True Patriot Love - Can UK Politics Survive the Reform Surge？ ft. Steve Swift

00:00:00.000 it is a real break and i think people are saying well you know labor and tories will come back in

00:00:09.040 the next couple of years but i don't think they will i think they've got a three-year cycle for

00:00:14.400 for councillors and i think in those local municipal elections i think that

00:00:20.160 the greens and reform will continue that sweep

00:00:22.720 hi thanks for joining us i'm mike this is tplmedia.ca don't forget to subscribe and tell

00:00:32.960 a friend about it for goodness sake and uh don't hesitate to comment we love the comments we get a

00:00:37.960 lot of ideas for shows and what we should be talking about uh specifically from the things

00:00:43.540 you're saying so uh please participate in that we are joined uh now in the uk live from our

00:00:50.200 london studios our lead correspondent steve swift joins us steve thanks so much for being with us

00:00:55.000 thank you very much it's um there's a lot to talk about in politics in britain so i'm delighted

00:01:01.720 to be here pip tally ho and all of that ah well done oh pretty good eh so uh yeah as we uh cross

00:01:10.320 the pond uh we like to do this uh we kind of do it monthly now and i appreciate uh steve for doing

00:01:15.700 this but essentially we we have certain commonalities and uh it's interesting to keep an

00:01:21.460 eye on each other of course uh steve the last time we talked to you we're on the doorstep

00:01:26.220 in uh in the uk of the what we would call here in canada municipal elections and now they have

00:01:33.880 occurred and uh you know i it's very interesting there's been pushback on uh the some of the major

00:01:41.800 parties there's been certainly some upheaval and i would imagine if i was keir starmer i'd be a

00:01:46.680 little bit worried about my future in england uh to say the very least but i'm going to hand it off

00:01:51.480 to you steve if you don't mind to kind of set the stage of where we were and where the elections

00:01:56.280 landed us yeah i mean um this was last thursday um so thursday into friday a third of municipal

00:02:06.040 or council elections or councillors were up and it was a terrible night for both Labour

00:02:15.560 and the Conservatives so two-party politics may well be over in the next three years

00:02:25.000 as far as municipal elections go now you know elections to Westminster and Parliament

00:02:31.640 are very very different so let's not get too excited but it was good for two smaller parties

00:02:38.920 so it was good for a party on the left the greens and it was good for a party on the acceptable

00:02:45.960 right reform yeah it's interesting because in the england councils of course reform just

00:02:52.840 pulled away a hundred and what was it 1454 votes i think was the final tally there

00:02:58.840 The Labour Party coming in at 1,068.

00:03:02.940 So very interesting, of course.

00:03:06.120 And then the Conservatives and the Green Party, even in the England councils,

00:03:12.560 were very, very close to one another.

00:03:14.260 And as you point out, you've had a two-party system at the parliamentary end for some time.

00:03:19.840 But this looks like there might be some cracks in that granite.

00:03:24.880 And is that the indicator that you think the England councillors are sending to the top?

00:03:32.620 Yeah, I mean, people think that generally they're not being listened to.

00:03:37.180 I think it's probably too simplistic to say, but I'm going to say it anyway.

00:03:42.560 Outside of the big cities, you're looking at reform.

00:03:46.460 And in the big cities, you're looking at green or a combination of no overall control

00:03:52.900 because you've got lots of different parties.

00:03:54.880 but this is a big moment um reform was saying before the votes were counted around 10 o'clock

00:04:03.680 on the when polls had closed 1500 seats would be good for them um a few hundred councillors and i

00:04:10.000 said 1500 you're joking aren't you well as you say they almost got there um greens did extremely well

00:04:17.280 in my local area Manchester um extremely well so it is a real break and I think people are saying

00:04:29.600 well you know Labour and Tories will come back in the next couple of years but I don't think they

00:04:36.400 will I think we've got a three-year cycle for for councillors and I think in those local municipal

00:04:41.920 elections. I think that the Greens and reform will continue that sweep, particularly the Greens.

