Episode 131 – Scraping The Jam – The Independent Group, Shamima Begum, Paul Evans from Who Funds You

Released on Tuesday, February 19th, 2019.

Episode 131 – Scraping The Jam – The Independent Group, Shamima Begum, Paul Evans from Who Funds You

Episode 131 – New Old New Labour aka The Independent Group, Theresa May’s jam scrapings and child bullying, and a look into IS teenager’s return to the UK. Plus Tiernan (@tiernandouieb) talks to Paul Evans (@paul0Evans1) from Who Funds You (@WhoFundsYou) about think tank transparency.

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Music by The Last Skeptik (@thelastskeptik) – https://www.thelastskeptik.com/ – Subscribe to his podcast Thanks For Trying here.

THIS EPISODE IS TAGGED WITH: • NHS, Nigel Farage, No Deal, parpolbro, Partly Political Broadcast, Patreon, Paul Evans, podcast, political, politics, Sajid Javid, satire, Save Democracy - Abolish Voting, Shamima Begum, Steve Baker, The Independent Group, Theresa May, Tiernan Douieb, Who Funds You

Transcript

Episode 131

Hello and welcome to the Partly Political Broadcast, a podcast that, well you know what Aldeous Huxley was to the satirizing of 1930’s, yeah? This is nothing like that, it’s basically just a poor attempt to stifle some of the screaming you do at the news, but in a podcast. I’m Tiernan Douieb and this week, seven Labour MPs are no longer as they have split from the party and called themselves the Independence Group, a name that is itself a paradox much like the Lonely Masses, Happy Depressives or the Popular Centrists.

The seven MPs realized that as there was nothing else going on the world of politics, now was the ideal time to break away from Labour because nothing says we’re angry about our party’s stance on Brexit like deciding they should leave last minute rather than fix it from the inside. Lead by MP Chuka ‘I can’t get the polythene wrapping off’ Ummuna said that they have taken the first step in leaving tribal politics’ which is odd as that step appears to be forming a new smaller tribe. MP and ship’s councilor in every Star Trek ever Luciana Berger said that Labour had become institutionally anti-Semitic, as she has received horrific levels of abuse over the last few years, and that she was embarrassed and ashamed to stay, but you know only after she fought against her deselection last week. MP and completely non-descript human Chris Leslie, seriously you try. I mean maybe ‘two small eyes poked into an uncooked bloomer’. Yeah ok it is doable.

Chris Leslie who lost a vote of no confidence against him by his CLP last September said that Brexit was the tipping point, which is odd as if that were the case he’d have left two years ago. And MP and what if you asked a child to draw a sad Annie Lennox, Angela Smith proved that she could be prime ministerial material by talking for ages without saying anything of substance while always sounding like she might cry. So far, the Independent Group haven’t announced any policies which again, means they could be quite a tough opposition to all current parties, and they are backing a People’s Vote but don’t want to have a by-election in the areas they represent because it seems the public’s opinion is only important sometimes. In the incredible way that politics works now, mere hours after criticizing Labour for being a racist party, Angela Smith went on Politics Live and referred to a fellow panelist, as being of a ‘funny tinge’ so that I guess that explains how they’ll try to appeal to leave voters. It’s nice that she’s directly tackling racism in Labour by just leaving the party all by herself without any need for an inquiry.

Labour Leader and Steve Zissou on crack Jeremy Corbyn responded by saying ‘Labour’s opponents are the Tories, not each other’ which will come as a surprise to any remain voting members. Deputy Leader and man who always looks like he’s about to unveil his new art exhibition of ceremic smug elbows and tell you how great it definitely is Tom Watson, warned Corbyn that he has to change his way of doing politics or more MPs will leave, you know, the ones who keep saying they hate his politics. Watson said at times he no longer recognized his own party, which after he lost six stone and barely looks how he used to, I’d guess was a compliment. The Lib Dems haven’t commented but they’re probably consoling each other that they’re so unpopular even break off centrist Labour members would rather start their own pointless group than join them and there’s been no comment from recently independent MP and every head of a local am dram group Frank Field is probably still waiting for Chuka Ummana to return his calls. It is not known if any centrist Conservative MPs or any others at all are going to join them and you have to wonder what sort of impact 7 MPs can make unless they’re planning to form a particularly boring dance troupe.

