Share Sounds related to Politics - UK

2016 will always be remembered as the year of Brexit, even though formal negotiations to navigate our way out of the bloc are yet to begin, and doubts are still being raised about the date of March 31st 2017, when Article 50 is due to be triggered. But 2016 was the year when the vote that would change the course of British history was announced, carried out and revealed. Share Radio's Joe Aldridge has been looking into how one of the greatest political debates of our time played out.

Sue Dougan is joined in the studio by web editor at MoneySuperMarket.com Kevin Pratt. On the agenda today they look at the state of Britain's aging railways as well as our spending trends from 2016. Plus what to do with any unwanted Christmas gifts. All these stories and more on The News Review.

Welcome to the This is Money and Share Radio podcast, brought to you in partnership with NS&I. It’s the last episode of the year and we’re looking back on the biggest financial stories we’ve seen in 2016- the year of the unexpected. In June in a poll defying result Britain voted by 52% to leave the EU. Since then Brexit has been a nearly constant presence in the headlines being blamed for everything from disappearing marmite to an abandoned sequel to the Mrs Brown’s Boys film. The surprises didn’t stop with Brexit though. Across the pond billionaire TV personality Donald Trump beat the odds to win the US Presidential Election. Looking back on the year Georgie Frost is joined by Editor Simon Lambert and Consumer Affairs Editor Lee Boyce. Also on the agenda they look at the ongoing woes of Britain’s housing market, the never ending story of the new plastic fiver and the third big surprise of 2016, Leicester City winning the Premier League.

Josh Lowe, Reporter at Newsweek, joined Share Radio for his weekly take on politics. He talked Europe-wide manhunt for Berlin suspect and the implications for Chancellor Merkel, the news that one of Jeremy Corbyn’s most persistent critics quit as a Labour MP to take a job in the nuclear industry, and the recently published letters sent by Donald Trump to then-Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, part of an intense lobbying campaign against plans for an offshore wind project near Mr Trump's Aberdeenshire golf resort.

All of Tuesday mornings newspapers lead with pictures from the scene in Berlin after the fatal incident, which killed at least 12 people and wounded around 50. Just hours before the Berlin lorry crash, Russia's top diplomat in Turkey was shot dead by an off-duty policeman at an art gallery in Ankara. To offer more on these stories, and to look at the political implications, Josh Lowe of Newsweek joined Share Radio Breakfast.

The Scottish government is to publish its proposals for Scotland's future relationship with the EU after Brexit, in a paper titled "Scotland's place in Europe". Theresa May has promised to listen to the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland before taking an agreed UK-wide negotiation position to Brussels for formal talks, due to begin by the end of March. To look ahead to the publishing of the paper, our man in Scotland, Maurice Smith, joined Share Radio Breakfast.

There is widespread concern after British Airways and the Post Office joined Southern Rail in striking over the Christmas period. According to the latest figures by the Office for National Statistics, 281,000 days were lost to strike action up until the end of October 2016, which is over 100,000 more days than the same time last year. Share Radio’s Matt Cox investigated this new era of strike action with industrial action expert Professor Chris Rowley, Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, and Professor Emeritus at Cass Business School.

Ryan Heath, Senior EU Correspondent and Associate Editor at POLITICO Europe, joined Share Radio Breakfast to talk politics. The Daily Telegraph leads with news the UK could face a bill of £50 billion to leave the EU. Meanwhile the Financial Times says Brussels is preparing rule changes which would deprive London of one of its flagship financial businesses.

Scotland's Finance Secretary Derek Mackay has pledged a funding increase of £240m for local services as he set out his draft budget. Mr Mackay also confirmed he will not change income tax rates or bands. Those were two of the headlines from the Scottish Budget, and to bring us up to date with this, Share Radio’s Scotland Correspondent Maurice Smith joined Nigel Cassidy and Sara Sjölin.

Dan Hodges, Political commentator at the Mail on Sunday, joined Share Radio Breakfast to give his weekly politics round-up. He looked over the situation in Syria and gave his take on the ASLEF and RMT union strike affecting Southern rail services. Finally, we discussed the latest that the News industry is worth £5.3 billion to the economy.