Further Reading

Which of the three tiers is your area in? Tiers Morgan? Tiers Brosnan? Dave Tiers? A whole new set of restrictions for the same old coronavirus that the government is trying its best to spend lots of money not tackling. Meanwhile in the US, Donald Trump is coronavirus personified, and Mike Pence appears to be dead. Plus some quick COVID stats and a chat with former Obama campaign digital strategist Matthew McGregor (@mcgregormt) on the US election and everything what’s going on across the pond.

Key links and sources of info from Matthew’s interview:

• • Matthew McGregor on Twittter – https://twitter.com/mcgregormt
• • Hope not Hate on Twitter – https://twitter.com/hopenothate
• • Ben Smith on Twitter – https://twitter.com/benyt
• • The New York Times on Twitter – https://twitter.com/nytimes
• • Nate Silver on Twitter – https://twitter.com/NateSilver538
• • FiveThirtyEight on Twitter – https://twitter.com/FiveThirtyEight
• • Daily Kos Elections on Twitter – https://twitter.com/DKElections
• • Rosie Gray on Twitter – https://twitter.com/RosieGray
• • Katherine Miller on Twitter – https://twitter.com/katherinemiller
• • Henry Zeffman on Twitter – https://twitter.com/hzeffman
• • Dave Weigel on Twitter – https://twitter.com/daveweigel
• • Ari Berman on Twitter – https://twitter.com/ariberman
• • Mother Jones on Twitter – https://twitter.com/motherjones
• • Paul de Gregorio on Twitter – https://twitter.com/pauldegregorio
• • Paul de Gregorio’s ‘Do Something. Anything’ email newsletter – http://degregoriopaul.blogspot.com/2017/07/do-something-anything-ive-started-email.html

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

Ep205

Welcome to the Partly Political Broadcast, the comedy politics podcast that says even if the UK is at a virus tipping point, I’m not giving it one as the service has been appalling. I’m Tiernan Douieb and as Liverpool are put on the highest tier from Wednesday with harsh lockdown restrictions, I’m wondering if this is what the government meant when they promised to level up the North?

According to the Prime Minister and melted grit bin Boris Johnson the rising coronavirus infection figures are flashing at us like dashboard warnings in a passenger jet, which is why he’s taken the option of only putting one area of England into lockdown. The equivalent of handing parachutes to only around 20 of the people on a flight and waving goodbye to the rest as you nosedive into the sea.  We now have a three-tier system, or as its come from Johnson its perhaps more tiers of a clown. Yep three tiers, just like another cake that they both want to have and eat. Remember the old 5 levels of Coronavirus alert chart? It seems no one in the government does as they’ve created a whole new one instead that has less stages on it so maybe it’ll be easier for the Prime Minister to understand. Perhaps if back in March they’d just come up with a chart with a step saying ‘you don’t have to do anything, go back to cheating on your wife’ and one saying ‘everything’s fucked, you’ll have to do some work, sorry’ that maybe we’d be in a better place now. Under the new system, you’ll be able to type your postcode into gov.uk and assuming it works better than the track and trace and doesn’t decide you don’t exist or live in a lake or something, you can check if your area is on medium alert which would mean you have to be careful. Or perhaps it’s on high alert which means you have to be really careful and can’t have friends round. Or maybe it’ll be Venti, sorry Very High which will mean you can go get wasted in a restaurant as long as you order a starter and you have to keep fit but all the gyms must close. Classic clear messaging from the government once again that is based on the science, they’ve made up that says the coronavirus hates meal deals. Level three or very high, is only for areas where there has been a significantly higher rate of transmission, so hopefully Westminster will be locked down very soon as the PM did broadcast a press conference to the entire nation from there. Under tier or level three depending on if you feel it’s the next difficulty stage of the endless game that is this shit government, a walk along beat ‘em up where it’s the country that gets repeatedly punched, or if you consider it something to fall off and injuring yourself on the way down. If COVID19 beats your areas level 2 boss and reaches level 3, then it will be only the tightest of restrictions for you, meaning its basically back to March times, but with added being allowed to drink in places that also do food, and the extra mental toll of knowing dickheads in Surrey are still having a soiree where they’re licking caviar off eat other’s nutsacks while you can’t even see your gran. The main areas targeted with a Tier 2s is the North, as though the Conservatives are trying to get their title back from the Lannisters. I get it, I get it, we’re all victim to trying really hard when it comes to the chase, but once coupled up, standards drop. And so, it is with the North, where the Conservatives won seats in last year’s election but are now really testing the relationship by being too controlling and trying to stop them going out or having any fun. Manchester has been in some sort of lockdown since July but is now going to be in Tier 2. That means pubs can stay open and different households can meet outside, a cruel gesture for anyone who’s ever been to Manchester in October. It also means the government know you are there but don’t want to give you any money as you don’t usually vote for them. Liverpool on the other hand are now set to have the strictest terms possible from Wednesday, meaning full on lockdown. Apparently, the difference in regional infections is because of the North’s failure to reduce disease as much there as in the South, probably because Gringotts staff member Dominic Cummings wasn’t personally ferrying COVID there. There is every chance these new lockdown rules are just going to be based on where the PM’s advisor was last spotted until they can finally trap him in some sort of concrete containment unit and spray him with detergent. Luckily Chief Medical Officer and cartoon tortoise Chris Whitty if we hadn’t done any of the things we had done, it could be somehow even worse than it is now, so its nice to know that should we get bored of rock bottom, there’s a way that the PM can tunnel us even deeper. Its beautiful British optimism that. Yes, everything is as bad as it could be, but it could also be worse. Mustn’t grumble. There is some hope though as Johnson said he will do his best to make Christmas as normal as possible. Though for him that’ll mean avoiding his 600 children and going on an exotic holiday paid for by a lobbyist.

