EP453 // Jupiter Storm (19:30 START!)

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:04]Ba ba BA BA BA BA BA BOW. LADIES and gentlemen and everything in between. Welcome.

[00:00:12]Welcome.

[00:00:13]Guys, welcome back to the Friday night live show with me, your host Aidan Thompson. Cheers.

[00:00:21]What's going on?

[00:00:23]What's the happy haps?

[00:00:24]Got the people in the live chat tonight.

[00:00:26]Mick Whitnall, Fain as Jewels. Jewels, Jewel. Sorry. Fainer Jewel.

[00:00:31]Fainers Jewel. I got that right.

[00:00:34]Plurals confusing me a little little bit there. Can't talk. Oh my god. Should have done my vocal warm-up, shouldn't I?

[00:00:41]Fa la la la la la la. Okay.

[00:00:45]Uh Diz is in the chats moderating. How you doing, Diz? Are we good? Richard Marsden's in the chat. Welcome, guys.

[00:00:52]Welcome back to another episode of the Friday night live edition of Aidan Thompson and other disappointments.

[00:01:02]Uh people.

[00:01:04]Listeners, viewers.

[00:01:07]Uh it's been a quiet week in politics land, hasn't it? Should we get straight into it? Let's Let's just dive straight in uh this week. No need for an intro. No need for more fumbling my words. It's been a quiet week in politics land.

[00:01:23]Uh we've had Streeting quitting.

[00:01:26]Uh 80-odd letters going in demanding that uh Keir Starmer resign. Uh Rayner reappearing.

[00:01:32]Uh Andy Burnham Burnham Burnham. Andy Burnham. Fa la la la la la.

[00:01:38]>> [laughter] >> I don't know what's wrong with me tonight. I can't get my vowels and consonants in the right order, right sounds.

[00:01:45]Andy Burnham uh wants to stand in a by-election uh as an MP. Labour. Wants to stand in Makerfield.

[00:01:56]Uh what did I say a few weeks ago?

[00:01:59]What did I say?

[00:02:01]Uh, I said it would be right after the locals, didn't I?

[00:02:06]Uh, like when there was all of that talk about uh Mandelson and McSweeney, all of that stuff blowing up, and I was saying, "Oh, it's just just a case of waiting until the week after the locals."

[00:02:17]You know, you've got the leaving do booked, the venue, the drinks all booked in, you know, people Don't don't mess with the plan now, guys.

[00:02:26]Don't mess with the plan now. Like, people have probably booked babysitters and hotel rooms and everything.

[00:02:31]Just stick to the week after the locals.

[00:02:33]That's when it's all going to kick off.

[00:02:35]I said. And now, here we are.

[00:02:41]And I know it wasn't the um uh the hardest of predictions uh to make, but still, in these uh wild and unpredictable times, you've got to take your wins where you can, don't you?

[00:02:53]Uh a lot of the Starmerites uh this week were saying that this is all just about ego.

[00:03:00]Uh people like Wes Streeting, um that they are just a Macbeth types, ambitious, jealous men with big heads, uh getting a bit overzealous.

[00:03:12]Uh which I do have some sympathy with, although the men with big heads uh thing is a bold turn of phrase, considering Sir Keir's head is roughly 37% too big for his own body. His head is too big for a human. [laughter] It's just a little bit too big.

[00:03:30]I was listening to Emily Maitlis the other night uh on the News Agents podcast, and uh she, they uh were all saying how uh Labour's kind of [ __ ] uh whichever way you go now.

[00:03:50]Like, if you keep Starmer, you likely lose in 2029 because he is about as popular as cot death. He's not popular at all. People hate him. I think that's fairly well established now.

[00:04:06]Uh but if you exit Starmer, and you replace him with Wes Streeting, uh well then the backbenchers aren't happy. It's another technocrats, uh very sort of center-right kind of sensibilities. The party tears itself apart. If you exit Starmer again, but keep the backbenchers happy, maybe you get an Andy Burnham, or an Angela Rayner in number 10. It feels like hope then, doesn't it? But then the bond markets [ __ ] themselves. I don't even think, guys. Don't even think about doing anything half radical in office, you [ __ ] communists.

[00:04:49]Then the, you know, the gilt rates will shoot up faster than my Uncle Paul in 1983 Glasgow.

[00:04:56]Taxes have to shoot up too, straight afterwards. Pensions start to wobble.

[00:05:01]Like we are so irreparably [ __ ] in this country. We are completely beholden to where the bond investors will buy our shitty gilts, or just look across the street and go, "Oh, Greece, Greece is looking marginally less risky than Britain now. Like maybe maybe we go there." Like I looked this up earlier. I looked this up in prep for this show to see just how beholden, how monumentally, ferociously, monstrously [ __ ] we are.

[00:05:33]I thought that'd be a fun stat. Let's see how far off of becoming Greece we are.

[00:05:38]I looked it up and British bonds now have to pay out higher interest than Greek ones, than actual Greek ones.

[00:05:49]Britain is [ __ ] than Greece now.

[00:05:53]And they have they've got 2% growth at least. They've got something [laughter] something there to cling onto. Some light at the end of the fiscal tunnel.

[00:06:01]2% growth in Greece. How about that [ __ ] The Eurozone's very own Jupiter storm of fiscal despair has more than double our growth.

[00:06:14]And cheaper debt now.

[00:06:18]All the uh the patriot flag [ __ ] marching tomorrow.

[00:06:25]Uh that's where we're at now, guys.

[00:06:28]That's how great Britain is these days.

[00:06:34]Uh and it wouldn't do any of you any harm to be humbled into understanding that.

[00:06:38]>> [laughter] >> As you march down the street tomorrow waving your flags.

[00:06:44]Best country in the world.

[00:06:47]>> [laughter] >> Is it though?

[00:06:51]Um like you've literally got you've got bond investors now this week going, "You Greece Greece isn't looking too bad."

[00:07:00]You know, maybe we buy bonds in Greece now over Britain.

[00:07:05]Maybe we get corporate bonds in Enron over [laughter] Britain.

[00:07:11]>> [sighs] >> With your wealth taxes and your change.

[00:07:19]Like it's funny like even in these divided times, left and right, Tory, Labour, Reform, the Greens, like whoever, everybody agrees almost unanimously. Everyone's like, "We need change. Something has to change."

[00:07:34]Uh but the bond markets are like, "We fear change, so no.

[00:07:40]Just you know, keep on going the way that you've been going. I think that'll work out all right for everybody.

[00:07:47]Um, like I agree with Emily Maitlis, unsurprisingly.

[00:07:52]Uh, you know, we're [ __ ] if we do something and we're [ __ ] if we don't.