Challenging the Labour splitters for least surprising news this week is Prime Minister and cutlery stuck together with old coleslaw Theresa May who told MPs that there would be no meaningful vote last week because of course there wasn’t. Nothing means anything anymore when your entire existence has been reduced to debating again and again that you need to do things you can’t do, that no one wants and is ultimately doing nothing to prevent catastrophe. So instead May put forward a motion just asking if parliament endorsed her negotiations and parliament said a resounding no. To think, it was only a few weeks ago they had confidence in her. Or maybe they still do, just in something other than her abilities to fix Brexit? Sure we’ve got confidence in her ability to scowl at babies or stomp around Parliament like Nosferatu on poppers, but this Brexit lark? Nah mate.

Labour’s amendment to have a meaningful vote by February 27^th was defeated, then the SNP vote to extend Article 50 suffered a huge defeat, possibly after everyone realized that would just mean they’d have to debate this shit for even longer. And then the government’s amendment was defeated by 45 votes. Was it May’s promise to Labour ministers that she’d protect worker’s rights, even though everyone knows how hollow that is when it’s unlikely anyone will be working after Brexit? Or was it the European Research Group, led by malformed magic wand Jacob Rees Mogg, abstaining their votes because the amendment ruled out a no deal Brexit and they are big angry adult babies who want things to burn because everyone laughs at how their mums still label their names in their underwear? Or was it May’s comments during a cabinet discussion about food waste where she stated that she scraped the mould off jam rather than throws it away and just eats the rest. It’s not Conservatism if you’re not even protecting preservatism is it? What other dark habits does the Prime Minister have? Pick the grubs out of the rotting carcass and just suck on the bone marrow and it should be fine eh? Don’t worry everyone, if you just lick the ice cream that’s under the turd, you’ll be ok. If being in a jam while trying to pretend its not decaying isn’t a metaphor for our times, then I’m not sure what is. 2016 it was all Brexit is easy. Now here we are in 2019 and its all scrape the mould off jam. 2022 will be full of government statements about eating unwanted acquaintances and least favourite loved ones first in order to survive.

Ah no wait, back a bit, it was the ERG again. Deputy Chairman of the ERG and man who very much looks like he advertises on Craig’s List for someone to come round so he can poke them in the eye for his own pleasure, Steve Baker warned May that her government would collapse if her withdrawal agreement went through, seemingly claiming that if she somehow managed to bring everyone together it wouldn’t bring everyone together. This is very much the ERG’s way of thinking though. We don’t want a physical border in Northern Ireland, but we mustn’t have a backstop either, we don’t want May’s plan but we also don’t want to make a plan, we are grown-ups but also need Nanny to tuck us in or we get nightmares. It is very hard for them to imagine not having your cake and eating it when their entire life has involved someone handing them two cakes at a time. Baker insisted that May respect the electorate, which is tricky to take seriously when Baker’s own constituency of Wycombe voted 52% to Remain. If there’s one thing that does unite the Conservative Party it’s an inability to take their own advice, or anyone else’s, or read a manual or try to remember a bit on a program they saw about it once.

Business minister and composite of all the bits of a mix and match face book that horrify children Richard Harrington accused the ERG of treachery and said they should go and join soggy Weetabix punched into a condom for a face Nigel Farage’s new Brexit Party instead, which would officially make the worst party even more intolerable, like if the first guests at Noel’s House Party were Anders Brevik and a repeat of Eldorado. Speaking of Farage, he seems to be in charge of Purple Momentum, something that sounds like a mid-coitus injury, that is planning to deselect pro-Europe Conservative candidates from their seats, meaning that several MPs including ‘my smile is covering up my entire lack of any emotions ever’ Heidi Allen, Sarah ‘I love the NHS but we sleep in different rooms’ Wollaston and Nick ‘worst member of Erasure’ Boles could be politically homeless within months. But hey, I hear The Independent Group are looking for chums and according to their lack of policies or conviction so far, it may be the ideal home for the sort of Tories who only rebel when absolutely forced to by everyone else. James Dean but only when his car is tied to a rope and a bigger truck is driving it forwards in a race while James has his eyes closed and cries a lot.

