Further Reading

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Don’t worry everyone, PM Boris Johnson has been shaking hands with everyone, Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden went to the rugby and said it was safe, and Donald Trump reckons he stopped the coronavirus last Friday, so everything should be fine. It. All. Should. Be. Fine. PLEASE SELF ISOLATE WHILE LISTENING TO THIS WEEK’S SHOW. More COVID-19, US election updates and a chat with Steve Byrne (@thestevebyrne) about just what is happening in Ireland after that historic election.

Links and sources of info from Steve’s interview:

• • Steve Byrne on Twitter – https://twitter.com/thestevebyrne
• • Steve Byrne on Instagram – http://instagram.com/thestevebyrne/
• • What Am Politics on Twitter – https://twitter.com/whatampolitics
• • What Am Politics website – https://whatampolitics.com/
• • State of 2020 Podcast – https://audioboom.com/channels/5004530
• • Gavan Reilly on Twitter – https://twitter.com/gavreilly
• • Johnny Fallon on Twitter – https://twitter.com/jonnyfallon
• • The Johnny Fallon Podcast – https://open.spotify.com/show/5ZvXE7DqojClN6wFlBJovU
• • Una Mullally on Twitter – https://twitter.com/UnaMullally
• • Irish Times on Twitter – https://twitter.com/IrishTimes
• • Irish Independent on Twitter – https://twitter.com/Independent_ie
• • Sinn Féin on Twitter – https://twitter.com/sinnfeinireland

All the usual ParPolBro stuff:

• • Twitter – twitter.com/ParPolBro and twitter.com/TiernanDouieb   
• • Facebook – www.facebook.com/groups/ParPolBro 
• • Website – www.tiernandouieb.co.uk/podcast
• • Donate to the Patreon – www.patreon.com/parpolbro
• • Buy me a coffee – ko-fi.com/parpolbro
• • Review the show on iTunes – itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/partly-political-broadcast/id1075342863?mt=2 
• • Review the show on Stitcher – www.stitcher.com/podcast/partly-political-broadcast
• • The Last Skeptik – www.thelastskeptik.com
• • Kat on Twitter – https://twitter.com/chronicleflask
• • Buy Kat a coffee (go on, spread the love) – https://ko-fi.com/katday

Transcript

Ep178

Hello and welcome to the Partly Political Broadcast, the comedy politics podcast that digs deeper. Then crawls into the hole that it dug, then hides there until the coronavirus has gone and its definitely safe to come out. I’m Tiernan Douieb despite what you’ve heard, and Downing Street has insisted that despite the spread of COVID-19, social distancing measures will not be introduced, as the last three years of Brexit was successful at doing that enough.

The UK remains in containment phase, which could potentially be a catch all term for the nation post Brexit. But it just means that despite cases of coronavirus reaching over 300 in the UK alone and bloody loads elsewhere, the government have accepted that the illness is going to spread in a significant way and they wouldn’t want to get it its way as this government is all about meritocracy and that virus is working damn hard to get where it’s going. So no events will be cancelled just yet and the culture secretary and man who in every picture looks like they’ve photoshopped away the rake he’s just stepped on Oliver Dowden, insisted that he was at the rugby at Twickenham with the Prime Minister over the weekend and it seemed perfectly safe. Because as you know Dowden has a special bionic germ sensor where he can scan mass crowds for biological hazards, though chances are that by sitting right next to Boris Johnson he was unable to see any others. This has been the government’s response so far. Lots of statements that largely suggest they haven’t got a fucking clue what they’re talking about, so it’s nice to know they’re handling this crisis much like any other. Only last week Johnson insisted that he’d keep shaking hands despite warnings and that he was at a hospital where there were COVID-19 patients and he shook everyone’s hands. This blatantly not true as the hospital he was at was not one where any reported coronavirus patients were and they would know as that’s what the government’s containment phase requires, unless Johnson was the one coronavirus patient and he’s been responsible for spreading it around with all his careless hand shaking. He is very good at spreading things, whether its lies or his own DNA so I wouldn’t put it past him. Downing Street have insisted the Prime Minister’s being guided by the best scientific advice though judging by him still shaking everyone’s hands you wonder if it’s advice about the virus or if he’s just been googling how he’s managed to impregnate yet another woman. The latter could explain why his most recent comments about the virus where that one of theories about the coronavirus is that you could take it on the chin, and let it spread through the population. I’m honestly not sure if anyone should be shaking his hands whether there’s a virus about or not.