The government’s scientific and medical advisors also held an emergency TV briefing, including old baby and deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van Tam who made his surprise return like a Marvel character we assumed had been killed off in an earlier instalment. They warned that infection rates were creeping through the age groups, like a reverse Prince Andrew and that we need to take this disease seriously, which gives it a lot more gravitas than the government. The Nightingale hospitals are being told to mobilise like the world’s least anticipated tour show and there are now more people in hospital with COVID than there were before the national lockdown in Spring, but that could be because the weather’s not as nice now for coughing yourself to death outdoors. Van Tam recommended avoiding the three C’s, which I assume is Johnson, Cummings and startled butterbean and health secretary Matt Hancock. No sorry, its areas that are closed off, crowded and have close conversations with added concerns when VD is involved. He was definitely talking about the PM wasn’t he? No sorry, I mean volume and duration. Yeah that could still be the PM. But don’t worry as while this lockdown could be more misery for the country, the Chancellor and what if someone drew some eyes above a hammock Rishi Sunak announced his new work bail-out program that means that employees who work for firms that are told to shut due to COVIDs will get a full 67% of their wages. Great, I’m sure we can all survive on only 67% of food and paying only 67% of our bills and everyone will understand. Maybe landlords can only kick a third of you out if you can’t pay your rent and you have to just make sure one leg is always out of a window or door? This is also only for staff at places that have been ordered to close by the government and not for anywhere that stays open in a lockdown but cuts back on hours, or anywhere that is already struggling to survive. So, chances are high they’ll tell all the companies owned by their friends and party lobbyists to close while advising everywhere else not to close but also maybe not to remain open, how about just remaining ajar as the ventilation might help? There was controversy earlier in the week when ITV tweeted that Rishi had said people in the arts would just have to retrain and adapt, but they deleted it when they realised he had said that but in slightly different words so could pretend he didn’t. In reality the Chancellor had said that the government had allocated funding for the arts, which has mainly gone to buildings and venues, and that people from all walks of life are having to retrain and adapt. You know to get other jobs that also don’t exist. Well more fool you Rishi, as if I’ve ever done any training in the first place. I might give being the Chancellor a try though as I haven’t got a clue how to do either, so I’d probably be alright. Sunak said he’s keen to help people get their business back to life, which just seems like an acceptance that it might be dead. Once resurrected wouldn’t it then be a zombie business, braindead and lurching before devouring another business that is unable to run? Luckily MPs who are working from home will get an £3300 a year from 2021 because if they don’t have their well-paid jobs, who else will ensure they can’t save every job?

