1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:04,639 So our first at to day is from four Hey there, fellow caller. 2 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:08,800 What I'm going to share with you now is one of many four please keep 3 00:00:08,839 --> 00:00:14,199 me anonymous but linked in messages that I've received since the world went mad in 4 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:19,199 March twenty twenty. This message is from a director of an energy services business 5 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:25,600 who went on to engage me in developing his team's strategic presentation capability thor. 6 00:00:25,839 --> 00:00:29,320 He begins, I've watched and read your posts. I think you're about a 7 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:33,880 spot on for a non brainwashed dummy as a regular soul can be. We 8 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:39,240 are being hoaxed daily. I cannot often like comment because the world has indeed 9 00:00:39,320 --> 00:00:43,799 been hoaxed, and I still need to work closely with guys who are absolutely 10 00:00:43,960 --> 00:00:49,320 lost. End quote. If you or your business might benefit from an adviser 11 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:54,159 who's very much not brainwashed, someone who will help you create a positive mental 12 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:58,759 framework and then take useful action no matter how lost the world may be, 13 00:00:59,479 --> 00:01:03,400 let's talk. The first step is to connect with me thor on LinkedIn dot 14 00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:10,040 com, slash in, slash four halt or what's at me on plus four 15 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:15,079 four seven nine zero six three two one five nine three. That's plus four 16 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:22,480 four seven nine zero six three two one five nine three skull ps. Please 17 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:26,040 do connect even if you don't need my services, because I'd like to stay 18 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,439 in touch with you, my fellow London caller LinkedIn dot com slash in slash 19 00:01:30,519 --> 00:01:37,400 four halt. This is London Calling, London Calling. We've made decisions, 20 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:42,840 and I've made decisions based on a real passion about what the BBC is. 21 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:49,599 And it's difficult. It's this balance between free speech and impartiality, and I 22 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:53,560 honestly do not believe, despite a lot of the commentary that this is about 23 00:01:53,640 --> 00:02:01,959 left or right. Welcome London Calling with me, James deniall, and my 24 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:07,080 very good friend mister Toby Young. You've come back from lunch at the Old 25 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:13,840 Bailey late, obviously as usual, blaming, blaming the Tube. I reckon 26 00:02:13,879 --> 00:02:17,000 you were just drinking with some barrister or something. What we do well Bailey? 27 00:02:17,599 --> 00:02:23,360 It was so the Old Bailey have lunches from time to time to which 28 00:02:23,400 --> 00:02:31,960 they invite various interesting guests so we can talk to the judges and take their 29 00:02:32,039 --> 00:02:38,400 minds off the trials they've just been hearing, so they have to deal with 30 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:45,360 the worst of humanity. I think something like seventy five percent, if not 31 00:02:45,479 --> 00:02:49,599 more, of the trials held at the Old Bailey, which is the most 32 00:02:49,719 --> 00:02:53,879 senior criminal court I think in the United Kingdom, possibly in England and Wales, 33 00:02:53,120 --> 00:03:01,879 seventy five are murder cases. So these poor judges are aiding through these 34 00:03:02,439 --> 00:03:08,000 pretty appalling cases, confronting humanity at its worst. And the idea is, 35 00:03:08,360 --> 00:03:12,599 at these lunches, you provide them with a bit of light relief. You 36 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:17,000 take their minds off the grizzly details that they've just heard in their court room. 37 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:22,120 That's that's a blow. So you've come off a grizzly murder trial and 38 00:03:22,199 --> 00:03:29,240 suddenly your face with this bald geezer wittering on about wittering on cuckishly about his 39 00:03:29,319 --> 00:03:32,080 half baked views. That's that's traumatizing, Toby. That's not that's not fair. 40 00:03:32,280 --> 00:03:38,960 Who Yeah, I'm not. I'm not sure whether whether I personally served 41 00:03:39,039 --> 00:03:44,319 the therapeutic role of the person who invited me head in mind, but it's 42 00:03:44,319 --> 00:03:46,520 certainly very interesting. And we had a tour of the Bailey afterwards, and 43 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:51,680 we learned it a little bit of its history, and the judges are certainly 44 00:03:51,719 --> 00:03:54,680 very interesting to talk to. And it's the second time i've done it actually, 45 00:03:55,039 --> 00:03:59,719 and this time it was I took some people from the Free Speech Union 46 00:03:59,759 --> 00:04:02,439 with me in some of our legal people on our Legal Advisory Council, and 47 00:04:02,479 --> 00:04:06,319 we had a little sort of discussion beforehand about free speech and the law, 48 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:11,759 which was very interesting. Anyway, I got I was hoping I would be 49 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:18,639 back in time to start this podcast by three thirty, but I the Elizabeth 50 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:21,720 Line wasn't running properly. I mean. The problem with the Elizabeth Line, 51 00:04:21,720 --> 00:04:29,480 which is the newest addition to transport for London's transportation network, is it's fantastic 52 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:34,199 when it's running, but because it's run by TfL, it encounters all the 53 00:04:34,399 --> 00:04:43,839 usual problems delays, strikes, failure on the line, stations closed, I 54 00:04:43,879 --> 00:04:48,439 mean, and so it just you just couldn't get the Elizabeth Line to act 55 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:51,759 And Mainline near where I live, which usually takes about you know, twenty 56 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:56,199 minutes from Liverpool Street at most. So instead I had to go this very 57 00:04:56,279 --> 00:05:00,959 secuitous route and I got off the Central Line to East Acton and and then 58 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:04,759 jumped on a line bike, hoping I would make it by quarter to four. 59 00:05:05,079 --> 00:05:09,399 But then the line bike actually stopped working. It was sort of cycling 60 00:05:09,439 --> 00:05:13,319 along and suddenly it's sort of even though it looked fully charged, it wasn't 61 00:05:13,360 --> 00:05:16,160 working properly. I decided being overtaken. I was trying to cycle up this 62 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:19,920 hill by all these ladies on sort of stepped through bicycles, and I realized 63 00:05:19,959 --> 00:05:24,839 something must be wrong. Um, and and so I just had to abandon 64 00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:28,439 the bike and and sort of jog home, which is why I'm so late. 65 00:05:28,439 --> 00:05:30,839 So sorry about that, James, Yeah, you're not sounding like a 66 00:05:30,959 --> 00:05:33,279 very good advertisement for London living in terms. So this is all by design, 67 00:05:33,319 --> 00:05:38,439 by the way, this is all the evil Sadik Khan trying to immiserate 68 00:05:38,519 --> 00:05:45,360 the entire populace of our great, formally great metropolis. This is this is 69 00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:48,879 where everything is going. It's entropy, entropy by design. We can we 70 00:05:48,879 --> 00:05:57,319 can talk about the I think it's in a moment, but I well, 71 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:00,360 since we since we're talking about sort of stick tragedies, let you check to 72 00:06:00,439 --> 00:06:04,959 you about mine. I've since my day's hunting, I've just been feeling really, 73 00:06:04,959 --> 00:06:09,720 really rotten. I've been paying the price for so you know, all 74 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:15,160 that adrenaline and an alcohol and I've got the LURGI and I think about the 75 00:06:15,199 --> 00:06:20,920 middle of last week, I decided to make myself some chicken soup because you 76 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:25,879 know, I thought Jewish penicillin and all that, and so well, I 77 00:06:25,959 --> 00:06:32,319 made myself this stock in the slow cooker and it was very good, by 78 00:06:32,360 --> 00:06:35,319 the way, I felt fantastic afterwards. It was really it was really worth 79 00:06:35,319 --> 00:06:40,240 it in that respect. But how did you make boiling up chicken burns? 80 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:45,000 No, you don't boil, never ever boil if it at the moment it 81 00:06:45,079 --> 00:06:50,839 becomes to the boil, it immosifies, So you've always got to just simmer 82 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:56,879 it just so it's barely agitating the surface of the liquid. Otherwise you get 83 00:06:56,920 --> 00:07:03,360 this nasty, claggy sort of um opaque liquid as opposed to the transparent liquid, 84 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:08,279 which is but you created the liquid using chicken bones that you or chicken. 