So my first reaction was a lot of naivety about it. But I do believe that the whole opportunity for social enterprises to play a bigger role in Britain is still there. They're about 4% of the economy of social enterprises that could grow if we really worked on it.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Strange, it was small. It was. It was about, as we always used to say, a better way of doing business, that corporate issue. You might even call it capitalism, responsible capitalism, that debate.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They did, they did. But, you know, the whole thing was journalists was a different business. It was there owned by its employees. It was trying to show that in these times of the Big Bang, there was another way of doing business. And I honestly believe that bug got me. And for 30 years, I wanted to prove that.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. So I remember very well. It was, you mentioned Big Bang, which was, you know, Margaret Thatcher's liberalization, the financial markets. I think it was Summer 85, 86. And so lots of our contemporaries from university were going off to these smart banks in the city. And I went to work on the till at John Lewis in Brent Cross. And I remember them coming and sort of thinking, one person actually said to me, Andy, what happened? What went wrong? And I thought, you bugger, pardon my language. I thought, I will show you in years to come. And, well, who knows?”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Does it not still go on? Anyway, never mind. They came around, it was all very corporate. But the journalist people came and I thought they're bonkers. They're really wacky. They had some real mavericks. And I thought that's good. And it was actually, so right, I still believe this about business. The best businesses are those who have the people who are just slightly different, slightly Zayna, you think of the whole Apple story and the design icons and all that. And that's what I tried to do in John West when I was lucky enough to lead it. I tried to make sure we had a board of people who were really quite different and actually were really slightly, well, different is a polite word. Zade is that. Zaydie is the word. And you know what? People probably listening thinking, oh my God, but actually they would know what I meant. I mean that very affectionately. The mavericks are the people who make the breakthroughs and I'm very pleased that I recruited some great mavericks. Now”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm afraid that's true, Nick. I still don't know why. I don't really care why. But I'm the last or yours. Oh no, definitely their loss. But they were very conventional in their recruitment. The interesting thing was why I ended up with John Osp. Because you'll remember the era, the milk round. It was all very formulaic. People came, gave you the corporate speech, and you thought, oh, wow, wow.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I guess that's one of the things. I know my roots, I've always been very loyal to my roots. I suspect I've been lucky. I've been privileged. I've had a lovely job. But I suspect I never came across like that, really.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is true. I led the organization for 20 years actually, and I loved it. Let's not make this sound too philanthropic. It was, I made some great friendships through it. It was a good thing to do, but there was a part of me which said, you need to put something back. I was very lucky this was a way in a voluntary group as it turned out. I could put something back. And you saw how just that small activity literally changed people's lives. You saw their horizons change.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“New background. Yeah. It was other things I had done in my youth, actually. I got involved in some various charitable activities which tried to address some of the issues facing kids from really tough backgrounds in the city. And I actually thought this was a really important worthy thing to do. People who were literally in the old language falling through the net. So that drove me.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Probably would have snapped you up. It depends if they saw potential or if they saw experience. At the time, I definitely did not have the experience. So anyway, we moved on from that.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yep, so I had two rejections for my first career. The first career I was after, my last year I talked with, I expected to go and do, was to go and be a social worker for Birmingham. And I was turned down. They said basically, we haven't got any cash. We've heard that story many times around. And, Andy, you've not got enough experience of life. And when you're 21, that's a hard message to be told. But you know what? They were right. I probably hadn't.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Which we didn't know about? She was just not a huge influence. The bigger answer is definitely it was what I learned at school and what I saw about the sort of social life of the place at the time. And you just thought, this decline has got to be turned around.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For example, it came at school. It came at school. So some of my teachers sort of stimulated us. I had a brilliant economics and history teachers and they sort of got me interested in what was going on. And then some people I met and admired. I suppose the first politician I met would have any national recognition would be Edwina Curry. She was a neighbor. She was a she led Birmingham Social Services at the time. She was a real force for good.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Your influence comes from not at all. They were very modest, normal, I would say proud brummies, but they didn't have any political activity at all.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This decline started well before Margaret Thatcher. I mean, I remember 77, 78, all sort of industrial strife at Longbridge, the biggest factory in Britain at the time, now closed, of course. I remember literally on the bus going to school, you'd go past the braziers and people sitting around, and you just thought yourself, this sort of corporatist approach, this is getting us absolutely nowhere. There needs to be much, much more opportunity. There needs to be much more incentive. We frankly need to release some people's ingenuity here. We were absolutely stuck. So partly it actually made me a conservative, but I tell you what, it also made me a socially responsible conservative because you saw the hurt with some people.