Crisis What Crisis with Andy Coulson

Former Chief of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove has spent much of his life at the heart of crises that have shaped the world. From Cold War espionage behind the Iron Curtain to 9/11, the war in Afghanistan and even a rocket attack on MI6 headquarters, Richard knows what it means to operate under extraordinary pressure.

As the man known as ‘C’, he was responsible for decisions with Britain's national security at stake.

In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis?, I sit down with Richard to discuss his Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation he turns to when facing crisis — a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice.

If you haven’t heard our full conversation yet, we explore his extraordinary 38-year career in intelligence, from being recruited at just 21 to leading MI6 through 9/11, and what a lifetime in the shadows has taught him about resilience, making difficult decisions and keeping a cool head in a crisis.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit http://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

CHAPTERS:

01:07 A Person – His wife Rosalind, the influence of his parents and his instinct for self-reliance.

01:43 A Habit – Fly-fishing. The challenge of fishing on the Tamar and the Test, where nothing else matters.

02:22 A Comfort – Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo, a good glass of red wine and a collection of 700 bottles.

03:37 A Piece of Advice – Making a decision is the easy part. The real challenge is putting it into action.

FOLLOW THE ONE DECISION PODCAST

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LISTEN TO THE ONE DECISION PODCAST

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/one-decision/id1583753742

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Gem Hall (video)

Sir Richard Dearlove is one of the world’s greatest living spymasters. He joined MI6 in 1966 at the age of 21, and over nearly four decades ran agents under intense Cold War surveillance in Nairobi, Prague, Paris, Geneva and Washington, before rising in 1999 to become Chief of the Service — the role known simply as C. His five years at the top were among the most turbulent in the Service’s history: his headquarters was struck by a rocket, 9/11 remade the global security landscape, and Britain went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Since leaving the shadows, Sir Richard has built a second, very public life — Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge, business adviser, outspoken commentator, and co-host of the hugely successful foreign-affairs podcast One Decision.

In this conversation, Andy Coulson lifts the bonnet, as far as Sir Richard will allow, on the experiences that formed him, the decisions that defined him, and the lessons a lifetime in intelligence can offer the rest of us.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing a crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

FOUR LESSONS FROM RICHARD

• Grasp your opportunities – don’t wait for luck. A successful career isn’t handed to you by chance. It comes from spotting the opening when it appears, and trusting your instinct for how to handle it.
• Build a team you can trust. Pick dependable, loyal, focused people, lean on them, and let them carry the weight.
• Self-pity gets you nowhere. The Dearlove family creed was simple: you get on with life. Whatever you’re facing, someone has faced worse and carried on.
• The most dangerous problems don’t arrive with a bang; they build quietly while no one's looking. Start putting them right today, not when it’s too late.

CHAPTERS

07:15 – What resilience really means to a spymaster

08:54 – His father: an amputee who won Olympic silver on crutches

11:50 – Boarding school at four, and the making of a tough character

13:18 – The tap on the shoulder: joining MI6 at 21

18:58 – Prague: a life lived under constant surveillance

21:07 – Running a double agent behind the Iron Curtain

24:36 – How to read who holds up under pressure – and who cracks

28:03 – Becoming C

30:22 – The rocket attack on MI6

33:36 – 9/11: a shock, but not a surprise

39:07 – Iraq, the intelligence, and his quarrel with Chilcot

42:10 – Leaving the Service

46:51 – Russia, China and the end of the rules-based order

56:25 – Bond, Le Carré, and the myth of MI6

FOLLOW THE ONE DECISION PODCAST

https://www.instagram.com/onedecisionpodcast/

LISTEN TO THE ONE DECISION PODCAST

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/one-decision/id1583753742

FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Gem Hall (video)

Reverend Richard Coles has lived multiple lives — pop star, priest, broadcaster, novelist. But the greatest crisis of his life came in the form of someone he loved deeply.

Richard watched helplessly as his partner David grappled with an addiction that cost David his job, his licence from the bishop, and ultimately his life.

In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, I sit down with Richard to discuss his Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation that he turns to in order to help survive a crisis – a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice.

If you haven’t heard the full conversation yet — his journey from pop star to priest, the AIDS epidemic that shaped his generation, his years with David, and what he’s learned about hope in the aftermath of loss — go back and find it in the feed. It’s well worth your time.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit http://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

CHAPTERS:

00:50 A Person – His circle of friends since his teenage years, now neighbours on the South Coast.

01:23 A Habit – Singing. Every Tuesday in the Brighton Festival Chorus.