[00:07:56]Um, but to put it more brutally, uh, if we weren't paying out 120 billion pounds a year on bond interest payments, we'd have a little bit more wiggle room, wouldn't we?

[00:08:10]On the solutions that we could consider.

[00:08:15]Uh, cuz then we could say things like, you know, if you don't want to invest in our bonds and lend us money for infrastructure projects and all of that.

[00:08:23]Well, you know, it's fine. Whatever.

[00:08:25]You don't have to. We don't have to lend you or borrow money. Like we don't have to engage in that transaction.

[00:08:32]Cuz we have all of this growth coming in.

[00:08:35]And we have a healthy balance sheet in the Treasury. And we have the political space perhaps to uh, to raise taxes slightly if if we needed to. But we have no growth.

[00:08:47]>> [laughter] >> And taxes are already sky-high. AND WE'VE BORROWED UP TO THE HILT, or the gilt.

[00:08:54]Um, we still need to borrow more money to dig ourselves out of this.

[00:09:03]But the second that we entertain that sort of conversation, the lenders are like, "If you so much as sniff a wealth tax and turn off rich investors, or if you're just suspected of doing that, of thinking about it, if you dream of cutting taxes when you clearly can't afford to, or if we even think that you might, then the interest payment spike, and then Sunak or Kwarteng or Hunt or Reeves or whoever. [laughter] THEY'RE LIKE, [ __ ] I HAD LITERALLY JUST saved 12 billion pounds from efficiencies to just try to get us back in the black and NOW IT'S ALL GONE IN A [ __ ] MORNING.

[00:09:52]JUST BECAUSE because what? Because some hapless minister went on the rounds and Freudian slipped a socialist term.

[00:10:00]THIS JOB IS IMPOSSIBLE.

[00:10:05]She sculks off to the House of Commons in tears.

[00:10:08]>> [laughter] >> It's an impossible job because we're so [ __ ] Um Oh, I have to come on to the uh the super chats in a second. I have to play catch up in a sec.

[00:10:23]But I tell you what it's like with the uh with the bonds, the national debt.

[00:10:30]You know, trying to be fiscally responsible and all of that or what I imagine it must be like for the Chancellor is like you know, she's trying to count her pennies.

[00:10:40]It's like an old man counting his pennies. Like she saves them up for like 3 weeks and got a nice little pile of these little shiny pennies, maybe three piles of pennies.

[00:10:50]She's been very fiscally responsible. A little bit of change here, a little bit of change there. She found a couple of pennies. Oh, okay. Three little piles of pennies here. And it took you 3 weeks of saving them and you're like, oh, well, I've just uh I've just saved 57 pence. Then I think how many did I have after 3 weeks of I've just saved 57 pence. I You know what? I might put that TOWARDS BUT A BLOODY TSUNAMI JUST WASHED ALL MY [ __ ] pennies away. That's basically where we're at now.

[00:11:19]That's what it must feel like to be Chancellor of the UK Exchequer, I think.

[00:11:27]You know, you delicately convince every minister of every brief to just try to make savings of like half a billion each so you can make payment on the bonds that month and you just get to the point you I can't believe we [ __ ] made it. And then like Trump wakes up and GOES LIKE TARIFFS, [ __ ] YOU'RE LIKE, [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] Um >> [clears throat] >> like whoever the leader whoever the leader ends up being, they can't do anything too radical. They just can't.

[00:12:03]At a time where the emergency from the general population's perspective, politically, economically the cost of living crisis, inequality they can't do anything too radical at a time where the emergency is growing at such pace that the solutions that that emergency requires need to become aggressively more radical the longer that you kick the can down the road.

[00:12:28]>> [snorts] >> And at some point probably not too far away now the unstoppable force of change, change, change. We need change. Everybody agrees that we need change. The unstoppable force of change is going to meet the immovable object of absolutely no change. Nothing too radical.

[00:12:48]Those two things are going to collide.

[00:12:51]And uh I don't know what happens then.

[00:12:57]I honestly don't know what will happen.

[00:13:01]Ooh, [ __ ] hell.

[00:13:07]I have to come over to the super chats quick. Hold on.

[00:13:10]Fan funding.

[00:13:12]>> [snorts] >> Uh Fader's Jewels has been a member for 1 month. What's up, Fader?

[00:13:17]Welcome to the uh welcome to the cult.

[00:13:19]Um only way to unfuck the UK is to join the single market and customs union, says SG aka SG.

[00:13:27]>> [laughter] >> It's a good uh uh good title that. Reminds me of my friend uh his name's Charles Chapman.

[00:13:34]Back in the day and he used to have an MSN handle like Charles Charles Chapman Chapman.

[00:13:42]Which I thought was ridiculous, but I quite like it.

[00:13:46]Uh Captain Coconuts, is that? I can't see the end of the name. Uh Reform UK getting move the state pension to Quasi's crypto uh who then rug pulls it and disappears.

[00:13:57]Just a warning everybody of a possible future uh grifter future. Yeah, I wouldn't rule it out.

[00:14:03]I mean, that's basically how Trump is running the White House at the moment, right?

[00:14:07]It's like just a [ __ ] casino.

[00:14:11]>> [laughter] >> It's placing bets on like Polymarket.

[00:14:15]Like somebody in the White House in his inner circle is placing these bets on Polymarket about geopolitical changes and announcement. They're making bank.

[00:14:23]They're making so much money and it's so obviously corrupt.

[00:14:29]Um and then they had to go last week to go into Congress and talk about like, "We don't think that uh Americans should be like what was it they were talking about trading?"

[00:14:40]They don't want to introduce some sort of gambling to the American public.

[00:14:44]Cuz they're anti-gambling. Like anyone with a brain is just like you you guys are anti-gambling, are you?

[00:14:53]>> [laughter] >> The Polymarket brigade in the White House are they're anti-gambling.

[00:15:00]Are you The guy that used to run [ __ ] casinos.

[00:15:03]>> [laughter] >> A fleet of [ __ ] buffet of casinos. He's he's anti-gambling, is Okay.

[00:15:10]Well, okay then.

[00:15:12]People can change.

[00:15:16]But yeah, what is going to happen?

[00:15:19]What's is going to happen when the immovable object, the unstoppable force collide.

[00:15:26]When the UK becomes the Jupiter storm of late-stage capitalism.

[00:15:32]Uh, which is sort of feeling like that's where we're on our way to now.

[00:15:38]Uh, we're going to see somebody do something radical. I don't know whether that will be, uh, you know, Zack Polanski or Angela Rayner will do something radical and it will spook the markets or Farage and Tice will get in and they'll do radical something like default on all of the QE loans like they've said that they probably will and that will spook the markets.

