TRIGGERnometry - Life Update, Iran War and British Politics

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00:00:46.480 You've got a new book out. Francis Foster, published author.

00:00:49.940 I know. Who would have believed that?

00:00:51.760 Not your parents. There's a lot of people talking about problems, but you do it in such a funny way

00:00:57.640 that it makes for a very nice, pleasant, enjoyable, light-hearted read

00:01:00.920 laughing at your expense.

00:01:02.240 Yeah.

00:01:03.300 This war, you know, the Operation Epic Fury, wonderful,

00:01:06.980 but this might go down as Epic failed.

00:01:09.460 Only 27% of American voters are actually in favour of this war.

00:01:13.300 This is obviously not Iraq, but in terms of impact on the world,

00:01:17.000 I think this could be worse.

00:01:20.000 Now, for our American viewers and listeners...

00:01:22.880 Don't switch off.

00:01:24.060 Don't switch off just because we're talking about British politics.

00:01:27.640 this episode is sponsored by our friends at hillsdale college right after this episode go

00:01:34.260 check out the incredible online courses which are absolutely free at hillsdale.edu

00:01:40.060 slash trigger all right francis we haven't done one of these for a couple of months

00:01:44.960 so welcome back to us yeah welcome back it's uh well a lot has been happening particularly in your

00:01:51.280 life well in both of our lives but uh i've taken nearly two months uh to go on paternity before

00:01:57.860 my second son was born and after uh which has been great and you've got a new book out yeah

00:02:03.000 absolutely which is francis foster published author i know who would have believed that

00:02:08.360 not your parents and certainly not any not the publishing industry either but actually it is a

00:02:14.560 fantastic book it's got a lot of media attention already it's very funny which is obviously your

00:02:19.380 thing but it's also very point and you talk about going through teaching as a teacher and also

00:02:25.620 teaching like a supply teacher basically uh in different schools around the country uh and you

00:02:32.960 tell stories in a very self-deprecating and funny way i really enjoyed reading mate and i'm not

00:02:38.220 surprised how well it's doing well thank you very much no because i felt it's really important but

00:02:42.660 if you think about our show we talk about a lot of what we talk about is young people why young

00:02:48.240 people are the way they are and not enough people go well that's schools but also we need better

00:02:56.040 quality teachers and also we need to support teachers because you can talk about decolonizing

00:03:02.540 the crypt and everything like that it's really difficult to do that when a kid's about to throw

00:03:05.920 a chair at your head and you've spoken yourself about homeschooling and the fact that you may be

00:03:11.380 thinking about it and the reason is is because our education system is in crisis and that's kind of

00:03:16.600 what the book deals with. Yeah, but it's also very, very funny and enjoyable to read, which I think

00:03:21.180 is why people are, you know, there's a lot of people talking about the problems, but you do it

00:03:26.120 in such a funny way that it makes for a very nice, pleasant, enjoyable, light-hearted read,

00:03:30.540 laughing at your expense. Yeah, I can tell you, mate, like the actual experiencing that, that

00:03:35.820 wasn't as funny. No. But no, but what I wanted to do with the book is because, look, we are in a

00:03:41.880 very difficult time. And we're a very difficult time societally, politically, economically,

00:03:47.680 culturally, all of these things. But also, I feel that there are ways to talk about an issue. And

00:03:54.440 you can talk about an issue and you can go, this is terrible. And of course, it is. But unless

00:03:59.700 you're able to bring a little bit of levity to it, then you need a little bit of sugar to sweeten

00:04:05.980 the pill. Otherwise, it will be a book where you put down and go, well, that's depressed me.

00:04:12.200 And actually, kids are funny. I remember once when I was teaching, there was a boy in front

00:04:19.580 of me and I hated him. And I know that's not professional. He was 12 years old, but you can

00:04:26.180 objectively hate a 12-year-old, trust me. And he was disrupting every lesson. Every lesson,

00:04:31.560 he was a nuisance and stopping everyone from learning. And I was teaching the lesson. And

00:04:36.600 in my head, I said the words, why are you such a dick? Except I didn't say it in my head.

00:04:45.460 I said it out loud. And the kids all stopped and looked at me. And there was this one little girl

00:04:51.600 in the front, though, very sweet, wouldn't say boo to a goose, looked up at me and went,

00:04:55.580 because he just is.

00:04:59.180 Well, it's funny you say that

00:05:00.720 because I actually don't think that's true.

00:05:03.340 And it's interesting how it connects

00:05:05.280 with the time I've taken off to be with my family

00:05:07.560 because I just look at how much effort it takes

00:05:11.980 with children.

00:05:13.460 Yeah.

00:05:13.880 And I think about, you know,

00:05:16.340 we've talked endlessly with guests

00:05:19.360 and also between us and your experiences teaching,

00:05:22.120 just recognizing how much societal dysfunction

00:05:25.240 comes from early childhood problems

00:05:29.580 that are to do with the fact

00:05:31.600 there's basically not enough adults around,

00:05:33.320 particularly dads around,

00:05:35.300 to deal with the developmental challenges

00:05:37.680 that kids face,

00:05:38.660 to be there to help instill discipline,

00:05:42.280 to help instill some kind of respect

00:05:44.560 for rules and order

00:05:46.340 and all of that kind of thing.

00:05:49.080 And so that 12-year-old is probably,

00:05:52.440 that 12-year-old can't be saved

00:05:54.660 at the level of the school.

00:05:55.940 No.

00:05:56.240 Because they've been ruined

00:05:57.160 by the early childhood experiences, effectively, right?

00:06:00.940 Of course.

00:06:01.580 And if you look at things like gangs,

00:06:03.820 what gangs actually do,

00:06:05.020 and nobody talks about this enough,

00:06:07.160 what gangs do is they groom the kids.

00:06:10.500 But how can a group of young boys

00:06:14.120 groom another young boy?

00:06:16.580 Well, the reason is,

00:06:17.580 is that young boy doesn't have a father figure.

00:06:20.800 He doesn't have positive male role models

00:06:23.980 in the house. If you think about a young boy growing up in a place like where I taught,

00:06:28.320 in East London, in Dagenham, or in South London, in Croydon, dad's not around for a multitude of

00:06:34.860 different reasons. So it's mum working three or four jobs, struggling to make ends meet,

00:06:41.480 and as a result, working three or four jobs, never being in the home. So she's never in the home.

00:06:45.880 So the kid basically raises himself. Boys crave male approval, particularly from older males,

00:06:53.340 and male attention. And if you think that this boy then goes into school, where he's most likely to

00:06:59.640 be taught, statistically speaking, by a female teacher, with female support staff, with female

00:07:04.200 senior management, that boy then doesn't have any contact with positive male role models.