85 00:07:08,439 --> 00:07:12,319 Yeah, so you brand the chicken bones to the sort of a golden 86 00:07:12,519 --> 00:07:17,120 color um and then you you cook it in the slow cooker for for about 87 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:23,040 I do it for about four hours. But the point is we didn't we 88 00:07:23,199 --> 00:07:26,279 haven't found a suitable place in the house for where the slow cooker goes, 89 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:29,519 because it needs to sit on the surface somewhere, and all the surfaces in 90 00:07:29,560 --> 00:07:33,360 the kitchen are used so as a as a compromise. We did it in 91 00:07:33,439 --> 00:07:41,560 the laundry room and I blithely unplugged this this this thing from as from its 92 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:45,399 socket and shoved in the slow cooker thing anyway, thought nothing of it. 93 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:50,959 Yesterday I got a deputation from wife and daughter saying, you have totally messed 94 00:07:51,079 --> 00:07:55,639 up. This is really bad. You have no idea, what what what 95 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:58,360 the ship you're in and it's all your fault. It's not our fault, 96 00:07:58,360 --> 00:08:03,639 it's your faults. So get that. And it turned out I had unplugged 97 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:07,879 the freezer. So and the freezer had monk fish in it, which you 98 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:13,399 know is really expensive. It had it had sort of bees you chicken from 99 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:18,800 organic farms, and it had loads and loads of chicken livers. So I've 100 00:08:18,800 --> 00:08:22,040 had I had to spend the weekend trying to find a recipe to put the 101 00:08:22,920 --> 00:08:26,519 put the monk fish in so I can then refreeze it. So I did 102 00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:31,279 that. Now I've got to find a way of dealing with the chicken livers 103 00:08:31,319 --> 00:08:35,039 I've got to do. It's been a nightmare. Can you refreeze fish when 104 00:08:35,039 --> 00:08:39,320 you can? You can refreeze the stuff once you've cooked it. But what 105 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:43,320 you can't do is freeze it and then let it four and then and then 106 00:08:45,399 --> 00:08:48,159 put it back in the freezer. That's the no no. But I think 107 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:54,399 you can refreeze stuff that you've cooked. I'm I'm a complete fanatic when it 108 00:08:54,440 --> 00:09:00,639 comes to ice cream having melted and refrozen, not just because it's quite bad 109 00:09:00,639 --> 00:09:05,440 for you, but also because it tastes nothing like as good. So when 110 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:09,320 I went through an ice cream phase, I used to go into shops, 111 00:09:09,159 --> 00:09:15,200 take a tub of haggendass out of the freezer, open it, use the 112 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:18,600 lid as a scoop, scoop out a bit of the ice cream, and 113 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:22,120 taste it first to make sure it hadn't crystallized, which is the sign that 114 00:09:22,159 --> 00:09:28,120 it's melted and refrozen, which it quite often has in shops because their freezers 115 00:09:28,120 --> 00:09:31,399 aren't that great, power cuts or you know, or they just let the 116 00:09:31,440 --> 00:09:35,399 ice cream melt when it's been delivered, and often I would taste it slightly 117 00:09:35,399 --> 00:09:39,440 crystalline and they say, sorry, mate, this is melted and refrozen. 118 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:41,720 It's a health hazard. It also tastes disgusting. You've got to take this 119 00:09:41,759 --> 00:09:45,879 off sale. Have you got anything that hasn't melted and refrozen? But it's 120 00:09:45,879 --> 00:09:48,559 supposed to be in the condition you're supposed to sell it. And when my 121 00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:54,639 kids became so embarrassed about me doing this that they've now refused to go into 122 00:09:54,639 --> 00:09:56,639 shops with me just in case I do it again. And quite often the 123 00:09:56,679 --> 00:10:05,440 shopkeepers would become quite agitated happy after I'd imagine my health and Safety inspector routine. 124 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:09,600 But I think I was proud of myself. I think it's too many 125 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:13,600 shops sell ice cream in a condition which is not fit for sale. We 126 00:10:13,759 --> 00:10:18,200 also can I say as a fellow dad that I'm proud of your embarrassing dad 127 00:10:18,279 --> 00:10:22,000 performance. Then, because this is the kind of stuff we did, This 128 00:10:22,039 --> 00:10:24,320 is how we roll. We would be failing in our duty as parents if 129 00:10:24,360 --> 00:10:30,039 we did not really really embarrass our children with these James, You're gonna be 130 00:10:30,080 --> 00:10:31,679 very very proud of pud of him. And I tell you this. I 131 00:10:31,759 --> 00:10:37,080 got an invitation to Founder's Day at the West London Free School, the pre 132 00:10:37,120 --> 00:10:41,320 school I helped set up where and it said we want we want to say 133 00:10:41,399 --> 00:10:46,399 farewell to those students graduating at the end of year eleven and at the end 134 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:50,879 of year thirteen. And I have a child in year eleven and a child 135 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:54,279 in year thirteen. So I said to the head teacher, do you mind 136 00:10:54,279 --> 00:10:58,240 if I say a few words, because I know they'll be there, and 137 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,360 I'll single them out, and I'll talk about their experience in the school. 138 00:11:01,399 --> 00:11:03,559 I might even make a few jokes about how I hoped, you know, 139 00:11:03,799 --> 00:11:07,200 it would be the kind of state equivalent of Eaton or Winchester, and I 140 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:11,159 expected to be discussing, you know, Jus Mills on liberty at the dinner 141 00:11:11,159 --> 00:11:16,120 table and topvills democracy in America, and instead it's you know, Fortnight and 142 00:11:16,240 --> 00:11:20,360 call of Duty, and really my vision hasn't been fulfilled anyone. Going to 143 00:11:20,399 --> 00:11:24,200 do my best to really embarrass them, and they're already absolutely terrified and talking 144 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:28,600 about taking a sick day anyway, so that should be fun. Well done, 145 00:11:28,759 --> 00:11:35,320 Well done. Um. Somebody somebody tweeted out what you and I are 146 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:39,759 going to be talking about and how the first part of this podcast is going 147 00:11:39,799 --> 00:11:45,279 to pan out. Obviously that they couldn't have anticipated the freezer shock or the 148 00:11:45,639 --> 00:11:50,480 incredibly exciting story of your cube journey, but I think they have made predictions 149 00:11:50,519 --> 00:11:52,960 about where it's going to go next. Are we going to do an ad 150 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:54,799 before we before we go there or yeah, let's do that. Let's do 151 00:11:54,840 --> 00:12:00,600 an ad. I think it's your turn. Oh. In the minute I've 152 00:12:00,639 --> 00:12:07,919 been talking to you, sixteen hires were made on Indeed, according to Indeed 153 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:13,399 data worldwide. 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To start hiring 162 00:13:03,399 --> 00:13:09,000 now, just go to Indeed dot com slash London Indeed dot com slash London. 163 00:13:09,559 --> 00:13:16,159 Terms and conditions apply cost per applicant. Application pricing not available for everyone. 164 00:13:16,399 --> 00:13:20,440 Need to high you need Indeed, So, James, I'm imagining that 165 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:28,559 this person predicted that we would discuss the lineca affair and may have even predicted 166 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:33,600 what our take would be on the prediction. Well, the prediction that you 167 00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:37,519 were going to try and introduce this item as something of great moment, and 168 00:13:37,679 --> 00:13:41,519 I was going to say, now, wasted time. And then you were 169 00:13:41,519 --> 00:13:45,360 going to say, but no, it's about free speech, and I was 170 00:13:45,399 --> 00:13:48,039 going to say, now it's not anyway, So tell us about God, 171 00:13:48,159 --> 00:13:54,639 because yeah, I know it's been dominating your thoughts terms. So yeah, 172 00:13:54,679 --> 00:14:01,039 So for the benefit of our American listeners, um, Gary Lineker is is 173 00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:07,720 an ex soccer player like J Simpson, Yes, except his wife hasn't disappeared 174 00:14:07,720 --> 00:14:13,200 in mysterious circumstances. But yes, he's as famous in Britain as a J. 175 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:18,080 Simpson is or was in the United States. And he played in the 176 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:26,440 England team which did pretty well in Italian ninety, which was a World Cup 177 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:33,799 held in Italy in nineteen ninety. Anyway, so he's a national treasure and 178 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:41,200 he presents this the kind of BBC's flagship football commentary football highlights program called Match 179 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:45,480 of the Day, and he's been doing it for a couple of decades and 180 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:50,399 he's a kind of he's he's he's sort of latterly become a member of the 181 00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:58,159 kind of metropolitan liberal left and likes to advertise his lefty views on Twitter. 182 00:15:00,039 --> 00:15:05,120 And I think about three years ago he got into a spot of difficulty because 183 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:09,879 he is the BBC's highest paid presenter. He's a sort of the face of 184 00:15:09,919 --> 00:15:15,919 the BBC's associated indelibly in everyone's minds with the BBC because he is the most 185 00:15:16,159 --> 00:15:20,799 well known football pundit commentator presenter on the BBC. And if three years ago 186 00:15:20,840 --> 00:15:24,159 he got into a bit of difficulty for I think attacking Brexit, amongst other 187 00:15:24,200 --> 00:15:28,039 things, and he agreed I think then when there was a bit of a 188 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:33,720 row about it, to reign in his tweeting because the BBC have a policy 189 00:15:33,799 --> 00:15:43,799 whereby employees of the BBC are expected not to wade into matters of political controversy 190 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:50,360 on social media because they think it brings the reputation of the BBC into disrepute. 191 00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:54,679 Because the BBC is supposed to be impartial, it's funded by the taxpayer, 192 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:58,360 it's not supposed to take sides. And the BBC has sort of understandably 193 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:03,799 worried that if its employees are constantly advertising their political views. People the penny 194 00:16:03,799 --> 00:16:07,200 will drop that there is this kind of liberal left bias amongst the BBC's staff, 195 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:14,559 etc. Anyway, even though those rules don't apply to contractors and Dary 196 00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:18,840 Lineker is a contractor not an employee. Nevertheless, he three years ago, 197 00:16:18,879 --> 00:16:23,720 I think, agreed to be more mindful about what he was tweeting, lest 198 00:16:23,759 --> 00:16:30,000 it in danger the BBC's reputation for impartiality. A week ago or so, 199 00:16:30,759 --> 00:16:37,120 he tweeted something rather intemperate about the government's new I think what's it called Undocumented 200 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:44,639 Migrants Bill which or illegal Migrants Bill, which is going to try and make 201 00:16:44,679 --> 00:16:52,320 it easier for the government to refuse asylum to asylum seekers who enter the country 202 00:16:52,519 --> 00:16:56,840 illegally. And this bill is currently going through Parliament and it's a it's something 203 00:16:56,840 --> 00:17:00,559 that Richie Sunak has kind of gone all in on. He needs to do 204 00:17:00,639 --> 00:17:06,440 something about the small boats crisis. It's damaging the Conservative Party, particularly in 205 00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:10,880 swing seats in the Red Wall constituencies and so forth. Anyway, Gary Lineker 206 00:17:11,079 --> 00:17:18,279 compared this policy to the treatment of various minorities, including Jews in Germany in 207 00:17:18,319 --> 00:17:25,119 the nineteen thirties. It was reductio ad Hitlarium. It was a case of 208 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:29,680 everything you don't like, everyone you don't like, you've been compared to Hitler. 