The Pandemic Is Over Apart From The Pandemic

Released on Tuesday, September 14th, 2021.

The Pandemic Is Over Apart From The Pandemic

The pandemic is over, well apart from the pandemic. But if you ignore the pandemic, which the government are, then its definitely finished. Which it isn’t. Now time for repairing things which of course you have to do and pay for because it’s all your fault. This week is on Coronavirus Act repealings, National Insurance risings, Priti Patel standards breachings and a chat with Arthur Webber (@BernieTranders) about just why Transgender rights is such an inflammatory issue.

BRITISH BOXERS – GET 15% OFF WITH THE CODE ON THE PODCAST: https://british-boxers.com/

Donate to the Patreon at www.patreon.com/parpolbro

Buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/parpolbro

OR FIND THE ACAST SUPPORTER BUTTON WHEREVER IT IS

REVIEW THE PODCAST AT: https://lovethepodcast.com/parpolbro

USUAL PODCAST JIGGERY:

LOOK AT TIERNAN’S FANCY NEW WEBSITE AND SIGN UP TO THE MAILING LIST: www.tiernandouieb.co.uk/

Follow us on Twitter @parpolbro, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ParPolBro/ and the fancy webpage at http://www.partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk

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

THIS EPISODE IS TAGGED WITH: • Arthur Webber, Boris Johnson, Brexit, Comedy, Conservatives, Keir Starmer, Labour, NHS, parpolbro, Partly Political Broadcast, Patreon, podcast, political, politics, Sajid Javid, satire, stand-up, The Last Skeptik, Tiernan Douieb, transgender rights, Vaccine, virus

Transcript

Ep243

BRITISH BOXERS ADVERT

INTRO

Hello and welcome to the Partly Political Broadcast, the comedy politics podcast that like the National Insurance rise, everyone will benefit from it, even though unfortunately only listeners have to bear the debilitating cost. I’m Tiernan Douieb and this week as the government insists there are no plans for an October lockdown, well of course there aren’t. They don’t have plans for anything. Hell, the Prime Minister can’t even plan having children.

The pandemic is over everyone! Woo-hoo! Though probably best to give it a few months for the celebrations on account of all the constantly rising infection rates. Sorry, I mean it’s done, yeah, it’s over. Stop looking at those numbers, that’s clearly just the dying dregs of a virus fighting a losing battle, because by ignoring that 30,000 or more people are still catching it every day, its only moments till Covid dies having been starved the oxygen of publicity. I’m certain that’s how germs work based on cheese dreams I’ve had. Out of the 51,281 deaths over the first six months of this year, only 256 were fully vaccinated people so as we all know that means it’s their fault for not being willing to work with the vaccine and it’s that sort of hostile attitude that doesn’t help the country. As for the other 51,225 people, the less said about them the better, right? Mainly so that no one notices that’s still an absolute David Cameron sized shed-load of dead people. Still at least all the victims of Covid are being honoured by the government treating them with the same care and attention they did when they were alive.

So, what with Covid being over – stop looking at the numbers, stop it – it’s now time for the government to repeal parts of the Coronavirus Act so that they are no longer responsible for all the things they’ve barely pretended to be responsible for over the last 17 months. By the time you hear this the Prime Minister, you know like if a trumpet was caught up in tumbleweed, Boris Johnson, will repeal the authority’s powers to detain infectious people which will mean that they will no longer have to impose fines on all those people they couldn’t find anyway due to a failing track and trace system. 300,000 people may have broken quarantine rules but this way no one will have to check anymore like they weren’t already, so that’s a relief. There will no longer be restrictions imposed on numbers attending events and gatherings so it’s great news to hear all the horse racing and other sports events can increase their numbers to exactly the same as they’ve been having since March 2020, and the government will no longer have powers to allow the closing down of the economy. Though that may be because Brexit implications are doing that anyway and so it no longer needs the government kicking it to make sure it’s dead as well. Sorry, I say Brexit, I mean of course, the pandemic. Which is over, apart from the unfortunate way it’s affecting all the supply routes that would otherwise be affected by Brexit, but you know aren’t because it’s definitely the pandemic. That isn’t happening anymore. Now stop asking silly questions. God, you’re so annoying. No, the government looking at possibilities of delaying border checks on EU goods for a second time isn’t because of Brexit its because Covid has somehow managed to tamper with workforce availability and Brexit trade restrictions all at once while simultaneously not being around anymore. I’m not sure what kind of complicated variant this new one is but I can only assume it won’t even have a letter of the Greek alphabet to describe it because it won’t be able to arrive from Europe in time.

