The Political Thread

[The Legendary Shark]

You must go upstairs and shake his hand immediately! I love that guy.

[Professor Bear]

You must go upstairs immediately and shout at him that his pinko liberal sort will be the first into the camps.

[Theblazeuk]

I think there are enough nerds here that it's best just to leave him alone. I've watched him make a cup of tea whilst pretending to read my book though.

Also I'm working in the Beeb (albeit the capitalist moneymaking part) - everyone here is going straight to the camps.

[Richmond Clements]

I've watched him make a cup of tea whilst pretending to read my book though.

Well THAT doesn't sound creepy AT ALL! ;-)

[Professor Bear]

Russel Brand made sense on tv.  What the fuck is the world coming to?

I enjoy seeing Nigel Farage in a boozer with a pint and a fag, laughing off his latest scandal about breastfeeding or whatever, I enjoy it - but this man is not a cartoon character. He ain't Del Boy. He ain't Arthur Daley. He is a pound shop Enoch Powell and we've got to watch him.

I was quite happy to dismiss Brand as one of a succession of comedians whose impact on popular culture is only momentarily notable*, but after seeing how much The Sun and the Telegraph are threatened by him, I'm kind of coming around even if I still find a lot of his act a bit grating.  There's a Youtube video where he responds directly to the Sun's attempts to villify him to their audience of Nazis and working class Uncle Toms and he makes perfectly good points that are largely unnecessary at that stage because he's already said "remember the 96", and with that - a soundbite tactic that fans of pro wrestling will recognise as "pops" - he'd already established himself as occupying the higher ground to a rag that isn't fit to wipe shit from an ass, though his pointing out Rupert Murdoch tax-dodged 350 million pounds this year alone - which is more than the city of Birmingham recently had to save from its budget by cutting six thousand jobs - was most welcome.
Brand is a frustrating celebrity presence to be sure, but on occasion he seems to be worth the effort, and it's good that he's turned his minor celebrity status into something that might be of use in highlighting the shortcomings of those who wield the majority of the country's wealth, as his being doorstopped by Channel 4's tabloid journalism has certainly proved the British media aren't up to the task, certainly not if there are softer targets available.


* See also: Graham Norton, Eddie Izzard, Ben Elton, Newman and Baddiel, and so on.

[IndigoPrime]

The problem I have with Brand is that with all of his 'avoid the system' stuff, he's actively promoting the current situation getting worse rather than better. Go back several decades and there was a much lower difference in voting figures between old and young, and to some extent policy reflected that. There's a good reason why today's politicians tend to skew everything so heavily towards pensioners and certain middle-England districts—because those people go out and vote in number.

Perhaps UKIP will shake things up a bit, purely on the basis of a whole lot of people wrongly thinking them to be something different. That might be enough to make the Tories and Labour rethink a bit (although the Labour leader's very recent austerity speech doesn't exactly fill me with confidence there).

So I'm in a sense happy Brand has at least got people more engaged with the idea of politics; I just wish he would say more than what boils down to "Screw the government! Don't vote! Don't pay your taxes!", which if people actually followed his idea would cause doom for them but wouldn't matter for him in the slightest.

[Theblazeuk]

I think people's problems with Russell Brand go back to the "Have all the answers or shut it" attitude that's so endemic. I think he makes some silly proposals but some very good ones too. And largely all he's ever proposed to my knowledge is something different, something that has a bit of bloody humanity and justice. Barring the idiocy about not paying taxes or voting.

Like Allah Akbark (I am sad to say name changes on forums confuse me I can never remember who they were before...) - I was largely apathetic, mostly due to not liking him as a comedian/TV personality and ignoring his political viewpoints. Until I saw the Sun try to claim he was a hypocrite because he rents an expensive flat and his landlord dodges tax.

The hypocrisy and cynical wording of that article infuriated me so much.

[Professor Bear]

The most telling moment on QT was when Brand was confronted by a disabled and very loud UKIP supporter and tried - and failed - to engage because he was clearly trying not to be dismissive or a bully.  I think that more than anything else proves Brand doesn't have what it takes to be an MP.

[The Legendary Shark]

If Boris Johnson can be London Mayor, why not Russel Brand? He already looks and speaks like Dick Whittington - all he needs is a cat and he's cracked it.

[Fungus]

No idea what he's done recently on FB or YouTube but Brand's appearance on QT looked mostly heartening. On the face of it. He seems to be in it for the right reasons. Thing is - and I may be misremembering this - but a few years back he was advocating Anarchy (????) So pleading now that we withhold our votes is really short-sighted. With voting skewed to the older population, what does more of the young (you'd think) not voting achieve? The opposite.

It's the system. We all - as near as damnit - voted in the Scottish Referendum, because each vote mattered. First Past The Post is a horse's arse.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

It's the system. We all - as near as damnit - voted in the Scottish Referendum, because each vote mattered. First Past The Post is a horse's arse.

I fear PR is further away than ever, the LibDem experience of coalition has been a disaster for them, even if arguably it has benefited the country by keeping the Tories worst instincts in check.

As an alternative I would certainly support more frequent referendums.

We've almost certainly got the EU exit one to look forward to (I'm voting to stay in) and I'm hoping to see something about English devolution or House of Lords reform appear before too many years have passed.

[Old Tankie]

I thought Brand got hammered by the audience.  I don't think his early sexist remarks helped him.  I think he knew he'd dropped a clanger, by the end he was almost mute.

[Spikes]

I fear people like Brand, however heartfelt and sincere, are more part of the problem, and less of the solution.
And it's OK delivering monologues to camera for Youtube and giving interviews to a smiling interviewer, but up against people who answer back - and UKIP plants at that, he looked caught in the headlights.

But plus points for the 'poundland Enoch Powell' summing up of Farage.

[Richmond Clements]

But plus points for the 'poundland Enoch Powell' summing up of Farage.

Yup. Doesn't matter who is perceived the winner (for me they were as dull as each other) but this line is what people will remember.

[Old Tankie]

Poundland is, and Enoch Powell was, very popular with the hoi polloi, so I wouldn't think Farage is bothered by that remark at all, probably lapped it up.