00:07:10.340 So the only male role models that he sees are the gangs, and he craves that. And what the gangs do

00:07:17.100 is they're smart. They look for kids that are vulnerable. And what they also do is they target

00:07:23.140 special needs kids. And special needs kids are particularly vulnerable because if you've got

00:07:29.400 a special need, let's say you've got, you're very dyslexic. Every day of your life, you go into

00:07:35.280 school and you fail. You fail. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, you are asked to do

00:07:42.440 things that you cannot do. And every time you're asked to do them, it has a profound impact on

00:07:50.400 your self-esteem. And if all you know as a kid are losses, that is devastating. In the book,

00:07:56.560 I talk about one boy. I covered a lesson for a colleague who had to go off and do a meeting,

00:08:01.580 and it was a year two exam. And year two kids are seven, eight years old. And I put the exam

00:08:06.680 paper in front of him. And by the way, I don't think we should be examining seven, eight year

00:08:09.640 olds. I think that's unimaginably cruel. I just want to make that clear. He looked up at me and

00:08:15.200 he said the words to me, Mr. Foster, I can't read. And I said to him, Terry, just try. And he goes,

00:08:24.000 I can't read. And I said, please try. Because I was told that he had to take the test. He had to

00:08:32.300 do it. The kid couldn't read, so we were already setting up to failure. And he literally put his

00:08:37.460 head on the table and cried. And I said in the book, I then got the member of senior management

00:08:45.780 to take him away. And the only thing left of him at the end of the lesson was his tear-stained exam

00:08:52.280 paper glinting in the June sun. And you look at what we're doing to kids outside, inside,

00:09:01.680 and it's no wonder. It's no wonder we are where we are. I was just going to say that. I mean,

00:09:06.440 And you forget there is a happy ending to that story.

00:09:08.480 He's now a Lain Bear and Pee.

00:09:11.340 No, he's with the Green Party, mate.

00:09:15.380 And it's very good.

00:09:17.100 But no, but you go back to those kids.

00:09:20.240 And so if you could take a kid like Terry,

00:09:22.460 who every day came in and failed,

00:09:24.100 and was a very sweet kid,

00:09:27.000 the first time he's ever had someone say,

00:09:29.420 well done, or you're doing well,

00:09:30.640 will be a gang member.

00:09:32.720 The news doesn't just tell you what's happening.

00:09:35.280 It often tells you what to think is happening.

00:09:38.200 And these days, the biggest red flag isn't what's said, it's what gets left out.

00:09:42.080 That's why I use Ground News.

00:09:44.020 It's the only app that compares how the same story is covered across the political spectrum

00:09:48.540 and show you what whole audiences are not being told.

00:09:51.740 The Blindspot feed is one of my favorite features.

00:09:54.460 Every day, it flags upwards of 20 stories that are being ignored either by the left or the right.

00:09:59.280 Follow along at ground.news slash trigonometry.

00:10:01.560 Like this, a new study from UC San Diego found that climate change cost almost twice as much as we thought

00:10:07.980 because earlier estimates left out damage to the oceans.

00:10:10.840 That's a pretty big update and yet no coverage, literally zero, came from right-leaning outlets.

00:10:15.520 Or this, a recent Gallup poll found trust in the media has hit a record low with just 28% of Americans

00:10:21.200 saying they trust newspapers, radio and TV to report the news accurately and fairly.

00:10:26.360 That's a staggering result, but if you only read left-leaning news, you likely never saw it at all.

00:10:31.340 Go to ground.news slash trigonometry to get 40% off their unlimited vantage plan,

00:10:36.440 the same one we use, and stop being managed by the media.

00:10:40.580 Of course.

00:10:41.840 And, you know, for that reason, it's interesting because obviously masculinity and the role

00:10:48.060 of man and fatherhood and all of this has became such a big talking point in the last

00:10:52.620 10 years.

00:10:53.540 And I think Jordan Peterson obviously was a crucial voice in talking about that.

00:10:57.760 And then, you know, we've talked about this before, how you can track the deterioration of what masculinity is thought of as in the type of influencer that is perceived as being answering those questions, right?

00:11:13.320 So you go from Jordan Peterson, who I think is just an incredibly overwhelmingly positive figure, you know, and then you cascade down all the way to, I don't even know what the latest retardation is.

00:11:25.520 Clavicular.

00:11:26.000 Or whatever, right?

00:11:27.460 Yes.

00:11:27.760 Like Andrew Tate is starting to seem quite reasonable compared to some of these morons, right?

00:11:33.500 But I just feel like I've taken nearly two months off now.

00:11:37.240 And you know how much I love what we do and I love work.

00:11:39.840 And I've always just spent a lot of time doing it and been fully invested in it.

00:11:43.580 But I feel like I only really truly became a man in the last couple of months because of being able to have the luxury.

00:11:50.940 it's and I acknowledge completely most people can't remotely have that luxury to do that and

00:11:58.140 I didn't do it with my first son I took two weeks off but taking more time off now to be there to

00:12:02.580 look after my wife particularly before during and after the birth and to be and really connect with

00:12:09.020 my older son now because obviously I'm spending most of the time with him while my wife is

00:12:12.920 recovering from birth so that that to me really has been the most formative experience when it

00:12:20.200 comes to what being a man is um more than anything else like being a man is not driving lime corvettes

00:12:26.660 and smoking cigars you know it's but but you don't know that sometimes and i think people don't

00:12:33.760 a lot men don't hear that message uh about the formative part of what masculinity is being there

00:12:41.820 to provide for other people to protect for other people to look after other people that is a message

00:12:47.440 that you don't hear very often now.

00:12:50.720 And I've just really enjoyed this time.

00:12:53.660 And it is also an investment.

00:12:55.620 You know, the children who have a father

00:12:58.300 that is heavily involved in their lives

00:12:59.960 are going to have completely different life outcomes.

00:13:02.220 And I can see why.

00:13:03.680 Because I look at different sort of family setups

00:13:07.880 and I just go like, if I had to,

00:13:11.120 I think about single moms

00:13:13.280 and I just go, I have no idea how they do it.

00:13:16.560 I have no idea how they do it.

00:13:18.580 It's literally an impossible job.

00:13:20.880 It's an impossible job.

00:13:22.020 And I know some single moms who, like, they've absolutely smashed it.

00:13:25.340 I couldn't do that.

00:13:27.240 I absolutely could not do that.

00:13:29.280 And so it's just been a great time for me to reflect on all of this stuff.

00:13:33.860 And it's weird because everyone's going, like, oh, are you sleeping enough?

00:13:37.080 Whatever.

00:13:37.520 I actually come back rejuvenated, to be honest.

00:13:40.380 Right.

00:13:40.840 I'm going to level with you.

00:13:42.080 I'm not a gamer, even though I look like one.

