Further Reading

Linear liner notes

Episode 157 [and a bit] – It’s all go at the Labour Conference 2019 and by all go, I mean it’s the usual infighting, confusing Brexit positions and some radical policies that have been overshadowed by the other two things. Plus a look at private schools and Tiernan (@tiernandouieb) talks to Emma McClure about the Supreme Court ruling and Boris’s ‘tough on crime’ stance. [And the extra bit] An update is needed as the supreme court has officially said that Boris is a very naughty man. So time for some very poor not very well written emergency gags from Tiernan (sorry, all the best ones were on the full episode this week, so listen to that first) and this week’s guest Emma McClure has very kindly sent in a recording to explain it all. FULL EPISODE NEXT WEEK…UNLESS SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENS BEFORE THEN.

Links and sources of info from Emily’s interview:

• • Emma’s page at Swain & Co – https://www.swainandco.com/team-view/emma-mcclure/
• • Skeptics with a K podcast – http://www.merseysideskeptics.org.uk/category/podcast/skeptics-with-a-k/
• • Opening Arguments podcast – https://openargs.com/
• • The Secret Barrister on Twitter – https://twitter.com/BarristerSecret
• • Adam Wagner on Twitter – https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1
• • Better Human podcast on Twitter – https://twitter.com/bhumanpodcast
• • Rights Info on Twitter – https://twitter.com/rights_info
• • Joanna Hardy on Twitter – https://twitter.com/Joanna__Hardy   
• • Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence page on Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprisonment_for_public_protection
• • IPP Familys Campaign – http://ippfanilycampaign.blogspot.com/

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 would get straight to the point but to keep in line with the current batch of MPs, instead circles the point for a while, then pretends to go for it but runs in the opposite direction before blaming someone else for the mess and eventually misses it completely. This is episode 157, I’m Tiernan Douieb and as the Labour Conference 2019 shows, they really are the party for the people, in that most people right now are very confused and massively divided with very little idea what to do about it. But its ok because the whole conference voted to uphold the NEC’s stance on Brexit which is that Labour promise to have a second referendum within 6 months if they win a general election, after which they’ll have a one-day conference to decide which way to campaign. I think that’ll be great as it’ll be a lovely historical re-enactment get together distraction from the horrors of the no deal that will have passed 8 months earlier.

It’s a victory for Labour leader and face drawn on a nutmeg husk Jeremy Corbyn as conference votes show the entire party back being vague about Brexit depending on which way the wind is blowing, the alignment of the stars and exactly how many weeks it’s been since Shadow Secretary of State and most available pop head toy Barry Gardiner appears on TV to say the party’s stance is something it never has been. So now Labour are definitely pushing for a general election even though they’ve just blocked one, so instead will wait till after an Article 50 extension which isn’t definite, is passed, and then hopefully have one afterwards, if they win, which according to a leader who has openly said being PM is daunting prospect and polls who suggest the public think the same, they’ll negotiate a new deal that they may not be able to do and then have a referendum where they’ll back something they decide on in a conference that might not happen on outcomes that may not exist. It feels a lot less like a solid Brexit policy and more a creative writing exercise given to a very, very dull 5-year-old. While all their classmates have written about actual unicorns, this child has just made metaphorical ones based on trade deal proposals. It’s likely his parents will be called in for a chat with the teacher. Brexit has very much divided the nation and trying to unite people & somehow respect both sides wishes is definitely applaudable, and it’s one of those stances that the annuls of history will look back on and maybe see as the most bridge building and progressive. However, it’ll probably also preface the paragraph about ‘and that’s why no one voted Labour in the 2019, 2020, or 2021 elections.’ The notion of leadership in the UK still very much comes from history and fiction whereby everyone wants someone bold, strong and preferably with a sword to be a surrogate parent figure and allow them to spare very little thought for everything going on because Strictly’s started up again and Anneka Rice is on it so she’ll be able to run around in a jumpsuit trying to find clues as to who all the other supposed celebrities are. Sadly for Corbz, this doesn’t give much hope for a wannabe leader who isn’t really a wannabe leader, doesn’t have a sword but only a large courgette and would really like you to do some work towards our society’s future if you don’t mind so much. General Secretary of Unite and large shrew Len McClusky told the conference that ‘we should not let anyone define or divide us as leavers or remainers. What defines us is that we are socialists.’ Right and socialism means you want to tackle the elite bureaucracy of the EU, but also unite with all the workers in the European Union. So really it might be best for the party that rather than campaign, just hide for a while and hopefully it’ll have all blown over by Christmas. 2050. After which it might be time for a second referendum.