[00:15:57]Somebody's going to do something big to try to fix this in a similar way that how Truss tried to fix this.

[00:16:05]And then the bond interest rates are going to spike and the government won't have the money and the IMF will have to step in.

[00:16:15]And then there'll be, uh, sort of an international bailout consortium going on and Uh, but this isn't taking place like in, you know, 2013 or whenever the [ __ ] that was uh, before with Greece. This is happening now in 2026 or 2027. So, it will come with conditions.

[00:16:33]It's going to come with like the US or like Trump Trump will maybe help us. He might help us.

[00:16:40]But he'll want access to our North Sea oil in exchange [laughter] for it. He'll make a deal, won't he? He'll be like, "You don't have the cards.

[00:16:47]Sign here. Hand over the oil.

[00:16:50][ __ ] limey bastards."

[00:16:53]The IMF will insist on an eye-watering buggery session of an austerity package and this is after 20 years of us already enduring brutal austerity.

[00:17:05]And they'll just bend us over a TABLE AND [ __ ] AVERAGE IT, SIR.

[00:17:12]YOU'RE GOING to see the flag-waving patriots getting into boats in the channel but just going over into Europe to go and claim refuge in Europe.

[00:17:22]Kind of perverse, isn't it?

[00:17:26]As asylum seekers uh you know, travel across mainland Europe to go and set up a new life in Poland.

[00:17:32]So, they will.

[00:17:34]The Polish Home Office will be like, "Uh I don't know if this was the first safe country that you entered. Was it?"

[00:17:41]Um and meanwhile back home, of course, right-wing populists will pitch their tents on Parliament Square like, "It doesn't have to be this way. Labour just overspent. That's what happens."

[00:17:52]Take advantage of the situation, exploit everybody.

[00:17:58]They'll be like, "Oh, the re- The reason that a loaf of bread is 5,000 lbs now is because the trans immigrant migrant migrationists have bought all of the bread. That's why you can't have cheap breads. It's the migrants. They get free bread while you get crumbs.

[00:18:16]You [ __ ] popper.

[00:18:18]Vote for Rupert Lowe. #yougetcrumbs.

[00:18:22]And people will lap it up.

[00:18:24]They'll gobble it up.

[00:18:28]Like the easily led compliant propaganda-thirsty morons uh that they are.

[00:18:38]You'll get down the pub or the park if the pub is no longer open.

[00:18:43]You get talking to your friends and they'll be like, "I'm I'm voting for Rupert cuz he CAN FIX ALL THIS."

[00:18:52]Just going to take a few more flats.

[00:18:56]>> [laughter] >> You know, like, how are you going to tell me that people won't be dumb enough to run to the far right for answers when they've been dumb enough to do so in situations half as bad as that? Like, we're not even at that yet. And they're like, running down the street spray painting swastikas.

[00:19:19]Like people have to wait in line at a post office, in a post office queue, and they morph into [ __ ] Hermann Göring.

[00:19:25]Like there's TOO MANY FOREIGNERS. I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO WAIT IN MY OWN COUNTRY.

[00:19:31]That's all it takes.

[00:19:34]The rest of the line are like, we're literally from Coventry. Like We're from Coventry, too, David. Can't you just wait your turn like everybody else, for [ __ ] sake?

[00:19:47]I swear to God, though, like I mean it sounds like I'm taking the piss, isn't it? But I swear like a millions of Brits are basically sleeper cell Nazis ready to descend into a race war at any moment.

[00:20:01]And all it takes to wipe the tolerance makeup off their faces is a mild inconvenience. That's all it [ __ ] takes.

[00:20:09]For them to go, YEAH, DO YOU KNOW [screaming] WHAT? MAYBE ADOLF WAS RIGHT.

[00:20:14]UM I shouldn't I shouldn't have to WAIT THIS LONG. ROUND THEM ALL UP.

[00:20:23]AND PEOPLE LIKE ME ARE LIKE, THE WHAT?

[00:20:24]THE INVESTORS? Or the politicians who outsourced all of the services? Or like sold off all of the public asset No, no, no, the man in the queue next to me, with whom I have nothing but frustrated catharsis. I said, right, okay.

[00:20:37]Okay, so not the politicians that sold off the assets, outsourced it all. Got you.

[00:20:43]Got you. Speaking of secret Nazis or not so secret Nazis, perhaps. I've got another super chat. What's up? Uh Culture Clarat just dropped a 10-pound super chat.

[00:20:56]Thank you very much, Culture.

[00:20:57]Uh it says Britain has one of the largest economies in the world.

[00:21:01]Which is impressive, given how much of our national energy goes into funding the nostalgia for jackboots. It is Do you know what? It's the largest economy, I think the fastest growing economy in the G7. Did I read that correctly yesterday?

[00:21:15]And it is as a size, like it's a good size economy. It's just a shame that it's kind of matched with debt.

[00:21:21]It's [laughter] like It's like having a really high salary but a [ __ ] ton of credit card debt or something.

[00:21:28]Um Where was I? Speaking of secret or not so secret Nazis, uh Reform were regurgitated across my irises and soiled corneas again this week.

[00:21:45]Uh first, I saw their resident town crier, celebrated author of chat GPT prompts, uh and hackademic Matt Goodwin.

[00:21:57]Uh that was the first thing about Reform uh this week. Uh he was saying uh he will be up in Makerfield to block Labour's by-election success.

[00:22:07]Uh just like he did in Gorton.

[00:22:10]>> [laughter] >> He blocked Labour's success up there, did he? Okay.

[00:22:16]Um if that was his goal, to block their success electorally, that was a goal that he was too He is so tightly wedded to it that he accidentally [ __ ] around and blocked his own electoral success in addition in that same by-election uh before inventing the family voting conspiracy theory and seeing it instantly debunked by the Electoral Commission.

[00:22:38]Uh so I'm sure they're [ __ ] [ __ ] it, mate. I'm sure they're really quaking in their boots up there.

[00:22:46]Uh like seeing Matt Goodwin threatened to go up and campaign in Makerfield is I don't know if that threat really works. Like I I I sort of look at him like the left's secret infiltrator, you know, deliberately going up there to sabotage Farage's chances.

[00:23:06]Get a liberal elected to Parliament.

[00:23:09]You know, like he's the plant. He's the except he doesn't even know the role that he's playing.

[00:23:13]>> [laughter] >> He's sort of oblivious to his own shitness.

[00:23:17]Um like honestly, Matt, go for it. Go for it, son.

[00:23:24]Labour will probably pay for your train fare up there.

[00:23:28]Um well, Labour or Victor Orbán, realistically. I mean, >> [laughter] >> I don't know if you saw that story uh three or four weeks ago.