This all prompted May to write a letter to her party insisting on unity and asking them to move beyond what divides us. Except that’s Brexit that is and she’s still being a dawdling fuckwit about doing anything about it. It’s like if I parked my car on top of your car and then asked you to calm down, stop swearing and get past the transport issues that divide us. She will be returning to Brussels this week because I’m pretty sure that’s the only place she can go where no one will bother her for a few hours. It looks like the crunch on what happens next will all take place in the last week of February, which MPs are calling ‘the highest of high noons’ forgetting that of course, most Spaghetti Westerns were made in Europe.

In other Brexit news, Honda have announced they are closing their Swindon plant and Ford have announced thousands of job cuts all due to the uncertainty of the UK’s relationship with Europe. Yeah well fuck ‘em eh? We won’t need cars in a post Brexit Britain. We’ll already be exhausted, and tyred enough. Seriously though, are roads will be so full of potholes and there’ll be no petrol so we’ll probably just have to travel around on mud and depression. I’m also certain that several more hardline Conservatives heard about the Honda Civic and assumed it was a public asset so planned to shut it down anyway.

The Health Minister and face drawn on a belly Stephen Hammond revealed that the NHS is stockpiling body bags incase of a no deal. Which makes sense as we’ll need to keep our food supplies sealed and as fresh as possible considering most dead people won’t fit in a family fridge. The EU is planning to send food aid to Britain’s poorest in the event of a No Deal, and I for one look forward to hardline leavers rejecting it to stand up for sovereignty, so that I can have even more nice fancy cheese.

The head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service has said that he’s concerned that the current status of no elected ministers in the Assembly will become normal as it has now been two years since the Stormont Stalemate started. I have to say though, based on the rest of the UK and our ministers, I honestly think we should take a leaf out of there book and maybe give it a try for 2 to 400 years.

In other news, on Friday 15,000 children and teenagers went on strike from school and marched on Westminster to call for action on climate change because that’s where we are now, it’s up to children to point out that while grown-ups are arguing about which to take, they are in the back having to loudly point out that the car is on fire. In response to the strike Theresa May told schoolchildren they were wasting their time, which many were quick to point out is hugely hypocritical and a lot like, say a chocolate teapot telling a swiss army knife that it’s useless, or an abacus telling the CERN reactor that it needs to get with the times….no wait, sorry these are rubbish. It’s a bit like Theresa May telling almost anything or anyone else in the entire universe that they’re being shit. That’s what it’s like. But in defence of the prime minister for some un-known reason, it is just possible that May’s telling young people their efforts to ensure the future is a place they can live in are a waste of time, because she’s trying her hardest to make sure they’ll all be dead waaaaaaay before climate change really kicks in. Leader of the House of Commons and living waxwork Andrea Leadsom was another of a number of very rich Conservatives who seemed to be very angry that schoolchildren were concerned about not having to suddenly evolve gills because of crap older generations have done, and she said that what they were doing was truancy. But as she pointed out several times in her Conservative leadership campaign in 2016, she is a mother, just one of you know, children she’s happy to have die in extreme flooding. Such a weird stance to take. Are the Conservatives trying to neg the youth vote? Or are they just born old and unable to understand why it’s pointless for kids to stay in their underfunded schools while taking tests to help them get jobs that won’t exist rather ask that maybe when they get older they can breathe a few times a day. Either way I thoroughly look forward to them being in charge and enjoying watching people like Leadsom try and use money to fight off a tsunami.

Shadow Chancellor and every character in a Mike Leigh film ever John McDonnell said in an interview that wartime Prime Minister and slowly melting big toe Winston Churchill was a villain rather than a hero because he sent the army into the miner’s strike riots of Tonypandy in Wales. But I think these things are real complicated. Where’s the nuance in a hero or villain question? Some people are both. I mean Churchill sure there was his part in the Tonypandy riots, his part in the Indian famine that killed 3 million Bengalis, his forced repatriation of Kenyan citizens, his admiration of Mussolini and you know, other stuff. But then on the other hand, those adverts with the dog are hilarious. So I mean, swings and roundabouts eh? Conservative MP and enthusiastic neck Robert Halfon called for an emergency debate on Churchill in Parliament because there’s no emergency like someone who’s been dead for 56 years eh? He then went on to join the band wagon of criticizing school children striking. It does explain a lot if general Conservative thinking is 50 years behind and I really look forward to them debating a solution for the Northern Irish border situation in 2068.