The new slogan for this year’s Labour conference is People Over Privilege which also works as they seem yet again far more focused on attacking each other rather than the Conservatives. Some events like to kick off with a big opening ceremony and that was obviously the 2019 Labour Party conference’s aim too, as they kicked off proceedings with a grand sacrifice of the Deputy Leader and sickly white Gok Wan tribute act Tom Watson, which then fell through meaning that it ended up being a self-sacrifice instead, probably in order to appease the gods of media and twitter. It makes sense that the NEC wanted to get rid of Watson in the same way you’d want to remove a thorn in your side in that its uncomfortable, hinders everything and once you remove it from the larger body its connected to, you realise it’s just an annoying little prick. Watson has been king of the saboteurs in Labour ever since his involvement in Falkirk in 2012 where he tried to crowbar his manager into being selected for the MP candidate as Unite signed up its members to join the local party without them knowing so the union would get a bigger say. Still it’s nice to think that there was a point when Watson tried to ruin his own party without having to tell everyone about it first. With his recent criticism of Labour’s neutral Brexit stance just one day after it was announced because Watson is too acidic to be neutral on anything, and the party aware that if Jeremy Corbyn steps down, then Tom is in line to be acting leader which would probably confuse him as to what stance to take if he couldn’t insult the leader anymore and end up disbanding the party just so he could do all the interviews about how awful they were to let someone like himself be in charge when he’s obviously a self-saboteur.

But then why the NEC and Momentum decided to bring up that motion the very weekend that all eyes were pointed even sharper at the party than the dagger like stares they usually get is beyond me. It’s very impressive to look at the absolute chaos of the Conservative party right now and somehow assume that the only way you’ll get to Number 10 is by being displaying an even bigger sense of divide, as though politics is some sort of dance off where on your turn, you head into the ring and kick yourself violently to a beat faster and more viciously than your competitor. So Watson received a text message on Friday while he was in a Chinese restaurant saying he was being abolished, which to be fair, is often what’s happened to me in a Chinese restaurant especially if there’s a buffet. But by Saturday morning after a major hoo ha by press and supporters of Watson within the party, the head of Momentum and a man who always looks like he’s purchased a very cheap Amish fancy dress costume Jon Lansman had withdrawn the motion to scrap the Deputy Leader position. I was certain it would only take 30 minutes for Watson to then tell the press that Labour were stupid for not getting rid of him and that he now backed removing his own position before a general election. Instead he said that Labour is a broadchurch, which is why like the TV series he thinks it’s often about grief and media attention. Watson said what Labour needed was unity and then within 24 hours made a speech saying Lansman was the Lee Harvey Oswald of the party. Which is an odd analogy as if Watson means that he is Kennedy, then he should be dead right now as Oswald was, and don’t quote me on this, fairly successful. Unless Watson doesn’t see himself as JFK, and instead he is just one of the bystanders watching the motorcade who shouted very loudly after the shooting that Oswald had done it all wrong and that he should’ve got arrested before firing the gun as that would’ve been more effective. Watson followed this by calling Lansman the hitman that missed, so not Oswald then, but let’s be fair, Tom has worked very hard on making sure there’s less of him to target. Corbyn has now said the position of Deputy Leader should be reviewed which I imagine Tom is delighted about and will try his best to get 5 stars. The Labour leader said of Watson that he’s done very well on media reform, online gambling and exposing the way sugar has a deleterious effect on our lives, which does seem like a snarky way of saying ‘well done for losing weight but you’re still annoying.’

