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May 19, 2022 - Uncensored - Piers Morgan
45:34
20220519_piers-morgan-uncensored-anne-robinson-and-howie-ma
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Prime Minister Arrested Scandal 00:07:38
Good evening, I'm Pears Morgan on censored.
Tonight, saving Britain from the woke virus with US pollster Frank Luntz, saving comedy from cancelled culture censorship with Howie Mandel, and saving women, all of them, with the Queen of Mean, Anne Robinson.
She's here live.
Good evening, Anne.
I can't hear anything.
You know what?
Save it for the interview.
We'll save it for the interview.
We'll be with Anne Robinson live and unleashed when she can hear me in a few minutes.
But first, it's my brain dump.
I'll start tonight with a sensational story that a serving Conservative member of the British Parliament has been arrested under suspicion of rape, sexual assault, indecent assault, abuse of a position of trust, and misconduct in public office.
It's hard to imagine, isn't it, more serious allegations about an elected official, not least because it's now being reported that his alleged victim is also a male politician 20 years his junior, who was a teenager when they first met.
It's self-evident in the public interest that he'd be identified.
But absurdly, he remains anonymous.
Until 2016, the Speaker of the House of Commons was obliged to tell Parliament, and therefore all of us, if an MP was arrested.
But the rules changed because they were incompatible, apparently, with a person's right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights.
So although his name's been plastered all over the internet, along with many innocent MPs' names, all I'm legally allowed to tell you is he's a man in his 50s.
Such is the feeding frenzy about who it is.
Some MPs have even made pathetic jokes about showing up in Parliament just to prove it's not them.
You think it's funny?
Mr. Fabricant, who posted that?
The only funny thing here is that you make Donald Trump's hair look normal.
But it's a serious matter.
The recent spade of shocking sex scandals in Westminster has been really quite disturbing, hasn't it?
Time and again, week after week, we hear more and more salacious stories.
And incredibly, this arrested MP is still able to go to Parliament if he wants to and attend his constituency office.
Think about that for a moment.
His constituents may come to him with their own stories about the very things he's accused of and have no idea.
I believe in due process and innocent until proven guilty, but I also strongly believe the people who voted for this man deserve to know what's happened.
Naming him could also encourage other possible witnesses or indeed victims to come forward, which has happened in many previous similar cases.
Boris Johnson, this guy's boss, says he's shocked to learn of his allegations.
Well, we all are, Prime Minister.
It makes a mockery of our parliamentary process that we still have no idea who this person is.
The police and the Conservative Party and you, Mr. Johnson, should name him as a matter of urgency.
Well, being a liberal used to mean believing in free speech, tolerance and respect for those with different opinions.
But today's woke version of liberals seems hell-bent on behaving like the fascists they claim to hate.
Don't take my word for it.
The world's richest man, Elon Musk, one of the most famous free speech advocates in the world right now, says he can no longer vote for the Democrats.
He's voted for his entire life.
And I would class myself as a moderate, neither the Republican nor Democrat.
And in fact, I have voted overwhelmingly for Democrats historically, overwhelmingly.
Like I'm not sure I might never have voted for a Republican, just to be clear.
Now this election, I would.
Well, Musk letter to Twitter, the platform he's trying to buy, of course, to help restore free speech.
And he said the Democrats have become, his words, the party of division and hate, and that he now expects political attacks on him to escalate.
Well, he was completely right.
He was bombarded with abuse from the moment he tweeted what he said about the Democrats.
And this afternoon, he said, judging by the relentless hate stream from the far left, this tweet was spot on.
It was, and so is Elon Musk.
The very people who claim to be the good guys, often with their ironic be-kind hashtags on their profiles, are the same people leading this vicious opinion purge.
They just can't accept that people with different views have any right to say them.
They use abuse, mob rule and bullying to silence and shame opponents or even hound them out of their jobs.
This is not liberalism.
It's authoritarianism.
Defending free speech has been sacrificed at the woke altar of defending an increasingly ridiculous and often imaginary group of gender minorities, as well as fellow wokies, of course.
Try asking a regular voter on the doorstep in Britain, in America, in Australia, what their pronouns are.
They won't know what the hell you're talking about.
Mine, for the record, are me, myself and I. Sadly, liberals have shifted their hearts from factories to faculties.
Issues-based is now plant-based.
Partisan is now artisan.
It's supposed to be all politics is local, not locally sourced.
The Democratic Party should be the natural home of a genius innovator who believes passionately in his country, in ideas and in free speech.
The fact it's not is another symptom of what Musk calls the woke virus.
Please, somebody, for the love of God, develop a vaccine against this before we all get infected.
So how do you solve a problem like a soaring cost of living crisis as millions of people struggling to feed their families and pay their bills?
Well, there's proper sound management of the economy, of course, increased financial assistance for those who need it, even food banks for the most desperate and starving people.
