182: Make Hay

I, so I grew up in the, I was teenager in the late nineties, So I lived through the, new dawn has broken, has it not, I think that new labour record is really good, but the thing that we're talking about tonight is the fact that, Tony s decided make one of it. It was described as a rare intervention. I was like, I don't think, I don't think it eases it really. No. But, into the labour leadership where he said a variety of things.

The thing I think he said that true is that Ki came into that labour leadership, essentially painting himself as continuity Corbin. He then pivoted very hard afterwards to say, actually, I'm gonna put the left back in the sealed tomb of Mendelssohn. Wipe out badly. Yeah. and then now is of just, if if anyone can escape a sealed tomb Peter mad Peter Max rise.

but then essentially without proper programme for government, without a governing ideology, you will snap back into a sort of wishy-washy, soft left comfort zone, that is a legitimate ideology, but you have to make a case for it, not just it be the kind of default that you come back to. And I think that's problem.

The people around Stama they were very clever, that they said, we're not getting involved these labour We're Benit or Blairite or Wilson I or Callaghan I, or whatever it might castle Light. But we are shy. That's the only I that we are, but, as it's turned out, that's problem, is that no one knows what they think. Couldn't see in his arguments any policies that haven't already adopted by the conservatives and reform. Which is interesting. because if wants say hi, vote.

Tory. a different view from him. He's free to do Yeah. How did you feel about his thoughts on oil and gas? Andy loved him, couldn't fault him. quite impressive on a, 35 degree day to sign off an argument says More oil and gas, that's what we need. That's the secure future we need. No, it's, his are consistent. He believes that we need, more oil and gas. He believes we need to rip up clean power 2030 commitment.

proposing the same things would do if you were a climate denier and, which in fact, reforming the conservatives are pitching at the moment. there is a reason that China are installing hundreds of gigawatts. Basically. One gigawatt is a large nuclear power station. China's installing hundreds gigawatts of Soler power every year. They are not doing that. 'cause had inspiring talk from Greta Thunberg. they're doing that for very hard-nosed reasons of their own energy security.

they're not on a mad choke point in the Middle East that can apparently be closed at any time. And they're doing it for reasons of cost. China's electrified more of its economy than we have by about 35 25%. China has overtaken us the race to get things clean and efficient. That's, Do you know, I can tell that I've spent too much time sitting in a room with because as I was reading I thought, it's fascinating me that he's very excited ai.

Yeah. Now, the Tony Blair Global Institute has lots of links with, with AI companies, and I think there is a genuine, sincere thing there, is he just loves the future. It's shiny and new and exciting. I thought there's a really big contrast with why is he not excited about clean energy, incredible strides of technology advance in the last decade that past, But that one apparently is not, exciting to him. 'cause none of, the he meets at international conferences are going on about that.

What they are saying is AI's fantastic. And because he's an enthusiast, he has no idea what AI is. is I did, nor do I, but, I know, On the whole, it isn't good to encourage the end humanity yourself personally. I feel that isn't a good policy. And also telling people what we're gonna do is we're take away all your jobs, particularly, your jobs, the audience, in return, going to rip up your environment fill it full of data centres. How does that grab you?

that if you just like bleak future apocalypses, then Tony's your man also. I just can't, I'm just gonna get it my system. Yeah, go on. Let it out. Great. Just vent. As soon as you see the words, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Yeah. For furthering the knowledge of Tony Blair, you just start thinking, what's this and what are his two main points? Get closer to Trump. Even reform want to get closer to Trump. Right.

wing is Blair now But as you say, Helen, the point you are a fan of is that he's identified that you need to have a and it, even if that means annoying people. And that that seem to be something that's people feel is lacking. Whether or not it is people really have identified the lack of a message. We've had so many sort of missions and, what were the the there were the pledges, there were the milestones. I believe there were, there was sadly revival, ed, Stone. ed Stone. yeah.

Yeah. I think that's the thing. I think it's quite hard to work out why Stan's approval ratings are so low and he's so hated. But I think it's the sense that there's, it's that he's vapour, that there's nothing there. And I think that's the kind of, that is the point. I take your point in saying this stuff, but on the domestic analysis, and I was Tony Blas only too keen to remind himself. He did. He's the only labour leader ever to run three general election victories.