01:49 A Comfort – Cooking. The whole ritual, start to finish — yes, including the washing up

02:31 A Piece of Advice – From a friend’s motto: “Be authentic and engage.” Work out who you are. Step into the world.

BUY RICHARD’S BOOK

A Carol and a Killing – https://geni.us/ACAROLANDAKILLING

FOLLOW RICHARD COLES

Instagram – http://www.instagram.com/revrichardcoles/?hl=en

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu(studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio).

Few people have lived as many lives as Richard Coles. In the 1980s he was the keyboard-playing half of the Communards, whose “Don’t Leave Me This Way” was the biggest-selling single of 1986 – taking him, almost overnight, from the dole queue to flying aboard Concorde and the full pop-star life.

Then, the gay socialist atheist who set out, in all seriousness, to bring down the government through the power of pop, became, of all things, a Church of England priest. Then a celebrated broadcaster, a best-selling novelist, a Strictly contestant, and the inspiration for the BBC sitcom Rev.

But behind the reinventions runs a thread of profound loss. As AIDS swept through his world in the 1980s, Richard watched a third of his circle die – the formative crisis, he says, of his adult life. At 17, before any of the fame, he survived a breakdown and an overdose he fully intended to be his last act. And decades later came the greatest loss of all: his partner David.

In this conversation, Andy Coulson explores a life in which crisis has repeatedly been the doorway to transformation – and what Richard has learned about loss, faith, forgiveness, and how we begin again when the life we knew is taken from us. His latest crime novella, A Carol and a Killing, is out this month.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visithttps://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

FOUR LESSONS FROM RICHARD

• Sometimes you just have to step forward. You may be uncertain, apprehensive, but stepping forward, into the unknown, is how a new chapter begins. Crises are unavoidable; the opportunity is in not being defeated by them.
• When you get something badly wrong, face it, own it, make amends – and then let yourself be forgiven. Richard did a thing he remains ashamed of. What mattered wasn’t that he deserved forgiveness, but that he sought it, took his medicine, and learned to live with having been forgiven.
• Get less interested in yourself. The habits of self-loathing are hard to shake, but Richard found relief not through endless self-examination but through caring less about his own importance – and turning his attention outward, to other people.

CHAPTERS

05:34 – Realising he was gay in a hostile world

12:10 – Seventeen, a breakdown, and the overdose he meant to be final

15:37 – Escape to London, and the friendships that still anchor him

18:26 – Bringing down the government through the power of pop

20:50 – The socialists who were, secretly, perfect Thatcherites

21:40 – Dole queue to Concorde – and the toll fame takes

29:35 – AIDS – the formative crisis

31:29 – The lie he told, the shame he carries, and seeking forgiveness

35:02 – The atheist who walked into a church and came out a believer

38:07 – Walking away from a life he loved to train for the priesthood

45:21 – Loving an addict

50:51 – Learning to live a life around the loss, not without it

BUY RICHARD’S BOOK

A Carol and a Killing – https://geni.us/ACAROLANDAKILLING

FOLLOW RICHARD COLES

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video), Gem Hall (video).

Jo Tutchener Sharp is the founder of fashion brand Scamp & Dude. In 2015, with two young boys at home, she suffered a brain haemorrhage and was told she needed major, life-saving surgery. Faced as she saw it with the pearly gates, she felt regret that her positive impact on the world had not been significant enough — so she made herself a promise. If she survived, she would change all that...

In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, I sit down with Jo to discuss her Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation that she turns to in order to help survive a crisis – a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice.

Our full conversation was recorded live at the BizFest Festival in Essex. If you haven't heard it yet, go back and find it in the feed. It's well worth your time.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit www.kingsleynapley.co.uk for more details.

CHAPTERS:

01:29 A Person – Her husband Rob, business partner and the man who literally saved her life in a hospital room

03:55 A Habit – Paddle every morning. At the club she's not Scamp & Dude Jo, she's Paddle Jo

05:10 A Comfort – A hot bubble bath with the door locked, and cold-water lake swims — being in water

05:50 A Piece of Advice – Stay positive. Good things can come from bad things, if your mind is open to it

FOLLOW JO

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/scampanddudejo/?hl=en

FOLLOW SCAMP & DUDE

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio)

Recorded live at BizFest in Essex, this is the story of how a near-death moment became a £16 million business.

