The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1248
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 30 minutes
Words per Minute
163.95497
Summary
Reform's latest embarrassment, the fall of the French government, and your patriotic duty to boycott bad businesses. Plus, a look at why Nadine Dorries deserves your loyalty, and why the Tories do not deserve your loyalty.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Lotus Eaters, episode 1248 for September 9th, 2025.
00:00:08.000
I'm your host, Luca, joined today by Beau and Firas. Good to see you both.
00:00:13.420
And today we're going to be discussing reform's latest embarrassment,
00:00:18.380
just the latest embarrassment to come out of reform.
00:00:21.280
We're then going to be talking about the fall of the French government, again, another one.
00:00:27.680
And then we're going to be talking about your patriotic duty to boycott bad businesses.
00:00:34.540
So, with that said, before we get into the first segment,
00:00:37.540
I'd just like to turn your attention to a magazine that you should have all heard and presumably bought by now,
00:00:43.700
which is Islander magazine, but just in case you haven't, you're not going to be able to get issue for much longer.
00:00:49.920
And if you do, you will be paying thousands upon thousands of pounds.
00:00:53.680
You will have to take out a large loan in order to afford Islander.
00:00:58.780
So, get it now for a very sensible price of £14.99 for shipping.
00:01:07.440
So, it was Reform Party Conference last weekend.
00:01:12.780
Not the most eventful thing, to be honest with you.
00:01:15.420
We're very much at the point now, it seems, where we know what they're all about, right?
00:01:20.560
We know the flavour of party that we're getting from reform,
00:01:24.100
and the answer to that flavour is, of course, not a very impressive one.
00:01:30.380
It was certainly hyped up because, as Zia Yusuf says here,
00:01:33.620
As Prime Minister, Nigel will assemble galactic-level talent in the first reform cabinet,
00:01:43.920
The era of the likes of Miliband, Hancock and Reeves making the most important decisions in the land will be over.
00:01:51.300
We need the best, including from outside politics.
00:01:56.260
So, we're obviously looking at an American-style system here.
00:02:00.980
I think more importantly than that, if you have this talent ready to serve you,
00:02:10.860
If you've got this pool of talent, why are you going to hide them during the election campaign,
00:02:16.440
only to reveal them after, presumably, you've won?
00:02:21.680
I had all this talent, but I didn't let them run as MPs.
00:02:24.240
I don't understand the mindset behind it or the point,
00:02:28.660
unless it's a way to make sure that they are there only to serve Faraj personally,
00:02:36.940
in which case, that's interesting, but that's a bit worrying.
00:02:42.380
And he should be a little bit more open about what he's planning to do.
00:02:45.940
Well, I thought you had to be an MP in order to be in Cabinet.
00:02:50.360
Well, we don't have to be an MP, we could be a Lord.
00:02:52.840
Can you be entirely unelected and be on the front bench?
00:03:00.040
it will simply, obviously, pass a bill through the House of Commons in order to make it happen.
00:03:04.980
This is obviously just something that Nigel has the intent to do.
00:03:10.120
And what's more, again, it does speak to the fact that, yes,
00:03:13.840
I'm not denying that there has been a shocking standard of Cabinet of late.
00:03:21.780
But really, as you say, I very much agree with your point, Firas.
00:03:27.840
But when Yusuf is talking about galactic level talent, right?
00:03:37.140
It does mean you're referring to the Right Honourable Nadine Dorries.
00:03:43.720
Not the first person that I would have thought of when I was thinking of the galactic levels of talent
00:03:52.940
But what's remarkable here as well is that, and keep this one in your memory,
00:03:57.680
Hurst just saying the Tories are finished, right?
00:04:00.400
And then she obviously says they do not deserve your loyalty.
00:04:03.480
So now you simply have to support reform, right?
00:04:07.360
But the problem is, we've seen this time and time again,
00:04:10.560
it seems that anyone actually sensible, anyone genuinely patriotic,
00:04:16.180
anyone like Ben Habib, like Rupert Lowe, these sorts of people,
00:04:28.760
Who would have ever given Nadine Dorries another thought?
00:04:36.040
If she hadn't have been forced into your face right now?
00:04:46.020
Let's get Virginia Bottomley back out of retirement.
00:04:59.840
I'll play this clip from Farage introducing her at the conference.
00:05:02.520
That is why I'm pleased to welcome today to the stage
00:05:05.480
a woman who was served in cabinet as culture secretary,
00:05:10.540
a woman who was sold three and a half million books,
00:05:14.640
a woman who has been on I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.
00:05:19.540
Somebody from the real world who's worked their way up,
00:05:28.800
who actually crosses the boundaries from politician into celebrity.
00:05:34.160
And I'm delighted that we're going to have the experience,
00:05:37.760
the talent, the hard work, and the loyalty of the Dean Dorries.
00:05:42.440
That is why I'm pleased to welcome today to the stage.
00:05:45.100
So she just defects from her previous party and what he's praising is her loyalty?
00:05:55.440
And that list of accomplishments that she's sold three million books,
00:05:58.460
well, I mean, Posh Spice has sold millions of books.
00:06:11.320
Not necessarily, in and of itself, there's something good.
00:06:15.540
Especially when that cabinet was Boris Johnson's cabinet.
00:06:20.080
They're fully leaning into the sort of BoomerCon event as reform.
00:06:32.780
Um, I mean, between those two, it's sort of, what?