Or apparently, we can just urge them to play supermarket sweep.
In a stunning interview, the new police watchdog, Andy Cook, seems to be suggesting exactly that.
He told The Guardian, also had to be The Guardian, that a spike in crime is inevitable as the cost of living surges, adding, I certainly fully support police officers using their discretion.
And the shoplifting one's a good example, isn't it?
Well, no, it's not, is it?
A cost of living crisis doesn't mean we should start means testing crime.
It doesn't take a detective to work out what would happen next.
Kilt Malthouse, who's the policing minister, hastily went to the airwaves to contradict that police chief.
But I'm afraid I find it a bit old-fashioned thinking.
You know, we first of all believe that the law should be blind and police officers should operate without fear or favour in the prosecution of the law.
But secondly, also, that it's not quite right to say that as the economy fluctuates, so does crime.
So let me go straight.
We have one of the most senior cops in the country saying poverty leads to crime and therefore police should go soft on shoplifters.
Then we have the government minister responsible for policing, denying that poverty leads to crime and instructing police officers to enforce the law even on the starving.
Well guess what?
They're both wrong.
If you want to know what happens when you go soft on shoplifting, go to California where state law holds that shoplifting below $950 is now de facto legal.
Inevitably, this led to a spike in thefts, smash and grabs, organised looting, even the sight of robbers bringing calculators in stores to make sure they stand to the limit.
Think about that.
And let's remember, many of these retailers are small businesses, also struggling to survive.
Why on earth are the police suggesting they should pick up the bill for other people?
The cost of living crisis is a serious issue, raising serious questions of our leaders.
A free-for-all amnesty on shoplifting and a descent into lawlessness is not the answer.
But I'd like to know, I'm very sad to report tonight that the consequences of those irresponsible words are already being seen.
This is Stephen Seagull, a brazen shoplifting bird in Devon, England, who's reported to have stolen more than £300 worth of salted snacks from his local supermarket.
Apparently, he's mastered the automatic duels and raids the shop three times a day.
He apparently says, when challenged, the security is gullible.
What now?
Quiz Round.
See if you can guess what all these things have in common.
Biological Male Advantage Debate 00:11:53
Taking the knee, absorbing the Ukrainian flag over your social media profile, clapping for health workers.
There you've got it.
They're all public gestures made in support of very worthy causes.
And they're also causes that you'll be vilified for not publicly supporting.
For me, they should all be a matter of choice.
Just because you don't do one of these gestures, it doesn't mean you're a hateful, uncaring bigot.
Footballer Idrissa Gay guy, I apologize, refused to play for his club Paris Saint-Germain last weekend.
Reportedly, he didn't want to wear a rainbow flex shirt in support of LGBT rights.
That guy is a devout Muslim from Senegal, where homosexuality is shamefully still illegal.
But that's besides the point.
Footballers shouldn't be compelled to wear symbols for any political or social issues if they don't want to.
Nobody should.
I remember being abused for not posting a black square on Instagram during the blackout for Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd.
It wasn't because I didn't support the cause, I did.
It's that I didn't think the stunt would make any difference.
And unlike most of the rest of the internet, I didn't feel any urgent need to signal my virtue before going back to posting photographs of smashed avocados and my legs on the beach.
If you did, well good for you.
But you can't force me to do it.
And you shouldn't be abusing me for not doing it.
And we shouldn't be forcing footballers to do this kind of thing either or abusing them when they choose not to.
Well, breaking news, a stunning revelation on the red carpet tonight at the Royal Premiere of Top Gun Maverick.
It's been sensationally confirmed, if you look closely here, that Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, is taller than Tom Cruise.
According to my researchers, the Duchess is five foot seven inches.
Tom is obviously smaller than that.
But I'll tell you what, though, he's a great actor, and I can't wait to see the movie.
And size isn't everything, said absolutely nobody ever.
Uncensored next.
British police are told to go easy on shoplifters and have started wearing rainbow helmets.
Have the police gone woke and weak?
And the TV queen of mean is here.
Anne Robinson.
I'm going to ask her, what is a woman?
She'll know.
Well, welcome back.
Well, the great Anne Robinson is in the studio and we're with me in just a couple of moments.
Hello, you can.
What happened?
You can't afford Sam.
I said, just turn her off, because by the time you get out of here, I knew you'd be giving me hell, but it's lovely to see you.
Do you know what?
I think as you've got older, you've got better looking.
Thank you, Anne Robinson.
And look, there's bits of grey, but it's quite nice.
George clearly has grey hair.
Yeah.
Not looking bad yourself.
No, no, for an old woman.
I'm going to come back to you in a couple of minutes, but I think you may want to hear this.
Taylor Silverman is a world-class skateboarder.
She lost out on first place at a Red Bull cornerstone event in Lincoln, Nebraska last year to a trans competitor and biological male Lillian Gallagher.