The one person who you’d hope would have a vague semblance of how to manage all of this would be the health secretary and man who I’m certain still has his name written on tags on his underwear otherwise he’ll try and put on a dishcloth or pretzel or something Matt Hancock. But of-course he hasn’t because no one has yet developed a coronavirus app, so instead Hancock pretended that the government has been working with supermarkets to ensure they don’t run out of supplies. But a supermarket exec got in touch with the BBC to say that Hancock was bullshitting which isn’t surprising as that’d be the first time anyone in the government was concerned about people having enough food. Or was Hancock’s notion that by Brexit negotiations hitting all farming, fishing and export produce, the supermarkets won’t have any supplies to run out of, therefore rending the problem solved? The Department of Food and Agriculture has since contacted the industry which is just in time as British people have been panic buying toilet roll despite the coronavirus not causing any sort of bowel issues. They’ve also not been stockpiling food in the same manner which is just so us. Wasting money on something we believe we need because we haven’t bothered to research how something actually works, and ultimately harming ourselves as a result. Coronavirus cases worldwide are now over 111,000 with nearly 4000 deaths, 5 of which were in the UK. After the first patient died, the Prime Minister said his sympathies were with the victim and their family though he could’ve also been talking about the most recent people to get a job working with the Home Secretary. On the positive side, over 62,000 people have recovered from COVID-19 all ok and are now presumably immune and can go shake hands with whoever they like or, perhaps if they’ve got scores to settle, people they don’t like with underlying health conditions.

After China, Italy has been the most affected country, having to shut schools and quarantine areas, while parts of Saudi Arabia and Iran have done the same. Maybe now the toilet roll stockpiling makes sense as while the virus itself doesn’t cause that sort of effect; most places are shitting themselves out of fear. All of this has had an effect on the stock markets, causing them to fall in their worst day since the 2008 financial crash. Of-course they would, you’re meant to self-isolate, not have shares of things. Part of the drop is also due to a fall in oil prices because no one using any as they aren’t going anywhere, so actually by him going around shaking everyone’s hands, maybe that’s proof the Prime Minister does care about tackling climate change after all. These falls in shares caused a temporary suspension of US trading, which must’ve come as a shock to President and microwaved punchbag Donald Trump who claimed on Friday that he’d stopped the virus. While it is possible that he’s so toxic that by contracting it, the virus simply gave up and died, Trump’s main tactic seems to be to ignore it and hope everyone forgets about it, openly saying that he wanted people on the infected cruise ship the Grand Princess, to stay onboard as otherwise they’d add to the US numbers. No, you idiot, that’s not what it means to keep the virus at bay. Meanwhile the Democrats had their Super Tuesday primary, so called because like a lot of superhero films, it has basically the same plotline as the one before it. 14 states worth of delegates chose their preference for the presidential election candidate and rubber latex mask of an old man being worn by an old man Joe Biden came out on top with 10 backing him, because it seems their main tactic of dealing with the coronavirus is to attack the possibility of universal healthcare. Biden won most of the places he was expected to but is hailed as having a comeback after a rather dodgy start to the contest. It must be nice doing exactly what’s the very least expected of you and being praised for it, but then that is also the entire premise of his campaign. Biden’s slogan is ‘Our best days still lie ahead’ which sound like regardless of what happens in the election he’s promising a ton of untruths will still be told. Biden is now in first place, while eccentric scientist stock photo Bernie Sanders won 4 including his home state of Virginia and the one of the most populous states California taking him into second place, which would suit him as that means he can still criticize the 1%. Billionaire and slowly deflating plum husk Michael Bloomberg got American Samoa, before then dropping out of the race, meaning that he must have something against the Samoans in order to spend more than $500m just to deny them any sort of say in the presidential election. I would say its further proof he’s racist but after dropping out he’s spent several million tacking black voter suppression. Though I guess there’s every chance it’s just so he can get even more details on file of people he thinks the police should stop and frisk. Rejected member of Alvin and the Chipmunks Elizabeth Warren also dropped out of the race after winning none of the delegates at all. She had previously run on the message of being the unity candidate, but it appears the only thing she united was people to vote for everyone but her. So now it’s just two men in the race, because that’s how America thinks. Oh well we let a woman have a go once, and that didn’t work so best not try it again. Biden has gained the most endorsements since Super Tuesday, both from former candidates and other politicians but while it’s looking like he’s in the lead right now, things could change over the next 4 months, particularly if Trump’s lack of coronavirus protection mean America ends up more like a Mad Max dystopia and the next president will just be whoever is still alive and has access to water.

