The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - How Patriotic Is Makerfield？

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to Ashton in Makerfield. I'm Luca from the Lotus Eaters reporting on the ground here and we're going to be going door-to-door canvassing today with Restore Britain patriots and activists on the ground to get a flavour for what the public concerns are for the people of Makerfield, the issues that they're going to be deciding their vote on on the doorstep and also hopefully as well getting an idea of how they feel about the general state of Britain.

00:00:30.000 right now and society as a whole as well. So looking forward to getting out there and we'll

00:00:35.560 come back to you with some good interviews. Hello and welcome to this interview with political

00:00:40.640 commentator Lucy White. Lucy, you travelled up last night, didn't you? And you've come here to

00:00:45.780 join us for the campaigning around Makerfield and knocking on the doors and getting the message out.

00:00:51.280 You also were telling me before we went live that you spoke to Restore Britain candidate Rebecca

00:00:56.520 Shepard. So tell me, what were your impressions of meeting Rebecca Shepard this morning?

00:01:02.260 Well, I'd say Rebecca Shepard is very authentic. That's the main impression I got across. She's

00:01:06.860 very concerned about women's safety. And she said to me, actually, she said,

00:01:11.640 Lucy, I'm so glad you're here, because we need more women in politics, quite frankly. 1.00

00:01:17.100 Women's safety is a key issue. And why would women vote for policies that allow 0.99

00:01:22.600 these dangerous men into our country because of course men are impacted as we've seen with the

00:01:28.080 beheading attempted beheading situation in Belfast but of course women have suffered a lot from a lot

00:01:34.660 of cases of rapes over the last however many decades but going back to this particular case of 0.84

00:01:40.980 the attempted beheading of a man in Belfast well this lunatic was from Sudan he was an illegal

00:01:50.120 migrant from Sudan, who Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman, they oversaw that he had legality

00:01:57.880 through a visa in our country, lasting five years. And this was only granted in 2023.

00:02:03.700 And what's of utmost importance for the voters of Makerfield to understand

00:02:09.040 is that Suella and Robert Jenrick are in reform. So why on earth would anyone vote

00:02:14.960 for reform when they are the ones that brought in such Sudanese migrants who are on the streets 1.00

00:02:21.940 killing our people and of course Labour how could anyone vote for Labour for Andy Burnham 1.00

00:02:27.120 after this party has allowed the Pakistani rape gangs to happen for decades and when in fact it 0.95

00:02:33.120 is Rupert Lowe and Restore Britain who are the only party that have actually done a rape gang 0.92

00:02:37.520 inquiry and that will actually deport millions of these dangerous migrants I'm not happy to be 0.97

00:02:44.140 in a country where I don't feel safe and nor are you and nor are the voters of Makerfield having 1.00

00:02:48.420 spoken to them this morning. And so I strongly believe and I genuinely believe Restore Britain

00:02:54.140 is the only way we can democratically get ourselves out of this mess. We saw the riots

00:02:59.260 in Belfast. We've seen the protests up and down the country. No one wants to live like this. And

00:03:04.200 so Restore Britain is the only way we can democratically get our way out of a situation.

00:03:08.880 And do you get this feeling that based on everything you're saying about the fact that

00:03:13.660 you obviously have Labour being entirely captured by the establishment and certainly that reform

00:03:19.160 have taken in a lot of establishment figures. Does this point to the fact that with Rebecca

00:03:25.520 Shepard being kept off of the panel at the local Maker Field Question Time event, that actually

00:03:31.800 the establishment realised that there is something to be kept at bay here that's truly meaningful

00:03:37.540 with Restore Britain? Yes, I mean, my first impression was how can BBC Question Time have

00:03:44.680 the Liberal Democrat candidate and the Tory candidate when they are polling much lower than

00:03:50.440 Restore Britain? It just tells you that they have decided to deliberately exclude Restore Britain

00:03:57.100 because I think it's because they see Restore as a threat to themselves. Rupert has actively said

00:04:04.580 he believes the BBC should be defunded because they are a contained establishment media which

00:04:11.700 put out vicious lies to the British public. And so on one hand, you could say, well,

00:04:18.340 at least Restore Britain is not having to associate with the BBC because, you know,

