{"id":14280,"date":"2026-04-23T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/14280\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T07:00:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:00:04","slug":"planet-normal-the-mandelson-mess-stagflation-returns-and-the-battle-for-wales-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/14280\/","title":{"rendered":"Planet Normal: The Mandelson mess, stagflation returns, and the battle for Wales | Podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title = \"Planet Normal: The Mandelson mess, stagflation returns, and the battle for Wales | Podcast\"   width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6Bc2f9JPnqs\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>\nPlanet Normal: The Mandelson mess, stagflation returns, and the battle for Wales | Podcast<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThis week on the rocket, co-pilots Halligan and Pearson dive into the political firestorm engulfing Westminster as Sir Keir Starmer faces intense scrutiny over the botched appointment of Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the US. Following explosive evidence from former civil servant Sir Olly Robbins, the duo explores the \u2018process-driven\u2019 culture of the current government and whether it is shielding a lack of transparency.<\/p>\n<p>Liam explains why even a potential ceasefire or the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz may not be enough to prevent a global energy crisis. With the UK inflation rate unexpectedly rising to 3.3% in March, the hosts warn of a &#8220;stagflation&#8221; trap that could see food and energy prices soaring for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>And co-pilot Pearson brings a report from her homeland in Wales ahead of the Senedd election in May\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Highlights:<br \/>\nMiddle East infrastructure damage threatens high energy prices and rising UK inflation.<br \/>\nReform UK surges in Wales as voters consider abandoning the traditional two-party system.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day&#8217;s biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk\/fromtheeditor |<br \/>\nRead Allison \u2018Keir Starmer and Olly Robbins deserve each other\u2019:<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2026\/04\/21\/keir-starmer-olly-robbins-deserve-each-other\/ |<br \/>\n\u2018British Jews are in danger. Either we do something about it or they\u2019ll leave\u2019:<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2026\/04\/22\/britains-double-standards-over-anti-semitism\/ |<br \/>\nRead more from Allison: https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/authors\/a\/ak-ao\/allison-pearson\/ |<br \/>\nRead Liam \u2018Britain is the most inflation-prone nation in the G7. That was true before the Iran war\u2019:<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/business\/2026\/04\/19\/britain-most-inflation-prone-in-g7-true-before-iran-war\/ |<br \/>\nRead more from Liam: https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/authors\/liam-halligan\/ |<br \/>\nRead Liam\u2019s Substack: https:\/\/liamhalligan.substack.com\/ |<br \/>\nNeed help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here:<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/radio\/podcasts\/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen\/ |<br \/>\nEmail: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk |<br \/>\nFor 30 days\u2019 free access to The Telegraph: https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/normal |<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Planet Normal: The Mandelson mess, stagflation returns, and the battle for Wales | Podcast This week on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2012,2011,2023,2022,5792,2024,2020,1164,2021,449,2018,2019,31,2016,338,339,2013,2014,2015,2017,247,361,325,2025,18838,340,337,341,355,235],"class_list":{"0":"post-14280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-telegraph","8":"tag-alison-pearson","9":"tag-allison-pearson","10":"tag-anti-lockdown","11":"tag-commentary","12":"tag-conservative","13":"tag-coservative","14":"tag-debate","15":"tag-interview","16":"tag-interviews","17":"tag-liam-halligan","18":"tag-mainstream-media","19":"tag-msm","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-news-podcast","22":"tag-news-publisher","23":"tag-newspaper","24":"tag-planet-normal","25":"tag-planet-normal-podcast","26":"tag-political-podcast","27":"tag-politicians","28":"tag-politics","29":"tag-reform","30":"tag-reform-uk","31":"tag-right-wing","32":"tag-senned","33":"tag-telegraph","34":"tag-the-telegraph","35":"tag-uk-news","36":"tag-wales","37":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@videos\/116452786350969807","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}