The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - The Many Opinions of Makerfield

00:00:00.400 Hello again there friends, it's Harry for the Lotus Seaters, where it is the middle

00:00:03.600 of the day coming up to half past one for the meeting of the Restore Canvassers. Most

00:00:08.080 of the personnel are here, we've been having a word with them inside. Middle of the day

00:00:13.200 is prime territory for canvassing, this is where they're going to do their big push for

00:00:17.280 today. This is Tuesday the 9th of June and I'm excited to see what goes on, see one of

00:00:23.760 these slightly bigger canvassing runs. We've been speaking to everybody, like yesterday

00:00:28.160 The mood is very positive. Everybody's really enthusiastic about what they're doing. Spoke to

00:00:33.300 some people, everybody yesterday, again, very enthusiastic, saying they're getting very positive

00:00:37.080 responses from Restore. What I was told in there was an estimate of the kinds of responses that

00:00:43.460 they've been getting on the doors was about 30 to 35% reform, 20 to 25% restore, try not to get run

00:00:52.880 over here and about 25 to 30% labor. Now that is off the top of the head calculations and estimates.

00:01:01.260 So given the off the top of the head estimates that I was getting, it sounds like it really is

00:01:04.960 a three day split with everything to pay for, play for over the next week and a half as we're

00:01:10.120 leading up to polling day. So these next few days are going to be critical for the canvassers to try

00:01:14.960 and turn people around as well. We are hopefully going to get to meet Rebecca, the restore candidate

00:01:20.280 it today, Rebecca Shepard. So I'm really looking forward to hearing what she has to say. And we

00:01:24.280 might even be able to get to speak to some of the members of the public today as well. So I'm

00:01:27.720 excited to hear what they think of this by-election and who they're supporting. Anyway, we'll carry

00:01:33.560 on. I'll let you know how it goes. Caleb Taylor. Well, Caleb, very nice speaking to you. So are

00:01:38.780 you a local of Wigan? Yeah. Yes. And we approached you and you said that you're not too familiar

00:01:43.480 with what's going on with the by-election, but you do, you have seen some of the stuff going on

00:01:47.820 with Andy Burnham you said you've seen some of the footage of him is that right yeah yeah well

00:01:52.400 just from a local's perspective somebody who's not that tuned into what's going on what's your

00:01:56.600 what's your impression of him from that what's your impression of what's going on I'm sure you've

00:02:00.580 probably heard that there is the election going on and seen it in the newspapers what's your what's

00:02:04.520 just your general impressions as a local it's okay he seems to be all right you know he seems

00:02:10.860 to be wanting to make change of Makerfield, Platte Bridge, a few other areas I don't know

00:02:17.100 specifically the areas but i know part bridge and makefield are the two big ones that he wants to

00:02:21.440 make changes on yeah so he's been mayor of greater manchester since about 2017 so obviously that's

00:02:27.120 manchester itself and all the surrounding areas including wigan how would you say that the area

00:02:31.120 has changed since 2017 has it changed stayed the same improved got worse didn't you give us some

00:02:37.720 general impression of what wigan itself yes um i mean they seem to be making seems to be wanting

00:02:43.780 to make big changes you know king street's turned into a health bar and a fitness place

00:02:48.900 that seems all right you know obviously it's not the best for drinking but hopefully there's got

00:02:53.220 me some nice big changes to wigan all right then and uh have you obviously uh andy burnham's

00:02:58.100 associated with labor have you seen anything from any of the other parties have you been

00:03:02.100 approached by canvassers from any of the other parties at all no not personally no well that's

00:03:06.900 all right then well thank you very much for your time we've decided to come over to wigan town

00:03:10.980 Centre and take a look around. Now, only parts of Wigan are part of the constituency of Makerfield,

00:03:17.080 mainly the southern portions of it, but Wigan itself is still under the mayoral governance

00:03:22.720 of Andy Burnham, so we thought we'd come around, check out what the place is like, see if we can

00:03:27.280 speak to some of the people on the street who might be able to tell us what they think of Andy

00:03:30.960 Burnham, what they think of the by-election, and also it's just interesting to take a look around

00:03:34.760 because Wigan Town Centre, from the brief look that we've had of it, is very much indicative of

00:03:39.940 modern Britain that we all live in today. If you've been to one town centre across the country

00:03:45.280 then the likelihood is you know what to expect from Wigan. There's a mix of old and new, old

00:03:51.560 beautifully built architecture and municipal buildings, newer grey blocks as opposed to a

00:03:59.320 lot of the outskirts of the town which felt very English. Nice to meet you Bradley. So first of all

00:04:05.460 Obviously, this whole by-election has been started off by the local Makerfield MP, Josh Simons,

00:04:10.880 stepping away from his position to make room for Andy Burnham in the first place.