Like he does know something about making and winning a political argument. And one of the things that Phillips said in her resignation letter we took, spoke, talked about in the last pod, was we don't wanna have an argument, therefore, we don't go out and make an argument. We're afraid to make enemies.

And actually, Adam, it turns out they're listening to you because Ki Star's, all the briefing this was about banning social media for under sixteens and actually making villains outta the tech bosses. Yeah. The other thing that she said, wasn't it, was that if there was a crisis, she would take advantage of it. And it's a example of that. But she suddenly said, why not this? And he's jumped in and gone. That's his big thing, isn't it?

But it does feel, it just feels like there's an absolute sense drift at the top at the moment, doesn't it? And bizarrely, they seem to think that the answer to that is to spend six weeks having a bi-election and then a labour election during nothing get done either. So on we go.

But there are, ideas are being discussed, which is at least, so you, whether you like the ideas or not, that it is forcing a lot of the party to have a chat with itself about whatever it might be, about defence, about health, about Brexit, what's a, what a huge failure of their time in opposition there, because I'm a massive nerd. I read Philip Gould's the Unfinished Revolution. So he was the pollster who was intimately involved with new labour.

And what they did was they spent the mid nineties going away and having all those arguments internally doing them. That was what we were told Star was doing. That what Sue Grey was supposed to be bringing in her like roadmap for, Armageddon, the opposite Utopia. And then they got in they were like, oh, it's, oh, we're in charge. Oh no. Have you seen these finances? These are terrible. I wish someone would've said something. And yes, so I agree with you. It's good for them to have that argument.

A better time to have that would've been in, say, May, 2024 before they had a crack at running the But what they were doing then was the definition they defined themselves were just saying, I'm not Corbin. I'm very definitely not Corbin, and can we just emphasise that I'm really not Corbin? And then it never got further than the party stuff did there didn't ever seem to be a kind of like a big idea. And yeah, the Barack Obama Hopey Changey stuff as referred to just seems completely absent.

But, So Tony in, in the Blair Institute for further Blair Ology, he said, why is the Labour Party, you by the idea of finding a charismatic, personality, it should be about policy. And this is Tony Blair whose main attraction was a charismatic personality. He seems to have forgotten Gordon Brown. No, I think he thinks about Gordon Brown a lot. Oh, do you think so? Which is kind not as much as Gordon Brown thinks about him. Yes. Yeah. we should be dishing out some equal opportunity kickings well.

Yes. let's turn right. what Sironi? Okay, let's stay Exactly. Okay. Let's take exactly where Sironi is. because at the time of recording, of you here will have seen, Nigel Farage, a leader of Reform UK has, 5 million excuses for why he took a massive donation from a Thai based crypto billionaire. Yep. the parties reform candidate in the by-election has, there have some reputationally challenging, things that have emerged about him. it's what you mean the, social media posts?

Yes. But in this election, the, really weird thing is that reform are being out flanked on the right. Yeah. So Rupert Lowe's outfit Restore, this is gonna be a really interesting test So people who run focus groups say that restorers being brought up in them. It's, always a challenge in the first pass, post is it very difficult for new entrants, very hostile to new entrants.

So he's essentially got backing, the very vocal backing of Elon Musk who was about as popular as gonorrhoea in country, but has a lot of money. and also he is gone way, I okay, so you've already got a situation in which reforms I, Yusef is saying we would deport foreign nationals who've got social housing. So that's, already talking, we're already in getting close to the Trumpy mass deportation zone. Rupert Lowe is bulldozed straight beyond that.

He said something he wants to take all immigrants put on a mid infested island and leave the to it. We are now at fully far right rhetoric. Yeah. So the interesting question is, for the other parties, it's electorally useful have restore exists because it will drain some reform away in the way that the BMP would've done. If you think about where that party is, but in no way do you want to encourage the growth of a far right party with that kind of rhetoric.

So there will be this awkward dance where people will be slightly keeping their gloves on about not wanting to qu this party for electoral reasons when they really should. Because letting it grow and fester be horrible, make this country horrible to live in. Adam, did an even earlier and one of one of the points reflected on was just how angry Britain seems days. there is a widespread mass. It's not irritation, it's further than that.

