Further Reading

Linear liner notes

Nothing much has happened in the last week or since 2016. Well except in Northern Ireland, potentially. But other than that Brexit is still a mess, our next PM is going to be one of two awful people and Labour are still fighting themselves about anti-Semitism. Tiernan (@tiernandouieb) picks through the boring noise, and also has a chat to economist Danny Blanchflower (@D_Blanchflower) about how new book ‘Not Working – Where Have All The Good Jobs Gone?’

Links and sources of info from Katrina’s interview:

• • Danny Blanchflower on Twitter – https://twitter.com/D_Blanchflower
• • Not Working: Where Have All the Good Jobs Gone? (book) – https://press.princeton.edu/titles/13485.html
• • Simon Wren-Lewis on Twitter – https://twitter.com/sjwrenlewis
• • Mainly Macro blog – https://mainlymacro.blogspot.com/
• • Paul Krugman on Twitter – https://twitter.com/paulkrugman
• • Paul Krugman in the NY Times – https://www.nytimes.com/column/paul-krugman
• • Telegraph article reporting on question from the Queen – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/5912697/Queen-told-how-economists-missed-financial-crisis.html
• • William (Bill) Keegan on Twitter – https://twitter.com/williamkeegan

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

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Partly Political Broadcast, the comedy politics podcast that is straight to the point, but then realizes the point isn’t that comfy to sit on, so backs off and heads for the sofa. This is episode 151, I’m Tiernan Douieb and this week as barely Prime Minister and child’s charcoal interpretation of a staircase Theresa May tells US President and festering perianal abscess Donald Trump that his tweet telling ethnic minority Democrats to go back to where they came from is ‘unacceptable’, I wonder if she’s just disappointed he didn’t take her advice and just drive around a van with a billboard on it to get his racist message across instead.

It’s May’s last week as Prime Minister of the UK and its incredible to think how much has changed since she entered Number 10 just over 3 years ago, mainly because it’s absolutely nothing. We’d have had more progress in the country if May had been beaten to her post as PM by a wheelie bin. Judging by the state of things, I was tempted to have a lazy week this week and just post up a repeat episode as you’d hardly have been able to tell the difference. Actually that’s not true as three years ago, before she’d really started doing anything, some people had faith in the new leader of the country whereas now, left with the options of cocaine Pudsey Boris Johnson or alarmed cheese string Jeremy Hunt, I think they’d be able to drive all of the faith out of even the Pope till he was left bawling into his smock, denouncing God while plastering the inside of his Popemobile with pages from the Bible made sticky with spit, and refusing to leave until the world has burned.

The UK’s Ambassador to the US and police chief from almost any 90’s BBC series Sir Kim Darroch resigned from his post last week after the situation surrounding email leaks showing Darroch had called Donald Trump inept and uniquely dysfunctional escalated. I mean, how else did he think telling the truth while being part of the government was going to end? He should’ve known that correct form is just to pretend that the what if Okja was a white supremacist is at least able to feed himself and then if people ask what the massive dent on your head is from where you’ve been slamming it on a table in frustration or repeatedly face palming, you just say it’s a condition you have that stems from regular engagement with toxicity. While there were many attacks against Darroch from Trump himself, as well as Brexit Party leader and old Leatherface mask loosely hung up on a door hook Nigel Farage who made noise about being his replacement which I wasn’t entirely against but only because it meant Farage’d be in the UK less often than he is now. But Kim Darroch said that the main reason he resigned was after seeing Boris Johnson during the Conservative leadership debate refuse to answer four times if he’d back the Ambassador. Nothing more reassuring than seeing the man who’s about to replace the wolf feeder in chief refuse to say if you’re their next lunch because he wants to gobble all the feed for himself. Many claimed Boris has thrown Darroch under the bus, which I’m sure Johnson has a model diorama of at home that he made in his spare time. Of course Boris is going to be a Prime Minister who attacks the civil service rather than risk his own entirely untenable reputation, the fact they have civil in their job description probably means he sees them as part of PC culture he rails against and will likely seek to replace them with different pals from his stag do who he hopes will travel to other countries call the leader something racist, try to sleep with as many of their staff as possible and die after drunkenly falling off a balcony. Who the next UK ambassador to the US will be is yet to be decided but I hope they don’t pander to Trump and instead anoint Sadiq Khan or that giant inflatable Trump baby balloon.