Back in the UK it is budget week as the Chancellor Rishi ‘always grinning like he’s been allowed outside for the first time’ Sunak will present whatever he’s managed to mangle together since the last Chancellor and insomniac onion Sajid Javid resigned. All we know so far is that the treasury’s Instagram page keeps showing pictures of Sunak posing like he’s in a Littlewoods catalogue advertising some sort of guide to pretending to have a personality. By the time you hear this, you’ll likely already know what was in it, but at this point we’re expecting some sort of extra money to deal with the unauthorized Outbreak sequel we’re experiencing. Sunak has said that he thinks the economy is in a strong position to cope with all coronavirus issues, but he said it with all the sincerity of someone whose aware that rich people won’t die and couldn’t give a shit about anyone else. There will allegedly be more money for flood hit areas, with the current amount set to double which means it will only be 5 times less than is needed which is nice. But then maybe this is intentional as with airline Flybe going into administration last week, the government will be struggling to fulfill its promise to improve regional connections. Failing to bail out an airline it knew was struggling despite the massive loss of jobs and people’s pensions, might mean the government’s only option is to allow places to flood and set up a series of fast flowing canals to all major cities and towns. Or perhaps all of this will be announced as cost saving as EU negotiations are looking like the UK will be pulling out of the EU aviation safety regulator for no reason other than to make a point. That point being, well we have no aircraft now so we don’t need to safety check them and no one’s allow in anyway and we’ll just build massive walls around the coast, call ourselves Mega City 1 and everyone will survive on things that drop dead out of the sky. Which to be fair, could be any of our aircraft if we don’t put in place replacement safety regulations.

In the budget, fuel duty is likely to stay frozen even though no one’s using any of it anymore and there’s now 210 less flights that need it. Chances are, with only 4 weeks to do it in and Sunak seeming like the sort of person who needs allocated extra time just send a text, that this won’t be a budget of major changes, with the autumn one perhaps having more of what was promised in the manifesto. The government have promised though that there’ll be no increases in income tax, national insurance or VAT so it’ll be nice to see just where all the promised increasing spending money will come from. Perhaps we’ve got a new line of chemical weapons to sell to other countries whereby we drop Johnson in, and he shakes everyone’s hands until they keel over?

