The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - The Aftermath of Makerfield

00:00:00.320 Hello, I'm Josh and I'm here in Makerfield. This is election day and I've been here for a full week

00:00:06.560 now and I suppose I'm going to walk through my overall impressions from this week I've been here

00:00:11.600 because it's been a bit of a mixed bag. Today my experience was that we had a sheet where we were

00:00:19.280 knocking on doors of people who were either considering to vote for us or had agreed to vote

00:00:23.920 for us and some of them had even said they were voting Labour which was a little bit confusing

00:00:28.640 because you wouldn't think that would be the case it could just be a case of someone recording bad

00:00:33.200 data when they're around around canvassing but it's a little bit demoralizing but on the other

00:00:39.040 hand i've spoke to some other people who've had some great results one household with four votes

00:00:44.240 entire streets voting for restore and so it's been really interesting and it's to the point now

00:00:49.920 where i think that there's the promise of a pretty decent result and i think that

00:00:54.320 it might not be the case that Labour are going to lose because I think that their on the ground game

00:01:02.260 was very strong here and I hardly saw any reform canvases where I was today and yet I saw maybe

00:01:10.140 50 or 60 Labour canvases and so it seems like they've really mobilised people being close to

00:01:16.480 Manchester, Andy Burnham being the Mayor of Manchester and being close to so many Labour

00:01:21.180 areas I think has paid off for them and so they've had lots of volunteers and I think that it's the

00:01:26.860 case that these these Labour voters around here have really been mobilised in a way that reform

00:01:35.660 has not and so I think there's going to be a bit of a difference there between both reform and

00:01:41.120 Labour but my guess would be in my experience here on the outset of you know knowing the results my

00:01:49.520 prediction is that it's probably going to be Burnham winning reform with a

00:01:54.200 sizeable proportion and maybe restore third but I think that the point for

00:02:00.920 restore and what they want to be doing here is that they're going to be getting

00:02:05.240 a good showing double digits I think would be a real achievement I think

00:02:10.160 that it'll prove that the party has the ability to turn people out for the

00:02:14.540 election and that's something that I think is a very good thing for them because they've only

00:02:22.060 been around for a short while and so if they get over 10% then that shows that they can actually

00:02:27.080 turn what has been described as an online echo chamber into real electoral power and the fact

00:02:33.540 that what happened in Great Yarmouth where they won 10 out of 10 elections isn't just a one-off

00:02:38.580 and that they can actually influence national elections and so that's the interesting thing

00:02:43.480 as well as the fact that Andy Burnham may well get in and challenge Keir Starmer's leadership.

00:02:48.600 And so my overall impression is that it's a little bit difficult to predict Restore's

00:02:54.440 percentage, but I think that looking at the number of Labour signs everywhere, the enthusiasm for

00:03:01.400 Labour here, and the fact that they're able to turn out so many people on the ground suggests

00:03:07.000 that they're going to do quite well and I would be surprised if they lost but I don't think that

00:03:13.640 was necessarily a surprise either because it's one of those constituencies that's always been

00:03:18.840 a strong Labour vote and so that is my overall impression. So by the way it is a Thursday night

00:03:25.080 is about a quarter past six and we've already got people vomiting behind me in the pub behind

00:03:29.960 And if that gives you an idea of the kind of area we're in, I suppose that's something.

00:03:37.460 But actually, the people here have been very nice.

00:03:40.640 I had a case where a reform voter took pity on me.

00:03:45.840 He's like, it's a really hot day here.

00:03:47.440 I'll give you a can of iron brew so you're not thirsty.

00:03:50.760 And so people are generally quite nice.

00:03:52.460 I've had lots of nice chats with people.

00:03:54.680 And even some of the Labour canvassers stopped and had a chat.

00:03:57.120 had a moment earlier on today where Rupert came along and joined us and he had a sort of very

00:04:03.080 pleasant chat with an older Labour canvasser and she was saying how she appreciated how he was

00:04:09.220 willing to just talk to her civilly and Rupert was saying oh well you know we're British we've

00:04:13.880 got to be civil to people even if we disagree and there are even people accosting us in the street

00:04:20.560 when they found out we were restored but you know it's actually quite rare and people have been on

00:04:26.780 on the whole very friendly here which is quite something because you know you'd think in an area

00:04:32.440 with a high percentage of Labour voters you might face some hostility and although I've had maybe

00:04:38.080 one or two doors slammed in my face no one's been rude no one's sworn at me at least when I've been