[00:23:42]Uh well, weirdly, this is another thing actually that we sort of alluded to before uh on this show.

[00:23:48]Uh a few months ago, I was like, you know, just sort of freestyling, talking [ __ ] shooting the [ __ ] on here.

[00:23:56]And I was like, are there really that many people who would be interested in paying monthly for Matt Goodwin's Substack?

[00:24:07]You know, is there that many people out there who would pay for that product on that platform? I don't think that many people even know what Substack is. Like, I mean, we do cuz we're political nerds, right? But uh for most people out there, even if they are right-wing, even if they are Reform people, like a fraction of them would know who Matt Goodwin is. And then a fraction of those would bother to sign up with Substack.

[00:24:30]So, how is this thing so monstrously successful?

[00:24:34]I wondered.

[00:24:36]Uh and so I I kind of doubted it. I was like, I I'd be interested to see who is actually signing up for those subscriptions to make sure he gets paid for saying these things. Uh and then I thought, as a sort of knock-on um thought to that, I thought, you know, if the British state shut down conservative friends of Russia, right, which they have.

[00:25:03]It's no longer a thing.

[00:25:06]Uh and there's sanctions in place as well prohibiting Putin or any of his sort of people in his orbit from sending money to British parties to do his bidding, share his talking points.

[00:25:19]Uh if I was Vladimir Putin seeking to gain influence or retain influence in the UK's political conversation, I would probably find a way to fund right-wing mouthpieces who sow disharmony and division. I think I would be interested in supporting that, in funding that.

[00:25:42]And I remember thinking like there has to be a way to do that with Substack cuz there's so many of these like independent [ __ ] and journalists on Substack. There's got to be a way that you could funnel the money to that to make sure that they're getting rewarded.

[00:25:58]And I'm not saying that Matt Matt Goodwin is definitely funded by Vladimir Putin. I'm sure that he's not. I'm not saying that at all.

[00:26:07]You know, the idea that there's a a sort of a direct bank's transfer from Vlad to Matt GPT. That seems a little bit fanciful.

[00:26:17]Uh but what I am saying is it's interesting.

[00:26:19]>> [laughter] >> It's interesting that Putin's favorite then Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán uh with his cozy ties with Russia whilst having his state-operated MCC institution pay Matt Goodwin between 5 and 10,000 pounds a month for reasons that we still [laughter] don't know. HE DOESN'T DENY IT. HE DOESN'T DENY that that payment did come from Orbán.

[00:26:49]We don't know what that money was for.

[00:26:53]Uh so, yeah, £200 train fare uh probably wouldn't be out of the question.

[00:26:58]I wouldn't have thought.

[00:27:00]Uh while we're on Reform, by the way, uh the other thing that occurred to me this week was uh you know this Farage £5 donation business.

[00:27:12]Uh he took £5 from crypto investor Christopher Harborne.

[00:27:19]Uh he didn't declare it.

[00:27:23]And when it came out, he told everyone that it was for security.

[00:27:28]Uh because his house had been firebombed, and then journalists looked into it and saw that the firebomb attack on his house, though abhorrent, took place in 2025.

[00:27:40]Uh but the £5 donation was in 2024.

[00:27:45]Uh so, a whole year beforehand.

[00:27:50]Uh so, it's a bit like you know, why have you Why have you got the £5 Oh, it's for security cuz I got firebombed. Oh, okay. Well, you say that you needed it for security, but how could you have known if it was like a year before you got attacked that [laughter] there was a reason that you needed it for security? And if you did get it for security, it obviously wasn't very good security because, you know, somebody clearly got close access to your [ __ ] house, [laughter] to your porch, a matter of months later and tried to burn it down. And you didn't get the CCTV of them?

[00:28:27]No security guards? No cameras?

[00:28:30]And so, LBC presenters this week uh asked Farage's number two, uh Richard Tice, if the party would be releasing receipts and invoices to back up the idea that this undeclared cash was for security reasons to keep dear leader safe. Uh and he refused. He said, "You have to ask Nigel about that. Don't know anything about it."

[00:28:53]Yesterday, Farage always wanted to, you know, go back on the media rounds to try to get a little bit more attention. He massaged his reasons for taking the money. He said it was actually a thank you for having fought so hard for Brexit all those years with no strings attached.

[00:29:11]Just gave him 5 million cuz he's a bloody nice guy.

[00:29:15]5 million pounds from Christopher Harborne as a thank you for Brexit.

[00:29:23]And Christopher Harborne is, by the way, a citizen of Thailand and lives almost 6,000 miles away from any fantasy trade deals.

[00:29:32]So, it's a private gift and I don't need to tell you about it.

[00:29:36]It was just for security.

[00:29:38]Except that it wasn't. It's Now, it's a thank you. Okay.

[00:29:43]Oh, and yes, I might have also bought a house outright for 1.4 million pounds just a couple of months after receiving it. So, then that Stay with me here.

[00:29:52]Then this week, and listen to this, and sort of armed contextualized with the Goodwin stuff and the Victor Orban stuff, I kind of got to thinking I wonder what Christopher Harborne's relationship is like with Russia.

[00:30:12]I just say I thought popped into my head just for shits and giggles just for a goof just for the cracklets.

[00:30:23]I wondered. And look, let me preface this by saying before we get into it that there is no evidence to suggest that Harborne works for Putin. I think the very idea that he would have an instant backs transfer from Vlad to Christopher's utterly ridiculous.

[00:30:45]Um or the idea that he's operating any of his seemingly purposeless businesses um in some way that would benefit Vladimir Putin.

[00:30:56]Uh I I think that's a little bit far-fetched uh too. Those purposeless uh businesses that are based everywhere from here to Panama to Thailand to the Virgin Islands, um I'm sure that they are all set up and run in a way that is so fit and proper, 100%.

[00:31:13]There's your There's your disclaimer.

[00:31:16]Um but I will say this, it is interesting again.

[00:31:19]>> [laughter] >> It's interesting. Is anyone else interested in this? It's just interesting.

[00:31:25]I think that he's one of the big investors in a company called Tether.

[00:31:33]Uh which if you're not familiar with Tether, uh this is from The Guardian. Uh they say, "Registered in the Central American dictatorship of El Salvador with a tiny staff, Tether has been described as the most profitable company per employee in history."

[00:31:50]Uh it has issued 184 billion dollars in digital cash known as stablecoins.

[00:31:56]They have grown popular as a way to move money across borders.

[00:32:03]Uh billions of Tether's stablecoins are known to have been put to illicit use by gangsters, scammers, and Russian sanctions busters.