In other happen-times, the Labour party, completely unable to do anything at all about anything because that’s how elections work, have taken to just fighting themselves out of boredom again. To be fair, most people had forgetton about the leadership election, what with it taking most of our lives, and so how better to spice it than candidate and Lisa ‘definitely ran the school newspaper’ Nandy who has spoken out against current leader and exhausted sea urchin Jeremy Corbyn for waging a factional war within the party. Nice to know they’re no longer criticizing him for being a pacifist. Nandy, the candidate currently calling for party unity and vowing she would work for either of the other two contenders, has said that she in contrast is a non-factional politician, something she held up by joining a mass walk out from the cabinet in 2016 followed by running breathing doorstop Owen Smith’s leadership challenge against Corbyn. Nandy said the big issue was that infighting showed the public the party were interested in themselves, rather than the people, so it’s great that she’s trying to actively change that. Over in the Lib Dems, yes remember them? Oxford West and Abingdon MP and Where’s Wilma Layla Moran has joined their leadership crawl saying that her party faced an existential challenge, probably on account of the last election meaning they barely physically exist anymore. She will face Bath MP and woman whose name makes her sound like a shop for gas oven tops Wera Hobhouse, who is standing on the basis that the party need a new direction, something that should be easy considering they haven’t gone anywhere since 2015.

In positive news, after seven years of mostly ineffective badger culls, they are being phased out in Britain, to be replaced with TB vaccine for cattle, as well as vaccines for badgers. Hopefully this isn’t the blueprint or timescale the government are planning for COVID-19. And lastly, Former Home Secretary and murder squad detective from any early 90’s ITV show Amber Rudd was no platformed by Oxford Union, being pulled 30 minutes before she was due to give a talk due to her role in the Windrush scandal. Rudd said that students should stop hiding and start engaging although that was the sort of language she used to try and catch out illegal immigrants under the hostile environment policy. Personally I think its perfect treatment to tell Amber Rudd, without any appropriate warning for her to organize any back up, that she wasn’t welcome to something she assumed she was part of.

ADMIN

Yeaaaaah parpolbrods, how does you? I am currently self-isolating. I mean, I have to while recording this or my daughter will just drown me out by clanging spoons together and insisting its music. So not really self-isolating. I did a job last week where I was sent a list saying have you experienced any of these symptoms, and they included tiredness, achy limbs and being short of breath. Yes, all of those for the last two years since my daughter was born although to be fair, the shortness of breath is mainly just due to poor health and an insistence on going up stairs too quickly because that way I get the horror over and done with and can keel over at the top which almost feels like an achievement. I’ve been outside today and I did have to buy toilet rolls too, you know, for necessity though I am concerned that once word gets out that we have a whole nine of them in our flat that I’ll have to board up our house like the purge is coming as tons of angry poo needers try to fight their way in. There’s something so bleak and yet so perfect about the possibility that the UK will only finally revolt because no one is willing to wipe their bums on anything else. I’m not saying I would be, the thought of having to stack, I dunno, bits of carpet, or pitta breads or old shoes or something up by the loo is not particularly fun. Of course my main concern is that being self-employed and not really being able to work from home means I could be seeing a very jobless few weeks with lots of stuff cancelled. Gigs over skype anyone? How about if I pretend that its necessary to stockpile buying me coffees at ko-fi.com/parpolbro, will you all rush to get me one in-case they all run out? Worth a try.

I should also say that I am aware some of you do use this podcast as an actual news source, which I’m chuffed about but please also use the news as there’s several stories I haven’t covered this week, such as the refugee crisis in Turkey and Greece right now that is too bleak to find humour in. But also because I’m pretty sure my coronavirus info last week was a tiny bit irresponsible as I didn’t mention quite how easily it spreads, which as you’ve probably worked out via what’s happening, or if you have it because you just can’t stop high fiving people, is the key to why it’s rather rampant. So yes, please do make sure you supplement this show with some actual news and vitamin D because that’s important and you don’t get enough of it, especially if you’re hiding in a bunker till all the diseases stop.