And she felt robbed, but she stayed silent until now.
And then this week, she took to Instagram to call out Red Bull for allowing trans athletes to compete against biological women.
In the post, she said, I deserve to place first, be acknowledged for my win and get paid.
I reached out to Red Bull and was ignored.
I'm sick of being bullied into silence.
Well, Taylor Silverman joins me live now.
Taylor, thank you so much for joining me.
You can have...
I'm curious.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to me.
I really appreciate it.
There's a slight delay, Taylor.
So let me just put this to you.
Why did you feel that you were robbed?
I know that it cost you several thousand dollars, the fact that you ended up coming second when you would have hoped to win.
But why did you feel robbed by the person who beat you?
I felt like because the person who won is a biological male, they had an unfair advantage in the competition.
And not only was I robbed, but other competitors who are biological females were also robbed.
Yeah, and this is the key point I keep coming back to on this issue, is that there is an inarguable physical advantage.
If you've been born as a biological man and then you transition, I wish you all the very best.
I want fairness and equality for you.
But not to the point where it creates a new unfairness and inequality with women born to inferior physical bodies, which is the reality in almost every case.
I agree completely.
When you found yourself competing in this particular competition and you realized that you were not going to win, how did it make you feel?
And how did it make the other female competitors feel, especially those who didn't get in the end any prize money?
Well, I can only speak for myself, but I felt like it was an injustice because I really deserve to be recognized for the hard work that I put in as an athlete.
And unfortunately, because of the situation that I was put in against my will, I didn't get what I earned and deserved.
What do we do about this, Taylor?
Because...
Because when I tried to speak up, I was silenced and ignored.
Right, and we've heard from Red Bull tonight.
They're apparently going to reach out to you again.
But I've been trying to work out how we resolve this issue.
And it seems to me you either are going to have to have a separate category for trans athletes, that trans women compete against other trans women, or that trans women continue to compete against men, given that they're originally biological men.
What do you think is the fair way to resolve this?
I think that it would be really awesome for there to be a place where trans women can compete in a fair way.
And I also want to say that I don't want people to send hate to this person because they are a great skater and this was just an unfair situation that we're seeing in a lot of sports and a lot of women are being impacted and affected.
But this person was just going by what Red Bull was allowing them to do.
And I think that the group that should be responsible is the organizers with Red Bull.
Well, Taylor, I...
And I think the solution would be to either create...
Go ahead, Piers.
I didn't mean to.
No, no, I'm sorry.
It's going to be the delay.
But finish what you wanted to say.
I was just saying, I think that to create a space that would be fair for trans women to compete against each other would be one possibility.
But I also don't feel like it should be women's responsibility to solve this issue or have trans competitors thrown in to our group because they are biological males and they do have an unfair advantage.
Right, and I just don't think it takes away opportunities from athletes like myself.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think what anything that you're saying is transphobic.
In fact, the opposite.
You're nothing against trans people or trans athletes.
You just want to end the unfairness which you have experienced.
Taylor, I've got to leave it there.
Thank you very much indeed for joining me though.
I appreciate it.
And I applaud you for speaking out.
I think silence is the enemy here.
This is an issue that has to be resolved.
So thank you.
I really felt a moral obligation to speak up because I recognize that not only am I affected by this, but a lot of women and girls are being impacted by this in a negative way.
And not everybody feels like they are able to speak out.
But I've been put in a position that I feel like it's best for me to use my voice now.
You made the right decision.
Taylor, thank you.
Thanks again.
Appreciate it.
Well, I've got Anne Robinson here.
It's unbelievable.
Yes, I'm not sure.
It is unbelievable.
When you hear this and you see what's going on, these trans women athletes, and we see it in swimming, we see it in sprinting, they were not that successful when they competed against men.
But once they come into women's walk in the park, they're destroying the field, and it seems completely unfair.
Also, there's no decision across the board about sport.
I mean, the cycling woman wasn't allowed or was allowed, the trans woman.
Well, the rules change, don't they?
Depending on the...
Well, it's on every committee.
It depends.
Yeah, it's nonsense.
The problem with the trans thing is it all happens before someone says, gosh, that really doesn't work.
It's like the Trans Resolution Gender Act.
I have worked out, okay, here's an advantage.
If you decide that you're trans and you're posh and the property is going to the male in the family, otherwise the whole estate goes right to the cousin, then you can say, I'm trans, I can keep the estate.
Well, this is...
Is that possible?
I don't see why not.
Well, I do think Martina Vatilovis said, you know, that the number 300 male tennis player, if he wanted to transition either legitimately or to cheat, could do so without having any surgery and would just reduce their testosterone level, but not their physical body mass and become the greatest tennis player in history on the women's side.
And then three years later, go back to...
Are you interviewing me or am I interviewing you?
Because you're doing all the talking.