It is anger about the feeling that nothing works, that big bits of the state are not doing their job properly. Lots of other people are getting away with it and you are not, I feel we've hit this point. We, it comes to the Hopi Changey stuff I was talking about. it doesn't feel like anyone is voting for any sort of positive reasons anymore. Everyone is voting against things rather than voting for things.

And even within parties, the, massive swing to the green, some of it's down to Zach Lansky being very, charismatic and them coming out nowhere as effectively a new party under his leadership. But an awful lot of it because a lot of people in labour are absolutely Furious about where labour sit on what Israel is doing Gaza. And it's the single issues that people fixate on get extreme, like, on the right, that people fixate on that one thing, they're very, angry about.

And they, that it just seems to be they're voting against them. No one seems to me to be any sort of positive story about where Britain be. They're telling us it's broken and it's terrible and it's awful. And that's as journalists. It's not Wrong politic. But to go back to sub blessed Toone, there was another bit where he about the all lure of people at having him a lie in Argentina, Mr. Chainsaw who communes with his dead dogs. Okay. Through seances, as do we all sometimes.

But, and, Georgie Maloney of and Trump, where he said the normal institutional politicians, they ap approach a wall the road and they then have a kind of committee meeting to see how we could round it. And then these other, these populist right politicians threaten bulldoze through wall. And that's what people are voting for. They want something to happen and they feel that there are all these ways in which nothing ever changes. Nothing ever happens.

And I do think that does some of what you were saying. There was an analysis of the recent, cancel elections, which said essentially you can break down Britain to four blocks if you are older and financially precarious. You're voting reform. If you're younger and financially precarious, you're voting green. If you're older and financially secure, you're voting conservative. And if you're younger and financially you're voting labour. And that's a huge oversimplification.

But there is an alliance there between people who feel that their lives are not secure in way, and then they have the, burn it all down then what? I've got no stake this system anyway. that, I think is a very powerful force in British politics right now. But comparatively a lot, it's like question time. Comparatively, a lot of those things are driven by online media narratives that aren't necessarily true.

Yeah. so a lot of anger is generated about issues which don't affect hugely and which are not quite the same issues as those presented. So I feel what's different people say, what's different about the current is that, people are allowed to vent this anger in very, blatant toxic ways online. And then they bring it the real world and we haven't had that.

And then they're suddenly shocked when someone says, unbelievably offensive thing you wrote, it's, it was a long time ago when you go, it last week. and they go, I'm a different person. You think you're not though, are you? and then it was banter. I I'd have statutory, imprisonment banter myself, but, how I how from banter off on the causes banter.

Yeah. and, but these are just ways of saying, we've normalised a way of being angry and Furious and about things that doesn't necessarily reflect happening. And it's part of the reason, eye satirises a lot of the, mainstream narratives the writer as well as on the thing is because they have gone into complete lunacy. and the Britain is broken narrative again, it, sells well. Nothing works. Everything's useless. That just isn't true.

and in a lot of spheres, this isn't plos, that's not really my thing. but in a lot of spheres, all is happening is you are hearing the noise and you are not hearing anything else. And that I think, becomes problem. It's a lot of it is down to what your algorithm serves you it serves you the stuff that is making you angry, but it serves you more of the stuff that you liked anyway. And There's no sort of room for any sort of counter narrative to come at that.

I the number of people, Rupert Low is among them who are absolutely convinced of the mainstream media who are in were ignoring the child grooming scandals for decades until Elon Musk over it last year. was 2012 that we gave the Paul Foot award investigative journalism to Andrew Norfolk for the work he'd done? the reason people know about this stuff is because the police investigations went on at the time and the journalists who wrote about yeah.

Just because it's taken that long to notice, it doesn't mean it wasn't happening. And he wrote in an obscure journal called The Times He was on the front page, Whoa. Oh, mainstream media, lame stream media, I call them. I think it's, I do think it's hard if you don't consume a lot of this content just to realise how incredibly heightened emotionally it is. So if you are on, if you're watching short form video, you were just getting stuff pumped at you.