Thank you to Daryl for the very lovely review on the Apple Podcasts. Please keep those coming as, well, I like it. I demand praise. But also, as I’ve bothered on before, the more reviews the more those pod sites might actually think its worth plugging this show. It isn’t. But they might think it is. As well as stockpiling coffee for me, do also join the patreon.com/parpolbro and obvs tell people all about what this malarkey is too. I did try to get my agent to record a plug again this week, as she’s been so effective in previous weeks but she was too busy talking to Spider-Man who’s now apparently residing in our toilet. As a lifelong fan of Spider-Man, this is still the fucking creepiest thing I’ve ever heard, but on the plus side I’m probably using up less loo roll as a result of being too scared of a bathroom incase a grown man in a mask is sitting in there.

I’m back supporting Frankie Boyle at the Soho Theatre this week and next, except for this Thursday, so if you come along to that, and see me after do say hello and I’ll do the awkward hello back where I will have used too many words on stage and be incapable of talking properly. It’ll be worth it. Also if you’re in Chorley or near there or have heard about it in a book, myself and Tatton from Simple Politics have our How Does This Politics Thing Work Then show at the Little Theatre on Saturday at 2.30pm. I promise we’ll have both washed our hands.

On this week’s show, with the budget happening on Wednesday and everyone full of the COVIDS, I thought it best to focus on some other stuff this week. So thanks to all 15 of you that bothered voting online, there’s a brief look at the US elections so far because they go one for most of your lifetime, but first a chat with political podcaster Steve Byrne all about just what is happening in Ireland.

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN BYRNE

It’s been a month since Ireland’s general election, and they are still without a government. If you, like me, are currently living under the hell-storm that is Boris Johnson’s leadership, it’s possible that the idea of no government may seem immediately more appealing than whatever it is we have now. But in Ireland changes have a come, and the absence of a Taoiseach or cabinet comes after the political power structures are the only thing currently really having the craic. Sinn Fein are the new big dogs, having previously only been in third place thanks to a history of exploding things, but their new leader and raft of left-wing policies has given them a shiny new face that isn’t at all covered up by knitwear. In contrast the two parties that had previously shared power for nearly a century no longer have enough votes to lead by themselves as the promise of keeping things as shit as they are wasn’t as popular with the Irish public as they thought it would be. With a three-way tie, like you might find at a professional boy scout contest, whatever the government ends up being, it won’t be really what anyone wants. Do the Finna Fail and Fine Gael parties join together to persuade voters that two wrongs make a very centre right? Or does one of them suck it up and join with Sinn Fein so they can all shout at each other for 5 years and potentially get nothing done at all? Or will coronavirus force a government of national coalition of whoever’s still alive after it hits? And what does any of this mean for the future of Ireland, or selfishly for us here in Blighty? Could it lead to a call of unity with Northern Ireland, or perhaps just a different bunch of people to tell Britain to fuck off during Brexit negotiations?

This week with the US working out which old white man they want in charge, and Britain announcing how little money they’ll have to spend when the coronavirus wipes out half the population, I thought it’d be a good time to hop across the small pond and find out just what is happening after Ireland’s historic election. I spoke to former pod guest Steve Byrne, host of the excellent Irish politics podcast What Am Politics? He kindly explained if Ireland will ever have a government, if Sinn Fein being in power still means all their live speeches will have to be dubbed over by someone like Cillian Murphy, and just how badly I’ve managed to pronounce all the Irish words. Spoiler: I did all of them really badly. I’m so rubbish. It’s always great chatting with Steve as he’s so clued up and able to explain things oh so clearly, so I hope you enjoy. Here’s Steve:

INTERVIEW WITH STEVE PART 1

US ELECTION

I know you listeners are pretty knowledgeable about things but in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, there’s a tiny country that you may not be aware of. It was discovered by accident, and is home to a culture of self-detriment, big noises and food that is largely made of things you’d find in cleaning products elsewhere in the world.  The people there are led by a confused orange accident of a man, and while the whole place professes to be just one country, it’s sort of more like 50 dysfunctional ones all mashed together against their will or political preferences. I know you’re likely confused at that description, not sounding like anywhere in the known world that you’ve heard of. And yet, this place exists, for it is America. Land of the free from universal healthcare, home of the brave or it was until they killed them all and made them live in reservations. I am of course ribbing you, as America is one of the world’s super-powers with much of what happens there having rippling effects to everywhere else, whether that be debt, climate change policies, stock prices or 10 seasons of the sitcom Friends. In the 2016 election, the American people chose, well actually the electoral college chose, to elect a known liar, misogynist, bankruptcy champion, climate change denier, con man, racist, populist, and all round just fucking bizarre looking man, Donald Trump, to become President of that nation and America or the world has never really recovered since. In the last four years, Trump has dismantled so many government departments, helped the rise of the far right, made the healthcare system even worse, withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, started trade wars, lead to women’s rights being jerked backwards, had a state official from another country killed without warning, been impeached, invited Nigel Farage to things but none of them were traps, and this week openly said that he’s not letting a cruise ship with passengers infected with coronavirus disembark as it’d just add to the number of cases in the country. That is, to say it lightly, a tiny amount of examples from a presidency that has excelled in a daily cavalcade of happenings that in a civil society just one would be enough to say ‘well that’s it, we as a species are doomed’ but now it’s become so commonplace to wake up and find that the President has sent a tweet at 4am that may well lead to world war three, again, that we are only collectively shocked as a species on days where nothing happens as that’s just suspicious. But whatever we might like to think about Russian conspiracies or how he didn’t actually win the popular vote so the entire US election system is totally fucked, the fact is in 2016 Trump won due to discontent with the status quo, growing inequality, a refugee crisis, and the world starting to go on fire. A similar discontent that in the UK brought us to Brexit, in India, Italy, Brazil and others a populist government, and probably somehow the Masked Singer because I’m not sure what else could’ve caused that show other than collective disappointment misdirected towards something that ultimately won’t fix things and will definitely just make them worse.

On Tuesday November 3^rd of this year, America will vote for who will be in 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 of the seats in the Senate, and of course, for the President. Trump, unsurprisingly only has a 42% approval rating in the most recent polls, which is actually up there with some of the higher numbers he’s had since elected. All current polls say any of the potential Democratic candidates would beat him in an election, and the midterm elections in 2018 gave the democrats a seat gain in the house of representatives. So, all of this points to the US handing back the UK the title of most idiotically self-destructive country in the west, or if that title is too cruel, the award for most poorly thought through misdirected anger. In theory, it should be easy to remove that giant verruca from the White House, as I can attest from a career in stand-up, walking onstage after someone’s bombed and barely been capable of putting a coherent sentence together is usually the easiest gig of all time. But in 2016, woman whose got the sort of smile that says one mistake and you’ll end up in my freezer Hilary Clinton, was also predicted to beat Trump in all the polls. Only 5 incumbent US presidents, out of 20, have lost their bid for reelection since 1900, so the odds are in Trumps favour, although in his case, it’s the really really odds.

What happens in November will largely depend on who the Democrats pick as their presidential candidate. Not only in how much they can convince the public that they will be different to Trump and at the very least reverse some of the damage he’s done, but also that they’ll stand up for the many varied communities across the 50 states, and depressingly, whichever can defy whatever terrible childish mocking Trump will no doubt make about them in a completely misspelled crack of dawn tweets type way that will somehow then dominate the news for weeks because growns-ups appear to have died out of the media industry. There are now two potential Democratic presidential candidates left, or three if you count Tulsi Gabbard, a walking political porn star’s erection, in that she’s only managed to come third through sheer staying power. Gabbard has only 2 of the delegates needed out of the 1991 she has to get to win the race, so her only game must be to just hang around until everyone else dies. With her being the youngest candidate at 38, and the other two well into their 70s with various health conditions, November is a long way away so maybe she’s nailed this. Realistically though, it’s now down to Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders because nothing says bringing the change America needs quite like two, old white straight men.