Can I just say something?
Say something.
Right, honestly.
I've only got 15 minutes.
But the amount of trans who actually have surgery is minuscule.
So actually, I don't know about this trans in this particular case, but it's so easy.
I could suddenly decide to be a male athlete.
When you see politicians who can't answer what is a woman, Ave, what do you feel about that?
What is the answer?
The answer is a woman is someone with a vagina.
Do you need me to say that again?
It is somebody with a vagina and I can now be cancelled.
Well, a woman, every dictionary will say, is an adult female, adult human female.
That's it.
It's not complicated.
But they daren't say that.
I think it's so disappointing when the leader of the Labour Party, who always has to think for three weeks before he makes a decision on anything, just mumbling Yvette Cooper the same.
I don't want to be drawn into that.
It is so unfair.
It is so...
It is the first time we've never been able to have a debate.
You and I are having one here because we're fearless.
But name me when the last debate was on the BBC about trans.
Well, when you see what happened to J.K. Rowling, this is what puts people off because she's been absolutely terrorised.
I interviewed a trans activist this week and, well, I'll play a little clip of just to remind the viewers of what happened, but it was a pretty unpleasant experience.
We don't want these people coming in and standing next to this icon of feminism.
They are appropriating the imagery of the suffragette movement, a movement for women's liberation, and rebranding it as this hateful movement against trans people.
And we don't stand for that.
And the majority of women, the majority of feminists don't stand for it.
I mean, the trans activists then went on to hurl abuse at me and can't.
Did they call you a nasty name?
They did, which I'm just.
Don't cry.
No, I'm absolutely, as you know, I'm...
I'm sure you didn't cry.
I'm a bit like you.
Sticks and stones is my kind of mantra.
But what I was struck by was the venom that came with it.
And I've seen it applying to J.K. Rowling.
And I've seen it to this young skateboarder, Taylor Silverman.
When she went public, the abuse that she got from the trans community was appalling on social media.
Why are they so angry?
You see, I don't understand.
Why haven't we got a trans person here who will argue with us sensibly?
Rich vs Miserable Future 00:07:00
Yeah.
There is no debate.
To try and reach a point of consensus, right?
Yeah.
Let me ask you about something else that was in the news today.
I thought of you immediately.
Do you think of me often?
I do think of you often, certainly.
Now I've seen you.
Now that I've said you're good looking.
Exactly.
Yeah.
No, because actually we go back a long way.
And also, we both worked at the Daily Mirror for many years.
We were just newspaper journalists.
We were journals who crossed the divide to become television people.
Get on with it, Christmas.
Exactly.
What were you going to say?
The UK today had the biggest ever lottery winners.
£184 million.
They're not as rich as you are.
Well, I'm going to come to your wealth in a minute.
Let's just see what they had to say.
Watch this.
Jess hadn't had a great night's sleep, so I thought, do I wake her up?
Don't I wake her up?
What do I do?
So I just sat there for a minute trying to take it all in.
And I thought, well, I'll give her, because it's only 20 minutes, I'll give her the extra 20 minutes till her alarm goes off.
So you waited 20 minutes after knowing he won 184 million.
Didn't want to wake his wife up.
What I was struck by when I watched that, because I knew you were coming on.
Yeah, it's the old thing.
Are they going to be happy with 184 million?
There'll be loads of people right now suffering from the economic crisis.
Of course, they will.
But so many of these lottery winners actually find that when they get the grass, it's not greener.
And it's so much better to give money to people who've already got money because they're trained.
Like you, you mean.
And you, Pierce.
But does it bring happiness?
It obviously stops the agony and turmoil of not having money, which is an appalling thing for people.
But does having a lot of money, hundreds of millions, do you think that kind of wealth, in your experience of meeting very wealthy people and being well off yourself, does it bring happiness?
Not necessarily, but I think I'd rather be miserable and rich than miserable and poor, wouldn't you?
Yeah.
Well, I think poverty is the worst thing you can experience as a human being because to not be able to feed your children so on is the worst thing.
But I have met a lot of wealthy people who are miserable and boring and they always want more.
There's always somebody around who's got more.
And also, you've been in Los Angeles as much as I have.
You find they have these huge houses and they all live in one tiny room and they watch the television and the rest of the house looks like the four seasons.
Everything's beige and they never use it.
What advice would you give these lottery winners?
They've got 184 million to spend.
Well, I'd give them time, actually.
They need time.
And they keep, they need so Stephen Daudry once said to me when he'd become quite rich from his first movie, Billy Elliott.
He said, if you're looking after relatives, never give them a said amount every year.
Always make them worry they might not get anything from you next year.
What do you make, Anne, of cancel culture?
Of this sort of thing?
Well, I don't know.
Do you accept it?
Do you accept it has to exist?
I couldn't care.
Because you don't care, do you?
No.
It doesn't cost me any money, does it?