00:04:16.100 What do you think about that and the kind of attention it's brought on the local area in the press?

00:04:22.080 I'm not really too sure, you know, mate.

00:04:24.300 I mean, I'm not really big on politics, if I'm honest.

00:04:27.700 I mean, I don't really take any interest if I'm being really honest.

00:04:31.300 Well, have you seen anybody about the local area canvases for parties like Labour, Reform, Restore?

00:04:38.800 I've seen Reform about. I mean, I haven't really seen much Labour, really.

00:04:43.420 Have you got any impressions about them?

00:04:45.180 Obviously, there was the big controversy with Reform's candidate Robert Kenyon

00:04:49.060 and some of the comments he'd made regarding Carol Vorderman.

00:04:51.820 Have you seen anything like that?

00:04:53.160 No, I can't say, have I?

00:04:55.780 All right.

00:04:57.700 No, that's all right.

00:05:00.580 um do you think you'll be voting yeah i'll be voting for well my mum and dad are voting for

00:05:05.540 reform so i would i would assume i just vote for them like oh well have they given you any

00:05:10.260 idea of why they're voting for reform just based on the fact that i don't really know really you

00:05:17.220 know i really asked the question but you know i've just uh yeah yeah i've just i've just sort

00:05:23.300 of like maybe an assumption i haven't really done any research into it like but um that's all really

00:05:30.180 Well, that's all right. Well, thank you very much for your time. You take care and have a good day.

00:05:34.700 So far, we've been asking around to see if anybody wanted to speak about the local by-election.

00:05:39.360 And of course, accounting for people who are in the local area who aren't constituents in Makerfield.

00:05:44.960 So far, the responses haven't been very positive. A lot of people just haven't been interested in talking about it.

00:05:50.440 It seems the feeling that we're getting is that I would imagine the local area constituents and the town centre

00:05:57.800 have been a bit swamped with people asking what their feelings are recently. So a lot of people

00:06:01.540 are a bit fed up, a little bit bored of it, which is understandable, but you know, this is a big

00:06:06.960 election. The media are pushing it as a big election, but it's just interesting taking a

00:06:11.760 look around. Like I said, in the last discussion I had a few minutes ago, Wigan really is one of

00:06:18.460 those kinds of places where it's got history to it. You can sense it in the architecture,

00:06:24.540 but it's fallen into a bit of a state of disrepair where a lot of places are identikit, local big

00:06:31.760 brands. You can see here at this crossroads, we've got Subway, Opticians, random foreign-owned brands

00:06:38.680 and such. And when we were speaking at the Restore meeting, we were reminded by a friend of the

00:06:45.720 channel who was there that, of course, Andy Burnham is mayor of Greater Manchester. Wigan

00:06:52.060 falls under Greater Manchester. He reminded us of some of the failures within Andy Burnham's time

00:06:57.620 as mayor, including the scrapped £100 million ULES scheme. Now, I lived near Manchester for a

00:07:04.740 long time, and I remember when that was supposed to be going in. And it is one of those things

00:07:09.220 where everybody was unhappy about it. I remember everybody in Manchester, everybody outside of

00:07:14.660 Manchester were very unhappy about it. And you can still see that when you read some of the reports

00:07:19.240 from focus group testing that people were being asked about Andy Burnham, what they liked about

00:07:24.680 him, what they didn't like about him. Everybody agreed that a hundred million pounds down the

00:07:29.700 drain for the sake of a scrapped ULES zone was one of, if not the biggest things that people

00:07:37.740 were not happy about because they considered it to just be another tax for just trying to get into

00:07:43.800 Manchester if you're a driver Labour in many ways or at least the part that Burnham represents

00:07:49.540 seem to be a very anti-car pro-green pro 2030 net zero kind of party and if he were to get in

00:07:58.740 and what people were worrying about that being if he gets into prime minister position from there

00:08:05.200 is slightly worrying that he would ally himself with the Ed Milibands and the net zero types

00:08:10.420 who would want to completely destroy the energy grid and completely destroy any sort of cheap

00:08:15.200 energy that Britain is able to produce for itself and punish the population with taxes and extra

00:08:21.300 things like the EULES zones. So that is interesting. But just for now, it seems that we've not had that

00:08:27.380 much look. So we'll see how we get on as we carry on. Thank you very much. What are your names?

