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Oct. 20, 2022 - Stay Free - Russel Brand
01:19:25
#017 | The Mask Is Slipping. Plus Special Guest Nick Ortner
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Time Text
I'm going to go ahead and get the camera.
Slow news day here in the UK, just the illusion falling apart before our very eyes.
Those of you that are familiar with ideas like Simulacra and Simulacrum will know that beneath apparent reality there is a deeper reality bubbling away.
Deleuze, the French post-modernist philosopher, says it's like a kettle boiling.
The water will become steam.
The suppressed reality will emerge.
And today, when you sort of see the resignation of Liz Truss, I think six weeks after she became Prime Minister, we're forced to confront that potentially we live at a time When politicians have become disposable, what does that say about the real nature of power and where real power is situated?
That's why we've called today's show The Mask Is Slipping because also later in the show we're going to be talking about the relationships between Big Pharma and the government, the ongoing gain of function.
It's not gain of function research, it's that they've created new There's a debate around whether it's going to function or not.
The people doing it have said it's not going to function, but other people have said it is going to function.
So, there's a debate.
You would know, Gareth, because you are, after all, a producer of this show.
A scientist.
Oh!
And a scientist, yes.
An actual scientist with us also is Sue B.
Young Putin, who will be giving us your comments.
Let us know in the chat if you think that this recent spectacle is a kind of indication that our establishment systems are falling apart.
Over the course of this next hour, what I'm going to be pondering and asking you is, do you think that what will happen is that the carousel will continue to twirl, new protagonists will come forward, we'll get a new leader of the British Conservative Party, or perhaps the Labour Party will salvage us from this economic wreckage?
You know where I stand on this.
The problem is institutional, global, ...deeply ideological and beyond parliamentary, or in the case of America, congressional politics, and ultimately will lead us to...
Well, I mean, if you want to see how this chaos, this new and emergent chaos is presenting itself, look at just normal British news.
And if you're watching this in America, or you're watching this in France, or if you're watching this in Algeria, wherever in the world you're watching this, think about your own systems of governance, and are they truly representative of the will of the people, or are they ultimately the playthings of powerful international interests?
This is a question you can ask yourself.
Right now in the chat.
And again, with the broader philosophical question that relates to the nature of illusion, the nature of reality, the spectacle, the constructed reality we're invited to participate in, look at this is normal British telly.
We're English.
We're reserved.
We hold it together.
Like, you've seen the news from our country.
Hello, this is the news.
We're just doing our absolute best.
God bless you, your majesty.
Stiff upper lip, everyone.
Nobody react.
Keep perfectly still.
There's been an oil spill.
We'll simply clear it up.
Look at the news.
Never tell anyone you love them.
Look at the normal news from yesterday.
It has been a night of astonishing scenes at Westminster with reports of jostling, manhandling, bullying and shouting outside the parliamentary lobby.
The first thing they're reporting on is jostling.
This is prior to Liz Truss's resignation, by the way.
Before Liz Truss resigned yesterday, the Home Secretary resigned.
There was a general sense of chaos.
The Chancellor had resigned.
Pounds up a bit though, that's good.
Pounds shot up a little bit.
This is before today's events.
It's unfolding like a splintering and fragmenting reality.
It's like the snow globe has been dropped.
It's all spilling out.
What do you think the manhandling bit was?
I don't know, because even the jostling, like why's jostling?
What is jostling?
This is jostling.
I don't think it's newsworthy, to be honest with you.
I think that jostling is like people are in a confined space and they're sort of like that.
That's me, Jocelyn.
You think that makes the news?
I don't think it should.
I don't think the news... I don't think... This is what the news should be.
The whole system's falling apart.
We don't know what we're doing anymore.
We're the corporate media partners of the financial interests that put those people in government and deny you any real democratic possibility.
We don't know what to say anymore.
It should be about Jocelyn and the manhandling.
There's been handled, manhandled.
I suppose that means handled in a way that you didn't want to be handled, that was somewhat aggressive.
I suppose that's manhandling.
Yeah, I think he goes on to say that the interesting thing is this happened in a supposed vote of confidence in the government.
So, this didn't go very well, that vote of confidence.
Like, the whole point of the vote was, right, well, should we see how confident we are in the government?
Well, frankly, I'd like a jostle.
Exactly.
And a manhandle first.
Look, this is, again, normal English news.
This isn't like a parody.
...in a supposed vote of confidence in the government.
The deputy chief whip was reported to have left the scene saying, I'm absolutely effing furious.
I just don't effing care anymore.
Don't say that on the news.
No one has ever before, I don't think, gone, here's the news.
Someone's effing furious.
I don't effing care anymore.
Like, people's emotions.
All of our political and social and cultural realities have to pass through the human psyche.
And it's like now the traces are starting to merge.
People are fucking pissed off!
They've had enough!
I caught my dick in my zipper!
I don't reckon my wife loves me no more!
What are you saying?
This is the news!
Oh, sorry, um, the prices of pounds moved a bit.
You know, like, the sort of, the reality is sort of bursting out like monkey pop.
I like the way that someone's got to the point of saying, I don't care anymore.
Like, about any of it.
I don't care about this entire system.
That's the chief whip.
That's one of the civil servants that I think... Are they partisan, the whips?
Or do they remain with one party?
Or do they stay in government regardless of who wins it?
But they're not an MP, are they?
They're sort of an apparatchik.
That's right.
Right.
So that dude... Like, I like that he says, like, I don't care anymore!
I'm effing furious!
He kicked over some bins on his way out, he pulled a cat's tail, he flicked someone on the titwart, right?
And then about ten seconds later, that geezer took his job back, didn't he?
That's right.
Check it out.
He resigned along with the Chief Whip, but we've just been told they have now officially unresigned.
The Home Secretary has, however... I'm effing furious!
I've had enough of it!
What?
Right, I'm back again!
Hello, sorry about all that!
No, don't look at me like I'm out the door!
These are the people that are in charge.
Isn't the whole point of it, the whole point of the suits, the accents, the university educations, isn't the point of all of that to create some distinction between them and us?
That this, these are the representatives of the system.
We know what we're doing.
We know how to talk properly.
I've been doing this for ages.
I'm effing done!
I'm pissed off!
I'm going home!
I just did the toilet in my nappy!
That's not how it's supposed to sound.
It's falling apart.
They can't prevent it.
They will try to.
They'll try to paper over this, but for now it's becoming clear that something's going on, isn't it?
I like how long this opening monologue is.
It's normally really short and snappy, but the story's so long that they have to keep repeating the music underneath.
Like, if they were doing that music, like, yeah, because normally it's just, uh, Obama visited Britain, people cross with Trump, Biden seems a bit old.
This is the news.
That's it.
Yeah, but now it's just gone on so long because people are resigning, coming back, hitting each other, manhandling, bullying, shouting, effing furious.
I'm furious, I've done a jostle, I'm pissed off, oh, I'm back again, call that jostling, I'll see you in court, I'll jostle you until you're into the middle of next week.
Yeah!
He's gotten that out of hand.
Still going.
He's got a few more seconds.
Definitely got it.
In short, it is total, absolute, abject chaos.
Chaos is the word as well because order is temporal.
Order is a pattern and I suppose when we think of order it's a pattern that we have induced, a deliberate control mechanism.