If anyone counsels me.
Right.
And you're not on social media, are you?
You don't do any of it.
No.
Why?
Well, no one's paying me to do that.
Why would I do it?
But what do you think?
I find it amazing in a democracy like the UK, for example, or America.
These great bastions of democracy.
People are terrified of saying what they think now.
In case they get destroyed.
But you are never off your phone.
I watched you in rehearsal.
Right.
You're doing a bit of rehearsal and you're back on your phone.
And you do a lot of social media.
Well, it's also a great research tool, obviously.
I was checking out.
But you also, you're a big emailer.
Yes.
Yeah.
And you're on Twitter, presumably.
Yes.
Yeah.
And you do Instagram.
Yes.
Okay.
Do you mind being cancelled?
Well, it's funny.
I had a little experience of it of Good Morning.
Let's talk about you.
But I lost my job on Good Morning Britain for expressing an honestly held opinion.
What a great, great future you suddenly have.
Yeah, it was a great career move, but actually, in the moment, I was pretty appalled that I was not able to express myself honestly and had to then depart a job I love.
I found it a weird new phenomenon.
But do you know what, Piers?
The nation cried for weeks.
Have we got over that?
You know, I'm quite proud of you because people are incredibly fond of you because you're fearless.
Thank you.
Yeah, you don't know what to say to you.
Can we give Anne a bit more time, please?
I think the interview's beginning to really go the way I hope.
What else do you want to embarrass me about?
Well, what do you want?
I'll tell you what I'll ask you about.
The Platinum Jubilee coming up with the Queen.
And she's a remarkable woman, isn't she?
Our entire lives that we've had one monarch.
What do you feel about her?
What do you feel about the monarchy?
What's going to happen when she's no longer with us?
I think actually the Kate and William thing is very lucky.
I watched, I saw the pictures of, why do we still call her Kate Middleton?
I don't know.
I don't know what we call her.
I told Duchess of Cambridge, yeah.
Yeah, but everyone does still call her Kate Middleton.
That she has been terrific, those two, haven't they?
They've just stepped in and we're fond of them and they seem to do the right thing.
You watch them tonight at the Tom Cruise premiere and they're just a class act, aren't they?
Yeah, they are.
And they understand, I think, that kind of less is more the, you know, don't give big whiny interviews.
I mean, obviously the comparison is Harry and Megan, who just seem to have gone completely rogue.
I mean, they're due back apparently for the Jubilee.
What do you think of that?
I don't think they'll be at the Jubilee.
I mean, I don't know why they don't understand.
They're living in this socking great house.
I mean, you and I could sit at home doing video calls saying, you know, please help the poor today.
I'm not actually getting off my backside.
Would you mind?
I find the hypocrisy is what greats.
And also using the royal titles to make themselves very rich and then trashing the royals and the institution that afforded them the titles.
I'm wondering whether Megan will find another step up.
Is there anyone greater than what is the next step, do you think?
I don't know, but if there is one, Megan is what I call last in the queue, first on the bus.
For I'll let you go.
You've just left countdown, which a lot of fans will be very upset about.
You were brilliant on it.
I've read the sort of tea leaves.
It looked like people weren't getting on great.
Would that be fair, all of you?
No, I think, I mean, Susie Dent is great.
Rachel Riley is completely brilliant at the maths.
You just didn't get on well.
No, I didn't not get on, but some performers like a lot of noise around them before they go on air.
And others like me, who are trying to get the contestants to remember what their hobbies are, would like us and quiet when she's doing that in two minutes.
So it was important to me that we took her mic off so that I could have the what I love about you is many things, but you're fearless.
I love your outspokenness.
I love the interviews you give.
They always make me laugh, but they also inspire me because you've got a tremendous work ethic.
And I guess the obvious question, what are you going to do next?
Putin Credibility Crisis 00:08:52
You got any ideas?
No.
I thought if you upset them here, I could just move in.
You know what?
We could take you and talk TV.
You'd be fantastic.
Yeah, is the money good enough?
Look at this suit.
Yeah.
And lovely to see you.
So good looking.
A real pleasure.
Thank you.
You can come back.
Can we book Anne immediately for next week?
It's lovely to see you.
Look, you're fantastic.
And it's always a joy to have you.
Really appreciate it.
Well, I'm sensitive next.
Crime is rising in the US and many blame soft policies.
Our British police have been told to go easy on shoplifters.
To which I say, why?
That's next.
Welcome back to Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Here's a stat that'll blow your mind.
You might remember I told you about Lee Anderson, the Conservative MP and apparent master chef, who claimed that poor families could feed themselves with meals costing 30 pence if only they knew how to cook.
Well today we learned that the police investigation into illicit Downing Street lockdown busting parties, including Boris Johnson, where 83 people were fined, including Boris Johnson, cost a whopping £460,000.