[00:32:14]This is the guy. This is the guy that Farage is taking millions from.

[00:32:22]Um Oh, and it says, "And others who would rather avoid the scrutiny of moving money via a bank." So, it's just interesting, isn't it? I'm interested.

[00:32:33]Anybody else interested in this?

[00:32:36]Uh crypto king with a suite of weird vague and anonymous companies whose golden goose is a sanctions busting money movement firm is funding the right-wing populist. Cool. Good stuff.

[00:32:51]Like I don't want to get all Carole Cadwalladr on you here, guys, but is anyone else interested in this? Is the Is the police Are the police interested? MI5? No? No one?

[00:33:03]Okay.

[00:33:05]Okay, you've got academics like Matt Goodwin running for Parliament who don't deny that they took £10,000 a month from the Putin-adjacent Hungarian state.

[00:33:13]You've got Farage himself taking this [ __ ] Like is anyone looking into this?

[00:33:19]It Does anybody care?

[00:33:22]No Nobody care. Okay.

[00:33:24]So what what is the headline news on the front page of the papers today? KATE'S GONE TO ITALY. OH.

[00:33:31]GOOD STUFF.

[00:33:33]YES, AMAZING. What a scoop.

[00:33:36]Kate's gone to Italy.

[00:33:41]Can she bring something back some bonds with her? Is it too late to get her to bring back some bonds? I mean, that would be nice. I'd rather that than a postcard. Can you bring back some bonds, Kate?

[00:33:52]Um, I better just quickly jump over to my super chats as well. Once again, Matt Goodwin typing, "How do I win?" into chat GPT.

[00:34:02]Because of course Matt Goodwin was a busted uh for portions of his book using manufactured fabricated uh fabricated fabricate fabricated fabricated I I'm having a real problem with the old uh vocabulary tonight.

[00:34:20]Uh, fabricated quotes.

[00:34:23]Even now it sounds weird to me.

[00:34:25]Fab fabricate Anyway.

[00:34:28]>> [snorts] >> Uh, finally, while we're on uh Reform Watch uh I as we are, a special doff of the cap to unelected bureaucrat Zeo Yusuf, uh who presumably keen to arrest the columninches away from crooked Nigel uh this week to restore confidence in Reform UK that it is a fit and proper company itself.

[00:34:53]And definitely not a party that can be bought.

[00:34:57]Uh he took to X.

[00:35:00]Don't know if you follow him on there, probably not.

[00:35:03]I don't think he and I have much of an overlap in terms of our followers, subscribers, and all that.

[00:35:10]Uh but he took to X this week, formerly known as Twitter, to broadcast a free advert for JCBs.

[00:35:17]JCB, you know like the industrial like tractor [ __ ] digger things.

[00:35:22]He put a video up of himself promoting JCBs. The head of JCB has donated hundreds of thousands of pounds to Reform.

[00:35:31]Uh but they can't be bought.

[00:35:33]You can't buy them. I'll never be bought by anyone, said Nigel.

[00:35:37]Shortly after recording his latest 15 cameos.

[00:35:41]Um donate a few grand to Reform, donate a few grand to Zeo's office expenses or whatever, and watch Zeo do a dance for you.

[00:35:50]He'll do it.

[00:35:52]He'll promo- He'll promote your JCBs. He'll sell them just like Donald Trump selling Teslas on the Lord of the White House.

[00:36:00]Zeo will do that dance for you.

[00:36:03]If he's uh if he's not too tired.

[00:36:05]Bless him, you know, he gets uh gets a bit exhausted from time to time, does our Zeo.

[00:36:13]Um how are we doing for time?

[00:36:16]We're doing okay, yeah, it's 7 minutes past 8. We're doing pretty good for time. Shall we do a tap-dancing tosser award?

[00:36:22]Let's [ __ ] do it.

[00:36:27]Oh, that's [applause and cheering] nice.

[00:36:28]pathetic.

[00:36:32]Okay, this week's tap dancing tosser award.

[00:36:35]Guys, I would like to distribute one as we didn't do one the last couple of weeks, did we?

[00:36:40]I had people in the chat going like, "What about Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. What What about the tap dancing tosser award, eh? Where Where the fuck?"

[00:36:48]Um cuz I didn't prep much last week.

[00:36:52]Minimal prep time. I'm super busy.

[00:36:55]Uh the downside to being sort of you know, punk rock and independent uh with all of this uh is that I don't have a team of researchers and producers and all of that to uh to help me prepare for these things. Um but if you click join on the channel now, it starts at only £1 a month to join the channel. Or if you drop me a super thanks, a super chat, you sign up for the Patreon. One of these things.

[00:37:23]Um drop me a little tip in the tip cup for this Friday night's lap dance that I do for you all every week.

[00:37:29]Uh maybe we'll get a little bit closer to it to me having my own team and staff and all the rest of it. Uh anyway, this week's award winner for having performed their own bellendry to tier one standards.

[00:37:41]Uh the Telegraph's Camilla Tominey.

[00:37:45]Normally I sort of build up to it and then reveal the name, but no, tonight let's just get into it. Camilla Tominey.

[00:37:51]Uh celebrated journalist at one of the UK's former newspapers of record.

[00:37:57]Uh the Telegraph.

[00:37:58]Uh the Telegraph broke such stories as the MP's expenses scandal back in the day, the downfall of Sir Fred Goodwin, uh the second jobs scandals of the naughties.

[00:38:08]Uh but all of that is before they went batshit and imploded into the conspiracy theory newsletter that they have arrived at in final form today.

[00:38:17]Uh well, Camilla Tominey uh uh, who used to just be a royal correspondent for the Telegraph, uh, where she would uh, spend her days like write writing stuff about like the royals, but then occasionally appearing on like This Morning to tell former kids TV presenters about what William might have said about Harry this week and what he actually thought, all that stuff.

[00:38:46]Uh, well, then she tried her hand at politics and opinion with her much mocked, widely derided "Whisper it, Rishi Sunak is quietly making a comeback." uh, piece at the last election. Very funny.

[00:39:01]Uh, these days she can be found in that other corner of journalistic integrity, X, again.

[00:39:08]Uh, exhibiting her own ignorances alongside Telegraph colleagues like Allison two-tier policing Pearson and Isabel I hate work from home and immigrants Oakshott, um, who frequently, habitually, uh, WhatsApps her articles to the editor from her condo in Dubai.

[00:39:31]Uh, Tominey, though, Camilla Tominey, this week made a right tit out of herself by mocking Greens leader Zack Polanski for his living situation, uh, which came to the fore as he was accused of not paying council tax on a houseboat that he had stayed on.