00:13:44.100 i'm not going to pretend i've been grinding through rpgs between recordings although i have

00:13:48.580 strong opinions about which final fantasy was the best one i think it's japanese and i think there's

00:13:53.540 a sword that's genuinely everything i know but our social media guys showed me this app and i

00:13:58.660 genuinely thought that's quite clever it's called snacksy basically game publishers need new players

00:14:04.260 and they're willing to pay to get them snacksy just passes that money onto you you play games

00:14:09.620 you were probably going to play anyway you own coins and you cash them out for real rewards

00:14:14.820 paypal amazon netflix gift cards if you prefer gaming credit you can redeem for playstation

00:14:20.740 xbox steam and nintendo or cash out your ineba wallet i've got no idea what that means actual

00:14:26.420 money not just points that expire it takes a few minutes to set up you open the app swipe through

00:14:31.300 the game offers pick something that looks decent play it earn redeem that's the whole thing there's

00:14:37.380 There's a sign-up bonus worth up to $10 if you use our link, which is in the description of this episode.

00:14:43.760 That's S-N-A-K-Z-Y, Snaxing.

00:14:48.220 Click the link in the description to get started.

00:14:50.720 And when you sign up, use the code TRIGGERPOD.

00:14:54.480 That's T-R-I-G-G-E-R-P-O-D to claim your $10 bonus.

00:15:01.760 And the app is mobile only, so click the link from your phone, not your laptop.

00:15:07.380 Yeah. And I can see that with you. You know, it's been a while since I've seen you, but you look so happy. You look rested. I didn't expect that. I'm going to be honest with you, mate. I thought you were going to.

00:15:15.540 Yeah, I never. Actually, Dean, our social media guy, he posted a clip of me talking to John Anderson that Elon retweeted. So it's done. And I looked at myself there. I was like, that guy looks sick. I'm just pale and whatever. The sun has helped as well.

00:15:29.620 yeah but you know you do you look rejuvenated it's it's been a wonderful time for you which

00:15:34.880 has been great for you know all of us to see just how happy you are and whatever else but

00:15:40.380 and for me it's always a salutary lesson because so often in our society we've framed children as

00:15:49.720 being a burden we frame children as being this thing of like oh once you have kids the fun stops

00:15:57.140 Once you have kids, you know, it's all over.

00:15:59.860 And I make the point in the book,

00:16:01.780 I much prefer doing this than teaching.

00:16:04.860 I want to make that absolutely clear.

00:16:08.540 But when I think about...

00:16:11.680 I don't think there is a more important job

00:16:14.240 than being a teacher.

00:16:15.900 I genuinely...

00:16:16.300 Well, there is being a parent, but yeah.

00:16:17.660 Yeah.

00:16:18.700 But if you think about the impact a good teacher has,

00:16:23.780 literally transforms lives.

00:16:25.460 Every single person in this room, whether it's you and me talking, the production team, or if it's people watching, everybody can name that teacher who changed their life for the better, however it was.

00:16:41.620 And I really do think we need to actually change the way we talk about kids

00:16:47.460 and we need to change the way that we talk about the joy that they bring.

00:16:51.260 Because it's not the only reason.

00:16:53.660 It's a multifaceted, complex problem.

00:16:56.020 But part of it as well is kind of seen as this joy killer of the,

00:17:00.700 oh, you've had a kid.

00:17:01.540 That's boring.

00:17:02.320 It's like, well, that's kind of the meaning of life.

00:17:04.320 Look, the thing is as well, it's not like it's easy at all.

00:17:10.620 But I think what often happens is people who don't have kids in particular,

00:17:14.480 I hear them talking about this, and they go, oh, you know, I talk to parents.

00:17:17.520 You know, when I talk to my parent friends or whatever,

00:17:21.760 all I hear about is how difficult it is and this and that, which is true,

00:17:25.540 which is kind of like parents will vent about the difficulties that they face

00:17:29.880 because kids are not easy.

00:17:31.820 Like my son's favorite word is no.

00:17:34.520 I wonder where he got that from, right?

00:17:37.520 And actually, it's kind of funny.

00:17:38.880 one of the great things about having kids is you kind of look at it and you you think about

00:17:42.560 like you know we i think it's quite natural to think about the way you are as the kind of the

00:17:47.720 sum total of all your work and achievements and whatever i look at my four-year-old i'm just like

00:17:52.680 he's an asshole just like me i wonder where i got that from you know very stubborn very independent

00:17:58.880 which is great this is what you want you know your kids you want them to be like that um i can't i

00:18:04.620 I can't even remember where I was going with this.

00:18:06.220 Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:18:06.700 So it's not easy.

00:18:08.340 And people will vent their frustrations.

00:18:10.240 But it's also a joy like you've never felt.

00:18:14.040 Yeah, totally.

00:18:15.200 And I also think, look, it's interesting.

00:18:17.640 My mum is staying with us at the moment.

00:18:19.920 And her and I were having this conversation

00:18:21.840 because she was sort of stress testing my arguments

00:18:25.600 because this is what we do in the Kissing family,

00:18:27.340 basically just argue with each other about kids.

00:18:30.560 And she was saying, well, you know,

00:18:31.600 you've got a fair bit of public influence.

00:18:33.560 i'd be very careful about promoting the idea of kids to people because she works with kids

00:18:39.000 and she's like i see all sorts of different environments and whatever um but i i think

00:18:44.780 the the thing i'm certainly never encouraging people who if you've made your mind up that you

00:18:49.940 don't want children i don't think you should have children no i think that would be a terrible idea

00:18:54.200 right but if you're sort of through the inertia of modern life and the technological changes

00:19:00.660 people forget about this, right? But one of the main reasons that people are having kids

00:19:05.800 in far fewer numbers now is urbanization. I remember I took my father to, we did like a

00:19:12.520 father and son trip to Uzbekistan last year. You talk to people in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is not

00:19:19.100 exactly the most like super developed country, beautiful place, wonderful people, but it's poor,

00:19:24.660 it's country in Central Asia, whatever. You talk to the people there, they basically say,

00:19:27.820 the moment somebody moves from a village to the city they they go from having seven kids to having

00:19:33.540 two or three yeah you know uh and that's you know i i think i've talked about this before on the show

00:19:38.480 that there's a guy called desmond morris who wrote a book called the human zoo and he basically

00:19:43.580 talked about the fact that when people live in cities they behave in very similar ways to the

00:19:48.100 way that animals behave in zoos uh where they stop having as much offspring they get depressed

00:19:53.560 there's a lot of interpersonal violence, all of this other stuff. So the reason that people are

00:19:58.880 having fewer kids today is very largely to do with technology. It's the urbanization, it's the pill,

00:20:04.560 it's other forms of contraceptives. So what I'm saying is the inertia of current society now is

00:20:11.900 for people not to have children. Whereas 100 years ago, it was the exact opposite. It was almost

00:20:18.960 inevitable that you'd have children, even if it was totally the wrong decision for you.

