Russell Brand wins well-deserved Foot in Mouth award

[claig]

"Yesterday the comedian and self-styled revolutionary was honoured with an award – for speaking gobbledygook.

He won the annual Foot in Mouth prize from the Plain English campiagn, joining the likes of John Prescott and George W Bush."
...

"The group’s website said that Brand’s ‘seemingly endless stream of gibberish, both written and verbal’ had clinched the award."
...
"Organisers said Brand – who has carved a career out of using many, often inflammatory, words when one would do – was ‘out on his own’ in the competition."

Surely that can't be right? He must have faced stiff competition from the Labour front bench

"The Plain English judges singled out this rant from The Guardian: ‘I felt very connected to activism – particularly activism that feels loaded with potential. Not the oppositional activism that seems like there’s a stasis around it – earnestly sincere, but a monolith.’

How they managed to single this rant out from the rest of the rants in the Guardian beats me. But they are professionals. To me it just seems like New Labour speak without the polar bears.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2858403/Brand-wins-award-gobbledygook.html

Claig .... I don't need to be a banker to understand that the U.S., European, and UK financial markets were in meltdown, getting worse by the day, and there was no time to hold a 'kin Referendum on whether central banks were given new financial 'tools', for their monetary tool box, to tackle that crisis.

And what has the American Investment Bank Goldman Sachs got to do with our BoE conducting QE???

FYI Investment Banks and their function is VERY different to High Street banking, so don't get confused when some of our banks were involved in both businesses - but both sectors were rendered helpless by the closure of the inter bank markets, causing a liquidity crisis, so central banks with the title 'lenders of last resort' stepped in to PROVIDE liquidity, both short and long term e.g. QE.

If you don't understand the details when accusing other political parties to try and show UKIP would be 'different', I suggest you pick different battles in which to wave the UKIP flag.

Comedian Frank Skinner on UKIP and Brand

“Well, I think UKIP are an interesting phenomenon. Rightly or wrongly, I don’t see them as a party that will win an election, or even have a large number of seats. In my experience, when a new party comes along like that, people get quite excited by it. But I think when a general election happens, people become conservative with a small 'c', and tend to just vote for the big parties. But UKIP has made politicians think about how you should 'do' politics, and that’s an interesting thing.”

And what of that political "revolutionary", Russell Brand? “I think he’s a really good comic, but I don’t know about whether I’d like a revolution.”

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/comedy/11267638/Frank-Skinner-UKIP-is-an-interesting-phenomenon.html

On the question of technocrats running countries, I think it is possible to examine each case and judge it on its merits.
I think you have a point, for example in the case of Ukraine and its recently engineered 'revolution' which was a subversion of democracy.

The Italian political class is cliquish and inclined to engage in fluid alliances and falling outs, with instability at the top belying the existence of a fairly stable political culture and the plethora of parties belying the fact that there isn't really a lot to choose from and not much point to choosing one over the other thanks to the likelihood of coalition and backstabbing, if you are a voter. Monti didn't last long and there have been two PMs since his tenure that ended in April 2013.

mathsanxiety ... funny you should mention coalitions, I have just answered another poster on the 'Autumn Statement' thread who suggested that coalitions would ensure the UK's 'direction of travel'.

But based on the parties/characters involved in the UK, I couldn't disagree more, especially with all the v important issues from 2015 that need firm policies, but we are likely to have vested interests in the decision making i.e. on the EU and on Scotland, with the SNP in Westminster, with possibly just 3% to 4% of the total UK electoral vote, deciding the policy.

This happened before, in the case of the Conservative party and the Liberal Unionists with the spectre of Irish independence and Ulster unionism in the background and led to the scuppering of hopes for a unitary independent island of Ireland. It also happened prior to that when Parnell's party held the balance of power in Westminster. For about 30 years, the British political process was forced to focus on Ireland, and rightly so since Ireland was part of the United Kingdom at that time and was not happy with that.

