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Enda Brady: UK correspondent ahead of Chancellor John Healey presenting UK 2026 Budget · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Enda Brady, UK Correspondence with us. Hello, Enda.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Hello, Heather. Thanks for having me again.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Right, so do you think the budget tomorrow is going
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: to be grim?
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  Speaker 1: Yes, I think it's going to be a very difficult
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: budget because there's no money left here. He needs to
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: find savings. The only little kind of trinket or giveaway
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: that we've heard in the morning's papers is that the
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  Speaker 1: minimum wage for young people apparently is going up by 4%.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: So that's great news if you're a young worker. It
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: will rise to $ 26 an hour. Business won't be happy
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: about that because, of course, they've got to fund it.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And they are saying that we've got 1 million young
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: people not in education, employment or training. And this is
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: not really going to sway business into giving them jobs anymore.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: So it's going to be a very, very difficult budget.
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  Speaker 1: And we are in for a long, bleak, hard winter.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it does sound very much like that.
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  Speaker 2: Now, listen, what's going on with Oxford Street? So it's
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  Speaker 2: supposed to be pedestrians only, isn't it, in a part?
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: So one kilometre of Oxford Street is now pedestrian. And
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  Speaker 1: this is the brainchild of Sadiq Khan, mayor of London.
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  Speaker 1: He's looked at other cities that have done this, particularly Barcelona.
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  Speaker 1: And the idea is that, you know, Oxford Street is
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  Speaker 1: the best of the West End in London. All the
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: big name shops and bars and restaurants. And the experience
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  Speaker 1: was being spoiled by buses and fumes and traffic and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: all the belching congestion. So for one kilometre, it is
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  Speaker 1: now pedestrian only. However, last night was the first night
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: of it. And predictably, the only people who did not
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  Speaker 1: abide by the law, cyclists. Predictably so. predominantly male cyclists
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  Speaker 1: who decided that they would just be allowed to ride
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: their bikes anyway. And the pedestrians just meant, oh, pedestrians
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: and cyclists.
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  Speaker 3: It doesn't.
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  Speaker 1: You are not special cyclists. Get off the bike and walk.
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  Speaker 1: So cops out in force last night.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, you could have predicted this, but there we are. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Somehow they do not feel that they have wheels. It's
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  Speaker 3: quite a strange thing.
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  Speaker 2: Now, listen, I was quite alarmed on your behalf by
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  Speaker 2: Streeting telling you guys you have a thousand days to
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  Speaker 2: prepare for war.
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  Speaker 3: How'd that go down with you?
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  Speaker 1: So a lot of people panicked and the results this
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  Speaker 1: morning in the newspapers, many supermarkets are running low on
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  Speaker 1: bottled water, canned beans and batteries because a lot of
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  Speaker 1: people didn't even listen to Streeting. And then others went
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: to the extreme and thought, oh, my God, we don't
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: have these items. Let's go buy them. My wife proudly
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: informed me yesterday that we are now going to receive
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: in the post tomorrow a wind-up radio.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, good.
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  Speaker 1: Which it's a very, very good thing to have. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't know we would ever need one, but it's arriving
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  Speaker 1: here tomorrow. I think a lot of families who listened
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: to Streeting thought, right, we need to be serious about this.
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  Speaker 1: For anyone who didn't see the story, he is the
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Defence Secretary and he said, get ready. And he spoke
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: about climate change, hybrid warfare, Russia... hacking attacks and basically said,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: you know, have enough food in your house for three
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  Speaker 1: full days, have liters and liters of water to drink,
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  Speaker 1: to wash, to cook with, have battery supplies. And he
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: even went as far as saying, do you have written
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: down telephone numbers for your closest, nearest and dearest? And
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I thought about this and I actually don't remember off
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  Speaker 1: by heart my dad's mobile number in Ireland. So yeah,
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  Speaker 1: he made very, very good points. A lot of people
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  Speaker 1: didn't listen and others just went hell for leather and
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  Speaker 1: started buying up tins and cans and bottles and batteries.
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  Speaker 3: In a way, it's good that everybody didn't listen then.
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  Speaker 2: And when they do listen, there'll be some supplies again.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Enda, thanks very much, mate. Enda Brady, UK correspondent.