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Sept. 12, 2018 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
06:53
Impressions of the EU Parliament
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What are we doing man?
I have absolutely no idea.
I'm just waking up.
I just wanted to go and buy some magic cards.
I just thought, I just made my dog raise his paw.
And now and suddenly I'm fucking here.
I blame you for this, Anita.
Yep.
We just wanted to play video games.
Unironically, that's all I wanted.
And then you decided to start fucking with us.
And now we're in here.
Didn't want this to be the case, but lo and behold, this is what you get.
Just wanted to play games.
So, um, okay, so how did you find the panel we did the other day?
I thought it was good.
Um, like, a lot of the people there were actually quite supportive and all that type of stuff as well.
Obviously, the press didn't bother with it, and obviously, UKIP are probably the most hated people in this building, because essentially, UKIP is advocating for everyone in this building to lose their jobs.
So, uh, nice 100 grand salaries down the toilet.
So, uh, obviously, UKIP are not very popular.
Yeah, yeah, like, people are like, oh my god, there's no one in there.
Yeah, no shit.
It's not a public event.
The public are not just allowed access to it.
And everyone here hates UKIP.
We almost weren't allowed access.
Yeah, people are not happy we're here.
It just makes it even better.
Yeah, I mean, UKIP is basically an existential threat to this place, which, you know, makes me feel kind of good.
Yeah, that makes me happy.
It's kind of like, it's good.
I understand that they hate us, but it's like, well, good, good.
You shouldn't fucking exist in the first place.
Yeah, if you didn't make us do this, I mean, okay, so here's the thing.
I'm going to do a video shortly.
Well, when I say shortly, at some point in the future, because I'll be able to get hold of sort of good information about what's happening to you to demonstrate how the European Commission is not a democratic body.
Because a brief overview is the Commission creates legislation.
They put it to the Parliament, the MEPs.
Lobbied by big tech.
Lobbied by big tech.
The MEPs can amend it.
And if they want to amend it, it then goes back to the Commission.
And if the Commission don't like it, they can ignore it.
And just shelve it or push it through again.
And again, and again.
It's not a democratic process.
It's genuinely not.
No.
It's not.
And the fact is, as well as most of the MEPs, when it comes to the actual legislation itself, they didn't even read it.
They didn't even read it.
They basically turn around to their advisors and go, how should I vote on this?
Did you read it?
Basically, it's some poor PA that get made to read a 320-page document, you know, last night and the PA will just either say, you know, abstain for PR reasons or for or against.
Like, that's literally how it's done.
So it's technically not the MEPs that are not even really running the show.
It's the PAs.
It's the PAs that run Europe.
It's not even that these people run Europe.
It's the PAs advising the MEPs, not because it has any significant effect on the legislation, but because it looks better when the press get hold of it.
So the MEPs can say, well, we voted this way, we voted the other way.
And it doesn't work like a national parliament.
It doesn't work in any way democratically, in my opinion.
I think this is an absolute disgrace.
There was also certain types of votes as well.
You get a roll call vote where it actually comes out publicly what way an MEP voted, but then you get different kinds of votes where you don't know if your MEP voted for or against something.
So basically whether or not your MEP actually represented what you wanted is hidden from you.
It's actually hidden from you.
That's sketchy.
You can actually check that afterwards, but it's on the website.
You have to go and find it and dig it up yourself.
And who the hell's going to do that?
You know, who is going to the website and digging that up?
No one's doing it.
Let's play everybody watching this now.
Yeah, but let's be honest, you're not going to do it.
No one's going to do it.
It's the point.
And honestly, I think that the whole point of the sort of like Byzantine bureaucracy of the place is to keep this kind of stuff hidden from the public.
And the whole thing is incredibly elitist.
Oh yeah.
Like the even down to the layout of the building, where all the plebs are like in a circle around the empty center.
And then at the very top are the people in charge.
In an increasingly, because it's modelled off the Tower of Babel picture, I can't remember the artist that did it, but it's modelled off a famous picture of the Tower of Babel.
And at the very, like, what would have been the unfinished top is where the important people go.
And it's like, this is awful.
And the thing is, you can tell these people are deeply ensconced in this world.
I mean, this is a million miles away from any problems.
For example, Mike Hookham, UKIP MEP, he wants me to come with him to Normandy to go to the migrant camps and actually interview some of the migrants, explain, you know, explore what's going on and actually do some on-the-ground sort of reporting.
And I'm happy to do it because the press have got no interest in doing that.
And he's already done this and they wouldn't publicise it.
No one would go anywhere near it.
And it's like, right, okay, that's interesting.
So that'll be in about, well, probably about a month's time.
So we'll see how that goes.
But they're a million miles away from all of the actual problems.
That's the problem as well.
The people in this building are like, no, we're not causing any problems.
Everything's absolutely fine.
It's because you spent 24 hours a day surrounded by fucking affluents.
Like, that's why they're literally, this is literally the ivory tower.
And they're going, there are no problems.
I didn't see any problems.
Yeah, exactly.
Are you sure you're not just being bigoted here?
Have you considered that?
Have you seen any since we arrived here?
Oh, yeah.
So it's almost like this area was purposely built so that none of them can afford to fucking live here.
Yeah, and that's another thing, right?
Paris, very diverse.
Strasbourg?
Nope, not very diverse at all.
Funny old world, isn't it?
Weird that.
Weird.
Yeah, really strange.
It's almost like that was on purpose.
Yeah, it's...
I mean, you know, I'd only suggest that these people are entirely self-serving and they've set this up to protect themselves and, like, immunize themselves from the ramification of the public actually finding out exactly how they work and what's going on.
But that is the end effect of what's happening here, whether they intend it or not.
Yeah.
I understand that this was meant to be a serious and important place and everything.
And I was actually kind of like, holy shit, I'm going to the EU Parliament.
I've been laughing the entire time I've been here.
I've been laughing the entire time I've been here.
I was like, this isn't a serious place.
I mean, I've actually had a lot of fun here because I don't feel like this is a serious place.
I mean, I put up a picture of the voting chamber.
What was it called?
I can't remember the name of it.
It's a giant dome in the middle of the building.
And I put up a picture of it.
And it just, it doesn't feel like it's got any gravitas, you know, it feels, and there's a very sort of almost schoolyard atmosphere here.
It felt quite imperial to me, if I'm being honest.
Yeah, it was just basically like all them in the middle with the EU flag.
Well, yeah, I suppose, yeah.
It just felt kind of, I don't know, I was just kind of looking at it, and I was like, that looks a little...
It kind of looks like the Senate from Star Wars, Episode 1 or whatever, didn't it?
Yeah.
It did, yeah.
That's why I was kind of looking at it, going, this is actually quite uncomfortable.
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