In the blue corner is Joe Biden. Biden is Barack Obama’s former Vice President. Remember Obama? The president people liked so much that he won a Nobel peace prize for drone bombing children in the Middle East? That means Biden was VP when the Affordable Health Care Act came in, aka Obamacare, despite historically opposing gay marriage, his public comments that he and Obama were comfortable with it led to it being legalized. He also supported the Paris climate change agreement. Biden has, throughout his nearly 50 years in politics, supported some progressive, well for America, ideals and his current campaign has him backing universal background checks for guns, and higher taxes on the wealthy, you know, all the things anyone other than an idiot might back. But some of Biden’s other views are much less progressive including a lot of restrictions on immigrants and he’s previously voted for additional walls and fences between the US and Mexico, while he believes abortion should be legal, he thinks it’s wrong in all cases. He’s opposed Medicare For All which would give universal free healthcare for all Americans and potentially make the biggest difference to citizen’s lives and his climate change policies seem to have been cut and pasted from other places without credit which I suppose you could say is pro-recycling but he’s also been attending fundraisers held by gas production companies. Biden has a long history of touching women appropriately with many accusations made against him from women he’s worked with and there are concerns he’s suffering from cognitive decline after regular public bungles including one where he stated that he loved kids jumping on his lap, which is either a mess up, really creepy or a massive lie because no one, aside from creeps, likes kids jumping on their laps. So, say I, a dad of a toddler that likes to randomly leap on you without warning. Now you’re probably already thinking, an often incoherent, gropey white man but one who might actually bring in gun controls? Surely this is like a Trump upgrade, and so who better to take him on? That’s unfair to Biden as he’s not at all like Trump, but while on his side is the fact that he’s well known and has experience in government, he’s also from the same political part of the Democrats that were rejected in 2016.

Also, in the blue corner is Bernie Sanders, sort of. He’s actually an independent candidate but he’s running as the democratic candidate because I’m not sure there’s any other way to do it in the US as anyone existing outside of the two parties is just confusing for everyone. Bernie is a senator and former mayor, who ran to be the democratic presidential candidate in 2016 but lost out to Hilary Clinton because back then people had vague notions that America wasn’t sexist anymore. Bernie is all for Medicare for all, but also for the green new deal which is a plan to get the US to 100% renewable or clean energy by 2030. He wants to ban assault weapons entirely, change how campaign funding works, how the criminal justice system works and target offshore tax funds. The main criticisms of Sanders are that all these policies are too radical for the US whose political system would sooner die than have universal healthcare, with the former often happening because of the latter. There is concern that his online support aka Bernie Bros can be pretty intense and abusive to people who criticize him online. Sanders has disowned internet trolls who support him but are abusive, but his rivals say it’s the toxic tone of his campaign that has caused it because we all know that it’s better to take on the system by politely and quietly asking it stop it or you’ll tell its dad. There’s also concern that Sanders is unelectable despite that being a very difficult factor to prove until he’s failed to be elected for the presidency. Bernie did have a heart attack last October so whether he is healthy enough for the job is also a major factor but still, it’s nice to have proof a leading politician has a heart even if it’s not up to scratch.