[00:39:48]Uh, later transpired his official residence may have been his house share down the road and that the local authority with regards to the council tax on the boat had actually just failed to contact or collect any of the council tax from that entire area of mooring.

[00:40:07]But, in the dizzy rush of vendetta journalism, uh, Cams quote tweeted the defense of Polanski living in a five-person house share saying is he still at uni?

[00:40:22]>> [laughter] >> Now, I don't expect every Telegraph writer out there to be totally in touch with every struggle and cause that the left take up.

[00:40:37]I don't imagine that Allison Pearson is across the mental health epidemic, for example, somewhat ironically.

[00:40:44]But the housing crisis is kind of front and center, isn't it? It's kind of touches everyone, I would have thought.

[00:40:53]Even if she herself is not touched by it, her friends or family or nieces or nephews will have been.

[00:40:59]It's not the intricacies of veganism that we're talking about here, is it?

[00:41:05]I presume that Cams lives in or around London.

[00:41:09]She must be at least half aware of how tough it is.

[00:41:15]Is she this insulated?

[00:41:19]From the challenges of UK housing, is she?

[00:41:22]That she just doesn't know about the ballooning trend of people in their 30s and 40s having to team up to live like this just to [ __ ] survive?

[00:41:34]No? Okay.

[00:41:36]Okay then.

[00:41:38]Uh well, check this out. Uh a poll by SpareRoom of 4,000 people. Don't know if you're familiar with SpareRoom.

[00:41:46]It's a website where if you want to house share, if you want to team up with other people, find people who are a little bit like you to become flatmates, whatever, SpareRoom is the website. A poll by SpareRoom of 4,000 people who had either taken in a lodger or have signed up for information on taking one found that 84% were doing so to help with the rising cost of living. So, that's home or flat owners.

[00:42:13]So, like not even tenants, home or flat owners are taking in lodgers to meet their financial commitments.

[00:42:20]Uh meanwhile, it says over the last decade from 2011 to 2021, uh the number of people sharing aged 45 to 55 rose more than twice as much as the number of sharers 18 to 24.

[00:42:37]So, even like the older bracket Um it says 40 to 50-year-olds who can't get on the ladder who are making up this house sharer demographic now.

[00:42:52]Uh it continues, while the number of house sharers aged in the next generation up, aged 55 to 64, increased more than in any other group.

[00:43:06]Uh So, it I mean, it's catastrophic what is happening in in the housing market. The housing crisis is just raging and it is [ __ ] battering every generation, basically.

[00:43:21]Uh I know that this might sound, Cammie, if you're watching, if you're listening, I know that this might sound like, you know, just another alarmist Guardian-sounding article. I I know sometimes how this stuff sort of comes across, particularly when it's like left-leaning.

[00:43:40]Uh people like me communicating it to you. Um but before you dismiss it, Cabs, uh I would just like to inform you that uh whisper it, it was in the [ __ ] Telegraph, Camilla. [laughter] It was in your own [ __ ] paper, you massive [ __ ] >> [snorts] >> Uh so, yes, this week, guys, for being snooty uh and obviously out of touch, uh take a bow, Camilla Tominey. You are this week's tap-dancing tosser.

[00:44:11]Oh, that's absolutely pathetic.

[00:44:16]Okay.

[00:44:18]Okay, breathe it in.

[00:44:21]Guys, breathe in the snark tonight.

[00:44:25]The bubbling bile.

[00:44:27]The barely tempered contempt and rage.

[00:44:31]I'm just brimming with hate.

[00:44:35]This evening.

[00:44:38]Uh now, before we get into this week's weird news story.

[00:44:45]Uh to round us off with this week. Big shout out to the Patreons.

[00:44:51]Uh where are they? Here we go.

[00:44:53]Uh the names across the screen right now. Look at these lovely bastards. Uh do consider joining the cult on either Patreon or YouTube. Here, you can just click the join button on my profile.

[00:45:04]Uh if you wish to be named and shamed like these legends.

[00:45:09]Uh as, you know, sort of veritable emboldeners of my folly.

[00:45:15]Um this week's top member, I suppose I should get a [ __ ] um like from 27 window open edition, here we go.

[00:45:26]Let me see if I can get it up there.

[00:45:28]You uh messes.

[00:45:31]God damn it.

[00:45:34]Where's Chrome?

[00:45:44]Here we go.

[00:45:46]Oh, no. That won't do at all.

[00:45:50]Why have I got the locking music on Chrome?

[00:45:53]Oh, here we go. Right. Right, it is uh it is on there. Right. Sorry, very unprofessional.

[00:46:00]Do do do.

[00:46:02]Just drag this out a little bit.

[00:46:04]Both figuratively and metaphorically.

[00:46:08]Right, so we want to go to membership on funk 27. All right, yeah, I forgot I've got a poll up, haven't I? How much longer will Keir Keir Starmer last? I think a week and he'll be pushed to uh um resign. Right, this week's top member, Rick Shaw, ladies and gents.

[00:46:25]Rick god damn Shaw.

[00:46:28]Uh I hope you're well, Rick. Welcome to the cult, you cheeky bougie bastard.

[00:46:33]Sending love, respect, thanks, and uh awkward hugs to you.

[00:46:39]Um and also we should probably mention our three newest members, Ben, Ian, and Dave Poole, guys.

[00:46:46]What's up? Oh, and while we're on funk 27 um I'll just sort of drag your attention over here, look. You can get all of the old episodes. So, last week's episode, one before, blah blah blah, and then you've got like far right watch, and then TikToks, and like YouTubes, and stuff.

[00:47:01]There you go. I've I've done my [ __ ] shameless promo, and you can comment on stuff.

[00:47:06]And it's free to sign up for.

[00:47:08]There you go.

[00:47:09]Are we good?

[00:47:10]Have I done shameless self-promo? Is that all right?

[00:47:13]If I had an agent, would they be happy with that?

[00:47:17]Um next meet up, 20th of uh June in Liverpool. Hope to see you all there.

[00:47:24]Um because if nobody comes, it will just be me crying alone in a bar by myself again. So, uh yeah, if you wish to uh avoid the visage of a 45-year-old father of two crying into his daiquiri in a dive bar in Liverpool, then, you know, maybe come along. Come along and say hey.

[00:47:42]Okay, right. Weird news story time.

[00:47:44]Let's get into this.

[00:47:48]Weird news stuff.

[00:47:50]Weird news stuff.

[00:47:51]Let's go. Weird [music] news stuff.

[00:47:53]Get the news coming.

[00:47:55]It's a weird news stuff.

[00:47:57]The weird news stuff.

[00:47:59]The it's going TO TALK ABOUT SOME stupid [ __ ] again.