00:04:51.100 I would imagine that has a lot to do with what they do in their three-year terms, right? So

00:04:54.640 if a lot turns around quickly in those municipalities and in those councils,

00:05:00.640 then I guess they'll keep a position. But it is nice to think that there would be a change that

00:05:06.760 takes hold for some period of time anyway. I mean, it doesn't matter where you live in the world,

00:05:10.560 you'd like a government to hold responsibility for a period of time to get something done.

00:05:15.180 What do you think brought the Greens and the Reform Party to the top so in such a volume?

00:05:23.740 I think just not listening to people.

00:05:27.360 I mean, Keir Starmer is a big, our prime minister, is a big feature of that.

00:05:32.800 People don't feel they trust him.

00:05:34.840 They feel he's trotting out the same lines.

00:05:37.960 We need to go further, faster.

00:05:39.440 i will not walk away i take responsibility he's done that in a big make or break speech this

00:05:45.660 evening more of that in a minute but generally people don't feel listened to um and so parties

00:05:52.640 that are outliers so the greens haven't had that many councillors in britain a few reform have done

00:06:02.180 better in municipal elections in this country but generally they are outliers so why don't we try

00:06:09.280 them what harm could they do it's interesting you talk about they've got an a year two years three

00:06:16.400 years particularly with reform because they've taken control of some councils so that is going

00:06:24.400 to be very interesting particularly i think they've gone an electric electoral cycle too early

00:06:30.560 and i don't think they have that kind of experience and we're gonna right we're gonna see how that

00:06:35.840 plays out because in a year maybe two years people might say well they've taken over they've done

00:06:42.080 nothing or they've done a really bad job of it of course they might be superb but we don't have a

00:06:47.100 lot of patience as voters we don't have a huge amount of pay sorry and we'll get you right we

00:06:52.400 don't have a huge amount of patience but three years nothing gets done ah you're you know i've

00:06:56.660 got to find it's human nature but you know the patient voter might actually see results in their

00:07:02.660 communities if if they start to show as you point out you know this might have been too much too

00:07:09.820 fast uh but let's hope that they have the wherewithal to actually execute what they what

00:07:14.620 they're promising and and what was some i mean yeah i want to be people want to be heard but

00:07:20.180 what were some of the kicking sort of issues that reform had on their side mainly give us a chance

00:07:29.480 we've never done this before so we're a party that are an outlier we're not really like other

00:07:34.360 parties um and they've got out they've mobilized and they've got out just like the greens you know

00:07:41.400 when i was working with the labour party a few years ago and we had jeremy corbyn remember him

00:07:47.160 still around and momentum and we suddenly got an enormous influx of people knocking on doors we

00:07:54.340 thought this is three times as many people and i said after that election they're going to go back

00:07:59.400 to the greens you've got to keep them and people laughed at me and now a few years later they're

00:08:05.700 reaping that whirlwind because all of those people who are on the left of politics are going to the

00:08:10.720 greens uh okay so now uh it's i feel so badly that we find ourselves not just in england but in many

00:08:18.660 parts of the world uh certainly the countries that we deal with where elections is a popularity thing

00:08:25.580 and that the government and power is so out of control

00:08:30.800 that you can win an election based on,

00:08:33.640 hey, you never know, you never tried us.

00:08:37.120 That's a pretty serious state of affairs, Steve.

00:08:39.920 It is, and you have two quite charismatic

00:08:44.340 but very different leaders.

00:08:46.660 For the Greens, you've got Zach Polanski,

00:08:49.000 who is, I mean, he's quite clubbable.

00:08:52.800 He's, you know, he's fun to talk to.

00:08:55.580 says some extraordinary things, and fiercely intelligent, clearly, on the reform side,

00:09:02.140 you've got good old Nigel Farage, you know, good to have a pint with,

00:09:06.240 wears a flat cap and tweeds, he's all right, he's my mate.

00:09:10.740 So you've got those two kind of big charismas.

