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Dec. 12, 2022 - Uncensored - Piers Morgan
47:17
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Institutional Gaslighting Exposed 00:01:44
Tonight on Piers Morgan Uncensored lies, damn lies and the Sussexes.
As the monarchy braces itself for more mudslinging on Netflix, Harry and Megan's latest fibs are laid bare.
Britain is rocked by the biggest wave of winter strikes in decades and rail chaos threatens to wreck Christmas for millions.
I'll talk to the government minister who so far failed to get a grip.
Plus the infamous con man behind Fire Festival was jailed for one of the biggest frauds in music history.
Now he's back with a new ruse.
Should he be allowed to?
He joins me live.
Live from London, this is Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Well good evening from London.
Welcome to Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Reviews for Harry and Megan's big budget Netflix series have so far been less than kind, unimaginative and frustrating, said Hollywood's Bible Variety magazine.
So sickening, I almost brought up my breakfast, said the woke Bible, The Guardian.
All the intimacy of Instagram, sneered the normally timid New York Times.
A nauseating self-serving snooze fest, said another pundit.
Well, that was me, actually.
Now, against this deluge of derision, Netflix today released a new trailer for the second half of this compelling series, which comes out on Thursday.
Viewer discretion has advised this clip contains weapons-grade hypocrisy.
I wonder what would have happened to us had we not gone out when we did.
Our security was being pulled.
Everyone in the world knew where we were.
I said that we need to get out of here.
We are on the freedom flight to see this institutional gaslighting.
I wasn't being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves.
The Royal Setup Revealed 00:10:15
They were actively recruiting people to disseminate disinformation.
They were happy to lie to protect my brother.
They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us.
Prince Harry and Megan Markle, the rogue royals.
They just wanted to be free.
They wanted to be free to love and be happy.
I applauded that.
In order for us to be able to move to the next chapter, you've got to finish the first chapter.
They gave us a chance to create that home that we had always wanted.
I've always felt as though this was a fight worth fighting for.
Institutional gaslighting, says Harry.
Does he even know what that means?
They were happy to lie to protect my brother.
Who?
The royals?
Me?
Media?
Who is it?
The irony is earth-shattering, isn't it?
Harry and Megan and the Duke and Duchess of gaslighting themselves.
The entire show is a cynical attempt to manipulate viewers into questioning their own recollections of reality.
And if we learned anything at all from the first three hours of this $100 million win-a-thon, it's surely that this dismal duo wouldn't know the truth if he smacked them around their smug chops.
Let's look at their truth versus the actual truth.
Megan moans that royal advisors forced her to uninvite her dear niece, Ashley, from the wedding, the only member of her family that she seemed to be still talking to.
How do we explain that this half-sister isn't invited to the wedding, but that the half-sister's daughter is?
And so, with Ashley, the guidance at the time was to not have her come to our wedding.
Yeah, that was a lie.
Impeccably placed royal sources told the Sunday Times no such guidance was ever given.
And that was supposed to be the show's big example of how Megan really cares very deeply about her family, so deeply that only one member of that family was at the wedding, her mother.
Not even her favourite little niece, Ashley.
Megan also sees she got no advice on royal protocol, forcing her to learn how to be a princess all on her own.
Joining this family, I knew that there was a protocol for how things were done.
There is no class in some person who goes sit like this, cross your legs like this, use this fork, don't do this.
Curtsy then, wear this kind of hat.
Doesn't happen.
Another lie.
And by the way, Megan, if you don't like me calling you a liar, just sue me and we'll go through all this in court.
The Sunday Times discovered she was actually handed a 30-point dossier, studiously researched, brimming with information and contacts.
Megan later simpers that she never wore bright colours to show respect, because she's all about respect.
So I was like, well, what's the colour that they'll probably never wear?
Camel, beige, white.
So I wore a lot of muted tones, but it also was so I could just blend in.
I'm not trying to stand out here.
No, the last thing Megan Mark would ever want to do is stand out.
But it's all one other lie.
Photos taken by the evil, bigoted British press show her wearing pretty much every colour in the rainbow.
The show opens with a claim that the royal family declined to comment on the series.
That's another lie.
The palace says it received one email from an unknown company and attempts to verify it were flatly ignored.
Even the story of their romance and engagement turns out to have been a series of whoppers.
They told the BBC in 2017 they were set up by a mutual friend on a blind date.
They told Netflix they met on Instagram.
And what about Harry's modest proposal in their humble cottage kitchen?
It happened a few weeks ago, earlier this month, here at our cottage.
It's a standard typical night for us.
It's a cozy night.
What were we doing?
Just roasting chicken and having roasted chicken.
Joined the roasted chicken.
And it was just an amazing surprise.
It was so sweet.
An amazing surprise.
It was so sweet.
Well, according to Netflix, which is their show, it was actually a candlelit extravaganza in their walled garden.
And Megan was so amazingly surprised, she managed to figure out what was happening and tell her friend about it before Harry even popped the question.