Meanwhile, across the pond, US President and decayed lobster mushroom Donald Trump is out of hospital and back on the campaigning trail, saying that he’s never felt better after taking some experimental COVID drugs called Regenaron which sound like something from a sci-fi film. There’s every chance it’ll make him grow insect legs from his face or not be able to stop from turning into his liquid form. Trump has spent everyday since his recovery tweeting medicated madness about how the flu is worse than Coronavirus, which its not, asking why the FBI hasn’t arrested his political opponents and occasionally just ‘SPACE FORCE’ in capital letters because nothing will persuade a swing voter like the shouted tweets of a man who should only be found in the corner of a pub at kick out time, with a bag full of illegal DVDs. There’s every chance if space force does happen, Trump will spend ages shouting at astronauts ‘why are you wearing a helmet? You want to be politically correct?’ every time they do a space walk. Trump’s doctors did sign him off, which he says now means he’s immune to COVID but it seems it was more in the way that he’s stopped working. Of course now that he thinks he’s immune that means Trump both tried to halt all coronavirus stimulus packages until after the election, something he’s had to u-turn on, and held rallies to thousands of supporters, standing on the White House balcony less like Evita Peron and more like if Stadler and Waldorf had been merged together and chargrilled. The President has refused to do a virtual debate against Democratic Candidate and Linus from Peanuts has had a hard time Joe Biden, because it must be hard to contemplate being in a artificially constructed reality when you’ve spent the past four years existing in one already. I would’ve thought a great plan would be to just have the debate anyway, and every time it would’ve been Trumps turn to talk, they just let a bouncy castle deflate into a gravel pit full of shit and it would’ve been largely the same. Biden currently has a double-digit lead over Trump in the national polls because it turns out that having infectious energy isn’t the plus you might think. Trump has had to cancel TV ads as his campaign is rapidly losing money and fundraising isn’t working as he’d planned. Still, on the plus side, he won’t have to lie to avoid paying any tax next year.

The Vice Presidential debate took place last week too, between what would the void look like in human form Mike Pence and Democratic Candidate and that teacher you don’t misbehave in front of Kamala Harris. Highlights included Harris starting the debate by saying ‘the American people have witness what is the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of our country’ which is a brutal first line and points were very much knocked off Pence for not just replying with ‘well it’s nice to see you too.’ Instead dead eyed Pence debated with all the energy of a snail on melatonin and at once point a fly landed on his head for several minutes and he didn’t even notice. Flies do like to land on things that are rotten or shit, but I think Pence knew it was there and finally appreciated someone or something being keen to get close to him while his wife wasn’t around. Pence then cancelled his trip to Indiana the next day to participate in early voting, so I’m guessing it was a no fly zone.

Back in the UK and earlier in the week our own fire hazardly haired Prime Minister gave his speech at the Conservative conference which included such whatever the opposite of gems are, as saying bumping elbows instead of shaking hands, was the new national version of the birdie dance which I guess he loves as everything he does is below par. Johnson said that we will see a Britain that is more united than for decades in its constitutional settlement which might be because across all nations we’re equally pissed off at his government for how badly they’ve fucked everything up. He also attacked lefty human rights lawyers and do gooders, echoing the Home Secretary and up to 60% Bittrex Priti Patel, in blaming the legal system for the government not being allowed to commit international breaches of human rights. It just gets in the way of your plans, as were revealed this week, to throw large mesh over dinghies carrying migrants across the English Channel, in what appears to be a big misunderstanding of the term net migration. The barbaric plan would be to catch these dinghies and then send them back to France, but France are refusing to take them, another devastating blow to the UK’s fishing industry.

The new face of Boris Johnson has been revealed, and let’s face it, he’s needed a new one for ages. The official Number 10 lie deliverer, sorry, spokesperson is the woman who always looks like she’s promoting an album you’ll only ever hear in a lift Allegra Stratton. Allegra is the former political editor of ITV News, but is mostly remembered for her time on Newsnight when she humiliated a single mum about her benefit payments and misrepresented her as unemployed. Fingers crossed Stratton will give the same judgemental treatment to her new boss, a dad who abandoned his kids and now leeches off the state.

Labour leader and Dick Tracey baddie Keir Starmer is doing great work at winning over voters who have been desperate for an opposition who excel at being completely inert. Starmer has said he doesn’t support the 10pm curfew for venues but won’t tell Labour MPs to vote against it during a vote this week. YEAH YOU TELL ‘EM KEIR! YOU SHOW THE GOVERNMENT THAT YOU STAND UP FOR SCIENCE AND SUPPORTING PEOPLE BY SITTING OVER THERE AND TRYING YOUR BEST NOT TO MAKE A NOISE INCASE IT DISTRACTS THE PM. Nor will he tell Labour MPs to vote against the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill if their amendments don’t go through. THAT’S RIGHT MATE, AN EFFECTIVE OPPOSITION WHO JUST GOES OH WELL THE GOVERNMENT DON’T LIKE MY IDEAS SO I’LL PROB JUST LIE DOWN AND WAIT TO DIE. Starmer who also, just months ago, said he supported anyone who isn’t Trump in the US election is now refusing to support Biden you know, just in-case he doesn’t win. Starmer is basically your friend at school that would only ever like what you liked, and would go home wishing they could have a personality of their own but was too scared to try incase they had some emotions and it felt weird.