00:09:14.500 In the middle of that, you've got Kemi Badenoch, who's the Tory leader,

00:09:21.140 who doesn't seem to have as much charisma

00:09:23.680 and poor old Keir Starmer

00:09:25.560 who seems to be on his last legs.

00:09:29.100 He's had a big announcement tonight

00:09:33.120 or a big speech to MPs.

00:09:36.960 Okay, you know what?

00:09:37.680 I'll address quickly the other parliament,

00:09:40.140 Scottish parliament, S&P,

00:09:41.640 pulled away in a huge,

00:09:43.140 but we will get to that announcement in a sec.

00:09:45.060 S&P pulled away in a massive way.

00:09:48.440 Were you surprised by that?

00:09:49.480 yeah because um john swinney came into he's the leader of the smp i mean he's he's well he's well

00:09:57.380 known and well liked and steeped in politics in scottish politics but he came in to steady that

00:10:04.720 ship and i thought that it might fracture a little thought reform might do better i didn't think

00:10:10.420 labour would do that well um but he's trusted i suppose and they would be on the left of

00:10:17.960 westminster really so they're still trusted in there that's not to say they're going to go

00:10:24.180 independent because that's still a discussion that they're having and they still need to win

00:10:28.120 that argument but i'm surprised about that very surprised uh and uh of course the uh the the uh

00:10:36.020 senate uh municipal elections now this shocked me the pc party uh came away ahead with reform

00:10:43.820 trailing not too far behind but with not a really um not a really good hold on second place truthfully

00:10:53.020 yeah that surprised me as well because they were really pushy and plied cymru who are the um who

00:10:59.100 are the winners um in the real story is that labor have lost control of the senate in wales 0.59

00:11:06.860 which they've had for over a hundred years you know you know you talk about about politicians

00:11:13.900 like nye bevan you know who was who was the the architect of the of the nhs you know all of that

00:11:20.620 steeped in that cauldron of welsh politics and labor have been running that for many many years

00:11:27.020 and um they have nothing on the books hardly i mean honestly i i i almost won that election and

00:11:33.340 and I didn't even run up against labor.

00:11:37.240 But, okay, so now let me just ask you this,

00:11:39.500 the Scottish Parliament and then Wales,

00:11:43.520 do those two offer big indicators

00:11:46.660 or swells of support that make a difference

00:11:50.340 in the minds of the British?

00:11:54.540 No, because they're devolved.

00:11:57.100 So they are locked off, really.

00:11:59.480 You know, devolution was part of Tony Blair's,

00:12:02.620 again, Tony Blair, Tony Blair's Parliament. So they're kind of outliers. So they are locked off

00:12:10.100 from the rest of the UK, really. But they are examples of the way that politics is going

00:12:18.820 municipally in this country. You know, and reform, I thought, would have given Plaid Cymru a real,

00:12:26.780 which would be the local, in a way, the local most party, you know?

00:12:32.820 Dual language and all of that.

00:12:34.980 And I thought they would give them a really good run for their money.

00:12:39.120 It surprised me that they haven't.

00:12:41.080 And I'm really glad you brought it up because not many people are talking about that.

00:12:43.980 The general feeling is Starmer's goose is cooked and reform are on their way.

00:12:50.060 Okay, so as best I can tell, Starmer hit the airwaves tonight in a desperate attempt.

00:12:54.540 What did we see?

00:12:56.140 I take full responsibility. I'm not going to walk away. We have difficult decisions

00:13:02.000 to make. I know what I did wrong. And I feel I can repeat those mistakes over again. Not

00:13:08.300 exactly, but that sort of thing. So people have said, I saw this. He used the same words.

00:13:14.260 And what the Channel 4 News, one of our news channels, said tonight was they cut all of

00:13:21.820 those things he'd said before, and then took me to what he said tonight.

