Further Reading

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We all have to pull together to fight the virus, said the Prime Minister. It’s just that you have to do all the pulling with no financial support or help from the government who are too busy imprisoning students, telling schools that kids can’t learn about how awful they are and making Kent independent. Another standard week in British politics, meanwhile over the pond Donald Trump hasn’t paid his taxes for years. But then whether he’s actually ever done any work is also debatable. Plus some shitty things the government have done that you may have missed and a chat with behavioural scientist Dr Andrew Marcinko (@andrew_marcinko) about just how and why we’re all behaving like we are in these exceptional times.

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

• • Dr Andrew Marcinko on Twitter – https://twitter.com/andrew_marcinko
• • Durham Psychology on Twitter – https://twitter.com/DurhamPsych
• • Ta-Nehisi Coates Wikipedia page – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta-Nehisi_Coates
• • Stephen Reicher on Twitter – https://twitter.com/reicherstephen
• • Susan Michie on Twitter – https://twitter.com/susanmichie
• • SAGE web page – https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/scientific-advisory-group-for-emergencies
• • Jack Hughes on Twitter – https://twitter.com/Psycholojack

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

Hello and welcome to the Partly Political Broadcast, the comedy podcast that looks at politics across the UK, and also Kent. I’m constantly Tiernan Douieb as this week US President and the left over contents of Buffalo Bill’s wardrobe, Donald Trump, only paid $750 in federal income taxes in his first year of office, I think it’s great that he’s finally in tune with global opinion by showing even he doesn’t think his salary is worth taxpayers money. I’ll pay more in tax than the US President and I’ve barely done any work this year. Though arguably, neither has he.

His tax records show he didn’t pay any tax at all for 10 of the last 15 years, and there are many claims for massive losses, surprisingly none of which were cognitive. One claim was over $70,000 for hair styling but I guess HR Giger probably would charge that much for a such a creation. I joke, we all know that was probably the cost of paying for the silence of hairdressers that he’s tried to grope. Many hope that this will be Trump’s Al Capone style downfall for tax evasion, which is really unfair to Capone, who was actually a successful businessman. Sadly, reality is Trump supporters will likely just see this as another win by Donald, justifying it by saying he’s scamming the system and taking down the man, not realising that he is that same man. These are the same people that if you rang them up and told them there was someone in their house, they’d burn the place down and fire bullets everywhere to stop the intruders, before realising you meant it’s them because they were home when you called. Trump is of course calling this fake news, a weak defence when he could’ve been clever and said that actually he’s decimated so many necessary public services that what he did pay just about covers the few he’s not yet realised are still there. I’m sure that the Democratic candidate and someone playing themselves but old in a film and they’ve overdone the latex make up Joe Biden, will use this story wisely in the presidential debates this week by saying something about how he’d return the tax system back to normal so more billionaires could get away with this sort of shit, before mumbling something incoherent and staring into space, while Trump walks in circles around the room like a confused chicken. Trump has demanded Biden take a drugs test before the debate as he says his opponents’ performances have been uneven. Personally, I think both should get off their tits on acid and then it might be more interesting than watching what will essentially be an evening of televised palliative care. Biden is currently ahead in all the polls, but after the sad death of Supreme Court Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week – a woman so defiant in fighting for justice I wouldn’t be surprised if she passed away 40 days before the election just to haunt the GOP – its looking like Trump may be force through his nomination for her replacement, Amy Coney Barrett. Looking like if Laura Dern had been turned into a White Walker, Coney Barrett is an ultra-conservative so even if Biden wins, if the Supreme Court looks like a prequel for Gilliad, then America is still in trouble. It’s like Trump in his politically dying days, has shouted an incantation and released a really vicious curse upon the country. Hopefully for Biden’s sake it won’t affect anyone who’s already dead.