[00:48:05]So, there's a few stories that we could have looked at this week. We could have set sail on a course for the anti-virus cruise ship that resulted in 3-week quarantines and three people dead, though still not as bad as a Britannia ferry.

[00:48:23]We could have checked in on the Alabama woman, 65, who shot and killed her husband, 69, because he was annoying, prosecutors say.

[00:48:37]Um There's a few people's wives maybe listening to this thinking, "Oh, yeah."

[00:48:42]>> [laughter] >> I get it.

[00:48:47]Let her off.

[00:48:49]>> [snorts] >> Um you know, 65-year-olds married to 69-year-olds who've been married for like 30, 40 years. That's a long time to have endured somebody annoying.

[00:49:01]>> [laughter] >> Isn't it?

[00:49:04]I wonder what made like finally made her snap though. That's always the question for me.

[00:49:08]It's like when you find out that somebody's gone stone cold sober and you're like, "What did you do?"

[00:49:13]What What was the night that made you go, "I'm going to [ __ ] stop this."

[00:49:17]Um what finally made this poor, exhausted, thoroughly annoyed wife snap and kill her husband?

[00:49:27]Like, how many times do you have to leave the toilet seat up and your cables lie around for your wife to finally snap and go all Betty Broderick?

[00:49:37]>> [laughter] >> What does it take?

[00:49:38]What is the thing that made her go, "Fuck it."?

[00:49:42]Um I'd rather be locked up in a women's prison where I can read my book in peace.

[00:49:48]What made her just, you know, then I know what to avoid.

[00:49:54]Uh be useful to know.

[00:49:56]I think like some sort of some sort of monthly statement would be really useful.

[00:50:02]You know?

[00:50:03]Like if it was leaving the toilet seat up or if it was like leaving your cables lying around or something.

[00:50:08]Get a monthly statement through the post that says you know, you got 237 more times left that you can do that before she pays someone to come over and roll you up in carpet like >> [laughter] >> come on.

[00:50:22]And then and then like you forget to order a thing online for IT LIKE OH [ __ ] I FORGOT TO DO THE Amazon order again. It's 236 now.

[00:50:30]Down to 236.

[00:50:32]Piss on the seat, 235 [ __ ] Just be useful to know that stuff.

[00:50:38]Anyway, that is not the story that we're going for tonight.

[00:50:43]Uh no, instead we go to Canada.

[00:50:48]Uh this is from the Times. The headline says meet the rabbi behind the world's biggest porn site.

[00:50:59]Uh a rabbi is the head honcho of Pornhub.

[00:51:05]Apparently anybody know that in the live chat? Anybody familiar with that?

[00:51:11]Uh rabbi is the head honcho of Pornhub which I know that sounds like a bit of a weird pairing.

[00:51:20]Isn't it? A rabbi running Pornhub.

[00:51:24]Uh but when you think about it, I mean at least nobody can ever say that there's a conflict of interest there.

[00:51:29]>> [laughter] >> You know, like nobody's going to tell him his career as a rabbi is going to conflict or >> [laughter] >> or or like the opposite like it's uh uh you're profiting like your career as a rabbi is going to there's an overlap there.

[00:51:44]You're going to benefit from your role on the board of Pornhub. Like it's there's a corre- there's you know, you got to declare it. Nobody's going to bollock him for that.

[00:51:55]I mean, I have to say I always assumed that Pornhub was probably owned by venture capitalists rather than rabbis.

[00:52:04]You know, like you know, maybe it started in a dorm room uh back in the day and then gets bought out by a Chinese data farm or something.

[00:52:15]I don't know. Like I don't think a rabbi would be in my top 100 investors or like owners or whatever that I would expect to see as the owner of a a website like that.

[00:52:29]Uh anyway, it says uh Solomon Friedman spent his formative years studying how to be good.

[00:52:35]After an Orthodox Jewish childhood in Canada he graduated from high school and moved to Israel for rabbinical training.

[00:52:47]Okay.

[00:52:49]Uh I passed exams and he was ordained as a rabbi.

[00:52:52]Although he never practiced. Okay.

[00:52:57]Uh instead, he has spent his time doing work that he argues is righteous.

[00:53:03]Uh Friedman is very good at arguing.

[00:53:06]It is a strange experience to finally meet one of the public faces of Pornhub.

[00:53:14]Uh I mean, it's probably a bit disappointing.

[00:53:19]Uh if we're honest about it.

[00:53:23]I think if somebody told me that I was going to meet in person one of the faces of Pornhub.

[00:53:32]I think I'd be quite excited about that.

[00:53:36]Uh and then you take me into a room and it's just a disappointed rabbi >> [laughter] >> looking at me judging me.

[00:53:48]Like this this this is the face of Pornhub that you've got me out here to meet, is it?

[00:53:55]Yeah. Yeah, this is and he's very disappointed in you, mate.

[00:53:59]He's He's disappointed. [ __ ] me. All right, Christ.

[00:54:06]Uh it says Uh this is this is a journalist speaking. Uh I began writing about porn 3 years ago.

[00:54:13]The owners of nearly all the major sites, among the most profitable, political, and influential online hide in the shadows.

[00:54:22]Didn't know that, but okay.

[00:54:25]Uh they are sex educators for the youth.

[00:54:28]Uh but they are also accused of normalizing awful behavior.

[00:54:32]They are beset by lawsuits concerning trafficking and abuse. Uh that is true by all accounts.

[00:54:38]Um there's footage of people that's, you know, been uploaded, sort of stuff I'm sure you could imagine.

[00:54:44]And if you can't imagine it, there's a whole [ __ ] website for you right there. You It's just a click away, guys.

[00:54:50]Um then they you know, they try to get the movies taken down. Maybe they did it 4 or 5 years ago and they're like, "What the [ __ ] Like I don't even remember doing that. Well, how how is that up there?"

[00:54:59]They try to get the movies taken down.

[00:55:01]Uh but it's impossible and by that point, of course, they've been copied and ripped and, you know, reprocessed and whatever and put up on other sites.

[00:55:08]It's [ __ ] gross, right? There's no safeguards or recourse there for anyone.

[00:55:14]Uh it says the new ownership behind Pornhub claims to be different, pushing for reform in the industry.

[00:55:22]Now, this is where it gets even more depressing than you would imagine.

[00:55:29]Uh in the article, the journalist is a lady by the name of Helen Rumblelow. I don't know if I'm pronouncing it Rumblelow, maybe. Going and give her a follow.

[00:55:39]Uh she sort of goes in open-minded.

[00:55:42]Uh she's like, "Okay, you know, this guy is an ordained rabbi.

[00:55:47]Um he stopped short of going the full rabbi, clearly.

