E114: [TEASER] Fireside Chat – 2025 in review - podcast episode cover

E114: [TEASER] Fireside Chat – 2025 in review

Jan 07, 202612 minEp. 114
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Episode description

Teaser extract of our latest Fireside Chat podcast available exclusively for our Patreon supporters in which we sit down for a bit of a chat about the year past, for WCH and the world, and plans we have for the year ahead.
We discuss a year of the podcast, sick leave, full kit wankers, the rise of the far right and social democratic responses to it in the US, UK and elsewhere, and more. We also let listeners know about projects in the works for 2026.
Listen to the complete episode here by joining our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/146576665
Our podcast is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. Our supporters fund our work, and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes, ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, free and discounted merchandise and other content. Join us or find out more at patreon.com/workingclasshistory
Acknowledgements
  • Thanks to our Patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands.
  • Edited by Jesse French
  • Our theme tune is Montaigne’s version of the classic labour movement anthem, ‘Bread and Roses’, performed by Montaigne and Nick Harriott, and mixed by Wave Racer. Download the song here, with all proceeds going to Medical Aid for Palestinians. More from Montaigne: websiteInstagramYouTube.

Transcript

Speaker 1

Hi, and welcome back to the Working Class History Podcast. As you may know, we don't get any sort of funding from any wealthy benefactors, corporations, governments, or political pies. Our work is funded by you, our listeners and readers on Patreon. In return, our supports on Patreon get access to exclusive content and benefits like ad free episodes, bonus podcast episodes, and a couple of exclusive discussion podcast series, fireside chats and radical reads. So here is a little

preview of our latest episode for our patrons. You can join us, help support our work and listen to the whole thing today at patreon dot com slash working Class History link in the show notes.

Speaker 2

As we come Margin Martin in the Beauty of the Day, a million dark in kitchens, one thousand mil last grade are bredden by the beauty. His sun Sun discloses and the people heresing breaden roses, breaden Roses.

Speaker 1

This was one sort of thing that I did want to talk about in terms of this year, which is especially like you can see now how kind of liberals and center left people are pushing for their own destruction in a way that is very reminiscent of the nineteen twenties and thirties from all these kind of like social Democrat and center left and center right to some extent parties pushing to rearm Europe and strength in Europe's defenses against Russia, especially in Germany, while at the same time

the far right is growing so so much so they're pushing for the government to be given all of these additional weapons and bigger militaries. France talking out potentially reintroducing military service and all that, while the far right is starting to take little bits of state power and places and pushing towards getting state power nationally. Obviously in some

countries they have it already. And then the other day or recently you see Labor in Britain, while Reform is you know, almost certainly going to be the next government because they're so far ahead in every opinion poll, the Labor Party thinks and this is the best time to get rid of the right to trial by jury.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that was like completely out of left field kind of because you know, I was already thinking that the prescription of Palestine action was already completely outlandish thing to do with, you know, again, with the idea of a reform government coming down the line, because okay, so you know, as soon as you outlaw outlaw Palestine action.

Speaker 4

You know, straight away you had like you know, various think tanks being like, oh well yeah, parast that action. They need to be banned. But you know there are a couple of other groups that need to be banned

as well. And you know, then you see Trump's thing about banning antifa, Antifa probably antiflawer I'm starting to pronounce it by the Americans, and you just know that, you know, yeah, like a reform government in the UK would just be like, oh yeah, great, So the precedent has been set, let's let's expand it further exactly.

Speaker 1

And these like swivel eyed loons, they believe in all this basically Nazi conspiracy theories like great Replacement theory and cultural Marxism and all these things that were fringe Nazi conspiracy theories like what three years ago, and now like mainstream views held by the US government and so like these people are going to get into power, you know.

And for all the things about the US kind of going fascist, the fear of that and the talk about that, in a lot of ways, the government system in the UK is actually much more fragile and easy to kind of subvert than the government in the US, which has more checks and balances in it. Because in the UK, like the government who wins the election, if they got

a majority, can they literally do whatever they want. So if reform one like Trump did, could distill all the stuff that Trump wanted to do, like just ban abortion nationwide or something like that, fortunately to an exit. I mean, they are talking about restrictions on abortion and things like that, but even on the far right, that's not a popular policy in the UK. But if you have a majority, you could do that if you wanted to. There's no

constitution or Supreme court that can really overturn that. I mean, obviously there is a Supreme Court, but that because there's

no constitution, they can't overturn very much. So they like they could just cite great replacement theory and say that being a member of the Labor Party is treason, like they literally talk about like these these people as being treason us, like Keir Starmer and that government as being trees and near betrayed the country and whatever, and they could literally just do that and Labor are like, oh, yes, please, let's bring in all these laws and strengthen all these

institutions which could be used to ban us and throw us all into camps and never not let us have a jury try and never get out. And it's like, you know, it's like please please, you know, it would be kind of just ridiculous, and if it wasn't so absolutely terrifying.