In a similar vein in the US, President and half deflated bouncy castle Donald Trump has asked Japanese Prime Minister and human yoda Shinzo Abe to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize. I’m guessing the only way that would work was if it was for how whenever Trump is actively not somewhere, that place is immediately more tranquil. This comes just days after Trump’s State of Union address mainly involved him declaring a national emergency because no one will let him build a wall. I’m starting to wonder if they should just tell him they’ve already built and if he ever visits, the Democrats could helicopter in tiny Stone Henge from Spinal Tap and just tell Trump he’s very far away from it. I reckon that’d last till at least 2020.

Back in the UK, Justice Secretary David ‘pronounce it like you’re being sick’ Gauke announced the rollout of GPS tags for offenders, with the idea that they won’t need to be sent to prison if you can track their every move. I think there’s a missed opportunity here to just pop satnavs on all criminals with specific maps that always point them to the straight and narrow and a constant insistence that they turn to the moral right. And lastly political review show This Week is ending on BBC after host and heir to the Shrek fortune Andrew Neil announced his departure. I for one am concerned as to what we will all watch now in order to see how not to do satire.

ADMIN

God there was a lot of car metaphors in that weren’t there? Can you tell I’m feeling a bit rundown? Oh god what was that. Sorry.

Hey hey ParPolBrods! What’s going down in your end of town? Wow. That is a shit greeting isn’t it? Every week I think, what would be a new way of saying hey to the listeners and I’ll be honest, that one says I’ve probably run out and should just stick to the classics like er, hello and well look at you and your big face. I’ve had to do a bit of a catch up on news this weekend for this week’s show as I’ve been on the road lots, like, er, roadkill, and generally missed all the nothing that was happening and when I did check in it was politicians who aren’t doing anything to stop climate change telling children they’re awful for caring about still being alive in a few years and not having to evolve gills. I just can’t wrap my head around that way of thinking in terms of either wanting to attract the youth vote which you’ll never do by saying ‘vote for us as we’ll make sure you die before you get old’ or that they think it’s a good idea to troll people who genuinely give a shit about the state the planet’s in? It just makes you look stupid and selfish. Yeah fuck those kids who care about their and future generations lives, won’t anyone think about bigots like me who enjoy making sure they can’t have homes or jobs and just want to use their rent to pay for oil to eat, whales to punch and food that will fuel extra farts for me to do just for laffs and that?’ I spend a lot of my time feeling pretty despondent about climate change but very aware I’m in the generation that needs to be doing something about it. My petty contributions of late have involved getting a refillable water bottle that I keep forgetting to refill then have to buy bottled water to top it up cos nowhere has taps, and a plastic coffee cup that I keep putting the lid on incorrectly and then scalding myself with while driving and polluting the planet. Its not even really trying is it?

Neither, I should say, is this week’s podcast as it was hastily churned out inbetween trying to sort out somewhere to live, which has finally been successful, and starting tour support for Frankie Boyle. I did the first one of those tonight where I meh’d an entire audience with tried rambles. Not so much warmed them up as ensured they stayed temperate and no one died. Hmm. What I mean is, welcome to all new listeners, well look at you old listeners and thanks for being here or there, or where ever you are. I mean, if you’re neither here or there, then I am impressed you’re listening to this at all rather than panicking about being trapped inside a black hole or vortex but I hope if nothing else you’re soothed by that situation being less stressful than Brexit. Thanks this week to Simon for donating to the ko-fi account and if you would like to buy me a coffee or as I’ve now labelled it, strong drink, to help support this podcast, you can do a once-off or monthly donation at ko-fi.com/parpolbro or if you want to be like the uncool kids you can do it at patreon.com/parpolbro which is an every week fun game of what’s more expensive for everyone, doing it in pounds or dollars? If you can’t donate, don’t worry I won’t hunt down and kill your family, I’m way too busy for that. But I also definitely won’t do that if you give the show a tasty review on the podcast apps what you use, as all of them nice words, or at least words written in fear over the safety of your family from a tired, fractuous podcast host, all help others to know this exists. As does you just bellowing that it exists at a room of random unimpressed strangers, which is what I did tonight. You’re welcome.