There is an established problem on x formerly Twitter of creators sitting in other countries. You like whether basically people who are sitting in alone at their computer somewhere like Malaysia creating clips about kind of Islamic takeover of London. Yes. And you have this very odd situation, I spend a lot time writing America, where you have Americans who live in with unbelievably high homicide rates, going, is everything okay in London?

And you're like, yeah, Some bits of it are quite nice actually, but they're all, they, all they get fed is basically SDI Khan's, Sharia wasteland over and over again. And they're sitting in, Chicago and then they're, they're worrying about our safety. And these, you these are incredibly heightened. There's another thing, Jim war of London Centric bust opener ring of this, a guy going into houses, multiple occupation and filming videos saying, these people are all Muslims.

None of them speak They have a halal only house, it's all social housing. And there is fundamentally no sanction on that. The social media companies aren't investigating. interested in mod moderating it, that investigation, it wasn't true. the, people living in those houses were, not, not, only, Al but it turned out the guy responsible was estate agent who was letting out those houses wasn't, yeah. So if that had been case, that would've been down to him. Really? Yeah, yeah.

easy to find the lp, but that's the kind of, that's the kind of thing. And as, said, if you get, if you watch one of those and you like it it made you Furious, guess what's coming along in a minute is 400 videos. It's very interesting because I, literally only get heat stuff, so I have no idea what this, I just, I live in a fool's paradise. I really, check. That's all.

Helen, you said if you're feeling precarious comfortable, and if you're older or younger now, you didn't mention what happens if you're feeling precarious comfortable and you live in Wales or Scotland. we've got five cery and we've got the smp I I also didn't mention the Lib Dems, because I where they fit into that matrix. So there are many people who are excluded the Matrix.

Absolutely. But I think we shouldn't, given, the day we're recording this song, we shouldn't miss out the SNP and I think. And we know ply have done marvellously and congratulations to them. But, for each of you, what are your favourite items Peter Merrill's? I'm, I nearly said expenses, but it's not, an expense if you've embezzled But do, you have any top picks? This is now shopping channel section of the evening.

the headline one that everybody's focused on is the pound Lile salt and pepper shakers. Because I just think almost no one else realised that. can you a salt pepper shaker to make it like, there was, a pencil sharpener that was worth about graph. How do you make a pencil sharper is worth that much outta Diamond Outta Diamond. Outta Diamond. done? My favourite one was that he bought and he embezzled a copy of his wive's book of speeches. I, I I am I've absolutely got a comp from publisher.

Yes. Just that's where I have some sympathy from. 'cause I wouldn't spend my money on Nicola Street surgeon speeches. It was the coffee machines got me. Did you see them? No. Come If husband embezzled copy of your latest book, you'd be fuming with him. I think, to be honest, he probably wants freebies. I think if I made him go out and buy it, be more fury. Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. No, the coffee machines were amazing. The, it's about three, 2000 pound coffee machines in there. Wow. special.

Nessun, espresso Crue, espresso and mugs. A manual espresso maker, a coffee Cup warmer, which was the thing I didn't even know existed. Oh. But then at the bottom of the, that's a hand after all the, just a hand after all the beans. Also two kilogrammes of Nescafe gold blend, which were worth 81 60. Who was that for? That's just, if the builders were that's when journalists come round and you have to pretend to be of the people. But I realised who years at that point. He's the coffee bo.

There's one in every office who has a, cold compress thing that want tell you about how best coffee it will your life. That's Peter Mull. I, need, I was other people's money. mean the timing is what I like The, they managed to, conclude this investigation after the election. in which the SNP very well. And thank you to all the, Scotts Nat supporters who've me abuse over the years, for ever questioning the, probity of the, leadership the SNP.

it is extraordinary that we're talking about 400,000 pounds. the excuse given and a number of people are questioning, whether Nicholas Sturgeon's account of this is entirely she's been found innocent. Just making that very clear. but you said they had separate accounts. They were both earning salaries. both earning about a hundred grand each. So after tax, that's about a hundred grand.