We are the government.
We have control of these resources.
We have a contract with you.
You voted us into power.
We will ensure your interests are looked after.
But because it's become so apparent that that is not what we're living in, it's like that reality is seeping out.
It's that we're caught in the fog of it.
And of course this is, as I said, prior to Liz Truss, our Prime Minister, there's barely time to sort of Learn her name.
That's not long enough for a relationship.
If you introduce someone to your parents, like, listen, I've met Liz Truss.
I love her.
I know she looks different from the front and side.
Remember her from both angles now.
You'll get used to that.
In case she sort of comes in sideways later.
Who's this woman in our house?
He's got another girlfriend.
Oh.
You, sir, are disloyal!
You're a two-time... Oh, it's her.
She just turned her head a bit.
She looks unusual.
Why is your girlfriend blinking so much?
Hello.
I make your son very happy.
I've done something about energy bills.
Yeah, you told us that when you came in.
Energy.
Remember, we've done something about energy bills.
I've got energy.
Got a lot of enemies.
Got a lot of blinking trying to get me through this interview.
She can't stop her, they're blinking, that lady.
Well, today she's had to resign.
It's a familiar sight in British politics.
I'm sure it is wherever you are in your crazy little planet.
I mean, it's our planet, isn't it?
We're all living here.
You know, the moment when they resign, often there's that sense of when a puppet has its strings cut, when you're relieved.
You know when you've sort of stopped trying, Gareth?
When you're sort of like, I'm not going to bother anymore.
I haven't had those moments in your life where you're just like, oh, that's it.
I'm not going to like... Have you been in an argument with a person and then just went, I don't care.
Yeah.
I had one with a farmer once.
I was arguing with a farmer like, what are you doing here?
You've got no right to be here.
And he was actually... You said that to him or he said that to you?
I'm with my dog in his field.
Right.
Right.
It's more like this.
Oi, what are you doing here?
What are you doing in my field?
I'm sorry, mate.
I'm just like, you know.
Right, well, you can't walk through here.
You can't walk through here.
I've not lived in the countryside long.
There are different laws, different rules.
Oh, all right, mate.
And then I actually got a bit annoying.
I mean, there's some, like, escalated.
Yeah.
And then there was a bit when he was really shouting and I goes, listen, I don't care about this anymore, do you?
And he was like, yes!
He was still in it.
But like, now let's have a look at Liz Truss's resignation.
You know, these famous moments, Nixon effing off onto that helicopter.
We've seen these kind of moments before because it's commonly said all political careers end in failure.
But what I want to ...present you with is the idea that they cannot ever have had real power.
For it to have expired in six weeks, this is a kind of performance.
This is why we have performer politicians now.
Politicians that are slick on camera.
I guess maybe it's not a new thing.
Ronald Reagan was of course an actor and was a...
Damned good president, many of you will believe.
Certainly, he delivered his lines well most of the time.
But, like, now we have... They're not that good at performing.
They evidently don't have any real power.
Here is Liz Truss offering her resignation.
Notice that it's at 13.33.
It's a sign.
And before you say, oh, it's not a sign, they've got a lion and a unicorn on the podium.
What does that mean?
What does it all mean?
Have a look.
She's coming out.
Let's listen in.
I came into office at a time of great economic instability.
international instability.
Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills.
This first bit is an excuse, isn't it?
This is basically, this ain't my fault, it was broke when I got here.
Oi, who's broke this economy?
It was broke when I got here.
We came in a time of instability, she's about to start bringing Putin up, families and businesses were fucked.
Those things, exactly your point, those things are still going on.
Mark, if I was there I'd say, we came in when it was like this, and I've left when it's like this, but it's exactly the same.
In a short six weeks, I've actually made it a bit worse.
Again, your political resignation shouldn't be... You should offer a mea culpa, wouldn't you?
I suppose what she should be saying, if this was normal life, and again, this is why if you don't know why Trump's successful, I would say in part it's his His ability to communicate in a manner that seems like a normal person talking, even though he's evidently extraordinary.
What this person could be saying is, look, I've only been Prime Minister six weeks, it seems ridiculous that I'm already here resigning.
We had some ideas and we did get elected on that mandate, but the ideas, you know, like the reduction of the top rate of tax, it's not worked.
It's gone terribly, terribly wrong.
I'm incredibly embarrassed.
I'm sorry.
It doesn't sound like that, does it?
Also, that podium looks wonky, as well.
They can't even get the podium to be straight.
Not a good sign, is it?
Look at our podium.
Look at me.
You get yourself a pulpit, you spray the bloody thing pink, and you resign with dignity, if that's what's required.
Let's see where she goes now.
Putin's illegal war in Ukraine threatens the security of our... Putin?
I mean, what's that got to do with any of this?
Bloody Putin!
They're dragging him up for a minute.
This is Putin's fault.
Yeah.
He put this pulpit up earlier on.
I've said to Putin, make sure it's flush with the camera so I at least look like I know what I'm doing.
I will not put it flush.
I am taking back something.
I declare martial law on this papavian.
I've annexed your pulpit.
Oh no, I can't even do this right.
...continent and our country has been held back for too long by low economic growth.
I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this.
We delivered on energy bills and on cutting national Bill's so proud of them energy bills, but what they've actually done is they're giving energy companies some taxpayer money.
It's not like they've not gone, listen you energy company, we ain't giving you no more money, we're taking back them energy companies, they're ours now, now fuck off!
Stop that!
I mean, swearing aside, you could actually do that.
So we've been elected, well I suppose you'd probably want to get elected on that kind of mandate.
For a brief while in this country, Jeremy Corbyn was leader of the Labour Party and proposed things like the renationalisation of energy companies, railways, free education and high taxation for wealthy corporations and super wealthy individuals.
And recently after he was ...booted out of office after some pretty interesting maneuvering by the establishment.
He said, I don't think anything I was proposing was that weird.
I mean, I feel they were quite good ideas.
When are people going to accept that change might mean doing things different?
We're gonna change everything!
This is like, cause this is proper, this is chaos now.
This is the revelation that even the pretense of order cannot be sustained.
Real change won't be, but now we've got this guy!
Look!
He's got nice hair!
Or something, won't it?
He's got nice hair!
He's a different colour than normal!
Or something, or even more mad, we've got the last guy back again!
Maybe he's changed?
Like, or...
Right, well, let's definitely get the other party of people that basically went to the same schools, had the same jobs, have the same interests, are funded in more or less the same way.
Because genuinely radical politics and genuinely radical ideas cannot be included within that system because the system's priority is self-preservation and it will only make minimal changes so that you have the appearance of transformation without actual transformation.
An example from across the United States, we've covered it on our channel already, Biden says decriminalise cannabis.
Biden does, we're going to release everyone from federal prison that's in jail for cannabis charges only.
That's no one at all.
Perfect.
Gesture made, nothing done.
You're always offered piecemeal facsimiles of change, never actual change.
The system must preserve itself.
I like the way she says, our country's been held back for too long.
Like it's like a kid at school or something.
Yeah.
What is the force?
What's the external force that's holding back the country for too long?
Get out there, you're a bloody good country!
You can do it!
I stick up for you.
I stick up for you with the other countries!
Them idiots, the French, Pooey!