209 00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:33,720 It was an old left wing trope. Anyway, he indulged in it. 210 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:38,359 Lots of Tories and others got quite upset and Tory MPs were demanding the 211 00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:44,759 BBC do something, and the BBC announced towards the end of last week that 212 00:17:44,799 --> 00:17:52,200 he would be stepping back from presenting Match of the Day until a social media 213 00:17:52,279 --> 00:17:57,920 policy that applied to him could be agreed. And there was a standoff and 214 00:17:57,960 --> 00:18:06,480 the BBC i think hoped that various other people on their roster of football pundits 215 00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:11,559 would step in for Gary Lineker while he was absent, but they immediately all 216 00:18:11,599 --> 00:18:15,279 announced, in solidarity with him, or at least one after the other in 217 00:18:15,359 --> 00:18:18,200 quite quick succession, that they would not do it. And so the BBC's 218 00:18:18,359 --> 00:18:25,640 football coverage a sports coverage has been severely truncated this weekend because all of their 219 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:32,480 main commentators, pundits presenters have in solidarity with Gary refused to do their normal 220 00:18:32,559 --> 00:18:38,960 jobs, and today the BBC effectively back down. I think that not only 221 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:44,480 did the BBC back down, but Tim Davey, the Director General of the 222 00:18:44,519 --> 00:18:48,839 BBC, apologized to viewers for having disrupted the sports coverage over the weekend and 223 00:18:49,240 --> 00:18:55,039 seemingly apologize for having mishandled this crisis. And Gary Lineker is going to be 224 00:18:55,079 --> 00:18:59,559 back next Saturday and he hasn't had to apologize, and he actually when he 225 00:18:59,599 --> 00:19:03,119 and now that he was back, he added some more stuff about even though 226 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:06,599 I've gone through a tough time in the past few days, it's nothing to 227 00:19:06,680 --> 00:19:11,440 the tough time that these poor refugees from conflict zones are suffering from. So 228 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:15,599 even more or less double down on his political stance. No apology from him, 229 00:19:15,640 --> 00:19:21,079 He's unapologetic. But I think the agreement is that the BBC is going 230 00:19:21,079 --> 00:19:26,880 to review it's social media policy and is going to review in particular what the 231 00:19:26,960 --> 00:19:33,119 policy should be with respect to freelance contributors and contractors like Gary Lineker. So 232 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:38,480 the BBC has effectively backed down, and lots of people, I mean, 233 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:45,559 what's interesting about it is that lots of people on Gary Lineker's side on this 234 00:19:45,839 --> 00:19:51,680 issue about small boats the illegal migration bill have all kind of screamed free speech, 235 00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:56,680 free speech. He made these remarks outside the workplace he's a sports commentator, 236 00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:00,799 not a news and Current affairs presenter. Whis the BBC in any way 237 00:20:00,839 --> 00:20:07,680 penalizing him for expressing his views outside the workplace on a matter which isn't related 238 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:10,720 to the job he does for the BBC? Free speech, free speech? 239 00:20:10,839 --> 00:20:12,759 Where's the free speech Union? Why haven't they stood up for Gary? Gary 240 00:20:12,759 --> 00:20:15,720 Lineker? And we did, indeed, you say that, we thought it 241 00:20:15,759 --> 00:20:21,359 probably was a free speech issue. And if he wanted our assistance and he 242 00:20:21,400 --> 00:20:23,400 did get into trouble, if he was sanctioned. He hasn't actually been sanctioned 243 00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:26,799 by the BBC, and now the BBC had backed down, But if they 244 00:20:26,799 --> 00:20:32,160 did punish him for saying something outside the workplace about something unrelated to his work, 245 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:34,480 you know, if it was just a question, if the BBC were 246 00:20:34,480 --> 00:20:38,680 claiming you're being punished because you brought the BBC into disrepute, we would indeed 247 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:41,920 offer him all assistance because we think that's too weak a standard. And we 248 00:20:42,000 --> 00:20:47,240 see all the time people not necessarily the same political views as Gary Lineker, 249 00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:52,279 getting into trouble with their bosses because of something they've said on social media outside 250 00:20:52,279 --> 00:20:56,119 the workplace which has supposedly brought the company into disrepute, and we think that's 251 00:20:56,119 --> 00:21:00,519 too low, a standard, easily weaponized, a bit nebulous, and it 252 00:21:00,559 --> 00:21:06,079 needs to be I think if companies are going to be able to legitimately interfere 253 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:11,160 with their employees or contractors speech outside the workplace, the standard has to be 254 00:21:11,279 --> 00:21:14,039 much higher, the bar that test has to be much more rigorous. And 255 00:21:14,240 --> 00:21:17,880 I think the company needs to show that what the person has said has actually 256 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:23,640 caused the company tangible harm i financial loss before they can legitimately interfere with what 257 00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:26,680 an employee says outside the workplace. So that's the sort of that's our position. 258 00:21:27,079 --> 00:21:30,440 Anyways, it's now over, but it's all everyone is talking about. 259 00:21:30,480 --> 00:21:36,640 It's been dominating the front pages, dominating even the BBC's news headlines. So 260 00:21:36,680 --> 00:21:40,599 it's been, you know, a real water cooler moment, which is quite 261 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:45,440 unusual these days, Is that right? I just I was listening to you 262 00:21:47,119 --> 00:21:53,920 describe in lavish detail this what sounds to me the most incredibly parochial story. 263 00:21:55,039 --> 00:21:57,839 Its storm and the tica. But I mean American listeners must be going, 264 00:21:57,880 --> 00:22:02,160 well, why do you care about any of this stuff? This is this 265 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:06,920 is a guy, an ex sportsman, who does some kind of sports show. 266 00:22:07,519 --> 00:22:14,119 None of this matters tops And I was horrified, horrified, completely unsurprised 267 00:22:14,519 --> 00:22:19,119 to see this becoming the dominant story in the UK legacy and media for a 268 00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:26,400 whole week. This nobody who who, by the way, always says stuff 269 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:30,680 like this. It's not like there was there was some special outrage that he 270 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:36,880 committed. This is this is how he rolls. Gary Lineker is like partly 271 00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:41,880 he is like OJ Simpson because of his you know, his his his desire 272 00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:47,160 to be black. Um partly or he's I think he claimed once he got 273 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:49,559 teased because of his olive colored skin at school. Yes, he knew what 274 00:22:49,599 --> 00:22:52,359 it was like to be a victim of racial prejudice, even though he's a 275 00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:56,480 white man. He was teased for having olive colored skin at school. Yeah, 276 00:22:56,519 --> 00:23:00,960 so so so like like OJ Simpson's got this sort of coffee colored skin 277 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:10,640 apparently, and and but he he's like the lastard offspring of J Simpson, 278 00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:15,240 and I would say somebody like Piers Morgan. He's always coming up with maddeningly 279 00:23:15,279 --> 00:23:18,359 work stuff. So you've got to ask yourself, if you have any sense 280 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:23,839 of what's going on in the world, why is this complete non story Given 281 00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:26,839 that It could have been written about any day of his life, ever in 282 00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:30,160 the last in the last fifteen or twenty years, ever since he became uber 283 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:37,200 woke. Why is this dominating the news cycle now? And the answer is, 284 00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:41,240 it's just more of the distraction. It's more distraction trying too. Don't 285 00:23:41,319 --> 00:23:45,640 look. Don't look at the way that the government is taking away your freedoms 286 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:48,960 are at the behest of the World Economic Forum. Don't look at the imminent 287 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:56,319 imminent banking collapsed. Don't look at look at the government's insane green policies, 288 00:23:56,359 --> 00:24:00,039 which again at the at the behest of the World Economic Forum. And beyond 289 00:24:00,079 --> 00:24:07,759 that a sort of sinister globalist elite which wants to use the environment to take 290 00:24:07,799 --> 00:24:11,279 away our freedoms, drive out energy prices, take control of our lives. 291 00:24:11,640 --> 00:24:15,960 No, ignore all of that. Look at the Garry Limica character. Looks 292 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:19,000 this character that you all love to hate. He's like mister punch. Oh 293 00:24:19,079 --> 00:24:23,400 no, maybe he's like the alligator that the sausages. It's just nonsense, 294 00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:29,440 And I'm so disappointed to see anyone, anyone who understands the state of the 295 00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:34,920 world, being distracted by this complete non story. It's just I supposed to 296 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:44,079 sort of help our American listeners understand why it's such it becomes such a lightning 297 00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:48,920 rod, such a controversial story receives such an enormous amount of coverage. It's 298 00:24:49,000 --> 00:25:00,440 partly because the BBC is funded by a license fee that anyone who receives live 299 00:25:00,599 --> 00:25:03,759 television signals in the United Kingdom has to pay. So it's one hundred and 300 00:25:03,759 --> 00:25:07,400 fifty seven pounds a year I think now, and if you receive live television 301 00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:12,839 signals, even if you never watch the BBC, you have to shell out 302 00:25:12,839 --> 00:25:17,400 three hundred and fifty seven pounds a year, which is described as a television 303 00:25:17,519 --> 00:25:22,440 license. So effectively, you need a license to watch television in this country. 