If your joint household goes from 100 grand to 500 grand, you might notice now if you are the Scottish police, you launch an investigation, which takes a very, long time. and only comes to its conclusion after it's far too late affect fortunes of the, politicians of time. This is pretty fishy. Scottish politics is very small. It involves a lot of the same people. Some of them are married to each other, some of them aren't anymore.

but the idea that your first minister, leader of the SNP, you want to renegotiate the financial situation between Scotland and England and don't know your husband's embezzled 400 grand darling. There's a new camper Van is there. That's lovely, darling. Let's it in the drive. I it just of your mother. Let's put it in your mother-in-law's car. The 93-year-old mother who didn't drive. Yeah. Yeah. Alright.

I'm gonna on because can I just say that John Sweeney may have done the first and maybe only joke of his life. Did see this Inadvertently they said, do you think Nicola Sturgeon was really cooperating with the police when she just said, no comment for seven hours? And he said, no comment. Lovely, lovely secret of comedy is timing. Very strong. Very Very strong. And then from John Sweeney. Alright, look, of, terrific crooks, must turn to America. Helen, you, cover lot of, American affairs.

we're now how long, I think seven or eight years Trump's second term, just by vibes alone. how is it going and where are we in with where we were the first time around? If a year and a got a and a bit in I Yeah. Can you even remember what the end of 2017, the beginning of 2018 were like? They now the sort of miss of time? Trump has just, talk about being a massive crook. He has absolutely plundered American state. So he's got his sons involved in a crypto business.

he's, doing deals with various Middle East and Gulf monarchies seem to be, basically his foreign policies have been sort an extension of his hotel business. and the other is he just has this situation now where he will just pardon people if they've donated money to him, which just seems fairly just obviously crooked, but it's apparently due to a loophole. Absolutely fine.

Yeah. so the latest thing he's done is created a huge slush fund, or the Department of Justice created a huge slush over a billion dollars to basically pay off people like the January 6th rioters who've been victims of miscarriages of justice. Now you've covered some miscarriages of justice in time. I would say who turned up hit a policeman over the head with truncheon while dressed as I Who's sort of like Shamans. Yeah, shamans or whatever.

And not, wouldn't be the, I'd probably put like the post office people slightly higher on the list than them, So I think that he has, basically checked outta the American presidency. What happened is he came in, this blueprint for government from the Heritage Foundation project 2025. He went through a blizzard of executive orders, which all American presidents come to rely on now. Essentially.

It's a very cheap way of getting things without having to do them Congress, and then has just become wildly distracted by the Iran War. There's talk about them doing some kind of incursion Cuba, but they just don't really have the bandwidth it, but they might do it anyway 'cause they're bonkers.

And, he's, meanwhile just, I think also he is, he, feels very lame duck in the sense that he's already got a gold stature of himself and he's just got a big, he's building a huge UFC ring on the south lawn of White House. You should say what UFC is. Yes. Oh, I'm sure. Everyone in the audience is a huge fan of mixed martial arts. it's ultimate fighting championship. So Yeah. It's not KFC. No. Although give actually he's more of a McDonald's guy. Give him time. But yeah.

So the, his way of this is almost beyond parody. His way of celebrating the 250th anniversary the founding of America is he's gonna have some big, burly blokes fight each other on his lawn. Okay. She's you could go to any weatherspoon. a hobby Helen. You take everything away from, but But it it, are we seeing America's greatest 250 years in? We've a war in the Middle East. got, a American invasion on the cards. Yeah. are we just seeing a, an action replay? That's true.

What have they, what Yeah. What have they missed? I thought for a second I had this vision of actually the, Ultimate fighting Championship is gonna be replaying. So one of them is be dressed as Abraham Lincoln, one of them dressed as sad hue. Yeah. One of 'em dressed as a weapon of mass destruction. More up for it now. into it. okay, so and how's that, going down with people? his approval ratings have hit the lowest that they have been in either of the, two terms in the NYT Sienna poll.

So it's not, it's really not going well. But the interesting thing is that, I was gonna I was about to say the phrase, you have to feel sorry for staff, and then I realised No, you don't have to. You absolutely do not have to hand it to them. So they, they, have midterm elections in November and there'll be lots and lots of seats, in the both the house and the Senate up for grabs. And basically he has used as a revenge tour.