According to Lee Anderson's advanced mathematics, that's 1.53 million meals.
Food for thought, right?
Now, police force in the UK has been criticized for allowing an officer to wear a virtue signaling rainbow helmet on patrol.
And police are being told not to bother arresting shoplifters because prices are going up, which makes me think, what's happening?
Is the police going weak and woke?
We've got two perfect people to talk about this because I think the police are supposed to uphold law and order and you might think that as well.
Former Scotland Yard detective Peter Blexy CM, political consultant and polling oracle Frank Lunt some are saying, welcome to both of you.
A high-powered panel.
Peter, what is going on with the police?
Let's start first of all with the superintendent who wore an LGBT rainbow helmet.
I listened to a few phone-ins this morning.
People were like, can the police not get political and social justice?
Can they just get on with policing?
Your view?
My heart sinks when I see any of these stories.
Same as police officers skateboarding with protesters and painted police cars and all this kind of stuff.
Because essentially, the police should be there for all of us, not just a specific group or party of whatever persuasion that might be.
So the only way they can really demonstrate that, that they are there for everybody, is by showing an allegiance to nobody.
None of this adorning your uniform.
Well, that's the problem I have with it.
You see, earlier on, we were talking about footballers, and I said, look, they shouldn't be pressured to do any of these things.
And if they want to, fine.
Police is different.
They should be neutral, Frank.
I mean, the police should just be neutral, shouldn't they?
And when you see also today that they're now a senior police officer saying that he thinks that because of the economic crisis, we should go soft on shoplifting in case people want to take food.
What kind of signal does that send?
You're ending up like California.
Right.
Where crime is out of control, San Francisco, Los Angeles, where people on the left are even saying that this is wrong, that we've gone so soft.
I'm warning you, this woke stuff is real.
We've seen it in America.
We've seen what it's done to politics.
We've seen what it's done to finance.
We've lost the meritocracy.
We've lost a commitment for performance.
And instead, everyone, the outcome has to be equal rather than being judged by merit.
So people say to me, people say to me, why do you go on about this woke cancer college?
I said, because it is real.
And I spent a lot of time in America where they're further down the line on this stuff.
And it is basically wrecking society.
If you're not careful, everything gets destroyed in this.
Tradition gets destroyed, legacy gets destroyed, but you need to acknowledge, which I've learned to do, that there is systemic racism.
Yes.
That there is unfairness.
The black and brown communities have not had the same opportunities.
But if you acknowledge it and you address it, you don't destroy your country, your economy, or your culture in addressing the problems of society.
Peter, it probably doesn't help when you have the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Boris Johnson, who is fined by the police for breaking his own COVID lockdown rules.
Whatever people's view about the partying at Downing Street, and it was on a massive scale we've seen today, 83 people were fined for over 130-odd cases, including Boris Johnson.
When you allow a Prime Minister to be fined by the police for breaking his own rules and just carry on, what signal does that send?
Well, at least the police did their job, investigated it, gathered the evidence, which then led to Johnson and many others being fined.
Those who make the laws shouldn't break the laws, same as those who enforce the laws shouldn't break the laws.
They're fundamentals of any properly functioning government.
If a commissioner of the Met police had done what Boris Johnson did and broken COVID lockdown rules, would they have kept their job?
I would like to think not.
I don't think they would.
And that's why I think it's very surprising that there hasn't been more heat on Boris.
In a way, he's been saved by the Ukraine war, where I think to his credit, he's been a pretty good leader, actually, through that for our country.
But when I saw the scale of the partying today, 83 people, way over 100 offences, the single biggest number of fines administered to any singular entity in the country.
And it's Boris Johnson's home.
Yeah, indeed, because you find in policing so often that the person who sits at the top, the chief constable, can set the tone for the discipline, the moral standing, and the actions of the entire organization, even though some officers will never meet that chief.
Likewise, you'd like to think that a politician sitting at the very top of their party would also set the tone, set the standards, and abide by the rules they've made.
Frank, there was an amazing gaffe made yesterday by President George W. Bush, who was trying to talk about Ukraine, but he said this.
And the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq.
I mean, of Ukraine.
Iraq.
Anyway.
You know, I was editor of the Daily Mirror at the time of the Iraq war, and we campaigned against it.
And we were very strident in our campaigning against it.
And I think that all the stuff that's come from Iraq has been a disaster.
To actually hear George Bush make that mistake, effectively saying what many people believe is the truth about what happened with him in Iraq wasn't a remarkable moment, wasn't it?
And it's been shared millions and millions of times.
People have been talking about it.
And yet, that was 21 years ago.
And I look at 20 years ago, and I look at what's happening in Ukraine right now.
And what upsets me much more than that is that a few people on the Republican side still seem to be aligned with the Russian leader rather than Ukraine.
And I do not understand this.
I do not understand people who refer to Vladimir Putin as brilliant.