Back in the UK, our government have been looking to the future and realising that with most young people unlikely to ever vote for them, its best that they’re all just imprisoned indefinitely. I joke, but only slightly as university students are being made to self-isolate in their rooms, meaning that this generation will be the first to not remember their fresher’s week simply because every day was exactly the fucking same. Only a couple of months ago during the A-Level results scandal we were all criticising Education Secretary and gingivitis personified Gavin Williamson for denying pupils their deserved grades, but now perhaps it seems as though as it was his attempt to fail them all so they could be free in the Autumn. Is Williamson the misunderstood vitamin deficient and tonally flat Captain Von Trapp of our era? Have we been wrong in assuming that the Department of Education have been letting down young people all along when actually we’ve been misinterpreting their warnings? Perhaps this is why Williamson hasn’t been seen or heard from through any of this fiasco, as he’s been locked himself indoors in solidarity. Culture Secretary and man with all the impetus of a half-hearted fart on a wet day Oliver Dowden is now insisting that students should not give up a year of their life by not going, but maybe that’s a hint that by staying in their rooms indefinitely, students may be the only ones to survive the rest of the year?

Of course, it’s more likely that Williamson has decided to up his stand against universities no platforming people, by showing them how damaging it is when someone with opinions as shit as his fails to turn up anywhere. This would fit with all the new guidelines sent to schools in England from the Department of Education, saying that teachers mustn’t use anti-capitalist materials in classes. So that’s no Dickens, no Shakespeare, no Robin Hood and children fed entirely on a literary diet of criminal scrotum Jeffrey Archer, and lobotomised moorhen Nadine Dorries. Nothing like torture to force an adverse opinion and I reckon it’ll only be 2-3 sentences of Dorries horrible writing like an AI machine transcribed what it thought it’d feel like to shit itself before the younger generation instantly become avidly socialist. Any sort of system that allows those talentless husks to get book deals can only be very, very wrong. It’s also possible that Gavin Williamson hasn’t been seen as he tried to use an algorithm to open a door and has been stuck in a room for 6 days as a result of it using vague evidence to decide it was push not pull. That’s why Dowden is on the case insisting that ‘young people have paid a price during this crisis and why he thinks it is only fair to try and get them back’. I think he meant to university but there’s also every chance he was voicing out aloud the government’s ethos of punishing those who dared to still have any sense of hope despite everything they’ve been through. Which just isn’t very British at all.

Getting Dowden, the culture secretary, to defend universities is like asking him to play piano in a band when he clearly thinks music just plays itself like a magical force that requires no financial sustaining whatsoever. Yes, the hospitality sector has once again been largely ignored by all the new economic plans, possibly because the last thing the government wants this is for the country to appear hospitable. The Chancellor and poor attempt at a toilet roll puppet Rishi Sunak said he was looking at ‘creative, imaginative measures’ to support workers, but if he actually understood what those words mean he wouldn’t have ignored all jobs where people understand that thinking outside of the box doesn’t mean just occasionally popping your head above your open plan cubicle and telling everyone you might go wild and have a Fanta. Instead Sunak’s stretch of the mind is that people only have to do a third of their working hours and the government will top that up, sounding like it’s based on the Prime Minister’s own current personal job arrangement. Well except this is only 2/3rds of pay and its only for people in viable jobs, whatever that means in 2020. If viable means capable of working successfully, is that where Gavin Williamson has gone to?

Just days before Boris Johnson, like someone force pushed a loudhailer into a motheaten sofa, said in his statement addressing the rise in infections, that we are going to have to pull together. Yeah sure mate, as everyone kissing will definitely stop a virus transmitting. The message was that the government succeeded in beating the coronavirus in March, you know in the way that 40,000 people dying and the virus still bouncing around till its full comeback now is somehow a success. He’d probably insist that was the case as long as COVID left just one person standing so he could tell them to get back to work. But now the greatest single weapon against COVID is the common sense of the British people, which is why we’ll still be ravaged with the virus until 2023 as anti-mask conspiracists shout hoax through their violent coughing fits. The British people who, when asked why other countries have better testing facilities and a lower death toll than us, Johnson said it’s because we were all too freedom loving. Is that right? Are we a country that believes the only true freedom exists in death? Or is freedom loving the new term for being disobedient arrogant selfish pricks? Shall I start telling my daughter she’s just too freedom loving when she tries to go down the slide while another kid is still on it?