So anybody who's crossed him, he has endorsed their primary opponent to the extent that the Republicans might actually about the Senate in Texas, which been very red for a very long time. Because the person he's endorsed there is quite criminal, actually technically cleared of all charges. thank you.

yeah, for for the lawyer, dunno if we'll have to edit out you quite criminal and then just cut from you saying the person he selected is cleared of all That might, mean, that might, that'll do the job, I think and the law's very happy. Happy, yeah. Money was just resting in his account. But, but that, but, that, that's because the incumbent senator for Texas sort of 99% loyal to him, but may occasionally have said things like, Sarai, I don't think this war in Iran is a good idea.

Or sir, you did lose the election. So he's, basically hoofed out a load of people that have his critics, but the effect of that is also they've six months to run around, slagging him off. So that might become quite lively in their lame duck session.

But also they might actually lose, you'd expect them to lose the house might even just about lose the Senate, which means, he, which that the Democrats then would control all the committees so they can just subpoena all his people, mi him him stuff, try and impeach him, all that kind of, they just throw sand in the gears of anything getting done and he just can't get any legislation passed, which would be a problem if he wanted to get any legislation passed.

But I think he just wants to invade things. He's just he's just gonna jazz hands it. He's d more pappy, but three years early is what what you're saying? Very, yeah, very early. Yeah. do you think he might invade America in a moment of horrible confusion? He is pointing the wrong way. Him and whose Army? Yeah. Ian, how do you feel covering, the, I the eye obviously covers a lot more British politics. What, how do you feel looking at the state of American politics?

Do you ever wish to hunt that bigger game or is it just so depressing that you can't bear the prospect of it? no. I've got Helen writing a, a, us eye column every week, so I feel we're we are very there. Yeah. At one point readers did write in and say, you stop Trump on the cover? It's depressing. but then it's just too funny. I, I take that as red, but say his approval rates are low. low. What, percentage is that?

37% on the, can you you imagine a British leader having 37% But then I suppose we don't have the same kind of fandom for our, either, either Tories labour, right? There's no group hardcore star rights who go to all his dressed as border wall. Yes. I guess it would print dressed as Hadrian's wall. What would you dress as a key Starer speech? A serious question. I'm not moving on until I've got answer from everyone. actually.

Okay. While you're thinking about this, I'll say that this is a real thing. I went to a Trump rally in Redding, Pennsylvania, and they have all the people who sit in front row come dressed as Uncle Sam. And then they also have a guy who calls himself Mr. Wall, who has had a whole bespoke suit that looks like bricks. That's so right. Just saying, Ian, you love a What you could a, you could have a clear star suit that looked like, would be free, obviously.

Oh, what if it were, Oh, what if it were, could you go dressed as a tool? Yes. A double, act. You did a tool and a tool maker. I think would be nice. yeah, yeah. One of you guys dressed as a hammer and one you of smith in an apron. Yeah. Okay. That's why I would go dressed as, Ian, something to say that was interesting about the good chap principle, which Yes. No, I just noticed that American commentators who for years have said the British Constitution is, unworkable.

' cause it relies on what the snobbish called the good chap principle, which means that people will behave well even if you don't write down to stop them. Whereas the American is black and white checks balances. We don't need this. And I feel now a slight sense Chardon Freud, in thinking, had the good chat principle. You have bonkers lunatic, constitutional, checks balances, which don't work. He literally doesn't care anymore. Yeah. And the Supreme Court won't stop him.

got six three majority on the Supreme Court, which the arbiter. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the house won't, him. And he, and also got this thing there where he plays JD Vance and Marco Rubio. So vice president the Secretary of State off each other is which you is my favourite son? who is my bestest child? there? None of the sons are, because sons are, because their wedding gonna their He, no. I'm very busy this weekend. He said, I'm hanging out with Marco.

He did nothing week, the weekend Yeah. anyway. Yes. Sorry. It's sad. I feel sorry for them. I don't feel sorry for them. No, they did this themselves. They deserve to be unhappy. Okay. So it's, so they do. So it sounds like the forecast is just more of this and nothing, no effective breaks on the plane. is there any further he go that? Not only do you pardon everyone else who's ever given you money, but you pardon yourself for the future forever. that's, a proposal that he's yeah.