SNP MP who looks like she lives in the house on the corner you were warned about as kids Margaret Ferrier is still refusing to resign following her breaching of coronavirus regulations. Instead she called her actions a blip, though that’s only true if she was censoring a swear word and said that the virus makes you act out of character. That’s true in her case, as she’s quickly gone from being a background extra to the main villain of the piece. Matt Hancock has denied that he breached rules by drinking after 10pm in the bar at the House of Commons, but his spokesperson says he wasn’t. Luckily for the Health Secretary there’s no sort of decent track and trace system for us ever to find out. Housing Secretary and lard slab Robert Jenrick has denied wrongdoings this week as Labour have called for investigation into why his constituency was awarded a £25m regeneration grant by fellow Tory minister and Wallace if he was mean Jake Berry, while Berry’s constituency received the same thanks to Jenrick. It seems very much you pat my back I’ll stick wads of cash in your trousers, but Jenrick insists that there is a robust system in place for choosing where would benefit from the Towns Fund, you know, in the way fish can have a really robust smell. Thousands of scientists and health experts signed the Great Barrington Declaration warning that another lockdown would be more damaging than not having one. Oh wait sorry, by thousands of scientists and health experts, I mean loads of made up names like Dr Jonny Bananas, Dr Person Fakename, Harold Shipman and Dominic Cummings of Durham Univercity among many others, including homeopaths, therapists and a therapeutic sound practitioner who really should have known that it was nothing more than a lot of noise.

And lastly the what if there was a candle of John Cage from Ally McBeal Pope Francis has said that COVID has shown that capitalism and trickle-down economics doesn’t work. Great work Popey but wait till you hear about an organisation that say an imaginary dude can only speak to the man at the top and then if you keep donating him cash, he’ll pass on those messages from his independent wealthy state.

ADMIN

Yo yo yo yo yo yo ParPolBrods. I hope you’re all ok and if you are in the Tier 3 area of Liverpool then I hope you are safe, well and at the very least had some social events you didn’t want to go to and now have an easy excuse to not attend. You have to find the silver linings where you can. I’ve just seen all the venues that have been awarded arts support while all the free lancers that work in them have been completely ignored, so I’m mostly wondering if I can retrain as an arts venue. I’ve got many flaws and stories; I’ve got several stares I can do so I’m basically there. No, I won’t make jokes about entrances and exits. I’m better than that. How are you feeling about everything? I’ve got that well I don’t want a lockdown but we probably should have a lockdown attitude, where the last thing I want is to go back to leaving the house for one hour for essential exercise, where my daughter, sorry agent, takes so long plodding down the street to talk to every lamppost and bee that the entire hour gets me only 50 feet away at best. But I mean the virus is really doing a big old comeback tour right now and I do wish that microbiological was the one area of culture the government wouldn’t help further. I did two actual gigs last week, which were last minute or damn I’d have told you about them for sure. They were in Sheffield at the wonderful Leadmill and there was an audience of about 100 or so for each one, all spread out and that, but it was just such a tonic to do it and the crowd were so fun. It is so hard to explain what it’s like getting to do a show again but I imagine its up there with how Trump felt after a massive load of Regeneron got plopped into his arm. I remembered jokes, I got to riff off people in the front row, I spoke to other acts and I stayed in a hotel and had a pot noodle in bed. If tripadvisor listed it I would give it a five star review. I tell you what wasn’t the same, travelling around in a corona world. So many shops were closed, service stations weren’t open after 10pm and while I’m a back fan of Sheffers, it did feel a bit like I’d turned up on a weekend everyone had gone away. Not dissimilar to where I live at all, but its just odd when you go somewhere else and you realise it’s also dead. Fingers crossed things will get a chance to come alive again between the 2^nd and 3^rd lockdowns and before the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th.