We’ve potentially got six months of this shit and if you don’t obey the restrictions then apparently the army may need to be brought in, though at least its be good for reducing carbon emissions if the army are only going to oppress this country instead of travelling abroad to ruin someone else. A slaycation if you will. That’s the message though, that if we don’t sort things out, threats, and if we do, great days ahead, though Johnson might have just meant they’ll all feel really, really, long. A stitch in nine saves time, said Johnson repeatedly over the week, a ripe phrase from a man who has potentially double digits of kids due to a lack of planning. Yet as is always the case, Johnson’s rallying cry for us to comply, was diminished by Sunak explaining that actually t we’re going to have to live with the virus. Which based on how little financial support there is going to be, and the current housing situation, is probably an indication of how things will be for flatshare renting from now on. The furlough can’t go on forever said Rishi, and he’s right because forever is infinity, and nothing will last that long. However, it’d be really helpful if it at least lasted during the pandemic. As it is, the Winter Economy Plan, or WEP something that neither Cardi B or anyone else could get excited about, isn’t going to stop mass unemployment but more will just allow Rishi Sunak to say he’s doing something to help the British people. Like how if you were hanging off a cliff edge, he’d insist he was being a hero by trying to flick crisps into your mouth for his own amusement while refusing to pull you up as that’d be unrealistic. If you’re self-employed, you get a whopping 20% of your profits to survive for three months on. Apparently, that’s in line with all other job support that’s been announced, it’s just sad that the line in question is a firing one. Millions of people still have no help, so many industries are going to collapse, most families will be worse off, and you have to wonder, with him announcing it in Autumn, if it’s only a Winter Economy Plan because its contents were so bleak. The UK must live without fear said Sunak, as that’s yet another thing the government only fund when it’s for the benefit of their friends.

It’s not hard to understand the feelings behind the thousands of people who took to the anti-mask protest in London on Saturday, an event where people gathered to say that they felt oppressed by having to pop some cloth on their face, even though only bank robbers have been oppressed by these measures. Losing the element of surprise because now everyone is doing it. The demonstration was called We Do Not Consent and then was shut down by police for not complying with the risk assessment criteria in an outcome absolutely no one could have ever predicted. If anything, the police waiting till 3pm in the afternoon to do it just seems cruel. As I say though, I understand being angry. Not at wearing masks, that bit makes sense and you do have to differentiate between the rules that are sensible and those that are hypocritical. If alongside giving millions of pounds of contracts to their pals the government also begrudgingly told people not to put toasters in the bath, I wouldn’t think well to fight the system I’d better get the Matey and some Warburtons at the ready. But its ok anger towards being told to follow rules that now include a ban on casual sex, though no guidance on if its ok if you only refer to it as business time. Or grouse hunting. Pubs and restaurants now have to close at 10pm because after that time you can’t see COVID as easily in the dark and it can sneak up on you more easily or something. Apparently, there is science behind a 10pm curfew as ministers say it’s something to do with people not obeying social distancing as well when drunk, something that clearly won’t be the case if you make the law to drink heavily in the daytime instead. There is a ban on household mixing in Leeds, so no homemade cocktails or DJ practice for them. Meanwhile chauffer driven cars are exempt from restrictions forcing passengers to wear masks something that seems so clearly one rule for them, another for us, except I’d argue it’s also the best way to take out the elite if we can just willingly get the drivers to consent to catch COVID for the sake of the country. Until it was highlighted the bar in parliament was allowed to stay open past 10pm but then I guess they did have a duty to keep a plastered Boris Johnson from spilling out onto the streets the same time as everyone else and shaking all their hands. And iced bun left out in the rain the Queen is to receive a government bail-out of £35m proving that actually furlough can go on forever. Double standards are rife but there is hope this Wednesday as coronavirus legislation is up for its 6-month review and the Brady amendment is being voted on. Its name is as in proposed by entirely teeth MP Graham Brady not because it requires all legislation to be delivered over zoom, so everyone looks like they’re in the intro to the US sitcom. This amendment would mean all further legislation has to get parliamentary approval and enough Tories seem to be rebelling to make sure it happens, stopping a further rushing through of government policies. Fingers crossed they do as it’d be nice to know even MPs don’t feel the government’s jobs are viable right now.

The government has said that lorry drivers will need a permit to enter Kent after the Brexit transition period is over. What’s truly sad about that is that Kent is the only area of the country that actually has a Deal. On the plus side though, with an internal border, I look forward to oh no someone left the heating on in the waxwords chamber of horrors Nigel Farage being told he’s illegally invading England every time he tries to drive down the M2. Brexit talks are resuming this week, with recently removed from the side of a ship Michael Gove heading to Brussels, possibly because the UK misunderstood the EU’s request to remove its contentious parts. Gove has said the parts of the Internal Market Bill which may breach international law will stay in the bill, despite the EU wanting to remove them, because trust two faced Gove to be all about things remaining when it suits him.