00:04:44.400 knocking on their door although I think one thing that has been overlooked by a lot of parties is 0.61

00:04:49.700 that people have been a little bit oversaturated with canvassing and leaflets there was one woman

00:04:56.520 who was telling me that I think I'm going to vote restore but I'm almost thinking I'm not going to

00:05:00.900 vote at all because I've had so many leaflets through my door that a small forest has been cut

00:05:05.760 down just to provide them and had one woman saying that she'd had five people knock on her door in

00:05:12.440 one day so I think if anything the people of Makerfield are going to be very glad very soon

00:05:18.000 to stop having so much post and stop having so many annoying canvases knocking on their doors

00:05:22.960 no matter the result and of course this is just a product of the fact that there aren't any other

00:05:29.300 elections really going on and all of the party's attention is on here you've got reform restore

00:05:34.860 and labor with a strong ground game and yeah it's sort of wound some people up but even so

00:05:42.420 generally speaking people have been pretty warm hello i'm here with lewis brackpool you may

00:05:46.860 recognize him he's featured on lotus seat as many times and of course he is the head of investigations

00:05:52.000 at Restore Britain but he's also been on the doors a lot. How have you found it?

00:05:57.020 Well it's good to see you Josh and also thank you very much for coming up and thanks for

00:06:00.540 Lotus Eaters for coming up and covering this important by-election. Do you know what I'll be

00:06:05.840 honest I've had a really fun week. It's been really fun to not just knock on doors but meet

00:06:11.120 the people of Makerfield who are incredibly friendly. I've never been to this part of

00:06:15.180 Manchester or Wigan before but it was also nice to see everyone and get together

00:06:21.480 and to be knocking on doors and just to, you know, fight in this election.

00:06:26.120 It's been fun. It's also been tough, to be totally honest with you.

00:06:31.160 We're going into a Labour stronghold and you can really see the divide between, I'm going to say, classes.

00:06:38.200 When you go to the middle class areas and places where you find that there's a lot of money,

00:06:43.760 you find that the overwhelming people are supporting Burnham.

00:06:48.780 You see a lot of Burnham signs everywhere.

00:06:50.340 you get the odd reform signs but also you do find some restorers there too however it's

00:06:56.460 predominantly Burnham but then when you go to the lower class areas or the areas where it's lower

00:07:02.840 lower economic areas you do find that you have whole streets wanting to vote restore

00:07:08.480 and it's a toss-up between that and reform so we've been pounding the doors for the week or

00:07:15.220 week and a half because we spent a first weekend here up in Maconfield and we found that speaking

00:07:21.580 to reform voters the biggest narrative that is being pushed on us is the split the vote

00:07:27.720 narrative and I'm sure you've come in contact with that particular narrative too.

00:07:32.260 My response has always been regardless of what happens in this election by 2029 Labour will

00:07:38.900 still be in power so now is your prime opportunity to vote for someone who you actually believe

00:07:44.040 and it's found to be working on the doors and a lot of reformers sit there and think

00:07:49.100 yes you are actually correct. We've printed out these big leaflets which show the differentiation

00:07:55.120 between restore and reform and you can make a little quiz and tick off the ones that you agree

00:07:59.880 with and it shows the difference between reform and restore because there's a lot of chatter online

00:08:06.640 to say that we're almost the same party which we're not. In fact reform are playing catch-up

00:08:11.700 with a lot of our policies. I'm sure you found that as well, right?

00:08:16.260 Yes. And in fact, I found it interesting that there's a lot of sympathy from people in reform to Restore.

00:08:24.180 I've had maybe one person who was actually angry at Restore for splitting the vote.

00:08:31.320 But most people sort of understand why the party exists and are sympathetic.

00:08:36.620 In fact, I had a good instance where someone gave me a can of drink just to keep me going, even though they were a reformed voter and already voted.

00:08:47.760 And, you know, there are people giving me words of encouragement saying, oh, you're doing a good job.

00:08:51.780 I hope you do well and things like that. And so they're very sympathetic.

00:08:55.660 There's others as well, I found.