Jo Tutchener Sharp had built a successful career – running the beauty division of Purple PR, leading communications at Estée Lauder, then founding her own agency, Beauty Scene, and growing it to a turnover of around £5 million. In 2015, with two young boys at home, she decided to step away. But the stress of the exit took a physical toll, and shortly afterwards she suffered a brain haemorrhage that could bleed again at any moment, with potentially fatal consequences.

Facing what she calls her "pearly gates" moment, Jo was overwhelmed not by fear but by regret – the feeling that, were she to die tomorrow, she would not have made a big enough mark on the world.

So Jo made herself a promise: if she survived, she would dedicate the rest of her life to doing good. Just eleven months after brain surgery, Scamp & Dude was born, a clothing brand with purpose stitched into its heart. Today Scamp & Dude turns over £16 million a year, has donated 4.5 million products to charitable causes, and given more than 95,000 scarves to women starting chemotherapy. For her work Jo was awarded an OBE for services to fashion and charity.

In this business episode, Andy Coulson explores how Jo turned a life-threatening crisis into a moment of opportunity, and what it really takes to build a brand where purpose, family and commercial success pull in the same direction.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

FOUR LESSONS FROM JO

• Take the calculated risk, not the leap of faith. Jo lined up five clients and £25,000 a month in fees before she resigned from Estée Lauder. De-risk the jump before you make it.
• Build the business around the life you actually want. Jo walked away from a £5m agency because it cost her time with her kids. Scamp & Dude was designed the opposite way – with her family built into it. Success isn't just the turnover; it's whether the business gives you the life you wanted.
• Purpose is the engine that keeps you going when it gets hard. For Jo it's charity; for you it might be something else entirely – but find the reason you're really doing it, because that's what stops you quitting.
• Awareness can be worth more than margin. Know which parts of your business are there to make money and which are there to build the brand, and don't confuse the two.

CHAPTERS

07:04 – Why a great job still wasn't enough

08:50 – How to de-risk backing yourself before you jump

10:11 – Walking away from a £5m business to get her life back

10:24 – Stress and the warning she ignored

13:54 – Choosing one last Christmas before brain surgery

15:30 – Waking up alive, and the promise made in a hospital bed

19:42 – Hospital bed to product in eleven months

24:34 – The Super Scarf mission, and 95,000 women starting chemo

26:54 – How to turn your hardest moment into your superpower

READ MORE ABOUT THE SUPER SCARF MISSION

https://scampanddude.com/pages/superscarvesmission

FOLLOW JO

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research),Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Mike Soutar is an entrepreneur, publishing titan and the forensic interviewer familiar to millions from BBC’s The Apprentice.

In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, Mike shares the four points of personal navigation he relies on when life gets hard: a person, a habit, a comfort and a single piece of advice.

If you haven’t heard our full conversation yet, go back and find it in the feed. It’s packed with hard-earned lessons about risk, resilience and leadership.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

CHAPTERS

00:42 A Person – His wife Bev, the rock and centre of his world

01:27 A Piece of Advice – “A great day in the office is when you lose more arguments than you win”

02:48 A Comfort – The jangly optimism of 1980s Scottish pop

04:28 A Habit – The daily wet-shaving ritual that centres him

BUY MIKE'S BOOK

Next Gen CEO: Leadership Lessons for an Uncertain World – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Next-Gen-CEO-Lessons-Uncertain/dp/1035095726

FOLLOW MIKE SOUTAR

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LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-soutar/

FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video).

Millions know Mike Soutar as the forensic interviewer on The Apprentice, the Scottish voice across the boardroom table for the last 15 years. But long before the television, he built one of the most remarkable careers in British media – on a deceptively simple formula of hard work, optimism and self-belief.

In this business episode, we go back to the beginning. Mike started out at 17 writing horoscopes and romantic fiction at DC Thomson in Dundee, working on hot metal presses with a pencil he wasn't allowed to replace until it was a stub. By his early 20s he was editing Smash Hits. He went on to turn FHM into the biggest-selling monthly magazine in Britain, launched some of the country's best-known titles, and sat on the board of IPC when it was sold to Time Warner for more than £1 billion.

But the biggest turning point of his career came not in a boardroom, but in a hospital bed. In 2006, at the height of his corporate success, a chicken Caesar wrap left him seriously ill, his organs beginning to fail, unsure whether he'd survive. Lying there, he asked himself whether he had ever really tested himself — and the honest answer was no. So he walked away from the security of corporate life, raised £4 million in five weeks, remortgaged his home and launched ShortList.