00:08:31.500 I'm Natasha. Natasha and Anna. Anna. Very nice to meet both of you. So obviously there's been

00:08:38.000 the local by-election called because Josh Simons has decided to step down from his position in

00:08:42.880 Makerfield. What do you think of his decision to do that and all of the press it's generated

00:08:48.120 around the local area? I have some concerns about how who's in place in that seat would then impact

00:08:56.140 kind of our roles as artists whether you know whether the funding models would be the same

00:09:05.180 what gets funded what doesn't might change you know um we we feel like heritage would still be

00:09:11.700 a priority but and i think with the um with the change in obviously um andy's kind of like

00:09:18.340 putting his hat into the ring isn't he to become leader of the party of the leader of the labour

00:09:22.260 party um and i think that there probably was a particular moment at that time when obviously

00:09:27.640 the local elections hadn't really gone very well for labour so i think though it's destabilized

00:09:32.760 somewhat for like Greater Manchester potentially and for like Wigan on the one hand also like

00:09:37.820 you have to sometimes strike politics moves so the fact that that vacancy has been made by Josh

00:09:44.860 is not necessarily a bad thing it could actually be something really positive and I think that it's

00:09:48.600 been interesting to see people having these conversations now and actually I think a lot

00:09:54.660 of things like say for example reform policy has been quite exposed during this by-election more

00:10:00.160 than it perhaps was during the council elections in what way do you mean i think that for example

00:10:04.660 the things that have come out about rob kenyon and i think the fact that like nigel farage is

00:10:09.100 like crypto money and stuff like that's been a lot more on the agenda and has spoken a lot more

00:10:12.820 than it was in the local elections has actually been quite interesting to see i think potentially

00:10:16.940 some form of a tidal shift against reform which i think is positive from my perspective from the

00:10:22.800 from somebody who's in the culture and the arts and wants an inclusive environment to live in

00:10:26.680 I don't like how it's divided us even more because um I think the only the only way forward

00:10:35.520 is unity um and as a community Wigan is more divided than it's ever been um and that shows

00:10:42.140 how so divided um I think that um there are uh people who are very willing to embrace everyone

00:10:51.420 around them and um get on with being um kind of neighbors without necessarily having to agree

00:10:59.260 um and then there are people who are kind of you know putting their foot in the ground and

00:11:04.160 you know and saying no that's not what we want so um i think there's that kind of division whenever

00:11:12.420 there's a kind of like kind of like a political moment like this then then obviously like

00:11:17.100 divisions become like more on the surface um but I do think there has been some form of a title

00:11:21.780 shift just recently I think that there has been sort of like slightly more I feel like on social

00:11:26.880 media as well there's been a little bit more conversation around kind of like what reform

00:11:31.380 is actually about perhaps like doesn't represent what Wigan really is you know like so this is

00:11:36.220 this is something we've seen from some people saying that uh even some women who we've been

00:11:40.460 told by other canvassers for some of the other parties uh some of the other parties including

00:11:44.580 like the greens and restore for instance saying that uh reform voters who were women who were

00:11:49.920 thinking of voting for restore had been put off by the comments of robert kenyon that had been

00:11:55.020 coming out is that something that you've noticed amongst other women and other people that you

00:11:58.760 interact with that it's been really off-putting i have noticed that quite well i mean like the 0.91

00:12:03.180 women that like you know like i kind of like speak to like would probably find that kind of policy 0.97

00:12:08.760 the general policies from reform to like not be very appealing but i think there has been a real

00:12:14.180 sense that like that's probably not somebody that people would trust with their with their vote when

00:12:19.100 they've got like daughters and mothers at home and they don't really want people who kind of like

00:12:22.860 outwardly say they're a sexist even if they only said it like two years ago or they only said it

00:12:26.300 however many however long he claims he didn't say it but yeah i think that there has been a sense of

00:12:32.300 like that isn't really what wigan stands for and i don't think yeah that's definitely true so uh last

00:12:37.600 question regarding andy burnham obviously he's been mayor of greater manchester which includes

00:12:42.020 Wigan for what nine years now since about 2017 was it um in that time how would you say that