00:20:22.720 So when I talk about it, I'm never encouraging people who really don't want to do it, to do it.

00:20:29.700 I'm not saying it's the right thing for everybody. But what I do think is a lot of people are now by

00:20:34.520 default, their default setting is having kids is difficult and expensive and blah, blah, blah,

00:20:40.260 blah, blah. And all of those things are completely true. And yet it's also, if you could feel what

00:20:46.320 it's like to have a child if you're on that fence i'm just trying to balance out the perspectives

00:20:51.960 that you are getting through the the informational space that you're exposed to by also telling you

00:20:57.200 the other part which is sort of unfashionable to talk about you know it's like it's very

00:21:02.040 unfashionable for people to talk about having kids from a positive perspective you go and watch

00:21:06.840 stand-up comedians talk about their kids most of them will will be very negative about yeah you

00:21:11.920 know and and likewise with everything else that you're likely to be exposed to and I just I don't

00:21:18.860 think that's a balanced perspective on the issue I think it's helpful to remind people what a joy

00:21:25.020 and a pleasure it is while also being difficult and expensive and all the rest of it I have people

00:21:32.440 in my life who depend on me most of you listening do too and if you're honest with yourself you've

00:21:37.800 probably had that moment where you think, what happens to them if I'm not here tomorrow? It is

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00:22:40.320 It's a great point.

00:22:41.600 And then there's another part of this conversation that we've touched on many times, actually,

00:22:46.200 in the history of trigonometry, which is we've lied to women about kids and we've lied about

00:22:51.560 the nature of fertility.

00:22:52.820 The idea that you can just freeze your eggs and then have a baby whenever you want.

00:22:57.940 I mean, if you look at the stats from IVF treatments, success rates vary depending on what study you look at, anywhere from 29% to 33%.

00:23:07.860 Those aren't good odds. They're one in three odds.

00:23:11.580 And what we're effectively doing as a society is, fertility-wise, we're drinking in the last-chance saloon, which is all well and good, but not everyone's going to get served because there just ain't time.

00:23:25.380 No. And I think, you know, I always try and be very careful talking about this issue because

00:23:32.340 these are very sensitive things for people, but those are not good odds. If you were to say we're

00:23:39.380 going to gamble a very important decision in our lives on something and there's a 33% chance of

00:23:45.060 success, you wouldn't think that's a good bet, really. No. And I think we need to be sensitive

00:23:51.280 about this. Of course we do. But I think it's also important that we talk openly about it,

00:23:56.540 because I think there's a lot of myths that are being spread around the technology. And I've seen

00:24:02.060 my own friends go through it. And you see that the impact that it has on them, these aren't easy

00:24:08.000 decisions. And look, life sometimes happens. You don't meet the right person until later on in life,

00:24:13.340 of course. And it's not about blaming or saying people should do things at a point when it's not

00:24:18.800 right for them. But we just do need to have the conversation and go, look, later on, it might be

00:24:25.400 possible, but these are the odds and this is what could happen or could occur. And I think that's

00:24:32.040 really vital. I completely agree with you. I think we should have someone on to talk about the reality

00:24:36.740 of fertility, partly because I think certainly when we talk to people privately, we meet a lot

00:24:44.220 of people now who are our age or a bit younger who or a bit older frankly who either are kind

00:24:52.160 of in a desperate situation or who've missed the boat yeah and it's it's it's something that a lot

00:24:59.280 of women in particular find very difficult to talk about because once it's no longer going to happen

00:25:03.660 that's i mean it's got to be an awful place to be and then so and so i think i guess what i would

00:25:09.960 say is that there's just not a lot of conversation to reflect a much larger underlying reality.

00:25:17.400 I was thinking about this the other day with politics. It's funny, the impression you would

00:25:24.660 get about the range of acceptable political opinions in the country is totally not what it

00:25:30.340 is based on what you see in the media. For example, is it really possible that literally nobody in the

00:25:37.860 world of football in this country has come out and expressed the sort of concerns that we've

00:25:44.520 shared on the show. Is it really possible that a bunch of millionaires are massively in favor of

00:25:54.240 like a wealth tax and are all left wing and all the rest of it? I just don't think that's true.

00:25:59.040 In fact, we both know that's not true, right? From direct personal experience, there are many

00:26:04.760 people in the world of football who don't feel that way, or other sports, professional sports.

00:26:09.880 But if you open your newspaper or if you go and watch TV, you will never see anybody. Simon Jordan

00:26:16.460 is the only person from the world of football, and he's not a football player, right, who will

00:26:21.380 express anything remotely approaching a contrarian perspective on those things. Yet there are people

00:26:27.380 from almost every major professional sport in this country that contact us privately or follow

00:26:31.960 our show and we know what they think about it boxing football rugby you know other other sports

00:26:38.080 and that's also true of this conversation in that because there's just some for whatever reason we

00:26:45.460 don't even need to get into it something is not talked about enough the reality that exists on

00:26:51.780 the ground is not reflected in the talking point conversation stuff that you see on tv and in the

00:26:57.580 newspapers. And that's kind of where we've always seen our role, really, is to pierce those bubbles

00:27:02.380 and to connect the reality on the ground with what's actually being talked about out loud.

00:27:07.780 And I think also, it's very eloquently put, but also what we do here is we challenge and debunk

00:27:17.420 myths. And there's been a lot of myths that we have debunked from the time that we started this

00:27:23.320 to where we are now everything you know from defund the police to mask wearing and all the

00:27:29.220 rest of it we weren't the only ones of course not but we were we like we played at a small

00:27:33.040 but significant part I would like to think and I'm sure you do as well and I think this is a

00:27:38.520 very powerful but also very damaging myth as a lot of myths are which is you can have it all

00:27:46.980 and you can leave it right until the end of your fertility window,

00:27:52.820 and then you can have your kids.

00:27:54.960 And I really think that we need to sit down.

00:27:58.620 Some people can.

00:27:59.740 Some people can.

00:28:00.220 I mean, in fairness, that is exactly what my wife and I did.

00:28:02.760 We had our first one at 39.

00:28:04.240 We had our second one at 43.

00:28:05.880 Yeah.

00:28:06.180 But we are very, very unrepresentative and very unusual.

00:28:11.360 So people don't believe me when I tell this story.

00:28:13.560 My wife's grandfather was the 18th of 18 kids in a peasant Ukrainian family.

00:28:20.140 He was born when his mother...

00:28:22.100 Nobody believes when I say this, but this is a true thing.

00:28:25.200 His mother was 63 when he was born.

00:28:27.340 Wow.

00:28:27.900 Yeah.

00:28:28.280 She was the 18th of 18, and his mother was 63.

00:28:31.520 So, like, you know, genetics is a part of this,

00:28:34.220 and you might come just from a lineage where that's more possible

00:28:37.600 than it is for other people.

00:28:39.220 But statistically speaking, what we've done is...