At the end of the Labour Party conference Labour leader and man that always looks like he’s being attacked from above Keir Starmer stood at a podium in a corridor as though he was going to try and flyer people as they left a speech they actually wanted to be at. Starmer said Labour must get serious about winning, before saying the next manifesto won’t sound like anything you’ve heard before. Mate, its politics, not a battle of the bands. There was a lot of forced patriotism where Starmer said he wants this to be the best country to grow up in and the best country to grow old in, which will likely just alienate all the Conservative voters who are already old and don’t want things to be better for anyone else. While Starmer said they are now ‘serious about winning’,  Labour MPs, except for 18 of them, abstained from the vote on passing the Overseas Operations Act to its third reading. That’s not winning. That’s not bothering. The act is legislation to protect armed forces serving on missions in other countries should they be doing illegal shit because this government are big fans of breaching international laws. Labour said they’d fight to protect our armed forces, but then abstained, so it’s like fighting for someone by not turning up and letting them get illegally tortured. The Lib Dem conference is this weekend, I’m not sure why. Leader and ceremic troll Ed Davey has said that his party vows to be the voice for carers, which feels unfair as now they’ll definitely be unheard.

In other news, in a roundtable discussion at the UN, Boris Johnson said that the UK can be the Saudi Arabia of wind power, which I think means he’s going to continue to oppress people with his endless flatulence. Ear wax syringing is no longer free on the NHS, and the government wonder why people won’t listen to them anymore. And rumours have it that former Daily Mail editor and racist frown Paul Dacre could be appointed as head of Ofcom while former Telegraph editor and man who always looks like the last photo of someone before they mysteriously disappeared Charles Moore, could be appointed chair of the BBC. Moore is an avid hater of the Beeb and has also spent a lifetime writing stupid as fuck articles such as ‘why are nurses always so fat’ so in a way he should really be aiming for chair of Channel 5. You might be surprised to hear that I think mega bigot Dacre could be good for Ofcom. I mean he’s so full of hatred and terrible ideas that all his staff would have to do is see if he likes a Tv show and if he does, its probably breached guidelines. Labour MP for Leicester East Claudia Webbe, the least impressive character in the Spider-Verse, has been charged with harassing a woman, and is due to appear in court in November. Fair play to Labour, at least they’ve diversified the commons by having female MPs who might be harassers. Bet she’s gutted she’s not a Conservative or they’d have refused to say her name and she’d have just had to stand down from being chair of the ERG and nothing else.

Lastly actor, man that’s still bitter fathers for justice is no longer a thing and oh it’s so sad that Tim Blake Nelson looks so unwell, Laurence Fox is setting up his own political party that he’s describing as the UKIP of culture, which is like saying describing it as the Kayne West of mild-mannered restraint. Which he wouldn’t do as Kayne is black and he’d prefer to find a white person who’d been silenced to shout out instead such as..let me check…Laurence Fox, apparently. The party is going to be called Reclaim, such as when you’ve tried to leave something unwanted at the airport, but they make you come and get it because it’s causing distress to other passengers. I think a better name would have been the Independent Group For Whinge or perhaps just Laurence First.