Also this week, as well as pleading for you to donate to the show, do you fancy sponsoring me doing something very stupid? I am once again taking part in one of Mark Watson’s stupidly long shows next week. This time its 26.2 hours long and I will be trying my best to reenact a famous sports celebration or ritual every hour, despite having no clue about sports or rituals or probably time after we’re several hours in. Last time I did a show like this with Mark, four years ago, I had my back shaved by Gillian Anderson who used a disposable razor and hummus, while I wore a dress. Yes, really. All proceeds are going to the Dementia Revolution charity and if you fancy sponsoring me at uk.virgingivingmoney.com/TiernanDouieb1. I am tired just thinking about it.

Also the kids politics show I’m part of called How Does This Politics Show Work Then? Is at the Lighthouse Poole on Friday at 11am and 2pm, then at the Gulbenkian in Canterbury at 2pm I think on Saturday. We had two lovely shows in Bedford and Guildford last week with a particular highlight being a small girl called Millie in Guildford asking me what MP stood for. I told her Member of Parliament and she asked why we don’t call them mops? Amazing. Those shows are suitable for everyone aged 6+ so please do bring your small people along for some edutainment or entercation or something.

Lastly, while I spent the weekend driving around I listened to the Radio 4 satirical show Agendum which is just amazing and made me laugh to the point of dangerous driving, well worth finding on the iPlayer. And, what I wanted to plug was the New York Times podcast Caliphate which is the most gripping piece of investigative journalism I’ve heard in a while. It is about ISIS obviously and not about, I dunno, what happens to California in the end of time. But it’s all by Rukmini Callimachi who is just brilliant. Do check it out.

This week’s show, as I said, has a tad less me than normal as let’s face it, what is there to say about Brexit? Its more nothing with added cars leaving while MPs let each other down on a daily basis. It’d be more productive for you if I just played the sound of an upset bassoon over a loop of someone falling into a well for 5 minutes. So I’m not even bothering this week as I’m knackered and instead there is a fascinating interview with Paul Evans from Who Funds You all about think tank transparency that then segue ways very nicely into a chat about the very shoddy state of things. Plus I take a little look at the teenager who joined ISIS now wants to come back to Britain, you know because she’s heard its way more extreme and intolerant here and so she thinks she’ll fit in. Probably. Go on, have some of this:

INTERVIEW WITH PAUL EVANS

Think Tanks! It sounds like a very niche road safety advert for living in a highly militarized area, but actually think tanks are instead when a bunch of experts devote time and give advice on a specific area of politics. That’s what the little google definition says when you type it in. But then it also says I’m a film actor which is news to me unless they somehow know about that time I thought it’d be funny to pretend I was a roll of Kodak 200 Colourplus for all of three minutes because someone said I was being too negative. Think Tanks are often on the tellybox, newspapers, radio and that either being quoted about their new report on studies they’ve been doing, or on the other end of the scale for some think tanks, being all smug on question time and successfully not answering anything while telling everyone else they are wrong. Thing is, while some think tanks are very clear about who funds them and their motives or interests in carrying out the research and reports they do, but others don’t seem to want anyone to know who’s filling their pockets and yet expect the public to just sit back and assume they are unbiased experts. But you know, not the type people are tired of or something. For example, the Institute of Economic Affairs or IEA, which is the correct sort of noise you might make when you realise how shady they are, never reveal their donors, but in the past were revealed to be given a lot of money by the tobacco industry while simultaneously opposing bans on cigarette advertising. So now they are hardline Brexit fans who want to privatize the NHS, it’d be nice to know exactly which one of the many billionaires who could earn money from those things is behind it, or if they are just yet more idiots who haven’t read anything, and either way, could someone please introduce them as such whenever they feature on a politics program?