Vaccine passports have been scrapped too, which is obviously bad news for the vaccine who’s been working so hard this last year it really deserves a holiday. No one really wanted a vaccine passport on any side of the political spectrum, well apart from a few ardent Brexiteers who would have snaffled several each if they’d been blue. It’s not for any of the sensible discriminatory or data concerns that the plan hasn’t gone ahead, but because as the Health Secretary and what happens when a child sticks googly eyes on items in the fruit bowl Sajid Javid said, ‘We shouldn’t be doing things for the sake of it’. So I guess that means none of their friends could have overcharged for providing the service badly so it wasn’t worth doing. Would vaccine passports give them an electoral advantage? Nah, not like forcing through voter ID despite only 6 cases of voter fraud in the 2019 election, so frankly vaccine passports would be a big waste of money of the kind the Conservatives don’t like. A week ago, the vaccines minister and horse warmer Nadhim Zawahi said vaccine passports would be the best way to keep the night industry open, so that’s probably why they’ve decided it wasn’t worth it, as it’d only make it harder for cabinet ministers to fly around at night and drink people’s blood if there are loads of revellers around. The scheme will be kept in reserve in-case it is needed over autumn or winter, meaning that it’ll almost certainly happen around November as an overnight decision making it hard to implement and super costly, before venues fork out millions only to be told three days later, they must shut down for a total lockdown as the next variant of Covid is 50ft high and actively eating anyone who goes outside. No.10 still says vaccine passports are still the first line of defence against a winter wave of Covid, which must be why they’re scrapping them as being prepared like that is against their brand. The Scottish government are having vaccine passports for over 18’s to enter nightclubs or big events from October, but that’s quite smart as it means everyone will be able to enjoy their night knowing for sure there won’t be any Conservatives there.

One dose of vaccine is going to be offered to 12–15-year-olds but I’m not sure how they’ll decide which one of them gets it or if it’ll be given away in a hunger games style situation. The Chief Medical Officer said it would reduce disruption to education but based on the day I got my BCG vaccination it actually makes it worse as everyone goes round punching each other where you got the injection instead of paying attention. There won’t be any disruption to education as the pandemic is over isn’t it? But just incase the Prime Minister will also be repealing the power to temporarily close or restrict access to schools so even if everyone in the classroom is vomiting green bile and floating to the ceiling while speaking in tongues it’ll still have to go ahead. At least pupils will really be able to learn about biology if they can witness exactly how quickly a virus gets around a poorly ventilated room and which immune systems can deal with it. Education Secretary and dog gnawed refresher bar Gavin Williamson said he’ll move heaven and earth to avoid shutting schools again, which seems unlikely as he appears to be the sort of person who’d struggle to move a cushion without fucking it up. Last week he told a newspaper that he’d met with footballer and actual leader of the opposition Marcus Rashford over zoom, but it turned out he’d actually had a meeting with rugby player Maro Itoje who is also black and been campaigning for laptops for schools. I know you’re all thinking it’s an obvious sign of racism or incompetence or likely, and definitely both, but credit to the Education Secretary, he’s barely aware of who he is or what he does for a living, so it’s hardly a surprise. Later that same week Williamson addressed a Universities conference via video call as he couldn’t attend in person, then insisted they all return to face to face teaching. I suggest they all just tell him he spoke to a difference conference and so they have no idea of what he said.