Speaker 5

And there's just like there's so much stuff Like it's seeing like, you know, all the all the stuff that the current government are doing, thinking that that will steal the reform vote.

Speaker 4

It's like imagine if you've got the loo, like an anti migrant to the loo, and the form are blowing into it and blowing it up, you know, blowing it up really really big, you know, and you're like, gosh, you know, we need to find a way to deflate that balloon. Yeah, we're going to blow into it more. And you just see them blowing into it and just like you know, all that happens when you do that sort

of thing. You're basically saying, yes, migration is a huge issue, and we also believe that something drastic needs to be done about it, and you will never be the ones to do the most drastic thing, you know. They will then just as you think that you've taken the reform policy or the far right policy, the far right will always step one step over and be like, oh, actually this is the new level that you need to bring

it to. You know, we we're going to put naval ships in the in the channel and like you know, literally shooting boats as they as they come across or whatever. Whatever you do will never be enough. Like it's a funny thing because I like, I definitely see it a lot in the UK, and especially like you know, because of all these like flags that have gone up and

things like that. So I don't know if people know in other places in the UK there was a campaign basically putting up British and English and I guess another play maybe. I think in Wales they were definitely putting up world flags. Yeah, so putting up these flags and also painting them onto people's houses and all sorts of stuff like that. And basically that was a big campaign by a bunch of like far right agitators and it

spread really widely across the country. But I feel like on the left there started to be this this desire for like, you know, well, can we can we reclaim the flag? You know, can we reclaim the flag and can we have a kind of progressive patriotism or something like that? And again, I like, I am very very

skeptical of progressive patriotism. Are stealing it from a Jewish Marxist called Moshi Postane, who basically is the left will never be as good patriots as the right because fundamentally, the left is not motivated by the love of your country, you know, above everything else. It's a kind of a universal desire for justice and things like that, you know.

So the idea that like, you know, we're why don't we just like level Gaza and build like really fancy hotels there and then use that money to fund public services in the UK, I don't think you can argue against that on a patriotic basis, you know what I mean, It's good for our it's good for our country. Very bad for them. I feel bad for them, but that's nothing to do with us, you know.

Speaker 1

I mean, that is how a lot of European social democracy, especially like historic labor governments in the UK work, like let's chop off like workers heads in Malaya so that they can make more rubber so we can pay for the NHS.

Speaker 4

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's completely it, exactly. So I'm so skeptical of like any attempts to sort of do

this sort of progressive patriotism dar. I just think whatever you do, it just comes off as it kind of comes off as insincere, because yeah, I'm not ultimately motivated by my love of Britain as British as I might be in many ways, you know, and things that I do love about Britain and British culture, it's not Britain as that motivates me in politics, and I don't think it is for anyone.

Speaker 6

It's a different moral and political and ethical and philosophical framework completely as to like why you should look after migrants when they come to your country, not something special about being British or whatever, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1

I also think that just on a more kind of fundamental level than that, because basically the background for this, for any especially people in the US aren't aware, is the yeah laborer proposing all these new really horrific new asylum policies to penalize migrants. In particular, they at the moment people can apply for permanent residency after five years, and they want to make that increase that to twenty years.

They also want to have the migration policy basically treat people much more differently depending on how much they earn, so that high earners can migrate much more easily, and so all like really terrible stuff that will totally upend people's lives. And you know, if you have to wait twenty years, you can't have any kind of stable existence in that point.

Speaker 4

Well, why wouldn't they integrate? You know, you're like, you're a fucking idiot, you know what I mean. You're there like some like kids who's like been in the country since who was five and now he's like four, he still doesn't know if he's ever if he's ever going to be able to step on you know what I mean, you fucking Matt, Like.

Speaker 1

Yeah, Labor are only doing this as a shameless and desperate attempt to grab votes from Reform Right to stay in power. But the thing is all of these like racist idiots that are going to vote for Reform will never vote for Labor. They'll never vote for them. That brings us to the end of this episode. Preview Hope you enjoyed it. To listen to the full thing and help support our work researching and promoting people's history. Join us today on Patreon at Patreon dot com slash working

class History. That's p A t R e o N dot com slash working class History link in the show notes. Catch you next time.

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