A small little detail, but rather like their claim, or Megan's claim, that they'd been secretly married by the Archbishop of Canterbury in their garden before, three days before, the big televised wedding, which also turned out not just to be untrue, but had it been true, would have led to the Archbishop of Canterbury being incarcerated in prison.
As with all things, Megan, and Harry, it would seem, the truth just doesn't really exist in their world.
It's their truth, their version of it.
Megan also lambasted the entire BBC engagement interview as rehearsed and an orchestrated reality show because that's the last thing she'd be engaging in, isn't it?
An orchestrated reality show, like the Netflix series.
Michelle Hussein from the BBC, who carried out the interview, said, actually, no, it was just an interview.
Even the BBC's long-serving royal correspondent, Nicholas Witchell, normally bent double to avoid upsetting absolutely anybody in royal circles.
Can't take it anymore.
Consider one of the things that Megan said.
No matter what I did, they were still going to find a way to destroy me.
Well, the first point, who is the they that she's referring to, I think it is the palace, but most particularly it is to the press.
But the idea that anyone was out to destroy her, frankly, I think is absurd and simply does not stand up to proper and reasonable scrutiny.
Well, that's Nicholas Witchell's way of saying you're lying.
And he's right.
They lie all the time.
Nothing they ever say seems to stand up to reasonable scrutiny.
And I say that as somebody who lost his last job presenting Good Morning Britain because I wouldn't apologize for saying I didn't believe Meghan Markle.
Think about that.
Well, just like they've failed to ever provide a shred of evidence for their claims of racism in the palace or Meghan's claims over mental health problems.
She said that they were not just ignored by the palace, but she was told she wasn't allowed to get any help for suicidal thoughts by somebody at the palace.
Who was that person?
They shouldn't be working at the palace.
We've never had a name.
Like we've never had any names about the racism.
Today's new trailer makes clear that the gloves are off in the next three episodes of the show.
And remember, this is just a warm-up.
And there's Harry's book coming in early January.
Hundreds of pages of more allegations about his family.
There will be mudslinging, incendiary claims, bombshells, and I fear, a lot more lies.
And on behalf of the British people and the monarchy, they're trashing.
I intend to call out every single lie that they utter in their attempt to not just destroy the royal family, but to potentially bring down the British monarchy.
Well, joining me now as the organiser of Black Lives Matter Protests, Iman Ayton, former head of Royal Protection, Di Davis, and talk-to-view presenter, Sharon Osborne, over in Los Angeles.
Sharon, great to have you on the programme.
I don't know about you.
I got about halfway through the first installment of this win-a-thon last Thursday and felt genuinely nauseous.
I mean, I could feel vomit rising inside me, but also a sense of tedium.
Like, we heard all this before with Oprah.
Nothing really seemed that new.
It was just a new gloss put on all this stuff, but the main purpose of it just seemed to be to attack the royal family, to attack the institutions of the monarchy, to attack Britain as a racist country.
What do you make of all this?
It was all very distasteful, Piers.
I was totally bored by the whining, the whining, the whining, and, you know, the curtsy, the things she said about medieval times.
Her lunch with the Queen was like medieval times, which, as you know, is a Disney-type entertainment place for kids.
And it's just so horribly disrespectful and just a wine fest.
I mean, is the book going to be the same thing, whining, whining?
Is there going to be no positive points?
And that whole thing of him filming himself on the freedom flight, they must have had that deal with Netflix done much before they ever left.
So the whole thing was a setup, a setup, a setup.
Why, unless you had a deal, why would you have done that filming of yourself on the plane and all of that?
So what kind of freedom?
You have a video diary, what?
Yeah, and what kind of freedom is it?
If all you're doing is living in your California mansion with unbelievable privilege and wealth, and you're signing all these deals with companies who want their pound of flesh, and that pound of flesh is exclusively trashing your family.
I mean, this is all they do from the Oprah interview onwards.
All they've done is trash their family.
Onwards is trash, but there's nothing about themselves, you know, and this is a great time for them to keep talking about their charity.
But no, it's about them being these poor little children who are so much in love and how abused they've been.
Their race, the way they act, everything has been, you know, abused by the public, by the press, by the royal family.
Well, do you know what?
You've got a great life.
You've got a beautiful family.
You're so much in love.
Move on.
Get a life.
Move on.
And they just can't seem to because their living is by telling their truth on the royal family.
That's how they make their living.
Yeah, their truth as they say.
Yeah, no, I agree.
Covert Racism in the Palace 00:10:31
Di Davis, on the question of their security specifically, because you were obviously responsible for a lot of royal security for many years.
Harry claims that they were sort of had their security all taken away.
Is that even remotely likely to have been true?
Well, no, the answer is absolutely not.
The protection team followed them to Canada.
It was when they moved from Canada to the United States, somebody far higher than I in my present role or my old role decided, along with a committee that decides this called RABAC, they decided that it was no longer sustainable for British police officers to continue.