This fiasco and Corbyn’s senior aide and a man who looks like he’s about to release an album on his bandcamp Andrew Fisher has said he’ll quit by the end of the year, he says to see his family but the Times said is because he doesn’t think Corbyn will win the next election. Fair play, makes sense not to bother with a proper Brexit stance then eh? I mean, why waste the time? But aside from this, Labour launched some very interesting policies including scrapping prescription charges in England which is obviously such a nutty, completely undoable and crazy money draining idea. Unlike in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where this is already exactly what happens. There’s a policy to move to a 32-hour working week, technically just 4 days, with no change in pay, which Labour say they’ll aim to do within a decade. But I guess if there’s only 4 days in a week that means in about 2 and a half year’s time. They’d vowed to scrap Ofsted as they believe it only scores inadequate and needs to be replaced with a two-phase inspection system. So, I guess that’s stun then kill? Yes that was a Star Trek joke. Yes you’re welcome. And the policy that the conference backed that’s really upset the internet is that the party want to back the abolition of private schools, which is obviously an outrageous idea as that’d mean all the rich children would have to mix with normal kids and therefore it’ll be much harder to remove the empathy from them by the time they become Prime Minister. Several commentators have said is hypocritical of Labour as several of the top team went to them, including Corbyn. Thing is, they won’t have decided that, that’ll be their parents decision and having been through it, they know what they’re like. If we’re blaming MPs for choices they make now that differ from what they did aged 11, then we should also do the opposite and praise Conservative MPs for still thinking exactly like children and trying their best to shut down schools as often as possible. By the time you hear this the conference will likely also have voted on abolishing detention centres, which is a shame because I think they could combine policies and just move all private school pupils to Yarl’s Wood where they’ll be so private absolutely no media attention will ever come their way.

Prime Minister and sandbags kicked together by a sad horse Boris Johnson was confronted in a hospital by an angry dad with a sick child, which has probably happened to him loads before but usually only because the dad has just found out the child is actually Johnson’s. The man told him that the NHS has been destroyed while he does a press opportunity, to which Boris replied that there’s no press, despite there very obviously being cameras and press there which is obvious and blatant lying. But also rubbish lying, I mean at least try and say there’s no press in an Obi Wan voice, or say they’re actually robot people he’s showing round on a diplomatic mission, or if he’s such the comic whizz, why not just slam the protestor down with a heckle like ‘oh the NHS is destroyed is it? Like your mum! BAM!’ Except instead he just flustered like a shredded wheat in a vaccum cleaner and lied. Luckily for him the press focused on how the protestor is a Labour activist, rather than on how it was lucky Boris was near to A&E when his pants went on fire, as we all know you can only criticize the PM if you might vote for him, or are on Have I Got News For You when he’s hosting. Not to trumpet the biased media line but its very clear that had it been a Tory activist confronting Corbyn, well firstly he’d have shouted ‘We’ve destroyed the NHS, why haven’t you?’ but also all the headlines would say ‘Corbyn Has Done A Big Fat Lie and Got Pwned So Hard They Took Him To One Of The Wards.’ Or if an upset Brexit voter had confronted Lib Dem leader and out of season shopping centre Santa’s Helper Jo Swinson then the headlines would’ve been ‘No news today, absolutely nothing of note has happened.’ Let’s be fair, there is a chance Boris is too stupid to know what the cameras were there for and assumed they were fans of his, maybe no one really knows how to do their job and maybe this is all a dream and we died in 2013.

The rest of Boris’s week involved another failed Jedi Mind Trick as the government told the Supreme Court that they have no jurisdiction over the prorogation of parliament, even though that is literally what they’re deciding if they do or not and it’s their job to work that out. What they didn’t need was someone who may have been conducting unlawful procedures to try and tell them. It’d be like running up to a building surveyor to shout ‘you can’t build here’ as they’re trying to work out if they can, and why you’ve got a hammock in the corner and very grim looking bucket. The Supreme Court will announce their decision on Tuesday morning, probably by the time you hear this and the government have promised they will abide by whatever it is, even though loads of the proroguing has already happened. Great work. Next time why not tell people they need to put out that bonfire that’s now just a few smoldering sticks and a depressed potato. Its looking likely that it won’t be in Johnson’s favour and I only hope that his Home Secretary and unpopular Picasso painting Priti Patel is ready and waiting to make him feel terror. Though that can probably only really be done by not paying him attention for more than 2 minutes.