Essentially, small regional parties have been in a position to potentially hold the balance of power in the United Kingdom since the act of Union between Britain and Ireland and the development of modern suffrage. There is no point in bewailing this. Regional parties enjoy enough support for their platforms to make them viable and they have no venue outside of Parliament in which to exercise their representation. Devolved bodies are neither fish nor fowl - a cynical take on them is that they primarily function to cushion England and the main English political parties from the political effects of maintaining union, with Ireland in the past and with Scotland at present.

It was very shortsighted of the Conservative to have opposed Scottish independence. Irish independence eliminated the Irish question as a factor both in terms of attention to policy and in terms of numbers of rear ends on benches and facing in what direction in Westminster a century ago; this lesson was lost on Cameron et al. Out of sight is out of mind perhaps. Conversely, it is extremely smart of Salmond to look forward to the prospects of the SNP in Westminster.

I think we will have a raving tory government next with Thatcher-style landslides. A massive rise in the interest rates, overly strong £ so that our manufacturing and agriculture suffers then when people protest a demonisation of 'the workers' or 'the unions' followed by unemployment reaching 4 million.

Excellent analysis from the Conservative Home website of the People's Army, tearing up their lawns and all the rest of the revolution.

The People's Army knows why the BBC have invited comedian Russell Brand on to Question Time. The BBC and the Establishment bosses want to stop Farage and the People's Army. Brand is all they have left. Will they succeed?

Tune in on Thursday night BBC1. This is a battle of Titans, Farage and the people vs the Establishment and Brand.

'People’s Army UKIP

Bedecked in camouflaged uniforms, the People’s Army, we are told, is on the march. It hates the “LibLabCon” and “the Establishment”, and it has a penchant for clambering on tanks.

This is perhaps Nigel Farage’s most potent line of attack: that the liberal, metropolitan elites who hate ordinary Brits and employ foreign nannies have stitched up the political system, rigged the economy in their favour, ripped off their parliamentary expenses and are laughing at us all behind our backs. The elite in Westminster are allied with the fat quangocrats, the multi-national corporations and the smug “comedians” on Radio 4 whose idea of a joke is to say “Daily Mail” a lot in relation to things of which they disapprove. If you don’t have time for that exposition, just look at a politician who drinks pints and smokes fags - what could be less Islington?

It is a powerful pitch both because it is, to some extent, true and because it speaks to the gut instincts of a lot of people – particularly the ‘left behind’, living outside the capital, lacking a university education and still suffering disproportionately from the financial crisis.

It has given UKIP their first nickname, their best headlines and – crucially – a vast surge in membership.

Proudly anti-intellectual, the People’s Army knows what it is against (banks, bankers, toffs, Brussels, immigration, human rights, political correctness, busybodies, jobsworths and Little Hitlers) but its weakness is that it is not necessarily for anything (except the abolition of the things it is against). Like Red UKIP, it began as an electoral and rhetorical tool – but now it makes up vast tracts of the party’s grassroots.

It’s worth remembering that the majority of the party’s footsoldiers have joined within the last 18 months, the People’s Army phase. They know little of the previous two decades of history, development and technical debate on the EU issue, and care rather less. Their experience and enthusiasm is for the party as it is presented now – red tints where once there was Thatcher and libertarianism; “Westminster” used as a dirty word rather than the home of democracy.

The trend is perhaps best embodied by Louise Bours MEP, the party’s health spokesman, whose approach to politics tends more towards shouting than contemplation. It is effective within its target market – though, as those at the top of the party know, that could prove to be a difficult tiger to ride over time. Even Farage, whom they hero-worship, could get himself into trouble if he put himself at odds with them."

www.conservativehome.com/highlights/2014/12/the-five-tribes-of-ukip.html

mathanxiety .. re "It was very shortsighted of the Conservative to have opposed Scottish independence. Irish independence eliminated the Irish question as a factor both in terms of attention to policy and in terms of numbers of rear ends on benches and facing in what direction in Westminster a century ago; this lesson was lost on Cameron et al. Out of sight is out of mind perhaps. Conversely, it is extremely smart of Salmond to look forward to the prospects of the SNP in Westminster."