304 00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:27,720 But ninety five percent of the revenue raised goes to fund the BBC. 305 00:25:29,519 --> 00:25:34,960 So if you can imagine in America that you had to pay something close to 306 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:41,720 two hundred dollars a year in order to watch television, and that ninety five 307 00:25:41,759 --> 00:25:48,119 percent of the revenue raised went to fund CNN. And if a CNN sports 308 00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:55,440 pundit then said something very anti Trump or very pro Biden, you know, 309 00:25:55,559 --> 00:26:00,759 on social media, I think some particularly on the right, would be incensed 310 00:26:00,799 --> 00:26:04,640 because they're they're thinking, you know, My hard earned money is paying the 311 00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:10,640 wages of this person. He wouldn't have this platform were it not for his 312 00:26:10,799 --> 00:26:15,519 job at this organization that I'm being forced to fund, and if if I'm 313 00:26:15,519 --> 00:26:19,680 being forced to fund it, I don't want this chap to express views which 314 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:26,319 which which I fundamentally disagree with. I want him to maintain a semblance of 315 00:26:26,319 --> 00:26:30,880 impartiality. I think that's why it's become such a kind of you're doing you're 316 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:34,400 doing right wing talking points again, You're doing this is yeah, you're you're 317 00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:37,319 following the narrative. This is the official reason, this is, this is 318 00:26:37,480 --> 00:26:41,880 your designated role as a conservative commentator, which decade, Well, this is 319 00:26:41,920 --> 00:26:47,400 this is disgraceful. The BBC is supposed to be impartial and here's this man 320 00:26:47,480 --> 00:26:51,720 and look at look at Chris Packham, the the eco eco loon, eco 321 00:26:51,839 --> 00:27:02,079 nazi guy who also gets gets unfettered rights to to to to sound complete eco 322 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:07,480 fascist nonsense up at the license payers expense. This is just This is not 323 00:27:07,599 --> 00:27:11,039 the reason the stories dominated the newspapers, because it could have appeared any time 324 00:27:11,079 --> 00:27:15,519 in the last fifteen years. As I say, the reason this is in 325 00:27:15,599 --> 00:27:19,880 the papers right now is because the papers are owned by the same people who 326 00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:25,480 are currently taking over the world, turning, you know, implementing the New 327 00:27:25,519 --> 00:27:29,480 World Order. It's just the distraction. It's another look as squirrel story. 328 00:27:29,519 --> 00:27:33,799 It has no validity to the lives of any real person at all. We've 329 00:27:33,839 --> 00:27:37,960 just been we get told that it's a story because of the warped values of 330 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:41,599 the news editors who decided to put it on the front page at the behest 331 00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:45,920 of their sinister overlords. That's what it's about. I think you're wrong, 332 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:48,160 James. I think there is. There is. There is a lot of 333 00:27:48,359 --> 00:27:51,880 interest in this story, and it's a kind of and it's a kind of 334 00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:56,799 because it's a very polarizing story. It cuts across two kind of very prominent 335 00:27:56,839 --> 00:28:00,960 cultural war issues, which are you know, the ABC is it bars to 336 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:06,799 the left? Should it be funded by license payers? And also immigration? 337 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:11,079 What are we going to do to stop illegal immigration? Should we police our 338 00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:15,160 borders or not? So those are two huge culture war polarizing issues. Okay, 339 00:28:15,319 --> 00:28:21,559 on that note, Not on that point, I agree about the immigration 340 00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:27,079 thing. It is why why why are there the legacy and media having the 341 00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:33,279 store on the front page is partly it is to give cover to the government 342 00:28:33,279 --> 00:28:37,400 the government has been absolutely bloody useless and doing anything at all about immigration. 343 00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:42,240 So this enables the common mists who want to do their right wing talking points 344 00:28:42,279 --> 00:28:48,640 to notice that the government is apparently finally doing something. I mean, you've 345 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:52,799 just given them cover there yourself. You've described how this is all to do 346 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:56,960 with the government's new policy on immigration. They're trying to tighten up. The 347 00:28:56,079 --> 00:29:00,839 government is doing nothing of the kind. The government is. It's perfectly happy 348 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,599 for these boatloads of immigrants to come over here because ultimately they're being recruited as 349 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:10,920 a police force to to to to keep us crushed when when the rebellion finally 350 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:14,640 happens in a few years time, they're being put in hotels all all around 351 00:29:14,759 --> 00:29:18,839 Britain to suppress the result and there and presumably they've been chosen because they're going 352 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:22,880 to have less lauded to the British people then than the army might. So 353 00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:27,200 there are there are basically a mercenary army, and James you sort of you 354 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:30,920 know, you accuse me of just kind of trotting out, you know, 355 00:29:32,039 --> 00:29:37,359 on que these right wing talking points and being a kind of patsy for yeah, 356 00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:41,319 you are, you totally are come to that a bit more later on 357 00:29:41,359 --> 00:29:45,359 as well, we talk about last episode. Are you slightly worried that you 358 00:29:45,400 --> 00:29:48,000 sound a bit like a broken record? I mean, you say this week 359 00:29:48,079 --> 00:29:51,240 in week out, and it's like, haven't you got anything else? I 360 00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:55,440 think that's only the first time I've said that particular line about the look. 361 00:29:55,680 --> 00:29:59,880 If something is true, it's worth restating, Toby. It's better than stead 362 00:29:59,880 --> 00:30:03,440 of restating propaganda every week, which is what you do. Basically. I 363 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:08,599 don't think. I don't think you just repeat, repeat mainstream media talking points, 364 00:30:08,599 --> 00:30:11,400 which I don't accept. I think there are a waste of everyone's time. 365 00:30:11,839 --> 00:30:15,759 But it's it's sometimes I'm just trying to discuss the stories in the news, 366 00:30:15,799 --> 00:30:18,119 and you know, yeah, but what is the news? What is 367 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:22,359 this thing the news that you talk about? The news is the creation of 368 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:27,480 sinister interests. It's not, it's not. It's not objective. It doesn't 369 00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:33,039 exist objectively. It is, James, I remember that it used to be 370 00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:42,200 people used to think on the left that newspapers were conspiring to instill false consciousness 371 00:30:42,240 --> 00:30:48,559 in the masses in order to obscure from them that it was in their interests 372 00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:52,079 to revolt or to vote labor or to strike or whatever it was, that 373 00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:59,200 it was all part of a capitalist, right wing conspiracy to distract people with 374 00:30:59,279 --> 00:31:03,079 bread and circles from their real interests as members of the proletariat. And the 375 00:31:03,799 --> 00:31:08,240 standard response back then I remember, was well, you've clearly never worked in 376 00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:11,440 the media, because if you did work in the media, you would realize 377 00:31:11,839 --> 00:31:17,880 that the number one priority, which trumps everything else, is the news agenda. 378 00:31:18,079 --> 00:31:22,079 What what newspaper editors and journalists are really interested in, and newspaper owners 379 00:31:22,119 --> 00:31:27,119 who want to sell copies and attract advertisers, is publishing news breaking, news 380 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:33,359 breaking stories, coming up with an interesting new angle on a story that dominates 381 00:31:33,400 --> 00:31:37,039 everything, that trumps everything else. They might in the deep background, can 382 00:31:37,119 --> 00:31:40,839 if you have an interest in wanting to preserve capitalism and wanting to kind of 383 00:31:41,119 --> 00:31:45,200 dissuade you know, activists from striking, But that's played very much second fiddle 384 00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:49,319 to the dominant thing, which is the news AGENDERA doesn't the same counter argument 385 00:31:49,319 --> 00:31:53,119 apply here? You think it's now all part of a vast left wing conspiracy 386 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:57,519 or progressive conspiracy to you know, immiserate us and force I don't believe in, 387 00:31:57,759 --> 00:32:00,440 I don't believe in, don't believe in either left or right. You've 388 00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:06,119 worked for newspapers, you know that that you know what, I've never ever 389 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:10,119 worked in newspapers in the in the shaming period, I'm happy to say, 390 00:32:10,279 --> 00:32:15,480 when the government became the number one, number one funder of newspapers, the 391 00:32:15,519 --> 00:32:21,960 amount of money that the government pumped or of our money that the government pumped 392 00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:25,519 in on our behalf to this disgusting legacy media industry, so that it could 393 00:32:25,599 --> 00:32:30,400 put out propaganda pro vaccine, propaganda, so it would pump the narrative that 394 00:32:30,519 --> 00:32:36,359 children should get jabbed with these with these these clot shots. That that scared 395 00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:39,960 us into thinking the pandemic was real. That that that put out nonsense stories 396 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:45,440 about some old bloke called Captain Tom wandering around the garden on a zimmer frame. 