Honestly the interview on this week’s show is so good, I’m going to race through this bit so you can get to my overly long introduction for it. Thanks, big time to Sean, James and Kim for ko-fi donations and to James for joining the Patreon. It is unbelievably helpful right now, thank you, as even the little bit of work I did this week paid less than usual due to numbers of audience having to be lower. Silly world. If you enjoy this podcast and can donate then please do and obvs you can do that at ko-fi.com/parpolbro, join the patreon at patreon.com/parpolbro or via the acast supporter button. Also if you do use the Acast app, can you pop a review on there? The show hasn’t got enough reviews on there for it to show the reviews I do have and I’d like to see them incase it’s just 3 people saying they hate me. But it’s important I know so I can stop bothering them. Of course you can also review it in other review places and just tell people about the show and all that stuff. I walked under a bridge this week and saw a piece of paper cellotaped to the wall of the bridge saying ‘Karl Marx does the Washing Up Podcast’ scrawled in pen, and nothing else. I immediately googled it and while I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, I’ve definitely subscribed. So all I’m saying is please scrawl Partly Political Broadcast podcast on bridges near you and you never know. I’ll probably just get done for vandalism.

On this week’s show that I’ve had to add bits too throughout the day, I am speaking to former digital strategist for Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012 Matthew McGregor all about the US election and honestly, I enjoyed that chat so much you should just head there now. RIGHT NOW! GO TEAM GO! HURRY UP! WHY ARE YOU STILL LISTENING TO ME? GO THERE THIS INSTANT. STOP DILLY DALLYING.

INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW

America, America, in disarray are ye, with protests and forest fires, and all so virusey. America, Oh America, what will you decide to do? Will you retain your orange horror or try for something new? Currently America is less 52 United States and more oh god what a state of things, with each and every day of news coming from across the Atlantic almost making things here in ‘Blighty seem tame. Almost. Donald Trump has now been President for four years and while I suppose in some ways, we should be grateful that we’re all still here despite the ever-worrying prospect that he’ll nuke everything while high on experimental COVID19 drugs, really the country has taken a battering under his leadership. It’s hard to know where to begin with his presidential legacy but even if I take a really deep breath, I’ll barely manage to touch the surface, something that he’d do without consent as he thinks its ok for celebrities. Environmental damage, wrecking human rights protections, dismantling important institutions, legitimising the far right and hiring far right advisors, stirring racial division, then there’s corruption, nepotism, tax avoidance, legitimising sexual harassment, pardoning some real crooks, shutting down government for ages due to a hissy fit about his wall, inflicting a Muslim travel ban, putting kids in cages, actually getting impeached, trying to buy Greeland….I mean that is a tiny fraction and doesn’t even include how this week he’s mostly running around, if that’s what you can call the weird sloping lurch he does, huffing ‘rona at everyone he can like Lepotica from Resident Evil 6. Yes, that’s a niche reference but go look it up. Go on. Yep. See? It is exhausting just thinking about it, let alone living under it and the nerve-wracking feeling that there could be another 4 years of descending into the bleach cocktail of authoritarian disaster capitalism incompetency can only be churning many Americans stomachs right now. You know, even more than having a Wendy’s. The Presidential election is weeks away, and while Joe Biden is ahead in the national polls by a substantial lead, anything could happen between now and then, from Russian interference, voter suppression, Trump merging fully with the Coronavirus to become some giant mutated orange and purple biohazard floating over the city like a fetid chem-spray blimp, or Mike Pence might command his army of flies to buzz really loudly when Democrats are trying to vote. That’d be so annoying. While I’m being slightly facetious, this US election is possibly one of the most important ones ever, as more Trump could equal more chaos and even less semblance of a democracy. But would a Biden win be enough to fix anything? Isn’t he just more of the same old that lead to this situation in the first place, with extra emphasis on the old? And is the Democratic candidate just hoping that not being Donald Trump would be enough to sway favour, something that clearly works with Melania. And what if Trump loses but refuses to go? Will he incite riots or will they just pop him in a fake Pentagon staffed by actors and tell him he’s still President and he’ll never notice? As we sit here with bated breath, hopefully behind a mask if you’re near the POTUS, whatever happens is going to drastically effect America and the world’s future, for better or much, much, worse. As much as it’s nice to know that us Brits aren’t the only people living under a tumultuously haired dangerous idiot, I am crossing everything that Americans are keen to have a President whose main skill isn’t making everyone across the land wake up and think ‘oh no, what he done now?’