00:04:24.000 I don't think they can be trusted. On the other hand, yes, it does signal that the fact that

00:04:28.040 Restore Britain was not invited is because the BBC is threatened. The BBC know that Restore

00:04:34.060 Britain is not some little pop-up party it is a real deal they have seen the results in Great

00:04:39.220 Yarmouth where we won 10 out of 10 of the seats that we stood for but not only did we win we could

00:04:44.880 have halved the votes that we had and still won we won by a landslide and so essentially I think

00:04:52.200 they see Makerfield they know that we're a new party and so that they know that the polling is

00:04:56.640 not going to be accurate they know that Restore Britain will tap in to voters who have never voted

00:05:01.180 before or who have been too disillusioned by the establishment to vote in recent decades and so I

00:05:08.040 do believe we're going to see a surge of people coming out in Makerfield and voting for Restore

00:05:13.560 Britain because they are absolutely fed up with the establishment. They are fed up of seeing what

00:05:19.280 happened to Henry Novak, what happened in Belfast, what happened with Axel Ruder-Cabana. The list goes

00:05:24.620 on and on and on. They've had enough and as I said this is the only way to democratically get out of

00:05:30.080 this nightmare that we're living in. This reality is so extreme that we need real change. And the

00:05:37.780 BBC knows that the real change offered is only offered by Restore Britain. And that's why

00:05:41.960 Restore was excluded from question time. And what's your impression been then so far on the

00:05:47.720 ground today? I'd say it's been very welcoming, to be honest with you. We've had lots of cars and

00:05:53.900 lorries and vans honking at us with support. We've had thumbs up. We've had people cheering us on.

00:05:59.780 it's just been delightful you you come to a pub people are just more than happy to welcome you

00:06:05.360 with open arms they're just happy that we're here on the ground um we've had you know people know

00:06:11.640 Restore Britain uh they know who we are they recognize us and they're just grateful honestly

00:06:17.040 I think the word is grateful they're just grateful that we're here because they know

00:06:21.000 that we are offering real change and that is what they have been missing for the last goodness knows

00:06:26.780 how many decades wonderful well lucy thank you for your time and uh good luck campaigning out

00:06:32.400 there yes so we still have um another week to go but i think the momentum is here we've got

00:06:38.060 everything to play for and i strongly believe this weekend we're going to have a large number

00:06:42.980 of supporters on the ground and i believe with that all the way running up to the 18th of june

00:06:47.720 we're going to shock the establishment they won't see this coming well we certainly hope so well it's

00:06:54.580 It's now the Wednesday evening, we've been going about door to door, people have been

00:06:59.220 warmly received with smiles here and there, obviously there's many posters about in people's

00:07:04.960 windows, we've seen reform, we've seen restore, we've seen labour of course, but one of the

00:07:10.080 things that I think has been most interesting for me and what I've found here as I've been

00:07:14.540 going about is not necessarily the banner of one party or another, but just as I've

00:07:19.900 been going about the streets seeing how many flags there are from the lampposts, from people

00:07:24.580 windows atop of houses outside of pubs on fences just England flags and Britain flags all over the

00:07:32.020 place and so it's clear that there is a very proud sense of patriotism here in Makerfield which like

00:07:39.120 everything else with the flag campaign is not being addressed by the establishment. Hello I'm

00:07:44.400 here in the Brin Community Centre and I'm here speaking to John. Now John you're you're from

00:07:50.400 Wigan originally and I've lived in Wigan all my life up to about three years ago uh moved up to

00:07:56.700 South Lakes but I'm still uh connected the community with family and friends and that and

00:08:01.820 you know care about this place a lot yeah and you were saying to me as well before we um started

00:08:07.240 recording the interview that you're um you're obviously going to camp you've come down to

00:08:11.540 campaign for Restore Britain and that this is your first time really getting involved in politics in

00:08:17.460 that way before so can I ask what what was it about Restore Britain that made you you know sort

00:08:23.360 of answer that call and want to get involved in such a way? Well I watch politics a lot on TV on

00:08:29.500 YouTube and whatever but then you know I've heard Rupert Law speak of he can't do it alone and we

00:08:37.340 all need to do our bit and it resonated with me and I think yeah you're right you know if you can

00:08:43.180 do something you've got to just try and do a little bit somehow and I thought I've got to try

00:08:47.120 get down i'm going on holiday next week i can't do it next week it's got to be today so i'm here

00:08:51.760 yeah and um of of the things that rupert lowe has been saying what what is it about his message

00:08:58.060 that's been cutting through with you what what are the issues that he's speaking to specifically

00:09:02.720 that you feel that the other candidates such as rob kenyon and of course the tories and

00:09:08.040 Andy Burnham are not speaking to?