397 00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:49,359 That pumped out stories, propaganda, stories about the NHS. This was 398 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:53,640 paid for by us. We were funding propaganda. It was also funded by 399 00:32:53,640 --> 00:32:57,440 Bill Gates, who gave three to three and a half million dollars to the 400 00:32:57,720 --> 00:33:00,759 Telegraph. There has never been the time in my life. I think the 401 00:33:00,799 --> 00:33:04,000 media has always been corrupt, but there's never been a time in our lives 402 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:08,160 where the media has been quite so corrupt so everything everything it pushes, everything 403 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:13,559 gets pushed now in the media is actually not in the interests of the reader. 404 00:33:13,799 --> 00:33:16,920 It is not It is not simply this this pure news agenda, where 405 00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:21,839 that the papers cover whatever the most exciting story is it is. I think 406 00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:25,079 it's always a hidden agenda. I think it maybe because you you yourself have 407 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:30,680 been sort of out of the newspaper business for some time, you may think 408 00:33:30,799 --> 00:33:36,039 that, you know, if someone comes up with an interesting news story, 409 00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:40,640 a scoop, the editor says, never mind that our job is to pump 410 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:45,039 out propaganda, because that's what That's certainly true in the case of vaccines, 411 00:33:45,079 --> 00:33:47,440 isn't it. They're not reporting on that, for example. Well, you 412 00:33:47,519 --> 00:33:50,799 always we had that argument, we've had I think we had that argument. 413 00:33:50,839 --> 00:33:53,960 I know, when you come up with the phoebus of excuses, you that 414 00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:58,799 they they have they have been you know, it's not that vaccine injuries have 415 00:33:58,960 --> 00:34:04,039 been completely or there is some reporting of vaccine injuries. Um, and you 416 00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:07,199 know, do you not think it's a big deal that more millennials in America, 417 00:34:07,239 --> 00:34:13,559 for example, have been killed by by vaccines than died in the Vietnam 418 00:34:13,639 --> 00:34:16,800 War. And the Vietnam War was that there was twelve years of deaths in 419 00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:22,719 the Vietnam War. This happened in the space of what two quarters. You 420 00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:27,880 certainly has a big, big, big source there, James, A doubt 421 00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:32,639 has been been looking at this. I haven't seen that sixty thousand, sixty 422 00:34:32,679 --> 00:34:37,559 thousand people, sixty thousand millennials have died from vaccine injuries. I mean, 423 00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:40,360 you're to be on on top of this. Terms then it is, after 424 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,639 all, what your site does. Well, one of the things it does 425 00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:51,239 it talks about about that are the alleged pandemic about COVID and stuff. Yeah, 426 00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:54,760 well, I think we we we certainly have been um not skimping on 427 00:34:55,079 --> 00:35:00,960 covering vaccine injuries. Um, and we you know, we've been doing it, 428 00:35:00,079 --> 00:35:06,760 I think more vigorously last week. Last week you actually said that I'd 429 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,360 overstated I mean, a lot of people were very upset by this. They 430 00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:15,800 said, why is Toby Toby actually retrenching it, actually taking a step back 431 00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:19,639 from you seem to be moving to a state of enlightenment. And then you 432 00:35:19,679 --> 00:35:23,239 were saying that I'd overstated vaccine injuries so they weren't such an issue. Well, 433 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:30,559 and I said about well, I pointed out that if you tried to 434 00:35:30,599 --> 00:35:37,480 find a pattern between excess deaths in different countries and how many vaccines had been 435 00:35:37,559 --> 00:35:42,480 rolled out per capita in those countries. It was actually quite it's quite difficult 436 00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:45,519 to find a signal in the noise. For instance, you know, Sweden 437 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:52,280 had a pretty extensive vaccine rollout, it's a pretty well vaccinated population, yet 438 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:58,119 it has the lowest or among the lowest excess deaths of any European country over 439 00:35:58,159 --> 00:36:02,480 the past three years or so. So it is ron Ants has written extensively. 440 00:36:02,639 --> 00:36:07,320 Yeah, who you describe as a vaccine skeptic? Ron Ance was heavily 441 00:36:08,039 --> 00:36:12,840 it is not a vaccine skeptic. You've gone and picked somebody. Actually, 442 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:19,480 who's you're you're a cherry picking now? Is getting is getting this data from 443 00:36:19,679 --> 00:36:25,079 insurance companies in American This stuff is not beyond is beyond a reasonable doubt. 444 00:36:25,159 --> 00:36:31,360 This is vaccine injuries and you're just you're just basically making excuses on behalf of 445 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:35,840 a big farmer. It seems to me, I'm not making excuses, but 446 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:38,960 I'm just I think we have to be very careful because we don't want to 447 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:45,960 be discredited by two. We haven't done that already. Well, you've also 448 00:36:46,079 --> 00:36:51,400 discredited. I don't agree with you about everything anyway, So we hear from 449 00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:54,159 another one of our sponsors, I think so yeah, So James, let's 450 00:36:54,159 --> 00:37:00,760 do a plug for our newish sponsor, Sal Daha cf a listener in Cambridge, 451 00:37:00,800 --> 00:37:07,079 Massachusetts. Sal is Team Toby and backs the FSU, but not QPR. 452 00:37:07,719 --> 00:37:12,239 Sal is frequently amused by the Delling pod. So check out sALS podcast 453 00:37:12,360 --> 00:37:16,320 Angel Invest Boston. It's mostly on building technology startups, but it's not all 454 00:37:16,360 --> 00:37:21,760 about business. Sal also delves into other aspects of human flourishing, such as 455 00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:25,119 creativity, good relationships, and healthy aging. Listeners, do you want to 456 00:37:25,159 --> 00:37:30,079 get rich and pass money to your kids? Listen closely to sALS podcast with 457 00:37:30,199 --> 00:37:35,599 Harvard Business schooled prof. Howard Stephenson, titled Wealth and Families. It offers 458 00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:39,800 condensed wisdom delivered with dry humor and charm from the heart of the investing world. 459 00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:45,239 Do follow Angel Invest Boston on your podcast app and leave a rating and 460 00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:49,800 a written review to help it get found. Okay, should we talk about 461 00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:54,119 the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank? James? We should? We should? 462 00:37:54,639 --> 00:37:59,039 Did you have any money in them? Did you have any money in 463 00:37:59,079 --> 00:38:01,880 the Silicon Valley investment bank. Well, well sort of, yeah. I 464 00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:08,880 mean inasmuch as my brother's company banks with them, and he went through some 465 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:14,559 very nasty moments, and I asked them about this. I said, why 466 00:38:14,639 --> 00:38:19,719 did you bank with with this particular bank? And he said, What you 467 00:38:19,760 --> 00:38:23,480 don't realize is that most of the big name banks, you know, Lloyds 468 00:38:23,599 --> 00:38:30,000 or HSBC or whatever, will not will not lend money to startups. They're 469 00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:35,039 not they've already got got enough money. Um, you know, they've already 470 00:38:35,079 --> 00:38:40,840 got enough clients. They're not interested. Whereas Silicon Valley Bank was a specialist 471 00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:45,320 in the tech sector. So loads and loads and loads of people in the 472 00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:51,199 tech sector are going to have had a very frightening a few days as they've 473 00:38:51,239 --> 00:38:53,360 wondered whether they're whether their cash flow is going to where they're going to be 474 00:38:53,400 --> 00:38:58,559 able to pay their staff and staff. It's a bit frightening. Um, 475 00:39:00,239 --> 00:39:02,639 what's odd about the or perhaps it isn't, oord I'm sure you've got an 476 00:39:02,639 --> 00:39:10,119 explanation. But what's odd about the collapse of these financial services companies is that 477 00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:16,079 the people running them, often the people using their services, the people on 478 00:39:16,119 --> 00:39:22,800 the board are when it comes to things like the risk of not locking down 479 00:39:23,920 --> 00:39:30,280 the risk of catastrophic climate change, the risk posed by allowing people to have 480 00:39:30,440 --> 00:39:37,039 free and open discussions on university campuses. They are incredibly risk averse. They 481 00:39:37,079 --> 00:39:45,559 are safety first. They catastrophize all the time and unnecessarily about risks that are 482 00:39:45,559 --> 00:39:53,559 actually pretty slight materializing when it comes to social policy, climate policy, health 483 00:39:53,599 --> 00:39:58,960 policy. But when it comes to actually managing risk within their own risk within 484 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,840 their own institution, they appear to be, you know, like cowboys in 485 00:40:01,880 --> 00:40:07,039 the wild West, completely kind of oblivious to the kind of existential threats posed 486 00:40:07,079 --> 00:40:10,960 by practices within their own company. I mean, it turns out that the 487 00:40:12,199 --> 00:40:17,679 Silicon Valley Bank operated without a chief risk officer between April twenty twenty two in 488 00:40:17,760 --> 00:40:22,039 January twenty three, and the chief risk officer in Europe, Africa and the 489 00:40:22,079 --> 00:40:28,599 Middle East described herself as a queer person of color from a working class background, 490 00:40:28,719 --> 00:40:34,119 and seem to be obsessed with organizing LGBTQ initiatives such as a month long 491 00:40:34,239 --> 00:40:42,280 prede campaign and implemented a safe space catch up policy for staff, much more 492 00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:47,239 obsessed with, you know, minimizing