The pandemic is over but because of the ongoing pandemic that isn’t happening – and not years of austerity why would you mention that? – there is increased pressure on the care system which is why you have to pay for it. The Prime Minister announced a rise in National Insurance in order to pay for social care, eventually once it stops paying for the NHS which would be funded by the £350m extra from Brexit that the bus told us about but then Covid which isn’t happening anymore is still happening so the Brexit money that wasn’t there now has been there but they didn’t tell you about it in-case you know, you thought about it too much and now it’s not there and so open your wallets. Thanks. By rising taxes the Conservatives have broken their manifesto promise not to, but if you had assumed that their last manifesto was anything other than a list of things of noises that when said out loud attract Tory voters like a mating call and a tub of pheromones during breeding season than more fool you. You might remember or probably not it now feels like it was 400 years ago, their manifesto was one of the last ones to be revealed on account of their whole election campaign being about getting Brexit done which they also haven’t. If we’d had any sort time travelling machine, you’d be able to go back to 2019 and use that manifesto as a bleak version of the Gray Sports Almanac where you could put bets on everything it says in there not happening and win enough money to not have to pay any extra national insurance and get a free peerage. The Prime Minister acknowledged they are breaking a manifesto promise but said in their defence, they didn’t know there would be a pandemic. Which is true, but when they don’t seem to be aware of anything it’s not much of an excuse. There was already a £3.6bn deficit in social care before the pandemic so it’s a bit like me saying the reason I didn’t give my friend back their book is because I didn’t know there would be a pandemic on, when I’ve now had it for 10 years and written my name in the front of it.

National Insurance will rise but only for one year from 2023 and then don’t worry, it will decrease again and there will be a Health and Social Care levy which will be the same but under a different name so they can pretend it’s something else. It’s a lot like someone promising to stop repeatedly punching you but then putting a shoe on their fist and saying its ok they’re now kicking you instead. Social care is in an absolute state, probably because its name contains two words the government are completely unable to understand. Really, we should have all agreed to change its name to something like Civil Tending and they’d have been tricked into producing a plan for it much earlier. According to many angry Conservatives, what the government are doing is akin to socialism because taxes are going up to pay for public services, except only the taxes of those on the lowest wages and I don’t remember the call for workers of the world to unite to cover the bills for those who have to spend their money going to space and exploiting people. The money won’t even go to social care until enough has gone to easing pressure on the NHS first, pressure that is exacerbated by the NHS having to do all the social care that there’s no social care funding for and it all sounds a lot like one of those Goofy cartoons where he keeps trying to stop a leaky pipe by putting his finger over a hole which causes another water spurt from elsewhere and all the while you just think ‘you stupid fucking man dog Dr Moreau hell creation, why not turn the water off and invest in fixing the pipe properly. Oh, and how does it work with Pluto also being a dog? Why will no one explain this?’

Boris Johnson admitted that the poorest would be hit by this, but that everyone would benefit which yes, is exactly the problem. Only 1% of voters like the idea, which does mean it’s as popular than Change UK were in the 2019 election and hopefully will get buried as quickly. It had only a day’s debate in parliament and was voted through by a majority and the health and care levy bill will be rushed through in a day as well just in-case someone has time to notice that how unhealthy and uncaring it is. The triple lock pension will also be scrapped for a year, which Work and Pensions Secretary and dustbin werebear Therese Coffey said was to make things fair. A term she only uses to mean it’s all rigged worse than a coconut shy, so absolute no one can win. If you have been hit by the NI rise, the triple pension lock scrapping and the Universal Credit uplift being cut, then don’t worry as Therese Coffey says you recoup that £20 loss by just working two extra hours. Yeah, I’m sure if you ask nicely, you could just sit in a darkened restaurant or closed till in the early hours of the morning, and they’d somehow pay you a better wage than the other hours of work for that. Not sure why no one’s thought of that before. Maybe if everyone just worked 24/7 and never slept or went home then companies would just keep increasing the rate as you survived week on week like a driven zombie and you wouldn’t lose out on the triple lock pension as you’d be dead from exhaustion long before you made it that far. Coffey was insistent that people can just get a better job but sadly, though not everyone is her sister meaning they can’t just land a job as parliamentary secretary. I’m not sure what better jobs she thinks exist or what would happen to the other jobs if absolutely no one did them, but I do hope the cleaners she definitely employs call her soon to clean up her own piss as they now have all become corporate lawyers overnight. Sajid Javid too, has said there are currently record jobs vacancies, which shows how out of touch he is as most people now use streaming.