If it’s not ruled unlawful then Johnson and future Prime Ministers will be able to suspend parliament willy nilly whenever they can’t be arsed to do something or want to push things through which is scary but on the other hand, this podcast will be able to go monthly.

This could also be a week where Johnson gets the long arm of the law reaching around to grab him by the straw pubes on more than one occasion as its been revealed that he failed to declare a conflict of interest when giving privileged access and a ton of money to a tech entrepreneur while he was London Mayor. On his flight to New York for the UN General Assembly Boris refused to answer questions about funding his close friend six times, saying he was just there to talk about he’s doing at the UN. Though to be fair maybe he didn’t realise it was press asking him and thought he was being bothered by an over enthusiastic tourist. Meanwhile the International Trade Secretary and congealed silly string Liz Truss apologized to the Court of Appeal after she accidentally sold weapons to Saudi Arabia twice after a pledge to not do that due to how they’re ruining Yemen. How clumsy do you have to be to accidentally sell weapons to an authoritarian regime? We really need to bubble wrap Truss now and pop a cycle helmet on her or before you know it she’ll trip up and sell Trident to Kim Jong Un.

The UK has submitted alternative ideas to the backstop to the EU in what’s known as non-papers, probably because they had nothing on there that you would usually bother to print or write as it’s a total waste of tree life. The EU have dismissed all the ideas and said it’s a backwards step, though to be fair if the UK government take more of those we’ll end up pre-referendum so maybe that could work. On Friday millions of people all round the world joined schoolchildren in striking to fight climate change. Education Secretary and skin wrapped around some wind up teeth Gavin Williamson said children should be in school instead of protesting. Well you should be in parliament instead of bunking off to cock up the future you hypocritical twat. At the UN General Assembly, Greta Thunberg made a passionate speech telling world leaders they are failing children and accused them of stealing her dreams and childhood with their empty words, which really shows all those twee shops that dreamcatchers aren’t worth it as all you really need is an ignorant Prime Minister.

And lastly, holiday firm Thomas Cook have collapsed causing the loss of jobs for 22000 staff worldwide and leaving 155,000 holidaymakers either stranded or without a trip. Johnson has said the government won’t bail out the firm for £150m because it’s a moral hazard, which I guess is because The Conservatives priorities of spending £1bn on the DUP or £100m on Get Ready for Brexit leaflets qualifies for funding as they’re immoral ones. Canadian Prime Minister and Flatliner Matthew McConnaughy Justin Trudeau has rightly got in a lot of shit after photos emerged of him wearing blackface at a party in 2001, where he was supposedly dressed as Aladdin. Though there is some confusion about which Aladdin as if it’d have been the Disney one, he’d have needed to make his face lighter than it is. Canadians go to the polls on October 21^st and Trudeau’s chances have been pretty hampered by this along with two other photos and the PM stating that he doesn’t know how many times he did it, showing he’s even more racist as he insisted on blacking up and out on regular occasion. And leader of UKIP and onboard train poster for erectile dysfunction Richard Braine is refusing to turn up to his party conference on account of low ticket sales, which is strange as I’d assumed he was all about letting in as few people as possible.

ADMIN

Yeeaaaaahhhhh welcome back ParPolBrods, how goes you? I have been doing the kids politics show ‘How Does This Politics Thing Work Then?’ that I do with Tatton Spiller of Simple Politics fame, and this past weekend we were at the lovely artsdepot and at the end of it a little girl came to ask us if Brexit will happen, because, as her mum told us, she was terrified she’d have to leave her home. Adorable and sad too, especially as after we spoke I reported her to the home office because you just can’t be too safe nowadays eh? No we did actually reassure her that she should be fine but also used the word should because if we all no deal it it could go like the Purge and then no one’s home will be safe really. We also had some adults ask us why their MP doesn’t do the things they were elected to do, for example their MP is in a remain constituency and is voting for all Boris’s nonsense. Let me tell you, it requires a heroic level of restraint when asked such a question to not shout ‘because he’s a piece of shit’ because you’re aware that children are around and they may get scared they’ll have to leave their homes. Being non-partisan is very hard folks, very hard. Play that tiny violin please. That’s it, that’s been my life this past week, lots of gigs and shows and things to do, all while all I actually want to do is play Untitled Goose Game which is unbelievably good if you’re into that sort of thing and by that sort of thing I mean computer games and playing as a horrible goose. It feels like a very small revenge for climate change being able to honk at villagers and break their things. I can almost see why Zeus went all swan for a bit. Almost. I mean he went real creepy with it and this game is far more family friendly. What am I talking about?