His new book, Next Gen CEO, is about how the next generation of leaders can navigate an age of AI and uncertainty by becoming, of all things, more human.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visithttps://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

FOUR LESSONS FROM MIKE

• Optimism without a plan is just naivety. When ShortList failed on day one, hope didn't save it, a plan did.
• Investors back people first, ideas second. Ideas change the moment they meet the real world. What backers are really buying is you.
• When you're fighting a difficult boss, keep it principled, not personal. Argue for the customer, not for yourself, and keep bringing the data. It's very hard for anyone to argue against a case built on what's genuinely right for the people you serve.
• Chasing purpose. Mike had sold his company, had the money and the status, and still felt hollow. He thought what was missing was a job, instead it was a purpose..

CHAPTERS

06:38 – Why AI makes human leadership more valuable, not less

10:13 – Whether a self-made career is still possible in a flat economy

14:59 – How instability early on can forge the drive to control your own destiny

21:42 – Fake it till you make it: backing yourself into a job you're not ready for

24:27 – The FHM playbook: build in service of your customer, not your advertiser

28:43 – Why he left a hit at its peak – and what fear of failure does to founders

32:12 – How to stand your ground with a boss who holds all the cards

39:41 – The near-death moment that asked him: have you ever really tested yourself?

44:23 – Losing control, and what to do when you're forced out

46:27 – How he raised £4 million in five weeks – and why investors really said yes

50:16 – The launch-day disaster, and the case for protecting your team from the panic

53:22 – The £1 million opportunity he turned down – and the lesson in why

55:03 – Why success and status left him feeling hollow – and what actually fixed it

59:15 – Knowing when a job isn't worth your reputation, and walking away

01:03:27 – What 15 years on The Apprentice taught him about how to treat people

BUY MIKE'S BOOK

Next Gen CEO: Leadership Lessons for an Uncertain World –https://www.amazon.co.uk/Next-Gen-CEO-Lessons-Uncertain/dp/1035095726https://www.amazon.co.uk/Next-Gen-CEO-Lessons-Uncertain/dp/1035095726

FOLLOW MIKE SOUTAR

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FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Perspective is one of the most useful tools we have in crisis – a way of taking pressure out of a difficult moment, stepping back and working out what really matters.

In this special compilation episode of Crisis What Crisis, I share the story of the five most terrifying days of my own life and revisit four extraordinary guests whose lives have been shaped, and sometimes almost undone, by the pursuit of perspective.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit http://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

CHAPTERS:

00:41 The worst experience of my life

05:06 Timbaland – the bullet that's still inside him, and why he refuses to take it out

06:05 Dame Stephanie Shirley – the Kindertransport and the neighbours who kept asking, "aren't you lucky to be saved?"

12:48 James Landale – seeing death across a crowded room, and the tank of coloured poison he can still return to

14:30 Rory Stewart – the frozen body in the snow, sitting down happy to die, and the dog that saved him

19:29 The Belmarsh swear jar – how the words you use shape the size of the crisis

21:50 Four things I take from all of this

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODES:

Timbaland – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000634317774

Dame Stephanie Shirley – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000680629888

James Landale – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000642157416

Rory Stewart – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000608962048

FOLLOW THE GUESTS:

Timbaland – https://www.instagram.com/timbaland/?hl=en

Rory Stewart – https://www.instagram.com/rorystewartuk/?hl=en

FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Johnny Seifert (audio)

In this country, one in six of us will experience significant anxiety at some point in our lives. It's an epidemic that doesn't care about class, wealth, gender, age or race – and yet, as this episode argues, anxiety isn't the enemy. It's information. A signal to be read, not a fault to be removed.

In this special compilation episode, Andy Coulson draws on his own experience of anxiety attacks and revisits six past guests – a broadcaster, a journalist, a content creator, an adventurer, a designer and a cellist – who each faced anxiety in a very different form and found their own way to live alongside it.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley.

Visithttps://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

FULL EPISODES:

Steve Peters: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000547878428

Christian O'Connell:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000659675816https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000659675816

Bryony Gordon:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000650752366https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000650752366

Alex Goldie:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000729186695https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000729186695

Mark Beaumont:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000618838895https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000618838895

Anya Hindmarch:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000768689727https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000768689727

Julian Lloyd Webber:https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000779874143https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000779874143

FOLLOW THE GUESTS:

Christian O'Connell:https://www.instagram.com/mrchristianoconnell/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/mrchristianoconnell/?hl=en

Bryony Gordon:https://www.instagram.com/bryonygordon/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/bryonygordon/?hl=en

Alex Goldie:https://www.instagram.com/goldiealexx/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/goldiealexx/?hl=en

Mark Beaumont:https://www.instagram.com/mrmarkbeaumont/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/mrmarkbeaumont/?hl=en

Anya Hindmarch:https://www.instagram.com/anyahindmarch/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/anyahindmarch/?hl=en

Julian Lloyd Webber:https://www.instagram.com/julian.lloydwebber/?hl=enhttps://www.instagram.com/julian.lloydwebber/?hl=en

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Johnny Seifert (audio)

Most guests give me their Crisis Compass looking back on a crisis they've survived. Erin Baker is different. Her partner died just 12 weeks before this recording, and she is, by her own account, exhausted by the demand to keep being strong.