00:08:57.740 there are reformers out there that would say I'm not going to vote for you this time but I will

00:09:04.480 in 2029 because they feel that we're not ready in which we are ready and it's just dispelling

00:09:11.440 that myth on the doors and speaking to people we found that that's been the case a couple of times

00:09:16.220 which has been interesting we also had a an interesting lady on the door in a very strong

00:09:22.880 hold Labour area where this woman had voted for Labour for most of her life and she originally

00:09:30.080 believed that Burnham would somehow resurrect the old guard of the Labour Party all over again

00:09:35.520 to which she then saw saw our leaflet on what we stood for things such as reversing mass migration

00:09:42.480 the death penalty etc and she realised oh actually I quite like what you're saying and even though she

00:09:49.220 said that she had voted Labour for most of her life, she then on the doors converted to being a

00:09:54.180 restorer. So that was really fascinating and that was down to my good friend and esteemed colleague

00:10:00.120 Harrison Pitt who made that pitch. So it's been a very very interesting week. It shows that people

00:10:07.700 online especially from the reform side believe that we're going to get around sort of five percent

00:10:12.220 because of that servation poll that came out from the Times and Farage as well posting that around

00:10:18.140 along with their leaflets saying that we're on five percent I'm way way way more optimistic that

00:10:23.880 we're in double figures sort of mid double figures I would if I was a betting man I'm not but if I

00:10:29.640 was a betting man I would put it sort of mid double figures sort of 10 to 20. So one thing that I found

00:10:36.940 interesting that you mentioned that I've also picked up on is the difference between the area

00:10:41.800 you're canvassing in terms of social class whether it's more working class or middle class

00:10:47.500 the middle class tends to show out a lot more for labour and the working class seems to be

00:10:53.660 you know either reform or restore there's still some labour sprinkled in there

00:10:57.980 what do you think is actually behind this difference? I think the betrayal from the

00:11:03.900 political establishment the media who just see the working class as just rabble thugs as well

00:11:11.860 painted by the media and very key issues that haven't had the electorate vote for such as mass

00:11:21.380 immigration, housing etc have really contributed to these voters turning the other way from

00:11:28.680 traditional Labour voting intentions. I mean who'd have thought that the middle class would be

00:11:34.940 going for Labour in a by-election such as this, but the working class going for us new guys on

00:11:42.640 the block. 30 years ago, you wouldn't have seen that, I wouldn't have thought, where, you know, 0.93

00:11:47.820 97 Blair came in and a lot of people, especially the working class, were voting for a Labour

00:11:54.460 government. But the betrayal from not just Labour, but Tories as well for their 14 years of reign,

00:12:00.220 where nothing happened. They could have repealed legislation from the Tony Blair era,

00:12:04.940 tenfold but they chose not to do it. So I do think that it's all down to betrayal.

00:12:10.580 Issues such as mass immigration that the public were never asked and continue to

00:12:17.540 never be asked and we're the only people outside of the establishment that will

00:12:22.260 give them a voice. Thank you very much that was Lewis Brackpool head of

00:12:26.900 investigations at Restore Britain and thank you very much for talking with me.

00:12:30.560 thank you very much i'm here with sammy woodhouse who was the lead of the rape gang inquiry

00:12:38.560 and first of all thank you very much for talking to me and the first thing i'd like to ask you is

00:12:45.520 how are you feeling now that the report is finally out i'm very relieved that the report is out we

00:12:53.840 started the inquiry about 15 months ago it's been a very long and difficult 15 months but

00:13:00.560 You know, we've been doing a lot of hard work behind the scenes and we've been working with people that have never, ever been given the opportunity to tell their side of the stories.

00:13:10.680 So for some of the survivors that we're working with, this moment is absolutely huge and it's been an absolute pleasure to be able to work with them.

00:13:18.720 But our work is far from over. You know, this is only stage two.

00:13:22.380 So back in February, we had our two week hearings, which was chaired by our barrister, Graeme Smith.

00:13:28.660 and now the report's out, our next stages will be naming people involved in Parliament and then private prosecutions.

00:13:39.000 And of course there were criticisms that there weren't any statutory implications

00:13:44.240 but of course the report has to exist in the first place because the government has dragged its feet and delayed an inquiry

00:13:53.180 and it's not the kind of thing that you need to delay really, it's something that needs immediate action

00:13:58.120 And, of course, the fact that people are going to be named and there are going to be private prosecutions on the back of this shows that there is actually impact here beyond just showcasing the testimony of the victims, which is no small thing in and of itself,

00:14:16.200 as well as providing novel descriptions of the phenomenon as well as giving recommendations that I've not seen in other reports looking at gang-based exploitation of children.

00:14:30.220 And I wondered what would you say to the people who think that there is no new information here because I would argue that there's plenty there.