What I should be saying is thanks again for being here, and big thanks to Rob for the ko-fi this week which is appreciated and should you also, like Rob, fancy buying me a coffee you can of course do that, or better still, go to the ko-fi.com/parpolbro and then I’ll buy it, but with your money so you don’t even have to go outside and basically winter now so should really stay indoors till March. Or go to the patreon.com/parpolbro and buy me a coffee using dollars just so I can really upset the people in my local costa. If you can’t, won’t or simply don’t understand how to do that then please review the show on one of the reviewy podcast places like iTunes or your phone notes and then find it in three years time and have no idea what it means. Or please just tweet and all that about the podcast if you enjoy and then people online can ignore it in order to argue about private schools instead.

The live gig is still very much happening and I believe there are so many tickets that I might forgoe the whole night just to give the audience a tour round some chairs. But seriously, its October 29^th, it will be very much like this, but you know, actually there and therefore, unable to go out of date quite so quickly. I promise not to talk about Zeus’s swan MeToo moment. It’s all at 2Northdown in Kings X, starts at 8.30 and tickets I believe are £10 with a one pound booking fee just to be annoying. You can buy those at tickettext.co.uk if you search for the podcast name or BrexitZOMGWTFBBQ.

On this week’s show I am speaking to former and now recurring podcast Emma McClure all about what the supreme court stuff means but in language I might understand, plus a little look at private schools but only a little one as they’re private. I do think they should make the entrance of private schools like private shops, you know all frosted windows etc. It’d definitely put parents off taking their kids there anyway. I really should’ve stuck to the swan stuff right? Have some of this:

INTERVIEW WITH EMMA PART 1

The Supreme Court, the only court in the UK set up by a Motown group with the aim of judging whether or not defendants should stop in the name of love. No, sorry, what I mean is the Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the UK and then once a case has gone there, that’s it and even in the current day there won’t be a reboot or sequel that ignores the last few iterations like they haven’t happened. Whether or not Boris Johnson’s proroguing of parliament is lawful is at the time of recording, being discussed by the judicial committee and you should, by the time you hear this, if you’re listening after Tuesday morning have found out if Johnson is in trouble for clearing out the office too early or not. And if he is, what will be done about it considering a lot of proroguing time has already passed, so unless parliament are recalled immediately to discuss time machine possibilities or deciding September is an extra-long month now, then it still won’t change the fact there’s really not much time for all the MPs to discuss exactly which unfeasible Brexit option they dislike the most. The outcome is important though for determining whether any future Prime Minister will be able to just shut down parliament for a year to their convenience, have a very long holiday and leave us all to work things out…oh no wait, I thought that sounded like a bad thing but the more I think about it, if we just didn’t see Boris Johnson and he didn’t do anything till, say 2022, I reckon we’d have a fairly nice time. But no, it’s not a good thing and more so, this is about the future of British politics, if it still has one before climate change kicks in and we all revert to barbarism. So, are the courts more powerful than parliament or is it the other way round or neither or somehow both in a big mish mosh that can only really be resolved by either a magic hat or some sort of duel? Probably not the latter. But if you’re like me, aka an idiot, you may be bewildered by all the legalese which google translate is really little help on. And all this is happening meanwhile the Prime Minister is promising to be tough on crime which is an odd choice when he may be a guilty party. Either, like most things he does, he hasn’t thought it through or he’s really into masochism but in a very long drawn out way. We can only hope that Johnson decides to look into NHS reforms in the same way and ends up spending at least a few months in a coma.