00:13:26.140 and counting we have 55 MPs no big ones yet no ones where you think apart from um Angie Rayner

00:13:35.660 who's who used to be um Keir Starmer's number two but who had to uh relinquish that post because of

00:13:42.780 a scandal and she's come out at a speech tonight and said um Andy Burnham should have been allowed

00:13:48.460 to stand in my constituency he was blocked okay so okay 55 MPs and counting are calling for Starmer

00:13:55.900 not to go but to at least tell us when he's going to go uh we have in canada something going on that

00:14:04.220 i wonder uh if is uh originated in by the way uh keir starmer thank you for those great words of

00:14:12.300 strength uh we have a situation going on in canada i don't know if you've heard about where uh

00:14:18.860 conservatives are crossing the floor to join the liberal party right there in parliament

00:14:22.780 minute. Similar acts of dissent happen in England in Parliament? Yes, and generally it would be the

00:14:31.020 Tories crossing the floor to join reform. That was what would happen generally. The Greens and

00:14:38.680 the Labour Party have not been so close. Now, the Greens don't have that many MPs in Parliament,

00:14:45.000 so they don't have that many MPs in Westminster, and they've traditionally done better with the

00:14:50.240 municipal elections. So you wouldn't generally see Labour crossing the floor to join Tories,

00:14:55.660 the Conservatives or the Greens. It is generally Conservatives joining reform. And we've had a

00:15:02.560 flurry of that recently. And we'll have some more. But Q Starmer has done the thing which I said he

00:15:08.640 would do before the election and it didn't track and I thought a party might jump on it. He said

00:15:15.480 I'm open to a pact, some kind of pact with the Tories, which he's done before, of course, when he was a leader of the Brexit party.

00:15:26.200 So that will track at some point.

00:15:28.260 Brexit was almost, that was almost the lit fuse on Brexit at that moment, was that coming together.

00:15:37.400 this brings i mean this is the outliers coming in because nobody expected the um vote no vote

00:15:46.680 leave party to win nobody expected that kind of conglomeration to win certainly not david cameron

00:15:53.720 the prime minister at the time who didn't run a very good campaign just thought people trust me

00:15:59.320 you know i'm the prime minister what i say goes and i was out on the night um of the vote

00:16:06.920 um and i was giving out leaflets knocking on doors for staying in um and i've i spoke to some

00:16:14.520 people who were campaigning for leaving and they said i've never campaigned politically before

00:16:20.120 this is an in-out vote i can make a difference and i feel connected to this and i think that's

00:16:26.200 the beginning of all of this well let's give these a try these have never done it before

00:16:31.160 let's do something seismic well as soon as you have that makes perfect sense as soon as you've

00:16:37.340 had enough and for a long period of time the descent into into hell in certain categories

00:16:44.940 in england just continued under the same two parties watch much like most of the world right

00:16:52.300 now humans are looking for human answers that will make their lives better they don't want the

00:16:57.940 standard uh they don't want the the status quo they don't want the standard answers or the

00:17:01.840 okay so now this uh this uh turns a torch to another topic torch by the way producer nick

00:17:09.980 is british for flashlight i have a list of them here so that i can relate better to steve

00:17:15.320 uh let's talk about this for a minute trump versus starmer uh back on march march 3rd uh

00:17:25.840 The quote is, he's not been helpful.

00:17:28.720 Trump describing Starmer's approach to the Iran conflict.

00:17:31.640 What is England's current stance on the Iran war right now?

00:17:36.540 He's no Winston Churchill.

00:17:37.800 I'll tell you that.

00:17:39.000 No Winston Churchill.

00:17:41.000 Yeah.

00:17:42.440 He isn't a Winston Churchill.

00:17:44.260 And actually, keeping us out of the Iran conflict,

00:17:47.600 and I saw a headline today of Iran saying to us,

00:17:50.660 worse to the effect of, you better not.

00:17:52.960 It could be bad for you if you do.

