May 4, 2019 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
04:57
| 
| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| My name's Thomas. | |
| Nice to meet you, Thomas. | |
| Mr. Minjvin. | |
| Right. | |
| And what can I do for you? | |
| Well, I'm interested in your take, particularly on the Leave Zeitgeist in this country. | |
| We've recently, I don't know you're aware, have had the local elections, and three parties had losses. | |
| Yes. | |
| Tories, Labour, and UKIP. | |
| In an election that saw the minor parties having great increases. | |
| Are you concerned that there could be a change in the country to a more Remainer approach and potentially stalling Brexit to no end? | |
| Well, it's certainly a potential problem. | |
| I mean, honestly, I wasn't a local campaigner, so I'm not sure what's happened on the ground there. | |
| But honestly, I mean, I've been listening to a lot of the coverage, and it seems that nobody really understands what's happening. | |
| As I understand it, the Liberal Democrats have very strong local branches that have done a huge amount of work, and you can see that this has paid off for them, you know. | |
| But otherwise, I don't really know. | |
| I mean, it seems that it was a protest vote from the Remain side, because I guess they don't feel listened to either, even though I can't see what they could have to complain about, really. | |
| But yeah, it seems that the Leave voters think that we can just tell the government what to do and then hand it off and expect them to go on. | |
| And this is what obviously happened with Nigel Farage. | |
| Immediately after the referendum came back and we'd won, he resigned. | |
| And it's like, well, that was optimistic, wasn't it? | |
| You know, we have no choice but to keep going and to keep the pressure on. | |
| Because as soon as we start taking the pressure off, they start thinking, well, we're not actually under any electoral threat here. | |
| Whereas, I mean, you know, the Conservatives and Labour both took a battering. | |
| So did UKIP in fairness, you know. | |
| And maybe we were lazy on that regard as well. | |
| Maybe we thought that, oh, well, you know, the country voted to leave, therefore we don't have to worry about that too much. | |
| And I think that's the wrong approach. | |
| I think we should be constantly marching forward and saying, no, we voted leave, we voted leave, we have to leave. | |
| I mean, the issue of our time no longer seems to be left versus right, it's more of kind of a, it feels like a battle for the centre in terms of leave versus remain. | |
| And with Vince Cable's announcement of a staunch Remainer party, is it possible they could prove a very viable threat to UKIP in future, not just local elections, but MPE elections and the like? | |
| Well, it seems that the battle lines have been drawn on that regard, and I think that very few Liberal Democrat voters will be voting for any kind of Brexit parties, pro-Brexit parties. | |
| If the Conservatives tomorrow could somehow find their resolution and say, well, hang on a second, we actually have a democratic mandate here. | |
| There's an implicit assumption whenever you cast a ballot that the result will be abided by. | |
| And if for some reason that they're not going to do it or they're not going to do it firmly, then what was the point in voting? | |
| So the Conservatives could turn around and say, you know what, we don't have a choice at this point. | |
| We have to deliver Brexit. | |
| Even if it's on no deal to WTO terms, this is what we have to do. | |
| We can't just allow the EU to string us along forever. | |
| I don't think that any of the Liberal Democrat voters are going to be accepting that kind of line. | |
| They seem to not care about the democratic mandate that the Brexit referendum gave the country. | |
| And I mean, I don't really know what else. | |
| It seems like it's every Britain's duty to support Brexit at this point. | |
| You know, it's bad for the country. | |
| It's making us weak in the international community. | |
| And it's making the EU stronger. | |
| It's making our bargaining position just nothing. | |
| And we really have to start doing something about this. | |
| I mean, you've done an awful lot so far, and I'm very grateful you for your candidacy for MEP. | |
| But there has been some knock-on effect. | |
| We can blame Dankyla if you like, but there has been some losses to your constituency. | |
| Would you consider, if perish the thought, you don't make MEP, would you consider moving on into UKIP to have an MP position or trying to get other candidacies? | |
| Well, I mean, to be honest with you, I really don't want to be involved in politics. | |
| I was very happy being a commentator. | |
| But they really have forced our hand here because we shouldn't be running MEP candidacies. | |
| This is ridiculous. | |
| And I mean, it's a farce on the face of it. | |
| Three years ago, we voted to leave, and we're still here. | |
| So what other choice do we have? | |
| I mean, I'm really not the best person because I'm like an anti-political correctness entertainer. | |
| So, you know, they can take any joke of mine and say, oh, look how offensive this joke was. | |
| And I say, well, thank you very much. | |
| That's my entire act. | |
| So you're publicizing this very well for me. | |
| But it's not generally what you want in politics. | |
| And I think it speaks to the very strange times that we're in, that it's a person like myself who ends up running because I'm like a late-night comedian, basically. | |
| I don't think I would want to be the kind of guy to have to run for office and have to win office. | |
| But at the end of the day, if that's what it takes to send them a message, then I'm going to be out here campaigning as the politicians in Westminster simply aren't because they expect your votes. | |
| We think we're here to earn it. | |
| No, I'm glad that you are. | |
| I'm glad to be here to see you. | |
| And thank you very much for the conversation. | |
| Thank you very much. | |
| Thank you. |
Export Selection