the risk to vulnerable members of staff, 493 00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:53,719 the risk of being unconsciously discriminated against or whatever it might be, but completely 494 00:40:53,800 --> 00:41:01,000 seemingly, you know, oblivious to the existential financial risks threatening the well being 495 00:41:01,119 --> 00:41:06,559 of the Silicon Valley Bank. How do you explain this, James, Well, 496 00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:09,719 what you're describing there is a is a symptom. It's it's it's not 497 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:15,239 it's not the cause that by a symptom. What I mean is that in 498 00:41:15,280 --> 00:41:22,039 the last few years there has been, as you know, increasing pressure on 499 00:41:22,159 --> 00:41:30,079 companies all across the world for esg. Government, environmental and social responsibility, 500 00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:38,079 and so they have to embrace all these diversity causes because otherwise companies like Black 501 00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:45,239 Rock, which have been been m chileading for this, people like Larry Fink 502 00:41:45,280 --> 00:41:52,280 can barely stop talking about it, have been essentially imposing on companies these requirements 503 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:54,639 that that you know, we will not invest in you, We will not 504 00:41:54,719 --> 00:42:01,239 we will not buy your stock. UM Institute investors will not own you unless 505 00:42:01,639 --> 00:42:10,559 you have X number of black disabled um transvestites on your on your on your 506 00:42:10,559 --> 00:42:15,480 on your workforce. And this, this has infected everything. So the fact 507 00:42:15,480 --> 00:42:27,119 that this bank has various diversity officers is not indicative of the attitudes which led 508 00:42:27,199 --> 00:42:30,719 to its collapse. That that's just the distraction. In fact that that, 509 00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:35,199 if you like, is the conservative talking point about about this bank, Oh 510 00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:37,360 look, get work, go broke, and that that would be be the 511 00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:42,719 sort of the headline of the right wing talking point take on this. But 512 00:42:42,760 --> 00:42:50,599 it's not about that. What it's really about is is that over over successive, 513 00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:55,039 through successive crises, the people who should be dealing with these problems have 514 00:42:55,119 --> 00:43:00,119 been kicking the cam down the road. So in the in the case of 515 00:43:00,320 --> 00:43:07,199 Silicon Valley Bank, the reason that this was an accident waiting to happen was 516 00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:13,719 that a few years ago, after the last financial crisis, the FED pumped 517 00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:19,519 loads that the US government pumped loads of money into into the banks, which 518 00:43:19,559 --> 00:43:23,000 they were then forced to I'm paraphrasing down tub By the way, he was 519 00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:29,239 one of my financial expert advisors. He's done a very good hugod podcast about 520 00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:34,719 this. Um that the banks had all this money, that they were hosed 521 00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:37,880 down with money, but they had to do something with it. So what 522 00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:45,719 they did was was was ended up buying buying um federal bond notes. And 523 00:43:46,199 --> 00:43:55,800 the problem is that these these notes have dropped massively in in value recently because 524 00:43:55,800 --> 00:44:02,519 of the ongoing financial crisis, which means that these these banks have been The 525 00:44:02,559 --> 00:44:09,039 Silicon Valley Bank was trying to offload this this toxic debt and was was selling 526 00:44:09,119 --> 00:44:13,920 for lower than it paid for this this stuff, and it got it got 527 00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:17,320 called out. It's sort of triggered a triggered a panic which led to the 528 00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:21,960 situation it's in now. And now it looks like the government, the US 529 00:44:22,039 --> 00:44:25,400 government, or the or the Federal Reserve is is claiming that it's going to 530 00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:30,280 going to solve the problem without the taxpair of being on the hook. But 531 00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:35,719 this is just just continuation financial crisis. I mean, this is this is 532 00:44:35,719 --> 00:44:37,960 the real stuff. There's going to be a run on the bank. So 533 00:44:37,840 --> 00:44:42,599 you've seen that in the in the last twenty four hours, bank stocks have 534 00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:49,039 dropped by sixteen percent, which doesn't suggest to me that the banking sector is 535 00:44:49,039 --> 00:44:53,800 is is repaired or shored up in any way. I think we're going to 536 00:44:53,880 --> 00:45:00,559 get cascading problems like this, whether it's whether it's the bank con sect or 537 00:45:00,559 --> 00:45:05,000 whatever whatever next is going to be the victim. Um are you do do 538 00:45:05,039 --> 00:45:07,079 you do you still? Are you still a bit of a gold bug? 539 00:45:07,159 --> 00:45:13,320 Do you still have gold? Money and gold? Anyone who who has not 540 00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:17,639 got at least five percent of their their wealth in physical gold and silver. 541 00:45:19,639 --> 00:45:25,679 UM is is UM needs their head examined. Yeah, definitely. You don't 542 00:45:25,760 --> 00:45:30,400 keep it in your home, presumably us you don't. Well, well, 543 00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:36,760 you've got two options with with with with bullion. Either you have it for 544 00:45:37,159 --> 00:45:43,760 trading when you know, buying chickens or whatever, or I don't know, 545 00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:51,679 UM guns when when the finalist and collapses and and and it's I mean you 546 00:45:51,679 --> 00:45:53,119 ought to have somebody. But but of course there a risk. You know, 547 00:45:53,159 --> 00:45:55,760 where do you store it? And what happens when gangs come around your 548 00:45:55,760 --> 00:45:59,800 house with and say, right, give us all your money. We know 549 00:45:59,840 --> 00:46:04,760 you got gold, we know we know you've got silver. The other way 550 00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:07,079 of storing it is because you don't you don't want paper gold and you don't 551 00:46:07,119 --> 00:46:13,960 want paper silver. That's that's that's worthless. The other other ways is storing 552 00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:19,000 it in a vault. But the problem with storage in the vaulters a you 553 00:46:19,039 --> 00:46:25,519 get charged on a storage fee. But but being we know from the history 554 00:46:25,639 --> 00:46:30,119 of FDR when he took America off off off gold, or rather when he 555 00:46:30,199 --> 00:46:37,920 when he when when he confiscated individual gold holdings, UM was that any anyone 556 00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:44,519 who had their money in a vault in the US would not be able to 557 00:46:44,519 --> 00:46:47,639 get it out because they've they even had metal detectors making sure that people weren't 558 00:46:47,639 --> 00:46:52,679 into their into their private vaults and tried to come out with their their their 559 00:46:52,280 --> 00:46:57,239 their coins, and so their pockets stuck with gold coins. They were going 560 00:46:57,239 --> 00:47:00,559 to get the nicked on the way out. So you've the added complication you've 561 00:47:00,599 --> 00:47:05,480 got to store your gold in the country that you don't live in. Um 562 00:47:06,039 --> 00:47:10,559 otherwise, Yeah, it's tricky, but these are tricky times. By the 563 00:47:10,559 --> 00:47:16,960 way, crypto cryptos have done very well recently. Bitcoins up the last in 564 00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:20,400 the last twenty four hours. Do you have it? Do you still have 565 00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:22,440 some bitcoin as well? Yeah? I like cryptos, I like bitcoin. 566 00:47:22,760 --> 00:47:28,159 Okay, So should we have one more AD and then go to culture corner? 567 00:47:28,199 --> 00:47:30,280 Is there anything else we need to discuss in the kind of meat of 568 00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:35,360 the program as it were, before we get onto more trivial stuff. One 569 00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:37,400 thing I want to think, James, is that you probably missed this. 570 00:47:37,480 --> 00:47:45,119 But Sweller Braveman, the Home Secretary, the beligued Home Secretary whom Gary Linka 571 00:47:45,159 --> 00:47:53,159 dislikes so much. She published some new guidance this morning which will regulate how 572 00:47:53,199 --> 00:48:00,840 the police record and retain non crime hate incident data, which is very important 573 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:02,559 and it's something the Free Speech Union has been campaigning for for something like three 574 00:48:02,679 --> 00:48:09,400 years and it's a it's a huge step forward for free speech, a massive 575 00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:15,440 victory, a big win. For those unfamiliar with non crime hate incidents, 576 00:48:15,480 --> 00:48:17,920 it sounds like you know something out of nineteen eighty four, but they're real. 577 00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:22,920 So in twenty fourteen, the College of Policing issued guidance to police forces 578 00:48:22,920 --> 00:48:30,360 in England and Wales that if someone was if someone claimed someone else was guilty 579 00:48:30,519 --> 00:48:37,559 of hateful conduct, the police would investigate it and if they concluded that no 580 00:48:37,599 --> 00:48:40,480 crime had been committed, they would record it. And the College of Policing 581 00:48:40,519 --> 00:48:47,079 said police forces have to record it as a non crime hate incident and noncrime 582 00:48:47,119 --> 00:48:52,360 hate incidents can show that they're sort of attached to your record and if a 583 00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:58,599 future employer doesn't enhanced criminal record check when you apply for a job, they 584 00:48:58,639 --> 00:49:01,679 can show up and it can mean you're not getting a job, so effectively 585 00:49:02,039 --> 00:49:07,960 you cannot get a job. You can be penalized because you committed a non 586 00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:13,320 crime. According to the police and this info is attached to your record anyway, 587 00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:15,079 so obviously has a very chilling effect on preest beech. It's a golden 588 00:49:15,159 --> 00:49:21,960 bossed invitation to political activists and religious zealots to try and enlist the help of 589 00:49:21,960 --> 00:49:24,599 the police in silencing their opponents, and they've done that very successfully. We 590 00:49:24,840 --> 00:49:30,719 estimate that something close to a quarter of a million ncrs have been recorded in 591 00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:36,800 England and Wales alone since twenty fourteen, which is an average of more than 592 00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:38,719 sixty six per day. You wonder why, you know, if you get 593 00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:44,679 burgled or if your car's broken into, the police won't bother to investigate. 