That’s a very brief look at both candidates but it’s also worth noting that Biden has ten times as many billionaires backing his campaign than either of the other, er, two candidates. In comparison, Bernie Sanders’s campaign has raised all its money just from individual grassroots donors, which is pretty unheard of in US politics. He also has the most donations from US veterans. They are two very different candidates and which one wins will depend on if Democrats want the security of what has been before even if that did, in many ways end up with Trump, or what possibly could be if America wasn’t so certain that more socialist policies would make them end up like completely non-socialist authoritarian Russia. Ignoring that the current president is probably closer to that than anything else they might get. It’s also worth noting that half of Biden’s supporters would support a Sanders presidency, and the same for Sanders supporters with Biden. And Tulsi Gabbard’s three supporters haven’t actually said what they’d like but it doesn’t really matter. Ultimately whichever way it goes, it at least might not continue to go Trumpwards. There are months and months to go, because there’s nothing like dragging out primaries until everyone’s so exhausted, they don’t really care who wins. Only a third of delegates have been declared with Biden on 664 and Sanders on 573, with, as I mentioned before, 1,991 needed to win. Unless one of the democratic candidates drops out, then a decision on who the candidate is, won’t be made until July at the Democratic National Convention and either Sanders or Biden will be taking on Trump in November. Assuming they haven’t both died of whatever ailment they have by then and Tulsi Gabbard hasn’t by default stormed into the lead before standing down in order to take part in the Olympics, winning all the golds because all the other atheletes have dropped out due to Coronavirus.

More on the US elections over the year and I’ll definitely get several guests on to talk about it too with far more insight than I have. If you have any suggestions for who, please send them my way.

INTERVIEW WITH STEPHEN BYRNE PART 2

Big thanks to Steve for taking the time to educate me on Irish politics, as well as the correct pronunciations of many things I am rubbish at remembering how to say properly. You can find Steve on Twitter @thestevebyrne and his podcast What Am Politics? Is currently on a short hiatus but do subscribe as it’ll be back soon and it’s always an excellent listen for Irish political goings ons. Steve is also currently co-hosting a podcast about US politics called The State of 2020 so do check that out too. And of course, all links to all them things will be in the pod blurb for this episode.

After being all super organized and having tons of interviews pre-recorded, I’m now the complete opposite and have barely any guests lined up. So, help me, please help me or face the horror of just my stupid voice and poorly researched opinions for a whole hour every week. Save me and your ears by sending me suggestions for who to talk to and what subjects to interview people about to the @parpolbro twitter page, the Partly Political Broadcast facebook group, the contact page at partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk or email me at partlypoliticalbroadcast@gmail.com. Or write it on a piece of loo roll and as 4000 panicked, desperate people charge at you for their bum wiping needs, tearing it from your hands, I will never know what your suggestion was but I’ll feel pleased that at least someone got some sort of relief from it. As always, it’s probably best to email isn’t it?

END

And that’s all for this week’s Partly Political Broadcast podcast. You’ve made it to the end of the podcast meaning you are one of the exclusive team limit. Or er, peroration crew. I will find a catchy name for you at some point. But of course, what it mainly means is that you get an exclusive political hot goss fact that those chumps who turn the podcast off immediately after it starts will never ever know. Unless you tell them. Don’t tell them. Don’t be like that. Don’t yeah? This week, did you know that former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson, yeah? Well her dad is called Douglas not David so her surname is completely wrong. She should be called Ruth Douglasdaughter. Total mess. Someone really cocked that up. Yeah that was worth it right? Right crew? Right? If you do enjoy this podcast please do tell other people you know to give it a listen and maybe skip this end bit, donate to the ko-fi or patreon and give it a nice review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you do your podding from.

Cheers big ears to Acast, my brother The Last Skeptik, Kat Day and Mushybees for all podcast related helpings.

This will be back next week when Boris Johnson insists the best way to fight the coronavirus is literally, with swords ,which ultimately puts even more pressure on the NHS and the budget is delayed as Johnson has to spend two weeks shaking hands with patients who’ve got severe slash wounds.

BYEEEEEEEEEEE

This week’s show was sponsored by new voice controlled assistant Rishi. Ask Rishi anything you like and he’ll always respond with ‘I’m sorry, I can’t reveal that’. With Rishi you won’t be able to order things, which will ultimately save you money and that’s what’s most important. Want to find a fact? Rishi says no. All new Rishi, and all new Rishi echo, which just repeats everything Boris Johnson or Dominic Cummings says first.

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