The Home Secretary Priti Patel, the only person on the planet who survives purely on voices crying out in terror, has been having secret meetings with a billionaire Tory donor, but insists she hasn’t breached ministerial code in exactly the same way as she did it last time. No not the bullying, the time before that one. Both her and the Business Secretary and exactly how you’d design a clown costume to parodying the City of London Kwasi Kwarteng attended a meeting between a hotel magnate and British Airways executives without any civil servants present which is in breach of the rules. Though I wonder if all these people just don’t want any witnesses to know they willingly met with Patel in-case it ruins their reputation. When she wasn’t breaching parliamentary rules, Patel has been thinking about breaching international ones, by insisting the UK will send back boats of vulnerable people to French waters if they arrive on our shores. Not only is that grim but its also only acceptable if it’s done by standing on our beach with large signs saying ‘save yourselves from our plague island, turn back now’. I am of course joking. The pandemic is over. Afghan refugees arriving in the UK are being left without access to basic sanitary products, nappies, toothpaste or medicine, and put in temporary accommodation with no access to cash. Which is at odds with the government calling the relocation scheme Operation Warm Welcome but then again you can’t complain that they aren’t treating them the same as British citizens in need.

Meanwhile in opposition town, Labour leader and sad fart into a strong gale Keir Starmer is going to publish a 14,000 word mission statement to Labour members on the eve of the party conference later this month. I imagine it will read not unlike the Apple terms and conditions agreement. It will supposedly set out what he believes in and what he stands for, so I suppose it needs to be that many words so he can add ‘maybe, possibly, I’m not sure and only in certain circumstances depending on what the government’s stance is’ after every single bit. Starmer has been ridiculed for this with many saying no one will read it, and that’s slightly unfair as most party manifestos are even longer. And no one reads those either but at least there’s a 3 word slogan that can go on a backdrop that everyone remembers when glazing over as some politician explains the things they won’t be doing in a year’s time. Labour did jump ahead in one yougov poll last week, proving that voters hate paying taxes even more than they hate other people and the party even came out with a policy to tax landlords to pay for social care instead of a national insurance rise. But they won’t back a rent cap so that’ll just mean tenants have to pay more per month not unlike a health and care levy just under a different name so no one will notice. I’m starting to wonder if Labour whole strategy is taking a leaf from the Brexit campaign whereby the Conservatives have bad policies so maybe if they just have no policies voters will find it preferable.

In other news Boris Johnson has said he wants to be Prime Minister for longer than Thatcher did, which might be tough considering people are already saying the NI rise is like the poll tax and he’d upset a whole ton of miners before he took the job when he left their mums. Both he and the Chancellor and smile model for the Venom films Rishi Sunak visited the British Gas training academy in Leicestershire, probably on account of both being experts in gaslighting and pumping out a lot of hot air. British Gas have been firing experienced staff who wouldn’t accept a lower paid, downgraded contract, and the government is advocating replacing them with low to not paid apprentices. Still I suppose it must hearten the government to see people doing jobs with a similar lack of expertise or knowledge as they have at theirs.