ADMIN

Hey, hey, hey. I’ve just discovered today that the racist group the Proud Boys, all wear a type of Fred Perry shirt that I own and love. Is there anything Nazis don’t ruin aside from maybe ruining things? They are consistently good at that. I know far right nationalists are doing far more dangerous things right now, and its nothing but privileged for me to be so annoyed about this compared to, you know, racial violence, but damn I loved that shirt. Can I still wear it if I write ‘I’m not very proud at all actually’ on it in fabric pen? Maybe as someone suggested online today just ‘ashamed’? It is very much a week of failed action for me, sigh. Not only has my favourite shirt been appropriated by fascists but I also wrote a letter to my MP complaining that basically, all the new government measures are telling the entertainment industry to go do one and he sent back his usual automated response that said ‘yes but we are supporting some people’ as though that might placate me. Hey, you should be happy you can’t afford to pay your rent because we’ve made sure that estate agents can. No, if anything that’s made it worse. At least my and other comedians’ jobs is to make people laugh. Estate agents is the exact opposite of that. The bottom of his email was just that he’d be take up any anomalies with the chancellor on my behalf. I suppose it is an anomaly for him that someone could do a job with the purpose of cheering people up. Probably unheard of for him. Grrrrr. Anyway, I hope you are less annoyed than me this week though if you are a student, trapped in your dorms, then my heart goes out to you. I have no idea if there is any way I can help but do get in touch if I can. If you want to drop me a line or you want me to call you and we can record a quick chat about how you’re getting on and how people can help, I’ll happily pop it on next week’s show. While my liver would have been very grateful for me being stuck indoors for my freshers’ week, I can’t imagine it’s how any of you want to spend your first weeks of higher education. Still if any of you are studying politics degrees this is a pretty full on intro to it. I don’t know how the Conservative think this will get them any younger voters at all, but then again they are a whole party full of people whose families paid thousands of pounds to not see them, so maybe they’re trying to fabricate a similar anger, like a sort of Sith lord training program. But yes do get in touch if you want to, even if it’s just to say where listeners could send some beers or snacks to, and honestly, thoughts are with you all.

So here we are, this is the state of things and once again I’m pleased you’re here to indulge in my general screaming. Mega thank you this week to Rhiannon for joining the Patreon, Claire, Anne-Marie and Helen for the ko-fi and Al for the Acast support donation. Should you want to help me out as, yes, self-employed support from the government is now just 20% of profits for three months which is, well, basically nothing and I’m excited to tell my landlord I can only pay 20% of rent. But if you enjoy the show and fancy at least buying me a coffee so it won’t be as cold when I’m living outdoors, then do that at patreon.com/parpolbro, the ko-fi.com/parpolbro or via the Acast support button. Speaking of which, I still don’t do any extras on the ko-fi or patreon and timewise I’m not sure I can because, well, life. But if I did pop some bonus content on there, is there anything you’re crying out for? What might make it feel worth it for you to join? Let me know and I’ll definitely try especially as it’s looking like it may be my only income stream until March next year. Obviously if you can’t donate then you don’t have to, it just means we won’t be friends ever. Sorry I mean you can instead give the show a lovely review like 773addict did on Apple Podcasts, thank you tons for your kind words, and hope you’re getting help with that addiction to 773 different substances as that sounds pretty full on. You can also review the show on Castbox, Stitcher, and on Acast too I think so please do. Mainly though, any spreading of the word that you like this stupid show is appreciated.

That’s it for this week. No admin or anything else to promote though any suggestions for a new t-shirt are welcomed. So instead on this week’s show I am speaking to behavioural scientist Andrew Marcinko all about just why oh why people do dat, plus a small guide to a handful of shitty things you might have missed. Yes, there’s even more shitty things than all the shitty things you know about. What? This is meant to be a comedy podcast? Oh. Oh dear. Oh well.

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW

COMMON SENSE

PARLIAMENT BAR & CHAUFFERS

As Icelandic glitch in the pop Matrix Bjork sang so, so long ago ‘there’s definitely, definitely no logic, to human behaviour’. I’ve often thought this over the years as I’ve gigged to unplayable Christmas works dos, walked past Bigg Market in Newcastle on a Friday night or seen anyone that’s willingly chosen to wear red trousers. During this pandemic, you could be excused for wondering just why, as we’ve all been told there is a crew of tiny germs wreaking havoc across the world, some people thought ‘ah probably best I head to the beach then’, or have an illegal rave or drive to Durham because the possibility of having to do childcare despite a lifetime of privilege was worth breaking the law for. The thing is though, is that being told that dealing with a global pandemic is a lot of responsibility for your average joe, let alone an idiot like me that struggles to remember to be responsible for not burning toast of a morning. So are we expected to behave in any way at all when government guidelines have been so vague and contradictory, that one minute you’re at a restaurant for the sake of the country, and the next it’s illegal to mingle because it’s your fault that you listened and ate out to help out. To top it all off, it can’t be easy to obey guidance from people who’ve been breaking the rules themselves. In the same way you wouldn’t want advice on driving while eating potatoes from Brian Harvey or any advice on anything at all from Denise Welch. We are in extreme times and so maybe it makes perfect sense that extreme behaviour stems from that, and we shouldn’t at all be surprised at the embracing of conspiracy theories, aggressively divisive politics or like the arsehole on my road, the understanding that it’s been fine since March to park your shitty broken van across three parking spaces at once meaning the rest of us have to park miles away. Maybe I should offer him a baked potato and hope for the best? How do we react when we’re told to bear the burden of our times but then get the blame for not bearing it properly? And how easily can we, as human beans, see through bullshit gestures and unfair policies? Because I really might try this baked potato thing so I need to know fast.

