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Bay Radio International on the second day of 2024
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Just coming up to 10 minutes past five, mainland Spain, 10 minutes past four in the UK and the Canaries
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Very well pleased to welcome back. Nick Dubois to the Bay Radio Studios
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How are you doing, Nick? Very well. It's a pleasure to be here. Great to see you. Glad you got your visa renewed
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Yes. And I bought a jacket yesterday, by the way. I've been shopping
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Yeah, my sources told me. I've been in, absolutely. Yes, I was served very well
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But we've been down here since 28. It's been absolutely lovely. I got as close to going in the sea on the Aron L as it was ever going to get
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Really? You didn't go in in the end? I didn't quite go in. No, you went and bought a coat instead. I did
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I went to bought a coat instead. But it was great. I was a really good scheme this where all these very, very happy mad Englishman and mad Dutch
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A lot of Dutch. A lot of money raised as well. I saw some quite high figures from some individuals on the pub sweep as well
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So well done to everybody who took part in those. Yeah, right across Spain
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people in the sea on New Year's Day. Right, Nick, we're not going to let you get away with it
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In 2020 when you first you said you were going to be here and I said well we could maybe look back at some of the highlights in politics of 2023 Now specifically Britain I not quite sure that there really are too many highlights for us to look back on
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Well, from a conservative point of view, certainly not. There are events, but are there highlights
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No, I think what was interesting was for Rishi Sunak, bless him, the Prime Minister
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he kind of went into January 23, very boldly setting out his five goals
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which, you know, I kind of know them off Pat now, you know, stop the bird
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and cut the waiting list, all that stuff, grow the economy. Which actually came back to bite him again today
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Quite a few abiding him. But he went in also hoping to shift the polls
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And actually he started the year pretty much where he's finished the year. So it's been a year of frustration for conservative strategists
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The country as a whole actually got a bit of a philip in the year
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which I know it's easy to overlook. When the ONS has been basically producing figures for a couple of years
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years saying how awful things were. They went, Ower, we've made a bit of mistake. And actually, you've been one of the fastest growing economies since COVID and not the others
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However, the future forecasts, and these are forecasts, and I remind people that economic
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forecasters only exist to make astrologists look good is that basically they are saying it still tough times And I think there probably is a very flatline growth in 24
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which won't suit Rishi Sunak. No, it certainly won't. And of course, we'll come to talk about what's going to happen in 2024 shortly
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Okay, so if you can perhaps come up with some political highlights for Britain, what are they for 2023
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Well, I do think the recovery has been better than anyone thought
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but it's still tough. The good news is that the end of the year
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earnings are now higher than inflation, only just. So people will start to think it's worth earning a bit more money now
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because it's not all been eaten up inflation. The inflation, which was always going to come down
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I'm not going to sit here and say that this was all down to the government. It was one of Rishi Sunak's goals to halve inflation by the end of this year
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Well, the goal has been achieved. Now, some people say, well, we blame the government when inflation is high
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So we're going to give him the credit when it comes down. I think it's a bit rich to give him all the credit
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But the fact of the matter is the economy has been saved from the perilous state it was in of their own making at the end of 22, which of course was after Liz Truss
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So stabilise the economy. We saw better growth than we actually did. I mean, even on things like the boats, which are, you know, if you take the politics out of the boats, it's people