The government’s environment agency is allowing polluting companies to dump sewage that hasn’t been properly cleaned into rivers and the sea. I do hope next time Johnson talks about being environmentally conscious it’s referred to as his ‘Rivers of Shit’ speech. And ugly magic wand Jacob Rees Mogg took a trip on the world’s fastest zip line, while wearing a three piece suit. I supposed by being propelled rapidly downwards without any control over its direction, he might finally have an understanding of how the country has felt for years. And recordings have been found of Chancellor of the Duchy and bookworm that only reads Ayn Rand Michael Gove saying racist slurs in his 20s. So that’s him as a shoe-in for next Home Secretary then.

Ah well, at least that pandemic is over, right?

ADMIN

Hola at thee ParPolBrods. It’s another one of these things and this week it’s almost a normal sized episode because hooray some work fell through. No wait I mean boo. Or yey. I don’t know anymore but I am enjoying sitting down. I mean it’s not quite a normal episode in that this bit contains 87% less waffle as I have absolutely nothing of interest to tell you this week. Which to be fair, is probably no different to normal weeks but I still fill this admin bit anyway don’t I? So, let’s skim through the important bits which is THANK YOU FOR STILL BEING HERE. I mean, you obviously went away and came back inbetween episodes. I hope you haven’t just been completely still till this one came out. Big shouts to Not So Purple Aki and Somebody for the ko-fi donations, which I’m not plugging anymore but its still there. If you do fancy donating to the podcast do give the patreon.com/parpolbro a join and if you really don’t want to commit to every month then the ko-fi is still lurking in the pod links. Obvs if you can’t afford to donate or just don’t want to as frankly you can get the same ear input for free by pushing a q-tip too hard. Ah no wait, you’d have to buy a q-tip. Don’t use a free one as …urgh…anyway…if you can’t then don’t and I shan’t be offended. If however you send me pictures of you doing the running man dance then I shall be offended. No one needs that in 2021.

Other thing is that next week there might not be a show at all, or there might be an interview only show. I am actually going to be on holiday. Sort of. I mean it’s a week away with friends who also have a toddler so I’m hoping there will be at least 10 mins each where we all get to sit down in a quiet room and maybe stare at the wall but who can say. But obvs this podcast has been on a holiday, so that’s not fair to youse lot and I’ll try and put something out if I can work it out. Otherwise, just listen to this one again and write me a series of complaints about how its topically out of date.

Speaking of complaints, this week I am interviewing Arthur Webber about trans rights which is a subject I’ve been hesitant to have on this show on account of the absolute rage it can cause online and also because I’m one of those idiots who just generally thinks people should be able to identify how they like and you know, try their best to go through this shitty life how they want to. I know, I’m so naïve. I do keep wondering if I even have a political stance anymore or if it’s all just been distilled into ‘can everyone stop being horrible to each other and can’t we all just have a nice time?’ Its not quite 3 words. Maybe ‘stop dicking about’? I haven’t got there yet. But look, if you are one of the hallowed listeners to this show and you’ve somehow got enraged at the mere thought I may talk to someone about said issue, then do take pen to paper, write furiously and then eat the paper. And the pen. And then call a doctor as you shouldn’t eat pens. There is also a teeny tiny bit in the middle about the National Insurance rise. Spoiler: Its terrible.

INTERVIEW WITH ARTHUR PART 1

If I was to ask you what you think the most divisive issue of recent years has been, there’s a high chance you’d reel off a long list of just about everything in the world and then remember the time that woman put a cat in a bin and that dress that no one knew if it was blue and black or white and gold. Sadly though, rather than the trivial matters such as the dress, which was definitely white and gold, many of the biggest divisive matters have been to do with the rights of usually minority groups of people and the idea that by them being given some of their basic human rights and treated like other people, it’ll somehow diminish the rights of the people who really matter, those who just love oppressing. Why should someone else get to enjoy their life when I enjoy being horrible to them? Why won’t you let me graffiti racist and homophobic abuse on walls when it’s my only creative outlet? Yeesh. That sort of thing. One such group that’s had a horrific time of late and well, always, are the trans community. Nothing is so upsetting to a loud few than the idea that someone might want to choose what kind of body they live in, strongly enough to go to the efforts to change it and identify in a way they feel comfortable with. I am very aware that it’s not something I can comprehend as despite my constantly shit state of being, I’ve never felt like my body that is mostly composed of crisps is anything other than the right one for me but that doesn’t mean I can’t at least understand that it’s not at all the same for others. I mean with their own bodies. Not mine. That’s only ever been the case for my ex’s. I should also say that as someone who identifies as a podcaster, sorry I mean white middle aged hetro male, I also can’t possibly claim to speak for women who say they are threatened by the notion of transwomen but there’s an awful lot of feminist groups that don’t agree with that notion, and evidence that the trans community is more dangerous to the rights of woman than say, Liz Truss being the equalities minister, Boris Johnson being the Prime Minister, America or, well, men existing, is scarce at best.