And I totally and utterly agreed.
And can I say, the last time you and I spoke, we were talking about the lies that his uncle Andrew put across.
And here we are again, as an investigator, as you rightly have said, and many others.
There are so much inconsistencies in this.
There are so many half-truths.
And my concern is, as I said, having had some information from Texas as to the number of individuals there who have believed this hook, line and thinker.
And if you know your history of attacks on the royal family as I do, then you would start to realize this is potentially very serious indeed, not only for the royal family, but for a fixated person on either side to get in touch and cause, as it did with President Reagan, as it did with Her Majesty a Queen last Christmas, a man with a crossbow, etc., etc.
Every year, over a thousand referrals are made to the fixated threat assessment center.
Most of them are harmless, but amongst them, there is a hardcore who could pose serious risk.
And that's what I've been concerned about as a consequence of this nonsense that's been spewed out by these two and some of their supporters.
Yeah, I completely agree.
Okay, look, Imane, we've had some animated debate about this, and I completely respect a lot of the stuff that you've been saying.
Vice versa.
My issue with this is I'm not sure what the supposed end game is or how much more of this was supposed to stomach.
I mean, this is another three hours of trashing coming on Thursday.
Then the book, then a series of interviews around the book.
This is just a never-ending stream of attacks on their own family.
I appreciate that's how you feel, but ultimately what they're really doing is highlighting the disgusting elephant in the room that the majority of this nation are more than happy to ignore.
And that's what's happening right now.
And they're trying to do it in a way that allows them to look after their family, basically.
So if it means making money whilst they do it, then so...
What is that elephant in the room?
Racism.
Racism in terms of racial prejudice within an institution and racism in terms of this country being racist.
But I said to you the other day, when things got a bit heated at this desk, that I felt that if you're going to make incredibly serious charges of racism in an institution like the British royal family and the monarchy, you've got to provide some evidence.
They've now had a year and a half or more since the Oprah Winfrey interview, in which they made all these incendiary claims.
They've not produced any evidence of any racism.
Okay, so what I'm hoping is that these next set of documentaries, they will actually provide us with some names so we can kind of stop discussing.
But if it does.
If it doesn't, well, what I'll do is I'll provide you with my evidence.
Is that all right?
Forgive me a minute.
I'll give you some evidence as to why that specific institution is racist, which I can do.
So, in terms of the evidence that you are likely to find, it is going to be in the form of covert racism.
And I know you don't like that word, but it is a fact.
So, examples include, in terms of the institution, the distribution of the Order of St Michael, which is a badge which ultimately depicts a white man with wings trampling a black man.
We can also delve into the fact that that institution hung up pictures of a little black slave boy on the walls of the institution, and everyone was so blinded by their racial prejudice that no one saw fit to take it down when the black president popped round for tea.
Or we can delve into the fact that the Queen Elizabeth, or rather the late Queen, made sure that she did not have to adhere to the equalities of laws and legislation, which is arguably what a true racist would do.
And we cannot take away the fact that the Queen a true racist.
No, I'm saying it's arguably what a true racist would do to make sure.
She's not a racist.
You're the head of the Commonwealth.
She couldn't have been a less racist person if she had tried.
Ask anyone in any of the Commonwealth countries about the Queen.
None of them ever felt the Queen was a racist.
Yes.
When you say things like that, you lose me.
I'm like, that's a ridiculous thing to say.
Okay, so I'll explain it.
So racism was the building blocks for the transatlantic slave trade, a trade that was funded by the royal family.
And they ultimately made their wealth off of the blood, sweat, and tears off of enslaved people.
And it was this country.
Hold on a second.
It was this country that actually led the end of slavery.
Which everyone likes to talk about.
Hundreds of years ago, by the way.
But you also contributed to it.
And what you fail to realize is that the legacy of colonialism, slavery, and British politeness play a vital role in the perpetuation of covert racism.
In other words, the present-day racism that I talk about today, which is in the form of covert racism.
So would you just say you've described the late Queen as effectively a true racist?
Exactly.
And you think the country is racist?
Okay, so if anyone doesn't think that this country is racist, are we a racist country?
Or are we a country that actually is remarkably tolerant, has extraordinary multicultural society, but includes some racist people?
Which one is.
So if you don't think this is a racist country, you should probably speak to Diane Abbott, the black footballers who have to contend with racism on a daily basis.
Or we can delve into 85,000 people who are not afraid of the people.
Can I just finish this?
Or we can delve into the 85,000 people who reported racially motivated hate crimes in 2021 and it's subsequently gone up to 100,000.
Or we can delve into the 120,000 people who have left their jobs in the last five years due to racism.
Or we can delve into the quarter of staff and 56% of students within higher education that have to contend with racism.
Or if none of those are acceptable.
I should happily show you my plethora of messages that I receive after this.
I do not dispute for a moment there are vile racists in this country.
I don't dispute for a moment.
If you traw enough on social media, you'll find them.