00:28:42.020 You were the outlier.

00:28:42.680 Yeah.

00:28:42.960 You're the outlier.

00:28:44.160 And we need to be honest about that.

00:28:47.380 And we also, there's a lot of women who pass a relatively early age,

00:28:52.340 can't have children.

00:28:54.160 And also as well, like men.

00:28:57.060 It's not just women, it's also guys.

00:28:59.300 And just go, look, the quality of your sperm.

00:29:02.880 My sperm's brilliant.

00:29:04.280 I've seen it.

00:29:05.160 Yeah, pretty good.

00:29:06.360 What?

00:29:07.960 You know, the offspring.

00:29:09.600 When Captain Francis is my wife.

00:29:11.360 No, I wouldn't.

00:29:12.140 well anyway i am now i am now we sleep in separate beds anyway so that was weird but if you look at

00:29:19.960 like male with particularly male sperm and correlation with autism rates particularly

00:29:26.360 as sperm gets older it becomes more correlated with producing kids who have autism

00:29:32.020 you go well we all need and people look at me and go francis what about you yeah you're right

00:29:40.440 You're right.

00:29:40.960 I'm not saying I'm not part of this particular issue because I obviously am.

00:29:45.760 But I do think we actually need to be honest about this.

00:29:50.100 And one of the things we need to do is get a fertility expert to sit down and not from a position of, you know, you do this and you should do this and wake up.

00:30:00.120 But just go, look, you live your life as you want.

00:30:03.820 You made the decisions that you want.

00:30:05.720 That's the beauty of the West.

00:30:07.020 that's the one of the best things about our culture is that you can go and live the life

00:30:11.920 that you desire within certain parameters but this is a truth and then you are now more informed

00:30:21.080 and then you're able to make your choice with the information at hand speaking of uh you know

00:30:28.040 difficult conversations i mean one of the things that happened while we were uh doing our separate

00:30:33.960 of things is uh the war in iran continued uh it was interesting because we gave that issue a lot

00:30:39.680 of coverage when it first started and when we were in america that was a developing story

00:30:43.660 and i i would guess i would say you know we interviewed senator ted cruz we interviewed

00:30:49.420 medi hassan and had the discussion with him we interviewed robert pape and there was uh i don't

00:30:55.100 know if you remember a few weeks ago there was a ceasefire that was agreed and at that point i got

00:31:02.780 sort of like told you so messages from a bunch of former guests and other people going, I told you

00:31:09.220 this would be over quickly. I told you this wouldn't be such a bit. I told you, look at

00:31:12.380 Robert Pape. He was so wrong about that. Man, because I look at the news now, it's still going

00:31:18.400 on. Not only that, I mean, they're talking about a deal, but I don't know that a deal is going to

00:31:25.480 be done quickly. And if it is, I don't think there's any evidence to suggest where we sit

00:31:30.420 today that that deal is going to be any better than the deal might have been done before this

00:31:35.780 war ever occurred. I mean, don't forget, global Brent crude oil prices are now 60% higher than

00:31:43.100 they were a year ago. And by the way, the reason a lot of people have stopped talking about this

00:31:50.940 issue is everyone gets tired of talking about the same thing. And so it was like the war in

00:31:56.900 Ukraine. It was everywhere for a year. And then everyone just kind of moved on. The war didn't

00:32:01.160 stop. But the thing with Iran is I think most people don't realize that the economic impact

00:32:06.500 directly, and I'm not talking about a 3% increase in the price of whatever. I'm talking about real

00:32:11.960 economic impact will last for years from this. The IEA called this the biggest disruption to

00:32:18.720 the global oil market in history, what's happened. And that's not just, it's not just oil,

00:32:24.800 it's gas, it's fertilizer, it's all this stuff. And most of the impact hasn't been felt. So what's

00:32:29.440 happening at the moment is, it's like, there's no more food in the supermarket, but your fridge is

00:32:34.780 still mostly stocked. So you are still able to eat for now. And what we're doing now is we're

00:32:41.240 running down on gas supplies, we're running down oil supplies around the West. And by the way,

00:32:45.160 this no one talks about this, but I think it's worth raising as an issue, is the direct result

00:32:49.700 of the war in Iran, both the United States and Britain and many other countries have lifted

00:32:53.420 sanctions on Russia. Yeah. Like, that has impact. I don't know if you saw this. The United States

00:33:01.100 just said that they would not be providing interceptors to Taiwan to be able to defend

00:33:05.740 itself in the quantity that they were going to because they need them for the Strait of Hormuz.

00:33:10.400 They need them for the Middle East. They need them for the... This is a thing that's not over,

00:33:15.100 and it's going to continue to have an impact. To say nothing about the fact that you missed one

00:33:19.560 planting season with fertilizer issues, that means less food next year. And that's where we

00:33:25.860 are today. Ted Cruz, who we had on our show, who said this will be over very quickly, blah, blah,

00:33:30.700 blah. You know, if this is still going on by the time of the midterms, we've clearly failed.

00:33:34.940 He's now warning that President Trump may be, from what I read, kind of caving too early on

00:33:40.840 these negotiations. And so Trump is now extending and whatever. But my point is, all those people

00:33:46.700 who were delighted about the ceasefire several weeks ago.

00:33:50.100 I don't hear from them now.

00:33:52.140 And the longer this goes, the less convinced I am

00:33:55.660 that the people who cheered this war on

00:34:00.140 from the beginning were right.

00:34:01.420 I don't see it that way, if I'm honest.

00:34:04.860 Spring is coming, which sounds great in theory.

00:34:07.520 More going on, more to do, less time to actually eat properly.

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00:35:28.460 Trigonometry. Well, let's look at what we've learned from this war. What have we actually

00:35:33.620 learned, that if you attack Iran, you can kill a leader, you can kill the top brass. But the reality

00:35:41.240 is Iran have a stranglehold on the world's economy because of the Strait of Hormuz. They can close it

00:35:47.620 down like that just through one drone attack. So the reality is, unless you are going to commit to

00:35:54.860 putting boots on the ground in order to try and get rid of the leadership, you are not going to

00:36:00.080 get rid of them through airstrikes. They're too entrenched. It's not going to happen. And by the

00:36:05.500 way, the moment you do that, that doesn't only affect Iran. That doesn't only affect the Middle

00:36:09.640 East. It affects every single country in the world. And also as well, you look at those Middle

00:36:17.220 Eastern countries, they're now more fearful of Iran because the UAE and other countries are

00:36:24.980 looking at Iran and going, well, if we antagonize them in any way, they're going to lash out like

00:36:30.180 they lashed out before. Iran, you could argue, in some ways have come out of this stronger than

00:36:36.660 they went in because they've got some very powerful, powerful cards to play. They have played

00:36:42.060 them and they have played them in a very effective manner. And there's been a lot of bluster from

00:36:46.860 Trump and the Republican Party in America, flexing of the muscles. But it's like I was talking to

00:36:51.940 It's kind of like a UFC match where Iran have got the opponents in a chokehold and the opponents are punching in the head, but they're still in a chokehold and there's no letting go.