I do not understand those who attack Zelensky.
I give your prime minister so much credit for going over there long before anybody else did when it was still unsafe.
And this is 1939 all over again.
I look at that moment as Boris's Churchill moment.
And I look at those who still somehow cling to the idea that Putin is a master strategist.
How damaging, though, as an American, how damaging when you are reminded by the man who led that Iraq war, George Bush, through a Freudian slip of all Freudian slips.
But a lot of people who are not against Putin and Russia, maybe they're in China or wherever it may be, they say, well, look at what America did in Iraq.
They draw a direct parallel, the invasion of a sovereign country for no really good reason, certainly not the reason that was put forward about weapons of mass destruction.
I think that's why that clip's gone so viral today.
And it is damaging, isn't it, to America's credibility, I guess, in saying, this is appalling, invading a sovereign country, when there you have the president who actually did the same thing.
But to compare America to Russia and the brutality of what is happening every single day to people who, and to a government that was legitimately elected, which is not the same as Iraq, a government that never threatened anyone, which is not the same as Iraq, a government that never poisoned its people and killed its people.
Actually, I reject that comparison.
Stand-Up Safety Concerns 00:09:49
You're a wise, thoughtful individual.
And I've read and I've seen those arguments.
It's not fair here.
And what is happening in Ukraine is a human tragedy.
And we're going to remember this.
And my fear is I'll sit with you six months from now and it won't just be Ukraine.
It'll be some other country.
That's my fear.
And by the way, I don't disagree with your assessment of it.
Peter, finally, we had a story yesterday, another mad story about a police officer who's left the force now, but he sued and won money because colleagues had called him Dolly Parton, son 9 to 5, because he did his hours, so he only worked nine to five.
And you're like, how were you ever a police officer?
When I was a young detective, we had an officer in our office who we called Bongo.
And that stood for books on, never goes out, because he never left the sanctuary and the safety of the office.
Isn't this just cop shot banter?
And have we lost the bit, I mean, talk about Frank talking about the woke virus, you know, that Elon Musk talks about.
Isn't this really what we're talking about?
If anybody compared me or called me Dolly Parton in any way, I'd be absolutely through.
She's an icon.
So would I. Peter, Frank, lovely to see you both.
You can see that from the shirt you're wearing.
Exactly.
I would be thrilled.
Exactly.
This is what our policemen should be wearing.
Hawaiian shirts.
Great to see you both.
Thank you very much indeed.
Ron says the next is Cancel Culture Killing Comedy.
Comedian Howie Mandel, a very funny guy, also very annoying guy, and a former, well, co-worker of Megan Markles.
We'll talk to him after the break.
Welcome back to Peterson's Sensor.
Today's Time to Be a Comedian.
Dave Chappelle was attacked on stage earlier this month after criticism of his trans jokes.
And of course, we had the Will Smith Chris Rock smackdown at the Oscars.
Now, some stand-ups to question whether it's even safe to perform.
Well, joining me now is comedian Howie Mandel, a former teammate of mine on America's Got Talent.
And although he's very funny, and although I really like him, he can also be incredibly annoying, as this clip from our time together on AGT will show you.
Thank you guys.
Go away.
Yeah.
Seriously.
Give any juice or soda?
I think some of them might be a little parched.
Come in and have a drink.
Can you get out of my dressing room, please?
Can you get out of my dressing room, please?
Joined by Harry Mandel.
I'll never forgive you for some of the stuff you did to me on that show.
I'm still traumatized.
Nobody, there is nobody in the world that I enjoy annoying more than you, young man.
And you know what, and first of all, congratulations on this show.
Thank you.
I've been reading.
I've been watching it.
Yesterday, the headlines were all over the place here in America that Piers Morgan was called the C-word live on.
And I can't figure out maybe it's the ocean between us.
What's wrong with being Canadian?
Yeah, what's that?
What's wrong with that?
It was a four-letter word beginning with C. Cool.
You wouldn't know anything about it, but it was great.
Howie, oddly, I've actually missed you.
And I'd be worried about you genuinely because you are a very well-known public germaphobe.
You absolutely hate germs.
You were fist bumping people way before it became COVID cool.
How have you dealt seriously with the pandemic?
How has it been for you?
It has been absolutely horrible.
I have moved my therapist into a whole new tax bracket.
I've upped my medication.
You know, there was always some comfort in having people around who weren't as neurotic as I was to go, Howie, don't worry about it.
I've washed.
No one is sick here.
And now there is nobody to say that.
And, you know, misery does not enjoy company.
So this has been horrible.
It's been horrible for the whole world, but I'm having a hard time dealing with it.
And have you on top of that?
Have you had COVID?
Go ahead.
Yeah.
Yeah, I got COVID because the lovely people, as we've mentioned, we worked together in Iraq.
Oh, I'm sorry, AGT.