00:17:54.640 he's kept us out of that war now one of Labour's final eve of poll actually um party political

00:18:03.200 broadcasts was about I kept you out I kept you out the wall um I mean it doesn't it doesn't help

00:18:12.160 but what he's trying to do I think is create an alliance in Europe again the feeling is he he'd

00:18:19.880 like us to join Europe through the back door, say the Brexiteers. But I think it's generally

00:18:25.800 something that I think he's talking about. And really, he's holding out. The special

00:18:33.760 relationship, I don't know if it's taken a beating. I think it's kind of Trump. There's

00:18:41.520 quite a lot of hyperbole with Trump, isn't there? But he is no Winston Churchill. And

00:18:47.880 in some respects that goodness for that but it's i think we feel here it's not our war that's

00:18:54.500 that's still popular that's still very popular across the spectrum well that that makes good

00:18:59.740 sense and you know it's interesting that you talk about starmer out there trying to build

00:19:03.240 new relationships in europe and i i'm gonna ask you you know brexit was very it was a very heavy

00:19:10.700 very polarizing time in the UK. And, you know, post Brexit, I almost wonder if you have a better

00:19:18.560 opportunity to establish more inter-border relationships, new trade, because it's required,

00:19:27.400 and we'll get to that in a few minutes, new defensive relationships, new alliances, even

00:19:32.900 outside of NATO, that we're seeing many countries out there doing on the heels of this hyperbole

00:19:39.560 and non-directorate day-to-day of Trump.

00:19:44.980 Do you think that this is an opportunity

00:19:47.000 Starmer should be grasping and saying,

00:19:50.040 okay, look, being part of the European Union did not work,

00:19:55.560 but we can have a relationship, and here it goes like this.

00:19:59.240 What are your thoughts, Steve?

00:20:00.680 Yeah, he should be doing all of that.

00:20:02.700 So he should be looking at Europe and saying,

00:20:06.200 hey, I'm interested.

00:20:07.760 You know, kind of like that flirting thing, hey,

00:20:09.560 want to come back to my place we can talk about directorates you know that kind of thing you know

00:20:14.760 steve i've never heard your voice quite that way before no but it's beautiful isn't it you can

00:20:21.160 never you can never unhear it now that's what you'll hear all night i can't unring that bell

00:20:28.280 so i think that kind of smooching up to them in a sort of if only we could be together it's that

00:20:34.920 chase love affair thing let's try and find a way next Thursday when my boss is away that kind of

00:20:40.680 thing um yeah but yes you're right I think he should do that and say we go everywhere I think

00:20:46.360 we said this last time we go everywhere we'll go to China we'll go to India we'll do all that

00:20:51.400 um I think that after Brexit we had Theresa May as our Prime Minister we were focused on the Brexit

00:20:59.480 Then we had Boris Johnson and we were focused on his house and that his trousers didn't fit and he couldn't operate an umbrella.

00:21:07.720 And then we had COVID. So people have kind of forgotten about all that.

00:21:13.720 And Brexit isn't the open wound that it was because we've had COVID.

00:21:17.640 But he should pick this up. But he's a beleaguered prime minister.

00:21:22.480 And, you know, we don't hear about our trade, our trade minister. In fact, I can't even remember who it is, Mike.

00:21:29.480 You know, I'll encourage you to watch a show that we have upcoming about consultants in the government and what real politicians are able to do.

00:21:38.860 I think you're probably okay not even knowing who that minister is.

00:21:42.380 The consulting team, however, is worth noting.

00:21:46.640 Gas is out of control here.

00:21:48.820 I paid $1.89 on the weekend.

00:21:54.860 Nick, can you believe that?

00:21:56.140 $1.89.

00:21:57.220 I think I got had.

00:21:58.200 per liter. That's significant here. What are some of the impacts you guys are feeling from the Iran

00:22:04.200 war? Well, you know, it's often said, what will cause the British people to get up and not riot,

00:22:13.360 but have their say? We're kind of after you. No after you. Would you like a cucumber sandwich?

00:22:20.640 Let's wait until after 11s. So we're a bit like that. So although people are going,

00:22:24.980 petrol prices gas prices are high they're sort of going oh blimey that's high isn't it

00:22:32.100 it's not having it's not tracking as much but I think that's because people are saying

00:22:37.420 Starmer's got to go and I think people are saying it's Starmer and it's not but I think everybody's

00:22:44.300 putting their eggs in that basket and saying if Starmer wasn't here then everything would be fine

00:22:49.560 I mean, they've got a rude awakening, but they're saying if he wasn't there, we could have a better time.