So, while there have been a number of guests on this show who identify as trans or non-binary I’ve not actually interviewed someone about the issue of trans rights itself. That is partly because I am aware that right now even saying those words online cause your social media account to be firebombed and your entire rest of your week to spent blocking people who think there should be policing of toilets, which I don’t even understand how that would work. Would I have to show my genitals and drivers licence before entering? Would the person doing it be called a private detective? So many questions. But look this week I’ve done it and I had a lovely chat with Arthur Webber. Arthur is a transman, a former political candidate and a very funny person on Twitter. So, I asked him about why trans rights is such an inflammatory issue and if any of the parties are at all supportive of trans rights issues.

Oh and just before this starts, look I haven’t done a pod interview since July and I forget to switch my mic setting to the proper setting and so it recorded through my laptop mic and basically to sum up, I sound shit. But that’s ok as Arthur doesn’t so just ignore my scratchy vocals – sorry – and listen to his answers instead. Here’s Arthur:

MIDDLE BIT – NI RISE

We’ll be back with Arthur in a minute but first…

Who likes paying taxes? Yeah. Sort of. I mean I don’t but also, I do and I’m fucked if I ever want to live in a world where it’s up to me to tarmac the bit of road outside our flat. Well, it wouldn’t be. It’d be our landlord and actually the thought of him having to do it is quite funny…sorry I’ve gone on a tangent. What I mean is I’m mostly a fan of the whole we pay tax, it funds public services, them public services work and then we can all use them when we’re ill, want to go places or lie in a park or want to go to a park to lie in it because we’re ill. Those things. Obviously, I still hate doing my taxes, I’m not a weirdo, and I don’t really love it when it leaves my savings account but mostly, I get sad that instead of making things better my taxes go towards Dido Harding’s failed electric monorail scheme or nuclear missiles off the coast of Scotland. Though again I have to say, Dido Harding running a nuclear missile scheme would be worth it as it’d easily be the quickest way to nuclear disarmament this country has. So really the very idea of us all paying more national insurance and that going towards a strong social care system should fill me with delight. But of course, it’s this government who would tell you they’re bringing you a 5-tier cake and it’d be a urinal one and you’d have to pay 300x the cost for it because their mate is the ceo of the company that makes them. This National Insurance rise is bad. The first is that the way National Insurance works unfairly favours those on high wages in the first place. If you earn between £9564 and £50268 per year, you pay 12% of your earnings, but as soon as you earn over that, it only increases by 2%. So the more you earn, National Insurance makes a smaller and smaller dent in your pay pack. So, and bear with me for a minute here while I pretend to remotely understand anything about maths other than its full of positives and negatives, a 1.25% percentage rise, means people will be paying 10% more out of their pay packets. For example, if you get £1k a month, then pay 12% of it on NI, that’s £120. The 1.25% increase means you’d be paying £132.50 a month, which is a 10.4% increase on what you paid before. People earning over £100,000 a year will pay about £1130 extra than what they do now, but people on £30,000 will be paying an extra £255 which proportionately is a ton more of their wages. Oh god that was a lot of numbers. Sorry everyone. To summarise, which is also maths, the less you earn, the more this is going to dick on your parade meanwhile those earning lots won’t really notice the difference and can still go and be ill in the park. Younger people who have a student loan will have it particularly hard as national insurance, plus tax, plus student loan will be over 40% of their wages. Still as long as they don’t spend the rest of their money on avocadoes and lattes, I’m sure they’ll be able to afford a 4-bedroom home all by themselves in no time. So altogether the tax on earnings will be 2.5%, but the tax on dividends will be just 1.5% and the tax on rents or interest income is still a big fat zero in line with the percentage the rentier state contributes to society. A lot of the people who work in the social care system this NI rise is supposed to contribute too, whenever it finishes funding the NHS that hasn’t been given enough funding, will be paying lots out of their already minimal and hard to survive on pay packets to keep their own job alive. It’s a lot like the pay to play comedy model where some shows say if you really want to entertain an audience of mostly other comedians, you have to pay to do a set that you’ll hate but have no other way of getting stage time. Its usually only the promoter that’s laughing.