594 00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:49,239 They'll just give you a crime reference numbers because they're too busy following up complaints 595 00:49:49,280 --> 00:49:52,280 by transactivists that they've been misgendered on Twitter by gender critical feminists. You know, 596 00:49:52,360 --> 00:49:57,400 they're too busy policing our tweets to police our streets. It really is 597 00:49:57,679 --> 00:50:05,559 shocking how much police time and resources are spent investigating non crimes and how few, 598 00:50:05,360 --> 00:50:09,400 how little resources and time is spent investigating actual crimes. Anyway. So 599 00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:14,519 we've been campaigning against this for a long time, and this new guidance published 600 00:50:14,559 --> 00:50:16,599 today, it's actually a draft coded practice, which is going to be put 601 00:50:16,800 --> 00:50:22,800 put before both houses of Parliament. But it will severely limit the circumstances in 602 00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:25,599 which the police can record something as a noncrime incident. It'll stop the police 603 00:50:25,639 --> 00:50:30,840 recording anything involving a school child as a non crime hate incident, which is 604 00:50:31,519 --> 00:50:37,320 one of the problems with the kind of NHI protocol. Anyway, it's a 605 00:50:37,360 --> 00:50:39,400 huge step forward and we were very pleased and if anyone wants to find out 606 00:50:39,400 --> 00:50:45,039 more about it, they can. We've stuck a sort of something about it 607 00:50:45,039 --> 00:50:50,480 on the front page of the Free Speech Union website www. Free Speech Union 608 00:50:50,519 --> 00:50:52,960 dot org. Ce Ce James, it is possible to win these free speech 609 00:50:53,039 --> 00:51:00,239 victories slowly, but surely you can occasionally if you really cist and you're methodical 610 00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:05,000 about it, and you go about it in a fairly pragmatic politically unlike Yeah, 611 00:51:05,039 --> 00:51:08,280 I don't like that about important changes. I really don't like that word 612 00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:13,320 pragmatic and I I mean a world on this, but I don't I don't 613 00:51:13,360 --> 00:51:15,719 agree with your your gradualist approach. I think that they're all over us. 614 00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:23,559 But anyway, um shall we UM, which which sponsor from Dan Gaskin Ah 615 00:51:23,760 --> 00:51:28,679 Spring, is in the air. It's almost the end of the financial year. 616 00:51:28,760 --> 00:51:31,320 But did you know that the spring budget is coming on the fifteenth and 617 00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:37,280 the sun might say controversial help to buy scheme ends on the thirty first of 618 00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:42,320 March. If you didn't, you need to meet Dan Gaskin, fellow skeptic, 619 00:51:42,480 --> 00:51:46,280 freethinker, father of six, husband of one and owner of Crest Mortgages. 620 00:51:46,639 --> 00:51:51,440 Dan is an ex Royal Navy warfare officer who has driven ships, spice 621 00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:55,400 companies and helps people with financial crinodrums because he genuinely enjoys looking after people. 622 00:51:55,840 --> 00:52:00,840 Nothing motivates Dan more than bringing fellow skeptics fancial good cheer, whether you're team 623 00:52:01,639 --> 00:52:06,719 Team Toby or Team James. For help with your house move, commercial mortgage, 624 00:52:06,760 --> 00:52:09,199 equity release, life assurance, or simply to talk through a financial issue 625 00:52:09,239 --> 00:52:15,400 that is vexing you in complete confidence, call zero one five zero two three 626 00:52:15,679 --> 00:52:22,400 zero zero zero. Visit Krest Mortgages dot co dot uk and connect with Dan 627 00:52:22,159 --> 00:52:28,480 LinkedIn dot com. Forward slash in forward slash Dan Gaskin, We have to 628 00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:32,199 say this bit to BEFCA compliant. Kress Mortgages is a trading style of Epiphany 629 00:52:32,239 --> 00:52:36,760 Investments Limited, which is an appointed representative of the Open Work Partnership, a 630 00:52:36,760 --> 00:52:39,840 trading style of Openwork Limited, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct 631 00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:44,239 Authority. Your house may be repossessed if you do not keep up with repayments 632 00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:52,320 on your mortgage, right Land James, So, can I quickly just take 633 00:52:52,320 --> 00:52:58,519 this opportunity to advertise for someone to help out on the Daily Skeptics. So 634 00:52:59,159 --> 00:53:05,440 we're looking for someone to cover for Will Jones, our editor, our editor 635 00:53:06,159 --> 00:53:10,920 at the weekends and when he's on holiday, so it's quite an important job. 636 00:53:10,920 --> 00:53:15,519 I think the title will be associate editor, and I think we're looking 637 00:53:15,519 --> 00:53:17,719 for someone who can work for us for two and a half days a week, 638 00:53:17,800 --> 00:53:22,800 so north point five fte. It's properly paid. There are benefits. 639 00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:29,760 If anyone is interested in working for the Daily Skeptic helping us produce our newsletter 640 00:53:30,079 --> 00:53:32,440 day and day out, please get in touched. The best way to contact 641 00:53:32,559 --> 00:53:37,159 us is the Daily Skeptic at gmail dot com. That's the Daily Skeptic at 642 00:53:37,199 --> 00:53:45,519 gmail dot com. So culture Corner, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. 643 00:53:45,519 --> 00:53:50,760 Oh well, I'll tell you what I did watch the other day on 644 00:53:50,920 --> 00:53:59,199 the Disney Channel. It's this thing called Finding Michael. Okay, it's called 645 00:53:59,199 --> 00:54:09,760 finding Michael m And I don't whether you ever watch um, have you ever 646 00:54:09,800 --> 00:54:14,800 seen Made in Chelsea? Oh? Um? I think I may have seen 647 00:54:15,239 --> 00:54:20,480 a reality show where sort of commented reality, augmented reality. Okay, so 648 00:54:20,599 --> 00:54:29,159 there's this this character on it called Spencer Matthews and his brother, his big 649 00:54:29,199 --> 00:54:37,159 brother died on Everest, having become the youngest Englishman to summit Everest and he 650 00:54:37,239 --> 00:54:39,039 made it to the top age twenty two, but didn't make it down. 651 00:54:39,920 --> 00:54:46,159 And anyway, this is about Spencer. It starts off with somebody having given 652 00:54:46,239 --> 00:54:54,320 Spencer Matthews this this grainy photograph of what might be his brother's body on Mount 653 00:54:54,360 --> 00:54:59,679 Everest, and he thinks, well, this is my chance to get to 654 00:55:00,519 --> 00:55:04,159 Disney plus to fund a major expedition, because I mean they're really expensive, 655 00:55:04,239 --> 00:55:09,840 these expeditions to Everest, and and Bear Grills inevitably makes an appearance because it 656 00:55:09,840 --> 00:55:15,039 turns out that he knew he knew this, this this this kid, Michael 657 00:55:15,079 --> 00:55:19,280 Matthews, and was a great admirer of his because Bear did Everest as well, 658 00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:25,519 don't when he was quite young. And it's it's really watchable, as 659 00:55:25,559 --> 00:55:30,360 as things about Everest tending to be. I mean, I have no desire 660 00:55:30,719 --> 00:55:35,639 to climb Mount Everest, but especially not after watching this thing, because I 661 00:55:35,679 --> 00:55:42,519 think one in seven people who climb Everest die. Um of the one and 662 00:55:42,599 --> 00:55:47,719 seven of the people who summit, presumably because they're so desperate to for the 663 00:55:47,800 --> 00:55:51,400 last push, they don't really Yeah, they've got that far, and even 664 00:55:51,440 --> 00:55:54,159 though they're advised by their supers not to go further to try again next year, 665 00:55:54,159 --> 00:55:57,440 they think, so bad, I've come this far, I've made this 666 00:55:57,559 --> 00:56:00,239 much effort, I've spent this much. I'm going to the final few yards 667 00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:04,599 and then they end up dying of oxygen depth promotion exactly, which is why 668 00:56:04,639 --> 00:56:07,119 I'm not going to climb Everest for that, for that very reason, because 669 00:56:07,159 --> 00:56:09,000 I know I'd be one of the stupid gits who just goes like I don't 670 00:56:09,039 --> 00:56:12,880 care. I don't care. The main thing is I've got to get the 671 00:56:12,920 --> 00:56:16,760 best view in the world even if I die, and I would, you 672 00:56:16,800 --> 00:56:22,039 would. But one of the things you realize watching this documentary is that Everest 673 00:56:22,280 --> 00:56:28,239 is knittered with bodies, littered with unrecovered bodies, and you can't get them 674 00:56:28,239 --> 00:56:35,119 down because although I google this to check, on one occasion in history, 675 00:56:35,199 --> 00:56:39,519 a helicopter has actually gone to the top of Everest, but mostly the bit 676 00:56:39,599 --> 00:56:45,679 above the above the death zone, which above eight thousand feet. It's just 677 00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:51,320 it's not safe for helicopters to land because it does things to their engines and 678 00:56:51,320 --> 00:56:57,639 stuff and their aerodynamics, etc. So the bodies are just left there and 679 00:56:57,800 --> 00:57:06,360 they get so frozen with ice that they they end up three times heavier than 680 00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:10,880 they would be in were they not frozen. So you've got this this frozen 681 00:57:12,239 --> 00:57:15,400 heavy lump and people, you know, you need an oxygen tank at that 682 00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:22,920 that that that that height to be able to just survive, let alone operate. 683 00:57:22,599 --> 00:57:24,440 So you can see it's quite a big deal. Anyway, it was 684 00:57:24,519 --> 00:57:29,760 interesting, interesting, I'd kind of recommend it. Okay, finding Michael so 685 00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:36,679 i'm I've i've i'm I've got further along with Fleischmann is in trouble, which 686 00:57:36,719 --> 00:57:40,639 i more New York sex, Yeah, New York our age. Yeah. 687 00:57:40,679 --> 00:57:45,440 And it's it's it's it's kind of it's it's it's televisual sex, which is 688 00:57:45,480 --> 00:57:52,039 acceptable to the woke because it's um. The women are all in their forties 689 00:57:52,039 --> 00:57:57,960 and fifties, and they've got kind of unusual body shapes and they're certainly not 690 00:57:58,519 --> 00:58:00,639 what you or I would describe as can mentionally attractive. So it's sort of 691 00:58:00,840 --> 00:58:06,559 supposedly, you know, it broadens your mind, it promotes body positivity. 