What a slip up.
Anyway, I felt like Iraq, honestly, working with you.
But anyway, we won the Kids' Choice Award this year and they made me go to accept it with my fellow castmates with Simon and everybody.
And a lot of people, I don't know, do you get the Kids' Choice Awards in the UK?
No.
You know, the Nickelodeon.
They slime people.
They slime.
That's a big thing.
They drop slime on them.
I did not get slime.
It went viral.
I caught the COVID and was locked away for about 10 days after that.
But you were okay after it.
I don't know that I'm ever okay, but I'm fine.
Yeah, that would be my assessment of you as well.
I want to talk about comedy, Harry, because it seems like comedy is under attack, both from canceled culture where you can't tell jokes anymore like you used to, but also physical attack.
You know, we saw what happened at the Oscars with Will Smith and Chris Rock.
And then Dave Chappelle weeks later being attacked literally by somebody from the audience.
What do you make of it?
How has it made you feel about being a top stand-up in America?
I would like to be funny and witty at the moment, but I got to tell you that this has been, I feel it in the gut.
You know, for me, stand-up comedy was my respite at the end of the day.
When we do shows like AGT or any other show that I've done or bullshit now on Netflix, there are certain confines that I have to work in.
And stand-up comedy was, and I was inspired in the 70s by watching Richard Pryor live on stage put together, which became, I believe, the seminal comedy movie of all time.
And that's live on the Sunset Strip.
This probably inspired people like Eddie Murphy and Dave Chappelle.
The art form of free speech in comedy was this was the place where you could just, there were no boundaries.
There were no limits.
There was nothing that is too soon.
There was nothing politically incorrect, especially in comedy.
And even in real life, if you offended somebody and they turned around and they were offended, if you said, I'm only kidding, that kind of made it okay.
There's no kidding anymore.
And it is an art form I have lost the fervor for personally because I'm scared.
You know, my biggest fear originally was that nobody would laugh and it would be quiet.
Then it was maybe offending somebody and having them approach me before a show.
Then it was the cancel culture.
Friends like Gilbert Godfrey, who I have a lot of friends who have lost entire careers and contracts because of it.
And now, after the Oscars, I think, you know, violence begets violence.
You know, here in America, we have mass shootings.
A mass shooting doesn't happen in one.
We've been followed in this last month by three mass shooting.
It's because these are triggers.
And I'm afraid I'm not enjoying being on stage like I was.
That's really sad to hear.
No, I do.
I feel because I know how much you love it.
I know how much you love performing with an audience.
You're hilariously funny when you're not annoying me.
In fact, probably particularly when you're annoying me.
So it's sad to hear you say that.
I mean, I had, ironically, I was sort of temporarily canceled by one of your old co-workers last year, Megan Markle, who used to be when you did deal or no deal, she was one of the suitcase girls.
There she is sitting right behind me.
For those that don't know me in your country, I'm like Noel, like a bald Noel Edmonds.
Aren't I?
What are your memories?
What are your memories of Miss Markle as a suitcase girl?
I'm going to be totally honest with you.
I had absolutely no memory of her.
I did not remember until she was dating Harry and people started saying, what can you tell us about Megan?
And I would say, who is Megan?
And I didn't know.
I didn't remember.
I did not know her.
And I don't remember her to this day.
But maybe that's the beauty of her.
Maybe she was.
Howie, before I let you go.
Since you can't remember, let's forget about it.
Before we let you go, very quickly, have you been invited yet to Simon Cowell's wedding?
And are you anticipating getting an invitation if you haven't?
I have not been invited.
Have you?
Not yet.
I'm waiting.
Okay.
So I'll carpool with you, and I'd like to put my name on the card of whatever gift it is that you purchased.
What do you get, Simon Cowell?
Not a bike.
Not a bike.
Did you prefer having me sitting next to you on America's Got Talent or Simon?
What do you want me to say?
Me.
I'm on a show on Netflix now called Bullshit, and I'm going to show you how it's played.
Right.
In that case, say me.
I've never loved anybody as much as I loved working with you.
Thank you, Mandel.
Finally, it's on the record.
Howie, great to talk to you.
Really is.
Always a pleasure, mate.
Thank you very much.
My best of your family.
All the best.
Take care.
Love, Howie.
Now, this will bring a tear to your eye.
I think you may agree that this might be insanity.
A woman in America was charged $40 by her doctor for crying.
Yeah, you heard me right.
A viral tweet posted by the patient's concerned sister showed her medical bill.
Her concerned sister tweeted the incident saying, yep, there it is.
Listed as a brief emotional behavior assessment.
It's called crying because she had a rare condition and felt understandably sad about it.
I guess she's lucky you didn't charge her for breathing.
The world is going nuts.
Well, we're here to put it right.
That's it for tonight.
That's actually for this week as well.
So keep it uncensored and good
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