As for the rest of the televised debate in question? Well the best thing about it was knowing you could avoid two sociopathic arseholes by just not watching one channel. I did watch it though, in the same way you might watch a public service broadcast about just how a giant tsunami will destroy your entire country, just so you can pretend you might actually have some control over how you die. The whole debate could’ve been replaced with the noise of a foghorn dubbed over everything Boris said and the sound of bin juice swilling in a bucket everytime Hunt did and you’d ended up with pretty much the same result, an hour long program that could’ve been renamed Mansplaining the musical. The main arguing appeared to be over when Brexit would happen as Boris still insists the UK will leave the EU by Halloween, probably because all those Michael Myers masks that look a lot like him are produced elsewhere and a no deal might mean there’s less chance people will think a Johnson is a lot shorter, has anemia and is threatening to trick or treat them. Its always trick. Always. Hunt has said that while he wants Brexit sorted by his birthday, on the 1^st of November as it would be quite nice aging while you know the country is decaying quicker than you are. But that’s a month later than his original pledge of it being in September, and Hunt’s now said he can’t promise Brexit will have happened by 2020. Judging by his previous negotiation skills with the junior doctors, I think a Jeremy Hunt prime minister might just keep pushing Brexit back, refusing to meet with anyone until someone else has to deal with it.

Boris said that the blame must lay with Iran for Nazanin Zahari Ratcliffe’s incarceration, that he undoubtedly made worse by implying she was a journalist. Which yes, it should, but he threw a ton of fire lighters onto what was a small bundle of hot sticks and so not claiming any responsibility for that and saying it was all Iran is like holding out a hand to someone who’s fallen onto train tracks and then slapping theirs as they reach for you and blaming the end result on the train driver. Later that week on an interview with Tolkien creation Andrew Neil, Boris was taken to task on his knowledge of GATT 24, the WTO rules that Johnson believes would make everything gravy in the UK after a no deal, and it turned out that Boris had only read paragraph 5b, the bit he always refers to, and hadn’t read 5c or the rest that renders his argument pointless. It’s tricky because ideally a prime minister who’s about to take the UK through a huge historical change should know what they are doing, but not reading all the terms and conditions is probably the most relatable thing Boris has ever done. The last leadership debate has just happened and included such gems as Boris saying there won’t be a general election until 2022, which seems naïve as by then, people will really hate him. Both condemned Trump’s tweets with Hunt saying that he has three half Chinese children, all British citizens and he’d be appalled if anyone told them to go back to China. Though that may be because half the time he thinks they’re from Japan. Of course none of this matters as most Conservative members have already voted, Jeremy Hunt will remain the public’s preferred option but only because he’s up against Boris but would absolutely lose against almost anything else like say, a lump of burning horseshit or a roadkill diseased badger. Boris will still win because Conservative party members have absolutely no concept or care for what the public want and the sooner they can elect someone who’ll likely kill off through incompetency everyone earning less than £80k a year, the better. Ultimately it’s obvious that we won’t get the leader we deserve but that’s because we deserve an old boot with a face drawn on it, filled with testes, which arguably would do a much better job than either Boris or Hunt.

Whoever wins, and it will be Boris, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to do anything they’ve said with Brexit unless they shut down parliament. Yes, it definitely seems like something Boris would do, that he’s render something completely useless then try to have his way with it. Various voices have said they’ll seek a legal challenge to stop such a thing happening and these voices, like a the world’s most boring charity single, include Former Prime Minister and man who was cursed to lose all his colour John Major, campaigner and extra from Law and Order Gina Miller, and Conservative MP and Narnia character Oliver Letwin. They’ve all said they’d take the government to court if parliament was prorogued, as any action like that from a PM would make Brexit a legal matter. I for one hope it happens, but only to see Boris try to defend himself in court after only having read one paragraph on how to do it.

Last week MPs overwhelmingly voted to change Northern Ireland’s law on same sex marriage and abortion if their parliament wasn’t reformed within 3 months by October 21st. So LGBTQI+ couples will likely have 10 whole days to get married before Brexit kicks in and everyone has to separate to increase their chances of survival. But while these changes are progressive, they also mean Westminster is using a bill that is largely there to keep public services running, to enforce some direct rule onto Northern Ireland. So that leaves the DUP aka the political embodiment of meals for one, in a tricky situation. Do they want to stamp out all semblance of happiness and women’s rights before they make an appearance or do they want to be even more British? I guess they’ll have to pray for a sign from God to let them know, and hopefully they’ll be waiting long past October 21^st before they hear back.