This week I spoke to Dr Andrew Marcinko, a behavioural scientist who teaches at the University of Durham and specialises in looking at the areas of organisational authenticity, diversity and inclusion, leadership and trust. You know, all the things that are currently missing from British government. So, I thought he’d be the ideal person for someone like myself, a total noob in behavioural science, to ask some questions about, well, all of us and everything that’s going on. Andrew very kindly spared the time to talk me through the importance of practicing what you preach, whether our ability to identify as part of a group has changed and whether anyone will get a pop culture reference about Brian Harvey from 2005 or not. Ok, not the last one. I should say that I spoke to Andrew last week, before students got locked up in their dorms otherwise I definitely would have asked him about that. So if you’re thinking why didn’t you mention it, it’s because I’m not a psychic. I hope that’s a reasonable excuse. Anyway, I found talking to Andrew hugely insightful and I’m sad I didn’t ask him even more. I hope you enjoy. Here’s Andrew:

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW PART 1

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

MIDDLE BIT –

At the moment the news is all one note. Coronavirus or Brexit. Ok, that’s two notes, but they both sound the same, like a sort of B Flat, because that’s how they make everyone feel. Thing is, there are actually other politics going on, and quite a few of them are also shit. As one of those people who currently likes to derail any hopefully conversations people are having in real life with a ‘yeah but it’s unlikely because everyone in charge is the worst person possible’ comment, I thought I’d help liven up your chats, sorry deaden up, so you too can puncture any bubbles of hope that people may have. I should say, I’m not being a total glum pants, and in fact today my pants are a lovely shade of blue. Which makes them sound depressed. I meant they were colourful. Oh god I didn’t mean to talk about my pants so much. I just meant I am hopeful as there are good people out there, it’s just that absolutely none of them happen to be in government by now and idiots gave them a massive majority so they can do what they like until probably 2024 unless they destroy themselves through their own arrogance and stupidity. So till then, keep tabs on this shit, and that way we’ll remember what to fix once we’ve worked out how to trap them all in a well. So, here’s a quick list of shit things the Conservatives have done in recent weeks, to jaunty music so it feels less sad.

The Rent Eviction Ban was brought in during Coronvirus legislation meaning that landlords who’s tenants couldn’t pay rent because they’d lost all work thanks to the COVIDs and the government weren’t supporting them, couldn’t be kicked out till the end of September, you know, just in time for winter because Conservatives don’t enjoy homelessness unless the people experiencing it are having the worst time possible. It’s not as fun for them to burn £50 notes in front of people actually comfortable lying down in the park. Housing Minister and past its sell by date meatloaf Robert Jenrick promised back in March that no renter who lost income due to coronavirus will be forced out of their home, but then a vote to stop evictions happening after this month was defeated in the Lords because Conservatives voted against it and Labour abstained. Ah there’s nothing like a strong opposition who just sits back, watches, doesn’t oppose anything and hopes they can still charge extortionate rents for all the homes they own. So that’s 55,000 private renters who are very likely in trouble. The government have said there is still a ban in place for evicting people in areas of local lockdown so judging by how things are going, everyone should still be fine till March. A housing minister said that they have to strike a balance so that landlords are able to access justice alongside measures to protect the vulnerable, as its vital to the health of the long-term rent sector. Trust the Conservatives to care about the health of something that’s not actually alive and is the one thing we all hoped coronavirus might kill off. The ban on evictions of commercial property tenants has been extended though, until the end of the year, meaning shop owners will only get turfed out just as Brexit hits and they can’t get any produce anyway.