The IEA have an E rating on Who Funds You, a website for the campaign for think tank transparency. An E doesn’t mean they party hard on weekends, but that they haven’t provided any information on donors at all. Compare that to, say, the New Economics Foundation who have a big shiny A. As in rating. I wasn’t being crude. But why won’t some declare their sugar daddies? Does it really make that much difference if we know who funds them or not? Even though I’m not a think tank, how do I get an A rating because these sorts of things are important to me? Well this week I asked nearly all those questions to Paul Evans who is, as he put it, one of the co-conspirators behind Who Funds You. Paul is part of Political Innovation, a group that aims to help people understand how democracy works, and as part of that created Who Funds You. He has also written a book called ‘Save Democracy – Abolish Voting’ which received very positive reviews about its thought provoking content. Now, I have to be honest with you listeners, I would usually read a book before interviewing a guest, but I didn’t realise that the Paul Evans I would be speaking to was the same one that had written that book until a day or so before we spoke so I didn’t read his book in advance, which is sloppy of me. I also managed to say ‘Who Funds Me’ instead of Who Funds You about three times during this because my daughter had woken us up in the night 5 times the night before and my brain was broken and I’m an idiot. But excusing my shoddy workings, this interview with Paul is a real goodun and I hope you find it as interesting and informative as I did. Here is Paul:

INTERVIEW WITH PAUL PART 1

And we’ll be back with Paul in a minute but first…

You’ve probably seen headlines over the past week that say things like IS Wife Returning To The UK and like me, generally been confused by the syntax. What sort of question is that? Is a Neanderthal man typing the news? Is Wife Sad? Is Wife Make Food For Man What Killed Dinosaur? But of course, they actually said IS as in Islamic State, formerly known as Isil, the washing powder that makes your clothes sharia than ever before, or ISIS, the terrorist group most well-known for really ruining the business of a similarly named Hair Salon in Kings Cross, because lets face it, no one will let them put sharp scissors near their face now. Shamima Begum left the UK at the age of 15 to go to Syria and join ISIS, because teens gotta rebel hard right? But after 4 years of seemingly enjoying hanging out with them all, despite occasionally finding the severed heads of their enemies in the rubbish, which must be pretty traumatizing as they should probably go in food waste, Begum is now in a refugee camp, with a newborn baby and after losing two other children, would like to return to the UK. Obvs the tabloids have gone bonkers and if Home Secretary and mildly rehydrated Maz Kanata Sajid Javid had been on safari he’d have cancelled it, returned home then gone on it again just to cancel it twice in order to make a statement about this. Javid has said that he will not hesitate to prevent the return of Britons who joined Islamic State, except he said that several days ago and hasn’t really done anything yet. Now there are a ton of moral issues around this case involving the fact that Begum was only 15 when she went to Syria and got married which is illegal under UK law and means she was the victim of grooming. But she did also choose to join a highly dangerous, extremist group all by herself and said it was much fun doing it because that’s how all teenagers talk about their gap years even if they actually spent most of it explosively shitting into a hole because they ate some sort of unspecified meat that looked a lot like the contents of a veterinary surgeon’s bin in sauce. But then again, she’s also had a baby and that baby hasn’t yet chosen to join ISIS, although as my experience that baby will be very good at making hugely unreasonable demands. But on the other hand, Donald Trump has said Britain should take back all the Islamic State fighters that were captured in Syria and while that isn’t what Begum is, the rule is usually that the opposite of what Trump says is the way to go. There are questions about the safety of having IS members in the UK, but then also how will we address why young people felt they should join up in the first place if we don’t speak to them? So many issues, no correct answers.