Can't trust them, under the channel, touching us with sand!
Let's see where she'd go.
Insurance.
And we set out a vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.
I recognise, though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.
I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King.
That seems weird.
That's not right.
His Majesty... So everything's changing.
The Queen's dead.
It's only just Meta.
The Queen's a bloke now.
It's all falling apart.
I mean, it makes sense.
We can't hold together this system.
It's ridiculous, isn't it?
She was annoyed by the last time in Meta when she gave the bloody hell you were going.
Oh, God!
Oh, bloody hell!
This bloody bed!
You've been here only just last week!
Now you're resigning!
Oh, who is it now?
This one?
That one?
I can't remember all your bloody names!
Yeah!
I wonder what that call was like though.
Did she call or go and see him?
Is it like a breakup or something?
I wonder what it is.
Well I think that everything is so purely, what do I want to say, sort of superficial, bureaucratic and rudimentary that it's completely devoid of any real meaning and even the performers, it's like people are sort of waking up in the pods now like, oh my god, how can you connect this to any value?
I'm sure she's having actual real feelings.
When I think about that, when I think of her humanity, when I think of her as a child and with her dreams, when I think of her eternal spirit, when I think of the fact that she's just a human, just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him if she can be Prime Minister for another half hour.
In front of a wonky pulpit.
Notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.
Alright, so she does.
She has to call him up.
Yeah.
But that can't be.
Is that functional?
Is it real?
There's anything?
Can he say no?
Yeah, I think he can say no.
No way!
I like you!
You stay there!
First I lose real mummy!
Now Prime Minister mummy!
And I got married mummy!
I didn't like glamorous mummy!
Sexy warrior mummy!
She had to go!
No way!
No more mummies!
You're staying put!
I met the chairman of the 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady.
We've agreed that there will be a leadership election to be completed within the next week.
How can we take that seriously now?
How can we take, like... I can't get used to it.
It's like...
People used to say that when I would turn up with a new girlfriend.
They'd say, what's the point?
There's going to be another one in a week.
That's what it's like with prime ministers.
Well, this is our new prime minister.
What's your vision?
Oh, I don't know, really.
I'm just going to try my hardest.
They might as well just have a conveyor belt.
Just have them in for a moment.
Balls up the economy a little bit.
And then straight into whatever job you get at a fracking company.
Yeah.
And also, why don't you mention that 1922 committee?
Like, we all know what that is.
Like, oh, OK.
The 1922 committee.
Before you go any further, Have you told the 1922 committee about this?
Why are they from 1922?
Is it a lot of old people?
What is this?
Don't worry about how I'm going to pay my gas bills.
Don't worry about the fuel crisis.
Don't worry about the despair and pervasive sense of nihilism.
Have you told a committee from a hundred years ago that you've done this?
Oh yeah, no, it's the first thing I did after I told the pretend Queen bloke person.
This will ensure that we remain on a path to deliver our fiscal plans and maintain our country's economic stability and national security.
I will remain as Prime Minister until a successor has been chosen.
Thank you.
Oh, that's only another week!
She's like, I will endure the rest of the week.
It's like a Craig David song.
It's like Solomon Grundy, but it's in fact a period of leadership.
I suppose when something this radical and this immediate takes place, there has to be a kind of reckoning, doesn't there?
Are we ultimately just going to deliver another person into that position, another person that will ultimately stand in front of another podium in a matter of weeks or months or years after serving the financial interests of the groups that fund the Conservative Party rather than representing the interests of the people that they were elected to serve?
Not going to be a pivotal and transitional moment, is it?
I just think she's not Tory pedigree.
You know, obviously she was originally a Lib Dem, and she gave that speech about the abolition of the Royal Family when she was a Lib Dem.
And, you know, look at someone like Boris, you know, Etonian proper bred Tory, or Cameron, those people that like really lasted the distance.
That's one of the many things that Boris had to go through when all those parties came out.
No, I'm staying.
I'm still staying.
But you did those parties.
Yeah, I'm still staying.
It was amazing how long he dragged that out for.
Right, right.
The sort of Etonian tenacity.
If you can endure a schooling that has buggery on the curriculum, you can put up with admissions of a few Covid parties.
Yeah, I think that's probably a soft underbelly to a former Liberal Democrat.
Maybe.
Right, I see.
I don't know.
I mean, because as you know, sort of like my overall perspective is that sort of within the various shades that exist in the different parliamentary parties is... I don't know that these are kind of meaningless exchanges and shuffling unless something happens that genuinely affects the lives of ordinary people.
Now of course I have been more involved in mainstream politics and I've even myself stood
outside of that iconic front door, number 10 Downing Street, where Churchill has stood.
When I was like, briefly, in fact it was when me and Gareth first started, our first iteration
of this channel was called The Truths, where we'd just do daily comments on the news, sometimes
it was somewhat incendiary, and it was broadly undertaken from the perspective that mainstream
politics was futile and I was kind of escalated into a position of public prominence when
I admitted that I'd never voted in my life because it was pointless.
And I said, well, people that I know and grew up with, no one votes.
They sort of consider it to be sort of a senseless, futile, phatic exercise.
And regardless of who you vote for, you get the same sort of political and economic interests ultimately being represented.
And in a sense, I got sort of mired in all sorts of arguments.
And we, on our channel then, and hopefully on our channel now, Decided instead to represent interests outside of Parliament, activist groups and this was when I got involved with this campaign group to stop these flats getting closed down and taken over and these women ran this campaign and we amplified their campaign, shone a bit of a light on it.
I became friends with these free women and in this moment a Channel 4 journalist was confronting me and sort of like, I can't remember exactly what he was saying.
He was digging me out and winding me up.
Really all I was doing was helping this community get their campaign more prominent.
But eventually, after getting irritated by this journalist, I used one of the campaigners as a kind of human shield.
Have a look at this.
David Cameron isn't.
Lisa Russell-Brown's actually standing up regardless of how big his house is and coming down and helping ordinary people.
Well, that's what it was.
He said, like, you've got a big house.
That was his attack.
You've got a big house, you're not poor.
And, yeah, what I did is sort of dragged her over.
Now it just turns into sort of the kind of bickering that would happen in a supermarket over the last roll on deodorant.
Turn on people as soon as they stand up.
The sharp there because she was actually sticking up for me.
There is a bit in a minute, well in a couple of seconds where you literally just let her get on with it.
Hang on a minute.
She's better at this.
Wait a second.
I could just let this person talk.
She's going to do all the heavy lifting.
At the moment I look at my eyes.
Yeah.
I'm really, yeah, I'm going full Rasputin.
He's irritated the old ego nexus.
David Cameron's prepared to come out of his big house and help us.
He isn't, is he?
But Russell Brand has.
And thank God there is people like him who's prepared to step out and help people like us.
Otherwise, we wouldn't be here today.
We wouldn't have 300,000 signatures.
We would have been kicked out and booted out of London.
Yeah, a snide like you, mate, undermine it.
You're a snide.
Alright, let's do one.
What I did there is I got a little bit too cockney.
I got sort of sucked into her cockney orbit for a moment.
You had a long time to think about what your final point was going to be and then your final point was you're a snide.
I still think it stands the test of time because I was like looking at him there feeling like really sort of strong feelings of discontent and malevolence towards that man.