00:14:42.660 Well, there has been plenty of evidence out there,

00:14:45.340 but guess what, people have been ignoring it.

00:14:47.780 Now, there is no information and evidence in our report,

00:14:51.040 but let's just remember why this inquiry was set up in the first place,

00:14:55.540 because you have Labour that allowed this to happen,

00:15:00.360 you've got the Conservatives that did absolutely nothing,

00:15:03.080 and then you've got Nigel Farage saying he were going to do an inquiry,

00:15:06.980 then weren't, and that we should wait three years until

00:15:10.140 and if he gets, you know, a reformed government.

00:15:13.540 We don't have time to wait.

00:15:15.700 You know, this has been going on since the 1950s

00:15:17.960 and it's happening today and now.

00:15:19.880 So then, you know, you've got Rupert Law comes along

00:15:22.200 who just said, you know what, we're just going to get on with this

00:15:24.660 and we're going to do it.

00:15:25.960 And thank God that he did.

00:15:27.540 Now, we might not have those statutory powers,

00:15:29.520 but that doesn't mean that you can't help people.

00:15:32.380 So, for example, to our inquiry,

00:15:34.380 not only have we had the hearings and the report,

00:15:36.640 we've started criminal investigations.

00:15:38.860 They're already underway.

00:15:40.140 We've started legal action against authorities such as the police and social care to ensure that survivors do get compensation because their lives have just been absolutely torn apart. 0.98

00:15:50.840 We've helped women move home.

00:15:53.180 Some of these women are living on the same street as the men that raped them. 0.62

00:15:56.960 They're not safe.

00:15:57.700 And we've also gathered damning amounts of evidence and files, which is a good job we did because, as we know, all those files are now starting to be erased.

00:16:08.780 They're vanishing.

00:16:10.020 So can you imagine if we had to wait three years, you know, for Nigel, for Arjun and Reform to get into power?

00:16:15.920 Much of that evidence will have gone. And how can you prosecute people when you've got no evidence?

00:16:21.080 I very much agree. And it's not been the only criticism of the report.

00:16:26.420 And there's also been a noted media silence to some degree.

00:16:32.000 It has had some coverage. That's certainly true.

00:16:34.620 But you would think that a report of this nature on the topic as horrific as this should be a national flashpoint.

00:16:45.000 It should be a national scandal.

00:16:47.060 And yet there seems to be a deliberate silence from many mainstream media outlets.

00:16:52.600 Do you think that this is something that they've consciously done?

00:16:56.700 Yeah, I mean, the only interviews I've done for media within the UK is Talk TV and Times Radio.

00:17:03.960 all the other interviews you know people like yourself or people in america you know we're

00:17:09.260 getting more support from overseas than you know people here why on earth are our media not covering

00:17:15.360 this we're talking about you know children being groomed raped tortured trafficked you know they're

00:17:22.080 raped by dogs locked in cages it's just absolutely horrific what's happening and they're completely

00:17:27.180 ignoring it you know when i was on gmv the other morning i was actually instructed not to talk

00:17:32.600 about the race of perpetrators and I challenged that and I asked why and they said oh it's for

00:17:37.160 legal reasons and I said well no because it's been proven in a court of law and in reports and

00:17:42.140 then he blamed Ofcom so I went live on air I told him that I'd you know been instructed not to talk

00:17:47.560 about the race and um you know I kind of just went out there and and did it anyway but yeah

00:17:53.180 why are they so silent well I think that uh people are worried aren't they that uh the the way things

00:18:01.460 run and as they know it is going to be upset by this because so many people in power are

00:18:06.180 implicated. There were long sections talking about how many Labour councils helped to basically

00:18:12.860 cover it up, how the Conservatives failed to do anything tangible about it. And so I

00:18:20.040 think many people in the mainstream media who have formed their media careers, having

00:18:25.240 relationships with people in these parties, of course, these are the two parties that

00:18:29.360 have been in power for most people's lifetimes and so I think there's a certain degree of

00:18:37.000 self-interest there but there have been some notable examples of people doing fair coverage

00:18:42.500 which is nice to see but hopefully people will acknowledge the importance of this report

00:18:48.560 and that it is a step towards bringing justice to the survivors but I'd like to thank you very much

00:18:55.120 for your time here and to speak to me and I look forward to seeing further developments

00:19:01.720 with this ongoing process because of course it's not just the inquiry report there is far more as

00:19:09.980 you alluded to there's private prosecutions there's people being named in parliament and so