This week I spoke to prison and public law solicitor Emma McClure. Emma was on this show way back on episode 37 discussing the depressing state of prisons and she very kindly offered to come back on the show and explain just what all the supreme court debates and potential outcomes would mean, as well as catching up with whether Boris’s proposals for longer prison sentences are at all feasible in an already overcrowded and poorly managed prison system or will it just lead to cells becoming like a very cruel human Tetris? So even if you’ve heard the result by now, I hope this chat will clear up why it happened, what that result means, just what a mess our current prison system is and how little I understood any of it until I spoke to Emma. Here you go:

INTERVIEW WITH EMMA PART 1

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

MIDDLE BIT

Adding private to a term really changes what it means doesn’t it? If you ask someone if you can have a private conversation everyone else in the office knows that either you’re having an affair, or one of you is about to get fired. Or both at the same time. A private dance is no longer someone sloppily Gangnam styling it while drunk, but instead that same person sloppily Gangnam styling it while drunk, but in your face and with no pants on. Similarly private schools is a term that changes an institution that we know to be about access to education and learning into something where parents pay lots of money for their children to become socially inept. I am of course, being flippant but Labour’s pledge to abolish private schools during their conference this week has caused outrage online with many saying that a system where a better education can be bought by those with wealth is needed and the strain it would put on a normal school system to suddenly take in 615,000 pupils who will assume most of the other pupils are there to serve dinner or deliver something, will be too much for it to cope with. Mainly because its massively underfunded while private schools avoid tax on their stupidly high term fees because they have charity status but you know who’s being picky? But a good education should be free for everyone because as Nelson Mandela said it’s the most powerful weapon with which you can use to change the world. I mean I’d argue a nuke warhead is worse but I suppose I did go to school and now I know that so maybe he’s right. If 93% of the country can’t afford that weapon then how have they any hope of fighting for their future? Well, with a nuclear warhead but I probably wouldn’t advise it.

Now look, it’s obvious I’m biased here as I went to a state school and I’ve turned out alright so it’s obvious that my friend’s brother getting stabbed in our playground or one of my classmates getting done for armed robbery hasn’t made any difference in my ability to earn very little money in later life. However if I had gone to private school which I couldn’t have done because I was not rich or clever enough but mostly the rich bit, then I could’ve been one of the 7% of the population who did and could’ve now ended up with one of the 45% of wealthiest and most prominent jobs. 65% of all British judges are privately educated, 57% of the lords, 43% of news reporters and even 44% of actors because nothing helps you portray a wide range of people like not having any access to them. Boris Johnson is the 20^th PM to come from just one private school, Eton, so named after the answer to the question ‘what did you do with all the underprivileged people round here?’ Of course, some children from disadvantaged backgrounds do make it into private schools but the figure amounts to just 1% of their overall intake and average fees per year restrict most people from ever sending their children there £17k per term is over half the average national income. At the moment the schooling system means children’s education is based on how much their parents earn rather than their ability. There’s also evidence of more than usual level of abuse cases with 425 people at private schools accused of sexual attacks since 2012. That was only based on reports from half of the police forces in the UK, so the actual number is likely to be higher. Last year only 1 in 10 private schools met the national criteria for safeguarding which is very low, but I suppose who needs safeguarding when you’ve got financial security and there’s nothing easier than just paying things like that to go away or at least pretend it’s a character building exercise for when their pupils end up in government.

But is abolishing private schools the right thing to do? Couldn’t we just demand they only teach magic there and they can only be accessed by a train that runs from an imaginary platform? Well firstly abolition isn’t about raising all these schools to the ground. Its about integrating them into the school system, so all the funds and property would be, as Labour say ‘redistributed fairly.’ At the moment private schools don’t contribute much to the economy at all. Over half of British private schools have charitable status, which means they don’t pay full business rates, unlike state schools many of whom could do with those tax breaks so they don’t have to ask parents to contribute towards buying pencils or close early on a Friday like many schools in Birmingham, due to cuts. Changing this would bring an extra £105m into the economy and putting VAT on private school fees would bring in one and a half billion. If these schools were redistributed then all the land, space and funds could go towards a better education for all kids. Now yes, I can hear some of you saying you can’t just do that. Oh no, sorry that’s the person who’s sandwich I’ve just stolen, and yes, I can and I have. But there are as yet unanswered questions as to how big class sizes would become in state schools as a result of this, special needs provisions would be lacking even more so and a whole load of private teachers probably wouldn’t just go and work in the state sector where there’s already a lack of teachers. Though again if they knew magic, they could do a doubling charm on themselves and that’d fix everything. I’m just saying people, it’s worth a think.