But I do think they are the ugly little barnacles peering out from rocks.
I don't believe that they are actually what this country stands for.
I don't believe the vast majority of people in Britain are racist.
I don't think we're an institutionally racist country.
And I certainly don't think the Queen had a racist bone in her body, which is why she's such a beloved figure in the Commonwealth.
So can I just add that, again, I said it to you last time, this country has a very rudimentary understanding of racism, often referring to overt racism as the defining factor for a race.
That couldn't even raise the money.
Right, but the trouble with covert racism is you end up with people like Megan Markle who say, I was a victim of racism, but don't feel they have any compulsion to have to say what actually happened when it happened and who said it.
And that is, if that's covert racism, the problem with it is there's no hard fact to support it.
But that's the issue with...
Okay, so firstly, I will preface my statement by saying I agree with you.
It should be known.
That's a fact.
It should be known and she should make a point of saying it.
And I really do hope that she does.
But ultimately, like I said, this is about her highlighting a truth, a truth that many people are failing to acknowledge.
And like I said, let me bring back an odd frame of reference.
Let me bring back Sharon.
Sharon, look, these are pretty incendiary comments from Iman here, that we are a racist country, that the Queen effectively was a true racist.
Covertly.
Covertly or otherwise.
I mean, I find those comments pretty offensive.
What do you think?
I think that as in every country in this world, there are a sect that are anti-Semitic racists.
There always will be, no matter what, there always will be because there's good and bad in every race.
There's always a little group of these nasty little evil people that dislike someone because of colour or religion.
Those are the two main dislikes.
So yes, there is a certain minority in England that are very racist and are very anti-Semitic, okay?
And I can say that being a Jew.
So the thing is, it's never going to end.
It hasn't ended for thousands of years.
Why should it end now?
But you carry on, you don't give these people a platform.
You'd want to talk about somebody with a platform, Konye West.
He has millions of followers that follow him, that adore him and will do what he wants them to do.
You see, I actually think Meghan Markle...
This country is an overall racist.
No, and I think Meghan Markle branding us a racist country and attacking the institution of the monarchy is racist.
It's something that's totally unfair.
She is what I would call a race baiter.
If she doesn't produce hard evidence to support these incendiary claims, she becomes a race baiter, exploiting racism and the issue of racism to act as a kind of protective shield around her and to make herself extremely rich and famous as a professional victim.
Last word to Di Davis.
Di, just as somebody who has been around the royal family for many, many years, how do you feel about the way the reputation of the royal family is being so traduced in this way?
Well, I'm appalled, frankly.
Some people see racism around the corner.
Racism is in Africa, it's in India, it's in every continent.
And so to pick on the royal family in this way is both insulting.
It's also insulting.
Most of the media are very decent people.
I know a huge amount of people for the last 50 odd years in the media.
Most like you and I are decent people.
To vilify both the royals, the media and the nation and somehow imply we're all racist is nonsensical in my opinion.
And I just despair that there are so many who will take the word of proven liars and then translate it into this issue about racism.
And you were around the Queen a lot on this suggestion that she was some covert racist herself.
What do you say to that?
Unbelievable nonsense.
Thank you, Diane.
Appreciate you joining me.
Thank you, Sharon, over there in LA.
Hope to catch up with you soon.
Thank you, ma'am, for joining me.
I appreciate it.
We're coming next.
NHS Pay and Inflation Crisis 00:13:37
Trains, nurses, ambulance workers, postal workers.
Just about everybody seems to be going on strike in the run-up to Christmas.
Will the government get a grip on the winter of discontent?
I'll talk to the Royal Minister, Hugh Merriman, next.
Welcome back up to Two Christmases wrecked by the COVID pandemic.
This year's festivities were supposed to be a hard-earned and belated celebration for millions of long-suffering British families.
Instead, Britain's facing its biggest wave of winter strikes in decades, including train strikes set to wreck Christmas travel.
Joining me now as Conservative MP of Royal Mr. Hugh Merriman.
Mr. Merriman, thank you for joining.
Piers Morgan Uncensored.
Just as I was about to start talking to you, the breakdown in talks of the nurses and the government has just been announced, which means there will be nursing strikes.
This adds to the very long list now of people who are going on strike in the next two to three weeks onto Christmas.
There's a general feeling that this government has completely lost control here.
What is going on and when are you going to fix it?
Well, I don't believe we've lost control.
We've made a number of offers across the sector, many of which have been backed by independent pay body recommendations, which we've followed.
We've tabled those offers.
We've then had discussions in many departments, including my own.
I had more today, to try and persuade the unions of the merits of those offers.
But Piers, we have to balance it with the cost.
If we gave every public sector worker what they were looking for in terms of inflation pay awards, it would cost every household a thousand pounds.
So we have a duty to balance the needs of the workforce, but also the needs of every other household around the country that will end up footing the bill for these at a time when times are tight and the private sector awards are much lower than those that the public sector unions tend to be looking for.