00:19:14.800 hopefully this will continue and it won't go away thank you thank you and can I just thank you as

00:19:21.680 well and you know all the team that's worked on this so we had graham smith our barrister that

00:19:27.000 drafted the report we had nat deb marlon myself you charlie harrison you know all putting um our

00:19:34.700 opinions and you know our efforts into it so thank you very much to all of you i uh also would like

00:19:41.660 to extend my thanks to the whole team because of course um i helped edit the report um and uh you

00:19:47.580 all been brilliant it's been a pleasure to work with you all and I think that

00:19:52.660 we've been a part of something that's done a great amount of good for the

00:19:56.440 world and that's important thank you for your time hello I'm very pleased to be

00:20:05.100 joined by Marlon West who is our mental health lead in the rape gang inquiry

00:20:09.620 thank you very much for joining us today and and obviously the inquiry report has

00:20:18.080 been a long time coming and a lot of work has gone into it and how do you

00:20:22.940 feel now it's released I do feel relieved you know myself and somewhere

00:20:28.760 worked so hard on this and I'm just glad it's come to an end but also I'm glad

00:20:33.800 it's come to an end for the voices of survivors and there's been lots of discussion about it

00:20:42.600 online less so in the mainstream media and i wondered um what are your your thoughts on that

00:20:47.960 do you think they're doing this deliberately or do they just think that there's perhaps nothing new

00:20:52.680 in the report what's your read of the situation um i do think they're doing it purposely

00:20:59.000 I think there's a political game for this not to be out in the open we in some ways we desperately

00:21:08.060 need we needed to be in the media because we need voices heard of all these survivors and

00:21:15.240 I think it's really unfair that the media are not doing this. So as mental health lead in this

00:21:23.620 inquiry what was your role because I imagine that most people at home might not understand

00:21:28.740 what that entails so a little bit complicated in some ways prior to them doing witness statements

00:21:38.920 I would do a full risk assessment with them making sure that we wasn't gonna re-traumatize

00:21:46.520 them to the point that there are risks to self or others so we had to have clarity that we we

00:21:53.820 weren't i guess in some ways endangering them further but also more importantly when they give

00:21:59.980 that that witness statement afterwards we gave them some support don't get me wrong we wasn't

00:22:07.340 a charity but also we're very very compassionate and we care we care about the risk and of course

00:22:17.580 not only did you have this role in the inquiry but you also featured in it as well would you

00:22:22.540 you be able to say a little bit about that and almost a dual role in the inquiry? I suppose

00:22:27.420 it gave you a perspective that most other people wouldn't have.

00:22:32.040 Yeah, so a lot of people possibly know this. My daughter was groomed from Greater Manchester

00:22:40.460 from the age of 14 to 18. She was trafficked across the country. She was raped by over

00:22:46.260 60 muslim men um tortured um so obviously emotionally it was really difficult however 0.97

00:22:57.940 i guess for me and my daughter supporting other survivors and again and i'm repeating myself to

00:23:05.540 give them a voice my my daughter's got a voice i've i've got a voice because we've been in the media

00:23:10.820 but a lot of a lot of these survivors haven't so to give it to give them that voice

00:23:17.140 i guess that were my therapy and scouts therapy as well

00:23:22.260 i'm glad to hear that it helped and obviously it's no small thing to to go out and talk about

00:23:27.620 this thing but uh to to be so involved in it i imagine is quite something so i have great

00:23:33.700 respect for what you've done um and your role in the inquiry so thank you and um i suppose

00:23:40.500 the the final thing i wanted to ask is um what are your thoughts on how the inquiry report's

00:23:46.340 been received because obviously it has circulated massively do you think that the um survivors are

00:23:54.100 happy with with how it's been received yeah definitely as the survivors yeah very happy

00:24:01.220 the way it's been received and i think what's really really important with this inquiry okay

00:24:06.100 it hasn't got statutory powers and it's independent but there's no other report been done like this

00:24:12.100 and we have lots of posts out there the x the j report but we have been so transparent this has 0.98

00:24:18.340 had no no political angle on it at all and we have called out muslim raping gangs and we have called

00:24:26.580 out the numbers which other documents haven't which is one of the reasons why I think the media

00:24:32.020 hasn't picked up on it because everyone's terrified of being called racist but and I feel again really

00:24:40.340 strong on this it is everybody's responsibility to to protect women and girls and this document

00:24:49.060 does that thank you very much for talking to me and thank you for your role in the inquiry it's

00:24:55.060 a really important thing and I feel like it's one of those things that is a good first step to

00:25:05.460 tackling this problem that has clouded our country for a very long time. Thank you very much, thanks.