00:12:47.400 Wigan and Greater Manchester has changed has it improved is there anything that you'd like to see

00:12:52.220 done differently any concerns regarding Burnham anything that you're hoping for obviously you said

00:12:56.940 you're artists so anything specific there would be great as well do you want to speak first um yeah

00:13:02.440 so um there's been a lot of changes on a kind of small scale level to people's lives like the

00:13:10.980 two pound bus tickets and things like that they'll just make everything a bit more equitable a bit

00:13:16.620 more accessible so we can get around the whole borough um access art venues and um it makes

00:13:25.180 working in the arts a little bit easier it makes it easier to go and support other people um that's

00:13:31.640 been a really massive thing I think and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority um supports a lot

00:13:37.480 of arts organizations and cultural groups and community groups grassroots organizations that

00:13:42.320 are helping people for example i work with an organization that helps people who are isolated

00:13:47.220 so socially isolated that might be through dementia or it might be through care responsibilities it's

00:13:52.460 a real broad range but that's that group has been funded for a few a few years to to allow them to

00:13:58.080 kind of create and to meet each other and to make friends and and have better health health outcomes

00:14:02.540 um and that's been like a greater manchester um funded event thing and greater manchester arts

00:14:09.720 is just doing great work at the minute and really like listening to people on the ground level um

00:14:16.560 you know what what is needed what infrastructure is missing um to really help artists thrive

00:14:23.280 all right well thank you both very very much for your time i hope you have a good day it just looks

00:14:28.840 lovely. You know, you know, there's history there. Things have happened there. People have lived

00:14:34.700 there. It was built for a purpose beyond just making money. What is this? Wigan Hall. I mean,

00:14:41.460 that's just beautiful. That's gorgeous. So even in the modern UK, you still get little gems of

00:14:49.260 old England dotted around the place. And it just reminds you what it is that we're doing all of

00:14:54.580 this for looks like we've got a convert yeah so do you mind what won him over then um he was very

00:15:04.140 concerned about housing in the local area um and specifically that it's going to people who are

00:15:08.680 non-locals um he's seen crime rise and a simple uh simple display of our policies and he was on

00:15:14.940 board and he said he was 19 years old as well so the youth are on board oh yeah yeah yeah big time

00:15:20.120 especially the the yeah yeah we've seen it around here a lot with the youth uh yeah completely on

00:15:24.320 mod great further oh good work there mate thanks so tragically we didn't manage to get any of it

00:15:29.160 on camera because it went a little bit too quick but we did just encounter a group of young men

00:15:34.100 who were coming around from the church getting away from what they were describing as a bunch

00:15:37.640 of crackheads we did double check and it does appear that there are a few in the churchyard

00:15:41.840 sadly and we asked them if they'd be interested in talking about the local by-election because

00:15:46.180 they were all locals and the thing that they had to say was that one they were voting reform

00:15:51.820 and two, that they wanted to let everybody know, F Labour, we hate Andy Burnham.

00:15:57.980 I'm paraphrasing there, but that's basically what we got from them.

00:16:01.340 So that's an interesting perspective of some of the younger lads around town.

00:16:05.900 Hello, could you introduce yourself, please?

00:16:07.560 Yes, so Ed Gemmell. I'm the leader of the Climate Party nationally,

00:16:10.400 and I'm standing as a candidate in the make-a-field by-election.

00:16:13.260 Fantastic. What are the Climate Party about?

00:16:16.180 We're a single-issue party, well, dual-issue, so climate and nature,

00:16:19.620 But we're very much focused. The way we're looking at climate is it's the biggest opportunity on the

00:16:23.380 planet. It's a fantastic commercial opportunity. Britain should be doing it harder, faster and

00:16:28.260 better than anybody else so that we make money out of it. And it's made in Britain and not made 0.99

00:16:32.740 in China. And which climate policies are these that we can make money from? I think the first

00:16:37.780 thing is just it's a general economic policy. At the moment, in terms of economies around the world,

00:16:43.220 the clean energy and the clean industries are growing at something like 15% a year for the

00:16:47.380 last decade, London Stock Exchange figures, which is almost the same as AI and deep tech.

00:16:52.100 They're growing at almost the same speed. Together, they're going to be about a quarter

00:16:54.980 of the entire world economy, 25% roughly in 2030. We need to be at the front of doing all this stuff.

00:17:01.860 And the way we do that, we bring forward our net zero target to 2030 or something very soon after.