He said that he, neither he nor his family can have their tax affairs ever investigated. I'm just and give us a tiny silver lining which is, if he's confined to a lot of domestic embezzlement, much like Peter Merrill at a much larger scale, wouldn't that be better for Britain than him doing mad foreign wars? He's looting America rather than Yeah. Bombing places. Do they not go hand in hand? Okay. Yes. I suppose it's possible both. Yes. Yes. He multitask.

There is a morning and an afternoon in the day. Yeah. And then there's all night him. Yes. He He sticks with his phone. because no one's on truth social apart from mad maga people that not really understood. And the night before he went to China, he, I think he posted something like 500 times. It was cer certainly in the triple digits.

Mm. he's obviously, he's talk about actually Tony Ble have a little word with him discover some of the dangers of ai because he now will just post most obvious like AI slop. Yeah. Hites. He see that the meme of him as Jesus that actually got him trouble was just AI slop. It was one he did of, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama and Joe Biden swimming in sewage in the reflecting pool.

he's just is your Facebook uncle, but then the things, that you think must be AI slopped not to be, I mean he has genuinely put a large gold statue of isn't it? Yeah. A Miami do. Yeah. People are kneeling front of, it's Trump, so it's, let's be honest, it's not really gold is Very gold. It's Guilt, guilt. Not a word Trump familiar with. Hey. Hey But the irony of up, hasn't it? Putin goes see Q and Trump is supporters say that's pathetic. A guy who's losing a war, going begging for help.

You were there the week before. Yeah. A trip. I have to say a triple, which absolutely nothing happened. No, really an absolutely astonishing, the leaders of the two world superpowers and no communica, nothing. He got nothing out of that deal. But he saw really hall, the People's Hall in China and he thought, that's bigger than my hall. Not hall of money, which is. But and then he goes home and he talks about the ballroom again. Yeah. He loves He loves the ballroom. It's Greek, Coro Vegas.

Sounds like Greek wrestling. But I do hope they have him interred like Lenin in the ballroom day. Can it be soon? it was fitting tribute we should, we should go to questions shortly 'cause we are, we're running reasonably low on time. so I think there are, gonna be paddles, going around the room and once I see a paddle, I'll shout out the number attached to it. Number one. Hello. Hello. Hello there. I'm very glad you put the cartoons double page 'cause I was losing faith.

I, I couldn't read the serious stuff for quite a while, so it was only the cartoons that me a subscriber. Excellent. But what do we do when we get our own bonkers loony in, in Parliament and in the head of the executive in this country? Will you need to go weekly? I think we turfed her out after 49 days. Hey. No, I, think seriously, we, just emulate the American media. We roll over, sell out to anybody with some money, sack the cartoonists, and, retire. ' cause American journalism at its finest.

Good. There we go. I saw a number four over here. Oh. how come my dad hasn't won the private eye crossword yet? Ooh. Okay. Now that, is he remembering to send his entry in? That's an important question because a lot of our readers think that it's rigged. Yeah. they think that some of the names are not genuine. And they are. And the repeated winner from the last week, last three issues, Mrs. Phyllis, his Glock really, is a genuine person who is very good at crosswords.

So I hope I've made that clear. Okay. Okay. that was wonderful. Thank you both for the concision of the questions. And Brian let's go to number two two here, please. you've been disparaging and scathing about politicians. Can you cheer us up a bit? Tell us British politicians you admire and are doing a good job, please. Nice. I don't want to end anyone's career. I can name someone I find quite in, there's a, we haven't spoken much about the Lib Dems.

There's there's a politician, who's elected, called Mike Martin, who's a lot in the Army and now he's, he's campaigning a lot about water. So he's, he's interested in third of the stuff. and, the Lib Dems are filling a funny space in British politics in that they're not really it at moment, but they're potentially filling that space.

And, I think they're weirdly filling a role that the conservatives might traditionally when Kimmie Badnock was trying to be, rude about the Lib Dems, said, oh, they're may be good fixing the church roof, but, they're not really good for anything else. Lots of people really, want the church fixed. Yeah. In fact, fixing the roof is a metaphor for doing something valuable and doing it in a timely fashion.