00:25:13.140 Well I'm here at Restore HQ on the wee hours of Friday the 19th just waiting for the result to

00:25:19.380 come in, should be any time now. I thought I'd have a word with Josh Firm. So what are your

00:25:24.580 your thoughts and feelings what do you think the result is going to be and how are you feeling about

00:25:28.100 it well my thinking is that it's probably going to be an Andy Burnham victory I've had a lot of

00:25:36.080 responses on the doors that have been labour I've seen lots of labour signs I've seen quite frankly

00:25:45.020 an enormous labour ground game and they're obviously going to do quite well here and I think

00:25:51.760 with a big name like Andy Burnham I think it's inevitable that they're going to do quite well

00:25:57.640 and so um I would be quite happy with um just a double digit finish for Restore I think that

00:26:06.780 actually um as long as Restore proves itself as a party that's more than enough for me you know

00:26:14.140 they're still um in a juvenile state they're still only a couple of months old and so getting

00:26:21.080 over 10% would be a phenomenal result for a party that young. And it proves that Restore is a

00:26:29.580 legitimate electoral force. It's not just a party that is an online echo chamber, as some have

00:26:36.620 asserted, or, you know, a one man band that's limited to Great Yarmouth. I don't think that's

00:26:42.740 the case. I think that it will travel. And I've been around with Rupert today a little bit. And

00:26:48.080 the response from people. We were just walking down a street. Several people just walking down

00:26:53.180 a random street in Makerfield stopped, were amazed, treated him like a celebrity. And you don't get

00:26:59.860 that sort of reaction with any old politician, do you? It suggests that something is changing.

00:27:04.400 You don't have a thousand people to turn up to canvas on a Saturday for just any old party,

00:27:12.340 especially one as young as this. And it suggests that there's really something going on. And I

00:27:17.300 I think that although the story that the mainstream press will pick up

00:27:22.460 will be, you know, maybe reform underperforms a little bit,

00:27:27.480 maybe Burnham has a surprisingly strong showing.

00:27:31.340 It's difficult to tell the exact percentages.

00:27:34.960 But the part that I'm interested in is how well will Restore do?

00:27:39.740 And I think that, you know, anything over 8% is acceptable.

00:27:45.240 anything over 10 is good anything over 15 is phenomenal and that's how I feel on the

00:27:53.520 the verge of getting the results and you know I would like to think that we'd get something

00:27:59.820 between 8 and 14 percent and if it's outside of those bounds I'd be quite surprised okay

00:28:07.220 you know interesting I've been saying to people for the last couple of days

00:28:11.360 double digits will be good

00:28:13.220 I'm feeling like

00:28:15.280 anything under 10% might be slightly

00:28:17.240 underperforming, anything over is great

00:28:19.180 that's my sort of, that's my feeling

00:28:21.020 so yeah, if we

00:28:23.340 come third, and it's a

00:28:25.320 solid third, beating out the Tories

00:28:27.460 the Lib Dems and the Greens sort of

00:28:29.260 with ease, then that's

00:28:31.520 solid, that's great

00:28:32.420 and you know

00:28:34.960 it's well known isn't it, that

00:28:36.600 some sort of ceiling of 1, 2, 3%

00:28:39.980 if anyone ever breaks through that anyone ever that's something that's a story that's big and

00:28:46.960 it will prove that restore is an electoral force one way or another do you think that's fair

00:28:53.800 absolutely i think that uh that's exactly what is being set out to be done here because

00:28:59.860 you know uh there's it's a very safe labor seat here it's got a very strong labor um vote here

00:29:10.060 and it would be quite something to win and I think it's one of the safest labor seats in the

00:29:17.840 country it's been labor for 120 years as far as I'm aware that's what I've been told at least I

00:29:23.240 haven't verified it myself but I certainly believe it having spoke to people around here you know

00:29:28.440 it's an old mining area it's got deep labor roots and so the fact that we can get these sorts of

00:29:34.860 numbers in a place where you would presume that everything would be sort of antithetical to a good

00:29:43.360 restore showing well actually the response has been very good considering excellent well thank

00:29:50.680 you very much Josh I know it's been a very very long day for you so thanks again and fingers

00:29:56.240 crossed and let's see what the result is

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - June 23, 2026

The Aftermath of Makerfield

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