00:17:07.460 We invest and innovate our way there rather than the idea of degrowth, which is very much sort of

00:17:12.260 sort of Green Party idea, or this idea of reform, restore, and the Conservatives, which is dump the

00:17:18.160 net zero targets because they are saying they are de-industrializing the UK, which is an absolute

00:17:23.840 total and utter lie. What's happened is in the 50 or so years up to 2008, which is when the Climate

00:17:30.940 Change Act came in, manufacturing as a percentage of our economy dropped off by 25 to 30%. Since the

00:17:38.640 Climate Change Act came in. Manufacturing has only dropped off just under 1%. But at the same

00:17:43.900 time, Britain's net zero economy has been growing at 10% a year. So CBI figures. So at the moment,

00:17:51.000 net zero is what is stopping us from deindustrialising. And it's starting to have an

00:17:55.820 uptick for us as well. Well, many people would show some scepticism at the idea that net zero

00:18:01.380 climate policies would be able to take over the energy infrastructure and provide clean and cheap

00:18:06.960 energy for people, which is why they say we need to go back into the North Sea oils and fracking

00:18:12.700 and fossil fuels as well. What would you say to alleviate people's fears that by going for a net

00:18:17.520 zero clean energy policy, that we wouldn't be further indebting ourselves? Before we say that

00:18:22.440 though, let's just say that net zero is not only energy. You know, net zero is everything. So

00:18:26.260 transport, buildings, infrastructure, finance, all of it. So let's talk about that as a general

00:18:32.360 thing, but focusing purely on energy. Right now in the UK, the first thing we should be doing,

00:18:36.900 which we have ignored for 30 years, is tidal power. We're surrounded by 7,000 miles of coastline.

00:18:41.700 We have the largest tidal power resource in the world. If we were doing it at full scale,

00:18:46.120 we'd have up to 20 gigawatts. To explain where we are at the moment, we're using about 30 gigawatts

00:18:50.840 of power at the moment in electricity. At peak, it could be doing 60 to 70% of our power needs,

00:18:55.720 and there's a baseload. A, we should be doing that. B, when we look at fossil fuels in the North

00:19:01.160 Sea at the moment, the most ridiculous thing we should be doing is doubling down on doing more

00:19:04.920 fossil fuels in the North Sea. A, we have a tax regime, which gives back all of the money that

00:19:10.580 is invested in setting up a new oil rig in the North Sea. We give that back in tax rebates. So

00:19:15.120 we, the taxpayer, pay for BP and Shell to make the money. B, when they clean up at the end,

00:19:20.120 we get a full tax rebate for everything when they clean up. So we, the taxpayer, again,

00:19:25.280 pay for everything for Shell and BP. And while they're doing it, we give up to 60% tax rebates

00:19:31.080 on certain aspects of it. Then, if they make any money, 80% of their shareholders are abroad

00:19:36.320 and all the money goes abroad. So again, Britain loses out. It's absolutely ridiculous. But in

00:19:41.900 addition to that, by doubling down on the old stuff of the past, we don't do the stuff of the

00:19:46.680 future. And right now, there is an opportunity to grow the British economy probably by about

00:19:51.300 a trillion by getting ahead of the game of everybody else over the next 20 years. That's

00:19:56.100 20 billion pounds a week. Think of the 350 million on a battle bus in the EU Brexit debate.

00:20:02.980 That's 20 billion pounds a week we could be putting on the British economy. It would change

00:20:07.520 all of our lives. We'd fill the potholes. We'd have our defence ramped up. We would be building

00:20:12.820 everything we need. The health service would have enough money. If people are worried about

00:20:16.280 immigration, we would have the right border controls doing whatever we as the public want

00:20:19.740 to do. But it would be in place. Whereas at the moment, there is nothing in place. We don't have

00:20:24.280 money. We have to steal from Peter to pay Paul. It doesn't work.

00:20:27.560 So these kinds of policies for people who would be thinking of voting for restore or for reform,

00:20:32.360 some of the more hard aligned immigration parties, you're saying that these kinds of policies that

00:20:37.160 you're putting forward will actually shore up our ability to protect our borders and

00:20:40.840 have a greater democratic control over immigration and other national security issues.