So we're trying to find that balance.
We're trying to act reasonably.
We're trying to follow advice and we're trying to facilitate an end.
But ultimately it takes the unions to compromise as well.
I mean I would say the problem you've got is that unions feel emboldened because they perceive the government to be in a chronically weak condition.
They've watched what's happened in the last year in particular.
Three prime ministers, four or five home secretaries, endless chancellors coming and going, the economy tanked, the pound tanked, you know, there's trust lasting less than a lettuce.
They put it all together and they thought this is the time to get together, which they clearly are doing, and take you guys down.
And you know what?
They might be successful.
The fallout from all this might be so bad that it is the tipping point for this government and is the final blow and leads to a Labour government.
Well, Piers, the Prime Minister made it absolutely clear that his number one priority is gripping inflation.
And that's why we've taken the step to ensure that we do not pay increases that go beyond inflation and don't go to inflation.
And so that was the Prime Minister's commitment when he fought the leadership contest at the beginning of summer.
It's his commitment now because inflation makes everyone poorer and the poorest the poorer of them all.
So that's the Prime Minister's number one priority and that means that pay restraint will have to be recognised across the board.
So I believe that we've got the resolve there.
We've also seen what happens when government spends money it doesn't have.
The markets react as they did and again that's something that we're not willing to do under this new government.
So I do feel we're gripping it.
That means we'd have to take tough decisions and we have to hold out in certain circumstances, rail being a good example of that within my portfolio.
But that's something we're determined to do.
So we want to act reasonably, talk, try and facilitate an end to this.
But our message is clear.
We cannot have inflation running rampant.
Pay rises that go anywhere near to inflation or above it will just make the situation even worse.
And that's our line.
What do you say to people who say, okay, so you can't afford to give the nurses pay rises?
Yet the moment there was a pandemic, you began chucking billions and billions.
What appeared to be any Tom, Dick and Harry pitching up who said they could make PPE or whatever it was often ended up making unusable PPE but pocketing tens of millions of pounds, sometimes hundreds of millions.
They've looked at that and looked at the way the government just handed out cash like Father Christmas for two years.
But now that the nurses who we all went and clapped for on Thursday nights for saving lives in the pandemic and risking their own, now they want a proper pay rise.
They're told there's no money left.
Well, the nurses did a heroic job over the pandemic and they continue to do so because the NHS obviously has its pressures.
But what you're talking about with a 19.2% pay increase is an extra 10 billion pounds onto the budget of the NHS, which then comes out of the NHS.
So it will actually make the situation even more challenging.
In terms of what happened during COVID, you know, Piers, that there is an inquiry that's been set up.
That will look at absolutely everything.
Those overseeing the inquiry will have full access to all of the papers.
So that's something to be determined.
So I can't link the two together.
But what I can say is that 19.2% is just a pay rise that we cannot afford.
Even the Labour Party have admitted that they can't afford that either.
We have offered talks.
Steve Barclay has made that quite clear.
So we want to find a resolution.
But we just need the nurses to recognise that 19.2% is something that no household and the NHS can afford.
You see, I would agree with you.
I think that is an unworkable resolution.
I don't think anyone can be expecting to get more than inflation from any sector, frankly.
And I would give the nurses pretty much anything, but there's got to be a reality check.
But what about the state of the NHS?
I mean, one of the reasons they're contemplating this unprecedented strike is because they all feel so disillusioned.
They all feel overworked, underpaid.
They've lost staffing numbers in droves.
If you go to any busy hospital now in the country, at the weekend in particular, it's complete chaos in there.
You know, my heart goes out to all these people working in not just hospitals but the care sector too.
After all they've been through the last two, three years.
You know, so I don't think they should be getting 19%, but they should certainly be getting due recognition for the extraordinary efforts they've made.
And the wider question for your government is after all these years in government, why is the NHS in such a tattered state?
Well, the NHS, of course, has had severe challenges, not just from the aging population and social care issues that we all know about, but also, as you picked up yourself, the pandemic.
And we've got a backlog.
We're starting to clear that backlog thanks to the work of the NHS staff.
It is a big challenge.
We're putting extra money in to try and get more people out of hospital when they don't need to be there because that's not right for them or the hospitals.
So back into social care where they'd be better looked after.
And we've also got a longer-term plan now to ensure that we've got the staffing modelling that we need over a period of years.
That's something that Jeremy Hunt, when he was chair of the health select committee, was very keen on, and he announced that in the budget.
So I'd like nurses to, and indeed all those that work across the NHS, to take away from this, that we recognise the pressures that they face in their job.
We recognize what they do.
They do a fantastic job.
We want to help them to make the NHS more efficient and deliver better.
But the challenge for us is that if we pay out a 19.2% pay rise, then we can't do both in that sense.
So we're asking for a pay rise, a discussion that makes it a more reasonable figure, and then we can look to see what can be done.
But I just want to be absolutely clear.
We need to ensure that the pay rises do not breed inflation because that just makes everyone poorer.