So anyway, and Nooks and Corners, the column that talks about roofs quite a lot falling in, or we've set on fire, we are quite keen on. Yeah. Anyway, sorry to Mike Martin for coming. Oh, Martin, held, I think the place to look is the Select Committees, actually that's you people come into politics 'cause they're interested in a specific subject. They might not be massively ambitious in sense of they've always wanted to be in cabinet.

But actually, if you look at the work that they're doing, I think they, we talked about it on the podcast before. Some of the stuff that they're doing in kind of terms of scrutiny. even things like, you watch the post office drama, you'll find that the mps were very involved with that story. There is still a lot of quite unsung work gets done below the cabinet level. I think.

Absolutely. I would say David Davis, who, tour, not natural bedfellows, he Brexit ear, but his record on, libertarian issues, particularly the post office and now on Lucy Luby, he gets up, makes himself unpopular. He keeps the argument going. There are there. Another, Lord Arbaugh, who was mentioned earlier in, in one of the sessions I went to Member of the House and Lords who that story all the way. the post story, I'm absolutely fantastic.

So yes, there are, but I try not mention them too often. it ends lives. terrific. Shall we, should to another, I'm seeing there's three, right? Anyway, any advance. in advance on 25 pounds, please this wonderful bag of NECA Gold? Yes. let's go to number three. Thank you. Do you think Mr. Trump will cancel the midterms and do you think Nicola Sturgeon will cancel her visit to Hay on Friday? Oh, because she's running in the midterms. I think she's gonna set up in a massive camper Van.

Yeah. With a load of coffee machines in the back. Not right. And the midterm, the midterms, to say briefly, I think he will try and do a number of things are below that level. So already the Supreme Court has, overturned quite a few bits the Voting Rights Act, which is one of the things that guaranteed minority representation all the way through this year. The Republicans Democrats have fighting about gerrymandering, essentially to create lots more districts themselves.

The Republicans are currently winning that war. They, are lots of state houses that have flipped to many more kind major like Republican friendly districts. So whilst I think that the splashy headline thing of him essentially declaring martial law in himself, supreme dictator life, I'm not ruling it out, but I dunno if he's necessarily got the attention span be supreme dictator life. but I think there are lots of fundamentally anti-democratic happening in, in America Yeah.

That we should be, that we should be worried about. Yeah. Okay. I just wondered if you had any thoughts about what the Iranians are doing with their Lego videos having a go at Trump. unfortunately they're, really And I, no, and I don't mean that in a moral sense. They're verily antisemitic, in terms of the much up there with Kanye West, actually the te at a technical craft level, they're excellent.

And I think it's one of the things that's really interesting is that I'm not that the American establishment has quite got a grip on the fact that actually on social media, Israel is very unpopular. Young people are being and same way. We talk about older being, maybe on Facebook deluge with anti-immigrant videos. So anybody under the age of 25, their stream is just a huge amount of stuff.

And so there are people in both the establishment wings of Republicans and Democrats who just take that alliance Absolutely. For granted. And actually generationally, I it's really gonna, that's really going to over. It's, you are already seeing the effects of that in American politics. And those Iranian propaganda videos are absolutely part of it. They're incredibly, don't sing it 'cause it is incredibly catchy.

And you will be singing it forever and but they are, as I say, they preach, it's all Epstein, it's all, antisemitic conspiracy money, but it is also packaged in this way that is very Gen Z coded. And also, the technology, they're displaying a sense humour and the thing you want with your, deeply unpleasant, murderous enemy is not for them to be funnier than you. Yeah. Always It's the, it's there room on the joke writing team the Yeah. IRGC. Yeah. Oh yes. Okay. We're in absolute injury time.

Let's have one very final one and briefly, if wouldn't mind number two. Yeah. What's the food like? Are the kitchen horses do you go somewhere else for lunch now? it was, we've moved due to a number of incidents, and we've now, got a, much, much more, tolerant, lunch venue who only complain if some of our guests, for reasons that I don't want to explain, get locked the toilet for hours together and on. I'll leave you with that thought. On that note. I think we're ending as we started Ally.

And it only remains for me Before you go, I just say a round applause for these amazing contributors? How about you?