Clap clap clap for the NHS, the government insisted, hoping the clapping might shoo many of its staff away like you might some geese. As their plans were foiled and people just appreciated the NHS even more, the government have instead been very quietly making things worse for international staff. The charge for people from abroad to use the NHS has gone up by £224, from £400 to £624 because you know it’s more expensive than before now you might go away with a goody bag full of COVID. Back in May the government said they’d remove the surcharge for NHS workers, but as none of them really understand how the NHS works, they only did it for doctors, nurses and paramedics, and not for the majority care workers probably because their name contains two things Boris Johnson doesn’t understand. Parking fees have also started to return at most hospitals, with government ministers saying that the free parking couldn’t continue indefinitely. Which yes we all know as one day the sun will explode and cars won’t exist. But you could at least have tried to do through the rest of a pandemic rather than an introductory offer. Everyone will just wish they’d gone to ICU back in March.

The Department of Education have updated the school curriculum for PSHE lessons, so materials that promote anti-capitalist sentiments, victim narratives such as colonial regret, accusations against state institutions such as institutional racism or groups that have violence against property such as Black Lives Matter or Banksy all by him or herself. Basically, they don’t want teachers teaching the kids anything about how massively shit they are, which is not only scary authoritarian stuff, but also means kids will miss out on some brilliant books. I mean Pippi Longstocking humiliates the police, is she now considered a terrorist by school standards? Or Horton Hears A Who, which presents the very socialist idea of a person is a person no matter how small, or Charlie and the Chocolate factory where the spoilt children have horrible outcomes or Winnie The Pooh where there’s a blonde bear who doesn’t wear any trousers and does careless things? I mean nearly all children’s books promote some notion of responsibility and how lying is bad so I’m not sure the government have thought this through, unless all children aged 4 and up are only to read Johnson’s book on Churchill every year which just seems cruel. The guidance also gives examples of what it calls are extreme political stances, which include the opposition to the right of freedom of speech, which hopefully means teachers can disregard all the rest of it about what materials are banned, and a very scary bit about ‘a failure to condemn illegal activities done in their name or in support of their cause’. That’s definitely the government expecting Muslim children to have to condemn terrorists who claim they are acting in the name of Islam, which is not something kids of any age should be remotely concerned about or made to be responsible for, especially from a government who if it was them would somehow just blame it on young people. On the plus side, children can use the internet and it turns out, there are some other opinions on there.

Major reforms to the gender recognition act have been scrapped after a three-year delay after bubble wrap and Minister for Women and Equalities Liz Truss said that oh it turns out, everything in the original one was great thanks and it doesn’t need any changes to make things easier for people to make changes. Which is bit rich coming from someone who’s changed her mind throughout the Brexit transition period and expected everyone else to make it easy and just suck up the costs. The plans were to revise the law so that the process for transgender people to legally change their gender would not be so convoluted but Truss decided it was actually the right amount of convoluted and at the most has reduced the cost of getting a gender recognition certificate and you can now do it online. Three new gender clinics will be opened to reduce the three-year waiting time to see a specialist, but none of it has really made anything easier. That is classic Liz Truss though, taking ages to make something pretty much as it was before or worse, and pretending she’s done something amazing. I’m amazed she didn’t add in discounts for blue cheese that no one asked for.

Up to 40 Conservative MPs are refusing to take part in unconscious bias classes, presumably because they’re very conscious of all of theirs and really enjoy it. The classes were to be piloted in parliament and were pioneered by Simon Wooley, a cross bench peer who founded Operation Black Vote. But MP and what if Ant fucked Dec Ben Bradley said Tories should be unabashed in their cultural conservatism, sticking up for free speech and the right to make my own bloody mind up thank you very much, because he’s a complete twat. Keir Starmer has made it mandatory for Labour MPs to do the very brief training and then probably won’t ever think about it ever again and go back to trying to sell racist mugs. Conservatives have all either undertaken or made arrangements to do a ‘valuing everyone’ training session which focuses on bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct though my concern is they all went thinking they’d learn how to do all those things more effectively.

There’s just some quick shit things. Remember you can write to your MP, even if they don’t reply or send something rubbish, it’s still worth doing it again and again like a small voice of conscience on their shoulder so they have at least one. Ben Bradley said he received 150 emails of support about him not doing unconscious bias training and none against, so I mean, if you live in his constituency of Mansfield, quickly tot up a few fake emails and send him a ton telling him how you are very consciously biased against him as he seems like the very worst of all people.