Finland abolished private schools in the 70s and now has only accessible state schools, where all pupils go, and they are currently tied with Denmark, Australia and New Zealand as having the best education system in the world according to the UN’s Education Index. Sure, there’s a lot less people in Finland and playtimes are so cold that they kind of have to make the schooling good as lessons in catching pneumonia while playing tag wouldn’t cut it. They also haven’t had a state school system that’s been decimated and reduced to test based nonsense over the last 9 years. But it does show that it can be done and while I’m certain the abolition of private schools won’t happen it does mean the conversation about why the UK still has a socially exclusive school system is now happening and maybe something will change which would genuinely be magic for the future of education, or if nothing else, I’ll have to start saving up to buy my daughter a wand and get her practicing on making a ghost stag appear asap.

And now back to Emma to ask all about Boris being tough on crime but harder on our eyes….

INTERVIEW WITH EMMA PART 2

Thanks, so much to Emma for that chat. As you heard, she’s taking a break from Twitter so if you’d like to hear more from her, she is a regular contributor to the Skeptiks With A K podcast which I highly recommend you check out and she’ll also be on the US legal podcast Opening Arguments very soon too. All the other links and people that Emma recommends will be on the partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk website soon.

What do you want to me to speak to people about? I’m aware there’s several areas I’ve never covered on this podcast such as defense stuff, sex work, the private school arguments and a ton of world politics, but there’s also stuff that probably needs an update on like the NHS, education and more even though nothing has actually happened anywhere because of Brexit barging in the way of everything like, well, Boris Johnson in his everyday life. It’s incredible that we have a Prime Minister who so perfectly emulates Brexit just in his being. In the way, divisive but not as popular as he thinks and a mess that no one can work out. Sorry, what I mean is, what do you want on this show? Let’s democratic process the shit out of the guest bit and get in touch and tell me who to get on or what to get interviewees about. You can do that via the contact page on the website, the @parpolbro twitter, the Partly Political Broadcast Facebook group or email me at partlypoliticalbroadcast@gmail.com with the subject line telling me exactly what you could abolish in a Chinese restaurant on a Friday night.

END

Stick a fork in this podcast as this episode of the Partly Political Broadcast as it is done. Thank you for still listening to this show even though it now regularly goes out of date quicker than the contents of the bottom of my fridge even though I swear I bought that salad 5 minutes ago and yet somehow it now looks like a bag of sick polar bears.  If you do enjoy the show please review it, especially on the iTunes, with a fat 5 star write up of joy, and perhaps even donate to the show via the Ko-fi or Patreon to fuel the caffeine that makes this show possible. Most of all though, please just tell everyone you know to listen to this podcast even if they don’t have any time left in their life to do so, or have no listening skills or hate noises. Perhaps they’ll make an exception for my stupid voice. I mean they won’t, but it’s always nice to check.

Thanks as always to Acast, my brother the Last Skeptik and Kat Day, without all of whom this show would happen but would be decidedly shitter and it’d probably just sit on my computer only ever played to my daughter who would mostly try to eat it.

This will be back next week when Labour announce their new Brexit policy as having a referendum on having an election followed by a referendum which they’ll have a referendum about but only after they hear the correct signal in the wind or through a sea shell during a full moon.

BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This week’s show is sponsored by BoJo’s book of mind control. All the tricks to making everyone’s brains merely putting in your squidgy pig hands. Worried they’ll see something? With this book you’ll be able to persuade them they aren’t simply by saying it isn’t there. Other tricks include not answering questions for so long people get bored and go away and non-papers, like paper but with nothing actually there so you can pretend you’ve done something. Bojo’s Book of Mind Control: When brainwashing doesn’t work because it’s your mind that’s full of shit.

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