00:37:02.620 Yeah, that's the way it looks at the moment. Obviously, it can change day to day.

00:37:06.480 But I just see, you know, I think there came a point when I just stopped listening to what the administration was saying, to be honest, because every day it was like a new thing.

00:37:16.160 And clearly it's designed for misdirection and, you know, rah, rah, rah, cheering the war on.

00:37:23.760 I just, as I look at it, as we sit here today, end of May, it's been three months.

00:37:31.040 I don't think as we sit here today, there's any evidence at all that you're, I mean, clearly you're not going to get regime change, which is one of the things that people talked about.

00:37:40.020 Right. I mean, Ted Cruz wanted that. He talked about this on our show.

00:37:42.500 That's not going to happen. Let's be honest.

00:37:44.280 is their ballistic missile program going to be, okay, some of it's been destroyed,

00:37:50.200 but are they going to have a ballistic missile program after this war ends? Yes, they are.

00:37:55.040 Yeah. Are they going to have a nuclear program? We don't know. That's what's being negotiated,

00:37:59.820 but I don't see why they'd let it go. Because one of the things you've got to remember,

00:38:03.040 right? Yes, the US is also blockading the strait. Yes, that's hurting Iran. Yes,

00:38:08.140 that's hurting China, blah, blah, blah. But Iran have every incentive to hold on for dear life,

00:38:14.200 because the longer this goes, the more desperate the Americans become. That's just a fact. That is

00:38:19.200 the fact of this process. And so they're not rushing into anything. And of course, they want

00:38:24.680 to come away from this with some elements of their nuclear program intact. And now they also have,

00:38:32.000 at least in their own mind, but also in the minds of other neutral countries, the legitimacy to take

00:38:37.740 more control over the Strait of Hormuz and, as you say, to keep a chokehold or to threaten to

00:38:43.000 have a chokehold on the global economy through that. And so, you know, one of the things that

00:38:49.940 was very clear to us from our US trip, and we can't talk about the conversations we had because

00:38:56.300 they were had in private, but it became very clear to us that the administration made these

00:39:01.920 decisions not as part of a big vision and strategy, but as much more of an instinctive,

00:39:08.540 you know, we did Venezuela, we got Maduro, now let's do this, we'll, you know, we're on a roll

00:39:14.480 here. That literally is the way people in the administration told us it was made. That's what

00:39:20.800 we know, right? It's not something we've just made up. There was no strategy. And I'm afraid,

00:39:26.340 I want America to come out of this and the rest of the West to come out of this

00:39:30.100 with a great result. And Iran should not be allowed to get nuclear weapons. It should not.

00:39:35.380 Okay. But at the same time, I think if you look at where we are today, it seems to me very unlikely

00:39:43.040 that any of those objectives are going to be fulfilled. And the damage that will have been

00:39:48.200 done to the world economy is going to be significant. It already is significant.

00:39:53.220 Well, I was looking at the polling from American voters. Only 27% of American voters are actually

00:39:58.180 in favor of this war. The vast majority of them are quite annoyed by this war, and they say,

00:40:05.760 why are you focusing on wars abroad? When A, you promised that you wouldn't do that. And B,

00:40:13.060 there are very real significant economic problems in the country. And then you've got to look at,

00:40:19.880 so the Strait of Hormuz and the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is going to affect

00:40:24.620 the whole world economically.

00:40:26.660 But as a result of affecting the whole world economically,

00:40:29.200 it's going to affect the whole world politically.

00:40:31.360 What's that going to do to politics in our country?

00:40:33.980 For example, if I was Zach Polanski,

00:40:37.260 I would be saying, well, you know,

00:40:40.700 do you really want to go with the right?

00:40:42.080 Do you really want to go with the right

00:40:43.720 that has aligned itself with Donald Trump,

00:40:45.840 who has fought a war,

00:40:47.080 which has meant that life is already

00:40:49.840 incredibly difficult for you.

00:40:51.820 They've made your life more difficult.

00:40:54.580 The very little money that you've got in your pocket,

00:40:57.860 you've got nothing.

00:40:59.140 You've got even less now

00:41:00.380 simply because they decided to fight a war.

00:41:04.120 And that would be the smart ploy.

00:41:05.860 It would be.

00:41:06.480 And look, the fair counter-argument is what I said earlier,

00:41:09.160 which is Iran can't be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

00:41:12.200 And maybe the argument is,

00:41:14.460 well, how do you get them to not have them

00:41:16.740 except for bombing them?

00:41:18.380 I don't know.

00:41:18.840 But I think it just seems like this war has been...

00:41:22.580 It was ill thought through.

00:41:24.340 And look, Epic Fury as a military operation, massive success.

00:41:29.640 Well done.

00:41:30.280 You know, you bombed it out of what you wanted to bomb.

00:41:32.480 You destroyed this, you destroyed that.

00:41:34.380 But this war, look, I don't know how this is going to end.

00:41:37.940 I hope that Trump can pull out some kind of magic trick out of a hat and the art of the

00:41:45.260 deal and all of this other great stuff.

00:41:46.920 right now, this war, you know, the Operation Epic Fury, wonderful, but this might go down as epic

00:41:53.660 fail, this war, in the total sum of what it achieves. That obviously depends on the deal.

00:42:00.720 And we don't know what that's going to look like at the moment. But right now, it's not looking good.

00:42:05.160 No. And one thing that I've always been baffled by, and I haven't understood,

00:42:11.660 there's a lot of very intelligent people who are working in the White House.

00:42:16.980 There's a lot of very intelligent advisors, military strategists, so on and so forth.

00:42:21.520 But the Strait of Hormuz, I mean, that's pretty obvious what would happen.

00:42:27.360 Why did they not predict this?

00:42:29.400 And if they did predict this, why didn't they have a strategy for it?

00:42:32.960 Did they not foresee that this was going to happen?

00:42:35.760 Because everybody that I've spoken to with any type of military background

00:42:40.540 or Middle Eastern geopolitical expertise,

00:42:43.800 when I asked them about it, they went,

00:42:45.160 oh, yeah, that's pretty much...

00:42:47.760 Everyone knew this was going to happen.

00:42:49.760 And you think, well, if that's the case,

00:42:52.740 why did nobody create a strategy in order to deal with it?