You went full on cockney.
Do you think you need to explain what a snide is at this stage?
Yes.
Snide is an untrustworthy and slippery individual.
Look at that.
He's grinning, the reporter.
The old Bills loved it.
And off we went, back to Albert Square, which is the fictional setting of EastEnders, which is British soap opera.
Well, there you are.
That's what's happened.
And I suppose, like, um...
Before we go into our main video today, where we look at, I mean, extraordinarily, one of the financial interests that was potentially involved in the potential lab leak that may have led to the global pandemic, which has been part of this ongoing narrative that we're experiencing of lurching from crisis to crisis, no peace, no sense, no purchase.
They are now doing additional, as Gareth said, potentially gain-of-function research.
It might not be gain-of-function research, that's something that's being debated.
But what I will tell you is they're making a bat coronavirus more deadly, giving it to mouses, and the mouses are dropping like flies.
80% of mice are dying of it.
That's right, yeah.
Doesn't seem like... I mean, you know, like, get another hobby is what I'd say.
Let's have a look at that geezer, um, sort of saying, like, who's really emotional about... This is just, again, sort of like some sort of British MP.
And again, what I find interesting is that the emotion is surging to the forefront.
People aren't even using correct political discourse anymore.
I'm sorry, it's very difficult to convey.
You look just furious about this.
I am, I am.
I've had enough.
I've had enough of talentless people putting their tick in the right box, not because it's in the national interest.
It's like he's had enough because of boxes and ticks and stuff.
People can't afford to pay their heating bills.
People with jobs that are using food banks.
It's the real minutiae of government now, isn't it?
That's it.
I can't be bothered.
Look, I can't even get a podium to be on the right angle.
I ticked a box earlier.
There's those little pens that you get in Argos and at the Bettys.
It's not good enough.
Look at my hair gel.
It's too adhesive.
That's not my natural root lift.
This isn't what I asked for.
The hairdresser, the whole thing's falling apart.
Look at the sort of gothic architecture, the grandeur, the goddesses that adorn these buildings and what takes place in this skullduggery, slipperiness, deceptiveness.
I feel that we're living in a time where the illusion is fracturing.
I think this is more than localised, national or even global politics.
I think it's a psychic shift.
Order will always be temporal.
Chaos is always behind order.
How do you ever change yourself as an individual, let alone an entire culture, without recourse to chaos?
Where is the energy going to come from?
Think about yourself, like, oh God, I'm so tired.
I need to change my life.
I don't want to live like this anymore.
Where are you going to get the resources from?
You're going to use techniques like mentorship, We're going to use reflection, contemplation, and ultimately, you're going to have to go within yourself, which is a risky business, because there be dragons.
When you go into those depths, there are dangers.
I truly believe this is a time where we have to look at alternative systems, real democracy, decentralized power, the empowerment of ordinary people to run their own communities.
New ideas, actually.
It's not necessarily new ideas, I mean, but something certainly that, you know, Jeremy Corbyn was talking about just You know, seven years ago.
Seems a lot more pragmatic now.
Get some, get a control over national facilities so at least ordinary people can expect a basic standard of living, can pay their bills, can eat food.
Like the real Maslow pyramid of needs.
Just the first bit of the pyramid they would have done before that to sort of work out pulleys and systems that we still don't really understand.
You want to watch some more?
I don't know, does he say anything else worthwhile?
But because it's in their own personal interest to achieve ministerial position and I know I speak for hundreds of backbenchers who right now are worrying for their constituents all the time but now worrying about their own personal circumstances because there is nothing as X as an ex-MP.
Not a phrase.
And as the old saying goes, there's nothing as X as an old XMP.
You thought that was X?
Well, Guy WX, that's XXMPs.
Yeah, that's... That's sign off on that.
Like a phrase that no one's heard of.
And as we always say, red sky at night, new Prime Minister by the morrow.
XXY, why did we try?
Bloody old tick box kicked me in the ball bag.
What are you saying?
I'm so angry that I'm making up catchphrases here on the news.
Yeah, get a hold of yourself, man.
All right, so the actual news, in addition to watching parliamentary politics collapse before our very eyes, an indication that something new and powerful could yet be formed that will involve you.
It doesn't have to be abstracted.
Other stuff includes expert committee recommends that COVID-19 shots become part of the CDC vaccine program for children.
We'll be talking about that more.
Why is that happening, Gareth?
Well I mean we don't know whether it is happening for this reason or not but interestingly also the health and resource resources and services administration has clarified what needs to happen for a vaccine to become liability free.
For a vaccine to be covered the CDC must recommend the category of vaccine for routine administration to children or pregnant women.
So essentially For these vaccines and manufacturers such as Pfizer and Moderna to become liability-free, as in not be able to be sued, the CDC would have to recommend these vaccines to children, which is happening.
Why would they want to be liability-free?
Why would you, for sure, did they anticipate there being some kind of liability?
Why would you want legal indemnity?
Why would you, there's like, I mean, Johnson & Johnson, who I, I adore Johnson & Johnson.
You like Johnson a lot more than Johnson.
Johnson's okay, but Johnson, what a prick!
Why can't you be more like Johnson, Johnson?
When's it going to end?
It's Johnson, Johnson and Johnson.
We've got another Johnson, we don't use him much.
What we do with this Johnson is we blame him when we have legal cases, because you know Johnson, Johnson, I mean I can't believe I'm saying this out loud, but Johnson, Johnson's baby powder is potentially carciogenic and certainly Johnson and Johnson have paid out two billion in, uh, remuneration and damages to, I think, 22 women who say that they got ovarian cancer as a result of that exposure.
They probably settled it out of court so that it's not legally provable, right?
Oh, sorry, sorry.
Allegedly!
Powder of Johnson and Johnson's is good stuff.
I say take a delicious gulp of it every single morning.
And how that relates to this sort of systemic problem, of course, is obvious, isn't it?
Politicians are dispensable.
The system is performative.
Real power is corporate.
And we're all engaged in a ludicrous spectacle that can't even be bothered to hold itself together for the duration of a simple resignation speech.
And if you're living in New York City, God help you, because the rats have taken over to such a degree that people, like the officials that are giving speeches, seem to be more interested in the rats than the people of New York.
Yeah, this is an amazing story, because apparently, well, the New York City has apparently become an all-night, all-you-can-eat rat buffet, they're saying.
It's just, like, visually amazing.
All-night, all-you-can-eat rat buffet?
What does that mean?
If you're out in New York at night, there's so many rats everywhere...
You could eat... There's no restriction on how many you can eat.
I don't know if it means that you can eat the rats, but the buffet is for the rats.
They're the customers.
Yeah, I think it is that.
He's not like going to New York.
No.
Surely, can I keep eating rats?
Sir, have as many rats as you like!
I'm walking here, but I've had over 25 rats!
Keep eating those rats!
There's no limitation, sir.
It's an endless slurpy cup of rat blood.
See what these guys are up to.
The rats are absolutely going to hate this announcement.
Why are you telling the rats?
Because they're not.
The rats won't care.
Well, they won't understand.
They don't.
Rats, if they have a language at all, it's a sort of almost pheromonal system of communication that takes place way beneath the lexicon of human English.
Yeah.
Exactly.