00:09:12.260 Well, the same old, same old to me.

00:09:16.260 I mean, Rupert Law, he is speaking honestly,

00:09:20.160 and, you know, you get the feeling that you can trust the man

00:09:22.740 just by listening to him, you know.

00:09:25.320 He's opening video when they launch restore.

00:09:28.660 You know, it tingles in your spine.

00:09:31.180 You know, it made you feel passionate about the things he was saying.

00:09:36.060 um you know the the thing to me is the you know my generation i'm nearly 60 now

00:09:45.880 i've not really looked after custodians of the country when i was growing up you know

00:09:52.560 and i've got a young lad now i'm an old dad but i've got a young lad and i just think

00:09:57.020 it just drives me to try and do something you know we want to pass this country on

00:10:02.580 somewhat like how we found it you know and at the moment it's it's no one here and have you been

00:10:08.580 having uh many conversations where you're now living and you know locally around here in Wigan

00:10:13.820 that you feel like it's actually been resonating with other people as well that the message is

00:10:18.860 cutting through yeah 100% I'm I've played rugby all my life and I've coached rugby and I'm still

00:10:25.420 in touch with lots of my rugby friends and we have a whatsapp group and everybody all my mates in that

00:10:30.440 group you know a lot of them a lot younger than me but you know they're all we're all on the same

00:10:34.580 page of it's restore and and what's going wrong in the country as well we're all you know we're

00:10:40.100 all on the same page really and when you say what's going wrong in the country are there any

00:10:45.080 particular things that stand out to you that you feel like are the most anxiety inducing where do

00:10:50.800 you start i mean there's rachel reeves in a um fantasy finance situation you know i was spending

00:10:57.740 more than we can afford every year

00:11:00.880 and they just think they can print more money

00:11:02.580 or borrow more money.

00:11:04.960 Somebody's got to pay for it

00:11:06.000 and it probably won't be me,

00:11:07.200 but our kids and whatever.

00:11:09.280 That's a disaster. 1.00

00:11:10.720 The immigration situation is an absolute disaster. 1.00

00:11:13.760 You see things every week on the TV, 1.00

00:11:16.840 you know, from the terrible, shocking scenes

00:11:19.740 we saw in Ireland yesterday,

00:11:21.080 but that could have been just around the corner here

00:11:23.360 or anywhere in the country

00:11:25.000 because you don't know where these people are.

00:11:27.360 you know they've no right to be here they shouldn't be and they should go

00:11:30.400 and that's you know those are things that drive me but many other things as well you know and um

00:11:37.560 on on the issue that going back to what you were saying about Rupert being someone that actually

00:11:41.940 inspires trust is that also something as well that because of course a party is more than just one

00:11:47.740 man it's of course all of the people that that the leader surrounds himself with and it's all

00:11:53.100 the people who are obviously on the ground campaigning as well so i was just wondering

00:11:57.500 in terms of what you've seen of the character of other people's resounding sorry surrounding

00:12:02.860 restore britain whether or not they give you confidence as well yeah 100 you know i watch

00:12:08.120 many different people who are associated with the restore you know the harrison pitts or color

00:12:12.240 tomlinson and you know you see you see that they're speaking from the heart and you they might

00:12:17.200 get things wrong sometimes but they i'm sure they do it from a genuine point of view you know and

00:12:22.180 And that gives you faith that if they did actually get some power,

00:12:25.320 that they would follow through on what they're trying to achieve

00:12:28.420 for the British people, you know.

00:12:30.340 Yeah, definitely.

00:12:31.700 And one last question for you then,

00:12:33.940 which is that what sort of an outcome in the maker field election

00:12:38.860 would you consider to be a success for Restore Britain?

00:12:43.220 Do you think that success is winning outright?