00:22:56.680 So it's not tracking as much.

00:22:58.920 I watched three news programs tonight.

00:23:02.520 None of them said anything about petrol or gas prices.

00:23:06.520 It's interesting because we use that as the complaining post, I think, in a lot of ways here in Canada,

00:23:12.400 even though we produce a lot of oil and we could be producing and processing a lot more.

00:23:17.480 But it does seem to be one of the things we focus on.

00:23:19.940 And then you think about it at the end of the month.

00:23:21.820 Okay, this war is going to cost me personally and my gas tank $150 more.

00:23:27.540 It's not the end of the world. 0.63

00:23:29.520 It's significant.

00:23:30.460 But then, you know, the cost of food, the supply chain interruption, all of that.

00:23:35.920 And I wonder if maybe, and I kind of thought this going into the discussion with you,

00:23:39.760 I kind of think we're anticipating the effects of war and then already pricing it.

00:23:45.720 And I think England actually waits until the effects of war are in effect.

00:23:51.040 And then you start to tax accordingly or you start to raise prices accordingly.

00:23:56.040 Yeah, I don't think we lead anymore.

00:23:58.280 I don't think we lead, you know, the general feeling is we don't manufacture much.

00:24:02.980 And we don't lead, it doesn't seem.

00:24:05.600 And, you know, we used to have an empire, don't you know, Chin Chin and all that kind of stuff.

00:24:09.520 Yes, we used to have one. 0.99

00:24:11.000 Royal Britannia rules the waves if we had any ships.

00:24:14.420 so all of that and i think we do wait i think we think um it's generally if there are stories

00:24:22.660 around this it's generally about food prices and they'll generally go to a food bank um and a

00:24:30.200 charity and supermarkets will talk about putting their prices up and they'll go to a small business

00:24:35.440 that that's generally what they'll do we don't we aren't going crazy about this at the moment

00:24:42.360 And I always wonder, what is it that will make us finally go crazy?

00:24:49.360 Well, this actually could be it.

00:24:51.740 Trade with the U.S.

00:24:52.840 Last on my list here, Steve.

00:24:54.700 And frankly, it's something we're all suffering through at the moment.

00:24:58.720 We're on the doorstep of the renegotiation or re-sign-up of Kuzma here or Uxma, depending 0.62

00:25:05.100 on what country you're from. 0.97

00:25:06.260 What is the other one they say, Nick? 0.54

00:25:08.280 Uzma?

00:25:08.960 Uzma. 0.83

00:25:10.380 Yeah, they take Canada right out of it.

00:25:11.860 i think we should take a hint but we're on the doorstep of that trade agreement and uh with the

00:25:17.460 rash of tariffs and arguments that go back and forth with u.s trade at the moment where does

00:25:23.140 the uk position itself and how are you feeling uh with negotiations with the u.s on trade

00:25:30.500 we're feeling quite sanguine but then bear in mind we've had the mandelson fallout

00:25:36.660 so we've had the peter mandelson situation you know with the ambassadorship and then the the

00:25:43.380 connections to jeffrey epstein and all of that so that's as you say you know if it bleeds it leads

00:25:50.180 and that's the way it is we've that's kind of dominated um over the past i mean before the

00:25:58.420 election certainly it's dominated political discourse so we haven't had much discussion

00:26:04.980 around trade what we have had this evening actually this is something he's announced tonight

00:26:10.900 is that british steel is going to be publicly owned it will be national wow this is an incredible

00:26:19.460 thing now if he's if he's saying to us now british steel's been nationalized before so it's easier to

00:26:26.100 do um trade unions community the trade union um mainly for steel workers has come out and

00:26:31.940 obviously said this is fantastic um and why rick is the general secretary has done that that's