Well, except there is one correct answer, which is that of the law and legally, there isn’t really anything Javid or the Home Office could do to prevent Shamima Begum from coming back to Britain, on account of her being a British citizen, which means her baby is too. There are rules against stripping the citizenship from someone if doing so will make them stateless and even though Islamic State says state in their name, they don’t actually have one and so she would be, meaning Javid can’t. They are the taxpayer’s alliance or European Research Group of terrorists. So the Home Office’s only option at the moment is a temporary exclusion order or TEO which would stop her from returning unless it is in accordance with the conditions of a permit, which means either she’d have to get deported back to the UK or she’d have to apply for a permit to return which the Home Secretary would have to agree to, but could make conditions that mean she has to live in a certain place or have regular appointments with the police and stuff like that, and any breach of those means Begum could be arrested and prosecuted. But then there’s also issues about prosecuting for being a member of a terrorist organization as while there are guidelines on how to do it, her age when she joined may be an issue because seriously has anyone got a clue how to do anything at 15? Also it’ll be pretty hard to find evidence of anything more serious she was involved in while she was there.

The other thing is that in 2017 it was reported that over 400 Isis fighters returned from Syria to the UK as British citizens and no one really gave much of a shit. So, the question is, why has this one blown up across the news? Is it so Sajid can look like he’s being vaguely useful while the rest of the country falls apart? Or is that he’s concerned that another bald, wailing person that struggles to comprehend anything may arrive in the country and then he’ll have some competition for his job? All I know is that if, as the government and many news outlets seem concerned with, Begum’s return could help radicalize others, maybe it’s best not to have her on the news every 10 minutes saying how much fun she had out at Summer Camp for Jihadists? I mean with Brexit approaching and politicians ignoring young people’s concerns on climate change, all ISIS need to do is add some sort of certificate scheme and a few water slides and I doubt it’d take much to push thousands their way.

And now back to Paul…

INTERVIEW WITH PAUL PART 2

Thanks to Paul for letting me interview him. He can be found on Twitter @paul0Evans1 and his website is paul-evans.org on which you can find links to buy his book Save Democracy – Abolish Voting, but it is also available at all good book retailers and probably also bad and morally ambivalent ones. Who Funds You is at whofundsyou.org and can also be found on Twitter @whofundsyou and on Facebook at, yes you guessed it, facebook.com/whofundsyou.

Who to speak to next? Who shall I get on this show so I can get the name of their website or campaign completely wrong next time? Who is a suitable interviewee for my tired often poorly written questions that I usually put together after not having enough coffee? Let me know who I should get on this show and you can do that via @parpolbro on Twitter, the Partly Political Broadcast group on Facebook, the contact page on partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk or email me at partlypoliticalbroadcast@gmail.com. Or like the highly endangered white rhino you could convey your message through a huge pile of steaming dung and its particular smell, though if you do that, I will just assume you want to me interview someone about Brexit again. As always, it’s probably best to email.

END

And that’s all for the Partly Political Broadcast podcast this week. Ta and that for choosing this show instead of just listening to the ambient sounds of a roaddrill or the calming wails of a mating elephant. Do you know what? I bet podcasts of those things exist. I bloody bet it. Please don’t forget to review the show, donate to the ko-fi, Patreon or my stupid Watson Marathon challenge and most importantly if you enjoy this show, tell people, whisper it in their ears as they leave your embrace to depart on a long and possibly dangerous journey, yell the RSS feed details from a mountain at the villains chasing you that are now stuck on the other side of a broken rope bridge, or just bring it up at the local village meeting as something that is more of a statement than a question.

Yeah cheers pal to Acast for caching this show in amongst its audio storage. Thanks to to my brother The Last Skeptik for all the musics and to Kat Day for the weekly linear liner notes that end up on the partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk website with all the weeks important links.

This will be back next week when the Independent Group will split, saying they were embarrassed and ashamed to stay, as Chuka Ummuna forms his own Chuka’s Pukka Party while Chris Leslie announces his new group The Yes We Like Coldplay But What Of It Party? And Angela Smith sits staring vacantly into a hole in a wall for 5 days.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This week’s show was brought to you by May’s Mouldy Jam, a new range of Prime Minister approved fruit preserves topped especially with the furry horror of decay. Our five flavours include Strawberry and penicillium blending the sweet taste of summer with the acrid power of antibiotics which you’ll need after eating this. Also Raspberry and Cladosporium, Rhubarb and Mucor Hiemalis and lemon curd that was just left out far too long. May’s Mouldy Jam, for when your only sense of duty to culture involves you chuffing down fungus.