These four points aren't hard-won wisdom viewed from calmer shores — they're the things holding her up as we speak. That, I think, makes them rarer and more valuable than almost any compass I've been given.

In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, I sit down with Erin to discuss her Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation that she turns to in order to help survive a crisis – a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice.

If you haven't heard the full conversation yet, go back and find it in the feed. It's well worth your time.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit http://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

CHAPTERS:

00:52 A Person – Her Frant village church community, and the stability they've offered when everything else is in flux

01:23 A Piece of Advice – A day at a time. The most hypocritical advice she could pass on — and the only one that works now

01:57 A Comfort – Writing. It's her career because it was her comfort first

02:09 A Habit – Paint by numbers. Half an hour of something absolutely mindless

FOLLOW ERIN'S WRITING

Postcards from Grief – https://erinbaker1001.substack.com/

FOLLOW ERIN BAKER

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

This is a very unusual episode. It is rare that we would choose to have someone join us on the podcast so close to their crisis – usually our guests come to these conversations with the clarity that a few years' distance can bring. Erin Baker is just weeks on from the death of her partner, James, and still very much living in it. What she offers instead of distance is something rarer: the raw, unfiltered honesty of someone grieving out loud, in real time.

A warning – this conversation is powerful and at times very difficult, and some of the themes may be upsetting.

Erin Baker is one of the most respected motoring journalists in the country – the youngest and only female motoring editor on Fleet Street in her day. But in the autumn of last year, her life came apart. Her partner of thirteen years, James, was diagnosed with an aggressive, terminal brain tumour, and the blows kept coming: her father died, one of her sons was rushed to hospital, the family dog was put down, and a car was written off in a collision with a deer. Wave after wave, all at once. Then, this year, James died. He was 53.

Rather than retreat, Erin made the conscious decision to grieve in public, writing for The Times and keeping a diary on Substack called Postcards from Grief, documenting James's dying, the days since, and the unexpected things his death has taught her. She joins Andy for a conversation about resilience and its limits, about loss and control, about black humour and love, and about what actually carries us through the very worst of it. She is, without a shadow of a doubt, someone we can all learn from.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

Visithttps://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

FOUR LESSONS FROM ERIN

• Being "strong" can be a trap. If people decide you're resilient, they assume you're coping – and leave you to it. Sometimes the bravest thing is to admit you're not fine, and to ask for the help you need.
• Honesty is what makes people feel less alone. It's not the tidy, theory-shaped version of grief that helps others but the messy, unguarded truth. Say the thing that feels too close to the bone; it's often the thing someone else desperately needs to hear.
• You can't control the future, because it doesn't exist yet. Make your plans, but hold them loosely, they're only ideas of what you'd like to happen. Learning to live a day at a time is the only way through.
• Find your release. For Erin it was writing, walking in nature, even paint-by-numbers – something meditative to pour the fear and grief into. When you can't carry it all in your head, give it somewhere to go.

CHAPTERS

03:37 – “I'm sick and tired of being resilient”: the exhaustion of always being the strong

07:52 – Grieving out loud: the decision to write through it

11:55 – The formidable mother, and a childhood that built the muscle

13:55 – Keep buggering on

15:20 – Fighting her way to Cambridge, and up a male-dominated newsroom

20:23 – Meeting James

23:05 – The life that looked perfect from the outside – and wasn't

25:08 – The Amazon night shift: the proudest she ever was of him

30:30 – The diagnosis

39:49 – When the blows kept coming

47:02 – Her son's seizure: the worst thing she's ever seen

51:02 – Learning to hold your plans loosely

53:22 – The last night, and a hug she'll never forget

57:04 – The chaos of loss

1:06:05 – The stranger by the roadside who knew exactly what to say

FOLLOW ERIN'S WRITING

Postcards from Grief –https://erinbaker1001.substack.com/https://erinbaker1001.substack.com/

FOLLOW ERIN BAKER

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Julian Lloyd Webber spent half a century as one of the world's great cellists — and then had to discover who he was without the instrument that had defined his existence.