Was that enough of a summary? It’s not really is it? I mean how can I possibly try to fit in the past four years of mayhem into such a short intro. Luckily this week I interviewed Matthew McGregor, a digital strategist who worked on Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012 and is hailed for the speedy responses he co-ordinated after certain Mitt Romney gaffes. He’s advised a number of social democratic political parties and now works for Hope Not Hate here in the UK. He’s also a US citizen and follows politics there very avidly and has a remarkable way of being able to clearly and accurately explain it all to someone like me, who still thinks Electoral College is a teen movie involving rival student president candidates falling in love to some terrible music by people who say they’re punk but definitely aren’t. Matthew told me all about what might happen, why Biden is actually a lovely man and even took me through a ballot paper he had right there as we chatted and makes me very jealous about stickers. I should say that this is a long chat, but I actually wish it could have been longer as I think this is one of those interviews that I do this show for, informative, interesting and still, despite what it’s about, fun and includes stickers. Two very quick things. There is one bit where Matthew offers two answers and tells me to edit one out if I want, but I didn’t because I think both are great. So that’s not a mistake, don’t write in, I’ll just scowl at it, print it off and then set fire to it to spite you. The other thing is for some reason at one point I describe myself I think as ‘quite left wing’ when I’m actually pretty damn left wing as you know. Not sure why I stumbled on that, but it might be that I remember I really like trainers and Disney+ so that probably hurtles me uncomfortably centre wards. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, here is Matthew:

INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW PART 1

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

CORONATHINGS

With all the new lockdown tiers and coronavirus fears, you might be wondering just how are we doing in comparison to the rest of the world in terms of our infections rates. We do like to be world leading in the UK after all. So I thought I’d use this week’s very short middle bit to update you on just how we fare when it comes to COVID productivity because it turns out that despite how the majority vote, we really are a nation of sharers, well when it comes to germs anyway. In terms of active cases, we are currently 5^th highest in the world, but 2^nd highest for new cases so give us a day or two and we’ll be catching up to the US like it’s the Olympics and we have the Bronze in sight. With deaths we’re down at 5^th in the world with 42,825, which means we’ve dropped down from our previous high ranking of 2^nd, but it is still early doors in the second wave so there’s a chance we’ll race past Mexico any day now though they are double deaths a day compared to us. Just cos they have their Day of the Dead and want 2021 celebrations to be cray cray. I see you Mexico, I see you. For some reason either absolutely no one has recovered from COVID in the UK, which is possible if you count the PTSD we’ll all have for years to come every time we see a mask or someone mentions Durham, but according to the global charts we’re down at 220^th in the world for recoveries because we’ve got a rating of 0. However, the UK stats reckon nearly 400,000 have made it through the other side. So while we like to complain that our government are particularly shit, it turns out, they are. I mean top 5 in the world shit. But infections are rising rapidly in places such as Peru, Canada, Israel, Russia, France, Spain but not Anguilla because I know you were worried. Don’t worry about Anguilla. They’ll be fine.

As for our national numbers, the Rona is increasing everywhere fast apart from the South West which must be because it’s hard to breathe out onto someone while you’re chewing straw. Hee hee stereotypes. Northern Ireland as a whole also has super low numbers, though Derry and Belfast are the exception to the rule probably on account of that being where people actually are. The R number is currently between 1.2 and 1.5, meaning on average 1 person will infect 1 other person and then either a very tiny person, a baby or just someone’s legs. Liverpool does have nearly 600 cases per 100,000 people, with 400 new cases a day so it does make sense that’s it gone to Tier 3. But Nottingham has 760 cases per 100,000 people and is just on Tier 2 so actually none of it makes sense and it’s all stupid. I’m sure there’s some logic somewhere to do with how Boris Johnson doesn’t like Liverpool and wrote horrible things about it in the Spectator but he hasn’t been to Nottingham. Or at least doesn’t remember it.

There you go. I’m not sure if any of that is useful but that’s where we are now and probably won’t be in a week’s time when more people have coronavirus than don’t and you get teased for being non-coughing weirdo Steve if you don’t. Unless you’re in Anguilla in which case you’ll probably just be at the beach having a nice time. Bloody Anguilla.

