All Episodes
Previous Next
May 22, 2019 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin
04:21
What do I Think of Tommy Robinson？
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Right, what's your name, sir?
Colin.
Colin.
We spoke earlier.
We did, we did.
I'm terrible with names, but I'm great with faces.
No, that's that's fine.
Right, what would you like to ask me?
I've got a radio show.
My wife says I've got a face for radio.
That's mean.
Hold this bit up there.
There we go.
Right, yeah.
Yeah.
And then point that at your face.
Okay.
Great.
So what would you like to ask?
I just wanted to ask you one question on Tommy Robinson because we all know he's up in court tomorrow.
Yes.
Now, how do you think that's going to go?
And would you, do you think, I mean, in the back of my mind, if they lock him up, then is that the end of his MEP career?
Is he something that they've because they've kept out the way with all this?
Yes.
You know, they're letting him do his stuff.
They're killing him.
What do you feel about that?
Honestly, I don't know.
And I don't want to make predictions about that kind of thing because honestly, it would be as worthless as any other prediction.
I think it's going to disappoint a great number of people if they were to lock him up.
And I think there would be civil unrest because of that.
Really?
Yeah, well, there'll be people protesting.
People protesting and being very angry about it.
Although I don't believe they're going to do anything like smash anything up or anything like that.
They're not lefties, you know.
But there will be a great number of people disappointed by that.
And I think that honestly, I mean, I don't want to cast aspersions on the neutrality of our court system, but I don't find it to be very impartial at this point.
And I think that he is drawing crowds in the places that he's going to, very much like myself and with you folks.
Sure.
He's going to working class estates in the north of England and he's saying, look, there are real problems.
In very much the same way I'm doing.
There are very, very serious problems that we have to talk about.
And the establishment simply will not talk about them.
And this is what Chris Hicks was talking about on Politics Wales or something programme for the BBC.
He's like, look, you can say that we do not appreciate that someone like Tommy Robinson is rough around the edges.
He's got a past and he's not the kind of person would invite to a dinner party.
But at the end of the day, he is a person who exists in this country.
He's a taxpayer.
He's a voter.
He's a citizen.
And he has supporters.
The Westminster bubble can't keep pushing people out just because they don't like them.
These people need representation.
They need it.
So it's incumbent on them to actually start listening with an ear of humility to someone like Tommy Robinson.
Instead of pathologizing him as a bad person, I mean, like, I saw a doctor, Dr. Julia, someone or other, on Twitter the other day had literally said that Tommy Robinson wanted militias and a race war, quote unquote.
That was rubbish, absolutely.
Yes, exactly.
There is no quote from Tommy Robinson that asks for militias or a race war.
No, never.
Absolutely not.
You can't find it.
And if there was one, you'd see it all over everything.
Yeah, it would be everywhere.
You know that's not true.
But this is a doctor.
She's got a PhD and she's resorting to making this up on social media.
They literally don't want to listen.
They don't want to listen.
So, what happens if he does go to prison tomorrow?
I mean, the way it's stacked up against him, although I don't think there's any case, they can say what they want in court, can't they?
I mean, they did last time.
I think we're in a period of politics in the moment where making predictions is a bad idea.
Yeah.
Because we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
I mean, this shouldn't be happening.
Yet it is.
So who knows what happens after tomorrow.
But honestly, I wish him all the best.
Yeah, so obviously I completely support what he's trying to do.
The conversation that he is trying to put on the table is a necessary one that has to happen.
Absolutely.
Yesterday, I spoke to a woman who effectively described herself as a refugee from the north because of, frankly, the sort of Pakistani gangs in these communities had been bullying her and her family to the point where they didn't feel safe living there and they'd fled down to the southwest, down to Totnes.
And I mean, she didn't feel safe there after the lefties turned up to talk to me.
Well, quote unquote.
But this is the thing, it's a real thing that's happening.
But she wasn't like some frothing-of-the-mouth racist or anything like that.
She was a very, you know, genteel old woman who was just there saying, Look, you know, you can say that it's not happening, but it really is.
There are real problems, and they have to be discussed.
And that's, I think, what Tommy is trying to put on the table.
Well, I'll definitely be voting for you in the MEP elections.
And I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you very much, sir.
▲
Export Selection