00:42:56.680 And this is where, you know, you have to say

00:42:58.940 that the questions some people are asking

00:43:00.920 of the Trump administration,

00:43:03.020 you know, the administration prioritized loyalty

00:43:07.140 in the second term, because they had to,

00:43:09.680 because their first term was spent dealing with leakers, dealing with people who were dishonest,

00:43:14.400 dealing with people who were borderline traitors in some cases, right? So they had to prioritize

00:43:20.520 people who would be loyal over other things. And so perhaps one of the things that caused this is

00:43:29.740 there was an over-focus on loyalty and therefore there's nobody who's prepared to speak truth to

00:43:34.300 power in that White House or not enough people or the questions aren't being. I don't know. I'm not

00:43:40.260 there. And so I can't judge. But given the conversations that we had in private in the U.S.

00:43:45.740 and also what we've seen since, I mean, let's be honest, our conversation with Robert Pape,

00:43:49.760 I think it's approaching a million views now. And there's a reason for that, which is everything he

00:43:53.540 said turned out to be correct. Yeah. Basically. Right. I don't remember a single thing he said

00:43:58.760 that has not transpired in the two months since we sat down with him. I went to my dry cleaner

00:44:04.160 the other day to pick up some suits.

00:44:06.680 There's a turn.

00:44:07.580 There's a turn.

00:44:08.400 And he went, I watched, he goes,

00:44:10.480 oh, I watched your podcast.

00:44:11.980 I'm saying, oh yeah, which one did you watch?

00:44:13.820 And he, the Robert Pate.

00:44:15.140 And he basically said,

00:44:16.800 I didn't understand this war

00:44:18.800 and how it was going to turn out.

00:44:21.020 He goes, I listened to that and now I do.

00:44:24.120 Yeah.

00:44:24.880 And that's pretty worrying.

00:44:26.480 Yeah, because what he was saying,

00:44:28.580 if for people who didn't watch it or don't remember,

00:44:30.420 is basically America's put itself in a trap

00:44:32.680 and this will either get worse or america will have to capitulate effectively that's what he

00:44:38.760 said that's because of the geography and the economic realities those are the only options

00:44:44.360 or he talked about the fact that america could try and escalate by putting boots on the ground

00:44:48.740 which would be even worse than both of those two things that's kind of where we are i'm afraid i'm

00:44:54.660 just it's just where we are and uh this i take no pleasure in this because as i say i think

00:45:00.180 Iran is a regional threat. Them having nukes is not something the world should accept.

00:45:07.080 And I applaud President Trump for trying to do something about it. But I just never thought that

00:45:12.840 this was the thing to do, given the lack of a clear strategy for how to achieve their objectives.

00:45:19.760 And I also, you know, I have to be honest, man, I empathize with a lot of the

00:45:24.740 pro-Iranian activists and the Iranian protesters in Iran. Let's call it what it is, man. They were

00:45:33.780 sold a lie. They were told, rise up and your freedom is at hand. But that was never actually

00:45:41.940 on the tape. It was never going to happen. The American founding is one of the most

00:45:46.840 consequential political experiments in human history, and it nearly didn't happen. A group

00:45:51.420 people who had everything to lose decided that some things were worth more than safety and the

00:45:56.300 world has never been the same since hillsdale college have made a film about exactly that

00:46:01.180 it's called revolutionary america it's narrated by tom selick and it brings the founding to life

00:46:06.380 through the people who actually lived it alongside historians who understand what was genuinely at

00:46:11.580 stake what struck me watching the trailer is how seriously it treats the audience no editorializing

00:46:17.180 no revisionism, just a story told properly with the weight it deserves. This is a theatrical

00:46:22.560 release, not a streaming drop, and it only runs for three days, May 31st to June 2nd.

00:46:28.420 Go to hillsdale.edu slash revolution. Find a theatre near you and buy your tickets. That

00:46:34.600 address again, hillsdale.edu slash revolution. And I learned this when we were interviewing

00:46:41.640 Richard Miniter and Eamon Dean, and Eamon said there's roughly 200,000 soldiers in the IRGC.

00:46:48.060 Not all of them are highly ideological, but the majority of them are.

00:46:53.520 And that's discounting the secret police. That's discounting the military.

00:46:58.500 And then you think to yourself, well, these people, they're going to rise up.

00:47:02.860 But, I mean, that's certain death.

00:47:04.940 And then you think to yourself, what we actually did is, well, these people were promised a

00:47:13.620 lie.

00:47:14.040 And as a result of that, some of them lost their lives.

00:47:16.820 And what my worry was when the whole conflict started is I just remembered Iraq and Afghanistan.

00:47:22.680 And I thought to myself, please, not again.

00:47:25.400 Please, we cannot make the same mistakes we made 20 odd years ago.

00:47:29.160 We cannot go down that path.

00:47:31.020 I don't want to see that.

00:47:32.360 I don't want to see the people dying on either side.

00:47:35.740 And then the effect it had on our psyche, which is still being felt nowadays.

00:47:41.520 The people of Iran are perfectly entitled to rise up and try and have the government that they want.

00:47:46.520 That's their right.

00:47:48.000 But for other people outside to effectively say to them, rise up and we will come and help you, and then not help them.

00:47:57.140 That's a whole different conversation.

00:47:59.060 And that is what happened.

00:48:00.460 That's what happened.

00:48:01.480 That's my issue.

00:48:02.360 The people of Iran, you know, I get it.

00:48:04.040 No, totally, totally.

00:48:05.480 And also, I think your comparison is very, very apt about Iraq in particular.

00:48:12.380 But I think we should be honest.

00:48:14.140 In terms of loss of life on the Western side, this is obviously not Iraq at all at the moment.

00:48:22.340 Thank God.

00:48:23.320 But in terms of impact on the world, I think this could be worse.

00:48:28.820 I really do.

00:48:29.820 I really, I mean, Iraq had a cool impact on the global economy, really.

00:48:36.800 Iran is having one and will have one over time.

00:48:41.880 So I hope it gets resolved quickly and we'll obviously monitor it

00:48:47.080 and we'll get back to what we used to do before we took the time off,

00:48:50.860 which is do live streams regularly with people who can comment on these things

00:48:54.720 in a much more knowledgeable way.

00:48:56.820 So we'll keep tracking this issue.

00:48:59.820 And then, of course, we've had the domestic politics side of things

00:49:03.040 while I've been away, which I have not been paying much attention to.

00:49:07.040 And I have to say, my mental health has improved massively.

00:49:09.880 So maybe you can update us.

00:49:11.440 So this is effectively what happened.

00:49:13.720 Keir Starmer is our beloved Prime Minister.

00:49:16.440 Indeed.

00:49:17.220 Wes Streeting said that he no longer had faith.

00:49:20.620 Well, hold on a second.

00:49:21.460 You're skipping over some bits.

00:49:22.920 First of all, there was the Peter Mandelson thing.

00:49:25.320 Yes.

00:49:26.020 Right?

00:49:26.720 So he was appointed, despite everybody knowing

00:49:29.060 that he was a nonsense best friend, basically.

00:49:31.160 Is that fair?

00:49:31.620 Yeah.