How to fix this? I mean as a vegetarian I’m not keen on eat the rich, so tax the rich is a great idea with heaps of workable ways to do it such as land value tax or maybe even just taxing any fucker with a spaceship. The TUC have released a report that says an increase in capital gains tax, which is a tax on the profit you make when selling an asset that has gained value since you bought it, in line with income tax would bring £17bn into the economy. Corporation tax has been raised to 25% but companies like Amazon are still dodging around that by being all multi-national and shunting its income to Luxembourg which I think is too small and magical a place for money to be found there. I’m sure its run by mice. It has to be. There are many other issues in place here, including the main reason social care is so screwed is down to years of austerity which, if you remember, we also had to pay off as it was our credit card debt that we caused by you know, being elite bankers and gambling with it or something. I mean I don’t remember working in the city and selling off bad mortgage debt but maybe I was taking too much cocaine at the time. Also, you’d really hope that the £350m a week that the bus promised would be helping the NHS right now, meaning the NI rise could go to social care straight away but of course the pandemic which is now over or something. I can’t see those rich getting taxed anytime soon can you? How will they fund Boris Johnson’s wallpaper needs? Hopefully people will kick off poll tax style about this and it’ll be the death knell of this government because while 130,000 needlessly dying doesn’t bother the British public, having to pay more tax is right up there with the cost of beer increasing. Which it is, thanks to Brexit. Only 1% of voters are happy with this National Insurance hike, which means it’s the 99% once again proper miffed off. All I’m saying is they’d better make my landlord cough up soon or I’ll be delivering him a bag of tarmac and expecting him to get started pretty sharpish.

And now back to Arthur…

INTERVIEW WITH ARTHUR PART 2

Many thanks to Arthur for the chat. You can find him on Twitter @BernieTranders and of course all the places and people he recommends will be on the website post for this episode at somepoint soon too. If you’ve got other guests or political topics you’d like me to interview someone about, then give me a bell, or rather don’t actually as my daughter will use it and I’ll never get a moment’s peace. Instead email me on partlypoliticalbroadcast@gmail.com.

END

And that’s all for this week’s Partly Political Broadcast podcast. If you enjoyed or at the very least didn’t hate that, then why not skip watching your favourite game show where people with money take on arbitrary tasks in order to raise money for a charity that they could just give money too and allow something else more interesting to take up the programming time. And instead recommend this show to other fellow humans or super intelligent animals, join up to the patreon.com/parpolbro and maybe even leave us a nice sparkly review on Apple Podcasts or elsewhere too.

Ta very much to Acast, Kat Day and my brother The Last Skeptik.

This might be back next week, maybe, when the government u-turn and replace British passports with vaccine ones as post-Brexit they’re now accepted in more countries.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This week’s show was sponsored by Therese Coffey’s Top Job Finding Tips including such tips as ‘be related to me’, ‘just already have money so you don’t have to worry’, ‘get parachuted into a safe seat so you never really have to make an effort’ or ‘always be on hand as an extra for an Ewok movie if they need one that looks like its gone through a combine harvester a few times.’