00:26:37.860 brilliant we don't know how it's going to work we don't know whether it's going to work but as a as

00:26:43.700 a flag you know as planting your flag and saying we make stuff now we make stuff and we own it

00:26:52.100 that's something that certainly i'm interested in um absolutely we we talk about this uh here at tpl

00:27:00.740 all the time we owned petro canada we owned our own oil drilling processing we became leaders in

00:27:07.540 the world and we couldn't wait to sell it off we we build toll roads and we sell them to foreign

00:27:13.460 companies we don't manufacture anything we're not in the business as a nation of doing much

00:27:21.620 to hear this is very interesting it is and and with i mean there's always been

00:27:29.220 i mean there are several different kind of um steel companies and they're not all british

00:27:33.620 steel but my understanding is there's a vibrant order book so why would you not want to take

00:27:40.260 control of that but i mean there is a discussion around i saw someone on a news channel tonight

00:27:46.500 saying well of course it's an open checkbook really you don't know how it's going to work

00:27:51.780 you know how much money is going to have to be poured into it and he was racing as you just said

00:27:56.340 towards let when are we going to sell it back when is someone going to buy it we don't have to do

00:28:01.860 that you know i'm i'm very aged and i remember in the 70s when we did a own quite a lot and the

00:28:08.500 labor manifesto in 74 1974 had 100 companies that were going to be nationalized at the front of the

00:28:17.620 manifesto i mean it's an extraordinary way to go if starma had a backbone he'd do more

00:28:26.100 i would agree with you and in that at that moment that manifesto led to the banking force that

00:28:32.900 london relaunched you suddenly had banking to do of your own manufacturing your own uh your own

00:28:42.900 economy as it were and that kind of led to the whole world doing banking through england and

00:28:50.160 doing it again frankly so this might be a really good move it could be i mean you know gordon brown

00:28:58.300 did this a while when he was chancellor um in that he kind of brought in not all of the railways

00:29:06.800 but he bought in the main overarching organization um rail track it was called i think at the time

00:29:13.120 and he said if i remember rightly and i could be a bit fuzzy on some of the specifics but you know

00:29:19.360 he said to um shareholders this is what you get here's the amount of money you get because the

00:29:25.320 value of your shares can go up as well as down as you know because you're a shareholder so you work

00:29:30.100 you play the markets and i don't know of anybody who said how dare you i've lost money generally

00:29:35.760 it was understand understood that it needed to be taken back in um and he took some of it in

00:29:41.780 so it can be done i think that in this country certainly um transportation that you know um

00:29:49.100 rail people would love that um and water people would absolutely love that to come back in

00:29:56.340 uh it's uh very interesting to hear the steel one for sure as some of the competing markets out

00:30:02.580 there russia china uh you know other european countries but historically britain has been

00:30:09.780 a major britain i guess scotland england probably even wales i don't know but you've had major

00:30:17.620 steel companies provide the world with some of the most some of the best and high grade

00:30:23.280 structural steel available it's interesting to me that that would be the first stop for

00:30:30.340 starmer that almost feels like that almost feels like a campaign underway it does and that kind of

00:30:37.780 i'll bring this back in folks he doesn't need to do it with rail or water he can just say he's

00:30:42.900 interested in people say okay but you know in the past you're quite right and wales was a fantastic

00:30:48.740 steel making um area and and slate as well but we had coal we had so much yeah that's right yeah

00:30:58.020 and we still have coal and we're not digging it you know we're not digging it out in that way

00:31:04.260 and this would be you know what we're doing this we're doing the same thing here i mean there are

00:31:08.860 things that we don't want the environment to get that other countries are going to have to use or

00:31:15.340 they will starve or no longer be part of the global economy and yet we shut down processing

00:31:23.300 oil we don't want to put pipelines in here the one resource we could do we don't want to put uh

00:31:29.300 mines in the ground unless it's a sure thing that we can do it in an environmentally friendly way

00:31:34.820 which is fantastic in a fairy tale but in an era where a country needs to come back building