00:12:45.680 Do you think success is just being the underdog

00:12:47.960 and surprising everyone and getting a result

00:12:50.480 above what people were expecting?

00:12:52.760 Or how far do you think it can go?

00:12:56.820 Well, that's part of the reason I won't be down here

00:12:58.620 and knock on some doors and actually find out for myself

00:13:01.480 before, you know, what is the feedback that people are getting?

00:13:05.540 Because obviously you're on YouTube,

00:13:07.920 the reception's fantastic.

00:13:10.700 I don't know, maybe getting into double figures of a percentage

00:13:13.800 would shock people.

00:13:16.740 And it's about people seeing that, oh, wow, you know,

00:13:20.480 like Restore are coming up.

00:13:22.560 They're from Norway six months ago to getting 12%, 14%.

00:13:27.360 You know, there's been talk of 24% on the doorstep.

00:13:31.820 That would be absolutely unbelievable.

00:13:34.400 You know, but, I mean, I've lived in Wigan all my life,

00:13:37.180 and there's Labour people here, very strong Labour,

00:13:41.960 no matter what happens.

00:13:42.860 You know, if they said the Labour policy was

00:13:44.760 they're going to screw your front door shut and set your eyes on fire,

00:13:48.980 they'd probably still vote for Labour, you know.

00:13:52.860 They're just like, yeah, I vote Labour, you know,

00:13:55.120 and I've talked to them all my life.

00:13:56.740 Some of them are my friends, you know.

00:14:00.020 But, you know, they're just like,

00:14:02.420 my grandad voted Labour, I voted my dad,

00:14:05.240 and they're committed that way,

00:14:07.760 and that's the way a lot of them are.

00:14:09.940 So we are up against it in this borough.

00:14:12.320 It's always been Wigan, no matter what.

00:14:15.040 But to get things to change as much as they have

00:14:18.400 is still a good result for Restore in this area.

00:14:21.840 Well, John, thank you for your time.

00:14:23.820 Well, I'm here at the end of the day for Wednesday.

00:14:26.840 I've been out around a number of streets now and community centres,

00:14:31.100 met some of the wonderful activists on the ground for Restore Britain.

00:14:35.680 And one thing that's absolutely clear from a first impression

00:14:38.700 is the passion and dedication with which these men are going about.

00:14:43.760 Naturally, as you might understand,

00:14:45.380 Wednesday is one of the quieter days of canvassing and campaigning but come the weekend and you know

00:14:53.340 the day's rolling on I based on the flavor of energy we've got today I think we're in for good

00:14:59.960 things ahead. Hello I'm here with Matt Slocum of Restore Britain you've been at this for quite a

00:15:06.620 while now haven't you helping Rupert get together and actually helping to put together the policy

00:15:12.100 document on british pubs and so i was just hoping to ask you a question or two about how that

00:15:17.800 message is being received in pubs around makerfield yeah i mean it was a absolute honor to

00:15:23.740 you know help um help the team produce our pub policy document i've 25 years experience behind

00:15:29.100 bars so um uh yeah very it's just crucial to the life but of britain um the pub uh it's quite

00:15:35.620 simple it's where we celebrate it's where we commiserate it's where we laugh and cry

00:15:39.120 and um we really will be crying if the british pub is lost it is vital um and just the knock-on

00:15:45.520 effect for all communities societies it's not just a pint of beer it's where people go to

00:15:50.380 you know just to be part of a society so it's vital and you know evident in makerfield um

00:15:56.200 unfortunately there are too many pubs shut um it's great to be in a lovely garden with one that's

00:16:00.000 still open in the sunshine um after a good day on the door so you know but i was took out um

00:16:05.500 Rebecca, our fantastic candidate, local candidate, took a couple of the pubs last Sunday, actually, and just rang ahead, make sure landlords had time to speak to us.

00:16:13.900 And I was really, really taken, actually, that a lot of, again, some real heartland areas where you think it would be sort of all labour.

00:16:20.320 And they were like, no, come on in, it'd be nice to speak to you.

00:16:22.100 And then we gave them lots of time, explain what we were going to try and do locally and also obviously explaining our pub policy nationally.

00:16:28.820 And they were very receptive to it and they liked what Rebecca had to say.