Surely if not for Cameron, there would not have been a referendum for the majority to decide on what they were being told by Nationalists, which frankly was a load of rollocks e.g. with oil ' we are one of the richest nations on Earth'.

But as I warned within the post below, their £5 billion revenue (then around $20 higher) would be volatile and no basis to form a budget, and Samond's terms of keeping what he wanted e.g. the Pound and UK interest rates, for what is basically the Labour Party socialism that keeps crashing our economy, but with kilts on, was not acceptable to everyone else in the UK.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/in_the_news/2180124-Scotland-can-NOT-keep-the-Pound-does-Scotland-England-France

And as for 'separatist' Ireland, as least when they screwed up with a high spend economy, and needed to call in the IMF, ECB and god knows who else to bail them out, its currency was the EURO, not the English Pound Sterling.

Salmond will continue to be a pain in the ar$e as has no respect for the decision made by a Referendum, and still hasn't worked out, just how close his ideology/policies are to the parliamentary Labour Party - which as proven by socialist France, cannot dig a country out of recession, once in.

Salmond therefore isn't that much different to whats in Westminster and if Cameron has got sense, he'll give the SNP all the rope they need to make high spending, high taxation Scotland uncompetitive, and justify the recent result. IMO.

It wasn't a 'high spend' economy that scuppered Ireland financially. It was banking practices that were exactly the same as those that devastated the US economy. Ireland has nowhere near the public spending of Britain, no NHS, and a welfare system that is much more like the US than the UK. Ireland spends more on education, primary, secondary and third level.

Salmond has the utmost appreciation for democracy or he would have spent his career in some sort of Scottish Republican Army; more importantly he understands how the parliamentary system works.

And it was banking practices that crashed the UK economy too.

Yes

Yes, PPEs

It's big, it's grand, its Farage vs Brand
It's on tonight, it's one helluva fight
It's bigger than the Rumble in the Jungle, one of them is bound to stumble
Farage will talk common sense, while Brand will probably just mumble

Millions will tune in because with Farage there is no spin,
From up in Inverness right down to Penzance, the entire People's Army will be entranced

The BBC will probably pack the audience with the usual crew
The People's Army all know who the audience will boo
Millions support Farage, but Brand has his supporters too
On Team Brand there will be Cameron, Miliband and Clegg
Hoping that Brand can do what none of them can do
Knock Farage down a peg or two

If Brand makes a good point, the entire metropolitan elite will be up on their feet
Cheering him on, but it won't last long
As the night wears on, Farage will step up a gear
That's what the metropolitan elite all fear

Brussels have asked the BBC for a special live feed
They're interrupting their taxpayer funded Christmas meal
Because this is more important, this is the real deal

It's make or break, it's now or never
This could finish them off forever
It's Farage vs Brand, the People vs the elite
One of the two is heading for certain defeat

This is the defining battle of our age
Support for Farage is all the rage
The Establishment have nothing of heft
Brand is all they have left

It's on BBC1, don't diss it
Tune in, you'd be mad to miss it
It's gonna be a helluva lot of fun
The People's Army has got them on the run

If I were bald and white and full of hate
Nigel Farage is a man I'd rate
If I missed the breeding and the class
Yellow teeth and tweed? I'd kiss that ass
For hanging round like some bad smell,
Praps some would think me wellbred as well?

'I hate the french. . er oiks er gyppos'.
Pick the ball boys.. er latin..er ..'ergot'
er Daily Mail er racisms cool?
Please Sir, if not the court then perhaps the fool?
I long to be on Eton's bench.. er give me handjobs..er.. Louise Mensch!

