It felt as though Ed Davey might have peaked early on in the election campaign after he had fallen off a paddleboard and gone on a rollercoaster.
Fortunately, he was just laying the foundations for a stunt-fuelled election campaign that has now also seen the Lib Dem leader tackle waterslides, Zumba dancing and even a bungee jump.
One wonders what he is building up to exactly? With just two more days left in the campaign, we here at Podcast Rex are looking forward to seeing him boot scootin', chess boxing, Zorbing, cheese rolling and shark jumping his way to the finish line.
Largely, I'm sorry to say, his antics have not captured the attention of most of the UK's news podcasters who instead have been focussing on the following:
The Two Matts: Who is Keir Starmer, apart from the son of a toolmaker? Matthew d’Ancona and Matt Kelly of The New European chat to the Labour leader's biographer Tom Baldwin for some deep insights into the man himself and what he is likely to do if he becomes PM this week. "Starmer says the best way to restore faith in politics is to show you can get something done", says Baldwin. If you don't, people just get more "disillusioned", he adds.
Coffee House Shots: As the UK is threatening to turn a little bit left, Europe is turning sharply right. So what is the fallout from Marine Le Pen's victory in the first round of their parliamentary elections going to be for a potential Labour win? The Spectator's Cindy Yu talks to other mag bods Freddy Gray and Katy Balls about how the Labour leader will handle the shifting European landscape. His promise to be the "adult in the room" is soon to be tested, the Spectator team suggest.
The New Statesman: Also thinking about what Starmer will have to contend with as PM is Andrew Marr, who says that in order to succeed in a first term in government, to deliver for working people, the Labour leader "will need to enforce some quietly radical change". And by doing so he will likely "upset quite a lot of people". The PM-in-waiting said yesterday he plans to knock off at 6pm every evening if he makes it to No. 10. If he is to deliver the kind of change Marr is talking about Starmer will surely be abandoning that plan as a "non-core promise".
The Northern Agenda: Host Rob Parsons brings together a panel of political journalists including Liam Thorp from the Liverpool Echo, Joseph Timan from the Manchester Evening News and Graeme Whitfield from the Journal in the North East to discuss why voters in the North are feeling so disillusioned going into this election. What have Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak been saying on their trips to our region? And will either of them actually deliver on their promises, unlike previous governments who have made big claims and then barely followed through? If you sometimes feel yourself trapped in the Westminster bubble, definitely give this pod a whirl.
BBC Newscast: Hosts Adam Fleming, Laura Kuenssberg and Henry Zeffmanlook at what the major parties are doing with their final 72 hours of campaigning. What are the key messages they’ll be repeating up until they all go quiet on polling day? And what’s the strategy behind those stunts and slogans? Plus they discuss what to watch out for on election night. "Someone in the shadow cabinet said to me I won't believe it until I see it, and even when I see it I won't believe it," says Kuenssberg about Labour's projected win – and the unwillingness of even insiders to believe they might take power until it actually happens.
Off Air... with Jane and Fi: This show from Times Radio isn't always a politics-related show, but it is today with Matt Chorley standing in for Fi Glover. He and regular host Jane Garvey talk Larry the Cat, drunken election night stomps around the newsroom and why every politician has the potential to be funny. Glover also speaks to political historian Sir Anthony Seldon about his new book "The Conservative Effect, 2010–2024: 14 Wasted Years?". According to Seldon: "Overall this is not a glorious period of Tory rule". A man who has truly mastered the art of British understatement.
Today in Focus: And they're off and racing. The general election may still be a few days away, but already the battle is heating up in the Conservative Party for who will take over from Rishi Sunak. Will the future be a Tory party of wet One-Nation types or dry-as-a-bone European Research Groupers? The Guardian looks into who will be standing atop the party once the electoral dust has settled.
Talking Politics: ITV are also looking at the potentially imminent Tory leadership race. Julie Etchingham, Anushka Asthana and Robert Peston discuss the potential successors getting their ducks in a row for a tilt at the party's top job.
Sky News Daily: For years, politicians on both sides have been accusing one another of believing in a "magic money tree". Now, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says that this election has seen all the major parties engaging in a "conspiracy of silence" over their fiscal plans. The think-tank says all the major parties are avoiding discussion around the black hole in their spending plans for after the election. Sky News goes a step further, suggesting that loads of topics from tax to Brexit are missing from the campaigning. Plus, as we get closer to count night, the broadcaster's economics and data editor Ed Conway explains how exit polls, the first and most accurate early indications of who might win the general election on voting day, are put together. Useful stuff.
The Election Shortcut with Kate McCann: McCann chats with Harry Cole, The Sun's political editor, about everything we've learnt from the last 24 hours as well as what she has learnt personally from her interview with Rishi Sunak. "This is the week we got more into the human side of the campaign," she says, explaining that she had tried to get from Sunak how it feels to be subject to constant criticism. "He said he doesn't mind being called 'sniffy'", McCann says. Probably not the worst thing he has been called in his tumultuous time at the top of British politics, to be fair. Also, not everyone is ignoring Ed Davey today! McCann and Cole discuss the odds being offered by Ladbroke that the Lib Dem leader will be shot out of a cannon before polling day. *Immediately googles "Ladbrokes place political bet"*
And now for something completely different…
Famously … On Trial: This is one of those shows that has its cake and eats it too. TV host, Strictly winner and Sunday Times bestseller Stacey Dooley teams up with comedian Larry Dean to look into various celebrity court cases and relitigate them through the medium of podcasting. The first cab off the rank is Pamela Anderson's stolen sex tape scandal. The hosts smartly analyse the historical circumstances that allowed this astonishing moment of sexism to occur, while also giving us a fair whack of titillating insider celeb goss as well. See, it swings both ways – and it is all the richer for it.