00:16:32.400 and yeah it was really well received and very interesting they all said Rebecca please come

00:16:37.000 back and see our customers and again knowing what it's like for a landlord or a landlady to put

00:16:40.900 there you know to put it out there and to sort of say to people because politics and pubs they're

00:16:45.840 always spoken about but as someone who is involved you've got to be careful sometimes about what

00:16:50.120 you know what you do say because you're worried about the effect it's going to have on your

00:16:53.060 business and I think that happens in businesses everywhere actually people putting their hand up

00:16:56.780 and their head up and you know saying what they think is wrong and the effect that has so it was

00:17:01.180 really welcoming that those publicans were really open to those to those chats and yeah very

00:17:05.600 welcoming and loved like to hear what we had to say so yeah very pleased how it went down

00:17:09.000 also as well from my experience often when you go into a pub you can't help but catch on your ear

00:17:15.320 just the sound of some table somewhere discussing current affairs discussing politics you know

00:17:20.920 getting a temperature for the mood of the country and so I was just wondering as well if you thought

00:17:26.660 that amongst all of this as well, that this is some of the reason why Labour and the Tories have

00:17:34.240 been so negligent in terms of the state of the pub over those years, because they perhaps don't like

00:17:40.100 people coming together to discuss political issues of our day. Well, it seems like there's a, yeah,

00:17:45.440 I guess if you put on your tinfoil hat or something, or go down the odd rabbit hole, you think,

00:17:49.880 why don't they want us to congregate? Why don't they want us to all get together and plot and

00:17:53.980 scheme haven't the best plots and schemes been you know from d-day invasions to to failed plots

00:17:59.380 to blow up parliament they've all been done in in the pub haven't they um no look i've said for a

00:18:04.080 long time i think the policies especially that restore britain have put up are the they're

00:18:08.940 solving the problems that the british people have been moaning about over the bar certainly my bar

00:18:13.920 um for 15 20 years they are the issues every day every 4 30 5 o'clock they come back stressed from

00:18:20.500 work the issues the problems we face every day it's you know every parliament every pub is a

00:18:25.360 parliament full stop and those moans and groans um they're everywhere they're in every pub over

00:18:32.260 the land and restore have now got policies not just around the pub but the major issues uh that

00:18:37.040 are facing the country we're now we're sorting those out we have policies that are actually

00:18:40.540 going to change it and they need to be wholesale changes you know that's hence restore that's what

00:18:46.140 has to happen and we'll start the pubs if necessary but no you know these policies are out there

00:18:50.800 and they're the moans that people have had for a long long time so vote Restore Britain and we can

00:18:55.320 make some changes. Wonderful and one last question if I may as regards to the slew of policies that

00:19:01.940 of course Restore Britain are proposing you've of course been out in Makerfield for since the

00:19:07.280 beginning of the campaign haven't you going about and so would you tell me a bit about how you felt

00:19:11.960 that they've been received on the door and whether or not you're encouraged by the reception?

00:19:16.140 I've been tremendously encouraged by the reception. I think, you know, Mr. Burnham chose his seat for a reason.

00:19:22.520 You know, he wanted to be anointed, I think, as the King of the North.

00:19:26.360 And I don't think that's gone down particularly well with a lot of the voters, actually.

00:19:30.280 Well, if you become my MP, we were quite happy with the last one, I think, as quite a few people have said.

00:19:36.720 You know, is he going to be here? What's he going to do? Yeah, I don't think that's going down particularly well.

00:19:41.660 And what's also been apparent is a lot of people have sort of gone, no, I'm not happy with that.

00:19:46.140 So I was going to go reform, but I've now done a bit of digging around in there and I'm not so keen on what I'm seeing there either.

00:19:53.580 And then when we talk about the option of restore and Rebecca locally and then what Rupert and the party are planning for our national policies, they resonate very well.

00:20:02.480 So I think it's all about, like everything for our movement now, is people need to be brave and they need to put their hand up, put their head above the parapet and say,

00:20:11.660 no, I'm going to vote for something I genuinely believe in and I genuinely think will restore Great Britain.

00:20:17.420 Wonderful. Well, thank you very much for your insights.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - June 11, 2026

How Patriotic Is Makerfield？

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