[00:55:53]Uh but then he goes into law, judging by the biography that she's written sort of of him in this piece.

[00:56:00]Goes into law and business and this private equity firm.

[00:56:04]And she asks him if he's a if he is a feminist or if any of them are feminists.

[00:56:10]And he says yes, they say yes.

[00:56:13]Uh so he's a feminist.

[00:56:15]Uh they want reform in the adult entertainment industry. He's a former rabbi. There's a righteousness that he talks about.

[00:56:23]And she asks him what Judaism's take on all of this is.

[00:56:29]And then he sort of you know, kind of backs off a little bit.

[00:56:34]He says he would never claim to be a representative of Judaism.

[00:56:38]He's had a complicated relationship with his faith.

[00:56:41]He's not a thought leader for Judaism.

[00:56:43]Uh so the religion stuff is uh kind of out the window for him.

[00:56:48]He's not He doesn't see himself as a a holy man, really.

[00:56:52]It's going to shock you.

[00:56:53]Um So yeah.

[00:56:57]He's not a rabbi. He's not particularly into Judaism.

[00:57:02]Uh then she says a bit of other criticism in that regard.

[00:57:07]Uh he he says that that gets dismissed as anti-Semitism, >> [laughter] >> which is, you know, that that's a reach, I believe is what the kids call it.

[00:57:18]Uh you know, people throw the same criticisms as she's throwing to him in terms of like exploitation and all this other stuff. Uh people throw the same criticisms uh at all of the other sites that do the same things as his site does. Even the ones run by shadowy figures, shadowy unnamed figures who operate in the dark.

[00:57:38]Uh but unless he, you, if you're watching this rabbi, unless you're going to conflate uh Judaism with shadowy figures yourself, I mean, I wouldn't have thought you would want to do that because ironically that sounds actually quite anti-Semitic.

[00:57:53]But like I'm just saying like if if we if you don't even know who the owners are of a place, but the criticisms are the same, then how could it possibly be anti-Semitism? Just because you yourself happen to be Jewish, but you also say that you've basically ostensibly renounced your faith. Like how could it possibly be that?

[00:58:10]Um then it gets weirder.

[00:58:13]Stay with me.

[00:58:16]Uh the other representatives of the equity firm that bought and run it are there in the interview.

[00:58:22]Uh you've got Solomon Friedman, but you've also got Sarah Bain, uh who is a former Liberal Party of Canada board, uh and Alex Kekesi, who's another lady.

[00:58:36]The journalist asks if it's ethical nowadays, now that they own it, now that it's no longer this, that, and the other.

[00:58:44]Basically, it had to be sold and bought by the sort of consortium uh because they were getting sued by so many people who had said like that's me, I was trafficked, this is an R-word video, this is that like they were just getting sued into oblivion. So this equity firm stepped in, bought it.

[00:59:01]The journalist asks if it's ethical nowadays.

[00:59:05]Uh and then one of them replies back, doesn't say who, uh our litmus test is legal, not ethical.

[00:59:14]>> [laughter] >> So, >> [snorts] >> reforming the industry, uh but like one watered-down bit of non-regulation at a time. Okay, cool.

[00:59:27]Uh they say that they've got moderators uh, and that various terms and words have now been prohibited.

[00:59:34]Uh, the journalist says, "But I looked on your site in your home country." You can VPN, right? So, she's looked at what Pornhub looks like to these people in Canada.

[00:59:45]Uh, and she says seven out of the first like 11 top videos were this thing, like a horrible thing, and then this thing, another horrible thing.

[00:59:55]And she says, you know, like why haven't you removed the word teen from the [ __ ] you know, suggested content and the And the guy says, "Oh, no, you can't say like if you go on there like you can't search for stuff that says like tiny teen anymore. That's just not a thing."

[01:00:14]And she's like, "But look, here's some videos that say both tiny and teen in the title."

[01:00:21]And he's like, "Yeah, but tiny teen together you can't say. And we don't have We don't have a teen category anymore." She's like, "But that's not the point. Like the point is you're supposed to be reforming.

[01:00:31]Like you're a rabbi. You say you've got all these moderators. I'm telling you this stuff is all over your site. What are you doing?"

[01:00:40]I don't want to spoil the whole article for you because you should definitely go and read it if you're interested in this stuff.

[01:00:46]Um, definitely go and give it a look.

[01:00:49]Uh, but suffice to say when she pushes him to explain what measures are going to be implemented to protect people people that shouldn't be seeing this stuff, young people uh, then he's like, "Well, you know, we would recommend that the phone manufacturers like Apple and Android or whoever makes Android phones these days, uh, we we think that they should have a lock. Just every phone is locked until you you like age verification. That's the solution [laughter] for it.

[01:01:23]So, yeah, what what a total shocker. No change required from the platforms themselves is his conclusion he's arrived at.

[01:01:32]No responsibility from him. He wants to reform the industry, but there's no responsibility on him to do anything that's even close to resembling reform.

[01:01:43]And then they wonder why state like state level legislation has to be introduced to actually take care of it cuz they can't be trusted to regulate themselves.

[01:01:53]Like if only some governments would take some lessons from this and apply it to tabloid journalism perhaps. Like they're not going to regulate themselves. They don't think they have any responsibility for this stuff. You might have to step in, lads.

[01:02:09]Anyway, guys, we're kind of out of time.

[01:02:12]Uh we've gone over half past eight. Uh we'd better wind this up soon. But let me wrap up this episode by saying uh it has been obviously a week of chaos, a week of tumult and despair once again.

[01:02:26]Uh one where honestly I don't know which is more tempting to sail away on a council taxless longboat or take my chances on a hantavirus cruise.

[01:02:37]Uh either way just get me out of Blighty.

[01:02:42]Uh the Prime Minister will probably be ousted from number 10 soon. And when that happens, the next Prime Minister will be faced with the same set of problems that neutered this one from actually doing anything.

[01:02:55]But as hopeless as that sounds, as depressing as the week has been maybe next week will be better.

[01:03:04]Maybe you'll escape your five-person house share when a nice Thai businessman gives you 5 million pounds with which you can just go and buy a house outright with.

[01:03:18]But if not, well, maybe we could all just pack up together and [ __ ] off somewhere else entirely.

[01:03:28]Because at the end of the day, well, there's always Greece, isn't there?

[01:03:35]Right, guys, let's wrap this up. Let's do the lock-in. If you have any questions for yours truly, if you want to do a little bit of Q&A at a half eight each week, then we break this down into the lock-in, which is what we're going to do now. Bish, bash, bosh.

[01:03:49]All right.

[01:03:52]I can stop recording now. There we go.

[01:03:54]How you all doing? We good?