If I fawn and crawl and simper,
perhaps they will allow me into
club prick club racist and club small
gentl'men red leather, and empires fall
I'll just feel in, as in is out, and grey haired winter and the gout will remind me what was, was when, when world was led by fat old men, and Victoria was the nation's 'Hen'

Russell Brand is part of the establishment, where a public school educated, ex city broker isn't.

Riiiiiight.

Russell Brand "End the Drugs War" BBC programme advertised just after Question Time ended.

Brand is promoted by our Establishment, he is their attack dog on the people and UKIP. He has no party but he attacks Farage and UKIP and says that Farage is dangerous and the BBC give him that airtime to do so. The BBC and the Establishment need him because Mary Creagh and Miliband and Cameron can't shout at Brand and insult him because that would turn millions of voters off, so Brand does the job and the Establishment laughs up its sleeves as they try to stop the People's Party. The Establishment hopes that tirades and abuse will frighten Farage and force him to shut up and "talk grown up" as the spinners call it and be politically correct and say what the Establishment says. But Farage won't shut up because unlike the spinners he has courage and the people know it.

The system is rotten to the core and all the people know it and Farage is the boy who cried "the emperor has no clothes" and everyone knows it and that is why the people will win and why their People's Army will eventually win.

The more they shout Farage down and promote comedians to do so, the more the people will vote UKIP because UKIP are the real opposition that scares them and is tearing up their lawns. The Establishment won't intimidate Farage and they certainly won't intimidate the great British people.

because Mary Creagh and Miliband and Cameron can't shout at Farage and insult him because that would turn millions of voters off

that should have said

Brand will get a knighthood one day, they'll give him one. They'll never knight Farage because he is tearing up their lawns.

Brand says "my problem would be that I'd stand for parliament but I'd be scared I'd become one of them".

He already is one of them, he's on the BBC on their "End the Drugs War" and they will invite him on whenever they need to bring Farage down, that's exactly when they need the clown.

"Russell Brand gets so much airtime on the Beeb, you wonder if director-general Lord Hall is on a cut from his agent."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2870802/It-s-like-posh-Jeremy-Kyle-Russell-Brand-Nigel-Farage-prompt-audience-clashes-heated-BBC-debate-furious-members-public-screaming-comic-UKIP-leader-other.html

Looking back on it, it was crap and the BBC and Establishment's game becomes clearer.

They want to make a mockery of UKIP and Farage and associate them in the public's mind with their Establishment promoted house comedian, Brand, who is given licence to insult and shout at Farage which their PPEs could never do. They want the public to think that UKIP is just trouble and rows and that for a quieter life, the public should go back to voting for the public's beloved Establishment parties - Labour, Conservative and LibDem. They want people to think they should vote for the parties who "talk grown up" but say nothing even if they did flip their homes and fiddle their expenses.

But the BBC and the Establishment (mostly all from Oxbridge and many of the top ones with PPEs) have underestimated the British people. They think we are thick, they look down their noises at us with contempt while they flipped their homes, pick up their huge publicly-funded salaries and spin and patronise the British people. They are going to get a very rude awakening when the millions of what they call "the left behind" and the people "who belong to the past" show them that UKIP is the future.

It is going to be a dirty election and the Esatblishment will try every trick they have got. Everyone of their Oxbridge eggheads will be drafted in to stop the people. They will play dirty because they are petrified of UKIP and the people, they know their whole climate game and EU handng over of our sovereignty scheme is under threat.

The entire House of Commons must have tuned in last night, lots of them petrified of losing their seats.

Here is one Labour nonentity that I have never heard of, Ian Austin of Dudley North. His tweets are mentioned in the Daily Mail article.

