The real problem with Britain’s Political Traitors show is that no one is very faithful to anything for long | Robert Hutton

For Westminster’s special budget edition of the series, politicians have played to their strengths. Bombast, duplicity, distrust: it’s all second nature

You join us on a steam train in Scotland as we head to the next episode of the BBC’s hit show Political Traitors. It’s like the celebrity edition, except that everyone is less comely – politics being the practice of show business for ugly people. For this week’s task, the players have to construct a “budget” of tiny crowd-pleasing measures, carefully balanced by invisible tax rises.

What makes the show so compelling is that the players don’t know the whole story. Only those of us on the outside can see what’s really going on.