And also, you know, I don't think that, yeah, as you say, they're not going to care about what she says.
They're addressing it to the wrong people.
But the rats don't run this city.
That's not an impressive statement, I think, if you're in charge of New York, for your thing to be to show authority by saying, the rats don't run this city.
and not rat high. That's why we live the way we do.
That's not an impressive statement I think if you're in charge of New York
for your thing to be to show authority by saying the rats don't run this city
it's not, doesn't show you authority.
When they are shown like visiting diplomats around Manhattan
and one thing of which we're particularly proud is that we've won our ongoing battle with rodents.
Well, we defeated them, like, millions of years ago when we out-evolved them.
It's not, like, neck-and-neck with the rats.
It's not Battle of... It's not Planet of the Apes.
No.
Is it?
Like, where it's all shit, but the apes might win.
No.
You do.
This is not Ratatouille.
Rats are not our friends.
Why?
Look at the geyser in the background.
He's just holding his shit together for out of this.
The actual mayor, isn't it?
That's Eric Adams, I think he's called.
This guy, the guy talking, or the geyser in the background?
No, the geyser behind him, I think it is.
Oh yeah, he's the mayor, is he?
And he's like, right, all right, all of you go out there.
The main things, as mayor of New York, these are things I want you to make clear.
It ain't an all-you-can-eat rat buffet, even with the rats as the smorgasbord or the diners, right?
Rats are not in charge here.
One thing I noticed a lot of confusion of, people seem to think that the film Rat 2 is actually a documentary about a rat who's trying to make it as a chef, but there's a lot of prejudice against rats.
So obviously what he's done, in a rather complex system of semaphore, he's gotten inside a boy's chef hat, who's not actually that good of a cook, and he's manipulating that boy to be in a Very good chef.
In the end, though, they accept that the rat should be the chef himself.
Anyway, that's not real.
Yeah, it's like he's trying to convince the public.
Because if he's saying that the public thought that this was ratatouille... Because he says, this is not ratatouille.
That's going to be a shock to people.
I thought this was ratatouille.
Is it in the sense that the general public mood in New York is, I like all these rats!
This is the best time!
This is like Ratatouille!
Hey, get some of these rats on my head!
Maybe I can become a Top Chef!
Oh my God!
This one's eaten my eyeball!
My optic nerve!
Like, people aren't so convinced that Ratatouille is a life guide.
No.
That they're doing it for real.
No, no one does it.
Like when people go, oh, hip-hop, it's making people too violent.
Or computer games is making too violent.
Ratatouille has convinced everyone that they can become Michelin star chefs if they're willing to accept this violent infestation and possibly use them as marionette themselves.
Forget the cost of living crisis, the real problem is people have got rats inside their chef's hat.
Right, guys, we're sick and tired of this.
Every single one of you, lift up your fucking chef hats right now.
We don't have to lift up our chef hats.
We're New Yorkers.
All right, lift up.
I'm free.
Lift up your chef hat.
One, two, three!
All the stampering little rats!
That's not what's going to happen, is it?
No.
He says rats are not our friends as well.
Again, like a statement I don't think is needed.
Like all the people of New York are snuggling up to him and that.
That was happening.
I've not been to New York for a while because of Covid and everything.
I didn't realise that rats were like vying for dominance in the city and a considerable number of New Yorkers were sort of up for it because of Ratatouille.
They're having to be dissuaded from it.
Hey, listen, maybe it's not so bad.
Let the rats take over.
I mean, it's not like Ratatouille.
No, no!
No, it's not Ratatouille.
How many more times?
Baby, if there is a post-apocalyptic hell, it'll be like Wall-E and, like, you know, a little robot will find love with another little robot.
No, no.
Pixar movie.
Hey, maybe if we just, like, let our toys run things, you know, they'll come to us.
No!
Why are people in New York having to explain that Pixar movies are fictional?
Representations of whimsical stuff that might be delightful in the world of animation, but if it actually happened, it would be akin to hell.
I mean, a real-life person trying to make it as a chef, and you found out, oh, God, what's your secret?
This soup.
It's absolutely magnificent, what an incredible blend of flavours.
Oh well what it is, it's like I've got a rat.
Tell the mayor though, whatever you do.
One thing is, don't tell any mayor.
Those pen pushers at City Hall, they're against this bloody fascist pigs, but what I've got is he's the rat and he's on my head right now actually, and he's like tugs at my scalp, and like he directs the cooking.
Yeah, if I'm adding turmeric, he says That's enough turmeric, son.
Hold back on that.
You might want to try a bit of chili.
Can I ask you, outright, do you fuck that rat?
Yeah, I do.
I'm all for that.
Okay, everyone in New York, stop fucking rats.
This is not porn Ratatouille.
A version of Ratatouille where you dress the rat up all sexy and then you fuck that little rat.
That is not life.
But it might as well be.
Would it?
Well, look at what's happening in the world.
Prime Minister's come.
Hello, I'm Prime Minister.
Oh, I'm gone again.
Pounds up, pounds down.
Right, I see.
Hey, listen, we might have leaked that thing out of a lab.
Oh, let's make it worse.
It's all bonkers.
It's gone out of control.
Yeah, chaos includes having sex with rats, I imagine.
Once you've invited chaos in, like, whoa, chaos!
Well, I'm going to be fucking a rat.
Oh, God.
I mean, I don't like it.
It's within the general remit.
Also, why are, like, mice suddenly all the heroes because of these experiments that they're doing, and they ate rats?
I don't see the mouses as the heroes, you know.
Right.
Do you?
What, you think they're brave, self-sacrificing mouses?
Well, that's what they're saying.
That's got no choice.
No.
The mice, they're not like, OK, well, if it'll help humanity.
They're just in a cage, have that vaccine.
Why don't they test the vaccines on the brats instead?
Oh, my God.
Right.
This is a genius idea.
New York!
Get them rats!
Test vaccines on them instead of humans!
Allegedly.
So much to consider, so much to consider.
Listen, we're going to, in a second, we're going to look at our item.
Here's the news.
No, here's the fucking news.
We're in this sort of clown world, bizarre circus you're being invited to inhabit.
People are now scientists, brilliant men and women that might be curing actual diseases and finding solutions for the myriad problems we face in harmony with economists, finding new ways for us to trade and communicate, are instead trying to make A new type of coronavirus that's much worse than the last one, which could, let's face it, have been leaked from a lab.
Well, the same people funding, the same people involved are doing more crazy, wacko stuff.
Why?
Why?
What's driving all of this?
What I will tell you is because I love you and because we care about you, at the end of today's show, Nick Ortner, my friend and creator of Tapping Solutions, a brilliant app that you should download, that you can download for free, will be on to give us some tapping advice.
Tapping's a bit like, I suppose, Acupuncture, in that it operates on the body's meridians and helps you beat stress.
Now, you might think, oh, this is a bit mad what Russell's doing, but actually, somewhere downstairs, there's a rat making a lovely lasagna as a direct result of what I'm doing now.
I said moussaka, you little motherfucker!
Up a bit, up a bit, you crazy rat!
Here's the news.
No, here's the effing news.
Now here's the f**king news!
Good news everyone! A new strain of COVID that kills 80% of the mice that they're testing it on
is being developed in a Boston lab. You won't believe who's behind it!