692 00:58:07,360 --> 00:58:13,119 To actually have to watch this kind of woke sex anyway, so you have 693 00:58:13,119 --> 00:58:19,679 to avert your eyes quite often, I find. But but it's pretty entertaining. 694 00:58:19,719 --> 00:58:21,880 It's not bad. It's watchable. I think I'm going to make it 695 00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:25,000 through to the end, which I can't always say about about the new new 696 00:58:25,079 --> 00:58:30,760 series I embark on. But it's not bad. The best thing in it, 697 00:58:30,840 --> 00:58:32,519 James, I think I said, was this. So it's about this 698 00:58:34,199 --> 00:58:38,880 Jewish doctor in his forties who is divorced by his ambitious wife and they have 699 00:58:38,920 --> 00:58:43,719 two kids, and the wife neglects the kids, dumps them with him, 700 00:58:43,000 --> 00:58:49,280 and the best character in it is his kind of unbelievably unpleasant Prima donnash ten 701 00:58:49,320 --> 00:58:52,519 year old daughter who just doesn't who's embarrassed by him because he's not nearly as 702 00:58:52,639 --> 00:58:57,679 rich as her friend's parents at this kind of posh, elite Upper east Side 703 00:58:57,960 --> 00:59:01,360 private school she's attending. But but she's disappeared. She's The kids have been 704 00:59:01,400 --> 00:59:06,480 packed off to camp rather conveniently, so they haven't featured in the last couple 705 00:59:06,519 --> 00:59:08,360 of episodes, so it was slightly slightly taken a dip. I think I 706 00:59:08,400 --> 00:59:14,039 really like the ten year old girl. She's a very entertaining character, and 707 00:59:14,119 --> 00:59:15,480 an interaction bete her and the father that's very good. So it's a shame 708 00:59:15,519 --> 00:59:22,239 that she's she's she's dipped out of the last couple of episodes. I watched 709 00:59:22,239 --> 00:59:25,159 another football thing. I don't want to know the result, but I bet 710 00:59:25,239 --> 00:59:30,199 you know about this. I didn't know about this. That that Wrexham Yeah 711 00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:37,079 football club was brought by American actor Yeah, Ryan Reynolds, Ryan Reynolds and 712 00:59:37,320 --> 00:59:45,519 the one from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Um, there's a documentary about 713 00:59:45,559 --> 00:59:47,079 it. Have you seen it? I've seen it. Yeah, well I've 714 00:59:47,079 --> 00:59:50,639 seen I've seen most of that documentary. I don't want to know what happens. 715 00:59:50,639 --> 00:59:52,000 I don't want to know what happens. Does it does it stay good? 716 00:59:52,960 --> 00:59:55,239 Yeah? It's pretty entertaining, isn't it. I find I find the 717 00:59:55,360 --> 01:00:02,159 kind of pandering to everything well slightly irritating. And they're sort of presenting the 718 01:00:02,199 --> 01:00:07,360 Welsh as a kind of you know, indigenous persecuted minority, a kind of 719 01:00:07,440 --> 01:00:15,039 colonized country. Which is the victim of English colonial oppression, just like the 720 01:00:15,119 --> 01:00:19,159 United States. And there's a kind of that that that that dimension. I 721 01:00:19,159 --> 01:00:22,039 don't know if you've picked up on that, but that kind of fetis fetishization 722 01:00:22,599 --> 01:00:30,199 of Welsh culture and the Welsh language is you're talking to a descendant of De 723 01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:35,639 la Pole, Prince of Poets. So obviously I'm going to be kind of 724 01:00:35,920 --> 01:00:44,559 take a kind of pro Welsh line. Yeah you you English oppressors. Yeah, 725 01:00:44,559 --> 01:00:47,280 well whatever, I think just playing out to the American audience, aren't 726 01:00:47,320 --> 01:00:52,079 they. But it is quite entertaining and it's it's it's eye opening how much 727 01:00:52,079 --> 01:00:57,559 the football club means to the kind of the townsfolk of Wrexham, isn't it. 728 01:00:58,159 --> 01:01:05,480 Yeah? I think it's that all over Britain there are towns like Wrexham 729 01:01:05,599 --> 01:01:12,800 which will once rate thriving, thriving towns with their own culture and stuff from 730 01:01:12,840 --> 01:01:15,480 their own lauts, and then they've just been ruined by the well in that 731 01:01:15,599 --> 01:01:20,519 case, by the closure of the mining industry. I supose there's lots like 732 01:01:20,599 --> 01:01:22,920 that, aren't there. Lots in the North as well, and as as 733 01:01:23,000 --> 01:01:31,280 kind of as all the institutions and traditions and customs which provided the local people 734 01:01:31,320 --> 01:01:36,519 with a sense of community of belonging. As they've been hollowed out. The 735 01:01:36,599 --> 01:01:39,039 only thing left is the football club, which is why football clubs means so 736 01:01:39,159 --> 01:01:45,000 much to the residents of these towns and cities across the United Kingdom, even 737 01:01:45,039 --> 01:01:49,920 though those two are a form of bread and circuses mind control. I mean, 738 01:01:50,679 --> 01:01:54,000 we won't go there now, but I would argue that the industrial decline 739 01:01:54,159 --> 01:02:00,800 was all created by the same people who are now running down that the world. 740 01:02:01,519 --> 01:02:07,000 I can't I can't resist this opportunity, James to tell you about my 741 01:02:07,159 --> 01:02:13,400 most recent trip to Queen's Park Rangers at the weekend. So QPR are going 742 01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:20,519 through an incredibly bad streak. So before the game on Saturday, they had 743 01:02:20,599 --> 01:02:29,039 only won once in the previous twenty games and we just one manager left. 744 01:02:29,079 --> 01:02:30,840 About one third of the way through the season, we hired a new manager. 745 01:02:30,880 --> 01:02:35,039 He won his first game, lost the next eleven, so he was 746 01:02:35,079 --> 01:02:37,679 dismissed. We hired a third manager, Our third manager of the season, 747 01:02:37,760 --> 01:02:44,239 Gareth Ainsworth, a former QPR player, done quite well with another team in 748 01:02:44,480 --> 01:02:49,360 the league below, sort of untested in the Championship, and he's come in. 749 01:02:49,400 --> 01:02:52,400 He lost his first two games. We conceded three goals in each of 750 01:02:52,400 --> 01:02:57,199 those games. It didn't look like he was making much of an impact, 751 01:02:57,280 --> 01:03:01,920 and we were heading towards the relegation zone, James circling the drain. Looked 752 01:03:01,920 --> 01:03:07,039 like we'd end the season being relegated to League One, which is a disaster 753 01:03:07,519 --> 01:03:09,719 for a football pub. League One is very hard to get out of once 754 01:03:09,760 --> 01:03:15,440 you're in it, and it looked like everything was just going pear shape. 755 01:03:15,480 --> 01:03:20,239 But on Saturday we actually won a game, the second game we've won in 756 01:03:20,320 --> 01:03:24,480 what is now twenty one games, and we beat Watford, who were relegated 757 01:03:24,559 --> 01:03:28,760 from the Premier League at the end of last season. So they've got this 758 01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:32,840 big balloon payment, they've got some really good Premier League quality players. They 759 01:03:32,960 --> 01:03:36,719 just got a new manager. When teams bringing a new manager, they usually 760 01:03:36,719 --> 01:03:39,920 get what's called a new manager bounce. So we thought it was going to 761 01:03:40,039 --> 01:03:45,000 be a nailed on victory for promotion, chasing Watford who are far above us 762 01:03:45,000 --> 01:03:51,280 in the table. But through sheer, dogged determination and by playing our socks 763 01:03:51,360 --> 01:03:55,880 off and by playing as a team and not as a bunch of pampered individuals, 764 01:03:57,679 --> 01:04:00,760 we actually managed to beat them, which was in credible, and I 765 01:04:00,800 --> 01:04:05,400 was particularly pleased because my son Ludo was celebrating his eighteenth birthday and he'd invited 766 01:04:05,440 --> 01:04:09,920 his girlfriend and his three closest friends, So you know, it would have 767 01:04:09,920 --> 01:04:15,800 been humiliating if we'd been beaten again conceded three goals again, but no in 768 01:04:15,880 --> 01:04:20,239 front of his girlfriend and his friends. QPR for once actually performed and when 769 01:04:20,360 --> 01:04:28,159 QPR win at loftus Row their home, their homeground, Jeff Beck's High Host 770 01:04:28,199 --> 01:04:32,760 silver Lining is played on the kind of stadium pr PA system and to hear 771 01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:34,920 that song again, James, I think for the first time. It's something 772 01:04:34,960 --> 01:04:39,480 like one hundred and fifty plus days. We only play it when we went 773 01:04:39,519 --> 01:04:42,079 at home to hear it again. I didn't think i'd hear it again this 774 01:04:42,119 --> 01:04:47,239 season. The emotion I felt James on hearing High Host silver Lining ringing out 775 01:04:47,320 --> 01:04:53,079 across the stadium again was overwhelming. So it was a fantastic day, set 776 01:04:53,079 --> 01:04:55,199 me up for the whole of the weekend, and I just hope it's the 777 01:04:55,239 --> 01:04:58,280 beginning of a turnaround and we can go on a little run now when our 778 01:04:58,320 --> 01:05:00,400 next few games, we need to win two more games, I think to 779 01:05:00,480 --> 01:05:03,480 secure our safety. It won't be guaranteed even if we do win two more 780 01:05:03,480 --> 01:05:05,559 games. But I think if we win two more games, there'll be enough 781 01:05:05,599 --> 01:05:10,079 points to see us through to the end of the season without being relegated. 782 01:05:11,840 --> 01:05:15,400 It's always good to give the podcast a happy ending if that's what it is. 783 01:05:15,599 --> 01:05:19,880 Now, what, um do I'm gonna do another advert? What about 784 01:05:19,920 --> 01:05:26,599 the Yeah, after you've left us, James, I will read that so 785 01:05:26,599 --> 01:05:29,760 you don't need to hang around to that. Okay, good, well then, 786 01:05:30,000 --> 01:05:32,480 um that's it. All right, Okay, it's good to talk to 787 01:05:32,519 --> 01:05:39,760 you. And yeah, you feel less congested fluid? Yeah, okay, 788 01:05:40,000 --> 01:05:45,320 right, all right bye. So our final aad today is for The Jasmine 789 01:05:45,440 --> 01:05:49,400 Sorry, a terrorism thriller by Philip Tucker. Just listen to these reviews. 790 01:05:49,679 --> 01:05:55,960 A real humdinger of a thriller. I can't recommend it highly enough, timely, 791 01:05:56,119 --> 01:06:00,400 topical with the current state of the world we live in, comprehensive and 792 01:06:00,599 --> 01:06:06,119 movingly inverts the whole sterile, establishment framed debate on terrorism. It's The Jasmine 793 01:06:06,159 --> 01:06:11,800 Sari by Philip Tucker, and it's available on Amazon. Now. This is 794 01:06:11,840 --> 01:06:15,199 what people are saying about. It proves that outstanding fiction can speak about the 795 01:06:15,280 --> 01:06:20,800 bigger truths. More eloquently than can factual reporting. You can taste the dust 796 01:06:20,880 --> 01:06:28,079 and smell the air of Bangladesh. A stunning finale that left me virtually breathless 797 01:06:28,280 --> 01:06:32,000 and entertaining, an explosive race against time which kept my eyes glued to the 798 01:06:32,079 --> 01:06:39,679 page. Great Stuff by the Jasmine Sari by Philip Tucker on Amazon. As 799 01:06:39,719 --> 01:06:45,159 one newspaper put it, this is a startlingly adroit, angry and distute political 800 01:06:45,199 --> 01:06:48,760 thriller. The Jasmine Sari gets it and you should get it too. This 801 01:06:49,400 --> 01:07:06,400 is London calling. Ricochet joined the conversation