Labour are looking into an independent process for dealing with complaints of anti-Semitism after BBC’s Panorama revealed that senior officials in the party interfered with various disputes which is potentially best as that’d allow party members to fight with someone other than their colleagues for once. Ideally if the Conservatives could do it, then Labour might actually work together to oppose them instead. Disputes should be dealt with independently from the party and while its explicitly known that Corbyn’s team offered advice to the Labour disputes team after they sought it on a case of a Jewish member being accused of anti-Semitism, it reduces the independent validity of their department. Besides, hadn’t the disputes team heard of google? Labour disputed much of the content in the panorama episode pointing out, quite validly, that certain quotes were taken out of context, and less validly, that there isn’t the same level of coverage over Islamaphobia in the Conservative party. While that might be true, it’s really not the best defence to say ‘well hey, we’re not as racist as those guys.’ It’s like trying to get off a murder charge by pointing out you only killed one person so its not as bad as all those mass murderers out there. Left wing commentator and Herge creation Owen Jones pointed out that a number of the accusations mentioned in Panorama predated Miracle Max Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader, but then also said the music and camera work were hammy. That just isn’t how you argue a point. Its only racism if you use a multicam rig and ask Ramin Djwadi to do a soundtrack.

Deputy leader and star of Dexter’s Laboratory Tom Watson came under criticism after he demanded the Labour party’s general secretary and stock photo of a school governor Jennie Formby publish the party’s submission into a formal inquiry on the disputes issue, even though she had previously offered for him to see it twice and is currently taking time off for chemotherapy treatment. But then maybe that’s what Tom Watson meant when he said he wanted to tackle virulent bullying in the party, it was just that he wanted to be in charge of it, so it was done properly. Shadow Foreign Secretary and Van hater Emily Thornberry said that Labour must heed the message on anti-Semitism and not attack the messengers, presumably because it’d be pretty hard to get the message if they do. I mean, if everytime the postal worker arrives you lob a hammer at them, chances are you won’t be getting any more post.

In other news, Health Secretary and Mr Ratburn’s partner in Arthur Matt Hancock has announced that Amazon’s Alexa will now start offering official NHS advice when users ask health related questions. I can see that working. ‘You have a life threatening condition, you may also like build your own pine caskets.’ ‘You have a fungal infection. You may also like this home mushroom farm.’ ‘You appear to have ageusia meaning you’ve lost all taste. You may enjoy this album by Ed Sheeran.’

The Department of Exiting the EU are looking to hire four Senior Policy Advisors to work on finding alternatives to the backstop. Requirements are simply ‘needs magical powers’ and nothing else. MPs who left Change UK are now forming a cooperative parliamentary group called The Independents, which seems like a paradox. The group includes all those who had left their parties to join Change UK, then left Change UK and also Labour MP and weird baby and dad face swap John Woodcock who had the Labour whip withdrawn due to allegations of sexual harassment. So not sure what he needs is to be part of a group that swear they’re all doing their own thing.

And lastly, Liberal Democrat leadership candidate and Fast Show character Ed Davey has announced that the party must bring an end to austerity now. I guess if you started it, you might know how to stop it. I bet he wanders around making big statements about how he’ll turn off a tap he’s just turned on or close the front door he’s just opened too.

And UKIP’s leader and only man to have a wonton dumpling with eyes poked into it for a head Gerard Batten was going to stand for the party leadership after stepping down from the party leadership which he said he did to stop UKIP from folding, which is a big danger for a party with so many wrinkles. But the party NEC have banned him from doing so, but hey, he can’t be angry that they’ve decided not to let in someone they see as unsuitable. I mean, isn’t that exactly the sort of thing he supports?