I want to point out that.
One of the other problems you had, I would say, in terms of perception, is your recently departed health secretary throughout the pandemic, Matt Hancock, has been raking it in to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds, eating kangaroo testicles in an Australian jungle on reality television, doing another reality TV show, writing a book of fake diaries, which were concocted after the event, which make him look great, everybody else look useless, and is now releasing TikTok videos.
Here's a video he released today.
Oh my god, I can't believe it's two years ago today that we did the first vaccine in the world in Coventry and then I cried on TV.
So embarrassing.
Well it was embarrassing mainly because I was the one that was interviewing him at the time when he burst into apparent tears and there were no actual tears.
I mean everything about Matt Hancock seems to be fake and embarrassing but if you're a nurse watching this health secretary who then had to quit in disgrace because he broke his own lockdown rules, if you watch him raking it in, literally he's heading towards millions now from his shameful running of the pandemic and his shameful departure from government.
How difficult does that make your position as part of a government now trying to persuade nurses they shouldn't be entitled to a few extra hundred pounds?
Well, at Piers, you can see my backdrop.
I'm here in Parliament, which is where I always am because that's my job.
That's what my constituents sent me here to represent.
They did not send me to go onto reality TV shows, and I think the government have made it quite clear from the Prime Minister downwards that that's not where an MP should be spending their time when they're elected by the public to do a job that we should all be privileged and proud to do.
And in my view, you can only do that by being in Parliament and going through the division lobbies and taking part in debates.
So clearly, my style is different to Matt's in that particular sense.
He'll have to account for himself.
As for TikTok, I promised my youngest daughter that I'd never be on it, and I never have.
So I can't account for that either.
We all do things differently.
What I would say is the vast majority of MPs and ministers work incredibly hard and will be found here late on a Monday evening voting.
And that's something that I just asked to be sort of one outlier.
Okay, I'm going to end with a concession to you because we're both Arsenal fans.
And in fact, you've berated me in the House of Commons over Arsenal.
But you got particularly exercised with me when I demanded the head of Mikel Arteta on a plate after he went through two unsuccessful seasons.
I believed he was not entitled to a massive pay rise, not entitled to a new deal.
You harangued me on Twitter for this.
And Mr. Merriman, I'm big enough to admit that you were right.
Arteta has turned out to be an excellent manager.
We're top of the league.
And although it sticks in my gullet to do this, I have to accept that you were right and I was wrong.
Well, that shows the great man that you are.
I wasn't going to raise it, but I think it's nice that you have.
I think he's doing an amazing job.
And hopefully, we'll both be smiling at the end of the season.
I was hoping the season would almost stop now, but let's see if we can get even more points on the board.
I totally agree.
Mr. Merriman, thank you very much indeed for joining me.
Thanks, Piers.
Well, coming up next, Garrett Southgate says he's conflicted about his future.
Should he carry on as England's manager?
I'll get reaction from my pack and give you my verdict.
Welcome back to Piers World Center.
I'm joined by today's PAC, Talk TV contributors Esther Cracker and Daily Mirror Associate Kevin Maguire.
Well, welcome, PAC.
So it's the hope that kills every time England for, well, for the 56th year since we won it in 1966 when I was one year old.
We failed to win a major tournament.
But it's odd, Kevin.
I'm not feeling the normal fury, you know, demands for the manager to be sacked, all the normal stuff that goes on.
There seems to be a different mood in the air, and it's one which is like, you know what?
We've actually got a pretty good team.
We've got a pretty impressive manager.
We nearly won the Euros last time.
We narrowly lost to the world champions this time and could have won it if Harry Kane had scored the second penalty.
You know, these kids, the young kids, the superstars of his team, Foden and Bellingham and Saka, they're all very, very young.
Why would we get rid of Southgate?
You wouldn't, would you?
And you would hope he would stay, but you could see why he will reflect.
He's taken England so far since we are humiliated by Iceland in 2016.
The mighty Iceland at the Euros.
And he's got a World Cup quarter.
He's got a World Cup semi, a Euro final.
No, I hope he stays, sees out his contract.
But what I like about Southgate is the fact he might not, and he's thinking about it.
Yeah, I agree.
And that's the thing.
And I think he has changed the culture with the team.
I think it's a good idea.
That matters.
I find some of the virtue signaling a bit over the top.
All the armband stuff I could do without.
I do think that they're a decent group of people led by Harry Kane, who's a decent guy, and I think they try and do the right thing rather than go out of their way to do the wrong thing.
Yeah, exactly.
And I think he's been blessed.
He's been blessed with a fantastic generation of players.
I don't see why he would go.
And I didn't watch the France and England match feeling embarrassed by the way we played, which is important.
I think everyone's a little bit better.
It's a better team for the March of the Game.
Exactly.
And it did do us proud.
If he hadn't missed, if Kane hadn't missed it.
I think we've got a very good chance of winning the Euros in Germany because I think our young players will be two years older.