In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, Andy sits down with Julian to discuss his Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation that he turns to in order to help survive a crisis – a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice.

If you haven't heard the full conversation yet, go back and find it in the feed. It's well worth your time.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit http://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

CHAPTERS:

00:58 A Person – His wife Jiaxin, and why he's not sure he'd have got through it without her

01:20 A Habit – A couple of pints of lager every night

02:49 A Comfort – Leyton Orient

03:25 A Piece of Advice – "Don't waste a second."

BUY JULIAN'S BOOK

Bows & Arrows – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bows-Arrows-Julian-Lloyd-Webber/dp/1837360588

SEE JULIAN LIVE

Julian's Irish tour with his wife, Jiaxin – https://julianlloydwebber.com/events/

FOLLOW JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Julian Lloyd Webber is undoubtedly one of the country's greatest living musicians – the man who, perhaps more than anyone of his generation, took classical music out of the concert hall and into the mainstream. But in October 2013, ten minutes into a recital in a Suffolk seaside town, the power drained from his right arm and he found he could barely draw the bow across his cello.

Within six months, at 63, he was forced to retire – unemployed overnight and stripped of the thing that had defined him since he was a boy of thirteen.

For half a century, the cello had been Julian's whole life. He toured the world, playing with everyone from Yehudi Menuhin to Elton John, took an Elgar recording to a Brit Award and his brother's Variations to number two in the pop charts. He was the first officially licensed busker on the London Underground and the only classical soloist at the London Olympics closing ceremony.

Then, at 64, he sat the first job interview of his life and went on to lead the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire into a £57 million new home, winning it royal status along the way. On his 75th birthday – and while quietly managing a prostate cancer diagnosis – he walked back onto the Wigmore Hall stage and played again. And now, twelve years after the power drained from his arm, Julian is touring – a full run across Ireland this autumn with his cellist wife, Jiaxin.

His memoir, Bows & Arrows, is out now, and this conversation is about the abuse he survived as a boy, the instrument he loved and lost, and how you rebuild an identity when the thing that made you who you are is taken away.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing a crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley.

Visithttps://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

FOUR LESSONS FROM JULIAN

• Talent and hard work aren't enough on their own – you need passion, because that's the only thing that gets you up to do it all again after a bad night.
• A second string to your bow can end up saving your life. When you lose the thing that defined you, throw yourself into whatever else genuinely moves you – even if it's nothing like what you did before. Find something that truly absorbs you, and the healing takes care of itself.
• When a setback knocks you down, picture the alternative. For Julian, the fear of ending up disappointed with his life was the fuel that kept him going.
• Healing is not forgetting; it's reaching the point where the trauma you carry doesn't drag you down.

CHAPTERS

04:01 – Growing up in a chaotic, bohemian home

09:12 – The day on the Tube that took his childhood

11:03 – Why some things you don't get over – and shouldn't have to

15:21 – His father's warning that lit the fire

17:39 – Fifty years at the top: how he kept the flame alive

27:25 – The longest relationship of his life

33:12 – A football bet, a number two record, and a gold disc

35:01 – The night the power drained from his arm

39:02 – Losing your job, your income and your identity overnight

39:59 – The first job interview of his life, at 64

44:22 – The daughter's remark that brought him back to the cello

47:57 – Facing a cancer diagnosis

51:32 – Why he refuses to slow down, even now

BUY JULIAN'S BOOK

Bows & Arrows –https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bows-Arrows-Julian-Lloyd-Webber/dp/1837360588https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bows-Arrows-Julian-Lloyd-Webber/dp/1837360588

SEE JULIAN LIVE

Julian's Irish tour with his wife, Jiaxin –https://julianlloydwebber.com/events/https://julianlloydwebber.com/events/

FOLLOW JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Frank Gardner has lived, by his own description, two very different lives — and found a way to carry the best of the first into the second. Twenty years on from the attack in Riyadh that nearly killed him, the BBC Security Correspondent is still reporting from the places most of us wouldn't dare go.

In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, Andy sits down with Frank to discuss his Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation that he turns to in order to help survive a crisis.

Frank is the BBC's Security Correspondent and the author of a series of best-selling thrillers — the latest, Ballistic, is out now. If you haven't heard the full conversation yet, go back and find it in the feed. It's well worth your time.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit http://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

CHAPTERS:

00:53 A Person – Himself

01:21 A Habit – Lifting his eyes to the horizon, the birdwatcher's discipline of really looking

02:23 A Comfort – Driving.