00:20:45.320 We can't have democratic control without money, because whatever restore and reform want to do

00:20:49.800 at the moment is going to cost money. And we have a declining economy. So at the moment,

00:20:54.040 if we take their more extreme policies and we invest time in it. And it's not saying I agree

00:20:57.560 with these policies, by the way, it's just about the cost of them. If we actually do that, it's

00:21:01.560 going to cost us money. And that means cancelling 10,000 NHS appointments, cancelling a load of

00:21:06.440 operations, stop giving money for social services and children's services to councils, because we

00:21:12.040 now have to pay for this. We don't have the money. So since 2008, our economy has bubbled on at under

00:21:17.240 1.1% GDP growth and in productivity growth, which is the real thing you need, either productivity

00:21:25.200 per head, in other words, amount of money we make per head or amount of money we make per hour,

00:21:28.780 we've been declining. So we don't have the money to do it. And it is nuts for them to repose it.

00:21:35.220 At the same time, suggesting we're going to throw more money away in the North Sea,

00:21:38.740 which is the worst thing we can be doing. Right now, renewables are wildly cheaper.

00:21:43.040 the only reason we're not doubling down on our renewables well enough at the moment is because

00:21:47.780 through a scheme called contracts for difference at the moment the government's making a big upside

00:21:52.720 out of the renewables because it's going above the contracts for difference price and we as a

00:21:56.640 country are making money so we aren't at the moment doing enough and the government's making

00:22:01.420 good money out of it and what would you do for local concerns of people within the maker field

00:22:05.660 constituency and area fine first thing is i'm not kidding anybody in maker field that we're trying

00:22:10.000 to stand because I'm going to get elected. I'm not. We're standing to put climate onto the agenda.

00:22:14.380 But being specific about Makerfield, Makerfield has a fabulous industrial heritage. You know,

00:22:19.300 it's a coal mining town. It has steel, it has hinge making, or it had, and it needs to have

00:22:23.940 a fabulous industrial future. And the way to have an industrial future is to do what everybody else

00:22:29.260 wants. And at the moment, the two biggest growth areas in the world are net zero and sustainability,

00:22:35.240 AI and tech. And if we want the jobs in Makerfield, those are the areas we should be

00:22:39.220 concentrating in. And where we can get ahead is in the sustainability and net zero ones.

00:22:44.180 We are in a position where Britain could lead. And if it did, then industrial heartlands like

00:22:48.820 Makerfield would see a growth of industry again, and the jobs and the money would come.

00:22:52.840 Well, any final message you'd like to give to constituents and viewers?

00:22:57.060 We're not out there to get the votes from people we're not going to win. What we're out there is

00:23:01.660 saying, you have got to talk to Andy Burnham and the reform candidate and any other candidate

00:23:06.180 thinks they should have your vote and say, what are you doing about climate? We just had the

00:23:10.480 hottest temperatures in May by two degrees only a week ago. We smashed the temperatures. We're

00:23:15.480 going to have hot temperatures this summer and we're going to smash the records again next year

00:23:18.820 if we don't do it this year. That's number one. And then you've got to say to them,

00:23:22.560 what are you guys doing to grow the economy? Where's your vision? How are you going to lead

00:23:26.740 the country? Because none of them have a vision on where to go. And the most obvious thing we

00:23:31.260 should be doing is doubling down where the world's making money and none of them are on top of it.

00:23:35.580 So please, to the constituents, to the voters, point at these guys and say to them, I want to hear what about your industrial vision and what about dealing with climate change?

00:23:45.620 Well, thank you very much for your time, Ed. It's been a pleasure speaking to you.

00:23:48.680 Interesting perspective on these that I've not heard before.

00:23:51.180 It's a pleasure.

00:23:51.460 You take care.

00:23:52.020 So we were actually just on the way back to the meeting point from Wigan Town Centre after we'd done some Vox Pops.

00:23:58.160 And on the way back, we passed by on the corner a group of miscreants canvassing for the Restore Party.