ADMIN

Hey hey ParPolBrods. My goodness it was hard writing this week’s show. Nothing has changed at all. Its all no deal bravado, Tory leadership awfulness, Trump being racist, and Labour anti-Semitism. I mean seriously, is the news stuck? Are politicians incapable of progressing forwards with anything? I’m amazed the news isn’t just repeats from 2016 and all the presenters can just go and have a few weeks off till something actually happens again. I mean, I also partly blame my current levels of exhaustion due to much driving over the weekend and not much sleeping, all which add up to make Jack a tired boy and thus no jokes about things like the All Parliamentary Panel for whistleblowing because every possible joke I could think of was too bad. I’m not even going to mention any here, they were awful. The bit about the BBC Panorama on Labour was hard enough. I mean, I’m sure some of you will be angry whatever I write about that but it is possible to think the program both contained some important things and was badly done all at once. Same that it is entirely possible to think that there is anti-Semitism in Labour and sometimes it is used as a political tool against them. None of those thoughts are exclusive, unless you’re on Twitter where its only one or the other and either Corbyn is Hitler or whatever the opposite of Hitler is. Ghandi? Whoever the leader of the Care Bears was? I’ve never had to think about the opposite of Hitler before. Would it even be a person? It might be a dolphin or a milkshake or something. I’ll have to do some research. This is how all opinions are nowadays. You’re either left or right and not, like me, mostly left but a big fan of trainers and iPhones. Or you know you’re leave or remain and not, like me, critical of the EU and would possibly consider leaving if anyone remotely more sensible than the current government advocated it under an anti-globalization stance. Or your anti-Piers Morgan or think Piers Morgan is an awful arsehole and not, like me, spending at least 20 minutes every day hoping he falls in a well. But basically what I’m saying is, its all very complicated, I am way too tired to write about it properly this week and if go back to Episode 96 from April 2018 with actor and writer Marlon Soloman who talked to me about anti-Semitism if you want some more in-depth stuff on it there and really, and depressingly, not much has actually changed since then.

What a way to do the admin bit eh? Basically apologies for being too exhausted to do the podcast that you’re listening to properly. I mean, that’s anti-marketing isn’t it? I may as well try and sell food by boasting that I was too tired to cook it properly. Still, at least this show won’t make you feel sick all evening. Much. Thank you for continuing to tune in to what should be the last episode before the summer break if it wasn’t for the Tory leadership contest which means there’ll be some sort of episode next week. I don’t know what day it will come out on, but judging by those of you that got in touch, it’ll be on Wednesday instead of Tuesday but that might mean it doesn’t have a guest. Or it might do. Or it might just be me wrapping things up before we all try to enjoy the summer and not panic about the Boris Johnson shaped future, and what a shape. Like a duvet stuffed full of old porridge.

I’m not going to go on about donating to this show or reviewing it or any of that this week so just fill in those bits by yourself. I’ll even give you a few seconds if you like. Here you go.

All done? Good, I hope you’re better at persuading people to donate to the ko-fi or patreon or review the show than I am. If you’re really good, I may ask you to do it after the summer too, but no pressure I know you all lead busy lives. Or bus-y lives if you drive a bus. See? That’s the quality of gags I’m capable of today. I’m so sorry.

Not much else to mention today other than the Camden Fringe show that I’d love you all to come to on August 4^th and 5^th with tickets available via camdenfringe.com, and our kids politics show will be at Larmer Tree Festival on Sunday 21^st in The Social tent at 1pm, if you’re there with kids and fancy seeing that. And if you do have kids, please ask them to check out the Comedy Club 4 Kids podcast that started on Friday, as it’s very much not like that this one and occasionally even contains hope.

That is it. Not for the show obviously, for there is much more of that. This week I had a chat with labour economist, Danny Blanchflower. That’s labour economist as in labour meaning work, not for the party or giving birth as I’m not sure how you’d do the economics for that. We talked all about his fascinating new book ‘Not Working’ on why the unemployment rate being low still doesn’t mean things are fixed. Plus a wee look at the Northern Ireland Bill and what the votes of the past week actually mean. Spoiler: Potentially lots but also not. But before all that, have a bit of this in your mush:

INTERVIEW WITH DANNY PART 1

There are various things that Theresa May has liked saying in a lot in her time as Prime Minister. One was the word Brexit that she liked saying so much she made a phrase that had it in it twice, like political cous-cous. Then there was strong and stable that were sadly never used to describe a really great horse home, and ‘the last Labour government’ who she blamed for everything including lots of things that happened in the years they weren’t in power. Another favourite of the nearly not Prime Minister anymore was pointing out just how amazing it was that the Conservatives had created 3 million jobs and the unemployment rate hasn’t been as low as it is now, since 1974. That’s a pretty great sounding boast. I mean creating a job can’t be easy, it’s definitely up there with album titles or new superheroes, so 3 million sounds tough. Biscuit manager? That’s probably one. Aerial surveyor monitor? That’s someone who watches someone who watches the sky. It’s probably another one…. Yes I am being silly, that’s not what May meant. But what she has never specified is exactly what those 3 million jobs are, why the unemployment rate is so low and why despite both of those facts, the amount of people in poverty is rising, food bank usage is soaring, the amount of zero hours jobs have risen and wage growth has stagnated more than that drawer in my fridge I forgot to empty before I went on holiday and am now too scared to open. Its clear that all is not what it seems, but not in an exciting magician type way. More in a brush all the dirt under the carpet way and hope to god no one checks. Under carpet checker was definitely not one of the jobs they’ve created.