Bellingham is already world class.
He's 19.
The Saka was fantastic.
He's just going to get better.
Yeah.
No, no, I think that you look at that team, he can take it on.
So I hope he stays.
But I do like the fact that he hasn't just automatically said, yeah, I've got a nice person.
Are you going to a Christmas party?
Yeah.
Choosing Pronouns at Greggs 00:02:34
Are you?
Yes.
Are you?
So what are you going to call it?
Well, it's just a Christmas party.
Civil servants have been told to refer to Christmas parties as festive celebrations as part of new woke guidance on inclusion.
Because people from other faiths may not like the word Christmas.
God spare me.
Look, if you were to call your party a festive celebration, I'd still come along.
They've been told not to.
But I might think you've got your tongue in your cheek when you do that.
But then there are more diverse groups who think it's respectful.
And if they want to do it, the UK is a Christian country.
So I'm not going to go to Dubai.
It is a Christian country.
Didn't you see the census showing that for you?
I'm not sure, but it's still a Christian country rooted in Christian traditions.
I'm not going to go to the Middle East and not wish someone in Mubarak.
I totally do that.
I'm in Rome.
Do what the right wingers are.
Exactly.
You know, you right-wingers, the real right-wingers.
Just let people live their life.
Talk to you right wingers.
So, Greg's my favorite, my favourite store where you get those vegan sausage rolls that have more salt in them than McDonald's cheeseburgers.
They brought in pronouns of staff name badges after feedback from employees, which include the usual she, her, hers, him, him, his, they, them, theirs, even though they're singular people who call themselves they, never quite get that.
Or neo-pronouns.
This is a new one for me, which apparently can include Z and Zia and Faye and Faya.
Before you answer, I just want to clip my fingers for the old the world who is going to walk around a Greg selling ghastly vegan sausage rolls with a badge saying Z, Z, and Faye, Faya.
What does it even mean?
And you can never choose a fun one.
You can never say like guess.
What does it mean?
Let's see.
My Highness.
You're both triggered again.
No, it's not.
Just let people be.
If you're going to choose your pronouns, choose a fun one.
Mine would be your highness.
Yeah, you still get it.
If I wore a badge, if I wore a badge, walking around the street that just said dickhead, right?
Well, I mean, don't be so ridiculous, right?
If I wore one with Z, Zia, Faye, Faye.
What does it mean?
I'd attempt to respect you if you went around.
You wouldn't say dickhead.
I would defend you.
Because many of my more natural affinity with that than you would with the word Z. If the Greg boss class said you must wear these badges, I would push back.
But if the staff want awareness, what's wrong?
I don't want to go into Greg.
I don't want to go Greg's full stock because it might slip me a vegan sausage roll, but I don't want to just be forced with this pronoun nonsense everywhere.
If you want to wear one in your own home, get on with it.
Billy McFarlane's Prison Scam 00:08:33
What?
You're going to say, look, there's a chicken sandwich.
I can't have that now.
I've seen it on your shoe.
I've got anything saying ZZ on your badge.
But who is it hurting to not have pronouns on their badge?
Just take a guess.
Yes.
But if the staff want them, there's a reason.
They want to respect other staff.
Zoom and people.
They've been, as Elon Musk would put it, they've been contracted with the woke virus.
It's a very afflicting thing.
I'm going to bring in chill pills for you two next time.
I'm just saying, it's patternedly absurd.
You know, I'm going for a sausage roll, not to find out what ZZero's real name is.
It's not going to put you off, really.
It is going to put me off because it's weird.
It is weird.
Let people be picking up.
They're not people, they're weirdos.
That's the problem.
All right.
Thank you, Pat.
Good to see you.
Well, coming next tonight, the Fire Festival was advertised by A-listors like Jar Rules in A-listor?
Who is Jar Rule?
Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid with tickets selling for as much as £75,000, but it's ended up a complete fiasco.
And its founder and organizer, Billy McFarland, was jailed.
Well, he's out of jail and he joins me next.
Well, the infamous Fire Festival promised superstars, luxury, and fine dining in a Caribbean paradise.
Instead, it became a fiasco that left founder Billy McFarland sentenced to six years in jail, owing $26 million to investors, which remains unpaid.
Here's a reminder of what's been called the biggest fraud in music festival history, immortalized in a hit Netflix documentary.
The actual experience exceeds all expectations.
It is something that's smart that divers.
All these things that may seem big and impossible are not.
It gives people that type of energy.
Island Getaway turned disaster.
It became very barbaric.
American rapper Jar Rule is in the Bahamas with his business partner.
Billy McFarland is an amazing entrepreneur.
He could convince anyone of pretty much anything.
They just bought an island, Pablo Escobar Island.
Within 48 hours, they sold out.
When thousands arrived in the Bahamas for the Fire Festival, after paying up to $1,500 for a ticket and $12,000 for a VIP experience, they found a millennial nightmare.
It was basically the exact opposite of everything we were promising.