And now back to Matthew…

INTERVIEW WITH MATTHEW PART 2

Wasn’t that great? So informative. Huge thanks to Matthew for having the time to chat and you can find him on Twitter @mcgregormt and if he sends over any extra links or recommendations, they’ll be in the pod notes or page for this episode on PartlyPoliticalBroadcast.co.uk where all the linear liner notes for each show reside. Though he was on the show as, well, himself, Matthew also works for Hope Not Hate who will be publishing a big report on far-right groups and hate politics in America very soon, so do keep an eye out for that. You can find them and what they do at hopenothate.org.uk or @hopenothate on Twitter. Thank you loads to former podguest Paul De Gregorio for putting me in touch with Matthew too. Paul’s Do Something. Anything email mail out is still such a great read and I’ll pop a link to sign up to it in the pod blurb.

I think I’ve got the next few episodes sewn up like something who’s good at sewing has sewn. Of course, that shouldn’t stop you getting in touch and recommending other people, places and things that I should interview in future. So if you have a nagging want for me to get a particular somebody or whatbody on the podcast, drop me a line @parpolbro on Twitter, the Partly Political Broadcast facebook group, the contact page at partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk or email me at partlypoliticalbroadcast@gmail.com. Or you pay a small fly to land on my head and whisper it to me, but I’ll probably just swat it away as I’m not dead yet. So as always, probably just best to email isn’t it?

END

And that’s all for this week’s Partly Political Broadcast podcast. Thank to you and the holes you use to absorb sound for listening in and of course, you’ve made it to the end of the show so, you shall be awarded by this week’s incredible ParPolBroHotPolGossFact. This week with the British government’s insistence to enact policy that does the absolute worst for everyone, do you know what the stupidest policy decision ever was? I mean, excluding all the current ones. It wasn’t the US prohibition, where the 18^th amendment of the country’s constitution in 1920 banned the sale of alcohol which is just stupid. I mean, aside from it completely ruining tax revenue and causing a massive boost in organised crime because its only judges that are meant to be sober. But also, if you don’t want people to pay attention to how shit you are as a government, the worst thing to do is enforce clarity. Nor is it the Darien scheme in 1698 where the Kingdom of Scotland tried to establish a colony called New Caledonia on the coast of Panama. There are lots of reasons it went wrong, though weirdly none of them are because Central America is at least 30 degrees Celsius all year round and that’s just too warm for porridge. Disease, poor planning, the English being bastards and the Spanish also, all lead to it bankrupting the Scottish ruling class and them having to partake in the Act of Union with England. It’s alright though as I think they’re planning to fix that fairly soon. No, the very worst policy decision ever was the inventor of stocking filler books Chairman Mao Zedong, with his Great Leap Forward, which as a name sounds fun but not if you don’t look first and you land into a mass famine. Mao’s plan to increase China’s economy and industry involved such classic ideas as changing farming initiatives so crops couldn’t grow and selling all of the country’s food, which meant there wasn’t enough of it and 40 million people starved to death. I’m sure Zedong is gutted he wasn’t around today, or he could’ve just passed it off as sovereignty and got some great international deals on chlorinated chicken. That’s this week’s incredibly unresearched and understated PARPOLBROHOTPOLLGOSSFACT! And if you liked that do like, subscribe and spread the word. If though it made you so furious you’re now going to subscribe to this show on every podcast platform in existence just to not listen to it ever again on any of them, then please do that as subscribes are what gets it in the charts. Thanks. If you fancy it, donate to the ko-fi, patreon or Acast supporter button and pop a nice 5 star review about it where you can.

Danke Schon to Acast, my bro The Last Skeptik, Kat Day, Scott Napier and Katie Coxall.

This will be back next week when Boris Johnson announces tiers 3.5, 4.7 and Tier Star Sycamore Class, putting different streets in various cities into each one, and ensuring no one can shout words beginning with the first half of the alphabet but you can have a pint of beer on some train tracks if it’s a Wednesday.

BYYEEEEEEEEEEE

This week’s show was sponsored by Regenaron! Fight COVID with Regenaron and EVERYONE ELSE AS IT RAGES THROUGH YOUR VEINS AND MAKES YOU TWICE THE MAN YOU USED TO BE EVEN IF YOU WEREN’T A MAN BEFOREHAND. DID I SAY MAN? I MEANT MELTING LION WIZARD! REGENARON MADE FROM THE BLOOD OF A MINOTAUR! I TAKE IT EVERYDAY AND I HAVEN’T COUGHED SINCE 1912. *Regenaron may cause adverse rage, weird capital letter tweeting and delirium. Please ask your doctor if its safe for you to take Regenaron based on your insurance premiums and jobs you might offer them after the election.

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