Luckily, economist Danny Blanchflower has done exactly that. Danny, real name David but is nicknamed after the Tottenham player, is a labour economist, meaning he looks at all the facts, figures and data surrounding work and employment, and he also likes to use the economics of walking about, which as you’ll hear in a minute, means he gets to really see what’s going past the headlines and surface numbers. In his new book ‘Not Working – Where Have All The Good Jobs Gone?’ he looks at exactly why we still haven’t recovered from the recession of 2008 and why so many people are still feeling the burn of its effects despite what Theresa May says. I have to make a confession which is that while I usually like to read the books of my guests before I speak to them, I only received this a few days before speaking to Danny, so I got through about half of it before we chatted, but sadly not all. I have finished it now though and it’s a fascinating and eye opening read about the current state of things, and most importantly, for an economics noob like me, it’s very clear and easy to read despite all the maths that my stupid comedian brain can’t usually handle. I was very pleased that Danny was up for having a chat and before I even got to ask him questions he was recommending Steven Colbert videos to me that I hadn’t seen, which is the sort of thing that lets me immediately know we’re going to have a good conversation. Hope you enjoy. Here is Danny….

INTERVIEW WITH DANNY PART 1

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

MIDDLE BIT

Northern Ireland is, by all accounts, still there, despite what many Brexiteers would have you think. But while much of the talk surrounding the bit of the UK across the sea is all about having ‘special futuristic cyber alien technology to monitor the border that we’ll be given by a time traveler in our hour of need why won’t you just trust me?’ what’s largely forgotten is that NI doesn’t currently have a government of its own. The Northern Ireland Assembly was collapsed in 2017 following the whole cash for ash scandal and a whole heap of other disagreements between the DUP and Sinn Fein, and nothing’s been sorted out for the last two years, with the current next deadline when the Northern Ireland secretary, whoever it may be by then, will have to call an Assembly election, being extended to October 21^st. There’s also a chance it can be extended further till 13^th January 2020 if needs be, which it probably will. But it ain’t great having two years of absolutely no legislation so some of that has been passed to Westminster to keep things ticking over, because if you need to get something done within a limited time period, them’s the team to do it, right? Oh. Oh well.

So here we have the Northern Ireland Bill, or Northern Ireland Executive Formation Bill for long. That’s meant to just be for extending the deadline for an assembly election and for the Secretary of State to report on it all. Except it’s a bit of legislation and such is the rules with any bit of legislation, it can have amendments added to it. This time round Labour MPs Stella Creasy and Conor McGinn put forward amendments to make same-sex marriage legal in NI if an executive rule has not been restored by October 21^st, as well as adding in amendments for abortion rights too. Both of those were overwhelmingly voted for in Parliament last week and now this is being seen as a watershed moment for the country moving towards a more progressive future in line with the rest of the UK, apart from all the non-progressive stuff we’re still doing. And this is, all pretty tickety boo great and long overdue. Except that, there’s two big issues.

One is that this doesn’t mean that’ll become law yet. First it has to get through the Lords, who include Lord McCrea from Magahrafelt and Cookstown and looks like a haunted Bill Murray, who stood up today saying that he would be speaking for the voices of the unborn, which is weird as they probably wouldn’t be able to speak yet. Sadly, he didn’t then gurgle and make baby noises for 5 minutes, which I think means nothing he said was legit. But then, as a nod to how things are changing, you also had Lord Trimble the former Ulster Unionist leader who had previously voted against the Civil Partnerships Bill, but told the House of Lords that he can no longer oppose it after his elder daughter got married to her girlfriend. Although we’re crediting him for getting with the times but I guess there’s every chance in his old fashioned mind he just assumes two women together won’t be needing an abortion anytime soon and so it’s the lesser of the two evils. Though I very much hope not. The debates on these will be going on all week and its possible the Lords will change things or add more amendments before it goes back to the commons.

But here’s the other issue, as well as these being two important changes to Northern Irish legislation, there is a lot of concern that this is overriding Northern Irish democracy and as DUP MP and one big forehead with eyes Nigel Dodds said he feels the Commons votes ‘have driven a big coach and horses through the principle of devolution.’ Which very much shows what era he’s from. While same sex marriage being passed through Westminster might actually be seen as a blessing from the DUP, as that removes it from negotiations with Sinn Fein, it raises the question of what else will pass through Parliament that should be done through the Assembly, which could then damage further attempts to restore it. None of which I guess would matter too much if there wasn’t quite such a history of direct rule in NI and the troubles it caused before-hand, and thoughts on what might happen now if this continues and there’s a whacking great big border wall erected there too. Sympathies too with liberal minded Northern Irish people who want same sex marriage and abortion rights but it means siding with a loss of devolution for them to do so, and much less sympathies for the DUP who don’t want those things but did also say they wanted the same as Britain when it came to Brexit. Further proof that cherry picking with these matters just doesn’t work.