As scientists at a Boston lab create a new strain of COVID that kills 80% of the mice they test it
on, we ask simply, what are you doing that for?
Haven't you had enough COVID?
American researchers have developed a new lethal COVID strain in a laboratory echoing experiments that many fear started the pandemic.
That's not a conspiracy theory to say that anymore.
You're allowed to say that now.
The mutant variant, which is a hybrid of Omicron and the original Wuhan virus, yay, super group, killed 80% of the mice infected with it at Boston University.
That was only five mice, though.
The revelation exposes how dangerous virus manipulation research continues to go on, even in the US, despite fears similar practices may have started the pandemic.
Professor Shmuel Shapira, a leading scientist in the Israeli government, said, this should be totally forbidden.
It's playing with fire.
Like, you don't need to do experiments on playing with fire to know this stuff.
But what happens if you actually do play with fire?
Oh my god!
My lab coat!
The Bunsen burner!
Oh no!
The mice!
We've only got two of them!
And it's booster season in a minute!
Delete the file!
In the new research, which has not been peer-reviewed...
That's good.
You don't have peers looking over it.
Hey, hold on a minute, this is dangerous!
Ah, fuck off!
A team of researchers from Boston and Florida attached Omicron's spike to the original wild-type strain that first emerged in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic.
Why on earth would you do that?
What if we took the powers of Superman and then gave them to Adolf Hitler?
Oh, that seems like a good idea.
Should we get it peer-reviewed?
Nah, let's just do it!
Aah!
My lab coat's on fire!
Open the window!
No, don't tell anybody you did that!
Oh, my God!
Hitler's out of the lab!
Hitler!
Don't you go misusing those powers!
Is he trying to fly, or is that a salute?
Hitler!
That better not be a salute!
He's not learned a thing from last time!
Where are you going, Hitler?! !
The researchers looked at how mice fared against the new hybrid strain compared to the original Omicron variant.
How mice fared.
It's not really very nice, is it, to create a super strain of coronavirus and then see how it gets on with innocent little mice.
My money's on this new virus.
We're going to do our best, guys.
Come on, let's try and get... Oh, my lungs!
My God, I can't draw breath!
Once again, it's new spiky Omicron is the winner.
Oh my, Hitler's done what?
You bastard!
You promised us!
You promised us you would not invade Czechoslovakia!
Why did we give him the Rhineland?
I bow to no one in my love of science and the spirit of experimentation.
They've the last...
Coronavirus was bad for mice.
It's pretty obvious, isn't it, that making coronavirus much worse and then giving it to some little mouses is going to have a negative effect.
Whoa, what the hell's going to happen here?
Maybe these mouses will develop superpowers and we can get them to stop Hitler.
I don't think so.
He's looking pretty pissed off up there.
What are you doing in that lab?
Well, look, it all started with a brilliant idea to give superpowers to Hitler.
That, I'm afraid, did go wrong, but we're working on a solution right now.
Oh, God, another mouse is dead!
We've only got two left!
And it's booster season in a week!
When a similar group of rodents were exposed to the standard Omicron strain, however, they all survived and only experienced mild symptoms.
Are you ready for some more cheese?
Actually, yeah, I will take a little.
Jake!
Before I give you any of this cheese, where's your mouse passport?
We better lock you down for a couple of years just to make sure that don't go anywhere.
Yeah, it's probably for the best.
Probably for the best.
Right in the paper, they said, in mice, while Omicron causes mild non-fatal infection, the Omicron S carrying virus inflicts severe disease with a mortality rate of 80%.
Good work, everyone.
The researchers said it signaled that while the spike protein is responsible for infectivity, changes to other parts of its structure determine its deadliness.
Well, that's Really nice to know which exact bit is going to kill your grandad and any rodent pets that you might have had to soothe him in his lonely demise.
And of course we all know grandad was doing quite well until there was that lab leak which killed not only him but Huey, Louie and Dewey.
I suppose I can understand, in the abstract, why making a virus more deadly in order to cultivate a response to it, so that if that ever happened in reality, is a kind of good way of gaming out potential problems.
But it does seem like the motivation might be financial and economic at best, and maleficent at worst, rather than Come on, let's get on it guys!
You know, this doesn't actually help, does it?
This isn't the solution we're looking for.
What about heart disease?
What about poverty?
What about the fuel crisis?
Why not use the best scientific minds in the world to solve the problems that people are actually facing, rather than creating much worse problems that we've only just bloody well got over?
Based on your recent experiences of being alive, which of these two potential mainstream media stories seems more likely?
Good news, everyone!
There's a new deadly coronavirus, but we have already developed a vaccine for it, so you don't need to worry, and we're gonna give it to you free at a price that's right.
Even your taxpayer money will be reasonably distributed.
We've done a great deal with Pfizer.
That, or this.
Listen!
Uh, well, there's a new virus.
It's come out of a wet market, very near, again, a function research lab that's deleted its files.
And I'm sorry, but we're all gonna have to go back indoors for a while.
This is gonna be a terrible situation for everyone in the world except for Bill Gates and a couple of other guys.
Okay, hope you enjoyed the news!
One of those news stories has already happened.
The other one, I've never heard anything like it.
Professor David Livermore, a professor of microbiology at the UK's University of East Anglia, said, given the strong likelihood that the COVID pandemic originated from the escape of a lab-manipulated coronavirus in Wuhan, these experiments seem profoundly unwise.
There's unwise, and then there's like, dropping into a new level of like Doctor Strange.
Oh my god, that's so unwise.
Why are you doing that?
Even if you take the worst global conspiracy of them manipulating it in order to dominate the globe, it's still not a good idea.
Gain-of-function research was largely restricted in the US until 2017 when the National Institutes of Health began to allow it to take place using government funds.
Previously, it had been halted from 2014 to 2017 over concerns that it could lead to the inadvertent creation of a pandemic.
Do you know what I've realized?
By making these viruses more infectious, what if we actually cause the pandemic?
That's a good idea.
Let's stop doing this research.
Should we start doing that research again?
Yeah, it's fun, wasn't it?
Hello?
Sorry, I can't hear you.
You're coughing.
The University of Boston refuted that the experiments are going to function, adding that the research was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Biosafety Committee, IBC, and the Boston Public Health Commission.
Check funding.
A spokesperson said, ultimately, this research will provide a public benefit by leading to better targeted therapeutic interventions to help fight against future pandemics.
Well, in the end, ultimately, when you play it all out, then eventually, Hitler, of course, causes those genocides.
He conquers mainland Europe.
This time he's able, of course, to succeed in conquering Britain.
The U.S.
are unable to provide a solution on the Eastern Front.
He experiences victory because of his new superpowers and accedes to become world emperor.
At this point, we inject that son of a bitch with a deadly dose of coronavirus from all these mouses.
You're welcome, planet Earth.
There's no evidence that the work was conducted improperly or unsafely, but it's become apparent that the research team did not clear the work with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which was one of the funders of the project.
Oh, I remember hearing of those guys.
They were the people that were helping us and guiding us through the last pandemic with their brilliant advice and potential ties to groups and organizations that were involved in the Wuhan experiments in the first place.
I can't remember any of the names of any of the individuals, but I feel like Anthony Fauci was the head of the NIAID.