00:24:04.560 so i thought we'd stop by see how they're all doing and get an update to how things have been

00:24:09.120 going in the middle of the day so come on let's go find out i'm james nice to meet you james so

00:24:14.280 you've been organizing this local group canvassing we ran into you on the way back

00:24:18.440 just for an update midday canvas how would you say things have gone when you've been

00:24:22.420 keeping track of everything around this area it's been rather supportive

00:24:26.440 it depends where you go i say this area around these streets just behind us here very supportive

00:24:32.900 lots of yeses obviously lots of no's as well but with it's been a for areas i've done this

00:24:39.300 compared to this morning it was much more successful what kind of people you find in a

00:24:44.580 supportive of the party uh more working class uh i describe it so if you go to a more of like a

00:24:53.300 block of terrace houses we're more likely to get yeses out of terrace houses than four bed detached

00:24:58.820 that like you know do you know i mean yeah have you had any stories from anybody today any

00:25:03.340 interesting uh discussions they have had any flips from people uh not in this year but yeah

00:25:09.460 we always get you always come out with one one or two from every session uh i've not heard of one i

00:25:14.400 think this has been the only one actually where i've not had a an odd story um do you want to

00:25:19.340 hear any of the stories go for it therefore we've had we had uh one guy spoke to about a week and

00:25:25.720 half ago said uh he's voting for Andy Burnham because he worked with him and he knows him

00:25:30.560 though he supports he prefers reforming us voted for reform in the last election voted for reform

00:25:37.120 in the local election but wants to vote for Burnham because he's mate which i don't really

00:25:42.080 understand surely you should vote for somebody the party you prefer or the party you most aligned

00:25:48.940 with you know you think's going to prefer the best of the country faster he said he's just your

00:25:55.160 mate i've had a fair few people say the probability for andy burnham over different groups as well

00:26:00.460 just because they know him just one last thing then which is that obviously there's been lots

00:26:04.320 of mainstream polls coming out in the in the national press about uh reform versus labor

00:26:10.300 versus restore uh how reflective of reality in your experience would you say those have been

00:26:15.400 the ones from the mainstream media where we're on what seven percent that seems to be the number

00:26:20.200 absolutely not the case uh even in the most uh areas where we've done i've been and done the

00:26:26.840 least amount of yeses and considerings uh we've still been done better than seven percent so

00:26:33.280 estimate you could give for it as a guesstimate for over the constituency it's hard because i've

00:26:38.920 not done every part of it um 15 to 25 somewhere in between that do you reckon you can make up

00:26:46.540 that difference in the next week and a half or?

00:26:49.580 It's possible, most answers that you get on the doors

00:26:52.220 are not available, nobody's answers.

00:26:54.620 Obviously people are at work, people go out for the weekend.

00:26:57.340 It was summer holiday about a week and a half last week,

00:27:00.100 I think, or the week before.

00:27:01.300 So obviously a lot of people are out,

00:27:02.540 so there's still houses that haven't been done.

00:27:04.820 No one's been spoken to once.

00:27:07.180 It's just the nature of the game, really.

00:27:08.820 You just pull a bad day.

00:27:10.380 So probably, yeah, I think so.

00:27:12.500 Great, well thank you very much for your time, take care.

00:27:14.980 So end of day, the midday canvas has gone.

00:27:18.300 General feelings seem to be positive.

00:27:20.100 I'm told that where they were canvassing today

00:27:23.040 was a Labour stronghold,

00:27:25.900 and yet they still managed to get

00:27:27.220 quite a few positive responses on the door

00:27:29.280 and even flipped a few people in those areas

00:27:32.240 that they would have expected to turn out

00:27:34.000 in strength for Andy Burnham.

00:27:35.920 So that seems to be positive signs for the Restore lads.

00:27:39.360 As it goes, visiting Wigan Town Centre,

00:27:42.160 going on the ground and seeing what people felt.

00:27:44.420 Now, bearing in mind, this was mid-afternoon on a Tuesday, the week before the by-election,

00:27:51.160 but feelings that I was getting from a lot of people were apathy, confusion.

00:27:56.880 They did not seem, in the middle of the town centre, which, bear in mind, again, is not in the constituency,

00:28:01.200 but may have had some constituents passing through.

00:28:03.800 They seemed less informed, less interested than the people that were meeting on the door.

00:28:07.980 Had quite a few people ask us what a by-election actually is.

00:28:12.020 although those who did speak to us showed a variety of responses

00:28:16.660 some of which I'm sure you'll have seen in the compilation from the interviews

00:28:20.760 it was also very interesting and nice to speak to Ed from the Climate Party

00:28:24.660 who I'd never heard of before but he was very interesting to speak to

00:28:28.200 but that's it so far for my time in Makerfield

00:28:31.740 my watch is over and tomorrow you'll get Luca showing you around

00:28:35.980 and giving you all of the updates that you want to hear on what's developing

00:28:39.500 so till then, take care

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - June 10, 2026

The Many Opinions of Makerfield

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