Neither Boris or Hunt voted on the same sex marriage bill, despite later claiming that they supported it. So it’s likely that whichever of them becomes PM, and it’ll be Boris, we’ll see a stance on Northern Ireland that mostly involves them forgetting its there all over again and praying for that time traveler to appear some day soon.

And now back to Danny…

INTERVIEW WITH DANNY PART 2

Thanks so much to Danny for having time to chat. Danny’s new book is called ‘Not Working – Where Have All The Good Jobs Gone?’ and is available now in hardcover or kindle versions from all good bookshops though how you judge the morality of your bookshop is totally up to you. I’d probably base it on system of alphabetizing and how many books they have on display by BeeGee on steroids crossed with an excitable shaggy dog Joe Wicks. But I’m sure you have your own criteria. You can follow Danny on Twitter @D_Blanchflower and thank you too to Princeton University Press for sending me a copy of ‘Not Working’ and putting me in touch with Danny. You can follow them @PrincetonUPress on Twitter and check out all their other publications at press.princeton.edu.

There may or may not be a guest next week and either way, after the summer break I’ll be back to needing loads of them. So if you have someone you’d like me to contact or something you’d like me to find someone to talk to about, please do 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 as it’s the 50^th anniversary of the moon landing, why not spend 8 years training to be an astronaut, wait until there is another mission to actually land on the moon which may never happen again and then once up there, assuming you’re allowed out and aren’t just the Buzz of the group, write the name of the interviewee you’d like to suggest in giant letters on the moon’s surface. That way when the moon is full, and assuming I’m still doing the podcast by then, I’ll be able to see it and jot it down, or more likely, I’ll miss it due to bits of clouds or only see it when half-moon and get someone else with the same first name. Or you could also get one of Kubrick’s living relatives to film you doing all that in a studio somewhere where the shadows are all wrong, depending on your opinion obviously. Either way, it’s probably just easier to email isn’t it?

END

And that’s all for this week’s Partly Political Broadcast podcast. Thanks again for choosing to use up your allocated pod time allowance on this show meaning the only rations you have left allow you to hear the opening theme to This American Life and probably an advert at the start of Adam Buxton’s podcast. I’m sure these pod rations will one day be lifted and you’ll be allowed to hear all of an egg being powdered before long. If you do enjoy this show, please give it a lovely review on whichever pod site you use, donate to the ko-fi or patreon accounts and shout it from the rooftops that people should listen to this, though maybe not when it’s raining or from particularly high rooftops as I’d hate to be responsible for any accidents. Unless you could plug it on your way down as I think that’d be very effective. LISSSSTEEEEN TOOOO PAAARPPPOLLLLBROOOAAAARRGGHH. Something like that.

Thanks as always to Acast, to my brother The Last Skeptik for all the tunery and to Kat Day for all the linear linear notes that end up on partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk every week.

This will be back next week on a Wednesday instead of a Tuesday, when completely unexpectedly, Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson receive the exact same amount of votes and have to share the job of Prime Minister. Boris does Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Hunt Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sunday, the rest of the Conservatives get put into a lottery style system and everyone will get a go before Christmas. Except one Sunday when Chris Grayling gets a go and breaks it and ruins it for everyone.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This week’s show was sponsored by Matt Hancock’s Internet of Things Connected To The NHS. Why stop at Alexa thought Matt, when all of your devices can be linked up the official advice of our incredible health service. Want something from your wifi enabled fridge? With the new NHS connecting ability it just won’t open if you want to eat anything containing, well, anything. Watch out, that cheese might kill you. Beware, bacon can cause cancer. I have ordered you 500 salads. NHS wifi enabled thermostat will make sure your heating is only on in the summer, and absolutely freezing in the winter and any lights will be overly bright until 10pm when they’ll all turn off. Your smart TV will charge £9.90 for TV and movies and your new NHS Wifi enabled car will charge you extortionate rates to park, well anywhere. Matt Hancock’s Internet Of Things Connected To The NHS, because why make the health service better when you can just connect an iPad to it?

CLICK TO GO BACK