Interesting to see that guy's legacy continues after his own personal retirement.
The agency's gonna be looking for some answers as to why it first learned of the work through media reports.
Would you mind telling us what the hell's going on in that laboratory?
I've been reading in the New York Times, which I love, by the way, that you guys are making Hitler some sort of Superman.
Yeah, what, do we have to tell you everything we do with your money?
I would prefer it.
At least tell me are those mice okay.
20% of them are.
Emily Erbelding, director of NIAID's Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, said the BU team's original grant applications did not specify that the scientists wanted to do this precise work.
What are they doing on their grants?
Yeah, just, you know, just been doing some experiments, man.
Just having some fun in there.
It's like, I see science as more like jazz.
We just get in the lab, get a mouse, chunk it in a bin, get a bat coronavirus, Give me a little bit more accountable.
We just had a massive global pandemic.
Hey, fuck you, squares!
Nor did the group make clear that it was doing experiments that might involve enhancing a pathogen of pandemic potential in the progress reports it provided to the NIAID.
There you go!
It's all in there.
It's all in there.
So, no enhancing pathogen of pandemic potential.
It's not in the report, is it?
So, I guess you got that point, Dexter.
Why don't you just stick to pushing your pants in City Hall and leave the science to us artists out there in the lab?
I think we're going to have conversations over upcoming days, Abelding told Stat in an interview.
Asked if the research team should have informed NIAID of its intention to do the work, Abelding said, we wish that they would have, yes.
Just like it's like a boyfriend and a girlfriend arguing.
I wish you'd told me about that.
You could have told me, Gerald, that you were going to use that money to fund more experiments in creating a literal super Hitler.
You're just like your father.
I wish they would have, yes.
When their whole catchphrase is, follow the stars, it's disconcerting that wishes are involved at any level.
Oh, star light, star bright, first star I see tonight.
Please God, don't let these maniac scientists release any pathogens into the planet.
Hope that wasn't a broken window.
Hope that wasn't an airbed falling over.
Hope that wasn't some files being deleted.
Hope that isn't the new super flying invisible Hitler.
My lucky stars.
There have long been speculation about the true origins of the virus that took over the world in early 2020.
Some believe that the virus could be man-made with explanations ranging from the accidental to the nefarious.
It is feared that the virus being developed managed to infect an employee, then escape into the real world from there.
The theory for COVID was initially dismissed as conspiracy at the start of the pandemic in favour of natural emergence.
Quite rightly, it clearly was a conspiracy.
There's absolutely no evidence of any employee getting any diseases that could have led to COVID anyway.
The hypothesis gained momentum following a series of revelations and cover-ups.
Just because there's revelations and cover-ups, that doesn't mean that government agencies and private pharmaceutical interests are concealing a potential problem that would leave them culpable for a global pandemic.
Crucial information about the earliest infected patients was wiped from the Wuhan Labs database in 2019.
And one of its staff vanished after coming down with a mysterious flu-like illness.
Oh!
You think just because we wiped the database and because an employee disappeared with a mysterious flu-like illness that somehow there's been some sort of cover-up and the coronavirus started in the lab?
We wiped that database because it's contained a lot of surprise information for your birthday and one, without getting you a cake, That super-enhanced Adolf Hitler was a surprise for your birthday and you've ruined it!
Oh my god, what's he doing?
You're just like your Führer.
Father!
If you want an opinion, my opinion is probably there are better areas of endeavour for the finest scientific minds that Pfizer can buy to be Putting their attention, focus and concentration upon solving the real problems of ordinary people all over the world, creating a fairer, more just, more medically sound and robust civilization for all of us, which I believe is achievable and possible, which is why it's so frustrating.
But that's just what I think.
Let me know what you think in the chat.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
See you in a second.
Thanks for choosing Fox News.
Here's the video.
No. Here's the fucking news.
You're watching Stay Free with Russell Brand, which is perhaps one of the few places on this planet you can come
and be who you are no matter who you vote for or don't vote for, what you believe in. You are welcome here.
Join us on Stay Free AF, where we have such tremendous It's fun in our private members community, learning new wellness techniques, exploring the depths of our dirty little minds.
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Who knows?
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Who could ever care?
29 Dirt Wizard, Divine Banana, Seven Plains, they'll all be joining us on Stay Free AF.
Now though, I just want to follow up a little bit on the Liz Truss resignation story and how parliamentary politics, or in the case of the United States of America, congressional politics, is incapable of addressing the issues, or not incapable, unwilling to address the issues that affect I'm talking to Chris Webb now, he's head of communications of the activist group Enough is Enough.
Chris, I understand that thanks for joining us mate.
I believe that the Enough is Enough campaign is essentially a way for All people of all denominations and all political beliefs to come together to push back against the rising cost of living.
How is your campaign going?
What do you think about parliamentary politics and do you think now the solutions have to come from outside of ordinary political systems?
Hey Russell, good to be on buddy.
Yeah, I mean we, exactly what you've just said there really, we believe that the Enough is Enough campaign is about bringing together ordinary working people, trade unionists, community groups, individuals to deliver change because we think the political system has failed working class people for decades now.
It's not just a recent development.
It's not just the recent months development where we've had one, two, three, and we're going to have more Tory Prime Ministers.
This is about working class people delivering change in the country.
I think In terms of the campaign, it's going absolutely fantastic.
It couldn't have gone any better, really.
We launched just a couple of months ago.
We've got over 700,000 people have signed up to support it.
Millions and millions of followers on our social media channels and views on our videos.
And it's really catching fire.
We're holding rallies and events up and down the UK.
So you take the most typical ones like London, where we had 10,000 people.
For a rally with Mick Lynch from the RMT, Dave Ward from the CW and others in Kings Cross a couple of weeks ago.
But we're also going to places like Norwich, Russell, who traditionally aren't political hotbeds.
And there's 700 people turn out there on a Tuesday night because there's an appetite for change and there's an appetite for working class people to deliver it.
So I'm the head of communications at the CW.
We've had 155,000 people on strike today.
Royal Mail workers, and we've had BT and open reach workers and those picket lines have been so so lively and one of the interesting things there in the Royal Mail dispute take for example is the seventh day of strike action within a few weeks seven days of not getting paid in a cost of living crisis which is hitting people hard our members lose using food banks
People not able to pay bills.
People worried about being able to pay their rent.
And they're still out to a person on that picket line because finally there's some hope.
There's a combination that maybe through the combination of the trade union movement, Enough is Enough campaign and working class people coming together, we can deliver change in this country.
Chris, that's so exciting to hear you talk like that, to hear a new popular movement emerging that is open to all of us, outside of parliamentary politics, where real issues that matter to people are being addressed in a way that they never can in these co-opted bipartisan systems, whether you're in America or England or wherever you are in the world, there's a sense that parliamentary or government or politics is becoming Extracted from the interests of ordinary people and co-opted by corporate interests.
So encouraging and so exciting to hear that.
Of course there's the Don't Pay UK campaign that we're familiar with, where people are going to renege on their energy bills because of the corruption.
Acknowledging that the measures taken by Liz Truss, former Prime Minister, after that six-week shindig are irrelevant.
Although they might be a little bit of piecemeal aid, ultimately their money's still going to energy companies.