00:49:31.880 So that put pressure on Starmer.

00:49:33.180 Then there was the local elections

00:49:34.480 in which Labour performed terribly.

00:49:36.200 So did the Tories.

00:49:37.300 Yeah.

00:49:37.600 Reform did very well.

00:49:39.340 And there's now pressure on Starmer

00:49:41.240 to go from his own ministers and backbenchers.

00:49:44.080 And that's where West Streeting came.

00:49:45.080 Yeah.

00:49:45.440 And then West Streeting said

00:49:47.040 that he no longer has faith on Keir Starmer

00:49:49.500 to be able to lead Labour to victory in the next election.

00:49:53.220 Everyone just looked at him and went,

00:49:55.240 I mean, yeah.

00:49:56.280 I mean, of course, which then precipitated a challenge to Keir Starmer's leadership,

00:50:04.240 which came from Andy Burnham, who is the mayor of Manchester, of Greater Manchester.

00:50:09.700 Now, for our American viewers and listeners that-

00:50:12.800 Don't switch off.

00:50:13.680 Don't switch off just because we're talking about British politics.

00:50:17.860 Andy Burnham can't challenge Keir Starmer because Andy Burnham is not a minister,

00:50:22.840 a member of parliament.

00:50:24.240 So Andy Burnham needs to become a member of parliament.

00:50:27.660 So the Labour MP for a place called Makerfield,

00:50:31.600 which is where my father's from actually,

00:50:33.600 stood down and they have what is called a by-election,

00:50:36.920 which is a small election in that particular constituency

00:50:42.760 to see who will be a member of parliament to replace him.

00:50:46.040 And at the moment, Andy Burnham is slightly in the lead.

00:50:50.080 we have reform just behind and we have restore on seven percent greens put in a candidate then

00:50:58.480 they took out a candidate because it was like well it's mainly white people 96 percent white

00:51:03.300 so and they're working class so this really isn't our you know we're not going to do a lot here

00:51:08.520 conservatives look like they're going to lose their deposit so it's very very interesting to

00:51:14.220 see where this will go. And my favorite part of all of this is Keir Starmer said he's going to

00:51:19.780 help Andy Burnham canvas for votes, which is the biggest cock block I've ever heard.

00:51:26.460 Well, we will see what happens with it. Obviously, we don't know exactly. I mean,

00:51:30.380 I don't think Starmer is going to last a year. It's hard to see how he would.

00:51:36.400 But maybe, I don't know, we'll see. And obviously, the fracturing of the right is another ongoing

00:51:42.660 thing that we'll keep monitoring as time goes on. For restore to be on 7% from a low start is

00:51:52.400 obviously significant. And if Burnham squeaks in and that restore vote could have been added

00:52:02.580 to the reform vote, you can obviously see that playing out in the general election where

00:52:06.800 the thing that was almost, I would argue, inevitably going to happen, which is a reform

00:52:12.580 win, maybe not a reform majority, but a Farage as prime minister, that might be something that

00:52:18.940 does not happen because of the split, which if you're on the right, I would imagine would be a

00:52:27.440 terrible outcome. But that may be what happens. It may be a terrible outcome because it may be

00:52:33.620 in a general election. Let's say Greens take a significant chunk from Labour. Labour do okay.

00:52:42.580 The Greens are not...

00:52:44.120 If it's a choice between reform and or restore and the left,

00:52:49.260 the left will unite.

00:52:50.460 Yeah, maybe.

00:52:52.700 We'll see.

00:52:53.620 We will see.

00:52:54.420 We will see.

00:52:55.080 But my point is something else.

00:52:57.520 Andy Burnham will put on the burqa.

00:53:00.140 Say the magic words.

00:53:02.780 And you know what?

00:53:04.160 We're going to get a safer country, mate.

00:53:06.340 Of course.

00:53:06.880 The laws will be rigorously enforced.

00:53:09.600 There'll be a lot less theft.

00:53:10.760 Yeah, there will be.

00:53:11.780 And living in London, that might be a good thing.

00:53:14.420 No, that will, anyway.

00:53:15.860 So, but what it may happen is that we're going to be faced with a coalition no matter what.

00:53:21.400 And it might be very difficult for people to form coalitions because nobody is in any clear majority.

00:53:28.180 And the political system is not designed for it.

00:53:30.280 Yeah.

00:53:30.760 So we will see what happens.

00:53:33.040 But in the meantime, we'll watch Labour stab each other in the front.

00:53:38.620 And we'll keep covering that issue as well.

00:53:41.780 over time now that we're back. And we've got, by the way, people don't know this, we still haven't

00:53:46.520 released some of our incredible interviews from the America trip. We've got Dwarkesh Patel. We've

00:53:50.860 got an amazing interview about the fact that depression isn't caused by a chemical imbalance

00:53:56.300 that we recorded here. We've got a great interview with Sir Anthony Beaver about

00:54:00.080 Russia and Russian history. Loads of other. We've got an interview coming up with a

00:54:05.380 teacher who went viral during his testimony in Congress talking about the impact of screens on

00:54:14.020 kids. Just like loads of amazing stuff. Some of it, which I haven't even mentioned, yet to come

00:54:19.260 out. And also we're getting stuck back into recording some amazing interviews that people

00:54:24.100 will, if they are supporters of ours on Substack, they're going to get a chance to ask their

00:54:28.420 questions and to know who those people are. And get all of that brilliant extra content as well.

00:54:33.100 And also, we've got one of my favorite interviews that we did in America that we haven't spoken about, that you haven't mentioned, which is the wonderful interview with Ed Hussein and the history of the Muslim Brotherhood.

00:54:44.480 And Islamism.

00:54:45.120 And Islamism.

00:54:45.800 And if you are in any way interested as to why, to truly understand why Islamic fundamentalism took a stranglehold in certain countries, why is it that we're seeing the very real effects of that here with terrorism, the anti-Semitic attacks?

00:55:04.440 You have to watch that interview.

00:55:06.060 It explains everything.

00:55:07.640 And editing that interview is utterly magnificent.

00:55:10.140 Yeah, and it gets a little spicy at times as well.

00:55:12.220 It does.

00:55:13.020 It does.

00:55:13.400 So with that, everybody should get your book Uneducated, appropriately titled by Francis

00:55:18.480 Foster.

00:55:19.360 It's fantastic.

00:55:20.360 It's already doing really well.

00:55:21.920 And by the way, Francis, if you buy the book this week, it really helps Francis to get

00:55:27.680 on the Sunday Times bestseller list.

00:55:29.320 So make sure to do it when you hear this, when you watch this straight away.

00:55:32.720 Don't put it off.

00:55:33.640 Do it now.

00:55:34.440 Give them your money.

00:55:43.400 We'll see you next time.

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TRIGGERnometry - May 27, 2026

Life Update, Iran War and British Politics

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