Ian Austin @IanAustinMP

· 9 hrs 9 hours ago

Why have I sat here watching this? A whole hour of my life I'll never get back

Ian Austin @IanAustinMP

· 10 hrs 10 hours ago

Before tonight I thought Cameron would do everything to avoid debating Farage. After this, I think other leaders should do it repeatedly

Ian Austin @IanAustinMP

· 10 hrs 10 hours ago

The idea we have to pay the license fee for this total and utter garbage. What a farce. What a terrible programme. Just terrible

twitter.com/ianaustinmp

I would like to see that nonentity debate Farage.

This is from wikipedia

"He narrowly gained re-election at the general election on 6 May 2010, ahead of Conservative Party candidate Graeme Brown. He was the only one of the Dudley borough's four Labour MPs to retain his seat."
...
Expenses Controversy[edit]

In May 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that Ian Austin had tried to split a claim for stamp duty on buying his second home in London, into two payments and tried to claim the cost back over two financial years. This allowed him to claim the majority of the money (£21,559, just £75 short of the maximum) under his second home allowance in the 2005/06 financial year. He then claimed for the remaining £1,344 stamp duty cost in 2006/2007, together with his legal fees. In all, he went on to claim £22,076 (£34 short of the maximum)in the next financial year.[10]

It also reported that Mr Austin "flipped" his second home designation weeks before buying a £270,000 London flat, and that he had claimed £467 for a stereo system for his constituency home, shortly before he changed his second home designation to London. He then spent a further £2,800 furnishing the new London flat.[11]

Mr Austin denied any wrongdoing, and defended his actions in an interview with local newspaper, Dudley News[12]"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Austin_(politician)

And this is him being tough on immigration. It sounds like his seat is vulnerable.

"A senior Labour MP named as being involved in a plot to oust Ed Miliband breaks cover today to demand that the party toughens its stance on immigration.

Ian Austin, one of former prime minister Gordon Brown’s closest allies, said senior figures in his party had told him he ‘sounded like the BNP’ when he complained that too many people were coming to Britain.

He said the Labour leadership should embrace tough policies including a ban on benefit payments to new migrants who have paid nothing into the system, fingerprinting at the Calais border, and up-front payments by foreigners for NHS care."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2826170/Bonfire-plotter-breaks-cover-Ian-Austin-tells-Ed-Miliband-tough-immigration.html

The Esatblishment all watched it last night. UKIP is their worst nightmare.

The Independent has Farage's take on last night. The Independent is a surprisingly good paper, a comment in a Telegraph article which was a hit-piece on UKIP, as the Tories sink in desperation, said that rather than read the Telegraph, there is more sensible stuff in the Independent on UKIP.

"People were hoping we'd clash, but he just didn't talk enough sense"
...
You can’t put a cigarette paper between the two, big, vested interest ridden parties nowadays. And that’s why, I think, people are attracted to Ukip.

But it’s also, probably, why people are attracted to Mr Brand’s “I’ll rant and rave but never stand for parliament myself” politics. Don’t vote. Don’t engage. What’s the point? You can see the logic. But morally, you can’t really justify it. You want change? Don’t bother to campaign for it. You loathe the establishment class? Spill your ballot.

No.This isn’t the way politics is done in this country. And I’ll be damned if a chest-hair obsessed Hollywood type tries to tell us it is.
...
But if you really have had enough of the political elite. If you really have had enough of poor policy making, unchecked migration, unavailable school places, immense strain on the national services, our EU membership, our extraordinarily large foreign aid budget and more… then you don’t have to vote that way anymore.

But I know what you’re really reading this to hear. And that’s my take on Russell Brand. The leader of the revolution. The messiah of hipster, new media. The doyen of stock statements and half-funny jokes. Well I’ll tell you what I found out tonight: the messiah has feet of clay, and the revolution is not occurring on Mr Brand’s side – it’s happening with UKIP, and it’s happening fast."

www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/nigel-farage-me-vs-russell-brand-on-question-time--hes-got-the-chest-hair-but-where-are-his-ideas-9919668.html