James Lyons

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Good afternoon.

Sure.

Well, I think Joe is right.

We're kind of in a bit of kind of fire up the DeLorean moment here, aren't we?

It's not just the kind of way that the message is being communicated.

It's also some of the players who are on the pitch.

So you've got Tony Blair, Gordon Brown's been out recently.

Alan Milburn's been in the headlines.

Jack Straw and David Blunkett have been out.

It has been a real kind of, you know, am I mad in a coma or back in time moment.

But look, I was in Downing Street for a year.

I went in in October of 2024 after the difficult start that the government had.

And they got me in to basically try and sort out the strategic communications, which I did.

Yeah, it was deliberate reset.

There were a number of kind of personnel changes.

And actually, you know, we had a few good months.

So if you remember, we launched the plan for change then, which took these kind of sprawling 10 year missions that Labour had in opposition and turned them into an actual plan for government and what the government was going to deliver.

in the first term.

And for about six months after that, people kind of knew where we were heading.