03:40 A Piece of Advice – Grieve it, deal with it, but don't keep defining yourself by what happened

BUY FRANK'S BOOK

Ballistic – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/178763549X?tag=prhmarketing2552-21

FOLLOW FRANK GARDNER

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

On June 6th 2004, Frank Gardner was in Riyadh filming what was meant to be a routine piece of background footage when an Al-Qaeda cell opened fire. His cameraman, Simon Cumbers, was killed. Frank was shot six times and left for dead. One surgeon later told him he'd arrived at hospital the colour of a lab coat, bleeding from every wound faster than they could pour the plasma in. It was, in the truest sense, the day Frank should have died.

That day split his life in two. Before it, he was a restless Arabist who'd hitchhiked across the Middle East with nothing in his pocket, spent a decade in banking, turned down MI6, and talked his way into the BBC in his mid-30s to become its first ever security correspondent. After it, he was partially paralysed and in daily pain – yet back at work within ten months, and has spent the twenty years since reporting from the very places that nearly killed him. He describes crossing an invisible bridge to a new version of himself, this conversation is about what that crossing actually cost.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing a crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visithttps://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

FOUR LESSONS FROM FRANK

• Don't waste your energy mourning what you can no longer change. Pour it into what you still can.
• When crisis hits, there's a fork in the road. One path is self-pity – and it's entirely justifiable. The other is deciding to make the most of what you've got left. Choosing the second is a daily struggle.
• Look outwards, not inwards. Fill your life with the things that make you feel useful and alive. Fixating on your own troubles is a trap – curiosity about the world around you is the way out.
• Volunteer for the work no one else wants – the weekends, the bank holidays, the night shifts. It's how you make yourself indispensable, and how you get your shot when it finally comes.

CHAPTERS

05:18 – The daily indignities most people never see

08:57 – Why he refuses to let it define him

11:33 – Where his grit really came from: two extraordinary parents

14:19 – The bold early decisions that shaped a life

20:38 – Turning down MI6 – and the self-awareness to know why

27:45 – How to break into a career when there's no job at the end of it

30:27 – The attack: what actually happened that day

31:02 – Seven months in hospital, and living with the what-ifs

39:45 – The one thing he's still bitter about

42:15 – Losing Simon, and finding a way through the grief

44:37 – "You'll never walk again" – the second hammer blow

48:05 – The letter from the BBC that gave him something to aim for

50:42 – Going back to Saudi Arabia to face it down

53:52 – Why he doesn't spend his life grieving

BUY FRANK'S BOOK

Ballistic –https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/178763549X?tag=prhmarketing2552-21https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/178763549X?tag=prhmarketing2552-21

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FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Shock is a fundamental part of almost any crisis. It's a state of complete operating system override which, when left unacknowledged, can turn into something far more damaging.

In this special compilation episode, Andy Coulson revisits five past guests who each experienced shock in very different ways, and found very different routes through it.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on. This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visit http://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

FULL EPISODES:

Johnny Mercer: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000482235919

Rupert Soames: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000700198554

Dr Richard Shepherd: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000533310865

Jill Halfpenny: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000661591052

Kate Bowler: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/crisis-what-crisis-with-andy-coulson/id1517015748?i=1000762523544

FOLLOW THE GUESTS:

Johnny Mercer: https://www.instagram.com/johnnymercermp/?hl=en

Dr Richard Shepherd: https://www.instagram.com/drrichardshepherd/?hl=en

Jill Halfpenny: https://www.instagram.com/jillhalfpenny/?hl=en

Kate Bowler: https://www.instagram.com/katecbowler/?hl=en

Jeremy King is the legendary restaurateur behind Le Caprice, The Ivy, The Wolseley and Simpson's on the Strand. His is a story of extraordinary gambles, of rooms that became London institutions, and of losing the company that carried his own name — and choosing to build all over again in his 70s.

In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, I sit down with Jeremy to discuss his Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation that he turns to in order to help survive a crisis – a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice.

If you haven't heard the full conversation yet, go back and find it in the feed. It's well worth your time.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit http://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

CHAPTERS:

00:59 A Person – Himself. The only person he can absolutely trust in a crisis.

02:43 A Habit – Up at 5am, every day, it's the ritual that stabilises him before the world wakes up

03:44 A Comfort – His children, and the different perspective they bring

04:26 A Piece of Advice – Why get inordinately upset about something you'll forget about in future?