And now back to Andrew…

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREW PART 2

Thanks very much to Andrew. You can find him on Twitter @Andrew_Marcinko and his team at the Department of Psychology at Durham University are at @DurhamPsych. Shout out to Jack @Psycholojack for putting me in touch with Andrew too.

Ok, so I’d love to interview someone about the idea of cancel culture and there being a culture war, I still need a US politics expert as the one I was hoping to speak to is too busy, well, dealing with it all. So, any thoughts on who I could speak to for those things and any others I haven’t covered, or need to cover again in these extraordinary times, then please let me know. I’m also very keen to get more non-white guests on if possible too, because well, the diversity ratio of this show of late is so bad Laurence Fox would almost approve. Which of course you can do @Parpolbro on Twitter, the Partly Political Broadcast group on FB, the contact page on partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk that it seems I only ever get spam emails from about my SEO content or something which clearly isn’t working as it just attracts spam emails, or email me at partlypoliticalbroadcast@gmail.com. Or if you are a student currently imprisoned in your dorms then why not pop the suggestion on your window along with your signs saying ‘help’ and I will actually notice them on social media but never get round to contacting them as I’m too busy drawing up blueprints of how to get you all out based on Prison Break, which will ultimately fail. As always, it’s probably just best to email isn’t it?

END

And that’s all for this week’s Partly Political Broadcast podcast. This of course, is the end of the episode and so, for this week’s incredible PARPOLBROHOTPOLGOSSFACT is about which was or is the most useless British political party that’s ever existed? Obviously it’d be easy to name whichever of the main ones you don’t like, but without the Conservatives this show would just be me finding different electrical appliances to describe Keir Starmer as, which would get very boring after a while. And without Labour we’d have no idea that people could exist without ever having any opinions about anything. And without the Lib Dems. Nope. Sorry, can’t think of one. But aside from them, could it be the No Candidate Deserves My Vote! Party set up to highlight the need for a ‘none of the above’ option on the ballot paper, but ultimately the name just meant they never won any elections over the 11 years they were a party till 2012. Nor is it the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party who are a single-issue group who want to, yes, you guessed it, abolish the Welsh Assembly saying it’s a waste of money. How best to point that out? They’re spending money to run for a seat in the in 2021 Welsh Assembly elections. Sigh. It must be exhausting being them. No of course, it was the Independent Group for Change, formerly Change UK, formerly the Independent Group. Yes, as you can tell, the only thing they managed to change in the 10 months they existed, was their name, their handful of members of former parties before they all ran off to join the Lib Dems, everyone’s formerly favourable opinion of Nandos and Chukka Ummuna’s personal tick list of being in as many parties as possible before 2019 was over. With just 10,006 votes in the last general election, not enough to register as a percentage of the vote on Wikipedia’s page about it, they became yet another party who spent a lot of money on ensuring job losses. Just this time, it was mostly their own. That’s this week’s PARPOLBROHOTPOLGOSSFACT! If you enjoyed that and the rest of this week’s show, please do spread the good word, for that word is pod, to all who you know. If you hated it, please protest avidly against it, but you know with a big placard that has all the correct places to download and listen to it from. Thanks. If you also fancy donating to the show, or you know, just making sure I don’t have to record it from within a sleeping bag in the park, then please do that at ko-fi.com/parpolbro, the patreon.com/parpolbro or on the Acast support page. And of course if you really want to go all out, chuck us a nice 5 star review on the Apple Podcasts page or Acast or stitcher or castbox or wherever you get pods from.

Big thanking times to Acast, my brother The Last Skeptik, Kat Day, Scott Napier and Katie Coxall.

This will be back next week when as COVID levels rise again, Boris Johnson tells the country we have to all work together, from a holiday home in the Maldives while Rishi Sunak announces that he can’t save all the jobs but its only right he supports all the workers who are the Chancellor of the Exchequer with a 5% pay rise.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This week’s show was WEP the new track from Rishi.

‘I said certified chancellor

Only five days a week

Winter Economy Plan

That makes Christmas look bleak

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Yeah I’m fucking you with a Winter Economy Plan

Bring a bucket and a mop as it’s the only jobs we got in this WEP

I’m giving absolutely nothing that we’ve got for this Winter Economy Plan

Financially beat you up, everything’s extra charge

Extra stingy, life will be extra hard

Rub our double standards in your face

Swipe your nose with my credit card

Out now!

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