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I suppose I tell you what, there was, Nick, and it comes to a broader point. When I was growing up, let's just get the dates on this. My sort of formative period was the late 70s, early 80s, in common with lots of industrial cities across the country. Things were really rotten. And when I was 18, all you wanted to do was leave Birmingham and think about a job probably in London. And I knew then that something had to change. And there had to be a different economic approach and there needed to be different leadership. And I did think maybe perhaps a little immodestly, maybe one day I can contribute to this.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was the greatest and most famous, and of course he did an incredible thing. Birming at the time was called the best governed city in the world when he was leading it. So what an incredible thing. It was probably just at the back of my mind, yes, this might happen one day. Really? I mean,”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is it good for the city? Definitely it's put our city into the psyche around the US. You go to New York, it's a phenomenon. You go to China. It's a phenomenon. That's got to be good. But I haven't answered your question about the psyche of the place yet. So you're right. If you look at the economic history of Birmingham, let's start there. Remember, I'm mayor of the whole Westminster, not just Birmingham, but take Birmingham as the place. It'd be the same in Coventry or Wolverhampton, interestingly. For 40 years, we relatively failed. And if that comes, it definitely goes into the psyche. So we were really sort of downbeat, not confident. You might say the fortunes of our football teams didn't help us as well. Contrast to your city. So there was definitely something about being much more confident and punching our way. And the great thing is, if you look at any of the data now, the West Midlands genuinely is enjoying a real revival.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For a reason I don't know. Well, I may be showing my age now, but I know you'll understand this, of course, our soap opera was crossroads, and I don't think it did the image of Birmingham any good at all. But that was a long time ago. The youngsters are probably thinking, what on earth is he on about? We do, of course, have a brilliant export drama at the moment, though. The Peaky Blinders, which has become a phenomenon internationally. And on the back of that, we're building a film studio around the Peaky Blinders branding.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do so if you look at Britain, it's a hopelessly overcentralised country. Sort of what got me into this, you know, you could argue, I think, if you look at the percentage of tax take kept in London, we are the most centralised country in the world apart from North Korea. Now, that is not a way to success. And if you think of Germany, five or six big international city regions, hugely successful, same in the USA. And lo and behold, they have a different structure of governance around it. That's what we want to get to as well. Now, I was teasing you about that.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's not a game we have to play. We've got to think about, I always say we're not going to think about Manchester Birmingham. We've got to think how are we going to be competing with the Berlins, the Bostons and the Barcelonas, and that's what this is about.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's doing the one word answers that is jobs, Nick. Jobs. So let's just think about this Birmingham, the decision to build HS2 was taken four years ago with an Act of Parliament and what's happened after that. We've seen the investment flooding, frankly, hundreds of millions of pounds. You go there, there's a big hole where the station's going to be, but the investment has come round. And it's people in Warsaw and Dudley and elsewhere who are getting the jobs that HS2 has spurred. And if you just think of HSBC's decision to come to Birmingham, they're very clear. centrality, the HS2 facility around it was part of that. And the other practical thing it does, and you hear a lot about this from Manchester at the moment, is how our local rail system is falling apart. Now, it's really very straightforward. If you have local rail and high-speed rail on the same tracks, it doesn't work. You think of that link between Birmingham and Coventry, the two are together. This is about separating it out. So to the people in Bolton and Berry, I would say ages2 will help them improve.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I would say that spurious on all sorts of ways. So let's just explain. First of all, the number at the moment 85 billion. People say it could be more, but the base case is done on 85 billion. Yeah, it's a huge increase. It is an enormous amount of money. Nobody is questioning that. But the reason I've always believed we get to the right outcome is there is a sound business case based on that. And think about it. It's $85 billion probably spent over 20 years, paid back over 100 years. And that's how you've got to assess these mega things just like the Channel Tunnel, just like the motorway network in the 60s. And we don't regret any of that now, do we?”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think it's significant in two ways, actually. First of all, I always said that we would win this argument because the case was right and there's been a lot of briefing and counterbriefing and I thought ultimately someone's going to sit and look at the numbers and say this is the right thing to do. And that is what Sajid said yesterday, wasn't he? He said, I've poured over the numbers, he said. And he knows as well as the numbers this is really totemic for the Midlands and the North. A new government elected, breaching the Red Wall, in the Midlands and the North. And what's the first thing they do? They step away from the biggest infrastructure investment in a hundred years in our region. That doesn't seem to add up. And Sajid understands how that is felt viscerally.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I hope so. I don't want to count any chickens here, but today's stories are all full of the Chancellor's come down on the side, the right side, as I think it, and that will be very influential in the meeting that we know is happening today. But I don't want to be certain till the Prime Minister stands there and says, we are going ahead with it.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Along with many colleagues in the House of Commons from all over the country, many of whom actually are not anywhere near the root of HS two, we continue to make the case that HS two is the wrong project and that actually what we need is to spend the money on local commuter routes, particularly connecting the east and west of the north of England, connecting the Midlands to the north.”
2020-01-30 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Andy Street One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source