BUY JEREMY'S BOOK

Without Reservation: Lessons from a Life in Restaurants – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Without-Reservation-Lessons-Life-Restaurants/dp/0008599025

FOLLOW JEREMY KING

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/jeremyrbking/?hl=en

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

In April 2022, after a bruising auction battle with his own investors, Jeremy King lost the company that carried his name. He walked back into the Wolseley – the restaurant he had built into the highest grossing restaurant in Britain – to find his staff in tears and the new owners already arriving. His phone and laptop were taken from him, he felt, as he puts it, like a criminal – stripped of all his possessions and then cast out onto the street.

But that was just the latest chapter in a career defined again and again by gambles, diligence, loss, and extraordinary success. Jeremy once handed the biggest decisions of his life to the roll of a dice. He built and sold an empire, built another, and now, at 72, is rebuilding for a third time – with Simpson's in the Strand, London’s most talked about restaurant of the moment and a venue he first tried to buy 26 years ago.

Across the last forty-five years Jeremy has revived or built from scratch some of London’s most loved restaurants: Le Caprice, The Ivy, J Sheekey, The Wolseley and The Delaunay. His patrons have ranged from royalty to the greatest artists of the age, yet his gift has always been to make anyone who walks through his doors feel like they are the most important person in the room.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing a crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters, and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley. Visithttps://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

FOUR LESSONS FROM JEREMY

• Look for the good before the crisis has even hit. Whatever's going wrong, there's almost always something to salvage.
• Let them take your money. Never let them take your soul. You'll always find another way to make money.
• Don't act fast just to feel in control. People panic and make the wrong moves because they think a crisis demands speed. Often the bravest, smartest thing you can do is wait and see.
• Do the job better than it's ever been done – even sweeping a floor. Pride is yours to keep. That standard, once set, never leaves you.

CHAPTERS

04:54 – Why the best operators watch before they speak

08:04 – How an early knock to your confidence can shape a whole career

25:00 – Where a true standard of excellence actually comes from

30:08 – What it really feels like to lose the company with your name on it

39:26 – Why selling too early can be the smartest deal you ever do

45:00 – Holding your nerve on the worst day of your business life

49:16 – Protecting your reputation when the story's out of your hands

51:44 – What five years with Lucian Freud taught him about risk and danger

57:18 – Why integrity is simply never trying to get away with anything

58:32 – The art of defusing a crisis before it becomes one

01:03:20 – Keeping perspective: why every crisis is relative

01:07:09 – Starting over at 72

BUY JEREMY'S BOOK

Without Reservation: Lessons from a Life in Restaurants https://www.amazon.co.uk/Without-Reservation-Lessons-Life-Restaurants/dp/0008599025

FOLLOW JEREMY KING

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production – Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)

Over 20 years in frontline politics, Sir Jeremy Hunt held three of the great offices of state – Health Secretary, Foreign Secretary, and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He survived some of the most bruising political battles of his generation, and grieved, throughout, the loss of his father, his mother, and his brother.

In this bonus episode of Crisis What Crisis, I sit down with Jeremy to discuss his Crisis Compass. The four points of navigation he turns to on his darker days – a person, a habit, a comfort and a piece of advice.

POWERED BY KINGSLEY NAPLEY:

I know what it is to have the right legal support around you when facing crisis. Kingsley Napley are the kind of lawyers I wish more people knew about – there to help you make the right decisions, protect what matters and build real resilience when the pressure is on.

This episode is powered by Kingsley Napley, visit http://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/ for more details.

CHAPTERS:

01:02 A Person — the one who'll still be there when the job, the title, and the headlines are long gone

01:21 A Habit — the cross-country team he was forced into at school, and why he still hasn't stopped

01:55 A Comfort — six and a half weeks of Lent torture, and why Easter makes it worth it

02:15 A Piece of Advice — why criticism only hurts when it comes from someone you know

BUY JEREMY'S BOOK:

Can We Be Rich Again? The Surprising Potential of Britain's Economy – https://shorturl.at/4Kv0D

FOLLOW JEREMY:

Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/jeremyhuntmp/

TikTok — https://www.tiktok.com/@jeremyrshuntmp

X — https://x.com/Jeremy_Hunt

LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyhuntuk/

FOLLOW CRISIS WHAT CRISIS?

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This was a Crisis What Crisis Production — Rex Fisher (producer), Ioana Barbu (studio manager), Fred Sharp (research), Johnny Seifert (audio), Jasper Cullen (video)