00:31:42.900 something doing something being a manufacturer being a resource for the world much like england

00:31:49.460 we stumble we stall we trip over our own feet it would be nice to see even if it was done in

00:31:56.580 in greater measure both of both these countries making an effort with their own resources

00:32:04.740 yes and of course we got we've got oil under the north sea so you know it's good to pump that

00:32:09.940 sucker as well you know that'll be good as well um one thing that in the government but let me

00:32:15.140 just take a second here and say please buy canadian oil because british oil it stinks it smells like

00:32:22.100 fish thank you it's it's weak and it doesn't it it's not it's not great it's like it's like

00:32:30.900 it's very don't drink that uh well this is uh this is interesting what's the government's

00:32:38.100 positive spin overall on the economy there they're saying very little so we know the figures aren't

00:32:46.140 good and i think as we said last time we met you know rachel reeves our chancellor who is not well

00:32:52.400 liked um is not using yet the war in iran to say look we've got problems but um they're still i

00:33:03.160 I mean, they said when they came to power, it's going to be difficult, there's no money.

00:33:08.040 And then when they came to power, they said, not only is there no money, there's no, no money.

00:33:11.940 There's no, no, no money.

00:33:12.900 No, no money.

00:33:13.620 So it was all that.

00:33:15.360 And although she's not said anything yet, there's always that fallback position.

00:33:23.320 She's actually not been let out of her box for a while.

00:33:28.280 um the starmer's ball after the day after the election disaster he's brought back two people

00:33:36.160 who were in blair's government well yeah gordon brown who is disliked um on for on certain in

00:33:44.580 certain areas and harriet harman who is disliked in certain areas it's not as if he's saying look

00:33:49.780 all these lovely people that i'm bringing back who you loved look at all these people you don't

00:33:54.280 like, I'm bringing back. So the concentration's on him. And I don't think he can bring Rachel

00:34:00.840 Reeves in because she's really disliked. Again, we aren't getting angry about the economy.

00:34:11.900 We're getting angry about you're not listening to me. But people, when they're interviewed,

00:34:17.500 it's not kind of, but what are you not being listened about? I don't know. She's not being

00:34:21.700 listen to it once it gets to that kind of um wave level then it doesn't really matter does it so

00:34:29.620 we've all been a bit quiet on the economy the general feeling's gloomy but um no one's saying

00:34:34.500 well hang on a minute we're performing really badly and the pound in my pocket is not going

00:34:40.340 very far not many people are saying that at the moment um i suppose there's a fallout to come

00:34:46.740 and then there'll be more of that but there's a ready-made excuse with oil and petrol

00:34:52.700 I should point out that on behalf of the whole world,

00:34:56.240 thank you for making sure that Prince Andrew is no longer referred that way.

00:35:00.920 I hope it inspires us to take a deeper look into making actions

00:35:04.280 that other people mentioned in the files.

00:35:07.620 By the way, our producer Nick mentioned as many times as 35 times in the Epstein files.

00:35:17.380 It's not true. I made that up.

00:35:19.960 Well, look, Steve, I always enjoy speaking with you.

00:35:22.720 Thank you for the update.

00:35:24.400 And I'll look forward to speaking to you again shortly, if you don't mind.

00:35:27.900 I think before we get into too much summer here,

00:35:29.860 we better have another chat and see what's going on in the UK across the front.

00:35:33.740 Thank you, my man.

00:35:35.040 Thank you very much for letting me have a chat.

00:35:37.880 By the time we speak next, we might have Prime Minister Burnham

00:35:42.720 or Prime Minister Streeting.

00:35:44.960 Who knows?

00:35:45.620 let's keep uh watching what's going on during the elections thank you steve swift

00:35:50.300 london england uh greatly appreciate it we'll see you next time and we'll see you next time

00:35:55.420 right here on true patriot love don't forget subscribe tell a friend and uh share the love

00:36:01.140 we'll see you next time

True Patriot Love - May 12, 2026

Can UK Politics Survive the Reform Surge？ ft. Steve Swift

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