Prosecutors say cost investors and customers over $26 million.
The promoter behind the botched fire music festival, the Bahamas, has been sentenced now to six years in prison.
Well, Billy McFarlane went to prison and he joins me now.
Billy McFarlane, thank you very much indeed for joining me.
Pierce, thank you for having me on your platform.
Huge opportunity.
Thank you.
So look, I watched the Netflix documentary and it was like watching a slow moving pileup on a freeway for you, motorway for us, where it just seemed pretty obvious quite early on this was not going to work.
And the bigger the hole you dug, the worse things got.
Was that how it felt for you?
Well, Pierce, first, you are braver than me because I've never watched documentaries and still can't get myself to do it.
But I was just so wrong.
And I'd like to, I think, start with telling you what I thought that I was trying to do.
So I thought that I was taking these different people from diverse backgrounds and bringing them together through adventures and experiences.
And when this was happening, it was almost like I found my little slice of magic in the world as these people were forming relationships and sharing ideas.
And I really just wanted to share this with everybody.
And I was just so wrong in my approach to do that.
Well, hang on.
Look, I'm sorry, but your attempt to make yourself out to be some magic maker, keen on spreading diversity, all sounds great now.
But the truth is you were trying to flee some all for cash.
That's why you ended up in prison for so long.
I mean, it was a money-making vehicle.
Your intention was not to, you know, get a load of happy campers together and spread love and diversity and a bit of magic.
It was to empty their wallets, wasn't it?
I was so wrong, and I lost everything I had in the process and lost the support, the relationships, and the trust of all of my friends and all of my investors and all of my team members.
As crazy as it sounds for me, sitting here looking back at all the terrible decisions I made, I truly thought that I was going to pull off this event.
That does not excuse the lying to investors that I did to try to get the capital that I thought I needed.
And Piers, I was wrong.
I messed up.
I mean, you're planning another festival now called Pirate, I think, which is probably quite appropriate.
But why should anybody trust you either with money as an investment or buying a ticket to this thing, given what happened before, given you've not paid off all the people who lost money last time?
Yeah, that's a really good question.
And in my mind, there's two ways to look at it.
Yeah, so in my mind, there's two ways to look at this.
And I think that one option is to essentially crawl in a hole and die of remorse.
And I think that's something a lot of people probably want.
But then how does everybody get paid?
And for me, I need to find pride in my life by at least trying to right my wrongs and make it up to everybody that I hurt.
I mean, you went to prison for quite a long time.
What was that experience like?
Yeah, so served around four years.
And I just kept making it worse and worse upon myself.
I actually ended up spending 309 days in solitary confinement.
So for the first period of my life, I was really forced to sit in time out and reflect on terrible decisions and try to understand what makes me tick as a human and how I could try to do something positive moving forward.
I mean, look, I don't know you.
I know what a lot of people have said about you.
It's not flattering, as you know.
I obviously am aware a lot of people lost a lot of money, and that's a serious situation.
It was a crime for which you've paid your price, and it was a pretty big price to pay.
Would you categorize yourself as somebody who was a criminal mastermind or as somebody that perhaps others might say was just a massive bullshitter on the make who thought he'd get away with it and unfortunately all his chips fled from red to black?
I think what just disgusts me the most, Pierre, especially during those 10 months where I had nothing to look at but a concrete wall on myself, is that I was trying for six, seven years to build and launch startups and I formed great relationships over those period.
And the fact that I took advantage of those relationships all for this purpose of trying to be successful or big or well-known, and it was just disgusting and awful.
What's the one thing you've really learned about yourself, Billy?
You just can't attach your personal pride to success or any idea of success.
And it's more about the relationships and the bond you find along the way.
And I was just so insecure and thought that my personal self-worth would be executing a big festival that made everybody rich and happy.
And that's just so incredibly wrong.
And it's how I can find that pride and self-worth in my day-to-day, like regular life.
Do you ever wonder what would have happened if it had worked?
Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest misconceptions is even if the festival succeeded, I still would have gone to jail.
Like I lied to investors to raise the money.
So even if people made money and all the ticket holders met great people and had the weekend of their lives, I would have been sitting in jail for years.
So there's no excuse, Piers.
Well, and to those who you owe money to who are disgusted, you're having another festival, what do you say finally to them?
And once again, it's like I need to find pride somewhere in life.
And my pride, hopefully in 60 years from now, when I'm on my deathbed, is that I spent the majority of my adult life trying to right my wrongs.
So I'm going to go out there and work.
I'm going to work honestly.
I can't promise that I'm going to succeed, but I can promise I'm getting help where I need it and trying to focus on my skill set.
And whatever I do will go towards paying everybody back.
Okay.
Well, on one positive note, you've got the right name for the festival, Fire, because that's what it won't all up in.
Billy McFarlane, thank you for joining me.
I appreciate it.
Piers, thank you.
See you soon.
That's it from me.
Good night.
Keep it uncensored.
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