00:06:38.420
I mean, if you're going to do this, you might as well beg Jenrick to join you.
00:06:42.100
Because at least now, these days, he's saying things that are interesting and are sensible.
00:06:48.300
But what he wants from these has-beens is precisely their dependence on him.
00:06:53.920
Whereas Jenrick is a contender for not just the leadership of the conservatives,
00:06:58.980
but also, if he were to join to reform, potentially for reform.
00:07:03.280
So, this is the style of Nigel, where he just doesn't want anybody who is potentially a threat.
00:07:11.480
And it's this obsession with staying in control that makes him a bit dangerous.
00:07:18.280
And I understand, because, you know, fighting through what he was fighting through in the early days,
00:07:23.900
there were a lot of loons that he wanted to keep away.
00:07:26.220
But he successfully kept away of a big number of very capable and talented people as well.
00:07:41.940
Nadine Dorries was never going to be an influence in Parliament ever again.
00:07:47.060
Were it not that she jumped to the ship of reform.
00:07:51.160
she owes that, I use the word relevance in the loosest possible sense,
00:08:04.020
The fact that the only reason that Nadine Dorries was ever in Boris Johnson's cabinet
00:08:10.420
was not because of any legendary skill that she had.
00:08:19.400
It was because she was just going to do whatever Boris told her to do.
00:08:25.760
the person that Nadine seems most loyal to is Boris Johnson.
00:08:35.920
Because Boris Johnson is possibly the greatest traitor.
00:08:58.020
Nadine Dorries' great contribution to politics.
00:09:04.740
This was something that she was really pushing for.
00:09:21.300
If that is something that they proudly attach to their name at the time,
00:09:25.840
they deserve to be recognised for that forever.
00:09:29.920
Well, this gets to the criticism that reform are just basically Tory 2.0.
00:09:39.880
It's sort of the last nail in the coffin on that argument,
00:09:50.020
insisting that he won't allow reform to be subsumed into the Tory party.
00:10:01.240
But he seems pretty hard-line that he won't do that.
00:10:04.900
But the idea that you just take in endless Tories,
00:10:12.040
I mean, that's all you need to know right there, right?
00:10:19.380
I'm sure there are a few that he should be working on instead.
00:10:22.160
And I'm sure that they see the writing on the wall
00:10:23.860
when it comes to the future of the Conservative Party.
00:10:29.540
If you're going to work on getting Tories on board,
00:10:39.180
But she's been on some celebrity reality TV show.
00:10:42.500
That's something that you've seen from the rooftops again.
00:10:47.400
It's a strange way of pursuing the pensioner vote.
00:10:51.780
But it also misidentifies the nature of the political problem.
00:10:56.540
is that young men in this country have zero opportunities.
00:11:05.140
And so trying to appeal even harder to pensioners
00:11:08.420
isn't going to solve any of the structural issues
00:11:11.700
that are keeping young men from getting married,
00:11:14.380
forming families, owning houses, having good-paying jobs.
00:11:16.960
Like, it completely misses the central political problem
00:11:24.460
facing not just Britain, but pretty much all of Western Europe.
00:11:32.380
and I think a lot of people in just the general public want,
00:11:35.240
if the last general election in its instant go by
00:11:44.980
They want something fairly radically different.
00:11:51.340
is, it doesn't seem like it's the best strategy to me.
00:11:59.380
to sort of be able to do the Sunday morning shows
00:12:03.200
and to be able to sort of defend the government as necessary.
00:12:07.060
And so that kind of explains Jenkins and now Dory's.
00:12:26.060
just seems to be entirely set by arbitrary precedent.
00:12:30.640
Based on just what Nigel feels is safe ground at this point
00:12:34.560
to throw out, you know, it's Rupert going out there
00:12:41.360
You know, just shifting the discourse in Parliament,
00:12:43.960
pushing on the issues that those MPs sitting there
00:12:47.720
And again, maybe this is a valid electoral strategy.
00:13:06.420
And it will never come from the likes of Nettie Dory's.
00:13:11.180
what is it, Andrea Jenkins just singing at the,
00:13:15.000
you know, it's like you do not understand how desperate,
00:13:24.480
I mean, Nigel's strategy used the word caution.
00:13:28.840
So people accuse him of being a follower, not a leader.
00:13:36.560
but I feel like they'd be twice as far ahead in the polls
00:13:39.740
if he was sort of a bit more radical and a true leader.
00:13:45.860
and he had that platform and these seats in parliament,
00:14:03.400
apparently they'd had one of the former Canadian
00:14:18.420
in having their disagreements in private, right?
00:14:21.840
And Nigel was really forcing this onto the audience.
00:14:54.000
But what is obvious is that negative migration is needed
00:15:03.100
that he's going to prescribe the Muslim Brotherhood,
00:15:11.280
you're going to end up with riots on the streets.
00:16:25.200
but also with a faction of the British public as well,
00:16:32.480
that was sympathetic to Lowe's position, right?
00:17:12.780
then you end up with fighting on the front benches
00:17:33.520
People are very fed up with the system as a system.
00:17:37.340
And they went with Boris to sort of change the system
00:17:56.740
And it's possibly a default or a currency crash.
00:18:10.000
how are you going to fix the immigration system?
00:18:22.760
you're sniping at each other from the front benches
00:18:53.280
even if you are having the private conversations.
00:19:02.540
But then you get just ridiculous things like this.
00:19:12.660
But then why are you bringing in its architect?