Do you feel, mate, that wherever you are in the world there is a dearth of political representation for movements that genuinely and meaningfully improve the lives of ordinary working people?
Yeah, I do, mate.
I mean, we work with Senator Nina Turner.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with Nina, and she uses the phrase, what happens over there happens over here.
And that's exactly, you know, the businesses and the corporations and the politicians, they work together collectively to suppress working class people and to suppress working people in general.
I mean, a little interesting stat as well was Liz Truss was elected as leader of this country by just 83,000 Tory party members.
Our mandate in raw mail strike 86,000 poster workers voted for strike action.
She's got no mandate and she's had no mandate and that's been played out but we are seeing levels of engagement whether it's through industrial action through the enough is enough campaign that we haven't seen for decades Russia we're seeing I mean and it's not just your usual suspects it's not like you go into these enough is enough rallies or you come into picket lines and you know you've been around For a significant period of time and you've got really good, well-meaning, left-leaning people who come up and they turn up time after time after time and they've put the shift in.
We are getting people from all walks of life turning up and all backgrounds turning up to these rallies and people really are saying enough is enough and we're giving them an outlet.
So what we're also saying, which I think is interesting, We need to do it in the workplace, so people need to join the trade union, they need to get organised, and they need to win at work.
We also need to do it in their communities.
But the political systems are a total and utter embarrassment in this country.
Listen, we're calling for a general election.
We want this Tory party out in this country.
Any Labour government is going to be better than any Tory government.
But what we can't do is rely on politicians to deliver that change for us.
Change in this country, if it's going to be true change, will only be delivered by a grassroots movement of people
rising up and demanding more and putting pressure on politicians to deliver that
or saying to those politicians if they don't deliver it, then move out of the way.
Chris, I'd be so excited if we on our show could participate with the Enough is Enough movement
in popularising your message and helping to spread it, this message of inclusion
that invites people from across the previous political spectrum
to participate in the creation of real change.
My understanding is there's nothing the establishment fears more than people throwing off the categories of left and right.
...issues that can exist between different cultural or racial or religious groups to come together and represent our common interests and anything we can do to be of service to your movement we will undertake.
Where should people follow you so they can learn more about the ongoing campaign and the activism that you're undertaking, please?
So get on our website, wesayenough.co.uk, follow us on Twitter, follow us on Instagram, follow us on Facebook.
The followings are getting absolutely massive.
I'm sure you follow us, Russell.
If you don't, you should finish the show and jump straight on yourself, buddy.
Make sure you follow the campaign.
But listen, and we need you to turn up to rallies because, like, you know, we have a saying which is less tweeting, more meeting.
So put down the tweets, get on your feet, get out your seat, get on the streets.
Oh my God!
I love them lyrics!
Get off your feet!
Stop that tweet!
Get on the street!
Do you eat meat?
Of course I don't.
I'm vegan.
This is a fantastic opportunity, mate.
We'll have you in here in person.
We'll do anything we can to support you.
Thank you very much for your work.
It's lovely to meet you.
I look forward to checking in with you in person soon.
Thank you, Chris.
Top man.
Thank you, Russell.
Nice one, fantastic.
And I suppose this is exactly the sort of thing we're interested in, Gareth, isn't it?
Movements that are outside of politics, where people feel empowered.
We've got to put aside them labels of left and right.
We've got to put aside our fear of people that may seem different to us because maybe they got that big beard or something.
It was a hell of a big beard.
You can't fear a beard.
I've a beard, it's a slightly different beard.
There's a variety of beards available to all cultural groups.
Like, don't look at the world through Guess Who.
So do I. Like, I'm all the time thinking, I wouldn't like you on Guess Who.
Might as well get Claire with that hat and glasses.
You're gonna have her in two guesses.
An absolute outrage.
Listen, this ain't a time to discuss Guess Who.
This is a time for us to use...
New, emergent, somehow arcane, tapping techniques to make ourselves feel better.
There's no point in trying to create a political revolution if we're all sick as pigs, if our emotional state is erratic and unwell.
I'm a person that needs to be tapping continually.
I use these techniques for my own mental health.
That's why I'm so rational and balanced.
I'm probably not the best advert in the world for it.
For it right now.
But you should have seen me before I started tapping.
Guys, we're going to tap with Nick after when we go to Stay Free AF.
But I'd love to introduce you to Nick Orton right now.
Hello, Nick.
How's it going, mate?
How are you, brother?
I'm so well.
You look so handsome there.
Thank you for joining us today.
With the world in this state of continuing chaos, with the breakdown in trust in corporations and governments, with a news cycle that seems designed to terrify people, how do you think that your tapping method can help us?
Yeah, well, I mean, it's a big task, right, to deal with this overwhelm.
But the reality is that when we Here are these things, you know, how do we find that balance between staying informed, between looking at what's happening in the news, and then also finding that inner peace, like enjoying our lives, being able to control the things that we can control.
I know that you often talk about local level, right?
Like, what can we control on a local level?
And that applies not just to politics, it applies to our lives.
So like what can we control in our lives today?
What are the shifts that we can make?
What are the things that we can let go of?
How can we show up at our best selves?
Because the revolution that you're speaking of, the revolution that I know the people watching want, The individual bringing the best out of them, right?
It's not going to come if we're stressed, if we're overwhelmed, if we're angry beyond being able to think.
So what we're doing with the tabbing is we're releasing some of that stress, we're releasing some of those issues that we have, we're releasing some of the traumas from the past so we can find that present moment and from there create the life and the world that we want.
Looking at a little poll that we just done on Instagram, only a third of you have tried tapping.
We are going to be doing some tapping together.
There have been times in my life where I've gone from feeling like really, really anxious, really, really scared and really fearful.
And I've used Nick Orton's tapping techniques to make myself feel better.
It always works.
He's a very effective model.
We're going to have to do it on Stay Free AF, which is our membership community, which you can join.
In a couple of clicks, if you want to do that right now, you can see us in a second.
So, today has been an extraordinary day.
The spectacle is falling apart around us.
Whether it's further evidence of corporate corruption, pharmaceutical corroboration... You don't need to do it now, darling, because we'll have a little minute for the turnaround.
Gareth, I'll talk to you now.
So, give us a second.
Keep still.
Freeze.
Thank you.
Our friend Joe there is doing some mics, but we've got a turnaround now.
I'm wrapping up, so it's all cool.
So listen, it's been an extraordinary day of disruption and madness and insanity.
And it's presenting itself, I think, in an increasingly peculiar variety of ways.
The corporate corruption is more evident.
The fact that political figures are disposable and replaceable is becoming plain and clear.
But, along with that, new activist movements are emerging and new techniques for wellness.
In my opinion, these two things must align.
As Nick just said, we have resources within us, individually and collectively.
Tomorrow we're going to be doing a fantastic story about misinformation, disinformation and censorship.
You know we've been victims of that stuff.
We are launching a book club and our first book is, of course, of course, 1984.
We now, though, are going to slip over to the Stay Free AF community, and we are going to tap like we had a rat under our hat with my friend Nick Ortner.
Join us there.
See you in a second.
See you tomorrow for another stream.
Remember that you can watch this show anytime for free on Rumble.
Stay free.
If you're in the community, see you tomorrow.
If not, stay free.
Ta-ra.
Many switching, switch on, switch off.
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